Awaken the Dragon

by A. C. Arthur

  “I’ll be there within the hour and I’m bringing her with me.” He disconnected his link to Bleu.

  That eerie feeling he’d had upon meeting Shola was back the moment he was again inside and saw her in the center of the room. She was standing with her arms folded over her chest, shaking her head.

  “Tell me what is happening and when my new guard will arrive.”

  “Change of plans,” he snapped.

  The door to the room opened just as she was set to reply and in walked Magnum with a sour look on his face, hair tied back and fists clinched at his sides.

  “Truck’s in the alley. We gotta move quick!” he yelled.

  “Get her bags,” Theo ordered and crossed the room to where Shola stood.

  “I cannot leave. I must wait for my package. I must—”

  Theo moved in until they were toe-to-toe. She immediately dropped her hands to her sides and tilted her chin so that she could look him in the eye. At any other time he might have thought her actions bold and admirable, but not today.

  “A woman is downstairs with her throat ripped out. You can either go with me or take your chances staying here alone.”

  “Theo!” Magnum yelled.

  He should just pick her up and toss her over his shoulder, or as a gentler option, just pick her up and carry her like a baby. But he did neither. He had no idea why, he just didn’t.

  “Why are we running?” she continued to question him. “We didn’t kill her.”

  No, they hadn’t killed her but Theo could now scent the demonic activity that had taken place right beneath them. Why he hadn’t picked up that scent last night or in time to stop the woman from being killed were questions for another time.

  More importantly, if the room was reserved in Shola’s last name, was she the intended target?

  That last question had rage boiling in his gut.

  “I’ll come back for your package but we’ve gotta move now!”

  The higher pitch of his voice made her jump and he cursed before grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out of the room. They ran down the hall and slipped through an exit door taking the steps without looking back. He didn’t need to look back, he knew what was there. Enforcers had stepped off the elevator the moment they hit the stairs, and not all of them were human.

  They kept moving until Magnum kicked through the final door and they ran into the alley where the truck was waiting. Theo did lift Shola this time, tossing her on the back seat before climbing in behind her. He slammed the door and seconds later they were moving.

  * * *

  Shola had no idea what was happening.

  Someone had been killed in a horrific way but why were they running? They were not the killers. Unless...no, Theo and his friend were guards. They’d been hired to protect her until the wedding.

  “What’s his name?” Theo asked after they’d been riding for a while.

  “Who?”

  “Your husband-to-be. What is his name and why isn’t he here with you?”

  He looked irritated, his eyes even bluer than they were before, if that were even possible. He’d been staring out the window since the truck had begun moving. She presumed his friend was riding in front with the driver, but a black glass shield blocked any view of what was in front of them. And the only thing she could make out through the tinted side windows were lights. Even during the day Burgess was a colorful city.

  “Shola. Tell me why you’re really here.”

  Those words were spoken with deathly calm and for the first time since embarking on this journey to this world, she felt a spark of discontentment.

  “I am here to be married. And I would think that I should be asking you about people being murdered in the hotel you and your company decided I should stay at. What kind of place is Burgess? Do things like this happen all the time?”

  She kept her hands in her lap and decided it was best not to look at Theo again. Even angry he was a very attractive man and she’d resolved before she’d come out of her room a while ago that she would not look at him in that way again. After all, she was betrothed to another.

  “I asked you for his name.”

  It seemed neither of them were good at simply answering questions.

  “Warrick Camden. Do not ask me where he lives or what he does for a living because those things I do not know.”

  “But you’re marrying him?”

  Shola hesitated.

  Do not say too much. Do not say too little. Be there but do not be seen.

  The instruction came in the soft but strong voice that Shola knew well.

  “My people are different than yours.” She looked out the window. “Where are you taking me? I have appointments.”

  He didn’t reply. It was rude, but just as well, because she needed to think. The moment they arrived at their destination she would get to her suitcase. There was a phone with already programmed numbers inside. She could call to have someone pick her up. This guard detail was not working and she needed to be at every one of her appointments in order to do what she’d come here to do.

  A while later she noticed he was moving. Still not talking, but moving. His fingers were on the buttons of his shirt, undoing each one slowly. Why was he doing that? She should look away, but she couldn’t. He sat forward on the seat and removed the shirt. His arms were thick and roped with veins. The white sleeveless tank he wore beneath molded to his chest, outlining thick pectorals and flat abs.

  She sucked in a breath and prayed he hadn’t heard it. Rubbing her flattened palms up and down her thighs reminded her that she shouldn’t be watching him do whatever he intended to do. But her eyes weren’t listening. They were tuned in and focused and loving every inch of the honey-toned skin of his arms that was now showing.

  “It will get chilly where we’re going. Put this on,” he told her.

  Shola looked down at her arms, left bare from the short-sleeved shirt she wore.

  “I will be fine.”

  “I know,” he said and thrust the shirt toward her. “Put this on.”

  She was going to argue against it again, but just like he said she would, she became chilly. A really frosty air filled the interior of the truck and she actually shivered. Shola pushed her arms into the shirt that was way too big for her. She was immediately warm and instantly aroused as the shirt smelled just like him. A mixture of something earthy and something unknown, which when combined, created a heady scent that had her sinking back into the seat and pulling the shirt close around her.

  “When we arrive you’re going to be taken to a room. You are to stay inside that room and wait for me.”

  She heard him talking but she was busy letting her body acclimate itself to the feel of his shirt wrapped around her. It was an intense experience that had her pressing her thighs tightly together and crossing her arms over her chest so that if/when her nipples hardened, nobody would see it. She had no idea why her body was betraying her, but it was doing so in a magnificent way and all the man had done was give her his shirt.

  When his finger touched her chin, turning her head so that she was now staring into those piercing blue eyes, Shola sucked in another breath. At this rate she might very well hyperventilate soon.

  “Don’t leave the room. Don’t speak to anyone but me. Do you understand?”

  “I do not even know where you are taking me, how could I go anywhere?” In her mind the question had more punch, but as he was only inches away from her face and his finger was now moving slowly over her skin, it was barely a whisper.

  His gaze dropped to her lips as she spoke and then slowly lifted back to her eyes. “I don’t want you to go anywhere,” he said and then cleared his throat. “That’s why I’m telling you to stay in the room.”

  His scent was everywhere now, filling the back interior of the truck and overtaking every bit of air s
he inhaled. His broad body was leaning into hers and his long finger was surprisingly gentle against her skin.

  “I will,” she replied because they were the only coherent words she could come up with.

  * * *

  The Office was what Theo and his higher-level agents called the private location where they met. But it was no ordinary office. Four miles off a country road located an hour and a half outside of the city, there was a pathway wide enough to allow one lane of traffic in and out. The path curved through trees in the heavily forested field. At the end of the path was an incline that led to an area cleared of trees and other debris. Eight black trucks, identical in make and model, were parked in that clearing. A few feet ahead at the top of a set of marble steps was a man.

  He wore crisp dark colored jeans, a black turtleneck and wine dress shoes that matched his sports coat. Black sunglasses shielded his eyes from the sun that was now blazing bright and he waited for them to come inside. His name was Bleu and he was a watcher. His job was to watch and that’s what he did, all the time.

  Theo stepped out of the truck when it stopped. He reached for Shola’s hand and when she accepted, he helped her out of the truck. He kept her hand in his as they walked over the cobblestoned path to where Bleu stood. “The east wing is ready,” he told Theo as he looked down on them.

  “I want her in the west. And I want everyone in the main conference room in ten minutes.”

  Bleu didn’t like his plans being changed. He actually hated it more than Theo did, but he would never say a word against Theo.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Bleu replied.

  “Shola N’Gara, this is Bleu. He knows everything there is to know about Legion Security. He’ll see you to your room and make sure that your bags are brought to you.” Theo stepped closer to her and resisted the urge to touch the soft skin of her face once more.

  “Remember what I told you.” His voice was lower this time, and she gave him a quick nod before turning to walk away with Bleu.

  He watched them walk toward the front doors of the Office. A sharp breeze blew, cold air hitting the back of his neck and arms. It was colder here than any other area in Burgess because the dragons that lived here produced enough heat to keep their human bodies and possibly an entire city warm, so the cooler temperature was more comfortable for them. Only the residents of the Office knew that. Theo hoped Shola wouldn’t ask. He also hoped she didn’t already know.

  “We need to talk.”

  Magnum’s deep raspy voice sounded from behind him. Theo nodded and walked in the opposite direction of Bleu, then stood at another set of tempered glass doors and waited until the body temperature scan was complete. The doors opened and he walked inside with Magnum right behind him.

  They moved through narrow hallways with black-tiled floors and dark gray cement walls. Deeper and deeper into the mountain they went, bypassing turnoffs that would take them into other areas of the fortress Theo had constructed. When they came to a set of sixteen-feet-high oak doors, Theo put the palm of his hand on the handle and the locks disengaged. He walked in and recessed lighting on the beamed ceiling illuminated the space.

  Going directly to the table in the center of the main conference room, he took a seat at the head of a mammoth slab of live edge black walnut wood table, glossed to perfection with a state-of-the-art conferencing system at the center and twenty high-back chocolate brown leather chairs around it. Magnum, whom he’d known for the last hundred years, took the seat to his right.

  Magnum rested thick arms on the table. He wore a long sleeve beige shirt that was snug to his form and tucked neatly into light blue jeans. On his feet were the stylish work boots he preferred. A leather band held the locks that stretched to his waist, back from his face. He cleared his throat and then reached up to remove the Aviator glasses he wore to shield his eyes.

  “I was asked to take this case. It was a favor to those my father served long ago. They are still in the Yorubaland region in hiding, but keeping a close eye on the humans there.”

  He let Magnum’s words sink in. “We are just a security company. Nothing more,” he reminded him.

  Magnum met Theo’s gaze. “I know what we are here in this place. They know who I am because they are Drakon too.”

  Theo hadn’t heard that word in a very long time.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “They didn’t know. The sense of danger came after a storm. The request that she be protected came to me in a dream.”

  Magnum was a dream watcher. In addition to being majestic dragons with unmatched strength and fury by nature, the Drakon also had specific magickal powers. As a dream watcher, Magnum possessed the ability to tap into the dreams of others. On the Far Realm, he would have been tasked with watching the dreams of those in an assigned area and reporting anything out of the ordinary or treasonous to the emperor. In the Human Realm, they still had their powers, but by Theo’s decree, they didn’t use them. Not unless absolutely necessary.

  “Whose dream were you in?”

  Magnum shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t know when the dream came, nor did I know after what it would mean. It was simply a voice that warned she might be in danger. I was going to ignore it, but then I received the messages in my inbox from Joku N’Gara. He asked that I guard his daughter until she was safely wed.”

  “Why does she need a guard, and why isn’t he here with her if he felt she wasn’t safe?” These were the same questions he’d been asking himself since first meeting Shola.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is it possible somebody would try to harm her to keep her from marrying Warrick Camden?” It was the first time he’d said those words since the thought began rolling around in his mind. He hadn’t liked the thought and he didn’t like the sound of the words any better.

  “Anything is possible.” Magnum’s response wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  “Take Steele and find out everything that happened at that hotel this morning. Forget all of us meeting here. I want to check some things out first. And tell Aiken I want to see him as soon as his stomach ailment is better. We’re not prone to human ailments, so I’d like to know what’s going on with him.” He was referring to the guard who was supposed to pick Shola up as he stood and began walking.

  Magnum followed.

  “It’s a woman,” Magnum said.

  “What?”

  “Steele already read him the riot act about stringing along these humans then having to take the time to clean their minds when they won’t leave him alone.”

  They were at the door when Theo turned to him.

  “Getting into the human mind is messy and using that magick is leaving a bread crumb. Which is precisely why I don’t want us using our powers. Just because there’re other preternatural beings living on this realm, it doesn’t mean our kind should be here.”

  Magnum nodded. “Yeah, I know. Getting Aiken to stop being guided by his dick is another story entirely.”

  Theo frowned. Aiken was a slick one. “I’ll deal with him after we get through this case.”

  “Do you want me to find another hotel for her?”

  There wasn’t a second of doubt or hesitation. “No. She’ll stay here with me.”

  Chapter Six

  “My name is Bleu. I’ll see to it that you have everything you need during your stay here.”

  “Where is here?” Shola asked the slimly built man.

  He looked older, like her father. His full beard was snowy white, but his head was bald. There was a dusky beige hue to his skin, sort of like, the color of sandpaper and his eyes were russet brown. She’d noticed them as soon as he removed his sunglasses. Everyone who worked for this company wore sunglasses, even in the evening when there was no sun to be protected from.

  “We call it the Office.”

  “Is it the company headquarters?”<
br />
  “Something like that,” he replied.

  He moved while he talked. Going to a wall in the dimly lit room and touching a control panel which pulled heavy navy-blue drapes away from windows that were at least eight feet tall and the width of the entire room. He pushed another button and there was a clicking sound before dark brown blinds lifted slowly and stopped at the midway point. The view was breathtaking. Hills of bright green grass stretched to meet a thick row of trees on one side and the blue-gray wall of mountain that stretched so high, she had to get closer to the window and lean in to see to the top, was on the other.

  When she had stepped out of the truck, she’d been in awe of the majestic beauty of the landscape. It was so different from what she’d seen of Burgess so far. Almost as if this place was separate, but still a part of the city. It was weird and so was the quick change in temperature. Theo’s shirt was still keeping her warm but the tip of her nose was cold.

  “Would all companies have bedrooms like this?”

  It was like a small apartment. She couldn’t imagine why anyone needed a king-size bed with steel head posts that almost touched the ceiling, but liked the warm beige and brown colors of the comforter and rugs.

  “The Office is not like any other company,” Bleu continued. “The bathroom is through that door. You use these controls for the lights and curtains. There’s also a button on here that will ring directly to me. It’s the blue one.”

  He paused and the quiet had her turning to face him. A small smile ghosted his face as he stood next to a control panel on the wall close to the bed. There was another panel by the window.

  “Oh, I get it. Your name is Bleu, so the button to call you is the color blue.” A smile cracked her lips just before she admitted that she liked him.