Dragon's Thief

by Zoe Chant

  She couldn't do that to him, not Reese. He didn't want her. He couldn't want someone like her, someone who had eaten out of dumpsters and who lived in barely-habitable squats.

  It felt as if she were being torn in two. She had to get out of the car. She had to do something, because apparently when she was around Reese, she couldn't predict herself or what she would do. It was terrifying, and she reached for the first distraction she could see out the window.

  “Pull off on the next exit,” she said, so urgently that Reese gave her a look of concern.

  “Are you all right?”

  No, she could have said. I want you to kiss me again. I want to touch you, and Heaven help me, I want to give you everything you want for reasons I don't want to understand...

  “I need some clothes, and a toothbrush and maybe some snacks, and I can get all of that up ahead.”

  “Of course.”

  Tara knew that she sounded more than a little frantic, but Reese didn't ask if her if she was all right again. Instead, he only nodded, and pulled off on the next exit.

  All right, Tara could admit it. Having what she now guessed was a minor anxiety attack might have been worth it just to see the look of dismay on Reese's face when she had him park in front of the big box store right off the highway.

  “If you'll just wait another twenty miles, we can be in a real town with some real stores...”

  “Spoiled rich boy,” she said with a slight grin. “You may have all the money in the world, but I don't. Right now, all I have is the cash I had on me, and that needs to stretch a long way. We're shopping on a budget, my friend.”

  Reese frowned at her briefly.

  “You're traveling where and when I say. I can take care of any needs you have.”

  Oh, I'm sure you can.

  From the way Reese's eyes suddenly grew darker and how he stepped just a little closer to her, Tara realized with dismay that she had said that out loud.

  “I have been under a lot of pressure,” she murmured, ducking around him to secure a cart from a bored teenager. “Can we just ignore my mouth running away with things and just get going?”

  “Ignore, yes. Forget, no.”

  That was full of a kind promise that made her belly flop over inside her, and the blush didn't die down until she had made it to the women's clothing section.

  “You can go look around if you want,” Tara said, and Reese gave her a skeptical look.

  “There's absolutely nothing here I want — ”

  “Snob!”

  “— and I would rather not stray so far away from you in case ... well, our friends show up again.”

  Tara bit her lower lip against the chill that suddenly flowed through her.

  “We ... I can't imagine that we were followed, can you?”

  He shrugged, never taking his eyes off of her.

  “They found you before. So did I. Alec suggested that they have remote access to security cameras and police all over the country. I don't like the idea of you having to defend yourself with a broken shopping cart.”

  “It's not broken — ” Tara started, but when she gave it a push, she could see that one wheel was wildly uncommitted to sticking with the rest, giving the cart a perilous wobble. “It only makes it more dangerous in case of a fight. I'll be fine.”

  Reese nodded agreeably but didn't pull away from her side.

  “Nevertheless. Do your shopping. I'll just stretch my legs.”

  “Right next to me as I shop?”

  “Right.” He paused, and when he spoke, there was something more hesitant in his tone, something that almost sounded like fear. “I found you. I don't want to lose you again, not after they've already come after you. Just ... humor me?”

  Tara's urge to tell him that she could damn well take care of herself while shopping for snacks died when he looked at her with that melting expression on the face. She would as soon kick a puppy as tell him no in that moment, and she decided that it was of vital importance that he not learn that fact. Also, they were beginning to get some weird looks for having what looked like an emotional crisis in the lobby of of a discount store, and she figured she should move things along.

  “All right,” she said, “but you are not going to rush me when I'm looking for clothes, got it?”

  “Wouldn't dream of it,” Reese said earnestly, and with sigh, she nodded.

  “All right. Come on. Let's go raise your class consciousness.”

  Chapter 12

  No matter what Tara might have thought, Reese wasn't totally unprepared for the experience of shopping at a discount store. He had traveled the world, and everywhere there were people who liked a bargain and who could not afford to shop where they preferred. He wasn't enough of a snob or an idiot to think that everyone could do as he did or share his advantages.

  No, what he didn't like was the way that Tara looked over the depressingly small collection of clothes that would fit her, made a face and then threw them into the cart anyway. He frowned at the clothes, obviously cheaply-made, and at how Tara seemed indifferent to how they would feel or look.

  “You can try them on if you want,” he found himself saying.

  She flashed him a grin that could still take his breath away.

  “What, are you looking for some kind of discount Pretty Woman montage or something?” Tara asked. “It's fine. They're just clothes. They'll fit all right, I know my size pretty well.”

  “Do you not care?” he asked, following her through the dense racks.

  “Not much call for me to dress up,” she said with a shrug. “No one needs a waitress in designer clothing.”

  “But would you like it?” he asked, and the second look she gave him was a little more irritable.

  “I've never really thought about it,” Tara said pointedly. “There's not much use wanting things I can't have. All I have is what's in my purse, and that's for necessities. It's not for dressing up for you just because you're too fancy for fast fashion.”

  “I'm not,” he said, and then sighed. “All right, maybe I am.”

  “And I'm not.”

  The only thing he could say to that was that she could be if she wanted to be. She was his mate, and if she wanted silk and fine cotton and linen and wool, then she would have them. She could have ball gowns and couture dresses and jewelry, and oh yes, she would look beyond beautiful in good jewelry, maybe in nothing but the jewelry...

  All right. That was his imagination getting away with him, and far far ahead of him. Reese gave himself a good shake as he followed along behind her, chastened.

  Tara gave him a challenging look as she threw a few packages of underwear into the cart.

  “Any more comments?” she asked.

  “No, I prefer you without, anyway,” he said without thinking, and even he was a little startled by that one. He probably deserved a crushing set down for that, or maybe even a good smack, but when none was forthcoming, he looked at Tara and blinked instead.

  She had one hand dangling in the cart as if she had gotten startled in the middle of throwing the cheap underwear in. There was a lovely blush staining her cheeks, and as he watched, fascinated, her pink tongue flickered out to swipe at her lower lip.

  “Oh, you like that idea, don't you?” he asked softly. The cart was between them, and there was a woman pawing through the racks of athletic socks to their right, but otherwise, Reese would have closed the distance between them in a heartbeat just so he could feel how her breath sped up.

  “You'll know that I'm a liar if I say I don't,” she said looking down. “You're ... you're kind of overwhelming, you know?”

  “I don't mean to be,” Reese said, watching her fidget, her shoulders hitching up to her ears. He liked her brave and raging, and he was realizing that maybe he liked her a little shy and nervous as well. That was what she was covering up. That was the part of her that was usually hidden so well, that years of having to be tough and lonely had obscured.

  Oh darling, you don't have to
hide with me. I'll protect you.

  “You don't seem to mind it so very much,” she said, and then she spun around to inspect the bras hanging from the rack behind her.

  She should have better than that, he thought again. I'll get her better. I'll take her somewhere in Paris or London, a proper fitting, full of people to fawn over her and flatter her the way she deserves, and then I'll bring her back to our hotel and ...

  He pulled away from that thought because the woman with the athletic socks was beginning to give him a weird look, and he probably deserved it.

  Reese followed Tara from the clothing section to the food, which was crowded with people looking for what seemed to be unusually cheap pasta.

  “Better keep it instant,” Tara said with a sigh.

  “I'll stop and get us meals,” Reese said with some asperity. “I'm not looking to starve you.”

  “Well no, but … snacks. They're good for us.”

  And then you don't need to rely on me entirely, Reese finished for her. The thought stung a little, but there was a little voice in the back of his head that suggested that maybe, at some point, that would change. He could change it...

  She went after a bag of red apples, dropping them into the cart, and then she headed for the cheese. Reese would have followed her, but there were enough people in the way that he frowned.

  I should probably just go around. If I push my way through, I might knock that old man right on his rear ... that ... surprisingly young-looking old man. That surprisingly young-looking old man who is in fact looking straight at me.

  Once he noticed that, he noticed other things as well. This was the only part of the large discount store that had been anywhere near this busy, a lot of the people were simply picking things up and putting them down over and over again, and that those people were tense enough that some of them shook.

  All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and just as soon as he realized that he was surrounded, he took a deep breath only to swallow it back again with an uncomfortable feeling. Some of the shoppers were enemy operatives, but not all. Some of them were simply wondering why the apples were so very popular, and even as Reese looked around, appalled, he saw one confused woman bump into the young-old man who had caught his eye.

  He realized abruptly that these weren't the operatives he was used to dealing with. No. From the poor disguises to the inexpert way they were watching him, this had to be an unprepared cell of near-civilians, people who had never thought they would be in this position. They might not have had any real idea what they were in for when they signed up, and here they were.

  They spotted us, and they mobilized who they could, Reese thought with disgust.

  Reese bared his teeth, and without his willing it, a low growl came up his throat. It made some of the people nearby gasp, but at that point, Reese was done playing nice.

  As his mother had always said, if someone wouldn't let you pass and you couldn't easily go around, it was practically your duty to go through, and that was abruptly what Reese decided to do.

  Even as he turned, he could see one of the enemy operatives move to intercept him, perhaps even attempt to reason with him.

  Instead of going forward to meet him, however, Reese turned to his right and to the solid bank of refrigerator units next to him — pizza, endless pizza, a small part of his mind noted — and then he gave it a good shove.

  It was heavy enough that he had to strain for a moment, but then the moment after that, the entire unit was pushed back, the shelves behind crumpling, and he was climbing up and over.

  Hope there was no one on the other side of that, he thought, but then nearly all rational thought was wiped out by the sight of Tara being wrapped up by two men in dark tac gear, wrenching her down the aisle and around the corner. The people who had been blocking his way were probably researchers or administrators. These two men were not.

  That was when Reese's vision went red, and he roared, throwing himself down the aisle and after them. In that moment, it would not matter who was between him and his quarry. They were taking her away, they had hands on his mate, Tara, and there was no price that was too high for them to pay.

  He was reduced to a panic sheathed in rage, and in that moment, he thought that he wouldn't need a damned sunstone to turn into a ravaging insane monster if they harmed even one hair on her head...

  Chapter 13

  If she were being totally honest with herself, there was a small part of Tara that was grateful for the crowd in the produce area. It gave her some time to get out from under Reese's intense gaze and to put a little space between them.

  The problem, however, wasn't that she wanted to get away. If that was it, sadly enough, she knew what to do. You didn't spend as much time on the road and in crappy neighborhoods as she did without learning a thing or two, and she was as attuned to that kind of unwanted attention as a groundhog was to spring.

  No, the problem was that the attention was not unwanted, and she didn't know what came next. One look from Reese, one softly muttered phrase, and she felt as if she had been hit with a plank of wood.

  She still didn't buy all the stuff he was spewing about a chosen mate or anything like that, or at least she told herself she didn't, but now she was suspecting that it had something to do with the live wire that sizzled between them.

  She wanted him, and their little rendezvous in the desert had changed exactly none of that.

  No, she thought, reaching for the chips and a jar of salsa, as a matter of fact, I think it might have actually made a lot of this worse.

  Now she knew what his mouth tasted like. Now she had an idea of how it felt when his hands slid down her body and what it felt like to be...

  Oh my God, I am in the chips aisle. This is not appropriate.

  Before Tara could ponder her new fall into moral deviance, two men dressed like over-grown security guards appeared. For a moment, she thought she was going to get busted for shoplifting, and then she remembered, no, she wasn't, and that there were some very bad people looking for her and Reese.

  Without thinking she swung her cart around as hard as she could, and she caught one of the men in black hard across the ribs, actually sliding him to the right a few feet. That was all she needed, and Tara took to her heels.

  Before she could go far, however, the other man caught her by her hair, yanking her back with a brutal tug, but before she could even cry out, his other hand clamped over her mouth. He dragged her backwards, and then the first man, who had only been winded, came to help, manhandling her down the aisle and away.

  Wherever they want to take me, I know I don't want to be there...

  Even as she thought it, Tara was kicking and flailing. They hadn't given her chloroform, and she was going to make them regret the oversight. She made a few muffled sounds, and when the hand over her mouth clamped down even further, she opened her mouth and bit down as hard as she could, not letting up until she tasted blood.

  He jerked his hand away just as a terrible crash filled the air. Suddenly, people were shouting, people were screaming, and then she saw Reese come bounding over the top of the fallen refrigeration unit, mouth opened around a growl that she now knew could never have come from a human throat. He paused for just a moment to figure out where she was, and then without hesitation , he was diving for her. There were already licks of flame spilling from his lips.

  The look of pure fury and mayhem on his face should have made her want to scramble away in fear. The man on her left gave out some kind of strangled cry, and then Reese was jerking her out of their arms as easily as he would take a doll away from a child. Reese filled his lungs with air and when he blew out, it was a plume of flame. At the last moment, one of the men tried to grab for Tara, tried to pull her back towards him, and Tara threw up her arm, wildly warding off the fire that felt as if it was hot enough to light suns and stars. Her ears were filled with shouts, and then Reese roared again, pulling her back with an almost painful grip around her opposite arm
. Fire struck the two men, making them scream. Her heart felt as if it was going to beat right out of her chest, and somehow, despite the way her knees were shaking, she was still standing.

  He had better not stop to savor the victory or to finish them off, Tara thought, because all over the store, alarms were going off, people were screaming, and she knew that they had to get out of there and fast.

  Tara clenched her hand in Reese's sleeve, and then somehow, she dragged him towards the entrance.

  After a single moment where it felt as if she was pulling against a brick wall, he came after her, and together, they dashed for the entrance. When it looked like two security guards would stop them, she put on her best I'm so very scared face and pointed shakily at the mess behind her.

  “Fire!” she said, “there's a fire back there!”

  That was apparently enough for them, and Tara and Reese managed to fight their way outside in the midst of all the people doing the same thing. Reese started for his car, but she took a tighter grasp on his arm, pulling him towards an ancient and dusty car sitting off the curb. It looked like it was barely younger than she was, but the most important thing was the man sitting behind the wheel, one elbow propped up on the window.

  “Give me your wallet,” she said, turning to Reese. Somewhat to her surprise, he dug it out and handed it over immediately. She decided that they could have a talk with the inadvisability of handing your life over to a random woman at some other time. Right now, she had a deal to strike.

  “Hey!” she said. “Hey, I'll give you four hundred dollars for your car.”

  The man in the car, long-haired, wearing a cap that said Bass Fishermen Do It Better and a calm expression that a nuclear blast couldn't have shaken, only looked her up and down.