by Jadyn Chase
My jaw dropped and I gasped aloud. “And you participate in this abomination? How can you?”
She rested against her stool. Her gaze didn’t flinch from mine. “If I didn’t do it, they would get someone else to do it in my place. I do it to make sure all my subjects get treated in as humane a way as possible. I also do it to make sure the public is safe from unseen threats—threats like you. I’ll do what I can for you while you’re here, but I can promise you that the welfare of the public and the country and the world in general means a whole lot more to me than you do. I hope you appreciate that.”
“Of course.” I bowed my head, but her comments did nothing to put my mind at ease. Quite the contrary.
She stayed where she was. Her iron visage didn’t budge. “Put your arm through the trap, James. I won’t ask again.”
I swallowed hard and maneuvered toward the hole. I had to stretch my bare body across the frigid metal to get my shoulder down to the level of the aperture. I wedged my hand through, followed by my elbow. I weaseled sideways until I worked my entire arm through.
She moved toward it. The next moment, her powerful fingers seized my wrist and pinned it down. In a trice, she strapped it in place with a thong around my wrist. I couldn’t move if I tried.
I howled at the indignity of it all. “What are you doing to me?”
“I’m just making sure you don’t move and pull out the needle. Try to hold still.”
She spoke with such casual ease that my blood boiled. I fought and kicked, but I couldn’t get free no matter how hard I tried. Something stabbed me in the arm and the pain shot to my chest.
The torment went on for several minutes. When she finally released the strap, I whipped my arm inside bellowing in fury. “You harpy! How dare you!”
She retreated to her stool and jotted something down. “You’re all finished, James. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I hunched in the corner and bared my teeth at her. “You’ll pay for this! I have rights, you know.”
She put the board aside one final time. “I’m afraid you don’t and I will never pay for this. You’re a prisoner here, possibly for life. I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t damage you. You’re fine. Maybe now that we have a sample of your blood, we can cure you.”
I humphed. “How do you plan to do that?”
“I don’t.” She studied a glass tube of blood. “I’m just trying to make it easier for you.”
“Well, don’t try to make it easier for me,” I blurted out. “Just leave me with my pride, will you?”
She sighed and her back slumped. “I’m trying to, James. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”
“Well……” I glanced around at nothing. This couldn’t be real. “Why don’t you give me some clothes to wear, then? If you really want to make it easier, why don’t you treat me like a man instead of keeping me locked up in a cage like an animal?”
I bit back my tears. How could I come to this hopeless pass? Having her scrutinize me like a piece of meat made it so much worse. I couldn’t hope to maintain my dignity in front of a lady when I really was nothing but a caged rat to her.
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. “All right, James. I’ll get you some clothes. I’m not supposed to, but I’ll do it. You have to promise me that you’ll cooperate, though. Don’t make my job any harder than it has to be and don’t make me regret sticking my neck out for you. Understand?”
I dropped my gaze to my hands. I dared not look anywhere else.
She headed for the door. “I’ll be back in a little while to give you something to eat. I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince my boss to let you out of this containment pen, but I’ll do what I can.”
I muttered after her. “Thank you.” Then I thought of something. “Paige, dear?”
She turned around and bestowed that glorious smile on me. “Yes?”
“How do you know I’ll…..?” I waved to one side. “How do you know this container will hold me? What’s to stop me from changing into the dragon and destroying everything in sight?”
She rotated all the way around. When she looked at me this time, she didn’t smile at all. “We gave you some drugs to suppress your power. You won’t be able to change into the dragon until we give you the antidote. I’m sorry about that, but we’re doing it for the public safety and yours. Try to get as comfortable as you can, James, because you’re not going anywhere. I’ll see you later.”
4
Paige
I strolled into Sweeney’s office with my laptop tucked under my arm. I discovered Tristan already there. Sweeney looked up and twisted his computer screen around. “What in the name of God is this?”
He played a clip of video footage on the screen. I gazed at it without blinking. “That’s me giving the subject a set of clothes. He’s freezing in the containment unit, and since you won’t give authorization to let him move to more comfortable quarters, I gave him some clothes. It was the humane thing to do.”
“You’re not here to do the humane thing.” He swiveled his machine around and faced it. “You’re here to test him—nothing more. You’ll march right down there and take the clothes back.”
“I’ll do nothing of the kind.” I set my own laptop on his desk. “I’m a scientist. If you want to torture the guy, get your goons to test him yourself. If you want a scientist to run these tests, you’ll do it my way.”
He glanced at Tristan, who gaped at both of us. That fool never got involved in these battles. Sweeney bristled his eyebrows at me for a minute. Then he grunted and creaked his decrepit old chair back. How the thing supported his weight all these years, I could never guess. Sometimes, I even suspected he snuck in after-hours and replaced it when no one was looking.
“What have you got for me so far?” he demanded.
“I know who he is. That’s something.” I flipped open my laptop and showed him the screen.
He scowled at it. “This is impossible.”
“Yesterday, you would probably have told me a man turning into a dragon and torching London was impossible, too. He’s James West Shelton of Dover Castle. His whole family disappeared from the Great Amour Hall in 1840. No one knows what happened to them, but apparently, they didn’t die because he’s alive and well in our containment unit downstairs. He’s telling the truth.”
“How do you know he didn’t hallucinate the whole thing?” Sweeney barked. “He could be a local fruit cake escaped from….”
I shook my head. “I tested a sample of his hair. I took it while he was unconscious and it confirms his age. Radiocarbon dating of the follicle puts him at somewhere between 1820 and 1870. We’ll probably never know why the family disappeared and he doesn’t seem to understand it himself, but it’s true. He’s almost two hundred years old.”
Sweeney rotated his chair sideways and waved at the computer. “That means bugger all at this stage. I don’t really give a toss who the blighter is. We need those test results now. The military wants to know everything there is about this dragon thing of his.”
I stiffened. “What do they want to know that for?”
“Oh, you know, the usual.” He rummaged in his drawer for something or other. “Who he is and where he comes from gets us nowhere. What did you find out about his blood chemistry?”
I shifted my weight to my other foot. “Not a lot, actually. All his tests came back normal.”
“Normal!” He snorted out loud. “That’s a laugh. He can’t be normal.”
“He is. He’s just about the most normal guy I’ve seen in this place. Apart from the elevated levels of Depthamol we’re giving him to stop him changing into his dragon form, there’s nothing about him to indicate anything out of the ordinary.”
“Well, there must be something. I want you down in the lab until you find it.”
“He’s in the CT scanner now,” I told him. “We’ve already given him enough x-rays to light up Toledo. We can’t do too much without compromising his health.”
&n
bsp; “I don’t care if you have to dissect him. Just do it. I need something to pass up the chain of command.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I really got sick and tired of defending my professional integrity around here. Sometimes, I really wondered if this job was right for someone like me. “You won’t have anything to pass up the chain of command if you kill him in the testing process. We have to follow certain protocols or you’ll wind up with a corpse on your hands.”
“Then we’ve lost nothing. He’s a public menace. The important thing is that we keep him off the streets by any means necessary. If he should meet with an unfortunate accident in the course of testing, that’s just one of the hazards of the job. Any information we glean from testing him will be a nice bonus.”
“I’m not convinced he is a public menace,” I countered. “He has no control over the dragon. He tried to warn us off for our own safety when we apprehended him. He’s trying to protect the public. If we could train him to control his transformations, we could…..”
“No!” He actually launched his enormous bulk out of the poor chair and got to his feet. “Get down there and finish your testing. I don’t want to hear another word about it until you have a dossier of results to put on my desk.”
“Look, Sweeney,” I began, “you can’t just…..”
He aimed a menacing finger at me and puckered his lips. “Get down there now. If you don’t conduct the tests by the end of the week, I’ll assign Tristan to do it instead.”
I cast a disdainful glance at my silent colleague. He still stood in the corner with his mouth open. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I?” Sweeney waggled his big belly to and fro. “Just try me, little lady. Now I believe you have a stool to keep warm in the lab. Goodbye.”
I glared at the big lump, but his purple, distorted features told me not to say anymore. I grabbed my computer and beat it. I stormed back to the lab foaming mad. The tests themselves would be the best way to prove that James Shelton wasn’t a danger—not that I held out any hope of the department taking it easy on him.
Sweeney said James’s origins meant nothing. The military wanted him. They wanted his test results. That could mean only one thing. They wanted him turned over to them for their own use. I shuddered to myself. Nothing could be worse than that.
Tristan hurried after me and caught up with me outside the lift. “Wait up, Paige. Don’t go off your trolley over this bloke. He’s not worth it.”
I rounded on him snarling through locked teeth. “You better stay away from him, Tristan, if you know what’s good for you. Don’t let me find out you tried to test him behind my back. Understand?”
He held up both hands. “You know I’d never do anything like that, Paige. I respect you too much as a professional. He’s your baby. You test him. I have better things to do.”
I whipped around the other way. “He is NOT my baby. Don’t even suggest that.”
The lift opened and we both stepped inside. He didn’t say anything for a minute. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to test him. What do you think? I’m going to prove to Sweeney that James Shelton is just an average guy.”
“You can’t do that,” Tristan pointed out. “You have to test how much Depthamol he needs to suppress his powers. That means you’ll have to test the levels and the…”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped. “You don’t have to tell me how to do my job.”
He shuffled his feet facing front. “I’m just saying. It seems an awful lot like you’ve got a blind spot when it comes to this chap. I mean, did you really have to give him those clothes?”
“Yes, Tristan,” I chided. “Yes, I did. I’m still human even if all the rest of you bloody Frankensteins aren’t. I still care about my subjects’ humanity and that will never change. If you or Sweeney or the military or anybody else has a problem with that, then I don’t know what else to say to you. Jesus fucking Christ, Tristan! Do you even hear the words that are coming out of your mouth? He’s not a goddamned animal, but I can see that you’re turning into one.”
He shrank back and retracted his neck. “Crikey, Paige! You don’t have to get nasty about it. I’m just saying.”
“Well, don’t say, all right?” I spun away one more time. “Don’t say a goddamned thing to me—not now, not ever—‘cuz I don’t want to hear it.”
The lift hissed open and I marched out. I stormed back to the lab and hurled my laptop on the workbench a lot harder than I should have. I heaved a broken sigh, but in my mind, I still raged against the whole system.
From the moment I first laid eyes on James West Shelton in that alley, nothing could convince me that he was dangerous. I watched the footage of his transformation again and again. He might be a dragon, but I couldn’t believe he really meant any harm.
Those gleaming brown eyes ate into my soul. His tousled brown hair fell over his forehead and his cheeks and lips quivered with barely suppressed emotion. I saw the same depth of feeling and humanity in the containment unit. He was a sensitive guy—an intelligent man caught in an unnaturally difficult position.
No way could he hurt people on purpose. He remembered all the damage he’d done as if from a dream. He never meant to kill or maim anyone. He wanted to control the dragon as much as anyone else. He hated it and wished it away, but he was stuck with it.
In a fit of peevish spite, I yanked the laptop toward me and propped it open. I logged onto the network and pulled up the security camera feed for the containment unit. There he sat in the corner of his pen, so the techs must have just brought him back from CT.
He hugged his knees to his chest. His empty breakfast tray sat on the floor across from him, so at least he’d eaten something. He was too smart not to.
The white hospital pajamas covered his body, but I didn’t need to see it. I’d seen all I would ever need to see on the street and when I first spoke to him in the containment pen.
He had a nice body. I didn’t tell Sweeney that and I would never dream of mentioning it to Tristan—or anyone else, for that matter. In the privacy of my own head, though, I could admire it. He had a nice, chiseled physique of well-defined muscle and graceful, supple limbs. Creamy, nut-brown skin covered every inch of him with the faintest dusting of soft, brown hair. It formed an appealing diamond shape in the center of his chest pointing down to his navel.
That was probably all of him I would ever see unless Sweeney got his way and I wound up dissecting James to find out what made him change into a dragon in the first place. Considering how the rest of this crackpot asylum ran, I wouldn’t be surprised.
The second that thought crossed my mind, my hand shot out and I switched off the display. I didn’t want to sit here staring at James West Shelton. If I had to test him, looking at him would only make that job harder. I had to test him. I knew that. Sweeney wouldn’t let me out of here without doing it. He meant what he said. If I didn’t do it, Tristan would.
Tristan wouldn’t give a crap about hurting James or anybody else. Under his nerdy, insecure exterior, Tristan had a sadistic side. The tests Sweeney let him run since Tristan came to work at the lab proved that. Tristan got far too consumed by the science of what he was doing. Either deliberately or out of neglect, he completely lost sight of his subject’s humanity.
Not that his subjects were strictly human, per se. James wasn’t technically human, either, but that didn’t make much difference, really. The fact remained that I was still human. Whatever else James might or might not be, I still had to look myself in the eye every morning when I brushed my hair in front of the mirror. I didn’t want to see a monster looking back at me. I didn’t want to remember things I’d done and regret them later. That left me with one option: conduct the tests and get them over with.
I grabbed my laptop and stood up just as Tristan entered. “Hey!” he called. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going down to the pen to start the tests.”
He swung
around. “Let me come with you.”
“No!” I wheeled around and planted my hand on his chest. “You stay here. I’ll handle this.”
“Come on, Paige!” he pleaded. “You never let me do anything.”
I headed for the exit. “Did you ever think there might be a reason for that?”
I slammed the door behind me and beat it to the containment unit. I found James in exactly the same position. He started alert when I entered and I experienced the faintest flipping sensation in my belly. His eyes lit up. “Paige! Thank God you’re here!”
I bit back a smile and set my laptop on the table. “Don’t say that before you know why I’m here. I have to conduct some tests on you. I’m sorry, but I have to.”
He sank back on the floor. “I don’t care as long as it’s you doing them. You’re the only person in this whole wretched establishment that treats me like a man. Those dreadful medical technicians wouldn’t even explain to me what they were doing with their monstrous machines.”
I took my place on the stool and examined him. For some reason, everything seemed to be okay when I sat here facing him. I couldn’t really explain it even to myself, but nothing felt right anywhere else.
“That machine they put you in was a whole-body scanner. It’s harmless, but it will tell us what’s going on inside you. We’re trying to figure out what makes you turn into a dragon. We’re trying to figure out what makes you change from a man to a dragon and back again.”
His dreamy, sparkling eyes floated to my face. “Have you discovered anything yet? Have you made much progress so far?”
“Unfortunately not.” I cracked open my laptop. “So far, all our tests have come up normal. That’s why I’m here. We need to run some more blood tests and that means I need to take you out of this containment unit.”
“Well, that’s all right.” He scanned the pen. “I’m always happy to get out of here.”
“Before I call up the security personnel to transfer you to the lab, I need to ask you some questions.”