Caden's Secret

by Jadyn Chase

  “What if they don’t strike?” I asked. “What if it winds up taking longer than we expected?”

  “If they don’t show themselves in a week, I’ll send Margaret into town to meet you. You two can pretend to bump into each other at the grocery store and catch up like old friends. She’ll communicate to you our Plan B so you can get back to work on a regular schedule. We’ll keep you in sight while maintaining our cover. Understand?”

  I nodded down at the uniform folded in my lap. “I understand. Thank you.”

  “It’s me that should be thanking you.” He cast a sidelong glance down Main Street. “You know, I didn’t believe Caden when he said you were doing this for our Clan and that you were one of us, but now I know he was right. I didn’t think a human could do what you’re doing. You’ve changed my opinion of your kind.”

  I snorted. “Thanks, I guess.”

  He moved his left hand to the steering wheel. Then he glided his right hand over and clasped mine in my lap. “Thank you. That’s what I’m trying to say. Our Clan owes you a debt for this.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want you to owe me anything. It was worth it for….” I stopped myself.

  “You don’t have to say it,” he replied. “I know who you did it for.”

  I could only nod down at my clothes in dumb agony. I did it for Caden. I didn’t care who knew it.

  Archer slid out of the truck, and I got out after him. He returned to his seat and shut the door with me on the outside. I stepped back. Xavier waved to me and drove away. I stared after the vehicle with a knot of anguish eating away at my guts. So that was it. I wouldn’t see Caden or Xavier or any of the Kellys again.

  Just then, the office door slid open behind me. Morris bustled out and rushed me. “There you are! Do you know how worried I was about you? What happened? Where have you been? Let me take a look at you.”

  He rotated around in front of me and tried to grab my head to examine the scar on my forehead, but I jerked away. “Leave me alone, Morris. I’m fine, and you know perfectly well where I was.”

  He scowled. “Didn’t they treat you right up there? If they so much as harmed a hair on your head, I swear to Christ I’ll….”

  “They were very nice,” I cut in. “You know good and well they wouldn’t do anything to me.”

  He pulled his head down between his shoulders. “No, I guess they wouldn’t. Well, come on inside. I’ve got some….”

  “I’m not coming back to work,” I interrupted. “I’m going home. I’m worn out and I need a break. I need to rest up for about a week before I come back to work.”

  “But….” he stammered. “I thought….”

  “I got shot in the head, Morris,” I told him. “I need to recover. I’ll see you next week. You know where I live if you need to talk to me.”

  I strode over to my truck and popped the door. I laid my uniform on the seat, turned the key, and motored out of town. I left Morris standing there looking as dumbfounded as the Kellys left me.

  I drove to my cabin in Whistler’s Gulch. Inside, I found my two handguns in their holsters resting on my bed. Someone must have returned them after the fight. I wonder who could have done that.

  I sank down on the bed. Exhaustion overwhelmed me. I was up all night with Caden. Even now, his smell clung to me. I relived every sensation of my lips on his chest and his tongue in my mouth. Man, I wished he was here right now.

  Did I really wish that, even knowing he was a dragon? Would I want to see him again as a man or as a monstrous reptile?

  12

  Caden

  Archer bumped my elbow. “Your Pop said to send you home.”

  I didn’t remove the binoculars from my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Come on, man.” He sat down on the cooler next to my loophole. “It’s been three days. Have you slept in all that time? Tell the truth.”

  “Yeah, I’ve slept.” I scanned the cabin one more time. A light switched on in the front window and a shadow passed behind it.

  Archer got up, cracked the cooler, and took out a stick of beef jerky. “I don’t believe you. You’ve been obsessed with watching that place ever since we got here. You look thin.”

  “I guess that will make me move faster when the time comes.”

  “Go on, man,” he urged. “Go home and take a hot shower. Take a nice long nap and get a hot meal into you. Your Ma’s worried sick about you. You know that, don’t you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  He sat silent for a minute. “You haven’t taken your eyes off that house in three days.”

  “And I don’t intend to take my eyes off it for the next three. I don’t intend to get taken by surprise when the Lynches attack.”

  He pointed at me. “You see? I knew you hadn’t slept. Who do you think you’re fooling, man? You look like something the cat dragged in.”

  I smirked to myself behind my binoculars. “Thanks a lot.”

  “For the love of God, cuz,” he whined. “Even I’m starting to get worried. She’s a human woman, for Christ’s sake.”

  “She’s a human woman who is a sitting duck for the Lynches. Besides, I don’t have to debate my tactics with you. If you have a problem with something I’m doing or if you want to call my judgment into question, tell it to my Pop. Until he orders me to pull back, I’ll stay right here. Did you visit the other positions?”

  He nodded. “They’re all in place.”

  “How many people in each one?”

  “Three,” he replied. “This is the only one with less.”

  “Good,” I muttered. “That will give us…. Hold up. Do you hear that?”

  I froze and cocked my ear to listen. Sure enough, the soft whisper of a car approached through the late afternoon quiet. Archer put his eye to the loophole behind me and hissed through his teeth. “There’s a truck coming.”

  I dropped my binoculars and snatched up a shotgun. “How many are in it?”

  “Looks like two in the cab. I can’t see anything in the back.”

  “Arm up and cover them!” I whispered. “Be ready to fire the minute they make a move.”

  He picked up a gun from the corner. “How do we know it’s them?”

  “Do you recognize either of the men?”

  He shook his head and came to my loophole as a bronze pickup eased past us heading for the cabin. I caught a fleeting glimpse of the driver and passenger, but I didn’t recognize them, either. They didn’t have red hair, but who besides the Lynches would come to Caroline’s cabin at this time of day? Hardly anyone even knew where she lived.

  The truck stopped a few feet from our position. When the men got out, the vehicle blocked our view of the house. I hit Archer in the shoulder and signaled him to follow me. I crawled out of the foxhole and snuck around the truck.

  The two men stretched their legs and sauntered toward the cabin. A dark grey tarp covered the pickup bed. I pointed at it and gestured to Archer. He nodded and aimed his gun at the bed while I crept up behind the two strangers.

  With much shrugging of their shoulders and hitching up their pants, they advanced on Caroline’s door. One of them knocked, and then they both stood off to wait for her to answer. I sent up a silent prayer to her to realize the gravity of the situation. What was I thinking? Of course she realized it.

  She took longer than normal to answer the door. What was she doing—strapping on her guns? I wouldn’t put it past her. When she finally appeared, she swung the door open wide. A flood of blazing yellow light streamed out of the house and blinded the two men. They squinted and the driver put his hand in front of his face to peer up at her.

  “What can I do for you boys?” she chirped.

  “Uh…excuse me, miss,” the driver gabbled. “We’re looking for Miss Caroline Boone. We heard she lives down here. Do you happen to know where we can find her?”

  Christ, what idiots! They had no game at all, these guys. Maybe that’s why the Lynches put them in the firing line. They wer
e too stupid to do anything but take the first load of buckshot in their ugly faces.

  “I’m Caroline Boone,” she told them. “What can I do for you?”

  The driver jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Well, you see, we found us a whole passel of poached pheasant carcasses down near Midget Creek. We heard you was the one to report too, so we brought ‘em along for you to see. We got ‘em stashed over in the truck if you want to take a look.”

  My nerves prickled at the mention of Midget Creek. Caroline wouldn’t know what that meant, but I sure did. These fools belonged to the Lynches. They might not belong to the Clan itself, but the Lynches could have hired them to come over here and lure Caroline out of her house.

  I considered showing myself to warn her, but before I got a chance, she answered on her own. She scanned the truck without leaving the protection of her house. “I appreciate you boys bringing them in and reporting the crime, but there’s nothing I can do with them here. You’ll have to take them to the office in Norton and show them to Morris Abernathy. He’s the one who can take them into evidence and write up a report about it and everything. I’m off duty here. Thanks again. Have a pleasant evening.”

  She retreated into the house and took hold of the door ready to shut it in their faces. I cheered. She pulled that off like a champ, but the dupes weren’t ready to back down. The driver darted forward and put out his hand to hold the door open. “Hold it a second, lady….”

  When he extended his arm, the light from inside fell on it. It illuminated a shimmer of red-gold hair along his forearm. A flash of realization hit me. These guys were Lynches. They just died the hair on their heads to hide their identity.

  His hand slammed against the door. It smashed back against the wall. Caroline stumbled back a step. At the same instant, she whipped one hand behind her back and yanked out a pistol from her lumbar holster. She swung it up and pointed it in the guy’s face. “Stop right there. Get out of my house before I blow your head off.”

  In seconds, the whole cabin exploded in a hail of gunfire. The instant Caroline pulled her gun, the passenger yanked up his shirt and drew another gun from his waistband. He jerked it up and fired on Caroline. He moved so fast he missed his mark. The bullet shattered the door next to her head. Splinters rained down in her face and she ducked for cover.

  The first shot woke all the forces lying in wait around the cabin. Someone jumped up from the truck bed and tossed back the trap. A dozen armed men launched to their feet and opened fire on the house without regard to their comrades standing in the way. Archer shouldered his weapon and picked off three of them in rapid succession.

  I charged the door. One thing mattered: Caroline. I raised my gun on the hoof and pulled the trigger. A spray of shot scattered in front of me and caught the passenger in the back of the neck. He pitched forward and sprawled on his face.

  The driver lunged for Caroline, but he looked over his shoulder when he heard gunfire break out. He saw his comrade drop and then his eyes fixed on me. He bared his teeth in a malicious snarl, but he never got a chance to act on it. Caroline shoved her gun against the bony corner of his skull and pulled the trigger.

  A cloud of blood and bone vaporized in the air. It spackled my cheeks when I dove into the house as dozens of guns went off from all sides. I tackled Caroline and knocked her through the door. “Get down!”

  At that moment, dozens of guns peppered the building. Bullets whizzed in swarms over our heads. They shattered the windows and snapped wood. I covered Caroline with my body and prayed to God it would end soon when, out of the chaos, a huge, red-haired man barreled through the cabin door. My blood ran cold when I recognized Samson Lynch, the patriarch and leader of Clan Lynch.

  He took one look around, spotted me and Caroline sprawled on the floor, and whipped up a shotgun to blow us to kingdom come. I scrambled to flip my weapon around, but I couldn’t roll over fast enough. He leveled the muzzle at my unprotected back, I braced for impact.

  At that moment, Caroline flung one arm around my midsection. She clutched me against her in a lover’s embrace. Her immaculate softness seeped into my awareness through the fog of war. At least I would die in her arms.

  Before Samson could fire, she straightened her other hand under my armpit. A gun exploded in her grasp, and she pounded him with bullets so fast the concussion deafened me for a second.

  I barely had time to duck before she unloaded a full clip on him. Cartridges ricocheted off the walls and buzzed around his head. He reared back and his gun went off. Buckshot sprayed the ceiling and sheetrock sprinkled around my ears. Caroline cringed and coughed without letting up her fire.

  Samson flailed in confusion, but only for an instant before he recovered. Caroline’s fire would have torn him to shreds if he hadn’t shifted in a fraction of a second. Ten bullets hit him in the chest and deflected off the crimson scales erupting under his skin.

  He ruptured his frail human form and a fearsome dragon blasted out of him bellowing to the ends of the Earth. He catapulted straight up and ripped the roof off the cabin. Thunderous booms echoed outside. What was happening out there? If my Clan hadn’t already shifted to combat the Lynches, they would do it now.

  Samson whipped his head in a wide arc on the end of his rippling neck. He released a torrential fountain of blistering fire that ignited the walls. The whole house went up in flames, but he didn’t stop until he rotated around to bombard us with his fire, too.

  I saw the end approaching. So did Caroline. A devastating woof of heat blasted her hair back. Sweat sparkled on her forehead and cheekbones. I had one second to react. That was all I needed.

  I hurtled sideways and shifted in the act of twisting onto my back. The inferno pounded my face and chest and stomach, but my scales protected us both from certain death.

  Caroline screamed in my ear. I clamped my eyes shut and exhaled my dragon into existence. I couldn’t face this enemy as a man no matter what Caroline thought. If she couldn’t handle me this way, we didn’t belong together anyhow. We never really belonged together at all. That’s what Pop was trying to tell me all along, and it took this fight to make me accept it.

  Plumes of scorching fire licked all around me. They called up the dragon stronger than anything. I spread my wings to shield Caroline from the worst of it, but in no time flat, she vanished out of my mind. I was alone against Samson Lynch, one dragon against another.

  He blasted his horrible breath harder than ever when he saw me shift, but he couldn’t kill me that way, not anymore. I summoned all my strength and willpower to get to my feet against the storm. Brutal thumps of heat rattled my chest, but I bent my head before it and heaved upright.

  His eyes narrowed to slits beyond the glowing furnace of his gaping mouth. He advanced on me, a seething mountain of reptilian energy. He dwarfed me by a mile. If it came down to brass tacks, I couldn’t stand up to him in brawn and firepower.

  I had to stop him, though. I had to make sure he never got near Caroline, even if it cost me my life. I had to at least give her a chance to escape. I lashed my tail around and smacked him in the head.

  He cut off his fire in an instant and shrieked. His neck whiplashed sideways, and when he came back around to glare at me, he concentrated all his attention on me. That was good. I didn’t want him to do anything else.

  Before he could come up with another fiendish way to kill me, I lunged for him. I hurtled through the flames and tied him up in my coils. Caroline hopped to her feet and staggered out of the burning building.

  13

  Caroline

  I cast a sickened glance over my shoulder before fire consumed the cabin. The black dragon wrestled with the monstrous red demon that attacked my house. They tumbled over and over each other, snarling and hissing, through the ruin and destruction.

  For a second, Caden struggled on top. He darted his pointed head at his adversary and slashed at him with razor fangs. The next instant, the red devil rotated around and pinned Caden under his weigh
t.

  I couldn’t stand around to watch anymore. The heat already singed my eyebrows and blistered my skin. I raised my hand in front of my face, but that wouldn’t protect me. I squinted through the flames until I found the back door. I staggered through it and dove into the cool evening air.

  Rocket fire hammered the woods on all sides. One catastrophic concussion followed another so fast I couldn’t see where they were coming from. At that moment, a cataclysmic clap tore the world apart next my right shoulder.

  For a fleeting instant, I registered that it came from the gas cylinder behind the cabin. The shock wave hit me. It whipped my feet out from under me and hurled me across the yard.

  I smashed into a tree and my head spun. Pain and anguish washed through me. I got caught in this battle between otherworldly forces. A human being had no place in a fight like this. I was dead meat.

  I fought off the nauseating lethargy of unconsciousness and hauled my brain into focus. I blinked the firecrackers out of my eyes, but when I checked my surroundings, the vision before me made me want to cry.

  Dragons battled all over the place. The red ones outnumbered the other-colored ones by the dozen, and they ganged up on what I could only assume were the Kellys. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t lie here in a huddled lump and watch the Lynches destroy this Clan, not after I put my life on the line for their sake.

  In front of my staring eyes, two dragons broke through the splintered remains of the cabin. The four walls flew out to the sides, and Caden and that red dragon burst into the open. The flames glowed all around them and made them look even more evil and grotesque.

  The red dragon rose taller and taller against the darkening sky. Caden flailed his limbs and tail to restrain the larger creature, but to no avail. As his adversary grew taller, he shrugged Caden off like a pesky fly.