by Starla Night
He frowned. “I mean, Kyanite needs your assistance.”
Her heart dropped to the concrete and soared above her head. She flushed hot and cold.
Crossing her arms, she lifted her chin. “Oh yeah? With what?”
“An important matter. At his office.”
“Yeah? That’s nice.” She started for her car, patting her pockets for her keys.
He hurried after her. “You will not assist him?”
“He wants something, he can come here and ask me.”
“But he is here.”
She stopped abruptly. “Where?”
“This way.” Chrysoberyl headed back to the hospital. “The place where you found the medkits.”
“What, the basement?”
“Yes. The basement.” He puffed his chest. “Take me there.”
Ugh. Seriously? She was no longer on shift. But she could just imagine bringing him to the day charge nurse.
That nurse would call the Director. The Director would want to know what Laura was doing talking with dragon aliens in the hospital again.
What a headache.
“Come on, human. I have limited time. You are wasting it.”
It was so tempting to snap at him like she’d just snapped at Dr. Richard. But she wasn’t mad at Chrysoberyl. She was mad at Kyan for sending a representative and not having the balls to face her himself.
She headed back inside and led him to the basement organ transport shelves. It was eerie in a way she hadn’t noticed when she’d been here with Kyan.
“Here’s where we found the missing medkit.”
“Where is it?”
“Oh, we moved it upstairs.” She gestured at the shelves, extremely not reliving her first fantasies with Kyan. “It was moved here by mistake. Nobody comes down here.”
“Perfect. I prepared for this possibility. Take this end.” Chrysoberyl handed her a glowing string. Neon, like a bracelet someone would wear to a rave. “Drape it over your wrists.”
She did so. “Why?”
The string cinched around her wrists like a too-tight snap-bracelet.
“Now you cannot transform,” he said.
“Oookay. You know I can’t transform anyway. I’m a human.”
“Of … of course I know that.” He pulled the other end of the string around the column. It hugged her to the cold concrete and locked.
She struggled. “What are you doing?”
“Making myself a galactic ruler. I had intended to destroy the Onyx Corporation. But, that will have to wait.” He activated his cell phone device. “Uncle? I am being detained and injured by humans!”
“Chrysoberyl?” The captain’s voice panicked. “Where are you?”
“Destroy this enclave of filth that dared to harm my illustrious person.”
“We are moving to your coordinates now.”
“W-wait until I am free! Then, destroy this refuse pile.”
“Contact me when you have found your freedom. Hold strong, my dragonlet!”
Laura screamed. “It’s a lie! He’s not being hurt. He’s trying to hurt us!”
He showed her the blank device. “Interrupting private conversations is rude. Does your species know nothing of propriety?”
“Does dragon ‘propriety’ include lying and murdering innocent people?”
“Nothing on this planet is proper.” He sniffed. “Low caste dragons receive marriage proposals from the Empress. Turn them down. Merge and rule over aristocrats. Lord their positions over me.”
“God forbid,” she muttered.
“Clearly it is the fault of your planet’s hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. The concepts of marriage for ‘love’ and the ready availability of that sinfully delicious coffee have given willfulness to dragons who no longer know their place. This planet must be wiped clean. Correct, utilitarian, aristocratic rule will teach you what is proper.”
“And that teacher would be you.” She struggled. “Why tie me up? What did I ever do to you?”
“I have been trying to eliminate you since the moment you found my remote detonator.”
“Your what?”
He knelt down to her level and produced the mini Magic 8 Ball keychain.
“That’s a detonator? How would I know?”
“You were going to show it to Kyanite.”
“But you took it away. I forgot I even saw it.” What the heck? “So you left the banana slicer bomb too? The one that only activated near dragons? That makes no sense. It would never have gotten me.”
“That was my most brilliant move.” He messed with the remote detonator. “It almost removed Kyanite’s disgusting visage from my sight.”
She gritted her teeth. A nurse swore to do no harm but if she could get free of the column Chrysoberyl would find out exactly what happened when she got off duty.
“Brilliant,” he repeated.
“Not really,” she snapped. “It could have gone off on any dragon. I might not even have been in the room.”
He shrugged. “No aristocrats would have been harmed.”
“I almost carried it out to ask if it was yours.”
His eyes widened. “Human, how dare you? That would have been truly stupid.”
“You’re the stupid one.”
His yellow-green eyes narrowed. He rose and slid the detonator into his pocket. “Soon you will be dead and this entire block destroyed. I only have to go outside and tell my uncle I’m out of the way. He will unleash the wrath of the Gnashing Teeth.”
“You can’t do that.” She struggled. “This is a hospital. It’s filled with innocent people!”
“But no aristocrats.” He turned away and glanced over his shoulder in triumph. “So nobody important.”
“Your uncle and I are friends!” She shouted at his receding back. “Hey!”
Not that his uncle would know. She’d seen the smoking crater left of Kyan’s fortress. If the same happened to this hospital, no remains would be found.
And her tracker must say she was still in the hospital so there would be no reason for Kyan to notice anything was wrong. How long had it been since she’d gotten off? An hour?
That assumed he was even still paying attention to her.
Her heart sank, and a lump formed in her throat.
She had tried to love him. Starting a relationship required two people. He wasn’t ready.
But she was.
She wanted to commit. She wanted marriage. She wanted kids.
She wanted Kyan.
Maybe it was okay to rent. She could be flexible on the house thing.
Most importantly, she had been honest. She didn’t second-guess her decision to love him. She was proud of herself for that much. He had pushed her away, and she hadn’t taken her declaration back. She hadn’t apologized for her feelings.
If someday he decided to open his “team of one” to others, she would be right there, first in line, offering to join.
Supposing she was still alive.
Footsteps sounded on the concrete and she perked up. Kyan! He’d found her already?
Chrysoberyl reappeared in a cloud of villainy. “I cannot operate your elevator.”
Oh. Right. She had the badge with the security clearance.
“Untie me and I’ll operate it for you,” she said.
“No.”
“Then I guess neither of us are going anywhere.”
“Hmm.” He pulled out what was unmistakably, even though it was advanced dragon technology, a gun. “Then I guess I’ll have to kill you now.”
Chapter Twenty
“Chrysoberyl left the building hours ago,” Kyan’s ops manager reported. “He declined security.”
“You should have watched him,” Kyan snarled.
“He was supposed to be under the personal supervision of Carnelian Clothiers.” The normally slick ops manager couldn’t quite make eye contact with Syenite. “We did not know the order had changed.”
Hellfire. The downfall of almost all operati
ons was a communications failure.
Kyan stormed for the door. Even though he shouldn’t go to the hospital that was his destination. He had to know Laura was safe. “Find him!”
“Sir!” The comm technician stopped him at the door. “The Gnashing Teeth is decloaking.”
“Where?”
“Directly over Portland.”
Hellfire and brimstone! He spun on his heel, returning to the console. “Hail them.”
“They are not responding.” The technician drew a deep breath. “Their weapons are hot.”
“I will force them to respond.” He turned to Syenite. “Go to Carnelian Clothiers. Confirm your people are safe.”
Syenite shouldered his bulky coat and replaced his tactical shades. “What of your building?”
Jasper strode through the open door. “I will take over.” He had clearly heard the last of the conversation.
Kyan protested. “You have no experience.”
“As General Operations Manager it is my role to assume responsibility for our physical assets.” Jasper took Kyan’s usual seat and reviewed his protocols for a building evacuation. “I observed you conduct drills. You assumed I did so only for curiosity.”
Fine. He did not have time to argue. “Contact…”
Who could he send to the hospital? He needed to confirm Laura was safe — without compromising the safety of his siblings.
Jasper awaited his order.
Kyan could not split himself in two. But he was the only one who could board the warship, and he was the only one who could find Laura.
Mal yelled through the operations door. “There’s a warship over Portland! Whose incompetence brought them over human airspace?”
“Chrysoberyl’s,” Jasper replied.
Mal’s lip curled over his elongating teeth. His eyes flashed green. “He was not working on the design portfolio? I knew I should have demanded it by midnight last night! Our mother will hear of this.” He stormed away.
The internal phone system clicked. Their gravely voiced receptionist, Jeannette, reported. “The mayor of Portland is on line two. Who will take the call?”
“I will take it.” Alex strode in and picked up the phone receiver next to Jasper. “Madam Mayor? Yes, we are aware of the warship. … There is some misunderstanding. … No, there is no cause for immediate alarm. … Yes, we will ask them to keep the airport flight lanes clear.”
As his family rallied around him, Kyan’s heart swelled. This is what he had refused for so long. The team working together under pressure.
Many times he had assisted Mal, Pyro, or the others during a crisis. Now, they assisted him. He had his team all along. He’d just feared relying on them.
Syenite followed him down the hall to the glass shaft. “Someone must check on the human nurse.”
He felt the pull in his soul.
But the warship threatened the entire planet and the future of human-dragon relations. “The warship is the priority.”
“I will go to the warship.”
Kyan turned.
Amber stood in the middle of the hallway, her financial files held close to her chest.
“I know how to board,” he argued.
“They will not dare to refuse me.”
The military did not bow to singular females. “This ‘help’ is not requested nor—”
“And neither will you.” She dropped her files and hunched, exploding into dragon.
Oh, no.
He wheeled and flew.
Amber raged behind him like the fury of a storm, not the sister who frequently silenced herself to let her brothers shine. He raced Syenite up the glass shaft to the morning.
The gigantic warship blocked out the sun, a giant disc of lethality.
Syenite split west toward the Carnelian office. Kyan flew south, toward the warship.
Behind him, Amber roared. She streaked across the sky, a molten sliver of the sun’s plasma, curling and twisting toward the warship. Although as a human she was much smaller than her brothers, as a dragon, she displayed her full dominant power.
Perhaps the warship captain would listen to her. They might at least accept his technicians’ hail.
He dove for the hospital.
Landing on the street in front of the emergency department, he dodged the people pointing up. It was not his imagination that the warship was centered over the hospital. Was it?
“No,” his comm tech confirmed via his clear earbuds. “It is centered. And watch behind you. Syenite is coming.”
The head of security landed a moment behind him. “Pyro already evacuated Carnelian Clothiers and released me to assist.”
Kyan accepted his assistance. Together, they jogged into the emergency department.
He did not recognize the head nurse. “Where is Laura Jamison?”
“Who are you?” the nurse demanded.
“Her mate.”
He had said it. And when he found her, he would say it to her face.
“I can’t tell you private information,” the nurse said.
“She is not supposed to work this hour, but she is still here.” He checked his tracker. “Twenty feet below this level.”
The nurse blinked. “The basement?”
Kyan gripped the desk so hard it creaked. “Take me there.”
“I … I have to ask the Director.”
“Ask. Now.”
Endless seconds ticked by until he finally received permission. A guard escorted him and Syenite into the elevator, swiping his badge to move it down.
“What are you doing in the basement?” the guard asked, wary.
“We do not know yet,” Syenite told him.
The doors opened.
Battle sense broke over him. It had saved Kyan more than once.
He dodged sideways out of the elevator with one order to the human guard. “Stay back!”
Syenite flew on his heels.
Down the dark aisles, a muffled fight sounded. Laura’s voice, rising in pitch, set his heart at ease. She was still alive. But her words set him on edge again.
“…so then I’ll be dead and you still won’t be able to get out.”
“I will exit via a window.” Chrysoberyl sounded both pleased and irritated.
“There are no windows! This is the basement. It’s subterranean.”
“Stupid human. Give me the elevator key.”
“Untie me and call off your attack.”
“I cannot call off the attack. My uncle will know I lied.”
“So I can’t unlock the elevator.”
Kyan silently assumed his position and nodded at Syenite. Despite his lack of official black ops training, the fallen aristocrat flew to his place as though he had participated in hundreds of missions.
“I swear I will kill you,” Chrysoberyl said.
“Then you’ll be discovered in the basement with my dead body. If you thought it would be hard to explain before, no one will believe you then. And Kyan will kill you.”
“He would not dare.”
Kyan stepped from the shadows. “Try me.”
Chrysoberyl jolted, his shoulders up, and wheeled.
The gun swung away from Laura.
Just as Kyan had planned.
He burst to dragon and flew sideways. His shredded clothes fell to the cement.
Chrysoberyl shot.
The laser sliced his clothes and scored the cement.
“Kyan!” Laura shouted. “He has a gun!”
Kyan smashed the gun out of Chrysoberyl’s hands. It skittered across the basement floor and slid under a far shelf.
Chrysoberyl erupted into yellow-green scales. He attacked wildly, slashing at Kyan’s shoulder.
Kyan rolled under his claws.
Chrysoberyl snapped at his exposed neck.
He wheeled over the aristocrat’s teeth.
The younger male had mass and good health but not training.
Kyan shot up and slashed his face. His claws raked Chrysoberyl’s j
aw.
“You struck me.” He gaped at the dripping blood.
Kyan tackled the aristocrat in a lock.
He squirmed.
Syenite knelt beside Laura. Using his rare tools, he demagnetized the rope and release her.
She dodged Syenite and fell on the shreds of Chrysoberyl’s suit.
Kyan started to snap at Syenite to move, but the security head maneuvered into a protective stance.
Chrysoberyl edged up one hand and cuffed him.
Hellfire.
Blood flowed over his eyelid, half-blinding him. He tightened his lock.
The aristocrat whimpered.
Laura lofted Chrysoberyl’s personal communicator. “Hello? Hello?”
The captain of the warship answered. “Are you at a safe distance?”
“No, Chrysoberyl isn’t.” Laura waved at the screen she was holding. “Hi, it’s Laura again.”
“Laura!”
“This is my hospital. Chrysoberyl lured me to the basement and tied me up. No one was hurting him. That was all a lie.”
“Where is he?”
“Fighting with Kyan.” She pointed the device at Kyan as he held Chrysoberyl.
“Uncle!” Chrysoberyl struggled in Kyan’s lock. “This is abuse.”
“You were trying to blow up innocent people,” Laura accused.
He whined. Blood dripped from the cuts on his face. He shrank to human form, looking pitiful. “This low caste attacked me.”
“You attacked him first!” Laura cried.
“I am the victim, Uncle. I am the right one. Listen to me!”
The captain’s gaze turned flinty. “It is a very serious charge to attack an aristocrat.”
Kyan returned to human form for a better grip. “I had no choice. He threatened Laura.”
The captain’s brows rose and then lowered. “And what is Laura to you?”
“Mine.”
The captain frowned. “Yours?”
“My female.” He growled. “My mate.”
She fumbled the phone. “What?”
Chrysoberyl stiffened. “She is no such thing.”
“Laura. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” She danced. “Oh, give that guy to Syenite so I can hug you.” To the captain, she added, “Please don’t blow up the hospital or the city.”
A second call rang in the middle of the first one. The screen split. Mal’s face appeared on one side. “Chrysoberyl! My mother is recalling you to Draconis to discuss your recent performance. You are to leave immediately.”