Claim the Dragon

by A. C. Arthur

  But this right here—the warmth and the comfort, the familiarity and the—her eyes shot open and she stared into the dark room. Where was her music?

  She knew it was time to get up but she didn’t hear the music that normally came on as scheduled. For a few seconds she lay still, sensing something different in her surroundings. It was a subtle change, but she knew it the moment she opened her eyes, she just had to figure out what it was.

  Could someone be here with her?

  Of course not. This place was secured tightly all day and all night, and besides, nobody knew they were down here. It had been their secret for the last four years. Even when they allowed new people to come, they were always blindfolded when they were brought to the location. Only a handful of them went above anymore and they were all sworn to secrecy. No, nobody could be here.

  Then why did she feel so freaked out and why was she keeping her words in her mind, instead of talking to herself aloud the way she normally did, because she knew there was no one around to answer?

  Proving how foolish she was being, Ravyn pushed back the sheet and comforter and eased her legs off the side of the bed. When her feet touched the rug beneath her bed and she stood, her legs wobbled. She gripped the table beside her bed to steady herself. Seconds later she let go of the table and stood on her own. Extending her arm to switch on the lamp, she looked around her personal space the moment it was filled with the warm glow of light.

  Everything was the same. Her desk, the dresser, the door to the bathroom only halfway closed, the door leading out to her office securely closed, but not locked. She rarely ever locked that door because the door to her office was locked.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself and took a step toward the bathroom.

  Everything around her slanted to the side and she felt a wave of nausea so severe, she immediately stopped and bent over grasping her stomach. Stumbling to the bathroom, she pulled up the toilet seat and was prepared to chuck whatever was roiling around so violently in the pit of her stomach, but the feeling stopped as quickly as it had begun.

  “Great. I thought that was over with.”

  When the flu symptoms had finally eased she’d been ecstatic. Now, she turned on the water in the sink, washed her face and brushed her teeth. When she was done she stood back and looked into the mirror, expecting to see a familiar face staring back at her. It was, but then it wasn’t. Her lips seemed swollen and her eyes a little brighter than they normally were first thing in the morning. With a shrug, she dismissed that as silliness and set about her day.

  Thirty minutes later Ravyn stepped out of her room and into the hallway. The light here was brighter and echoes of laughter, music playing and what she thought was someone stacking boxes sounded in the distance as she began to walk.

  “Whoa, mornin’, Ravyn,” Lorna said when they almost collided at the next corner.

  “Good morning,” Ravyn replied. “I was just coming to see what you’d prepared for breakfast. I’m starving.”

  Lorna raised a brow, but then smiled brightly. “That’s good to hear. You hadn’t been eating much in the past couple of weeks and I was getting worried. But we’ve got some oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar the way you like it and I cooked up the last of those spicy sausages.”

  “Oh really, that sounds delicious.” Ravyn loved those sausages she’d scored when the butcher was having a huge sale and she’d managed to get all he had early that morning. The money she’d received from Happy for those utility belts with guns still attached that she’d lifted from a security closet in the industrial section of town had brought them a good chunk of change.

  “Yeah, everybody loved those. You should put them on your list for when you go out in the next few days to stack up for the winter months.”

  Lorna had started walking and Ravyn fell into step beside her. The only woman who’d been in Safeside as long as Ravyn—well, actually, the Megs had been their first residents three months after Cree and Ravyn had put the place together—was a few inches shorter than Ravyn. She had her graying hair pulled back into a ponytail that hung down the center of her back and a pencil was stuck behind her ear. Lorna always had that pencil there and if it wasn’t, you could bet the woman was running around Safeside cursing about someone taking it.

  “Yeah, fall’s gonna be settling in this next couple of weeks. We’ve got to get some funds so we can get stacked up.”

  “I thought you already had some funds you were planning to use,” Lorna said.

  Ravyn frowned. “We’ve been living off the last payments, but that was a few weeks ago. I’ve gotta come up with a plan to secure more.”

  “Oh, I thought Jorge told me you already had more and that you and Maurio were planning on going above to start the winter shopping in the next few days. Maurio said the market was closing down so you two were going to get there early tomorrow morning to get some of the discounted stuff.”

  Ravyn was concentrating more on Lorna’s words than the two kids who’d just ran past her, bumping into her so that she then bumped into Lorna.

  “Y’all slow down. And get to the common area, stay out of the hallways where people are trying to go about their business,” Lorna yelled at them.

  “You said the market is closing?” she asked as she and Lorna walked down a narrower hallway and then down a couple of steps into the kitchen.

  “Yeah, Jorge said you, him, Maurio and Cree talked about it yesterday morning when you were double-checking the perimeter. You know Cree still thinks someone tampered with the door or was near the entrance.” Lorna was moving toward the stove now, shaking her head as she reached over to take the handle of a pot that had been on a back burner.

  “He’s itching to get outta here, Ravyn. You may have to talk to him,” Lorna was saying.

  She only half heard Lorna’s words as she wondered more on the statement that Cree thought someone had tampered with the door. Hadn’t she just thought someone was in her room? But that was impossible. Nobody knew where they were.

  “And I think maybe he should go up with you every now and then, just so he can get some air and see that the world is still moving, even though we’re down here. He’s so young and missed so much out of life. Not like us, you know. We had longer up there dealing with the bullshit.”

  Lorna touched Ravyn’s shoulder, giving it a gentle shake. “You alright?”

  “Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just think I have some of the remnants of being sick going on. But, I’m fine really,” she said, trying to shake the eerie feeling that she was missing something. “You were talking about Cree and you’re right. I’m concerned about him too. He’s been talking about all of us moving above. Says we’re hiding down here.”

  She recalled that conversation clearly and how she’d only been half listening to him because she’d been hurrying to her room. To do what, she couldn’t remember.

  Lorna shrugged, moving her robust frame through the kitchen as if the place were made specifically for her. It was, actually. Neither Ravyn nor Cree were cooks and with the money she’d been able to collect from the insurance on her building, they’d bought supplies and made camp in one of the abandoned buildings above because they knew the enforcers rarely came into this neighborhood. When they just happened to stumble upon the open manhole one day, it had been Cree’s idea to climb down and investigate. He was always looking for an adventure like the ones he read about in the books in her store.

  The idea to build a living space down there had come almost immediately when they saw all the open space from the old subway station. In those early days focus had only been on their sleeping rooms and a main area, but then they’d met the Megs and more bedrooms were developed. Lorna had designated the kitchen space and made it what it was today—a large room with shelves full of pots, pans, plates and bowls, a food pantry, sinks that were left there from what they presumed may have been a lun
ch room area for the old subway workers.

  “He’s only nineteen,” Lorna said with another shrug. She was running water in the pot now and walking it back to the stove. “Missed a lot of his childhood.”

  “Yeah,” Ravyn said. “After his father died and he went into foster care when he was nine, things started to go downhill for him.”

  “Always been rumors about foster parents being abusive to the kids. Taking in as many as they could just to collect checks from the government and treating those kids like crap in return.”

  Ravyn nodded. She’d heard a lot about the foster system, but living with her father, she’d always thought anything could be better than being General Walsh’s only child. When she met Cree, she realized how wrong she’d been.

  “By the time I caught him sleeping outside my store he was fifteen and barely weighed a hundred pounds. I couldn’t leave him out on the street.”

  “Because you’ve got a good heart,” Lorna said and looked at her with a smile. “That’s obvious by all you’ve built down here.”

  She’d tried, she really had. Her father had always sworn she was nothing and would never be anything, all because she’d been born a girl. His disappointment in her had been embedded from the first day she took breath, because that had also been the last day of her mother’s life. Those thoughts made her feel melancholy on top of the odd sensations she’d been experiencing while standing here talking to Lorna.

  “Yeah. Well, I guess we’ll figure out what to do for him. I mean, I don’t mind him going above with me on shopping trips and things like that. I just worry that one of those enforcers will recognize him and we’ll have trouble getting away if they give chase.”

  “Because of his limp,” Lorna said. “I know. But you won’t be able to hold him down here forever. I learned a long time ago that when people set their minds to doing something, they do it, no matter what.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “That’s true. He tried to talk me out of going for that knife the other night but I was determined—” Ravyn’s words trailed off as the palm of her hand tingled.

  She’d been feeling a little dizzy while talking to Lorna but had thought it would pass as it had when she was in her bedroom. But now she looked down at her hand. It looked normal, but it felt like she was holding something, even though it was empty.

  “What knife?” Lorna asked.

  When Ravyn didn’t immediately respond the woman came closer, taking Ravyn’s outstretched hand in hers. “What’s wrong? You hurt?”

  Ravyn’s head snapped up, her gaze meeting Lorna’s. “No. I don’t think so.”

  Lorna nodded. “Maybe you should go sit down and I’ll bring you some food and coffee. You still look sickly.”

  Ravyn swallowed as her legs began to wobble again. “No. I’m fine. I’m not sick anymore. I was feeling better and I went to see Happy but he said he couldn’t help me. But I don’t know why I went to see him in the first place.”

  “Hmmm, yeah, we’re gonna get some food in you. Probably dehydrated from those days you were sick.”

  Lorna continued to talk as she walked Ravyn into the cafeteria where she slid into one of the chairs behind a table closest to the kitchen door.

  “Sit right here and don’t move. I’ll be back with some coffee first and maybe a couple of aspirin. You keep squinting your eyes like you’ve got a headache or something.”

  Ravyn didn’t bother telling Lorna that she didn’t have a headache. She was trying to remember something because there were gaps. From her argument with Cree about going above, to the time at Happy’s and then meeting with the Megs and Cree at the entrance to investigate, there were gaps in those conversations. And the tingling that had started in her hand was now creeping up her arm.

  Something was wrong and there was an urgency to figure out what. She just didn’t know how to do it.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I’m going with you,” Steele said late Saturday morning when he’d joined Magnum and Reese in front of the Office.

  The two were headed to their SUVs, preparing to drive into Burgess to check out the hotel where Steele had been staying.

  “I thought you’d get some rest today,” Magnum told him.

  “No. I’m coming with you,” Steele repeated.

  “You sure about that, man? You’ve, ah, been through something,” Reese said.

  Steele didn’t spare the other Drakon his dark look. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  Magnum came closer, clapping a hand on Steele’s shoulder and speaking in a lowered tone as Reese shrugged and climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV.

  “I really think you should take it easy for a couple days. Let me see what’s going on. I’ll keep you posted.”

  Steele shook his head. “No. This is my case. My dream. I don’t need you to keep cleaning up after me.”

  Magnum released an irritated sigh. “I helped you out last night because I could tell you were struggling. This woman isn’t Opal but I know why you did what you did. It’s cool, I got this. You just go rest.”

  Steele slowly pushed his brother’s hand away from his shoulder. “Nah, man, I got this. You cleaned her mind, so she won’t remember me or the dagger or anything from the past week. So we’re good on that front and I thank you for that. But the rest, I’m going to see this through. Those mummies came for me and I’m going to show them what happens when they come for a Drakon.”

  Steele didn’t wait for Magnum to agree, but walked past him to the next SUV, unlocked the doors and climbed inside. He started the engine with the push of a button and in seconds was backing out of the parking spot. Out of the rearview mirror he saw Magnum finally getting into the passenger seat of the other SUV and Reese pulling out behind him.

  They drove along the highway in the designated lanes like everyone else, leaving the cloaking device to be used only in cases of emergency. Remnants of the hotel weren’t going anywhere. According to the early news broadcast there were fire investigators on the scene, a bomb squad and enforcers guarding the area. Thankfully there’d been no casualties, but there were some injuries, which only added more weight on Steele’s shoulders and more determination on his behalf to get this taken care of.

  When they seemed to be stalled in some traffic, Steele pressed one of the programmed buttons on his dashboard and waited.

  “Good morning, Mr. Eze. How are you today?”

  “I want to know everybody she ever spoke to while at Twilight,” he said, foregoing the greeting.

  “Fine. We’ll get right to work. And I presume I don’t have to ask which ‘she’ you’re referring to?”

  Steele didn’t reply because Isla knew the answer to that question, as well.

  “I’ll go through surveillance cameras positioned outside and in the back alley of the club. As far as inside, I’ll have to depend on some of the club attendees already being in our database of people or others to watch.”

  “I’m sure there’ll be a few. Let me know as soon as you get the info,” he said and was about to disconnect the call when Isla spoke again.

  “Magnum got her home at around two thirty this morning without incident. She hasn’t come up since then. But he placed our cameras all along that alleyway so I can keep an eye on her for you.”

  Steele’s hands clenched the steering wheel and his eyes closed for a few seconds before he managed to grind out one word only. “Thanks.”

  He wasn’t going to ask anyone about her, especially not Magnum, because he’d been certain that when Magnum told him he would take care of Ravyn, that’s precisely what he’d done. Steele hadn’t returned to his private suite until just after dawn this morning because he’d known that she wouldn’t be there.

  It had been for the best. She didn’t need to be at the Office and she definitely didn’t need to learn more about who and what they were. He’d locked the dagger into a
box and shoved it under his bed until he figured out how he was going to get rid of it. The fact that it had appeared in his dream last night and not before, told him it was somehow important to everything that was happening. So, until he had it all figured out, it would stay with him.

  His communicator buzzed with a message from his personal account. He glanced down at it as the traffic had just started moving, so he had to hurry and get his eyes back on the road. But in that quick glance he saw the message was from one of the banks he kept money in, the bank he’d used to transfer the payment for the dagger to Ravyn. With a pinch of contentment he hoped she was able to do all the things she needed to keep Safeside running smoothly. While Steele wasn’t a believer in running or hiding, he figured there was always a reason for everything. He hadn’t learned what Ravyn’s reason was, but he knew that what she was doing was important to her. For him, that was enough.

  A while later Steele pulled into a parking spot a block away from the hotel. He stepped out of the SUV and walked slowly to the corner, waiting for Magnum and Reese to join him.

  “They’ve got the whole street blocked off,” Reese said when he stopped at Steele’s left.

  Magnum came up on his other side. “Enforcers are everywhere. We should have had Theo come with us so he could tell us who’s a human and who’s not.”

  Theo was a Soul Identifier which meant he was able to see through to a person’s soul identity, so if a vampire was—for whatever reason—working as an enforcer, Theo would know.

  Steele shrugged. “There’s other ways of figuring out if there’re preternaturals in the building.”

  “Yeah? How?” Reese asked.

  “First, we’ve got to get into the building,” he said and stepped out into the street.

  He could hear Magnum chuckle behind him and knew that Reese was frowning behind his back. They came to a stop at the row of thick yellow tape that had been wrapped around street poles from one corner to the next. Six enforcer vehicles were double-parked in front of the building, blocking in the vehicle marked “fire marshall” and two more with the fire department logo.