The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “Oh yeah? Do you have suspects in mind?”

  “Too many.” He sighed. “We’ve put many people away over the years and some folks might want a piece of us. Considering the technical expertise needed to make a bomb and deliver a gas attack, not to mention the precision sniper, I’d say it’s not necessarily a dragon. Plus, no one targeted Kristen.”

  “Yeah, because I was out of town until late yesterday,” she objected.

  “And that means this is all about you?” he asked, although he didn’t sound incredulous, only curious.

  “Well…that’s my thought at the moment,” she responded.

  “I can’t honestly say I disagree.” He nodded. “The ‘playful’ nature of these fake attacks is weird. It doesn’t seem like a common criminal to me, and you being out of town over this time is curious.”

  Kristen’s phone buzzed in her pocket to indicate that she’d received a text. She took it out, glanced at the screen and frowned when she saw that the caller ID was blocked.

  “Kristen? Is there something more important to your life than your friends being attacked by some weird joker assassin?”

  “Yeah, actually. There is. I think I know who the real target was, and I hate to say I told you so, but…well, whoever this asshole is, they’re after me.”

  “How can you be sure?” Butters asked.

  She held her phone up to show them up and found their expressions of shock appropriate.

  There was no text on the phone and no identifying number, only a photo.

  On her screen was a picture of her brother Brian, asleep and tied to a chair in the middle of a dark room.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Fury filled Kristen and rippled out from her through the assembled police. It was still so hard to control her aura, especially when confronted with yet another psycho trying to use her family against her.

  The cops, all slaves to the emotions she made them feel, took up the sentiment.

  “Enough is enough!”

  “Someone’s gotta show these assholes that enough is enough!”

  “You got our back, Steel Dragon?”

  It was perversely funny that these thoughts should come from people asking her for help when they only felt this way because of her.

  Well, not only because of her. A group of police clustered around Butters, Hernandez, and Keith and listened to their stories of the odd attempts at fake assassination. The cops didn’t care that they all seemed like jokes. They didn’t think it was funny and recognized it as the threat it was, one that included them all.

  Someone was toying with them and trying to show the Detroit PD that they weren’t safe in their homes or at work. That same someone tried to show Kristen that she was outmaneuvered. Not only had they taken her brother from her, but they had undermined the most trusted people on the force. But whoever they were, they’d made a mistake. They’d left her unmolested, which meant she would bring the full power of her dragon abilities against whoever this sociopath was. Once she found them, she’d defeat them as completely as she had Shadowstorm.

  She had a feeling that this wasn’t a regular human attack either. A human—given these opportunities—would have taken them. This was something else, some kind of power game that she wanted to flip off the table.

  But she had to be cautious. Much as she wanted to light every warehouse in a ten-mile radius on fire, she couldn’t simply rush off and not without support. She’d learned that much at both human and Dragon SWAT. The group was stronger than the individual, even if the individual was a flying, fire-breathing, steel-skinned dragon intent on revenge.

  Her friends already looked at her like they understood this. Drew’s jaw was hard and his face was grim. She could almost see him going through what he would say to the Captain when they all ran off to help her.

  Butters looked more than ready, but this whole thing was already personal to him.

  Beanpole—never one to make waves—looked nervously at her all the same. He’d follow his team, obviously, but was sometimes less than enthusiastic to go against the captain. But three officers’ lives had been threatened. Surely that would be enough to force action.

  Kirsten didn’t have to guess at what Keith or Hernandez wanted to do.

  “My only question is if I should prep a glitter bomb for this asshole.” Hernandez sounded reflective.

  “Yes!” Keith grinned. “And real bombs too, obviously. I want those loud bangy ones so I can throw them around.”

  The Steel Dragon—despite the mounting stress and the terror she felt—smiled at her friends. This was what friendship was supposed to be—people ready to drop what they were doing when someone was in need. And it was obvious that Brian was in need.

  But she was worried about that too. It seemed more and more apparent that whoever had orchestrated all this and kidnapped him had a grudge against her. Nothing else made sense, at this point. Which, to her, meant it was most likely a dragon. After all, it was their centuries-old culture that she’d upset and their world that she’d unwittingly crashed into.

  And much as she wished it wasn’t true, her human friends would need help if they had to face a dragon. They’d beaten Shadowstorm—barely—but she didn’t want to risk their lives again, especially now that she was a member of Dragon SWAT.

  “I’ll talk to Hanson about following some leads and send patrols to the warehouse district looking for leads,” Drew said.

  “What makes you think it was a warehouse?” Butters asked.

  “There weren’t any walls or anything in that photo,” Drew replied and looked pensive. “Only Brian, a naked bulb, and a concrete floor. That would be a fairly large room to have in any building except for a warehouse.”

  “It still seems like a stretch,” the sniper replied.

  The team leader nodded. “I know, but where else do we start? Do you have any ideas, Hall?”

  Kristen loved that Drew still called her Hall like she was any other cop. “Yeah, I do. I’m calling in reinforcements.”

  She retrieved her phone and made a video call to Stonequest.

  He picked up after only one ring and listened as she explained the events of the last twenty-four hours.

  “I’m so sorry this is happening to you and your friends,” he said once she had explained the three weird attempts plus Brian’s kidnapping.

  “Thanks, Stonequest, really. It’s good to know there are dragons out there who care enough about people to do something about it. My hunch is that a dragon’s behind this. I think a human would’ve used the opportunities to hurt my friends. My thought is that we could form a network and use our auras to try to feel out this hidden dragon.”

  “Lady Steel…Kristen, I’m sorry, I really am, but I can’t do that.” He looked like he felt horrible about it, but that was his answer all the same.

  “My brother was kidnapped, Stonequest. Kidnapped! The last time something like this happened, it was Shadowstorm who tried to do it. It’s gotta be a dragon. Who else would try to piss off the Steel Dragon?”

  “I think you might be right. At the very least, I’ll admit it’s possible but so far…well… These are human crimes. A sniper? A…what did you call it, a glitter bomb? Poison gas in flowers? Those are all things people do. Even kidnapping isn’t something dragons normally resort to. It’s too difficult to control humans. Most dragons simply, uh…” He didn’t say what most dragons did, but she could make the deduction. The fact that Brian hadn’t been swallowed in the photograph meant Stonequest didn’t think it was a dragon.

  “I call bullshit. The only connection between these four people is me. Someone’s trying to send me a message or something. It has to be a dragon.”

  “You might be right, but until you have evidence to prove that, it’s out of our jurisdiction.”

  “People’s lives are at stake. Even if they weren’t my friends, these are cops and a kid in danger here. None of them did anything wrong,” she pleaded.

  “I hear you, really, but th
ere’s precedent. Dragons have been duped into going into action before when it wasn’t our place to do so. We’ve tried to save humans from humans. It causes all kinds of trouble if we guess wrong or if we use our abilities. There was an incident in 1962 with the kidnapping of a pregnant teenage girl. She was a senator’s daughter, so it was a high profile case. Her father said the man who’d impregnated her against her will had asked a dragon advisor to involve SWAT. He did, found the kidnapped girl, and burned her kidnappers to death.”

  “Good!” Kristen fumed, unable to believe that he was quoting old cases to her. “Let’s go burn the kidnappers.”

  “No, Kristen. It turned out the senator had been lying. The teenager hadn’t been kidnapped. Hell, she wasn’t even a teenager. She was twenty-two, which is older than the age of consent for people. She’d run away with the kidnapper. Apparently, she’d hated her daddy’s politics. Dragon SWAT burned a group of hippies to death for no good reason. We can’t let that happen again.”

  She clenched her jaw. “If you expect me to leave Brian on his own, tied to a chair and waiting to be tortured, you have another think coming.”

  “No, no, no! That’s not what I’m saying at all. Brian is yours and that should go without saying. The police—your friends—who were attacked would be considered yours by all but the most conservative of dragons as well. Dragons—private dragons, that is—are allowed to protect their humans. There’s a well-established precedent for that as well. You merely can’t involve Dragon SWAT. If something goes wrong when you attempt to rescue him, the Dragon Council can take action against you. That’s much harder to do when it’s one of their own police forces.”

  Kristen took a deep breath. She was on her own, then. Obviously, she had her human friends, but how useful would they be in hunting a dragon? One gout of flame could incinerate the entire team. For that matter, if they weren’t careful, their very emotions could be turned against themselves. She shook her head and wiped a tear away when she realized she had no idea how she would find Brian, let alone save him.

  “Hey, hey, don’t cry. You’ll rust.”

  She looked up as Lumos shoved his way onto the screen.

  “I’m old enough to recall the time before we had all these rules and to remember some of the oaths dragons once swore to each other. You saved Heartsbane and Emerald, so you’ve earned a place in my book. I’d love to come, uh…what’s the human expression? Ride shotgun on these motherfuckers.”

  Her frown dissolved into a smile and she swiped at another tear. Lumos being there to help would make a significant difference as he was ancient and experienced. Of course, she wasn’t sure yet if the Dragon SWAT leader would let him go.

  “Will that be a problem, Stonequest?” she asked pointedly, knowing full well she was pushing the limits of loyalty.

  “An officer of the Dragon SWAT cannot aid a human in an official capacity,” he replied woodenly.

  She clenched her jaw, unable to believe that he wouldn’t relent,

  “Why are you upset?” Lumos wore a grin on his face. “Oh! I forgot that you can’t feel auras over these things.” He winked at her. “Old by-the-book can’t say a damn thing, but he doesn’t need to. I won’t act in any official capacity. That would besmirch the fine name of Dragon SWAT. I’ll merely come along to help a friend save her humans. That’s happened thousands of times in dragon history. It’s not a big deal, not at all.”

  Stonequest nodded tightly once and she relaxed. At least she had one dragon on board and wouldn’t have to deal with bureaucratic repercussions.

  “I seem to recall that you’d asked for the day off, right Lumos?” the leader said.

  “Sure, yeah. If we gotta keep it that square, put me in for a holiday.” Lumos twirled his mustache. “Where are you Kristen? Human SWAT headquarters? Is that the one near the river?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “I’ll be there as fast as my wings can carry me.”

  “Thank you, Lumos.”

  “Let’s not celebrate prematurely,” he said. “I’ll see you when I see you and we’ll kick some ass.”

  “Thank you,” Stonequest said quietly. “Both of you. As leader of this team of Dragon SWAT, my actions are watched very closely. I can’t act with as much freedom as would often make sense.”

  Kristen nodded. She wasn’t angry at him, more like at the entire system that made him act in this way.

  “Although—” He coughed twice. “I feel a little unwell. I might take a day and fly around. It’s great for the lungs. Maybe I’ll drift around Dearborn. Do you know the area, Kristen?”

  She smiled. “That’s where my parents live.”

  “Ah, yes…they have good air over there. I’ll do a few laps and try to shake this…uh, cold and well, if I see anything happen there, it’s not against any rules for a dragon to land, is it?”

  “Thank you, Stonequest, really.”

  He nodded. “It’s the least I can do—literally the least and legally the most, but I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the rest of your family, especially if you’re right about the involvement of a dragon. And, of course, if you find even a speck of evidence that points to a dragon—if you see a scale, find something burned with dragon’s fire, or hell, if you feel an aura, you call me. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir. Of course, sir.” Kristen wouldn’t try to do something like this solo again. She only hoped she could discover where Brian was sooner rather than later.

  She hung up and looked at her human friends. They’d prepared the SWAT van for action, even though no one knew where the captive was.

  “What’s the plan?” Drew asked.

  “We find who did all this, catch them, save my brother, and make sure they never do this shit again.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Brian woke up seated in a chair. His wrists hurt, and he brought them up to his face so he could see in the dim light. There were marks on them like he’d been tied. That was weird. The last thing he remembered was making first place on the leader boards and then that woman—

  He stood quickly and knocked the chair over when the truth sank in that he had been kidnapped. The dragon had obviously used her aura to make him find her really, really attractive, and then she’d knocked him out. What really pissed him off was that he’d recognized that she did have an aura. If he hadn’t been so tired and, honestly, so desperate for the attention of such a beautiful woman, he might have been able to resist.

  But none of that mattered now. She’d captured him and taken him to…a room with four open doors?

  That was a little weird.

  Nothing else was in the room except for four buttons that protruded slightly from the floor. Each of them glowed white and provided the only illumination in the room. He walked toward one and examined the plastic knob set into the floor. It looked like the kind one would see on an old arcade console, not that Brian had ever played those. Having to leave one’s home for video games was a phenomenon that happened long before his time.

  Although he was tempted to press it to see what would happen, he wasn’t an idiot. The dragon had brought him there and left him unbound in the room. There was a purpose to the buttons, of that he was certain. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of doing her work for her. If she wanted to kill him, she’d have to do it herself.

  “Where am I? Is anyone there?” he called. A hunch told him that although he seemed alone, he wasn’t.

  “I’m here, Brian.” It was the woman’s voice—the dragon’s, he reminded himself. It was easy to think of her as the woman who’d come into his house and pressed against him on the couch, but that was no doubt what she wanted him to think. Dragon, Brian told himself in his head. Dragon, dragon, dragon. Scaly, gross, and probably as old as hell dragon. Your sister’s a dragon, and this one is crazy. You can’t think anything else. “Great. That’s really useful to know. And who the hell are you? Besides a dragon slut, obviously.”

  A tinkle of laughter answered the insult. It came
from a speaker on the ceiling. “I haven’t been called that for centuries. You flatter me.”

  “You want flattery? Tell me where the nearest exit is and I’ll call you all kinds of things.”

  “I must say, I’m disappointed in you. Here you are in this game I built especially for you, and you’re not even curious. I thought you liked games.”

  Ah, so that’s what the buttons were. Okay, at least he was getting somewhere. “I won’t press your stupid fucking buttons, so you might as well bring up the house lights and let me out of here. I quit.”

  “But you made it to number one. You’ve posted interest in virtual reality on message boards. Why not live it? And the prize is…well, I do so want you to win.”

  Brian sighed. His brain seemed to default to game mode. He merely had to determine the goal and the obstacles that prevented him from achieving it. If this was a game, there would be rules, and if there were rules, he could exploit them. “What’s the game?”

  “That’s more like it. I modeled it after a classic. Pac-Man, one of the greats.”

  “Yeah, that’s gonna be a hard pass.” He snorted. “Pac-Man has no real strategy and no subtlety to the rules. Seriously, it was made before I was born. I understand that for a dragon, that’s like cutting edge technology, but man, it’s not for me.”

  More tinkling laughter greeted this statement. “You’re funny, Brian, the way you joke and act like you have a choice. I like confidence in young men. Now, press a button.”

  “Well, I guess you understand video games at least.” He pressed one of the buttons gingerly. When he removed his foot, it had gone dark. The other three were still illuminated. “I did it. Yay!” he said with all the sarcasm he could muster, which, given who his mom was, was considerable. “Now, let me go.”

  “That’s not how you win in Pac-Man, Brian. You must know that.”

  “Can you stop using my fucking name?”

  “Do you prefer I use the name Lancer681?”

  He felt a chill ripple down his spine. “How do you… How do you know that name?” Lancer681 was his gamer profile, but he didn’t tell anyone that name. Not even Kristen knew it.