For once, Kristen didn’t feel bad about leaving early. Stonequest had given her nothing to do—no paperwork, no leads to follow up on, and nothing to occupy her. Presumably, he was concerned that she would continue to push her hypothesis that a human might be behind all this. Of course, he was right.
She left the Capital Square Building via the rooftop, soared over downtown Detroit, and landed a few blocks away from her old station. Although she wanted to rush in, she didn’t. Captain Hansen wouldn’t appreciate her being there on something besides official business, so she would wait until the captain left. She passed the time by watching birds on the Detroit River. It was a simple pleasure to focus on the pair of eagles that lived on Belle Isle as they hunted for fish, but it got her mind off what was at stake. After a while, though, she noticed that eagles soared in much the same way as dragons. That made people the fish, a thought that effectively curtailed her enjoyment.
Impatiently, she shook her head to clear away the thought and went into the station. It was fairly late—a little after five—and when she entered, she found that her old team had already gone. She could have pulled some strings—she was a world-famous dragon after all—but she felt guilty about it, so she didn’t. Instead, she peeked quickly into the breakroom, telling herself she was looking for someone but in reality, looking for a donut. It was fortuitous, as her gaze immediately settled on Jim Washington.
He had a laptop on a table and a cup of black coffee on the table beside him. No donuts, of course. He valued his fitness far too much.
“Oh, well, if it isn’t my favorite dragon,” he said and stood when he saw her enter the breakroom. They hugged and she sat at the table with him.
“I thought you hated dragons,” she teased.
“Oh, I most certainly do, but I can make an exception for you as long as you’re not here to stir up more trouble.” He smiled a winning smile. Everyone called him the Wonderkid and she could see why. He had a great smile and was always polite and professional. He was fit, good at his job, and didn’t seem to have any skeletons in his closet save his dislike of dragons, and that wasn’t exactly unusual for people.
She smiled weakly in reply and his expression sobered.
“What is it? Are you already hunting another dragon? We just caught Obscura.”
“No, not a dragon—at least, I don’t think so. I want you to run some prints.” Kristen unfurled the scroll to show him the hundred-plus fingerprints.
The Wonderkid whistled in appreciation. “That’s quite the…uh, document you have there. What happened to the equipment at the Dragon SWAT HQ? Have you already fed them the Dead Sea scrolls or something so they’re all busy?”
“Something like that.”
Jim raised an eyebrow “Seriously, why can’t you do this at Dragon SWAT? They have money. I’m sure they can afford a fingerprint system.”
She sighed. While she hadn’t really wanted to get into it, she also wouldn’t hide anything from him. That simply wasn’t who she was. “Dragon SWAT has a fingerprint system, but, um…I don’t.”
“So, this is rogue work? Do you wanna tell me what’s going on?” he asked.
“I’m worried that that human woman is still out there hunting dragons. Another one has been killed and Stonequest refuses to admit that people could have done it.”
“That seems a little narrow-minded,” Jim agreed.
“I thought so too and I told him as much, and that’s when— Okay, Jim, I know you don’t like dragons, so try not to get too fired up about this, all right?”
“All right…” he said slowly.
“Stonequest thinks that if it becomes public knowledge that a human is killing dragons, the Dragon Council will start a war with humanity. Only he didn’t call it a war. More of an extermination or ‘culling.’”
“Culling? Like you would a herd of sheep? How many people are they talking about murdering?” His voice was hard now. He’d seen dragons in war, something people weren’t supposed to do. No one knew better than Jim Washington how bad that would be.
“Four billion people,” she said. “Half the world’s population.”
For a moment, the two of them sat in silence and let the weight of that sink in. It was a terrifying thought, beyond any horror either of them could imagine. She knew that, and she would have a better chance of survival than any human being would.
“Well, you know I don’t like dragons, present company excluded, but I sure don’t want that to happen,” he said finally. “How can I help stop it?”
“Running these fingerprints is a start. Stonequest seems to think that if it gets out that humans are behind this, it’ll set a war in motion. My view is that we can’t let the killer go free. Every dragon killed by a gunshot is merely more fuel on the fire. We have to stop whoever’s doing this, and we have to do it quietly.”
“So you want to catch them and not tell Dragon SWAT?” The Wonderkid didn’t exactly sound eager about that idea.
“No—or at least, I don’t think so—but honestly, I’m not sure. I hope that if I can find something, Stonequest will come on board. He seems to think everything would be all right if a dragon is leading these people, so maybe we can find one.”
“You mean…like frame someone?”
Kristen threw up her hands in frustration. “I don’t know, Jim. I really don’t. All I know is that if we do nothing, more dragons will die, and if the Dragon Council discovers the truth, the whole world is apparently fucked. I hope I can catch these people and…I don’t know, give them a trial in a human court, maybe? Perhaps we could show that humans and dragons are working together or something. If we show dragons that human laws are trying to protect them, they’ll do the same for us.”
“It sounds like a stretch.”
“I know, but I have no other ideas.”
Jim nodded and looked none too pleased, but he stood quickly. “Grab a donut and let’s run these prints.”
She nodded and followed him, thankful to have a friend who was willing to help her, even if meant staying later at work. Although maybe staying late was a silly concern. After all, she had just told him half of the world’s population was at risk of being incinerated by dragons. For him, that was basically his worst fear come to life.
Kristen followed him to the machine they used for running prints and he got to work.
Much to her surprise, it didn’t take long to get a match. She’d assumed that the people the dragon brought into its lair would have been people who existed on the fringes of society—dropouts or those who didn’t want to participate with human culture. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first match they had was for the mayor of Detroit. She supposed that made sense. Most of the people in public office had been fingerprinted, and the mayor visiting an important dragon wasn’t unusual. A few more matches indicated a couple of state representatives and city council members for both Detroit and other cities as well as the governor and a senator. She shook her head. This dragon had been connected. There was no doubt about that. More matches came up, these for people with tattooed faces and hands. Mages, she realized. She had never apprehended a mage, so she was a little confused as to how they’d been added to the database.
“Do you think the dragons make their servants get printed?” Jim asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ll have to ask about it later, but it makes sense.” She didn’t want to say that people often put tracking chips in their animals. Dragons probably thought of humans the same way.
For a while, they let the software run its process and it constantly highlighted matches. This was going way better than she had expected, but at the same time, it was almost an overwhelming amount of evidence and hadn’t really narrowed her search down. Plus, if it somehow turned out that the senator had killed the dragon, shit would get real bad, real fast.
Jim seemed to have the same thought. “So, do you have a plan, Steel Dragon? Are you gonna start busting doors down, starting with the mayor? Because I go
tta say, that’s probably gonna start a shitstorm. It’ll only validate the idea that dragons can act with impunity and honestly, I don’t think most people would be okay with that.”
Kristen nodded. Truly, dragons already could more or less act with impunity, but there were limits. She dearly hoped that one of these political leaders hadn’t done this. “I don’t think politicians would hurt this guy. They’re obviously after reelection money or influence or whatever. Shooting him in cold blood doesn’t seem like the action they’d take.”
“You’re sure he was shot, then?” he asked.
She raised an eyebrow. “Officially? I guess not, but I’ve seen the aftermath of a fight between two dragons, and this wasn’t it.”
“How do you mean?”
“That place was basically spotless. Maybe there was some scuffling, but nothing was broken and nothing knocked over. If two dragons actually battled? Well, you’ve seen what that looks like.”
“A mess, yeah,” he agreed.
As they talked, the machine chewed through more prints. It picked up a few people who had records of employment with Titus. It seemed dragons often had their servants fingerprinted, so a fair number showed up that were supposed to be there. It didn’t exactly exonerate anyone, but it didn’t point to foul play either. With everything that had happened in the dragon world lately—and with much of it seeming to revolve around this growing tension between humans and dragons—she doubted that this death was caused by a disgruntled servant. Plus, that wouldn’t explain how they got a gun with dragon bullets.
The machine beeped and Jim paused it. “That’s funny,” he said.
“What is?”
“We have a match but no face.”
“How is that possible?”
“They were found in Windfire’s mansion. We never put a match to them, though. Whoever they are, they’ve been careful to avoid being printed.”
“They were in that house, though.” Kristen nodded. It was as she feared—worse than she feared. She sighed. How badly she’d wanted to be wrong. But now, seeing a match to the site of another break-in at another dead dragon’s home, she felt sure she knew what they were dealing with.
The team of mages who had killed Windfire, shot Death, and tried to rob a convoy of trucks despite it being guarded by multiple dragons was back.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Although it was late, Kristen had to call Stonequest. It wasn’t a hard lead and yet, she knew in her gut that she’d broken the case wide open. She had to tell the rest of Dragon SWAT as soon as possible so the investigation could begin in earnest. After her earlier discussion with Stonequest, she understood where he was coming from now. He didn’t want to ignite a war between humans and dragons. She didn’t want that either, but it seemed like stopping a team of humans from killing dragons in their own homes would be essential if they really didn’t want to let the world descend into the chaos of war.
He answered before the phone had even finished ringing for the first time. “Kristen. Where are you?”
“I had a meeting with Washington. Are you still at the office?”
“You were off with humans? It figures,” he grumbled. “Yes, I’m at the office. Can you come in?”
“Sure, I was actually going to—wait, why do you ask?”
“It’s about the case. Come straight here, okay?”
“Yes, sir.” She hung up and transformed into her dragon body, took to the sky, and hurried to Dragon SWAT headquarters. While she flew, her mind raced. Maybe Stonequest had come across a similar piece of evidence. After all, they had a machine that could run prints too. Maybe he’d realized what they were up against and that they would have to work quickly and carefully if they wanted to stop this woman and the people behind her before this all blew up in their face and more dragons were hurt.
She landed on the roof of the Capital Square Building and turned into her regular human form. When she reached the stairs, Emerald waited there for her.
“John, hey! What are you still doing here? It’s kind of late.”
“I could ask you the same thing, and you know I don’t like it when you use my human name.”
“Sure, sorry. I didn’t see anyone else around.”
“Uh-huh.” He turned and led Kristen down to the sixth floor and toward Stonequest’s office.
“I have a big clue to this case. I think it might be humans again.”
Emerald shook his head. “You know, I have trouble believing this shit right now.”
“What do you mean, believing it?” she demanded, surprised at her outburst. “You were there when those people on motorcycles attacked us. You were there when they shot Heartsbane. I know it’s an uncomfortable thought, but we have to face the idea that humans might be behind this.”
“Yeah, or dragons raised by humans,” he grumbled.
“Excuse me?” she said and tried to plant her feet but was pulled forward by her companion.
He threw an arm around her shoulder. It was not a new gesture from him. He could be fairly chummy, especially after a workout, but this seemed more aggressive than before. He kept her moving toward Stonequest’s office as he talked. “All I really remember about that escort mission was that you were the only one who wasn’t shot at. You chased those guys off and they happened to get away.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” She was incredulous but he didn’t slow so she simply shook her head and kept walking. Stonequest should have let others into the investigation sooner. If he had, she wouldn’t have to deal with whatever brand of paranoia Emerald currently displayed.
As they walked down the hall, two dragons came out of their office and fell into step behind them. At first, she tried to pull aside so they could pass, but when Emerald didn’t move with her or even acknowledge the others, she sensed that something was wrong.
When two more dragons came out and followed them the rest of the way to Stonequest’s office, she realized she’d made a mistake. She should have paid more attention to Emerald’s aura. When she read it now he was angry, raw with betrayal. She couldn’t read more than that, but with the four dragons following her, she sensed that investigating humans really had pissed off the dragons at Dragon SWAT.
The other four had almost unreadable auras. That didn’t mean they didn’t feel anything, only that they didn’t want the Steel Dragon to notice anything about them. Kristen took a deep breath and tried to calm her aura. She wasn’t as adept at controlling it as these dragons all were, but she could at the very least make sure it didn’t ratchet up into anxiety. It wasn’t an easy task but she managed until Emerald steered her into Stonequest’s office.
Inside, her boss sat at his desk, his expression cold. In contrast to his marble-like presence, Heartsbane paced in the tiny space and did little to hide the tempest of fury that radiated from her. No, that wasn’t right. If Heartsbane was mad, her aura was powerful enough to let everyone for miles around feel it, but she hadn’t felt a thing until this moment. That meant she wanted her to know she was pissed. Lumos sat in one of the other chairs in the room, his eyes weepy and his smile barely holding together. He looked like a parent who had cried on the drive to pick their child up from school and now held it together by sheer force of will. She couldn’t feel his aura, not with Heartsbane’s pounding at her skull.
“Lady Steel,” Stonequest said and sounded quite formal. “Where were you?”
“Stonequest,” she replied and tried to match his formality. “I got a match on the prints.” Kristen looked around at the dragons who now crowded the room. She didn’t know who the other four were. While she’d seen them around, she hadn’t really met them. She assumed they were part of this investigation, which meant they had a right to know what she had discovered. “I had Washington run prints and we had a match. Someone at the mansion was also at Windfire’s mansion. It had to be the human assassin I fought—the mage. She said her name was Constance. We don’t have her whereabouts yet, but I’m sure we can track her down
and maybe find out if she’s working with a dragon.”
She didn’t believe that the assassin was working with a dragon. The zealous mage had killed Windfire even after he’d helped them, so she obviously didn’t have any loyalty to dragon kind. Still, with these other dragons around, it might be better to present that option to Stonequest. The facts would be the facts, regardless of the assumptions they started with.
“Damn it, Kristen, can’t you let that go?” he demanded and sounded surprisingly upset.
“Look, I followed the evidence. That’s what we’re supposed to do,” she retorted.
“We followed the evidence too,” one of the dragons she didn’t know said from the back of the cramped office.
“My terms, Icerain, my terms,” Stonequest said and she felt a flash of frustration from Icerain. But there was more than frustration. There was also...excitement?
“Kristen Hall—Lady Steel—we ran the DNA results and have found a probable match. It’s essentially a sure thing.” Her boss’ formal tone had returned.
“Really?” She was shocked, but maybe this explained why everyone was in such a dour mood. A dragon killing other dragons couldn’t feel good. “Who?”
“You,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” She felt fury rise inside her like bile. Her skin turned to steel, out of her control already.
“Can you account for your whereabouts last night?” he continued.
“I…not really, no. I was in my apartment. Alone. I…uh, I didn’t even order delivery.”
Lumos stood. “That’s a horrible alibi, Kristen,” he said, then—strangely—embraced her in a hug.
She hugged him in return, still unsure of why he was crying, but when she tried to pull away, she couldn’t. He’d handcuffed her to him.
Immediately, her steel skin returned to normal. Her sense of the other dragons’ auras vanished. Her augmented strength and speed—always on reserve, always ready to be tapped—faded to nothing. For the first time in what felt like a long time—longer than Kristen had known she was a dragon, in fact—she felt weak. She didn’t know if it was the lack of the power she’d grown accustomed to or the fact that she was handcuffed and stripped of her abilities by her friends.
The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2) Page 42