Cash (Dragon Hearbeats Book 3)

by Ava Benton

  “See what happens to the blood when I add this?” I

  leaned forward again, looking into the lens of the microscope as Carissa added a single drop of the solution she’d been working on for two days straight.

  Before my very eyes, some barely-visible substance leeched from the blood cells and clung to that drop of solution. The solution absorbed it and almost seemed to erase it from the slide.

  I couldn’t help grinning like a maniac. I had seen a lot of magic over the course of my life. I was born into it. Fairies and trolls and, of course, dragons—not to mention much more than that. I’d considered myself jaded until that moment in front of the microscope. There was more magic in the world than I’d been aware of, and she was the magician.

  “How did you do it?” I marveled, staring as she repeated the process with another slide.

  “I located the compound in your blood which reacts to iron by adding an iron-based solution and watching the reaction. It was just a matter of coming up with something to draw that compound out.”

  “Just a matter of that. You act like it was nothing at all.” I leaned back, smiling at her. “You’re a genius, that’s what you are.”

  She blushed, turning away. There was no mistaking how much healthier she looked after two days. Granted, she’d been working like the devil, nearly around the clock, but she’d been eating and drinking liquids other than coffee. And it worked for her.

  Hope went a long way as well. She had hope. We were closer than ever to an antidote and to getting Tommy back. She’d told me all about him as she worked—once she’d started talking, the words had flooded out. How she’d come to take care of him, how he’d turned her world upside down. Having to go from being a workaholic to a makeshift mother overnight. How smart he was, how kind, how insightful. How she feared he thought she didn’t want him, especially after the shoddy way his mother had treated him once drugs took hold of her.

  “I don’t blame Chrissie,” she’d revealed at one point. “I don’t blame anybody for getting hooked. I’m sure everybody has a story. None of them go unto using drugs with the intention of losing their souls. I know my sister didn’t. She was an artist. She went to art school, while I studied chemistry. She drew so well, her pieces looked like photos. It was uncanny. She painted, too, and took photos. She had an eye. She saw the world like nobody else could. And now, all that talent…”

  Her eyes had darkened then. Her mouth curved down in a frown. I could sense the depth of love she felt for her sister, still felt in spite of the way things had turned out. “

  Anyway, she gave me Tommy,” she’d finished with a shadow of a smile. “He saved me. The least I can do is save him back.”

  That was likely the moment I fell in love with her, when she said that.

  Knowing what a genius she was sent me even further down the rabbit hole until there was no going back.

  “What do we do now?” I asked, suddenly energized in spite of the long hours I’d spent watching her work. I wouldn’t leave her alone, just in case somebody decided to call and terrorize her again.

  “I make a whole lot of this,” she said, stretching, grinning. “Like, a whole lot. I have the formula recorded, of course. And we do have to test it. But I’m almost sure it’ll work.”

  “When can we test?”

  “Whenever you want. Now, in fact. I’ll make up the injection, and we’ll go from there.”

  I shooed her away to indicate that yes, I wanted her to do it. Even if it meant we wouldn’t strictly have a reason to be together anymore. But we could work that out.

  Just as we’d work out the situation with the assholes who were holding Tommy hostage. They had another thing coming if they thought they could get away with it.

  It was Harrison all along.

  Mary’s men had confirmed it after only a half-hour’s questioning—another word for torture, of course, but Mary chose to sugarcoat what had taken place. Probably for Carissa’s sake. He’d given away their location, their history, the entire story. Low life scum.

  “He always pretended to be a father figure,” she murmured as she created the solution.

  “Hmm?”

  “Harrison.”

  As if she’d been reading my mind. Perhaps she had. There was an undeniable shorthand between us already, where one could merely indicate what they needed and the other picked up without another word. She could reach for something without looking, and I would hand it over without asking. The dutiful lab assistant.

  “People like him like to pretend,” I mused. “I wouldn’t know for certain, from experience, but he seems to be the type.”

  “He’s most certainly the type.” She glanced up at me. “You do that a lot.”

  “Do what?”

  “You talk about things, and you say you haven’t had much real-life experience. I know you weren’t born yesterday. In fact, judging from the way your blood never seems to age, I would bet you were born a very long time ago. What gives?”

  “Och, lass, I can’t tell you that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s a secret.”

  She smiled for a second—but when she saw that I wasn’t joking, the smile dissolved. “I see.”

  “No, you don’t. Not really. There are secrets like the one you were keeping, and there are secrets like the one I’m forced to keep. I want to tell you, like you wanted to tell me. And if this antidote works, you’ll know what one of them is. But there are many more.”

  She looked unhappy, and neither I nor the dragon wanted that.

  So, I made a compromise with myself. “I’m very old. I’ve lived away from most of the world for my entire life. My experience comes from media, television, movies. Things such as that.”

  “I see.”

  Only she didn’t, and she knew it. I let it go for the sake of letting her get back to work. I had other things to concern myself with, besides. Such as what we were going to do once the antidote proved successful.

  There was a plan forming in my mind, one which we’d already taken steps toward putting in motion.

  17

  Cash

  “Ready?”

  I nodded.

  “You’re sure you can’t wear clothing while you do this?”

  “It would only mean wasting my clothing,” I reminded her. She nodded, eyes never leaving my face. She didn’t dare let her gaze travel lower than my chin and hadn’t since I’d stripped down. I stood at the head of the room, with plenty of space all around me.

  “You think this will work?” I asked.

  “I do. And so do you.”

  “You’re right,” I grinned. She smiled back, but there was an edge to it. She was nervous. Maybe not as sure of herself as she pretended to be. Or maybe afraid of what it would mean if I couldn’t shift with the shackles around my wrists. More work, more sleepless nights, more time without Tommy.

  Her contact would be calling again that night, or they’d promised to. She needed to have good news for them in order for our plan to go off well.

  “All right. Here goes nothing.” I closed my eyes with an unspoken prayer in my heart. I was never a praying man, not ever. I didn’t believe in a higher power when I had seen so much of what men were able to do to one another.

  What benevolent higher power would allow men to do that to each other? Even so, if there was one out there, up there, wherever, I needed their held more than I ever had.

  It started. The dragon nearly screamed in approval—it had been so long since I’d allowed him his freedom. Like a long-caged animal, yearning to be free and finally getting its way. I felt myself expand, unfold, widen and heighten and lose the clarity of one consciousness while gaining another.

  My senses sharpened. I felt free again.

  I opened my eyes to find her staring up at me in abject horror. I should’ve told her.

  “You’re a dragon?” she whispered, backing away from me until she stumbled over the stool and went sprawling.

  I
groaned in response. This was supposed to be happy. I was happy—my conscious mind was, anyway. I still wore the iron shackles but was in my full dragon form, towering over her until the top of my head brushed the ceiling. And all she saw was a monster.

  I bent down until my head was nearly level with hers. She looked me in the eye, breathing deeply. Almost panting for air.

  “I’m sorry,” she breathed, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t react this way. It’s childish. I just never expected…”

  I nodded slowly, deliberately.

  She smiled. “You should’ve told me.”

  I nodded again. Yes, I should have. I was a louse for not having warned her. There was no going back once she knew who I was.

  Carissa reached out with a trembling hand which she ran over my snout.

  “Wow. I never knew there was anything as beautiful as you, anywhere in the world. Just when I thought I had seen it all. I didn’t think there were things that couldn’t be explained by science. Now… I guess I know differently.”

  I took a step back, just for the sake of being sure she was safe, and broke the chain holding the shackles together. She let out a gasp of laughter, hands over her mouth.

  If she thought that was impressive, she’d just about drop dead of surprise when she saw everything I was capable of. She nearly glowed with pride and relief and awe.

  We had awed each other that evening. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she took in everything before her.

  She had no idea how close she was to my shifting and her being thrown to the floor and ravished. With the dragon at the front, there was almost nothing I could do to keep myself away from her. He had been denied what he wanted for far too long. The scent of her was stronger than ever in my dragon form, and her entire body seemed to call to me. It would be so easy to reach out and take her for my own.

  A moment later, I was back in my human form.

  “You weren’t able to maintain the shift?” she asked, too dismayed to even worry about where she was looking.

  “No. I only shifted back, is all. There’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, and I can’t do it while I’m towering above you that way.”

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  I reached for her without asking permission, crushed her against my chest and covered her mouth with mine. Instead of pushing me away or even letting out a surprised sound, she threw her arms around my neck and held me just as tight.

  There was no denying my need for her, naked and erect as I was at the touch of her lips, my need pressing against her clothed body. I wouldn’t force her. I didn’t even want her until there was nothing standing between us. I wanted all of her, no reservations, no fear or worry for Tommy. I deserved that. So did she.

  Instead, I thrust my tongue into her mouth as I would’ve thrust my cock into her wet heat and thrilled at the way she writhed in pleasure.

  There was a depth of passion to her that I hadn’t guessed at. A well of it. No one had tapped it yet. I was sure of that. Like she was waiting for me without knowing I existed. Her fingers tangled in my hair and she pressed her breasts against my chest, sighing into my mouth as our tongues brushed together, sending chills through my body.

  “Carissa…” I breathed, running my mouth down her throat.

  “Yes, Cash. Yes.”

  “When this is over…”

  “I know. I know.” She pulled my head up by my hair and kissed me harder than ever. It was almost easy to forget what we had to do.

  When the phone rang, we both snapped back to reality.

  She leaned against me for a moment, eyes closed, before going to answer the call. “It’s them,” she whispered, still breathless.

  “Get a hold of yourself.”

  “Easy for you to say.” She put her hand to her temple and cleared her throat before answering. “Yes?”

  Just like that, she was all business and full of hatred. I stood at her side, listening hard.

  “How’s your work coming along, Aunt Cari?”

  “Very well. I’ve found the solution to the problem and my work is all but complete.”

  “You have what we need?”

  “Yes. Over fifty tubes.” She winced, eyes closing

  “That will have to do.”

  “It will, especially since I’ve injected the formula already and anything I give you from now on will be compromised.”

  “We’re aware of this.”

  Oh, were they? They seemed to know a lot. But they would, wouldn’t they? They had all the information they needed.

  “How’s my nephew?”

  “He’s fine. He’ll continue to be fine as long as you keep things between us. Meaning no police or other outside interference.”

  “Understood. Where can I drop off the blood?”

  “So soon, Aunt Cari?”

  “Immediately.”

  Our eyes met.

  I nodded.

  “Do you have a pen?”

  18

  Cash

  “Are you all right back there?”

  “Just fine. Stop speaking to me, already. Somebody might see you.”

  “Sorry.”

  She drove us through the woods, between tall, mighty trees which had likely stood for hundreds of years.

  I looked up at them from where I crouched behind her, under a blanket. I’d wanted to fly there, but I didn’t want to run the risk of any lookouts seeing me as I landed on the property. Better to arrive as a human and make my shift after finding the boy. No telling how he’d react to the presence of a dragon outside his window.

  “I can see the house now,” she murmured.

  “Armed guards?”

  “I don’t see any. I don’t think they operate like that, I really don’t.”

  “Even so, let’s not underestimate them.”

  “Right.” She sounded determined, stronger than I had heard her sound yet.

  It was well after midnight, but she hadn’t wanted to wait another day before going after Tommy. I couldn’t blame her.

  “I don’t like the idea of you going in there on your own,” I muttered.

  “I’ll be fine,” she breathed. “So long as you come for me in time, before anything happens.”

  “I will. I swear it. You have the blood?”

  “Right beside me.”

  “Good. Let me out before you reach the gates, and I’ll make my way around the back.”

  “All right.” She slowed down just enough to let me out, not even coming to a stop.

  We had gone over the plan so many times, I didn’t feel the need to go over it with her once more. We were running out of time before I could feasibly get them both out of there under the cover of darkness.

  I crouched as I ran through the trees, the house in my sites all the while. More like a mansion, with a brick wall running around its perimeter. The home of a greedy, old industrialist who had gotten involved with the wrong people and wound up funding their illegal activities—activities which centered around creating a drug which would allow immortality.

  This was all according to Harrison, who was one of them himself. The lying fool. He had no idea how they’d used him, I was sure. Why wouldn’t they want to have a man like him on the team, someone with access to a laboratory? He could lead legitimate research teams, funded by the money of a dying old man who was so desperate to cheat death, he’d ended up selling his soul. There was so much more to the world than even I was aware of.

  They knew the power of dragon’s blood, which led me to wonder how. Most people didn’t believe we existed. What gave them this understanding? If all went as planned, I wouldn’t have the time to find out. The clock was ticking already as I climbed the wall and fell to the ground on the other side.

  There was nothing to do but look for the child. He’d likely be asleep by that time of night, with the lights out. That ruled out several lit rooms.

  I ran around to the back of the house, with its ivy-covered brick walls and overgrown hedges. Nobo
dy had given the property the attention it deserved in years. I leaped over one of those hedges and scaled the back wall, climbing high above a long-empty swimming pool and weed-strewn tennis court. The place must have been grand in its day. I tested the first window I came to and found it unlocked. Here’s hoping there’s no alarm system in place, I thought as I raised it.

  No alarm met my ears. A relief. I climbed into what was obviously a bedroom, and obviously long unused. It reeked of mothballs and rodent excrement—my heightened senses picked up on everything. I tuned my ears to the sound of breathing. I had to find him, quickly, and get him to trust me. If he raised a fuss, we’d be sunk before we started.

  I hurried to the door and opened it just a crack. It only squeaked softly, the sound a mouse would make. And plenty of mice evidently did make that sound in and around the house. I could just imagine Tommy sleeping while mice ran circles around his bed.

  The hall was dark. It ran in a U-shape, and I was in the center of it. The grand foyer was open, with brass-trimmed wrought iron railings running down the lengths of the three halls which overlooked it.

  I heard Carissa’s voice—loud, strong, unapologetic. My chest swelled with pride.

  Would Tommy hear her, too?

  I dashed to the left, close to the wall, listening hard at every closed door. Nothing. So much silence. I wondered where the old man slept and whether he was even alive at that point. Perhaps the group had only been using his money in his name while he’d long since gone to his great reward—or, more likely, to whatever damnation awaited a man who’d made his fortune on the backs of others.

  Light breathing. Feather-light. It came from the room at the furthest end of the hall. The window probably overlooked the front of the property. It was the only sound I’d heard coming from any of the bedrooms up to that point. It was worth a try.

  The door was locked, but that was no matter. I turned the old, cut-glass knob until the lock broke—the noise was just loud enough to arouse whoever was inside, as I heard their breathing go from the soft, even pace of sleep to a much more hurried pace.