The guy smirked a little, still looking straight ahead of him and not down at me. I could see some day old stubble on his chin. It was an interesting shade of reddish blond that didn’t quite match the hair on his head. “My name’s Brock,” he replied, his deep voice sounding a little gentler, now that he was inside a small space and not in hot pursuit of me. There was nowhere for me to go, and that clearly put him more at ease, even if his grip was still tight on my wrist.
Aww, what a shame, I thought. I’d still been imagining that his name was James or Dean just to make the comparison even funnier for me. I hadn’t even seen a James Dean movie; that was the dumbest part. “Hi Brock,” I said in a stupid, extra chipper sounding voice as if I wasn’t been held against my will. “There are a lot of floors in this… apartment building?”
“Condos,” he corrected gruffly.
“Oh,” I replied. “Garen must be loaded.”
We became silent again, and soon the doors opened. I was glad to be out of that elevator. It’d become stifling, mainly because of awkwardness. Brock clenched my wrist and escorted me down the hallway. The carpet was red with little orange lines cutting into it, making diamond shapes. The walls were this yellowish white that made me think the designers had been going for gold but couldn’t find the right color of paint for some reason. It was garish, but in a sophisticated enough way. I didn’t imagine that the leader of a dragon shifter gang would be anything other than wealthy and powerful.
We stopped at one of the red doors in the hall. There was a gold 688 on it, above the peep-hole and the gold knocker. There was also an emergency exit a few doors down. Brock must’ve noticed that I saw this, because he smirked again. “Don’t start getting any ideas,” he muttered, knocking on the door. “You try to run, you’ll regret it.”
Another leather-clad guy opened the door. His jacket was a bluish gray, and his eyes matched. He also had sandy hair, a few shades lighter than Brock’s. “Is this her?” he asked, gesturing a finger without looking at me.
Brock nodded his head, and then this new guy looked at me, right into my eyes. I wished that he wouldn’t. His eyes were icy fire, piercing and judgmental. He’d heard about me by now. I had a feeling that all of the dragon shifters in this gang had heard about me by now. News traveled fast in the gangs. This was why I’d always done my best to stay away from them.
God, I thought. What do they want with me?!
The two gang members led me into the condominium. The interior was surprisingly stark white and clean. It didn’t look like it was lived in very much. Maybe they made sure to clean it for me, because I mattered so much to them for some unknown reason. I was getting more and more annoyed as the moments passed with them, and they still didn’t tell me anything. So far, all I knew was some names. Maybe this pristine condo was just a front and they all actually lived in some cave somewhere along Lake Eerie. That made more sense to me than dragons living in a pricey condo.
Brock gestured to the white leather couch in the living room, and then the other shifter just pushed me down onto it. Rude asshole, I caught myself thinking, At least Brock’s polite enough, before reminding myself that none of this was polite or nice. I needed to get out of here, preferably before being smoked to death or chewed into tiny pieces. I always heard horror stories about what these dragon gangs did to people. No one exactly knew, of course, because the only people who experienced it first-hand were obviously dead. Sure, dragon shifters could rough a person up on the street, but that was more like normal gang activity. They never killed while out in public. If they did, the stories would likely be more realistic, and more graphic.
Brock stayed there in the room with me while the other shifter went off down the condo’s long, white-carpeted hallway, knocking on the white door at the end of the hall. Then he went inside, which was extra ominous to me, because it meant that he was meeting with their leader before he bothered to come out and actually meet me. They’re probably discussing the different ways they can cook me, I thought, starting to let pity creep into my consciousness. There was a clear escape just down the hall outside, but I’d have to escape in order to make it to the escape. This sucked.
I could see the afternoon slipping into evening outside the condo’s large, uncovered windows. Apparently nothing went on in this place that they felt that they needed to hide, though they were so fucking high up that it wouldn’t be easy to peek in on their activities. The buildings next to this one weren’t as tall. A passing helicopter might be my only hope of salvation, if I couldn’t make a break for it on my own. Finally, before my fear turned into insanity, the door opened again and the blue-gray dragon shifter re-appeared, followed by an extremely tall man with black, gelled-up hair and glowing green eyes.
Like the others, he was pale and not quite human-looking. He didn’t wear a leather jacket, but instead wore a nice, black suit, which again said that he had a lot of money. His dress shirt was crisp and white, and he wore a long green necktie that matched his eyes, no doubt on purpose. He could’ve easily been a businessman.
But he was a mob boss, essentially. And I had to remember that. I wasn’t safe with Brock and his ilk, and I was even less safe with this guy.
He smiled and clapped his hands together for a moment. His smile was more like a sneer. Even in his human form, his fangs showed. “Very nice,” he said as he looked at me. Well, actually, his eyes were focused solely on my birthmark for the moment. “Well done, boys. You’ve found her.”
Shifting his eyes from my arm, he looked into my own dark brown eyes. I wondered what it was that he saw there. Hopefully he saw hate and anger, not the confusion and terror that I mostly felt now.
“Hey, and she’s pretty,” he added as if my appearance was an afterthought to him. All that seemed to matter to these monsters was that I had a birthmark. I despised this Garen and I hadn’t even said anything to him yet.
“She’s the one,” he said with mounting enthusiasm, his voice booming and echoing around the large, sparsely decorated room. “She’s the one who’s going to change everything and save us all!” He looked to Brock and the other guy. “Prepare her for the bedding,” he told them, still grinning his half-crazed, half-fanged grin. With that, he left the living room. In fact, he left the condo altogether.
“What the fuck?!” I demanded, finally finding my voice again. “What is that supposed to mean? What’s going on? Let me go! I don’t have anything to do with whatever sadistic ritual you’ve got planned here.”
I tried to fight Brock’s vice-like hold on me, but it was no use. I was going into that bedroom whether I liked it or not.
Except I had one thing that these dickheads hadn’t planned on.
I pulled a ballpoint pen out of my pocket and jabbed it as deeply as I could into Brock’s hand. Not expecting that, the big dummy yelped in pain and let go of my wrist so he could grab onto his wounded hand. Now I had my chance! Distracted by Brock’s pained shout, the other shifter missed me as I ran past him and out the front door of the condo.
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A Pet For The Commander: The Complete Series Page 29