by Rinelle Grey
That wasn’t her job. She’d already taken things too far. One of her flaws, her trainer had said. Trying to save everyone. Being sure she could. But she couldn’t. And it would drag her under if she tried.
She had a job to do, and that job was to see that the townsfolk could enjoy their carols without hassles.
Hailey hesitated. His mood had changed from aggressive to depressed. He probably wasn’t a problem to the crowd celebrating below, but she couldn’t be certain. “Look, maybe it’s time for you to head home and get some sleep,” she suggested. “Can I give you a ride somewhere?”
“No thanks,” he said, his politeness reminding her of his actions at the canyon more than anything else he’d done tonight. “I’m fine.”
He stared out at the crowd, his expression was more thoughtful now.
Hailey bit back a sigh. “You can’t stay here,” she said firmly. “You’re making all those people uncomfortable. Where do you live? I’ll drive you home.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realised they were probably a mistake. She was pretty sure he wasn’t a local. Owen Thornton hadn’t thought so, and he should know. He had the only place to shop in the town. And she couldn’t leave her station for long enough to drive him to one of the neighbouring towns.
If he’d come all this way, surely he had a car of his own?
But he was shaking his head. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Hailey stared at him. He seemed far too well fed and… well… gorgeous, to be homeless. But his lack of shoes and his wandering around the outback suddenly made a lot more sense.
And it left her with a problem. “What do you mean? Are you homeless?”
He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess so. My family kicked me out and I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
All the pieces clicked into place. His sudden change between yesterday and now, his brief mention of knocking over a Christmas tree and breaking baubles, and his anger at Christmas in general.
“Maybe it’s time to apologise to them,” Hailey suggested softly. “It’s Christmas. That’s a time for forgiveness and for being with your family.”
“That’s not possible.” His voice was hard and certain. “I’m not prepared to forgive them for what they’ve done.”
Hailey revised her thoughts yet again. She’d assumed he’d been the one doing something that needed forgiving.
It wasn’t her business though. What she had to deal with was the fact that he was homeless. On Christmas Eve.
It would be bad enough to deal with on a normal night. She had no idea of where she could take him. She hadn’t ever seen a homeless person in Mungaloo. The worst she’d encountered here was some kid who’d run away from home, and just needed to be convinced to return.
Somehow, she didn’t think it was going to be that easy this time.
She bit back a sigh. “You’d better come down to the station with me.”
“Thank you for the kind offer, but it’s unnecessary. I can look after myself.”
Hailey stared at him, frowning. A few moments ago, he’d been insisting he had nowhere to go. She didn’t believe he’d suddenly discovered somewhere.
“Where are you going to go?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s not your problem.”
Oh, if only it was that simple. “Yes, it is,” she said quietly.
Chapter 4
Patrima frowned. Hailey’s words made no sense. How was it her problem if he had nowhere to go? Did she feel responsible for him because he’d rescued the boy yesterday? The boy that wasn’t even hers?
Was that why she had come over here and started talking to him?
Well, this wasn’t her problem. It was his, and he’d deal with it.
Alone.
He didn’t want to talk about it, especially not with her. There was no way she’d understand. She was a human. Even if he explained it all, she’d side with the other humans.
Anyway, her presence unsettled him. Her words, even more.
Their logical, calm truth was making it hard to hold onto the rage. The rage he needed right now, because it was the only thing stopping him from wanting to just give up.
But his heart couldn’t help thinking it was sweet that she cared.
The words that she’d said earlier, about how the happiness the humans derived from the Christmas celebration actually made them happier even after it was finished, kept echoing in his mind. It made a strange sort of sense.
A sort of sense that tugged at his mind, even if it wasn’t what he wanted to hear right now.
He couldn’t help thinking that maybe, if the situation were different, he could hang out with her for a bit and get to know her. To learn more about how she saw Christmas, and see if the idea had any value.
Or just to be able to stare into her eyes in a better light, his low light vision was good, but not good enough to figure out if they were blue or green.
But all those thoughts led to thoughts of taking her home and introducing her to his mother. Which he would never do again.
That reality ruined any possibility of being interested in her.
He stood up and jumped down onto the seat below the one he stood on, wincing as the wounds he’d sustained in his fight with Ultrima stung. A not so gentle reminder that he didn’t belong here.
He’d head away from the park, away from the human settlement. He’d find a cave somewhere and hide out there until he decided what to do.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her voice sharp.
What sort of an answer did she expect to that question? He’d already told her he had no home to go to.
“Away from here.”
Hailey stood up and jumped down the steps behind him. “I can’t let you do that.”
Seriously? Did these humans think they controlled the world?
She was a human, she had no responsibility towards a dragon.
Of course, she thought he was another human. Maybe the humans felt responsibility towards each other, even if they didn’t know each other.
Or maybe they were just busybodies, like dragons were.
Either way, what she thought she was responsible for wasn’t his issue. “I don’t think you can stop me.”
“Are you going back to your home?”
He bit back a sigh. Turning to face her, he said firmly, “No. But it’s none of your business where I am going.”
“Are you going to stay at the hotel?” she asked next.
Patrima wasn’t even sure what that meant. But he knew he wasn’t going there. “No.”
Talking to this human was a waste of time, just like Christmas.
Of course, she clearly didn’t think Christmas was a waste of time, so maybe she didn’t think talking to him was either.
That was just because she didn’t know him. She thought he was a hero or something, because he’d rescued that boy. If she heard what he’d done since then, she might just change her mind.
But she didn’t know that. She put a hand on his arm, the contact sending a jolt of excitement though him.
She felt it too. He could see it in the widening of her eyes. She swallowed. “You’re going to have to come with me.”
He shook her hand off. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand,” he growled.
It had been interesting, at first, meeting her again and chatting to her, but now it was just getting annoying.
“Look, don’t make me arrest you,” she said. “That’s a lot of paperwork and hassle that neither of us want.”
Her words made Patrima look a little closer. He hadn’t really paid much attention to the clothes she was wearing yesterday, but those she wore today were the same. A uniform. With an elaborate, embroidered badge.
The uniform sparked a memory, one he hadn’t even been aware of until that moment. Two police showing up at his mother’s house. Talking to her. Trying to talk to him.
She wasn’t just an ordinary human. She w
as one of their police. One of the human’s warriors.
“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
“The fact that you’re homeless means I have a duty of care towards you,” she said flatly. “I can’t just let you go. So either come with me willingly, or I’ll have to lock you up for the night.”
Patrima frowned. “Why would you do that? Just because I threw a candle earlier? I didn’t even hit anyone.”
These humans really were weak, even their warriors, if that had been enough to make them feel threatened.
“It’s not about that. If you had a home to go to, I’d drive you there. But since you don’t have anywhere to go, it’s my responsibility to keep you safe.”
This was about him being safe? It was the stupidest explanation Patrima had ever heard of. But she looked deadly serious.
Humans were even more meddling than dragons. “And if I come with you willingly, you won’t need to do that?” Patrima prompted.
She nodded.
He weighed up his options.
He was pretty sure that she couldn’t take him by force, no matter what she said. She was smaller than he was, and a human besides. A human warrior was no match for a dragon warrior, even an injured one.
But she wasn’t the only human. There were a whole bunch of them. And he suspected, given what he knew of humans, that if he put up a fuss, some of them would come and help her.
There were more than enough of them to overpower him, and he didn’t want to be forced to use his dragon magic to escape. He didn’t care about dragon rules, since he was no longer part of Trima clan, but it just made sense not to reveal his true nature.
Whether he was bound by clan rules or not, if humans discovered the existence of dragons, there was going to be hell to pay.
If he went with her and she didn’t arrest him, it should be simple enough to slip away later.
And, he had to admit, the idea of having a little more time with her was tempting. And not just because of the way he felt when she touched him.
She had some… interesting ideas. Not that he believed her thoughts about Christmas. But…
His mind made up, he inclined his head. “All right, Hailey. I will come with you.”
Her eyes widened at the use of her name. Had he made some error? But that was how she had introduced herself to him.
She swallowed, and nodded, and he could see the heat in her eyes. It caused an answering heat to swirl in his belly.
“Come on then,” she said, and turned away a little too quickly, heading back across the park, glancing back occasionally to see that he was still following her.
Which he was.
This was madness. He should be running as far away from this human woman as he could, not following her meekly like a lamb.
Dragons ate lambs.
He was crazy to be going along with this. He should just be waiting for an opportunity to slip away while she wasn’t looking.
But for some reason, that thought didn’t appeal to him at all.
Chapter 5
The man was very quiet in the back seat of the police car, but Hailey couldn’t ignore his presence. She was hyper aware of him, even though he didn’t make a sound.
She’d been fascinated by him at the canyon, and that fascination hadn’t abated one bit, even after this incident. In fact, it just made her even more curious.
Who was he and what was his story?
She pulled up in front of the station and got out, determined to find out. No one should be homeless and alone on Christmas Eve. Surely whatever he had done, his family would forgive him?
She just had to convince him to talk to them.
With that thought in mind, she got out of the car and came around and opened his door.
As he slid out of the car, he stared up at her, and his eyes met hers.
A tingle ran up her spine.
There was just something about him that fascinated her. She wanted to ask him a million questions, to know everything about him.
Which wasn’t an unusual occurrence in her line of work. She often asked people a lot of questions, and usually got answers.
But this felt different.
She gave herself a shake. She needed to lose those thoughts. Now.
She had a job to do. She was a professional.
The trouble was, the thoughts she was having about him weren’t professional at all.
“Come inside,” she said gruffly.
He followed her without a word.
Inside, Hailey waved him to a chair and sat down at her computer. “Right, you said your name was Patrima, didn’t you?”
In reality, she was pretending to be uncertain. She remembered his name perfectly.
As he had apparently remembered hers. She suppressed a shiver of excitement at the memory of hearing her name on his lips.
This was ridiculous. It was her name. It wasn’t like she hadn’t heard it before.
What was wrong with her?
Patrima nodded, and stared at her fingers on the keyboard, reminding her that she had a job to do. Hailey cleared her throat. “How do you spell that?”
“I don’t.”
She couldn’t help it. Her eyebrows shot up. “You… don’t?”
He smiled at her. Smiled!
As though he wasn’t being deliberately difficult.
Hailey bit back a sigh. He’d seemed so polite and normal at the canyon yesterday. Now he was acting far too much like the surly teenagers who thought not giving her their name would somehow stop her from finding out. This man was long past the surly teenager age. She’d peg him at around thirty, give or take a few years.
More than old enough to know about adult responsibilities. “Do you have a licence? Medicare card? Bank card?”
If he was going to be difficult, she could too.
He shook his head. “I don’t have anything like that. There’s just me.”
Hailey found that hard to believe. No matter where he came from, he had to have something to prove who he was. “Come on, everyone has at least a bank card. How else do you get any money?”
“I don’t have any money.”
He had to be kidding.
Hailey had thought he was just slightly misguided, maybe even a little down on his luck. But from the difficulty he was giving her, perhaps there was more going on. She really hoped she didn’t find he had a criminal record.
She didn’t want anything to tarnish her memory of the handsome hero she’d met yesterday.
Unfortunately, she had a job to do.
“Come on, turn out your pockets. Let’s see.”
He stared at her, his mouth a thin line, and for a moment she thought he was going to object. Then he shrugged, and in one languid movement, he stood up and turned his pockets inside out.
They were clean as a whistle. Not even any dirt or lint.
Hailey stared at him in confusion. She’d never seen anything like that before. Not even in her time in the city. Even the homeless people had an identifying card, a wallet, or a phone of some sort.
But he was telling the truth. He apparently had nothing but the clothes he was wearing.
So what was his story?
Maybe her computer could help her with that.
She typed his name in, guessing at the spelling, then asked, “What’s your last name?”
His frown deepened. “I don’t have one.”
This was getting past a joke. Hailey turned and glared at him. “Everyone has a last name.”
He didn’t back down. Didn’t even blink. “Well I don’t.”
What was he hiding? What would she find when she found his real name?
Was he far more dangerous than she’d suspected at first?
Somehow, despite the strangeness, and his refusal to offer any plausible explanation for… well… anything, she didn’t feel he was dangerous. Every time she even considered the possibility, she remembered him jumping down into that canyon and rescuing Malcom, and her heart warmed.<
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That gave her the confidence to say, “Look, you have to give me something. If you refuse to give me identifying particulars, I’ll have to arrest you.”
It wasn’t quite that straightforward, but the threat had worked before, to convince him to come with her. Would it work again now?
He looked irritated. “Arresting me will not give me a last name, nor will it give me these cards you seem to want. What do you think it will achieve?”
Hailey’s eyes narrowed. “It might convince you to tell me your name, or what your story is. I don’t for one minute believe you don’t have a last name. Everyone has a last name. Unless you’re… what… an alien or something? Or maybe a dragon?”
She gave a laugh. That’s what Malcom had said he was looking for out at the canyon.
She expected Patrima to laugh too.
But he didn’t.
He hadn’t then either.
Instead, a shadow passed over his face. He stared at her for a moment, as though evaluating her.
Hailey’s heart suddenly started thumping, hard. Why wasn’t he laughing this off? Why did he suddenly look so serious?
He wasn’t… He couldn’t be…
“Patrick Taylor.”
Relief and disappointment milled around in her belly like cows in in the stock yard stirring up mud. Of course he wasn’t a dragon. How could she even have entertained the thought for a minute?
He had a perfectly normal, ordinary name. Just like everyone else.
She ran a search for Patrick Taylor, and came up blank. That didn’t mean anything of course. It just meant he didn’t have a criminal record, or any other record that the police could access.
That, at least, was a relief.
If he was telling the truth. She bit her lip. Without proof of some kind, it was impossible to believe him. She needed something more. “What’s your address?”
“I don’t have an address, we’ve been through this.”
“What was your last address then?” Hailey asked.
He hesitated. “You don’t need it. I’m not going back. I’ve already said that.”
He seemed more than a little fixated on that. “Yes, you did mention that once or twice,” she agreed. “Since you don’t have any ID, I need something that confirms you are who you say you are.”