He caved even more. “No,” he admitted. “We would have been finished.”
“That’s it, then.” Elaina leaned into him, sincerely, meaningfully. “I love you, Brogan. In a way, you’re the person I love most in the whole world. And I never want us to be finished.”
“Me neither,” he said.
They sat together, Elaina on her rock, Brogan on the blanket. She looked out at the ocean and he at the people on the beach—mainly the women. And for the moment anyway, Brogan did not feel the urge to go up to one of them and chat her up for a lie-down. For the moment, he wanted to be exactly where he was, because perhaps for the first time in all the years they had known each other, Brogan understood what he shared with Elaina. It was a kind of closeness that he had never known with anyone else in all his life. Brogan had been to bed with scores of other females, yet with Elaina he shared an intimacy that he had never had with any of them. Ever. And he liked it.
“This is a talk we should have had a long time ago, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Probably,” Elaina said.
This moment, this feeling, could have gone on for the rest of the afternoon and Brogan would have been content with it.
So, naturally, this was when his badge and Elaina’s both began to trill.
With an unspoken Uh-oh, they lifted their respective badges, Brogan detaching his from the chain at his waist, and tapped them to activate their comm systems. Into the air before each of them leaped an identical little hologram of their Templar, a white-haired male with black stripes on his armor skin representing his superior rank.
Templar Vartan Haymes addressed the two Squires at once. “Squire Brogan, Squire Elaina. The two of you are to report to Corps Headquarters in Talontown at once.”
“What’s happening, Templar?” Brogan asked.
“An Agent of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation is entering orbit of Lacerta at this moment. The Agent will be reporting here for a briefing that requires your presence.”
“The IBI is sending someone to meet with us?” Elaina asked. “But we don’t deal with interplanetary affairs. Why us and not the Knighthood?”
“Because of the nature and the details of this case,” the Templar explained. “In a way, it involves the two of you. It relates to recent incidents of interplanetary smuggling and black-market activities that the two of you have had a hand in investigating because they took place in your locality.”
“The last illegal trade case we were involved in was an attempted slave trade,” said Elaina. “That case is closed.”
“This is another matter,” said the Templar. “Something much bigger, with serious implications for the security of the entire quadrant. That’s why the IBI has taken a hand, and they’ve sent an Agent to meet with you personally.”
“Is it an arms deal? Someone with an illegal weapons operation on Lacerta?” Brogan wondered aloud.
“Not exactly,” replied Vartan. “This…is something potentially even more dire. We have reason to believe an interplanetary smuggling operation has targeted the water of our planet.”
At this, the two Squires looked from their respective holograms at each other with a quiet horror. The enormity of the situation was becoming clear.
“This is not a purely Lacertan matter,” Vartan continued. “It could affect all of known space—Earth, its colonies, and its allies. And because of the details of this case, which I won’t discuss until you report for the briefing, we need you on it. You’re to report to headquarters immediately.”
“We’re on our way,” said Brogan.
The twin holograms disappeared and Brogan reattached his badge to his chain. “Well, that takes care of me, doesn’t it? Stark naked and no place to go but headquarters.”
Elaina stood up from her rock and Brogan picked himself up from the blanket and quickly rolled it back up. In spite of Brogan’s seemingly cavalier remark, neither of them was taking this news lightly.
With the blanket tucked under Brogan’s arm, the two Squires morphed, transforming to two-legged dragons. They stood apart, giving themselves room to spread their wings. Elaina leaped back onto the rock, then into the air with a powerful beating of her wings and slash of her tail. Brogan did likewise, following her up from the beach and towards the sky.
CHAPTER TWO
Agent Gabrielle Long tugged at the top of her black jumpsuit and paced the floor of the Corps briefing room, with Templar Vartan sitting nearby. She had her naturally curly golden-brown hair relaxed into a soft wave and pulled back into a braid behind her head. Her gentle feminine features were etched with razor-sharp concentration. Her taut muscles had grown tense under her perfectly pressed black garments. “I’m sorry if I seem impatient,” she said to the Templar. “This is the most important mission I’ve ever taken on, and I’m just grateful the Bureau chose me for it—though I suppose in their eyes my background makes me a natural. If I hadn’t been in on this, I frankly would have requested to be. The magnitude of it, what it could mean, just makes me want to be a part of it.”
“I appreciate your feelings,” said Vartan. “And I’m frankly grateful to have you. If this situation isn’t put down straight away…”
“We know the stakes,” said Gabrielle. “This thing… This thing isn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.”
“Or on ours if we can help it,” came a male voice from across the room where the door had just slid open. “We just heard what ‘this thing’ is.”
Vartan turned his seat around to face the new arrivals striding into the briefing room, while Gabrielle stopped in her tracks at the sight of them. Or one of them. The male one. She could not have known that before Squire Brogan Holt and Squire Elaina Hood arrived, Brogan had been starkly and exquisitely naked. Nevertheless, seeing him now in his uniform at the side of the uniformed Elaina, Gabrielle could not completely dismiss the rather unprofessional thought that he was a strikingly handsome and beautiful dragon man in a world of such men. It was a pity that such an observation was so out of place right now.
The Templar stood up to introduce the pair who stepped closer to the table. “Agent Gabrielle Long, I’d like you to meet Squire Brogan Holt and Squire Elaina Hood—two of the finest members of the Corps. They’ve been partners for many years now.”
Gabrielle stepped forward to shake hands with them and greet them in turn. Again came a nagging thought: What kind of partners…?
Brogan shook hands firmly with Gabrielle and felt a little spike in his heartbeat. “Agent Long, good to meet you.” Through his mind tumbled an equally unprofessional thought: Human. Beautiful. Must be some nice things under that suit…
Shaking Gabrielle’s hand, Elaina glanced at her partner from the corner of her eye and started to do the math. Duty first, Brogan…
“Have a seat, Squires,” she said to the newcomers, and then to Vartan, “…and Templar, and I’ll brief you all on what the Templar has heard already.” The three Lacertans sat at the table while Gabrielle remained standing. With the Corps members seated, Gabrielle began, “The IBI has operatives inside one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in the quadrant, and they’ve gotten word to us about what that organization and its leader are planning. It directly involves this planet, and ‘alarming’ is frankly too mild a word for it. If this organization isn’t stopped, there’s no counting the number of other worlds that could be in jeopardy.”
“We understand it’s about the water,” said Elaina. “Our planet’s water, which is mutagenic because of the Draconite mineral dissolved in it and the prehistoric dragon DNA in the water that it interacts with. Anyone human who drinks our water or gets it on their skin without taking an inhibitor becomes a weredragon—like us.”
Elaina’s laying out the situation sent a chill through the room. “Yes,” said Gabrielle. “According to our sources, the interplanetary crime lord Drakkar Skinner is launching a smuggling operation aimed at stealing mutagenic water from this planet—and using it on himself and his fol
lowers.”
“Bane and damn,” said Brogan. “A mob—a gang—of weredragons running amok in space. No one would be safe from them.”
“Exactly, Squire Brogan,” Gabrielle said. “We’re talking about a mob of weredragons, an army of criminals and mercenaries able to become half-dragon or full dragon just like the people of this planet, with all the strength and power that Lacertans have when they transform. Imagine the law enforcement or other defenses of some planet—or even the Interstar Fleet—facing possibly an army of rogue weredragons, and you’ll see the kind of crisis we’re trying to prevent.”
“This has always been our planet’s biggest fear,” Elaina admitted. “Someone stealing the water and using it this way, as a weapon, turning themselves or others to dragons, attacking other planets. It’s our biggest nightmare. The Corps and the Knighthood, we’re trained to lay down our lives if necessary to stop a thing like this.”
“Skinner and his smugglers, if they succeed, will become a danger to lives everywhere. We are going to stop them,” Gabrielle said firmly, leaning on the table. “There’s no other option. Not stopping them is unthinkable. That’s why the IBI is stepping in. Earth recognizes the autonomy of Lacerta. You’re a colony with all the privileges and laissez faire that an Earth colony is entitled to.
But under Terran and Colonial law, Earth has the right to claim first jurisdiction in matters of interplanetary security, especially as it may pertain to Earth itself. The Bureau and Interstar Intelligence have been involved from the moment this news reached us, and the Spires is cooperating. I’ve been sent as your official liaison. This operation is to be coordinated through me.”
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Elaina chimed in. “When the Templar called us in, he said something about the history of this case directly involves Sir Brogan and me. We haven’t been involved in any smuggling cases like this recently. The only thing nearly like this that we were in on was about Chithisian flesh traders. How do we figure into this?”
“I was just coming to that,” Gabrielle answered. She called out to the AI in the room. “Display Drakkar Skinner.”
The center of the conference table had a circle etched into it. The circumference of the circle lit up and a holographic image rose from it, resolving into a bust of a bearded, husky man in his mid-forties, his black hair streaked with white. The look of just this image of him sent another chill into the room.
“This,” explained Gabrielle, “is Drakkar Skinner. He is, as I’ve said, one of the most powerful crime bosses in space. His personal profile describes a man obsessed with power and free of morals, as you’d expect someone like him to be—but one thing more. Drakkar Skinner has always been obsessed with dragons and with the planet Lacerta and its people. That in itself isn’t unusual. Millions of humans are what you’d call, for want of a better word, Lacerta fans.
And every year, many humans apply to the Lacertan Transition Program, wanting to become like you. The great majority of applicants are turned away. There are restrictions, genetic screening, psychological screening, the deepest research into every part of a person’s background, personal character references from friends, teachers, employers. A whole battery of tests of personality, physical and mental fitness.
Most humans who try to become weredragons never get past the vetting stage. Naturally, an interplanetary crime lord would be rejected instantly. But every bit of data we have on Skinner points to a man obsessed with weredragons to the point of wanting to be one—and being willing to use all of his criminal power not only to become a Lacertan, but to lead an army of Lacertans against any foe, any world, that he chooses.”
“A monster,” said Elaina.
“Yes, he is,” Gabrielle agreed. “Up to now, Skinner’s criminal trade has been about illegal arms and weapons, every kind of contraband, and some flesh trade. But his long-term goal has always been Lacerta’s water—and now he’s making his move. You asked where you and Squire Brogan come in, Squire Elaina, and now I’ll tell you.” To the AI once again, she called, “Display Liona Vess.”
The holographic bust of Drakkar Skinner dissolved into pixels and morphed into a bust of someone that Brogan and Elaina knew much better. The hostile-looking female with short dark hair was one with whom they’d had dealings just recently.
Brogan exhaled heavily at the likeness of her. “Liona Vess. There’s one vicious reptile.”
“We know about your last encounter with her,” Gabrielle confirmed. “She abducted Prince Tynan Moran’s lover—we know Moran is a friend of yours…”
“The best,” said Brogan. “Liona was tangled up with smugglers and flesh traders while she and Tynan were lovers. She wanted to be his mate, his Princess, and come into the Nest Moran fortune—but when she was found out, he shed her like a snakeskin. For revenge, when she got out of the dungeon, she went after Sierra Smith, Tynan’s lover and mating partner, and gave her to a Chithisian flesh trader named Kharno. We helped Tynan get Sierra back—and send Liona’s rotten tail back to the dungeon.”
“That’s the story we got,” said Gabrielle. “And the story we also have is that during her association with Kharno the Chithisian, she became a contact of other people in other interplanetary crime networks—including the network of Drakkar Skinner.”
Elaina and Brogan understood now. “So she knows people in Skinner’s operation.” Elaina nodded.
“And may still be in touch with them, even while she’s in the dungeon, and may know things about their activities in the Catalan system. That’s why we’re going to begin by meeting with her—and interrogating her.”
Brogan was more than a little skeptical. “And you think she’s going to cooperate? You think she’ll give up anything she knows to us? All due respect, Agent Long, you don’t know this dragon the way we do.”
“Which is why you’re going with me,” Gabrielle said. “You’ve had past dealings with her. I haven’t. All I can offer her is a chance at a reduced sentence. She might be willing to talk to me—but the chance to bait the two of you might make her slip and give up some clue, even if she’s not aware she’s doing it. I don’t know this Liona, but I’ve done my share of interrogations of all kinds of suspects. The two of you, with me, might get something out of her.”
“Starting with one big pain in the tail.” Brogan frowned. “But Earth is calling the shots on this, and as far as we’re concerned right now, you’re Earth. Where you go, we’ll follow.”
“That’s correct,” said Templar Vartan. “And you’ll be accompanying Agent Long to the dungeons at Silverwing where Vess is incarcerated immediately. She’s been told already to expect the three of you.”
“I’ll bet she just loved knowing Elaina and I are on our way,” said Brogan.
“And we are,” said Elaina, standing up and nudging Brogan to do the same. “If there’s anything to be gotten from Liona, we’ll get it.”
“Not what she’d like to give us, I’m sure,” Brogan carped.
“She’s our first lead,” said Gabrielle. “We have people out there still working, but Liona Vess is where we start.”
Templar Vartan stood up with the Agent and his two Squires. “I’ll look forward to hearing your report.”
“And we’ll keep you apprised about anything else that comes up,” Gabrielle assured him.
Vartan watched Gabrielle and the Squires make their exit.
_______________
In the hovercar on the way to Silverwing, Gabrielle sat in the back and listened to Brogan and Elaina tell her all about their past adventures when their friend Prince Tynan served in the Corps, and gave her a first-hand account of that latest adventure of the abduction of Sierra Smith and the chase and battle that followed. Gabrielle found herself listening most intently to Brogan.
She found his manner a bit more casual than she was accustomed to seeing in a Squire of the Corps. He was flippant and somewhat given to levity, almost devil-may-care in his attitude—and yet she could sense in him the same comm
itment to his duty, his comrades, his people, and his world that she had found in every other male of his kind that she had ever met—some of whom she had joined in ways altogether unrelated to duty.
But their assigned duty was the pressing thing now. The threat of Drakkar Skinner was closing in on the planet Lacerta even as they spoke, even as they made their way through the skies to the planetary capital. The danger might strike here—but Gabrielle Long was damned if it would go any further.
CHAPTER THREE
The woman sitting across the table from them in the bare, sterile room looked happy to see Brogan and Elaina—in the way that a Komodo Dragon on Earth would look to see a freshly killed carcass. Not that she could have sunk her teeth into them while the restraining collar was tight around her neck. Gabrielle, standing by while the two Squires sat at the table opposite Liona Vess, noted the pretense of affection between the Corps members and the prisoner they had come to question.
“So how’s that collar fitting you?” Brogan asked. “About as well as those pain-inducer bracelets you had on Sierra Smith, I’ll bet.”
BROGAN_A Steamy WereDragon Romance Page 2