by Mel Teshco
“You don’t think the Tantonics can follow us?” Baron asked gruffly.
“We’ve got plenty of provisions in place for that scenario. We’ll swap this jeep for another less noticeable car. And then another. The last car is fitted out with filters that block out all signs of heat.”
Baron didn’t fight against the blindfolding, but still he was surprised when Misha’s gentle hands finished tying and she whispered, “Might as well get some sleep while you can. You’ll need all your energy later.”
For the torture he was going to endure? There was also the full moon that’d force him into dragon later tomorrow. A pity he was too weak to easily shift shape, but then the humans probably knew that too.
With his vision taken away, he pushed all dark thoughts out of his mind and leaned his head back onto the seat, at last allowing sleep to overcome him.
*
He half-woke when they changed vehicles, staying aware long enough to ensure Piper was with him before he allowed sleep to claim him once again. He was vulnerable enough without the necessary calories. Sleep was now crucial.
After yet another car change and even more sleep, Baron was drifting back to consciousness when the car slowed and then braked to a stop, before its engine cut off.
A door opened, letting in thin, clean air that indicated they were in a remote, higher altitude. A loan bird called out, but he had no way of knowing if it was a nocturnal bird or one making a dawn call.
He turned Piper’s way. “Piper, are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine and dandy, thanks.”
He couldn’t help but grin at her dry sarcasm. At least she wasn’t scared witless.
His door clunked open, and Misha urged him to climb out of the vehicle. Rock or some kind of rubble shifted underfoot, with little or no vegetation to soften the terrain. He guessed they were on some kind of arid, rocky mountain.
“This way,” Misha murmured softly, holding his upper arm.
“Where is Piper?” he asked.
“She’s ahead of us, escorted by the soldier I revived.”
His eyes scrunched under his blindfold. “How exactly did you reverse his condition?”
“It’s an instinctive reaction to reverse ice with my heat.” She leaned close, no doubt on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “Guess I’ve got the best of both worlds. A pity I can’t also shift into a dragon.”
He smirked. “Believe me that just might be the last thing you’d want to happen.”
“If it’s the pain you’re talking about, I already go through that shifting into werewolf each full moon.”
He nodded. “That’s true. Except werewolves are less than half the size of a dragon. Our shape change is an agony I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
She snorted carelessly and then directed, “Take one more step and then stop.”
He did as she asked, and right away he was aware of stifling, thick air and warmth, and the press of bodies around him. He reached out, intuitively knowing where Piper was even before his hand touched her arm. His hand moved lower, his fingers interlacing with hers and giving them a squeeze.
Then the ground dropped from beneath them. An elevator. The sensation of falling didn’t stop for some minutes and he realized with a sickening feeling they were probably deep underground.
A hiss revealed an opening door, and Misha guided him out of the confined space and into an air conditioned area that was so cold it was like a slap to the face. The Tantonics would love it here.
“This way,” Misha instructed.
He did as she asked, until the moment he heard footsteps going the opposite direction. He froze, every muscle rebelling. “Piper!”
“Where are you?” she called back, clearly as confused as him.
A furnace of rage swept through his body. “They’re trying to separate us.”
“Baron, no! Don’t let them do this.”
“This is just a temporary measure,” the general soothed next to Baron. He strengthened his voice. “Piper we want to check you over, ensure you’re in top physical and mental health. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
“This wasn’t the deal,” Baron gritted out.
Misha squeezed his arm. In warning or in reassurance? “You will be together again soon.”
“And you expect me to trust you people now?”
The general sniggered. “From where I’m standing I don’t see that you have much choice.”
“Where’s your pride general? Where I come from an oath is honored.”
The general’s voice hardened. “If I recall rightly, I never said yes to your request to stay with Piper.”
“That’s how you talk yourself into believing you’ve done nothing wrong?” Baron snarled.
The general sighed. “You’re alive along with your mate; I imagine that counts for something. And if you don’t like the way things are done here, then perhaps you should have stayed on your world?”
“Except there’s the small matter of our world being annihilated by Tantonics.”
“Then you should realize that keeping you here is for the best. Surely you can see we only have the best of intentions.”
Lying bastard.
“I can’t really see at all, can I?”
“Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to take off his blindfold now?” Misha suggested.
The general exhaled impatiently. “Misha your sudden empathy is appreciated, it really is, but perhaps save your ... interest for later, hmm? His blindfold stays on until we get him into the room.”
Baron didn’t need to be blind to understand the sexual undertones the general inferred. He had enough of his own problems without feeling sorry for the hybrid woman who’d clearly jumped into bed with the devil.
It took everything he had to refrain from tearing the blindfold off himself. It would only get his hands tied and show that he wasn’t willing to cooperate. And right then he needed to do everything right so he’d see Piper again.
“I’ll leave you with Misha now,” the general said in a satisfied tone. “She’ll escort you to a holding room. I look forward to seeing you there soon.”
Did they seriously believe he’d go anywhere without his mate? Except what choice did he have? Already Piper’s faltering footsteps had faded away, the general’s heavier tread retreating just as quickly.
The bastard was probably going to oversee Piper’s medical.
His heartbeat drummed loud in his ears and he carefully gulped down breaths to keep quiet. He couldn’t lose it now, because if he did he might never get his focus back. Bad enough he was weak and consumed by hunger, he wouldn’t allow rage and anguish to cloud his judgment too.
“Come,” Misha said gently. “Piper will be coddled and looked after, I give you my word. Fighting against it won’t bring her back any sooner.”
Somehow he found the strength to walk away from his mate. Gut instinct told him he could trust Misha. Besides, the hybrid was right, he could dig his heels in but the bastards would still force him to go where they wanted.
He’d choose his battles.
Memorizing each and every turn along with the number of steps he’d taken from when he was separated at the elevator from Piper, he was finally led into a room that had his nostrils twitch at the sharp, pungent odor. A door snapped shut and Misha instructed, “Please sit.”
He did as she instructed. There was no sense in making an enemy out of someone who had the potential of being useful, and maybe even a friend.
“Let me take off your blindfold.”
“Please do.”
She unknotted the blindfold and he blinked into the artificial light. He sat on the only chair, a square metal table in front of him and further along a mirrored wall that told him there were people watching him from its other side.
The room was spotlessly clean, sterile, hence the strong odor. He had no doubt the room was cleaned and decontaminated after the last prisoner’s blood had been spilled. His lip curled. He’d choose dirt and filth over this kind
of germ-free environment.
Misha walked around the table, her walk easy, graceful, even though he sensed her tension. “I know this hasn’t been easy on you, Baron. But we both know nothing worth anything in life is ever simple.” Her eyes glinted, purposeful, obstinate even. “Answer my questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge, and you’ll be back with Piper before you know it.”
His eyes burned into hers. He’d have to answer, there was no getting around it. But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t demand something in return. Sustenance would give him strength and allow him to think coherently. “I’ll answer your questions when I get something to eat.”
She cocked a brow. “And allow you to become a force to be reckoned with? I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “No, right now you’re better to us weakened by hunger and a desperate need to see your mate.”
His inner dragon stirred, like one of Riddich’s angry swaznez insects trapped in a glass box, it’s beady eyes glaring balefully from it bulbous head. Not that it mattered, his beast was all but useless to him in his present condition.
He stared at the young woman, or perhaps she too was immortal like him and therefore ageless? “What happened to you Misha? What made you become such a puppet for the PDA?”
Her eyes narrowed, sharpened. “They’ve looked after me, given me a home.”
“Your parents couldn’t do that?”
Her hands slapped the table. “Shut up!” Her stare was piercing. “I ask the questions here, not you. You don’t speak unless you’re spoken to, are we clear?”
He smirked. Her interrogation technique might work on her pansy-ass prisoners, but it wouldn’t work on him. Besides, he had a feeling her heart really wasn’t in it. She didn’t want to be here anymore than he did.
She straightened and folded her arms. “Your weak and hungry, I get that, I really do. So how about we get these questions out the way so you can get yourself a big three course meal.” She smiled. “Our canteen makes the best roast pork with crackling and apple sauce. Not to mention the chocolate fondant cake drenched in whipped cream for dessert.”
“I have no idea of this food you talk about.”
Sharing cappuccinos and ham sandwiches with Piper was all he wanted.
“Then you’ve been missing out,” Misha said silkily. “We’ll have to remedy that. In the meantime, maybe you can tell us a little about your crew. How many were there? Were they all males? Why did you choose Earth? Do you keep in contact with Kadin?”
His chest expanded. So they didn’t know about Princess Dahlia. He exhaled carefully. He planned on keeping it that way. As for Kadin, he’d been Baron’s best friend. When Kadin had been banished from Riddich it’d taken all of Baron’s will not to protest. He could only imagine how hard it’d been for Asher and Dahlia to say their last goodbyes to their brother knowing he’d never be coming back home.
He pushed away his thoughts and refocused on Misha. “Kadin never did like the idea of being detained. I guess that’s why he chose Earth over imprisonment on Riddich. If the PDA thought for a second they could lock him up here, they’re sadly mistaken. Freedom is his one and only vice.”
“Not necessarily,” Misha murmured. “Grace is his biggest vice now, one I’m sure the PDA will use against him once they’re caught ... because all the PDA’s marks are caught eventually.”
So Kadin really had found a breeder down here. Hope unfurled within. It meant there really was optimism for the Riddich species to continue their genetic line. He managed an idle shrug. “I doubt Kadin will get caught. He’ll have a plan and another four or five backup strategies.”
It felt good saying that. The PDA wanted the truth, well he’d just given it to them, right along with a whole lot of frustration.
“Yet here you are,” Misha murmured.
Not for long. But she didn’t need to know that. She most definitely didn’t need to know that once the amulet was again affixed to the Tantonic, it would be nothing short of a homing device to its comrades. “Yes, here I am.”
“Do you communicate with Kadin?” she asked. “Please give me a direct answer this time.”
She wanted more of the truth, fine. “No. I didn’t even know if Kadin had survived his journey here.” It was beyond gratifying knowing his friend had not only survived here, but thrived, by taking on a mate and eluding the PDA.
He managed a smile, even though every muscle and fiber, hell every cell, throbbed with fatigue. “You probably guessed that Kadin wasn’t the only reason we came here. Breeders were a big motivation too.”
Misha laughed, but there was little joy in the sound. “Of course you wouldn’t want your species to die out.”
Baron’s stare sharpened. “Are you a breeder, Misha?”
She stiffened, and despite his lethargy he read her sharp want, and then her denial, before she blocked the emotions. “Someone like me won’t ever get to experience what it is to have a normal life, babies, a husband, the whole white picket fence and a dog deal.”
He shrugged. “It can if that’s what you want. It’s your life, live it the way you—“
The metal door banged opened, and the general stood framed in the doorway, brimming with fury. “Interview’s over Misha.”
So the general hadn’t been overseeing Piper’s medical. No, the bastard had been too busy watching Baron’s interrogation.
Misha frowned. “I’ve only just started.”
“And now it’s just ended,” the general said quietly, but with unmistakable authority. “I’ll take it from here.”
Misha glanced back at Baron and sent him a look. A pity his nutrient-deprived brain couldn’t make any sense of it before she spun around and exited the room.
The general glared at Baron, his hands curled into fists and a vein throbbing into life in his jaw. “I don’t appreciate it when one of my prisoner’s tries to brainwash my best soldier.” His eyes flashed malevolence. “I should give you a dozen whiplashes, but a night without food and water will be worse torture with your compulsory shift so close.” He smiled coldly. “Enjoy your night alone.”
The general slammed the door shut and locked it before Baron even had a chance to plan an escape.
Chapter Fourteen
“Why are you following the PDA’s orders?” Piper frowned at the gray-haired, white-coated doctor who checked her over with seemingly death ears. “Shouldn’t you be following some Hippocratic Oath or something?”
She might as well be still blindfolded for all the good that seeing did her in this sterile, horrid room. The doctor didn’t answer any of her questions and only spoke when he asked her to do something. Pushing the end of his stethoscope against her chest, he instructed, “Breathe in. Breathe out.”
She did as he asked. No one would listen to her hollers for help anyway. On her next exhale she loudly released her breath. Baron should never have agreed to go with the PDA. She would have preferred pitting themselves against the Tantonics than be stuck inside the bowels of the PDA’s secret facility. Because going by the downward motion of the elevator she’d been in earlier, they were deep underground.
The door to the room opened with a hiss and Piper turned as Misha stepped inside and shut the door. The dark-haired woman smiled at her and Piper scowled back. “What are you doing here? Have you come to gloat?”
Misha’s lips compressed as she reverted back to her serious self. “Actually I’ve come to take you for a bit of a tour.”
“A tour? So Baron and I were blindfolded for nothing?”
Misha’s lips again twitched. “They were only put in place so you wouldn’t see where the facility was hidden. And now that you’re down here with no idea of our only exit point, there’s no reason you can’t see the facility for yourself.”
“See my prison, you mean?”
The doctor stepped back with a satisfied nod. “You appear to be in perfect health.”
Piper glowered. The doctor was immune to everything but his physical exam of her and was clearly n
othing more than a well-trained monkey. “How fortunate for the PDA.”
Misha sighed, before plucking the dull red amulet from a little pocket in her yellow dress and rolling it in her hand like it was a stress ball. Or perhaps it’d become her good luck talisman. She assessed Piper, and then said, “You might be interested in seeing the Tantonic we have imprisoned.”
Piper barely suppressed a shiver of loathing. “Why would I be interested in seeing a Tantonic?”
Misha shrugged. “Know thy enemy.”
“Perhaps the real question is who is the enemy here?” she said pointedly.
Misha lifted her chin. “Believe what you will. If you’re not interested then I’ll—“
“No, I’m ... interested. Of course I am.” If she followed her around for a bit then maybe she’d find Baron. Even better maybe Misha would tell her. She slid off the table and stepped back out into the corridor with the other woman before she asked Misha, “Where is Baron?”
The werewolf-dragon hybrid looked up at a camera stationed over the doorway, before she turned her back on it and said softly, “He’s in the interrogation room.”
Piper’s heart picked up speed, her belly pulling tight. “Where is that?”
“You will see soon enough. Come, walk with me. You don’t want to draw even more attention.”
Aware of the cameras blinking lights along the ceiling of the corridor, she nodded and followed Misha’s graceful walk. The other woman was probably no bigger than five foot three, yet her long-limbed grace gave the impression she was much taller.
Piper pushed back a whole lot of anger and asked, “Why didn’t you bring us here in the first place instead of the stone cottage?”
Misha blew out a disbelieving breath. “This cold, sterile place doesn’t exactly encourage passionate lovemaking.”
“While the cottage with its own bathroom and bedroom did,” Piper finished flatly.
“Exactly.”
“So you had plans to take me here all along, what were you going to do with Baron?”
Misha shrugged. “He would have ended up here too eventually, I’m sure. They’d want him to keep breeding with you and make lots of dragon babies. Before that though there would be a lot of information they would have extracted from him.”