by Lucy Lyons
“Yeah, sure,” said Ryan. “He’s more concerned about a defense contract.”
“Regardless, he is your father. You owe him your respect.”
“Lady, you have no idea what you are talking about.” He moved toward a car, a red Jaguar convertible two-seater, and keyed open the door.
“I’m sure your father does not want you to leave.”
“Too bad,” said Ryan as he entered the car. He fired up the engine as the garage door opened and Steph had to act fast. She rushed to the car and jumped into the front passenger seat with a thud.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Wherever you go, I go,” she said.
“Suit yourself,” said Ryan. He put the car into reverse and squealed out of the garage, and then as they cleared those doors, he threw the car into drive and pulled the car into a steep 180-degree turn. Steph bounced against the passenger side door as she jerked the seat belt into place on her body and snapped the buckle into place.
“Are you a maniac?” she yelled.
“Apparently,” said Ryan. His eyes smoldered with anger as he accelerated the car to race down the gravel driveway of the Kaur Estate. The Jaguar had a smooth ride, but the gravel flew around them. Stephanie thought it was a shame that the paint would get peppered by flying pieces of stone. It was a beautiful car, far beyond anything she would be able to afford. Steph’s initial impression of Ryan Kaur as a spoiled brat was confirmed by his abuse of this magnificent machine.
At the open iron gates at the entrance of the estate Ryan made a hard right onto the country road that threw Steph against the center console that held the stick shift. In the Marines Steph was trained to handle life and death situations, but this man was absolutely reckless. He turned his head to smile at her.
“Having fun?” he yelled above the roar of the wind in her ears.
She rolled her eyes. Steph had more fun on ten km runs with a full field pack. But by the look in Ryan’s eyes he was not caring about her fun quotient. He was deliberately trying to frighten her, which wasn’t going to work.
“Please,” she said trying to look unaffected by his antics. But this only encouraged Ryan to push limits, and he shifted the sports car into high gear. He utterly focused on the road ahead, anticipating the twists of the tiny country road. In a moment of madness Steph found his concentration and command of the road entrancing. The wind swept his straw colored hair into an unruly mess, and his tanned hand moved effortlessly on the stick. She got the sensation that the man and the machine were one, and she was in no actual danger even if he wanted to make it seem they were.
Steph laughed and broke Ryan’s concentration a second when he glanced at her. Although Steph affected a serious demeanor she was a dare devil at heart, just as her father and brothers were, and the road flying under them reminded her of that. From leaping with her brothers from their tree house, to deploying in Afghanistan to an artillery unit, she always pushed the limits of what she could do.
But Ryan Kaur was still a spoiled brat for all his mastery of the road. In the Marines, his attitude would be trained out of him within weeks. One thing she learned in the service was that the ones with the brashest attitudes were the first ones to break. She was sure Ryan Kaur would break with the first hard challenge he faced. Watching him take the road she understood Ryan Kaur now. He was the man who had everything, but more than that, everything he did came easily to him. It was evident he wasn’t just handsome with an athlete’s body, but he was too damn smart for his own good. Kaur probably figured he had all the angles covered, and there was no situation he couldn’t handle.
Well, he didn’t know Stephanie Brooks. Ryan Kaur wouldn’t get the best of her.
And apparently, Kaur was determined that Steph wouldn’t get one over on him. He up shifted once again, pushing the car towards eighty on a road that one should only drive thirty at most. This was the backwoods of Connecticut where the hilly roads were barely wide enough for two lanes, and a sharp curve popped every hundred feet. The ride took on a rollercoaster effect, with Steph rising from her seat as they flew down every hill and pushed her back into her seat as they climbed the next one and then she was pushed into the door or the center console on the next sharp curve. Her hair whipped her face as the tires squealed as the rubber sought to keep hold of the blacktop. She didn’t dare to speak and break Ryan’s focus. Every bit of Ryan’s concentration went into navigating the road at this frenetic pace. She wondered which would happen first, he burning off his anger, or they going up in a flaming wreck.
The trees were close to the road; close enough to produce a whoosh, whoosh sound as they passed each one. Stone fences built by early colonists merged into a grey blur, and yet Ryan kept taking the road with a ferocity Steph would have appreciated if he was a comrade-in-arms. But he wasn’t. He was her charge, and she wasn’t doing a very good job of controlling the situation.
A flash of tawny brown appeared ahead, bounding over a stone fence and directly in the road. Steph’s heart leaped to her throat. Her military target training surged to the forefront, and she estimated the time to impact as mere seconds. The deer, though moving quickly wasn’t faster than the car. Things were moving in slow motion for Steph now. She glanced at Ryan, whose hands were moving to jerk the wheel of the car to the right, which was an instinctual move. But death was on the both sides of the road, from both the trees and the stone fences. Impact with either at an angle would certainly turn the car over and in a convertible that was certain death. Steph leaned and pushed the wheel to straighten it. If they were going to survive, it would only be if they hit the deer dead on. It would crumple the front of the car, but the impact would release the air bags, which would hopefully save them.
It was a thin hope.
Ryan looked into her eyes, and she saw understanding there. He down-shifted in one smooth move though that wasn’t likely to help much, not at this speed. Metal thudded into several hundred pounds of moving flesh and muscle, and the crash jarred every bone in Steph’s body. The air bags released in a hiss, slamming against her abused body, and stealing the breath from her. The world went dark.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ryan
Ryan’s heart thudded in his chest and his blood roared in his ears. The woman was absolutely right in steering the car into the beast. It was the only way they could come through this alive. Ryan’s hands gripped the wheel, forcing the vehicle to steer straight into the panicked animal and he took the kinetic force of the crash through his arms and torso. The Jaguar hit the deer with sickening force that shocked every bone in his body. The air bags hit both of them barely a second later, and Ryan watched her body fly backward from the force.
He wanted to scream but instead a roar erupted from him as intense pain shuddered through every bone in his body. But the shock of the crash was nothing compared to the utter confusion that gripped him as his clothes tore as his body expanded. The seat belt popped off, and he rose from the car stopped dead in the middle of the road, radiator steam spewing from the wrecked front end. The deer lay gasping, blood spewing from a gash in its side.
With his mind still clouded with the shock of the impact he acted solely on instinct. And that told him tear into the neck of deer with claw and tooth.
It wasn’t until he had meat in his mouth that it dawned on him that claws were not a normal state of affairs, and neither was tearing the flesh of an animal with his teeth. His eyes focused to find his hands were no longer hands, but scaly claws with sharp black talons. And as blood dribbled down his jaw, the raw meat in his mouth tasted absolutely delicious. He tore off another chuck as the beast stilled beneath him and chomped on it.
Ryan decided he must be hallucinating, or he was unconscious and having hellacious dreams. This wasn’t, couldn’t happen.
A groan reached his ears, and he saw the woman, Stephanie Brooks, still strapped in to the car. He tilted his head and studied the scene. Alarm raced through every nerve in his body. Not just steam but smoke s
treamed from the ruined Jaguar, and the heat radiating off it told him the engine was on fire.
He rushed to the side the car and ripped Stephanie’s seatbelt off her with one fluid motion. He was surprised at the ease with which he could do this, but found his claws at the wrong angle to lift her from the car. With the overriding thought that he needed to pull the woman from the car he rose and pulled her from the car with his powerful jaws. The acrid smoke grew thicker and flames now licked the edges of the ruined hood. Ryan was all too aware the engine could explode, and he had to get them both away from here.
Instinctually he clutched the woman in his claws. Ryan had snatched her away just in time. Fire now streamed over the top of the windshield and back toward the seats, torching them. The conflagration grew and then the engine exploded in a hail of fire and smoke as he moved higher from danger.
The heat from the blaze licked his body, and as he looked he was surprised to see his legs were now beefy, clawed haunches and a tail waved behind him. What’s more, when as he gazed at the car he was looking down, as if from an aerial view. If could chalk this up to drinking too much, he would have. But no, he hadn’t drunk anything at all today, and very little last night. He was as the saying went, sober as a judge.
Confounded, Ryan concentrated on the thing that made sense, the woman he gripped in his talons. Okay, the talon part didn’t make sense, but he was very concerned about her. She did not rouse from this rough handling and he worried that either the crash itself or this unusual form of transportation caused her harm. He had to get her medical care.
The tops of the trees were far below him now, and Ryan looked over his shoulder to see dusty blue wings coming from his shoulder. Okay, he was having grade A delusions now, and he probably wasn’t flying at all, or hadn’t saved the beautiful woman in his claws. He was probably burning up in his car.
Only he didn’t feel pain. Ryan felt wonderful. Gone were the constraints of his body, vanished was the sense he hadn’t fulfilled his potential. He was strong and powerful and he soared on the wind, free and unfettered by the chains of a mortal life.
This reminded him very much of hang gliding, a sport he partook of often. That was it. The shock of the crash befuddled his mind and all he was doing was taking to the air strapped into a glider’s frame.
He was hang gliding. That was the only explanation. Somehow, he was in a glider and holding onto the lovely Stephanie. What a treasure. The woman kept her head and saved them from death. Even though he was obviously very, very rattled, he did know that she did that.
Ryan spotted a four-lane highway and followed it. Highways meant towns, and he had to find the large town in this area. Below him sped the fields and clumps of forest, and then the spread of suburban houses and finally a cluster of taller buildings that proclaimed the existence of a town.
He banked and circled looking for the hospital. Finally, Ryan spotted the red cross of a hospital helipad. He followed a thermal in a downward spiral. This wasn’t so much different from hang gliding, an activity he greatly enjoyed. He found a shift of his body changed direction to move to the right, left or descend.
As gently as he could, he landed on the helipad. The faint smell of smoke wafted to his nose, and he turned his head to see a man in blue scrubs smoking a cigarette and wearing a look of terror staring at him. Ryan laid Stephanie down on the landing pad.
“She needs help,” he said.
But all that come out was a roar. The cigarette the man had in his mouth fell to the ground and he ran for the roof top door.
“Come back here,” ordered Ryan in a quieter voice. He obviously frightened the man who was standing at a pad at the entrance of the door. But while Ryan tried to speak in a calmer tone, all that come out of his mouth was several snorts.
“Get security here quickly,” the man croaked. “There’s a dragon on the roof.”
Dragon? Ryan whipped his head around looking for the offending beast. It wasn’t until he looked at a groaning Stephanie and spotted his own claws on either side of her head that the realization burst on him.
“Oh, fuck!” exclaimed Ryan came out as a trumpeting sound. He was the dragon. How on earth did this happen?
Other people crowded at the entrance of the rooftop door. They wore the same terrified expressions as the first man. In the first moment of clarity since the accident, Ryan understood that they wouldn’t move toward Stephanie unless he was out of the way.
“I’ll come back,” he said in a snort and unfolded his wings, flapping them to unfurl them.
“Take care of her,” he trumpeted though he doubted they could understand him. With a great leap from his powerful haunches he took to the air. He looked below to see the hospital personnel converge on Stephanie. At least he accomplished one thing. Now he had to find out what the hell was going on. And there was only one person he could get answers from.
Ryan honed onto his boyhood home and his family’s estate. The joy and marvel of flight made the trip all too brief. And he marveled at his much-improved eyesight. He could pick out different game from his aerial vantage and spot people in the spaces outside their homes. The level of detail he could make out was incredible. As he flew over his house, he could see every tile on the roof of the mansion, and could pick out the different flowers in the gardens splayed at the back of the building. Then Ryan spotted his father on the patio cell phone pressed against his ear.
He descended and landed with a loud thud on the grass just beyond the patio. The elder Kaur stared wide-eyed at Ryan, who for dramatic effect drew up on his haunches and spread out his wings. His father turned and scrambled for the patio door.
Ryan didn’t want his father to run, especially not when he was in this form and couldn’t follow him into the house.
“Stop!”
But instead of a roar his human voice filled the air.
“What the hell,” said his father. “Ryan, what is going on?”
Ryan looked down to see his human body perfectly naked. Relief coursed through him as he saw that he returned to human form though he had no idea how he did it. But he looked up again and fixed his gaze on his father.
“That’s what I came to ask you, father. When did you plan to tell me that I’m a dragon?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Steph
Steph woke to a pounding head, every muscle in her body aching and annoying electronic beeps around her, and plastic tubing in her arms. She struggled to grab hold of where she was and the reason why she would be here. Her mind worked the problem over and over until she remembered the hell ride with Ryan and the crash into a deer. Steph didn’t remember much after the sickening slam into the animal except that the air bags slammed into her chest and stole her breath. She must have blacked out at that point.
Ryan? What happened to him? She could only hope he came through the accident okay. She worried about him now. She fumbled for the call button for the nurse and finally found it.
“Good. You are awake. How do you feel?”
“Like I slammed into a wall. Which is pretty much what happened. How is Mr. Kaur?
“Sorry?”
“The man I was with. Ryan Kaur. Is he okay?
“You came in alone, Ms. Brooks.”
“Alone?
“Well, not exactly alone. A dragon dropped you off.”
“I know I had a blow to the head. You couldn’t have said dragon.”
“Yes, I did. He brought you to the helipad and then flew off. We don’t know who he is or where he went.”
“I think the medication you gave me is too strong.”
“We didn’t give you any medication. Except for some black and blues and a couple of bruised ribs you are fine. We are just keeping you for observation.
“I need a phone to call my employer.”
“There is one at the side of the bed.”
“Can you help me? I can’t seem to reach it.”
Steph called the office, but it was after hours and the answering service pi
cked up.
“This is Steph Brooks, one of the associates. I need to speak to Mr. Watins or if I can’t, his assistant Jared.”
“I’ll pass along the message,” said the operator.
Steph laid her head on the pillow after the call totally frustrated. The nurse couldn’t give her an answer as to when she would be released. Now she worried that Ryan was hurt, and no one was checking on him. She could only imagine what Mr. Watins would think about the whole thing. A good possibility existed that she lost her job because she couldn’t persuade Ryan to drive like a sensible person instead of a maniac.
A knock on the door snapped her out of her depressing reverie. Two men in suits stood in the doorway. At first she thought they were from her firm, but their suits weren’t tailored well enough to make them one of the elite lawyers of Peters, Watins and Roe.
“Ms. Brooks,” said one holding up a badge. “I’m special agent Darrell Rogers, and this is my partner Russell Pike. We are investigating your claim that a dragon brought you here.”
“It wasn’t my claim. I don’t know who brought me in. All I know is that I woke here after an upsetting day.”
“We’ve gone over the road you said you drove.”
Now Stephanie grew very alarmed. While she told her story to the doctors she hadn’t told anyone else.
“Doctor’s reports are confidential,” Steph said.
“Not when it comes to a matter of national security. Now tell me who this dragon is that brought you in.”
Steph’s jaw clenched as her lawyer instincts kicked in. “I told you. I don’t know. You can ask me a hundred more times, but I will give the same answer.”
“If you persist in obstructing justice, we’ll haul you in.”
“First,” said Stephanie, “you would need to prove I’m obstructing justice along with the crime I’m supposed to be covering up. I don’t see a crime here, agent, so just what the hell is going on?”
“I’m asking the questions here,” said Rogers.