Disappointment hit me like a fist in the gut. That’s all this was then. A ghost of a dragon had been controlling my thoughts, flying in my dreams because she was trapped within the walls of my house. I was no more a dragon than Jane was.
I blinked back tears. This wasn’t about me. Right now, it was about finding Niall’s daughter and giving her soul peace.
“Just let me gather a few things first.” Things I couldn’t replace. My scrapbooks, my notes for my journal, my laptop and files were what I would need to take with me. I pulled out a suitcase and filled it with seven of my favorite outfits, then grabbed another suitcase and filled it with books. Maybe I would use this as an excuse to get an ereader. I might even hit Niall up for a raise to cover the cost. I emptied the clothes out of the first suitcase and crammed more books in.
Where was I going to go?
My knees wobbled at the seriousness of the situation and I sat on the floor before I fell down. This was my home. It was my island of independence from my parents and obnoxious brother.
“Isn’t there another way?” I asked, but no one was listening to me.
Dragons took what they wanted. And humans let them.
Defeated, I thumbed through a copy of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I escaped to Barsoom for a few minutes and when I came back to Earth I was centered.
Reed found me sniffling over another pile of books. “What are you doing?” He had recovered his composure and government-spook detachment.
“Nothing.” I wiped my hand over my eyes. “I just can’t decide which ones to take and I’ve run out of suitcases.”
“Carolyn.” Reed sank down on one knee next to me. “My sister is buried in an unhallowed grave under this house.”
“No wonder she was haunting me.” I hiccupped and tried to stop another rush of tears. I wasn’t a dragon. I had just been possessed by one. “Where will I go now? I don’t want to live with my parents. Or…” A shudder ripped through me. “My brother.”
Reed pulled me to my feet. “I will not see you homeless and destitute. All that you have will be restored. Now, come on.”
I don’t know why, but I believed him. His hand in mine felt right.
We stared at each other. His face registered shock. He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. It was better than Jack’s kiss. “I will make this up to you.” His voice rang as if he was saying a vow to me.
“How many freaking books do you have?” Jack said, coming back from depositing a load in the car.
Reed sprang away from me as if I zotted him with a cattle prod. I had a moment to miss his touch before my attention went to my bookshelf.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said and tore my pillows out of their cases. I stuffed each one full. I didn’t have any clothes, but my book collection was safe. That was all that mattered, now that Reed said he would find me another place to live. The tension eased a bit from my pounding head.
Reed gathered up the copier boxes of books and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the wall going into my bathroom. “Niall, you need to see this,” he said. He stared at the burned wallpaper and then slowly turned back to me. His nostrils flared, scenting me. He shook his head in disbelief.
“Come on Carolyn,” Niall said, coming into the bedroom. “You have to come with us.”
“I wasn’t planning on sitting in here while you two destroy the house around me.” I had the sniffles down to a random snivel.
Reed gestured my boss over to the wall that had the damage from my burping. I had forgotten that piece of evidence in all the drama. But perhaps that was also Arianna working her magic, like the blood on the wall, and maybe it would disappear once she was at peace.
“My dear,” Niall said. “You’re about to shift into a dragon.”
Chapter Four
The Fourth Rule of Dragons: If someone steals your hoard or your Queen, you live for revenge
I’m going to shift! I’m going to shift! I floated down the stairs of my house for the last time and didn’t even bother to look back. Not even when the sound of crushing lumber and cement broke me out of my trance.
Jack steered me out of the way of stray debris. My bed frame hit the driveway and bounced into kindling. “Come on,” he said. “I’m going to take you to your office where you can drop off your hoard for the time being.”
“I don’t have a hoard,” I snorted.
He held up a hard cover copy of the Simarillion. I snatched it away from him.
“Oh, I’m sorry, that was rude,” I said.
“You have a dragon’s instincts. I’m glad you didn’t bite my hand.”
“It’s not your hand I want to bite,” I said. Gah! Where did that come from? I didn’t want to bite anyone. I wanted to curl up on a couch—anyone’s couch—with a good book and maybe a big glass of wine while I tried not to think that I was homeless.
“I’m sorry we don’t have time for that right now.” He took me by the hand, and we made the quick trip back to the hangar to unload my entire life into my office. It was rather depressing that it all fit. We had to stack the debris from Niall and Reed’s pissing match in one corner first, just to be able to move around.
While we were stacking books, Jack’s cell phone rang.
“What…? Okay.” He hung up. “Niall wants you to bring his laptop and the notes you printed out this morning.”
“Speaking of hoards,” I muttered and gathered up what Niall needed.
“Anything else?” Jack asked, his hand on the light switch.
I looked around the hangar. “What’s going to happen to me, Jack?”
“I don’t know, but you won’t have to go through it alone.”
I took two books out of the pile and added them to the shopping bag of keepers I couldn’t bear to be parted with, then climbed back into Reed’s car for the return trip.
There was nothing left of my home but wires and matchsticks. The neighbors were out front, chatting happily amongst themselves. The video footage of the rampage would make someone very rich. I was a little depressed over the destruction, but not devastated. Now that I knew my books were safe, it didn’t matter what had happened to the house. Maybe that was the dragon part of me coming out, but the thought of being homeless didn’t scare me as much as losing one of my books. The attachment to my hoard wasn’t surprising. I had always been possessive of my books. Still, I looked over at the rubble; it had been a nice house.
After the destruction, Reed and Niall changed back into their human forms. It was like watching a butterfly emerge from the cocoon, only in reverse. Jack stared down anyone who thought of picking up their camera. “No pictures.”
As Jack and Reed did crowd control, I went over to Niall. He had one of my velvet dresses on the ground and I saw tiny bones spread out on it. I lay my hand on his shoulder, and he put his over mine and squeezed.
“She’s silent now,” he said. “She had much to say to us once we found her. Her death fueled the spell that is stopping the Queens from shifting.”
“Don’t worry, Carolyn,” Reed said coming up to us. “We’ll end it. She’s given us a starting place to look for the cult that did this.”
“How old was she?” The bones could have belonged to a small dog, if it wasn’t for the wings.
“They did the sacrifice shortly after they took her. They couldn’t afford to keep her alive. She would have been noticed. But her spirit developed and grew because the cultists left her blood and bones in this place. It doesn’t make sense. They could have made a fortune selling her off part by part, even back then.” Niall’s voice was devoid of emotion, but it was frightening. He didn’t sound remotely human. And I could see the Great Wyrm in his eyes.
“The parts would have been traced back to them,” Reed said. “They wouldn’t have remained hidden for so long.”
Niall nodded. “And they didn’t cast any spells except the one that killed her and bound her to this place.”
“So the perpetrators are long gone.” That made
me angry. Someone deserved to pay for this.
“But their spell lived on. Once we get Arianna to our graveyard, it may break whatever ritual they applied,” Niall said.
“Do you know what ritual?”
“No, but I’m hoping to find some in the library at Reed’s Headquarters. If not, I may have to go to Europe.” He made a face. “Lerisse is in Paris this time of year, and there will be no eluding her.”
Lerisse was a Chinese dragon of mixed nationalities with a sophisticated guise as Frenchwoman who did a lot of work in human charities. Niall tended to avoid the Queens whenever possible, mumbling something about having done his duty and now he wanted to be left alone.
We all piled into Reed’s Lincoln Town Car that Jack and I brought over.
“Where are we going? To the super-secret headquarters?”
“It not really super secret anymore if we tell you. But we’re going to New York,” Jack said. “To Reed’s office until we can get you settled somewhere permanent.”
I glanced at the rubble where my house once was. If that was the cost of being a dragon, I’d pay it. Niall peered out the window and suffered in silence while I slid into the backseat with him. Reed drove, even though he was still seething with anger. Jack had shotgun and promptly fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway.
“I suppose you want to discuss your living arrangements,” Reed said once the trip was well on the way.
I glanced up from my book, irritated. I didn’t get carsick reading, and I hated to be interrupted. “Not especially. You said you would handle it.” It was getting to the good part where the dragon swooped in the save the maiden. I closed the book. I was in a car with three dragons. That made me the maiden fair. I probably should pay more attention.
“I have a ranch in Texas and a villa in the south of Spain you are welcome to have.”
Sweet. Too bad I didn’t speak Spanish.
“We need to establish her territory here in Connecticut,” Niall said, rousing from his thoughts with a troubled frown. “Esmeralda will not want her in Texas. It’s too close to her seat of power in Mexico. I doubt Lerisse will welcome Carolyn in Spain either.”
“Why do you call Esmeralda, Iron Britches?”
Jack opened his eyes and turned around in his seat to glare at me. Reed glared at him. Niall cleared his throat.
“Esmeralda is on a breeding hiatus,” Niall began.
“She’s refusing to become pregnant?” I asked. “Is that a problem?”
“It is when you are only one of five creatures who can propagate the species,” Niall said drily.
“How many litters has she had?”
“One a year for the last thousand years.”
Ugh, that was almost as much as the Duggars. “I think she deserves a bit of a break, don’t you?”
No one answered me.
“I mean you can’t expect the Queen to just pop out babies as her sole purpose.”
“That is their sole purpose,” Jack said.
I blinked. It never occurred to me. “You said they rule territories. Rule over all the dragons. I thought that’s what they did.”
“In part,” Jack said. “But our race would die out without them breeding. So she needs to conceive in the near future.”
“She’s well compensated,” Niall assured me.
“Esmeralda has proven she can hatch a girl child with Arianna. We need her to keep trying until we get another female. We’re getting desperate.”
“Well, maybe it’s not her but you,” I said. “In humans it’s the man who determines the sex of the child.”
“I’ve not had relations with Iron…oof.” Jack grunted as Reed punched him in the mouth, without taking his eyes off the road.
“She is still my mother,” Reed said. “And one of our greatest Queens. Show her the respect she deserves.”
Jack rubbed his jaw.
“What I mean is, maybe Niall needs to…um”—I glanced over at him—“you know. In order to get another girl dragon.”
“Esmeralda will not have me again,” Niall said. “Nor am I inclined to try with another Queen. I’d had enough of the court politics when I was younger.”
“Besides he’s so old, his mojo probably won’t fire.”
That earned Jack another sock in the jaw. He turned around in defeat.
“My mojo is none of your concern,” Niall said. “I find this whole conversation distasteful. Esmeralda is the Brood Mother. It is her right to request a respite. However, even if she isn’t receiving male visitors, she is still the only female dragon in North America. She hasn’t had to share territory since she emigrated before the Pilgrims arrived.”
“I’m sorry. This whole situation has my head spinning.” I leaned against the window. The cool glass was soothing on my face. My eyes drifted shut. Maybe this was just another crazy dream and I’d wake up naked on my neighbor’s roof—since I didn’t have one of my own anymore.
“We’ll discuss it later,” Reed said. “Try and get some rest.”
I wasn’t sleepy, but I was tired of being strong and let myself drift.
They must have thought I was asleep because after a while Jack broke the silence with, “Those drakes at the embassy were after Zhang’s hoard.”
“What?” Reed said.
“I tried to call you, but you were busy,” Jack said.
“I’ll look into it,” Reed said. “But it’s unlikely they got anything. Zhang is very capable with his online security.”
“Do dragons usually steal from other dragons?” I asked, opening my eyes.
Reed and Jack exchanged a glance, and when it was obvious they weren’t going to respond, Niall spoke up. “Not usually.”
“This is classified information,” Reed said.
“What can be more secure than a car traveling along the highway?” Jack asked him.
“She’s in the car. We do not share our politics with a human.”
“I’m going to shift soon,” I reminded him. At least I hoped so.
“Not if we don’t break the curse. That might not happen in your lifetime.” Reed met my eyes in the rearview mirror.
“It has to,” I said, my voice shaking. I couldn’t be this close.
“Why does it matter?” Jack asked. “You already told me becoming a Queen wasn’t for the studs, and you don’t seem the type to seek out the fame.”
I couldn’t take my eyes from Reed’s. How was he even driving when all his attention was on me? “Have you ever felt that half of you was asleep?”
“Every Monday,” Jack said.
It broke the tension and Reed looked away. I rubbed my eyes. “There’s always been something missing in my life. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve been ridiculed since puberty that I was just a dragon struck bretzche bait.” I tossed Reed’s word back at him because I missed the presence of his eyes on me. When he looked at me, I felt grounded and safe.
“You are too old to shift,” Reed said.
Same old song and dance.
“Maybe females shift later in life?” Jack gave me a reassuring smile.
Reed shook his head. “I have too many doubts. You could have been influenced by Arianna.”
“All my life?” I was suddenly sick of this whole situation. I was tired of being told I was over the hill and crazy. “Then let me out,” I said.
Reed stared at me in the mirror. “What? We’re on the highway.”
A stabbing sensation hurt in my chest. “I don’t know what more proof I can give you.” I would not let him see me cry.
“That’s why we’re going to the dragons’ labs and our scientists will figure out what has stopped you from transforming,” Niall said.
“I’m not making this up!”
“I believe you,” Niall said.
“I believe you,” Jack said.
Reed was silent.
“Pull over,” I said.
“Carolyn,” Niall said. “Be reasonable.”
“There’s a rest stop com
ing up in a few miles. Let me off there, and I’ll find my own way home.” Of course I didn’t have a home, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Reed said and locked the car. Like I was going to jump out of a speeding car in the middle of I-95.
“Why not?”
Niall cleared his throat and placed a warning hand on my knee.
“Why is he bringing me to the lab, if he thinks I’m full of shit?”
“I never said that,” Reed said.
“Because, dear, he’s not a hundred percent sure. If you are the world’s first female to shift and he let you out alone at a rest stop, his career and his status in the dragon community would be ruined.”
“I don’t care,” I said.
“That’s obvious,” Reed said.
“So what happens if I get a magic shot from your scientists and wake up tomorrow in my dragon form?”
“Reed will apologize, and we will all help you build your fortress,” Niall said.
“I don’t want a fortress. I have a house.” I stopped. Oh yeah. Nothing like being homeless to realize how much you had to rely on the kindness of stranger. “I had a house.” I forced a smile. They weren’t going to see me moping.
Niall frowned. “You wouldn’t have been able to stay there anyway. Without proper security, you could be kidnapped by dragons who would want to keep you for themselves.”
“Like those two drakes,” Jack said.
“You need to be isolated and protected for your own good,” Reed said.
“I’m not ever leaving this lab, am I?” I asked.
“Now, you’re being paranoid,” Reed said.
“Doesn’t mean that everyone is not out to get me.”
“Only if you’re a Queen,” he muttered under his breath.
“Better hope I’m not,” I muttered back. “Because the chance of you getting laid is getting slimmer all the time.”
“What about me?” Jack said.
“Oh crap, was that out loud again?”
Niall closed his eyes and sighed.
They didn’t mention this part in the tabloids. It was all parties and diamonds, flying to exotic locations and eating sheep. I wasn’t just going to be a dragon. I was going to be a mother. Over and over again. With men I didn’t even know. I wished I had a paper bag because I was going to hyperventilate.
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