“We will not forget this,” I said, including Arianna in this.
“I understand,” Jack said and gave me a gentle shove that still spilled me on my ass far away from the closing door.
“Ni hao.” A Chinese woman uncoiled from a large bed in one corner of the room. She was dainty, with ankle-length black hair that hung loose. Silver bells tied in some braided strands tinkled when she walked. She wore peacock-colored silk robes and platform sandals and moved with a lethal grace. She smelled like tiger lilies and peach schnapps. A Queen. Not one of the five, because I didn’t recognize her. “I’m Mei Hua.”
“Carolyn.” I waved. “Why aren’t you in dragon form?” There was certainly enough room in here.
“Why aren’t you?”
“I can’t yet.”
“You’re close,” she said. “I remember how it was before my first shift.”
“Can you shift? Can you fight?”
“Fighting is futile. It hurts less in this form.” She crouched down beside me and helped me to my feet.
I didn’t ask what hurt less. She had delicate hands that still possessed the power of a dragon. “Do you know Joachim?”
She gave a sad smile and nodded. “Did Joachim offer you a chance to remain human?”
“It was too late for me.”
“That’s too bad. I wish I had taken him up on his offer.” She gave a shuddering sigh. “I would have been poor and hungry, but I would have been able to see the sun at least.”
“How long have you been here?”
“A few years. I’ve lost count.” She shook her head and walked toward a table set in the corner of the cavernous room. “Would you like something to eat? Some tea?”
I was exhausted, but I had to eat to keep up my strength. “Please,” I said. To my surprise it was a brisk green tea that exploded flavor in my mouth.
“Nothing but the best,” she said bitterly. “There are robes in the closet if you wish to get out of those rags.”
I stared down at my wind-ravaged clothes. I’d managed to ruin yet another set of designer garb. The robes sounded warm, and I dug around until I found one that was a heaver silk. Dragons liked silk. Most of them wore nothing else.
“Are you the only one here?” I asked.
“Not anymore.” She smiled and refilled my cup. I was feeling much better once I changed and had a chance to slow down and enjoy the second cup of tea.
“There are burritos and chalupas on the dais, if you’re hungry.”
“So you’ve had a lot of time to plan your escape?” I asked with my mouth full. My plan was eating as much spicy food as possible to fuel up my breath weapon and then running like hell through the aftermath.
“There is no escape,” Mei Hua said. “Even if you could power by the guards that come in to replace the food and chamber pots…”
My nose wrinkled in disgust, but I figured it was too much to ask for indoor plumbing in a temple.
“Or the dragons that come to rut. They rarely let down their guard, and you would find yourself in a maze. A maze filled with enemies and men who may have never had sex with a woman of their species.”
I flinched at her emotionless honesty, but I wasn’t ready to give up. “Let’s say you were paying attention and counted how many stairs to the top of the pyramid. And let’s say you were lucky enough not to run into any more guards. How would you get off the top? Could you fly us?”
“They cut my wings.” Grief shook her entire body. “It was the only reason I wanted to become a dragon. I wanted to fly.”
“That’s terrible,” I said.
“Could you carry us?”
“No, I can’t fly on command yet. Maybe if I have another dream and I shift in the dream, you and I can get out.” My shoulders slumped.
“What is it?”
“I’m a Western dragon. I’ll never get my fat butt up the stairs.” Then a thought hit me. “But maybe we don’t have to take it that far. All we have to do is make enough of a racket so the Queen or those loyal to her see what’s going on.”
“My dear,” she said. “It is the Queen who brought us here.”
I stopped eating because my stomach was churning enough with that statement. “Why?”
“Because she’s tired of servicing every stud that wants his eggs to hatch. She wants all the luxury and none of the work. She has her select few and then she takes the others that don’t please her as much and brings them down here.”
“Surely there are some dragons who won’t do it.”
“Not so far,” Mei Hua said and gestured to a silken nest where there were three eggs. “I think one of them is a girl. I can’t imagine what will happen to her. Yet.” She trailed her fingernails over the eggs. They were the size of a bowling ball, but looked lighter. “I can’t bring myself to smash them. It’s my fault. I should have listened to Joachim.”
The door opened again, and Jack came in carrying a duffel bag.
“Was he one of them?” I pointed.
Mei Hua shook her head.
“Jack, listen to me.” I ran over to him. “You have to know this is wrong. You have to see it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“I’m sorry, Carolyn.”
“You’re innocent right? This is a sting operation you and Reed cooked up to expose Esmeralda and all the other dragons. Right, Jack?” I tried to shake him, but he was too big. “How could you?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Explain it to me.”
“Some other time.” He leaned his head in to kiss me and then caught my hand when I went to crack him one again.
“She has eggs.” I pointed.
Mei Hua hissed and crouched defensively over them.
A muscle in Jack’s jaw twitched. He dropped the duffel bag and walked out. I did a flying leap on his shoulders, and it occurred to me as I hung there, what the heck was I going to do now?
He sighed and his shoulders shook.
“It’s not funny, asshole.”
“If you wanted a piggyback ride, all you had to do was ask.”
“No thanks. I’ve had just about enough of riding you.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Oh, Jack why did you have to be a traitor?” I slid off his back, burying my face in my hands. I would not cry.
He didn’t turn around as he went out the door.
I peered into the duffel back. More clothes. A decent pair of sneakers and a thick hardcover book. I sat down and pulled the book out. It was an old history book, with a gilded edge. No, not gild. Gold.
“What the heck?” I opened it up and gasped at the sacrilege. Someone had glued the pages together, but cut out a small rectangle in the center. I started to splutter in indignation when I realized a cell phone was inside the rectangle. There was no way I was going to get cell reception in the middle of a pyramid in a heavy jungle canopy. And they shouldn’t have vandalized a book like that. But I turned on the phone and pulled up the antenna.
“What’s that?” Mei Hua said.
“I think it summons the cavalry.” I pressed redial, but nothing happened. “Maybe it’s a tracking device. Or maybe it’s Jack fooling around.” But I didn’t think so. The gold on the book was a big clue. “I really don’t like the idea of sitting sweetly and waiting to be rescued.”
“It’s better than the alternative,” she said. “What happens if you try to escape and you miss your own rescue?”
She had a point, but I hated waiting.
“Well, I guess we should get you packed,” I said after a few moments.
“Why?
“Because we’re going to be rescued,” I said. “We need to make sure your eggs are secure.”
“They’ll never let us out. That tracker is to show more males how to get in here to us. To me, really, as they won’t bother with you until your first shift.”
“That’s a depressing thought,” I said. “The question is how big of an asshole is Jack?”
“He’s a dragon,
right?”
I glanced around the large stone room. There weren’t any windows and just the one door. There were a few large beds and an area on the floor covered with thick furs and cushions. I eased over to one of the beds and sank down. As far as beds go, if I wasn’t in a forced-sex cell, this might have been the best mattress I’ve ever sat on.
“How many eggs have you had?” I asked.
Mei Hua closed her eyes. “About ten. She takes them from me just before they’re hatched and gives them to the father for his secrecy.”
“Were any of them girls?”
“I hope not. If so, she’ll suffer the same fate as me when she’s older.”
“Not if I can help it,” I promised.
“How can you help? You’re stuck here with me.”
“Joachim never stopped searching for you.”
“He never found me.”
“Well, now he’s got the dragon embassy on his side. We’ll get out of here.”
She smiled at me, and I got the impression she was humoring me. “I’m going to get some rest. You should, too.”
“Right,” I said. “We have to be ready for our rescue.”
Someone had to have seen us flying. I fretted a bit more, but in the end, the effects of flying bareback on a dragon was hell and I fell into a deep sleep.
Mei Hua shifting into dragon form woke me. It was a little creepy in the dark, but with my new eyes I could see her clearly. She was vicious with sharp teeth and a wild black mane, and scales black and red so dark it resembled dried blood. Her large eyes were feral and scared as she paced by her nest.
Sounds of battle were going on above us.
“We’re getting out of here,” I said. “I told you they would come for us.”
“You go. I can’t leave my eggs unguarded.”
“Take them with you.” I had already dressed in the clothes and shoes Jack had brought, and tossed her the duffel bag. She reached her claw into the nest and pulled out a beautiful dark blue egg. After wrapping it in one of the silk robes, she placed it in the duffel bag and handed it to me.
“That’s the girl. I feel it. Take her out of here.”
“Mei Hua, she should stay with you.”
“No.” Mei Hua shook her head. “I want her to have a chance I can’t have. Protect her and bring her to Joachim. He’ll know what to do.”
“Okay,” I said and cradled the duffel bag close to my body. “I’m leaving the phone with you. Hide it and we’ll find you. I promise.”
“Do not make promises you cannot keep.”
“I don’t,” I said and tried the door. It was locked. “Well that was anticlimactic,” I said just as the door was ripped off its hinges.
Reed stood there.
“I knew you’d come.” I threw my arms around his neck. “Is Jack with you?”
“Are you Mei Hua?” Reed ignored me. “I’ve come to take you back to Joachim.”
I let go of Reed. It shouldn’t matter he didn’t come for me. It was the end result that counted, right? An explosion shook the corridor.
“Let’s go. Now,” he said.
“Here, Mei Hua, let’s put all your eggs in the duffel bag,” I said.
Mei Hua shifted back to human and we layered the eggs with silk robes inside the bag carefully. She gave them to me to carry.
“I’m too valuable for them to let go easily. You’re the lesser threat.”
“Move it, ladies,” Reed said and led us down another flight of stairs.
“Uh, Reed, not that I’m feeling ungrateful, but aren’t we going the wrong way?”
“There’s too much resistance that way.” He pointed up the stairs. “And too much chance of being in an aerial battle. Unless you want to fight your way out instead of sneaking out?”
“No,” I said. “Sneaking works for me.”
“Then we go out underground.”
“You know this is extremely creepy, right?”
“What part? Me rescuing you?”
“No, the cobwebs. Gross. Those spiders are the size of my head.”
“They make good eatin’,” he said.
“Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”
“Fine, my Queen.”
“How did you find us?”
“We followed up on a suspicion.”
“And used me for bait?”
“It wasn’t my first choice, but you did say you wanted to be more involved in the investigation. We didn’t fill you in because we wanted it to appear authentic.”
“Then Jack is still one of the good guys.”
“Yes,” Reed said.
Arianna uncoiled around me and a fierce, radiant joy filled me. “I could kiss you.”
“You will,” Reed said.
Mei Hua gripped my hand tightly.
“It’s all right,” I told her. “Reed is one of the good guys, too.”
We hit the last corridor, and he hustled us down it, impervious to my screams when rats peeked out the walls and spiders launched themselves as we broke their webs. I screeched and batted at my hair, whimpering slightly when I crushed one and got spider guts all over my hand. Mei Hua breezed through them, letting the spiders crawl over her.
When we came to a barred wooden door, Reed just put his shoulder to it and it splintered. The jungle night beyond was black like a void and colder than I thought it would be. I could feel the legs of a thousand creepy crawlies, but I breathed in freedom. Mei Hua started to weep quietly beside me.
“Mei Hua change. I’ll carry Carolyn, and we can fly out of here.”
“She can’t,” I blurted out. “Her wings are cut.”
Reed swore so viciously in dragon Mei Hua flinched back from him.
“He’s not mad at you,” I said.
“I can carry you both.”
“No,” Mei Hua said. “I’d rather walk for a bit. I want to feel the earth under my feet.”
I stared up in the sky. “And I want to avoid the dragon soup up there. We’ll be less visible this close to the ground.” I could see many wings blotting out the stars and moon.
“Are there fierce animals out here?” Mei Hua asked
“If there is, it’s going to be one surprised jaguar,” I said.
We trudged through the thick jungle, Reed slashing with his knife before he gave up and shifted and just cleared the path with his bulk. I worried about leaving a Reed-sized trail to follow, but for right now, the sky battle was taking precedence.
“Do you think there are any snakes?” I asked. The spiders were bad. The rats had been worse, but I drew the line at snakes.
“They won’t harm you,” Reed said.
“Oh, you’ve spoken to their representative then?”
“You are a serpent, too,” he said.
“There’s no need to be nasty.”
“You can get on my back if that would make you feel better. You both can.”
I was about to protest, but Mei Hua scrambled up and reached down for her eggs. I handed her up her eggs and decided that being on top of a massive black dragon was probably safer.
“Don’t you dare fly,” I told him.
“As my Queen commands,” he said drily and lumbered along like a dinosaur until we found the road.
“Reed, what if the cultists are out tonight?”
“They will have noticed the sudden activity.”
I want my tiara back, Arianna said and Mei Hua turned around to peer at me.
“Is there someone else here?” she asked.
“It’s a long story.”
Headlights appeared in the distance.
“Is that friend or foe?” I asked.
“Most likely,” Reed said.
Smart ass. “Who did you bring here?”
“The Connecticut embassy.”
“The whole embassy?”
“Against my mother’s army. Yes. Now quiet. My scales won’t reflect, so let’s see what’s coming to visit.”
It was another Mexican army jeep and Reed ov
erturned it with a mighty blow. He followed it up with a great roar that had the two soldiers in it running for cover. Flipping it back over, he lowered his neck to the ground.
“Ladies, your chariot awaits.”
Mei Hua and the eggs rested in the back and I rode shotgun with Reed as he hauled ass toward Cancun, which was as far away from Esmeralda’s keep as you could get and still be in Mexico.
Reed slammed on the brakes.
“What?” I nearly shrieked at him.
He pointed up. At first I couldn’t see it. Then a falling mass came closer to earth. A Quetzalcoatl. “Why isn’t he flying?”
When a Western dragon came into view, fire erupted from his throat. It lit up the night sky and engulfed the Quetzalcoatl in flames.
“Is he going to hit us?”
“No,” he said
“Then why did we stop?”
Still burning, the Quetzalcoatl hit the ground near the path we’d made out of the fortress. The jungle started to catch fire, but the liquid in the plants soon put it out.
“That was your kidnapper. He will not bother you again,” Reed said.
I hitched in a breath and couldn’t say anything while he drove away. I kept craning my neck up to see if there were any other falling dragons.
“How did you find us?” Mei Hua said into the awkward silence.
“Joachim and Zhang compared notes. We weren’t entirely sure you were here, but when Bernardo”—Reed gestured back to the flaming dragon—“approached Jack about kidnapping Carolyn in return for breeding rights, we knew he had to have a Queen backing his play. He would have never risked it if he hadn’t.”
“How could she trap Mei Hua when her own daughter was kidnapped?” I asked.
“I believe Mei Hua’s fate is what she would have had planned for Arianna if Niall wasn’t aware of her birth.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“My mother has very select morals.”
“I suppose it’s too soon to tell if she’s been stealing other dragons’ hoards?”
“She was the prime suspect. Her hoard is eclectic, full of fine arts and jewels. But when we sent our agents in they found nothing out of the ordinary except for activity going to and from Mei Hua’s cell on a daily basis.”
“Every day?” I gasped at Mei Hua.
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