He nodded, still breathing hard. He fingered a coin as he said, “This stuff was half buried and in leather bags that deteriorated when I tried to pick them up. There’s probably enough to fill two more suitcases down below. Tatiana wanted to find a new land badly, and she was willing to pay for it.”
“What do you want to do?” Pia asked. “You can dump out what’s in the suitcase, go back down and collect the rest of it now, if you want.”
He shook his head. “It’s not going anywhere. We can go back, and I’ll buy some containers to haul it all in.”
“Well, if you’re sure—” she began. The sat phone rang. She reached for it and clicked it on. “Hello?”
“It’s Eva.” Eva didn’t sound like herself, her voice harsh and ragged. “Liam’s gone.”
“What?” The words were perfectly audible, but they came out of nowhere, and they made no sense. Pia shook her head. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Liam is missing,” Eva said, enunciating carefully. “He’s missing, Pia. We put him down for a nap, and now he’s gone. The house was locked tight. Hugh stayed inside, and I walked the yard outside, but the window in his bedroom is wide open and he is fucking gone—”
“Oh my God.” Pia’s world bottomed out. The sat phone fell from her nerveless fingers.
Dragos didn’t need to ask what had been said; he had already heard it. His bronze skin turned ashen, his eyes stark.
Eva was still talking. The words sounded far away and small coming from the phone. As Pia reached for the phone, Dragos crouched and sprang into the air, leaping so hard the boat rocked wildly and knocked her back against the side. He shapeshifted in midair and snatched her up in one claw. He tore through the sky, his huge body straining as they arrowed back to the islands.
Pia went numb. She couldn’t feel her feet, or her lips. “The phone!”
Dragos said tensely, “I’m talking to her. They found Liam’s scent outside and followed it. It disappeared down the road. The man from the bar—not Merrous, the other one—his scent was at the spot where Liam’s stopped.”
“Oh God, oh God.” This reality was outrageous, nightmarish beyond belief. She screamed, “Are you telling me those bastards have my baby?”
The dragon growled and flew harder.
A hollow, roaring silence filled her mind. Time stopped and started in fitful spurts.
They reached the island and slammed to earth. Dragos shapeshifted again, but only partially. He was gigantic, monstrous, his face and muscles contorted, his hands long with lethally sharp talons.
Occasionally Wyr went into a partial shapeshift in times of extremity. At other times, some could even shapeshift small changes like bringing out their talons, but Pia had only seen Dragos caught in the monstrous half-shift once, when they had mated last year. In spite of her shock over Liam and how much she loved him, she almost recoiled from the sight.
But he was her mate, and she had never needed a monster more than she did right now. He snatched her hand, and they raced up the path.
***
As they neared the house, the dragon let go of Pia’s hand and lunged ahead, his long legs eating up the distance. He slammed through the door so hard it tore off its hinges, and he bounded up the stairs to his son’s bedroom. It looked serene, with nothing displaced. He scented everything carefully. Nobody had been in Liam’s room except for him, Pia, Eva and Hugh.
The window was wide open, and Liam’s scent was on the sill. He looked outside. Pia had run around the house and was talking to Eva and Hugh. The bodyguards’ bodies were tense, their eyes heartsick.
He leaped down the stairs and tore out of the house to join the others. Eva pointed to a spot in the road. “Liam’s scent starts here.”
He reached the spot and looked back at the house. He could see Liam’s open window. He raced to follow Liam’s scent to the place where it stopped, and he caught the human’s scent and followed that to where it stopped.
After that there was nowhere else to go. Feeling a rare sense of impotence and terror, he stood with his taloned fists clenched. They had gotten into a car. By now they could be on a boat.
And while Liam could understand a great deal, his verbal skills had not caught up with his comprehension. Dragos might be able to reach him telepathically, but he couldn’t reply.
Dragos could telepathize with someone else, though.
Merrous, said the dragon in a calm, quiet voice.
After a moment, Merrous gave a telepathic chuckle. Well, this is uncomfortable and unexpected, but surprisingly useful. I was going to send you a burner phone, but this works even better. I have something of yours.
He said, Prove it.
What do you want, a picture or a body part? Merrous laughed.
He had quite a sense of humor for a dead man. The dragon flexed his talons, and nearby, Eva and Hugh blanched. His voice grew gentler. Do you want the Sebille? Because you will never have it without me.
Merrous’s laughter vanished. He said venomously, Yes, I want the Sebille, and I want everything that went down with it. I presume you want this rug rat back. We’ll do an exchange.
When? he asked. Where?
I’ll let you know when I work something out. Now, stop talking to me, or someone is liable to get hurt.
Rage filled his body like burning acid. Dragos looked at Pia and the other two. They had been watching his face closely. “I just talked to Merrous. He says he wants an exchange, and he’ll get back to me once he decides when and where.” He paused as a sliver of rational thought sliced through the lava running through his mind. “He sounds too confident.”
Pia grabbed his arm, her fingers biting into his skin. “What do you mean?”
He shook his head as he thought it through. Instinct settled into certainty. “He knows we’re Wyr, so he has to have some idea of our tracking skills. Right now he thinks he can’t be tracked, which means he’s on a boat.”
Pia’s voice shook. “He can’t have gone too far, but there are a lot of boats out there.”
“There’s only one boat that will have their scents, so we cloak ourselves and go hunting.” He looked at Hugh. “I need you to fly out and check every vessel headed away from shore. If he’s thought this through at all, he will be expecting us to do that. I think he’s acting like someone fishing or on vacation. He’ll either be moored somewhere or he’s moving very slowly. He’ll be hiding in plain sight. We’ve got to move fast.”
“Right.” Hugh shapeshifted and launched.
“I need a gun,” Pia said. Eva shoved hers into Pia’s hands then drew a backup gun from an ankle holster.
“Let’s go.” Dragos shapeshifted, and the two women climbed on his back. Then he launched into the air too.
Chapter Ten
Liam was starting to feel sorry for himself.
It had been a strange and interesting day, and he had learned a lot. He had flown! Well, a little bit, anyway. And lizard’s tails were delicious. A man had given him his jacket, and had taken him on a car ride. Now he was on a boat. The man took his jacket back only to shove him quickly into a cage and slam and lock the door.
Liam sat and waited for something else to happen. Maybe Mommy and Daddy were on this boat, and they would come get him.
Nothing happened. Mommy and Daddy didn’t come, and the cage smelled like dog. The boat’s engine ran for a while then stopped, and they rocked with the waves.
Nobody came to play with him or bring him food. He had woken up hungry, and he only grew hungrier. And more thirsty.
After a while he looked around the cage. No blanket. No food. No bunny.
He heaved a big sigh and pushed at the door of the cage. When the lock sprang open, he walked out.
He explored the room. It was filled with interesting things like rope, metal tanks, boxes and tarps. Still nothing to eat or drink. He left the room and padded down a short hall. Voices sounded from another room. One of them was the man with the jacket. Liam didn’t know the other one.
Smoke wafted out of the room. His nose wrinkled. He didn’t want to visit with them anymore. He wanted Mommy.
There were stairs at the end of the hall. He climbed up, found himself on a deck and looked around. There were two more strange men in a cabin. He didn’t want to visit with them either, and shore looked awfully small. He eyed it doubtfully. It was much too far for him to fly. He started to realize just how far away Mommy might be.
His eyes filled. That was the saddest thing he had ever thought in his whole life.
Then another thought occurred to him. He had flown the farthest when he had been the highest—from the window of his room. Maybe if he climbed up to the top of the boat he could fly to shore.
He hopped and flapped and climbed. The boat had a motor, but it also had sails. He swarmed up the sail to the very top of the mast, and there he perched. He looked from the boat to land, and back to the boat.
Now he was very high in the air, but the shore still seemed awfully far away—too far away for him to fly. The boat rocked, and he flapped his wings to keep his balance on his small perch. He did not want to climb down and visit the men again. He couldn’t fly away.
He wasn’t sure because he’d only heard the word once before, but he thought he might be in a quandary.
***
While Hugh flew farther out to sea, Dragos swung to the nearest pier and dove low over each boat. Pia could feel the dragon’s body straining to move as fast as he could while still covering every boat thoroughly before he moved on to the next pier or the next boat that moved at a leisurely pace over the water. They caught wafts of scents from each one—people, alcohol, cooking food, and occasionally cigarette smoke, which was particularly odorous. Dragos always banked and swung around to double-check each boat that smelled like smoke.
She clenched her fists. This search was an excruciating gamble, but the alternative was to do nothing and wait, and that was unthinkable.
Eva sat behind her. “Pia, I don’t know what to say,” she said, her voice low and shaken. “I am so desperately sorry this happened. We did everything we usually do. Hugh swore he checked the room when he put Liam down for a nap, even though nobody had been in there since you got him up this morning. I swear to you, the house was locked up tight.”
Locked.
Pia’s head came up. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Dragos asked sharply.
“I was just wondering yesterday what talents or attributes he might have gotten from me.” She pressed her fists against her temples. “No lock can hold him. He did it himself. He climbed out the window, and he must have flown to the road.”
Dragos turned so sharply, both women rocked in their seats. In a burst of power, he drove away from the boats they had been circling and hammered through the air. “I see him.”
Pia’s heart leaped. Maybe there was a way out of this nightmare after all. “You see him—where?”
“He’s perched at the top of a mast, half a mile ahead.” A strange mélange of emotions threaded Dragos’s voice.
She shaded her eyes, squinting against the bright light. His predator’s eyes were much sharper than hers. She couldn’t see him.
“A quarter mile away now,” said Dragos. “Dead ahead.”
Then she caught sight of him. He was a small, white figure and from this distance looked very much like a large seagull, flapping his wings every once in a while as the boat rocked. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Oh, thank you, God.”
Thank you, thank you.
“Quiet now,” Dragos ordered. “We don’t have him yet.”
He slowed as he approached the boat, spread his wings and coasted. As they passed overhead like a mammoth ghost, he reached out with one forepaw and scooped Liam up with unerring accuracy. Pia caught a whiff of cigarette smoke as they passed.
Dragos put on a burst of speed. “Got him!”
The unbearable tension broke. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
“Hold on,” Dragos murmured gently. She wasn’t sure if he was talking to her, or to Liam. “We’re almost there.”
He flew straight to shore and landed on a nearby promontory. Pia fell off his back before he came to a full stop, and she landed jarringly on her hands and knees. She ignored the pain and shoved to her feet, turning to face Dragos as he opened up his paw.
Liam exploded out in a flurry of white wings. He arrowed straight toward her and slammed into her chest. She sprawled on the ground with the breath knocked out of her. She didn’t care. She didn’t need to breathe. She clenched him to her.
Hard, strong arms lifted her up, and Dragos held them both tight against his chest, his head bent over them. Liam lifted his snout and licked his father’s face with frantic enthusiasm.
The moment was too painful to be a happy one, too full of the terror of the last few hours, and she embraced it with her whole heart. She stroked Liam’s head, soothing him, and he voluntarily shapeshifted back into his human form and clutched her shirt with both hands.
After a few moments, Dragos lifted his head. His haggard face was damp. “I have a promise to keep.”
“Go,” she said. “Do it.”
He turned a murderous expression toward the boat, stood and walked away. Eva joined her as he shapeshifted into the dragon again and took off. The women watched the sun gleam off his powerful form.
Eva gripped her shoulder. “He isn’t cloaking himself. He wants them to see him coming.”
They were too far away to hear any shouts or cries, but the sound of gunshots cracked across the water. Even though she knew that bullets couldn’t penetrate the dragon’s thick, tough hide, Pia twitched at every one.
Dragos reached the boat, slammed into the mast, took hold of it in both forepaws and snapped it in two. Small, faraway figures leaped into the water as he tore the boat to shreds with a savagery that took Pia’s breath. As the pieces sank under foaming waves, he rose to hover in the air and turn his attention to the men who swam away.
“Nobody threatens my family and lives.” The dragon’s deep voice rolled over the waves like thunder. “Nobody.”
He plummeted down.
Pia turned her attention to Liam’s wide-eyed, round little face. “Don’t look, my love,” she said gently. She put a hand over his eyes and turned away from the sight.
***
Liam was clingy when they got back to the house. Pia didn’t blame him. She felt clingy too. He whined and indicated he was hungry. Dragos pulled a roast chicken from the fridge and set it on the kitchen floor so he could eat. She and Dragos sat on the floor beside him, while Eva and Hugh stood in the doorway and watched.
He gorged until his belly was visibly distended. Then he climbed into Pia’s lap. She pored over every inch of his slender, white body to make sure he hadn’t been injured in any way, and she pressed careful fingers against his rib cage and legs. He didn’t evidence any sign of pain or discomfort. Instead he stretched under her touch, sighing with pleasure, and fell deeply, instantly asleep.
“The young are incredibly resilient,” Dragos murmured. He put a hand lightly on top of Liam’s head.
“For which I’m very grateful,” Pia said. “I wonder if he’s too young to remember what happened.”
His gold gaze flashed up to hers. “I hope he remembers everything. I hope it scared him. He’s got dangerous abilities, and he going to grow up in a world full of enemies. He has to learn discipline early and to not go off by himself.”
“That sounds so hard,” she whispered.
“It is hard, but I have faith in him,” Dragos said. “He may be small, but he’s already proven that he has a big soul. He can handle it. And in the meantime, we’ll put bars on his bedroom windows.”
“I want them installed before we get home.” She rubbed dry, tired eyes. The thought of him possibly getting loose outside the penthouse, so high off the ground, made her feel physically ill.
“They will be. I’ll make the call in a few minutes.”
“
My lord.” Hugh spoke hesitantly.
Both Pia and Dragos turned to the other man who knelt in front of him. Hugh’s plain, bony face bore an anguished expression. As he opened his mouth to speak, Dragos told him in a weary voice, “Just don’t. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t Eva’s fault.”
“If anything, it was our fault,” Pia said. “Liam’s evolving so fast, we haven’t seen in time all the implications of what that might mean. We have to start thinking faster and planning better.”
Hugh didn’t appear convinced, but at least he fell silent.
“Open up a bottle of wine,” Dragos told him. “We’ve all earned a drink.”
The other man’s expression lightened somewhat, and he rose to his feet.
Dragos turned to Pia. He asked telepathically, How are you doing?
I’m tired. She looked down at Liam and stroked his back. And so grateful. And you?
The same. He paused. Do you want to go home?
Her head came up. Hell, no. We are, by God, going to have our vacation. We had a really bad, bad day, but it’s over with now. They were dumb jerks, and I will not let them be that important. Unless, of course, you want to go home.
He smiled. Hell, no.
She suddenly remembered and said out loud, “There’s a motorboat floating around with a fortune in treasure on it.”
“And more sitting on the ocean floor,” Dragos added.
Hugh handed them each a glass of wine. Pia clinked her glass against Dragos. “You’ve got your work cut out for you tomorrow.”
Epilogue
Liam slept for a very long time. When he woke up, he was cuddled in bed with Mommy under warm, soft covers. As he lifted his head, she said, “Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?”
He nodded and looked at the empty space in the bed.
“Daddy has gone to find the boat we lost, and to collect some treasure. You and I are going to spend the day on the beach. Does that sound good to you?”
He nodded again.
Dragos Takes A Holiday Page 9