by Willa Hart
I gasp for air, for enough oxygen to scream my grief to the universe. Agony rips through my belly and tears open my heart. I crumple to the unseeable earth, sorrow crushing me like a boulder, pressing the breath out of my lungs and the life out of my veins. The blackness consumes me.
Air rushes into my lungs, lifting me off the ground until I’m standing. Only this place is bright and cheery and familiar. Max and Shirley sit at their kitchen table, smiling at each other with the kind of love every young person hopes to have when they’re old. Max takes a sip of his beer, then passes the bottle to Shirley who takes a swig of her own. The tempting smell of fresh-baked cookies fills the room, and my stomach flutters like popcorn popping. I reach for the tray to my right when something shifts inside me.
Not another shift in the dream but an actual, physical shift inside my belly. It feels a lot like someone poking me from the inside out. Nothing in my past can prepare me for what I see when I drop my gaze to find my normally flat abdomen bulging out in a way that can mean only one thing.
I’m pregnant.
The intensity of my love for the baby I carry nearly knocks me sideways. I don’t know who the father is, or when it happened, and I don’t care. Cradling my bump, I focus solely on the sheer joy and profound responsibility of being a mother.
Tears drip off my nose and onto my protruding tummy. I want to share this with someone, to see their eyes light up with happiness for me. I glance up, hoping Max and Shirley have seen me by now, but the instant my gaze lands on the table the warm brightness clicks to a dusky monochrome. Max and Shirley have vanished, leaving a single dusty beer bottle in the center of the table. Thick dust coats every surface, cobwebs litter the walls and corners, cupboard doors hang askew. Then the vermin show up. Rats and cockroaches and spiders scurry everywhere, their population growing at an alarming rate.
I’m too frightened for myself and my baby to make a noise. I simply run. The brief glance I get of the living room as I sprint past shows the same state of decay, disuse and death. Bursting out the front door, I expect to see our neighborhood, but instead of trees and houses and parked cars lining the street, I’m standing in front of Maximus Investigations.
My heart sinks at the dirty and graffiti-covered plywood boarding up the windows. The pile of moldy mail, newspapers and flyers outside the door reveal no one has stepped foot inside for what looks like years. Before I can even wonder why, the building next door catches my eye.
Unbelievably, Drakonis Security Systems has been magically transported to Pico Boulevard, and it doesn’t look to be in any better shape than Max’s office. Every single mirror-finished window has been blown out from the inside. Tattered curtains ripple and wave in the cool breeze, sending shivers across my skin. The unmistakable stench of death hangs in the air like a heavy fog. My heartbeat grows louder, faster.
In the vast shadows cast by the two buildings, I see a small figure standing perfectly still.
Feminine.
A woman.
Zoe.
“Zoe!” I cry, desperate to bring her out of the shadows, to touch her, to make sure she’s real.
Enough light leaks into the gap for me to see she’s facing away from me, silent and unmoving. What’s she looking at? All I can see is more darkness, more nothingness. Fear crawls over my flesh and buries itself deep in my heart.
I reach for my bump for comfort, only to find my stomach is flat again. My baby is gone. The loss hits me like a freight train. My head spins with it. My heart breaks from it. I shatter into a million-zillion pieces and fall to my knees from it. My anguished moan and the unbearable loud beating of my heart are the only sounds for miles as I turn my face to the empty and uncaring heavens above.
And I scream.
“Favor!” whispered a fervent, low voice.
Not the voice in my head, but someone else’s. Someone I trusted.
“Favor, wake up,” the voice said, big hands gently shaking me as my cries died on my chapped lips.
My vision wavered from the wetness in my eyes when I finally dared to open them. Danic held me close, rocking me like a child, his lips pressed against my temple. I was home, in my own bed, with Danic. Relief consumed me as ferociously as my grief had in my dream, even though the details were already blurring. I buried my face in his chest and released all the pent-up emotions that brewed during the terrible, awful dream.
“Shh,” he cooed in my ear as my body shook from sobs. “It was just a dream. You’re safe. I’m here.”
I wanted to believe him. There was nothing more I wanted than for his words to be true. But I took no comfort from them, because he was wrong. It hadn’t just been a dream. What I’d experienced had been something much more powerful and purposeful than a nonsensical dream. I had no idea what that purpose was, but the cold, hard lump in my heart told me I’d find out sooner than I wanted.
Chapter Fourteen
I sat at my desk sipping a Mexican mocha bright and early the next morning, surreptitiously watching my guys bustle about the office over the top of a file folder. Kellum had led the others to work magic overnight, and by the time Danic and I strolled in an hour earlier, we had fully functioning, very secure internet, a new desk, a few laptops, two scanners and a new phone system.
Max would hate every bit of it.
Kellum and Ryen were busy on the phones, handling their ongoing cases from Drakonis, while Danic hauled the wreckage of yesterday’s fight to the dumpsters behind the building. Hale and Ash sat across from each other at the new desk, going through as many of Max’s old folders and making digital scans of anything relevant. Theoretically, I was helping them find the good stuff, but I wasn’t helping much. I was more interested in the unexpected dynamic I’d walked in on.
Everything I knew about love triangles — which wasn’t much — had prepared me for the worst. My wandering mind had imagined all kinds of situations that wrenched my gut — Danic and Kellum having a shouting match or outright fighting each other, Ryen’s jokes getting more awkward, the twins trying to get me away from the others and dote on me too much, everyone casting glares at each other and talking to each other through me.
But none of that happened.
Despite the fact Danic and Kellum had been openly affectionate to me all morning, touching me frequently and even kissing my cheek when I was near, they seemed to be more in sync than I could remember. Kellum walked Danic through setting up some cables that totally went over my head, but to my surprise, Danic didn’t get the least bit growly. Normally, he liked the physical tasks better, but he got to work and finished without a single frustrated eruption.
What confused me even more was the fact that Ryen and the twins didn’t seem to care that the other two had a new, special bond with me. I even caught Ryen smiling warmly as Kellum idly rubbed my back while I showed him something in a file. It bordered on bizarre, but it certainly was a welcome distraction from the detritus of my dream.
Dreams had a way of setting the tone for the rest of the day, and the one I’d had should have been enough to put me in a bad mood for a month. And probably would have had the guys not surrounded me with the sunshine of their affection and support. I doubt I could have made it through the day without them.
Do his credit, Danic hadn’t asked about what pulled me out of a deep sleep screaming my head off. I had no doubt they all knew about it, but no one mentioned it. They were waiting for me to bring it up, and I would. Eventually. But the mood in the office was so optimistic, I decided to wait. I didn’t want to bum them out.
Kellum glanced up from his cell and caught me watching him and the others. He raised a questioning eyebrow as he said goodbye and ended the call. I smiled.
“I can’t get over how you modernized Max’s office overnight,” I said truthfully.
“Wasn’t just me,” Kellum replied. “Ryen is a damn fast learner, no matter what he says.”
“Hey, ixnay on the omplimentscay! You’ll make me lose my self-deprecating charm,” Ryen sai
d, giving me a very pointed and very silly look. “It’s all I’ve got.”
We all laughed, every one of us. Having us together, working as a team, felt so right. Sort of like being in a house that was perfectly arranged, no space going to waste. It felt cozy. Complete. Home.
My reverie was interrupted by someone walking through the front door. All six of us snapped to attention, our gazes locked on the door, alert and wary. Only yesterday, five big dragons had walked in and wreaked havoc, and my boys had no intention of allowing that to happen again.
But it wasn’t five big enemy dragons. It was Lazlo, dressed to the nines in a bespoke suit and wearing an unreadable expression on his face. The moment his eyes adjusted to the interior, he trained them on me.
“Good morning, everyone,” he said, eyes never moving from me.
The last time I’d seen the man, I’d had the impression we were on good terms, but I didn’t really love the way he was looking at me. It made me feel like a school kid about to be scolded by the mean principal.
“Morning, Lazlo,” Kellum said, jumping up to greet his boss. “Wasn’t expecting you.”
Kellum had his hand stretched out to shake Lazlo’s when he stopped cold and stared. Ryen did the same, as did the rest of us.
“Wow, you look a helluva lot better than yesterday,” Ryen observed. “What’s your secret? Don’t tell me. Oil of Olay.”
Lazlo bestowed a moderately amused look on Ryen before smiling blandly at them.
“Seriously,” Danic said, stepping forward with a suspicious scowl, “how’d you heal so quickly?”
“That, Danic, is a very good question indeed. One that I hoped Ms. Fiske might answer.”
The heavy weight of everyone’s stares turned on me, suffocating me. I squirmed under their observation, wondering what the hell was going on.
“I think you’ve lost us, Laz,” Ryen said, edging between me and Lazlo, as if unconsciously protecting me. “Maybe we’ve been too focused on dragging this place into the twenty-first century, so we might be a little slow on the uptake with the whole talking-in-cryptic-one-liners thing.”
Lazlo remained silent and kept his gaze trained on me, burning a hole in me. I stared back, completely baffled. I looked at each guy in turn, who seemed as clueless as me.
“What?” I asked, hoping for a little illumination.
Lazlo’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his impressive chest. “Out with it.”
“Out with what?”
“How did you do it?”
I huffed in frustration. “Do what? You have to give me a hint at some point. What am I supposed to have done now?”
Instead of answering, he took a couple aggressive steps closer to me. “Who are you? Tell me the truth this time.”
“Favor Fiske.”
I glanced at the guys again. They knew Lazlo better than me. Maybe this was normal for him. But by their perplexed expressions, I could tell that wasn’t the case.
“I know it’s been a rough week for dragon P.I.s, but I figured you’d remember my name by now.”
Lazlo’s upper lip curled as he glared at me. “You know damn well that’s not what I meant. What are you, Favor Fiske?”
I gaped at him, utterly at a loss over what he wanted from me. “Um, human? Twenty-two. Right-handed. Scorpio. Am I in the ball park?”
“Damn,” Ryen interjected, “I would have bet money you were a Pisces.”
Always the jokester. I tipped him a quick wink, even as I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t break into a grin.
“I’m also a dragon keeper, like my dad. But you know all of this, Lazlo.”
“Yeah, what’s going on?” Danic growled, positioning himself next to Ryen, effectively blocking me from Lazlo.
Kellum joined them. “She’s been through enough. Take it easy.”
“I demand to know—” Lazlo started, white-hot light glinting in his steely eyes, but Ash and Hale jumped up to protest.
“Leave her alone!”
That jolted the man out of whatever emotion had gripped him. He blinked a few times, then turned away in a snit. We waited silently, the Novak brothers in front of me and the Campbell twins off to the side, as Lazlo paced the room. Finally, he sighed heavily and perched on the corner of Ash and Hale’s desk.
“Fine. Do you have any leads on Maximus’s location yet?”
“We’re working on it,” Ash said, while Hale added, “but all we know so far is that he’s tracking down Titus.”
“How? How do you know that?”
Every last one of them turned their eyes on me. Again.
Ugh!
“I visited his lair yesterday,” I said with a shrug, as if it hardly mattered. “He left a note for me. Didn’t say much, other than that he was off hunting jadokari. I can only assume he meant Titus, considering—”
I clamped my mouth shut. I wouldn’t have minded sharing with the guys, but I wasn’t about to tell Lazlo — the man I so recently thought was a bad guy — that Uncle Max had somehow defeated Titus while also not killing him. It still didn’t make sense in my head, because for the last five years, I’d been laboring under the misapprehension that the dragon who’d murdered my parents was also dead.
Thankfully Hale jumped in before Lazlo noticed I’d cut off my answer. “We were hoping we’d stumble across something about Uncle Max as we checked out some leads about the jadokari, but he’s covered his tracks too well.”
“Freakin’ P.I.s,” snorted Ryen. “Can never trust them to leave a trail.”
“Nothing new?” Lazlo asked, disappointment thick in his tone.
The guys exchanged worried glances, so I decided to do them a solid.
“I have something new, actually.”
Lazlo’s head snapped toward me so fast I was surprised it didn’t snap, crackle and pop. The guys also turned, though Danic looked the least surprised.
“I had a dream last night.”
Kellum brightened. “Her dreams have been really useful, Lazlo. She’s reached out to Max in them.”
Lazlo’s eyes twinkled with interest, but he remained mute.
“No, those are more like visions or visitations. This was a normal dream.” I frowned. “Well, it was anything but normal.”
“Tell me,” Lazlo commanded quietly.
I shrugged. “It started out as the same dream I’ve had since I was five. It always starts out the same, but after moving in with Max and Shirley, it changed. It was a kinder, gentler dream. But last night’s…”
My gaze dropped to the file in my hands. I had no clue what it contained, but it was something to look at as I tried to control the emotions threatening to overwhelm me. Danic moved behind me and started to rub the knots out of my shoulders. As the tension eased, so did my anxiety. I started from the beginning.
“The dream is about how my parents died. In it, I’m five, riding in my parents’ car. For the first time in my life, I see a dragon, and it’s flying next to us, looking right at me with a massive yellow eye. My dad tries escaping, but the dragon attacks, incinerating them right after I’m thrown from the car. I watch” — I swallow hard but press on — “and hear them die an agonizing death.”
My entire body shakes with the memory. It’s the first time I’ve really explained my dream to anyone. Sweet Aunt Shirley had always sat by my side and held me when I woke up from the nightmare, but she’d never asked for details. She probably thought I’d share if I wanted to. I never did.
“You said the dream changed,” Danic urged softly. I leaned into his hands for reassurance and nodded.
“It did. Since moving in with Max and Shirley, the yellow-eyed dragon has been replaced by Max. He’s the dragon flying next to the car. He never attacks, I’m never thrown, and my parents never die. Or at least I don’t” — I swallow again, not wanting to think about the horror of it — “hear them die.”
I reached up and grabbed one of Danic’s hands, gripping it tight enough I thought I might break it. He didn’t
even flinch.
“Last night’s dream started out as usual, with the big yellow-eyed dragon transforming into Max. But this time, he turns back into himself. And when I got a really good look at that eyeball, I realized something for the first time. I recognized the dragon. I’d seen him, much more recently. Titus was the dragon who killed my parents.”
Lazlo’s olive skin went ashen. Kellum’s mouth fell open. Danic’s hands froze. Ryen and the twins stared at me in astonishment.
“Favor—” Kellum started, his tone sympathetic, but Danic jumped in.
“I’ll kill him,” he snarled. I felt his fury, which only flamed my own.
Lazlo resumed his pacing, a man without a plan. “I-I had no idea. Favor, I…”
He clenched his hands into tight fists and shook his head. Then he approached me, but not close enough to make the guys worry. They seemed less worried he might attack me now, but they still refused to give way to him — their boss and the acting casique. I never felt safer.
“I’m sorry, Favor. Your father was a highly respected keeper. I had no idea Titus was responsible.”
Lazlo was a composed man, most of the time, but as soon as the color flooded back to his face, I could see a hell of a lot of anger boiling under the surface.
“We knew this was dire, but I didn’t realize it was this personal. Maximus clearly trusts you, so I have no reason to second-guess your assertion here, Favor. Titus will pay for this. But I do have a question.”
After his commanding attitude a few minutes earlier, I appreciated his deference. “Ask away.”
“Tell me more about these visions. The ones where you can communicate with Maximus.”
That felt way too personal, but we were beyond niceties now. If we had any hope of finding Max and Titus, I had to be open and honest.
“I can’t really explain them. They’re not dreams, but they have an unreal quality. Like I’m not really there. For some reason, Max can see me, though you and the elders couldn’t—”