by Ashlyn Chase
When the phone rang again, she prayed it wasn’t a telemarketer, a charity, a survey, or any other kind of intrusion. Didn’t people know her mother’s life hung in the fucking balance?
“Hello.”
“Who did you talk to just then?”
“It was a computerized call. I hung up right away.”
“What did they want?”
“My participation in some kind of survey.”
There was no response on the other end for a few moments. Then the underwater voice said, “Don’t you hate that?”
She almost giggled again. How inappropriate would that be? “Uh, yeah. I do.”
“I hope you know I’m going to have to check the room again to be sure there’s no police or surveillance equipment.”
She sighed. “Sure. Why not?” She waved Jayce toward the front door.
He nodded and strode over to it. When the phone clicked off, he opened and slipped around the door. He managed to close it behind himself before the Skype call began.
Kristine knew the drill. She walked Donkey Pizzle all through the apartment, under beds, and in closets. The shower curtain was already open, so she didn’t have to do that again. How long had it been since she’d showered? Sheesh.
“Satisfied?” she asked as soon as the tour was complete.
“For now,” Donkey Pizzle answered. “You’ll need to memorize the address I’m about to give you. Don’t write it down.”
“Okay.” She hoped it wasn’t complicated. Her stress level might affect her memory, and the location was probably where she was supposed to go to meet his next set of demands.
“1483 Park Avenue. Repeat that.”
“1483 Park Avenue.”
“Good. You’re to wait until the middle of the night, then huff and puff, and set the place on fire.”
“What?” she exclaimed.
“You heard me.”
“But…you’re aware that I’m a fire fighter, right?”
“Yup. But you’re also a dragon.”
“I have to work tonight.”
“You can slip out, do what you’re told, and get back before the dispatcher gets the call.”
“No! I can’t! I’ll lose my job if I’m discovered.”
“You’ll lose your mother if you don’t do as I say. Call in sick.”
“Holy crap. That’s a residential neighborhood. People could be asleep.”
“It is. And, hopefully, they will be.”
“Shit! I can’t do this. You must know that.”
“Didn’t your mother tell you to do whatever I said?”
Kristine placed her elbow on her knee and dropped her forehead into her hand.
“Headache?” Donkey Pizzle asked.
“What the fuck do you think?” she growled.
“Oh now, now. That’s no way for a lady to talk.”
The door opened quietly, and Jayce peered around it. Then he snuck in and closed the door silently. She would have waved him away, but they were still on Skype and she could be seen. She couldn’t see the caller, however. They must still have tape over the camera lens.
“Who are you looking at?” Donkey Pizzle demanded.
“No one,” she said. “I was just staring at the window.”
“Show me.”
Jayce moved with supernatural speed to hide behind the couch.
Kristine flipped the phone around and scanned the side of the room where Jayce had been. “See?”
Donkey Pizzle’s hesitation frayed her nerves even further, if that were possible.
At last he said, “All right. I’m going to hang up, but before I do, I have one more detail about the job you’re going to do tonight.”
She gulped.
“You need to fly up to the top floor at the back of that building. That’s where the fire should start. See? No one but the target gets hurt.”
“How do you know he won’t wake up and run out of the building when the smoke alarms go off?”
Eerie laughter followed her question. Then he said, “Oh, don’t worry. He won’t wake up.”
The call disconnected. “Shit!” Kristine threw her phone toward the back of the living room. As it whizzed by, Jayce popped up and caught it.
Chapter 7
Kristine dropped her head into her hands while Jayce walked around the couch, settled next to her, and pulled her into his arms. Jayce tried to lend her his strength, hoping it would seep through his skin and into her.
“Are you all right, hon?”
Kristine shook her head. “Of course I’m not all right. Did you hear what he wants me to do?”
Jayce caressed her arm, trying to calm her. “I did. I can’t help wondering when this is going to stop. He could keep having you do more and more dangerous things.”
Her posture sagged. “I know.”
Jayce had heard things in the background when Skype was open and wondered if she had too. “I heard waves lapping and seagulls crying in the distance. And someone mentioned a ship.”
“Over the phone?” Kristine looked thoughtful and then raised her eyes to look straight at him. “Now that you mention it, I did too. How did you hear those things but I didn’t register them?”
“You’re stressed,” Jayce said. “I imagine tunnel vision happens when you’re anxious…just like it does sometimes when we’re fighting fires. If there’s a life-and-death mission to accomplish, the world around us can disappear while we’re doing what’s necessary.”
“You’re right. I don’t know why I wasn’t paying more attention to clues. I was so worried about my mother, seeing her alive and supposedly well was all I could think of at the time.”
“That’s understandable. Where do you think she might be—if you had to hazard a guess? If it’s near lapping water and a ship, that sounds like the ocean. Or it could be one of the great lakes, if you think there’s any reason she might be up that way.”
Kristine rose and paced again. “The only place I can think of that might hold a possibility is Long Island. I was born there. If a ship was being boarded, maybe the Coast Guard has a record of it.”
“Hey, that’s a start…”
“I don’t know… We’ve never had a summer home there or any relatives that I know of. I guess my mother lived there for a while, but she wouldn’t tell me anything about it.” Kristine heaved a giant sigh. “Of course.”
“You had to provide a birth certificate for some of your IDs. What does your birth certificate say?”
“The certified copy showed my name at birth as Kristine Adaria Scott and my date of birth, and place of birth was listed as Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York. But where it said parents’ names, only my mother was listed. That’s when I found out her real name was Ainslee. She changed it to Amy Scott. Supposedly so it would be easier for Americans to remember and she needed a stage name. The only other items were a file date and certificate number.”
“So no home address?”
“Nope. I had high hopes until I actually saw the certified copy. An address wasn’t listed.”
“Did you ever try to find her birth certificate?”
“I looked a few years ago. Since I knew her real name, I thought I might be able to find relatives, and maybe one of them could tell me who my father was. But I don’t know her birthplace. All I know is she’s eight hundred years old—not that she’d admit to being a day over forty.”
Jayce said, “It’s still worth a try. You might find something if you use one of those ancestry websites.”
Kristine snorted. A tiny curl of smoke reminded Jayce of what they were really dealing with. Dragons. His sister-in-law Chloe had told his family she was ancient and her grandparents had survived St. Patrick’s purge by hiding in caves. Maybe Ainslee was born in a cave.
She’d also said she
wasn’t able to have children with Ryan. Perhaps dragons could only breed with other dragons. Shit. He hadn’t thought about that yet. If he and Kristine wound up together, his mother would be disappointed. She wanted grandchildren. Badly.
He quickly decided he didn’t care. He loved this woman—dragon or not. “If we can find your mother and free her, they’ll have no more leverage. You can have your life back.”
“Do you think there’s any chance of that before the new mission I have for tonight?” Kristine finally sat in the armchair across from him.
“What else can you think of that might help us find her? Did you try calling the hospital? Maybe there’s a nurse still working who worked there when you were born,” Jayce said.
“I tried that. Apparently nurses don’t stay in one job for long periods of time.”
He was grasping at straws. “Maybe it’s worth a trip to Long Island, along the coast?”
She rolled her eyes. “And do what? Drive around calling her name?”
“I can fly above, and you can drive below. If I see something, I’ll signal to you.”
After a long hesitation, she finally said, “I’d better rent a convertible. That way you can fly into the backseat and get dressed if I leave some clothes on the floor.” A small smile tried to make its way across her face.
“Actually, a convertible isn’t a bad idea. You can see a lot more that way.” Jayce leaned back, stretched out his legs, and crossed them at the ankle, resting his feet on the coffee table.
Kristine pointed to his feet. “Now there’s a bad habit you didn’t tell me about when we were breaking up. You put your feet on the coffee table.”
Jayce yanked his feet off the table and put them on the floor. “Sorry. I didn’t know there was a rule against that in your home.”
“There isn’t. I was just heckling you.”
Jayce was actually happy she was teasing him again. He sprang to his feet and said, “Let’s go. You rent a car, and I’ll meet you there. If I go now, I might spot the Coast Guard before they leave the area, which would narrow our search.”
“So we’ll concentrate on the area of Long Island facing open sea?”
“Yes. I can swoop low and look in windows after we meet up. Rent a convertible. I should be able to spot you if you take the route that runs right along the Atlantic side.”
“How do you know there is one?”
Jayce laughed. “There’s always a road right along the coast in populated areas.” He handed her the phone he had caught after she threw it.
Kristine nodded. “That makes sense. I’ll grab your sweats. They’ll be faster to get in and out of. Let’s see where I can rent a convertible. I’m sure I can get a Long Island map from the rental agency.”
He didn’t wait for her to dial to set out on his journey. It might be fruitless. The chances of them happening upon her mother were almost nil. But Jayce knew they couldn’t just sit around and wait. They both needed to feel like they were doing something that could possibly help.
Jayce jogged up to the roof while Kristine locked the door and ran down the stairs to the sidewalk. He rolled his tail feathers in the dirt, happy he didn’t have bright-red and yellow markings on his wings, which would require muddying them too. Flying would’ve been more difficult…not impossible, since he was stronger than an ordinary bird, but tiring nonetheless.
He took off and sailed on the wind.
Even though they weren’t supposed to, shifting and taking to the air and then floating on the wind currents was something he and his brothers enjoyed doing from time to time. That was why he owned a fishing boat. When they got far enough out to sea, where no one would see them, they took turns shifting and dive-bombing the water to catch fish in their beaks. It was a lot of fun on a hot summer day.
In bird form they aged more quickly, even faster in flight, so they had to be careful how often they did this. If their father found out, they’d be in trouble. But even knowing the risks, the joy and freedom of flying were worth it.
Jayce wondered how much he was aging on this trip. The flight last night took a few hours, from New York to Boston then back to New York, and there was some flight-time while creating the black sheet camouflage flight with his brothers. Then shifting this morning and watching over Kristine as she went to the park and back—well, that wasn’t much.
Now he might spend all day in this form flying around Long Island looking for a redheaded actress. Fortunately Kristine had several pictures of her mother. There was a clear headshot of her lovely face. A few full-body pictures, some of her onstage. And even one in a bathing suit, looking curvaceous and supposedly alluring. Kristine’s body was more to his liking. Athletic.
Jayce tried to avoid buildings as much as possible. They messed up the winds and made it more challenging to fly where he wanted to. So he soared over rooftops and water towers, enjoying a nice bird’s-eye view of the city.
This meditation gave him time to reflect on his relationship with Kristine. He had never felt this way about a woman before. He was willing to do whatever was necessary to keep her safe—hang the consequences to himself. Most other women he’d dated appealed to him physically, but this connection was not just physical.
They were both firefighters, concerned about the safety of the citizens of their beloved cities—which were three hours apart as the Acela train flies, dammit. But the point was they had similar values, and that meant a lot. She was concerned about her mother, just as he was loyal to his family. Another double-edged sword.
The fact that he had already showed her his alternate form and she had shown him hers seemed to mean they were almost meant to be. While he was home for the emergency family meeting, he’d told his parents. They were shocked he’d already revealed himself to Kristine. But when he’d said that she had a secret too and hinted it was like Chloe’s special gift, they both relaxed immediately. They adored Chloe, even though she’d taken Ryan to Ireland to live. His brother was deliriously happy, and that, in the end, was what everybody wanted.
When Kristine described the background she had seen on the Skype call, it sounded as if her mother could have been in a very expensive home. Chances were the place was not in a crowded neighborhood, but a place with some privacy. If he could hear the waves lapping but no other sounds in the background but seagulls and one other guy, he imagined the place would be off by itself.
He swooped low over every estate within earshot of the beach and, trying not to attract attention, flew by large windows facing the ocean. When he saw women inside but couldn’t get a good look at their hair color, he found a low branch to sit on until he was able to rule them out. If there was a possibility it might be Kristine’s mother, he would fly in front of Kristine’s windshield to grab her attention…when he found her car. Yeesh. He’d better move his tail.
At last he spotted her. While Kristine was halted at a stop sign, he flew down and rested on top of her windshield for a moment. That was his signal for “find a private spot and pull over to the side of the road.” They probably should’ve talked about it sooner, but fortunately, she understood. When she pulled into a dirt road lined with trees, it looked like they were alone. He hopped into the backseat, then shifted and dressed.
“Did you find anything?” she asked anxiously.
“Not much. I saw the Coast Guard speeding away from what looked like a small cargo ship when I first got here. If that’s the scene the guy was talking about, we’re close.”
“Good. Let’s check out the homes with ocean views. I’ll study the places from the street side, and you examine the beach side. If there’s nothing right here, we can widen the search.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jayce kissed her, shifted back into phoenix form, and rolled his tail feathers in some roadside dirt. Then he took to the sky again.
They spent hours combing the Hamptons and Montauk, which had the kind of oc
eanfront homes where Jayce thought Kristine’s mother might be held. Eventually he had to change back. He had probably aged months in those few hours.
* * *
“Maybe it’s time to get the authorities involved,” Jayce said as they ate dinner at a sidewalk café in South Hampton.
Kristine gasped. “You can’t mean that. I know what I’ve been asked to do is heinous—despicable. But give me a chance. I’ve been wrestling with how I can make it look like I’ve met their demands…but don’t worry, I won’t kill an innocent person. I couldn’t live with that. Honestly, it sounds like the guy could already be dead. If not, I’ll get him out first. I’ll make sure the fire department gets a heads up just as soon as I’m sure I’ve done what Donkey Pizzle wants me to do.”
Jayce shook his head but said nothing.
His hesitation bothered her. “You wouldn’t say anything to anyone, would you?”
“I’d like justice, but I’m not a cop. I’m here for you, Kristine. My only thought is to make sure you don’t get caught. When do you have to do this? What time tonight?”
“They didn’t say.”
“Why don’t you go home after this, and I’ll keep looking for your mother.”
“Which, by the way, is still a long shot. We don’t even know if we’re near the right beaches.”
Jayce seemed to be picking at his food. He’d had a margarita, and she wondered if the alcohol might affect him if he didn’t eat.
“Are you gonna be okay to fly?” she asked, nodding at his empty cocktail glass.
He chuckled. “I don’t think the FAA is going to ground me. Seriously, Kristine, I’ll keep looking for your mom. Once it gets dark, I’ll be able to see in lit windows, and chances are I won’t be seen. We can leave my sweats behind a rock in the woods where I can go and change privately and then find a phone. I promise to call you if I see her.”
“What phone?”
“I can grab a prepaid phone or use a pay phone—there are still pay phones in most public places. I’m sure if it’s an emergency someone will take pity on me. Just answer even if you don’t recognize the number.”