I’m spiraling toward the ground. I can’t tell if I’m dizzy from the spinning or the pain of my battle-worn body—or both.
“Kitty!” Sani shouts. He sounds woozy.
I might be able to survive this landing. Maybe. But Sani wouldn’t. I have to stop the spinning, at least. With a burst of thought, I snatch onto a magnetic field like a plummeting person grabbing onto a tree growing out of the side of a cliff. We jerk against the force and stop spinning. Sani sighs. Lightning flashes next to us, and a bolt of pain rips through my body, mirroring it. Then my grasp slips, and we’re falling again. But it’s a straight-ish fall.
The ground is close enough that I can make out the shapes of trees and rock formations, even with my blurry vision. I dig deep and push out one last burst of magnetic control, fumbling for the curved lines of the fields. Something connects. Just before my vision goes black, the weight on my back disappears and I glimpse a sleek, dark shape leaping to the ground. Then, the world disappears.
Chapter Eight
A soft touch on my neck pulls me from unconsciousness. I have no desire to open my eyes yet, but I know it’s Sani. I can smell him over the dank mold of wherever we are. Cold humidity clings to my scales, and the full length of my dragon body aches with ghosts of mostly healed injuries. Every soft sound echoes back from hundreds of surfaces in all directions. Rocks along the uneven ground jab me, forming newer bruises by the minute. I shift, trying to find a more comfortable position, but little stabs of pain make me groan and give up.
“Shh,” Sani says, rubbing his hand gently over my neck. “Don’t move yet.”
The ground under my head is softer. I will my eyes open to see what it is but am rewarded with nothing but darkness.
Panic edges into my fuzzy brain. “Have I gone blind?”
Sani laughs and my pillow shakes. Holy crap, my head is on his lap. My giant, toothy, scaly head.
“I don’t think so,” he says. “It’s very dark in here. Give it a few minutes.”
My eyes dart wildly around, searching for a trace of light to focus on. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I make out a soft glow coming from several yards in front of us. This promise that I haven’t lost my eyesight, combined with the soothing stroke of Sani’s hand on my neck, calms me enough so that I can switch back to my human form. I lift my head and let the dragon snap back inside me; she’s tired and battered and needs a break. I try to sit up, but Sani softly presses his big hand against my shoulder and pulls me back to cuddle my head on his lap. His arm curls around the back of mine, his hand resting firmly on my waist. My pulse quickens, expediting blood to my aching body and spinning head.
I let out a slow breath. “Where are we?”
“A cave. We got lucky—the cave mouth was right next to where you slid to a stop. You lost invisibility as soon as you blacked out.” His voice is weak and low.
My gaze shoots up to the source of his voice and I’m relieved to find I can more or less make out the outline of his head in the darkness.
“You dragged me in here?”
He grunts in the affirmative.
“But…I was in dragon form! How? Is your heart healed?”
“No. I stayed out there with you for a few hours, but then I spotted a few more planes flying overhead and I could only hope the cave would hide our heat signatures.”
“Yeah, but…how?”
I feel him shrug. “Slowly. I had to shift parts of you one at a time. I couldn’t leave you out there. And you weren’t waking up.” I know my muddled mind must invent the breaking of his voice. Along with the tightening of his arm around me. Yep, I definitely made that up.
I’m trying to imagine human Sani dragging my massive bulk into this cave when something he said hits me. “Wait. A few hours? How long have we been here?”
“It’s ten thirty,” he says.
I take deep, lingering breaths, knowing I have to move soon. The situation at DIC is worse than I expected. That was a full-scale lockdown with fighter jets for backup.
“Sani?” My voice is barely above a whisper. “What if they never let them go?”
He rubs my arm as he thinks. “Then we’ll make them.”
“How?” We’re only two young dragons against the most advanced military force on the planet. I’m confident in my abilities, but come on.
Sani is quiet for far too long before his grip tightens on my arm and he presses me against him. “Shh. You need to rest.”
We lay still for long enough that our breaths sync. Even with the rocks of the cave floor digging into my side, I never want to move. I focus entirely on memorizing the feel of Sani’s arm around me: the warmth, the impossible combination of strength and comfort. As long as we don’t move or speak, I can pretend that arm means more than comfort for a wounded partner and that our world isn’t falling apart before our very eyes. I can pretend we’re a normal human boy and girl drifting asleep in the arms of someone we care about. I let my eyes fall closed and grant myself just a few minutes more.
…
I’m strapping on my overstuffed pack, trying to figure out our next step, when the phone in my pocket rings. The phone owned and serviced by the United States Secret Service.
All the numbers that can call this phone are restricted, so I can’t know who’s on the other line. But since Jacob’s in captivity and the president is busy enslaving my entire race, my money’s on my contact.
I punch the green phone icon to answer the call. “You have some nerve,” I say. “Whatever you want me to do, you know where to stick it.”
“Miss Lung?” The voice on the other end is one I’ve only heard on TV and on internet videos making fun of him. I’d been to Jacob’s house a few times, but his dad was never there.
“Yes, sir.” I say the phrase out of habit and ingrained respect, but immediately wish I could slap the words out of the air. All I can think is how the president of the United States has the gall to call me hours after taking every member of my family and all my friends but Sani hostage.
“The president?” Sani mouths the question and I nod in response, pressing the button on the side of the phone to turn the speaker on.
“You’re the only one who can help me.” I don’t believe his voice is capable of cracking until I hear it. He clears his throat. “The Director of the D.I.C. is missing, I’m having twenty hours of meetings a day, and my son has been kidnapped.”
“You know who else has been kidnapped?” I can’t even control my anger when talking to The Most Powerful Man in the World. “Every damn person I know!”
I shake my head at Sani, letting him know I made the mistake on purpose. There’s no reason for me to give away I know he’s still free—or, especially, that he’s with me.
“Miss Lung, you need to believe me; I had no control over that situation. Director Jackson has been itching to pull the D.I.C. under the CIA umbrella for a decade, and he made a move minutes after the Lebanese Embassy released that footage—a move I couldn’t counter without losing control of the country.”
Gods bless me, he sounds sincere. But if there’s anyone who can out bullshit me, it’s the most popular politician on the planet.
“So what?” I say. “You want me to risk my long scaly neck to rescue your family while you continue to hold everyone I care about in custody with no foreseeable end?”
“You care about Jacob, too.” The president’s voice is so soft Sani has to move closer to hear what he’s saying. “We have narrowed down his location to one of five buildings, and we can’t even get close to any of them without causing serious problems.”
“We?” I ask. The president sighs. Gods, I’m a smartass and I can’t help it. “You helped figure that out, huh? I bet you went out with the strike teams too and—”
“They’ve asked for the nuclear launch codes within forty-eight hours or he will be killed.”
I shut up now. Because I get it. The president will never give those up. He can’t, not even for his only son.
Jacob will die.
“Miss Lung?”
I don’t answer for a minute, half wanting him to have to wait, the other half dumbstruck by this situation we’re all in.
“Kitty,” I finally say. “Miss Lung is my mother.”
“Okay,” he says, like he’s afraid I’ll snap at him again. “Kitty.”
I push aside the anger and the guilt and everything else, stripping the issue down to the bare bones. I have no idea how to help the dragons, but the president is giving me the opportunity to help Jacob. I have a chance to help the son of the man who’s running the country that’s keeping my family imprisoned. No, I tell myself, Jacob’s not just the president’s son. He’s more. He’s my friend. He doesn’t deserve to die, no matter who his father is.
“The five locations. Where are they?” I wince. I know, somehow, I’m going to regret this.
“I can’t tell you how much this—”
“Don’t!” I say. “I’m doing this for Jacob, do you understand me? I couldn’t give a flying crap about what anything means to you right now. Where are the five locations?”
“I can have my most trusted men meet you wherever you are with the information within fifteen minutes.”
“Are you kidding?” I can’t believe he would really think I’m that stupid. “Your men have been trying to get at me all day.”
“Not my men!”
Good. He finally sounds mad. I know how to deal with mad. Heartbroken is so much more difficult.
“Either way,” I say. “I’m not big on trusting anyone wearing a U.S. patch right now.”
“Until a few hours ago, you wore a U.S. patch.”
“So did my parents. And that turned out grand, didn’t it? Just give me the five locations, and I’ll check them out.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” he says.
“I’ll make it easy for you. Give me the five locations now or I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
“All right.” He sounds oddly triumphant. What is he up to? “The first is in McLean, Virginia.”
Sani chokes and I try to cover the phone to muffle it. Is he serious? Goose bumps rise on my skin—and reptiles really aren’t prone to such a thing. But there’s not much else in McLean except for…
“You think they’re holding him at the CIA headquarters?” I ask.
“I told you it was complicated. Want to hear the four other locations?” Cocky bastard. How can he gloat like this when his son is being held by psychopaths with access to a kitsune?
“All right,” I say, giving in. “I’ll meet one of your men. In a location I pick.”
He pauses for a minute. I hear cloth shifting and a deep sigh. “That will do.”
“The Reflecting Pool, far side of the Memorial. Eleven p.m.,” I say. “If I see anyone else who even looks like another agent, I’m gone, and you’ll have to beg your precious Secret Service to find him. Do not clear the area; I want the tourists there.”
“I will send Agent Harris right away,” he says. “Thank you.”
“Mr. President?”
“Yes, Kitty?” He sounds hesitant.
“You owe me.”
This time, he doesn’t hesitate. “I know.”
I snap the phone shut and meet Sani’s anxious gaze.
“Trap?” he asks.
I bite hard on my bottom lip. “Maybe. The CIA kidnapping Jacob, though? Politician’s lies are usually more believable than that.” Though, if it is true, I’m not sure what I could do about it. I’d gladly take on the entire CIA to get Jacob back if I thought I could win, but that’s an insane “if.”
Sani pulls a gun from my pack and checks the chamber. “Eyes and ears open.”
“Always.”
Chapter Nine
I hover in invisible mode twenty feet above the designated meeting spot at 11:05 p.m. A guy, who I can only assume is the agent, stands there in jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a baseball cap, repeatedly checking his watch like a first-day newbie. Sani’s on the ground, almost finished with his walk-around inspection of the square. It’s a cool night so not too many people remain in the square: a few homeless guys trying to catch some winks on the benches before being disturbed by the cops, two stray tourists taking pictures of their reflections in the pool. He reaches the west end of the Reflecting Pool and kneels to tie his non-existent shoelaces—the all-clear signal. Even though Sani’s the most observant person I’ve ever met, and he can walk through a crowd of the best-trained spooks in the world without being noticed, I hesitate. I’m taking a big chance here. As far as I know, we’re the last two free dragons in the country. If this turns out to be some elaborate trap and we’re caught, there’s no one left to speak for us—because Gods know the president’s not going to do it. He’ll be too busy explaining to the American public how he could keep something like weredragons a secret.
Sani starts jogging southeast, looking back over his shoulder to see when I make my move. He slows and I know he’s nervous that something’s gone wrong. It’s seeing this worry on his face that finally gives me the courage to move.
I swoop down and wrap my tail around Agent Harris’s waist twice. It’s necessary to give him a comfortable ride, but it will look exceedingly strange to anyone who happens to look up. My power only makes dragons I’m touching invisible, not humans, but anything surrounded by me won’t be visible. Meaning, it will look like a man, cut in half, is soaring through the air.
I have to give the guy credit because, as I lift him from the ground, he doesn’t let out so much as a squeak. Sani sees this and begins sprinting to the rendezvous location.
Once we’ve made a clean getaway and are far enough away from human ears, Agent Harris speaks. “Kitty, I’m guessing?”
I almost drop him when I recognize the voice. I catch his slipping body, perhaps a little too tightly.
He grunts.
I turn my head to look at him, to verify the identity I wish weren’t true. I have to be sure. We’re almost to the rendezvous location.
“Take off the hat,” I say.
He fidgets, I’m sure due to hearing a teen girl’s voice come from an invisible, scaly dragon. Or maybe it’s just the talking dragon, in general.
“Now!” I half roar. The sound echoes off polished marble and rolls around the square like thunder. No one looks up.
Agent Harris slowly obeys me. The hat clutched to his chest, we fly by a streetlight, and yellow light flashes across his face. Agent Harris—Secret Service Agent Dominic Harris—stares back at me. He has minor burns on his hands and face from the explosion earlier today.
“Oh hell no,” I say, dropping us both into my and Sani’s rendezvous spot inside the Jefferson Memorial. I flatten my shape and we slip between two columns toward the center of the Memorial. I’m still six feet from the floor when I drop Dominic. I lower my claws to the marble and make myself visible, but I can’t change into my human shape right now. Rage burns through every single vein in my long body.
“I thought the president said he was sending his most trusted agent!” I make my voice nonchalant with a sheer force of will. “Just curious; does the president need help with the definition of ‘trust’?”
He mumbles a little, scratching his cheek and narrowing his eyes.
I hear footsteps outside and instinctively put myself between Dominic and where Sani will enter—half to protect Sani from the shock, half to protect Dominic from Sani. Worrying about Sani’s approach allows me to calm down enough to become human again. He climbs between two columns and into the Memorial as easily and effortlessly as though he were stepping over a curb. As soon as he’s on solid ground, he catches a glimpse of Dominic.
He really is so much faster than me.
Before I can even figure out how to react, he has the agent pinned to the hard floor, pressing his thighs down with his knees. His hands aren’t on Dominic’s neck, the way mine would be if it were me, but holding down his arms. I can feel his dragon-self trying to take over like the heat wa
ve upon opening an oven. I’m thinking it’s best not to intrude on this scene.
“I’m on your side, man!” Dominic says. His voice is brimming with panic and confusion.
I can see the conscious effort Sani makes to take a breath and calm his anger.
“You shot me!” he says.
“I did?”
“Twice.”
He stares at Sani, drawing his eyebrows together; there’s not a single trace of recognition on his face. Sani loosens his hold on the agent’s arms, clearly thinking this guy may not be the enemy we thought he was. I’m not convinced. I saw him shoot at Sani until he crumpled to the asphalt.
“When?” Dominic asks.
“This afternoon.”
Now he’s really confused. His gaze scans Sani’s entire body. “You don’t look like a man who was shot this afternoon.”
“I’m not a man,” Sani reminds him. “I’m a dragon.” The last word is punctuated by a growl, and it serves as a clear warning.
I expect Dominic to cower in fear, but he surprises me by looking straight into Sani’s eyes. “I didn’t shoot you.”
“Uh, yeah,” I interrupt. “I was there. You did.”
Dominic stares at the ceiling, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t remember…”
“Let’s start with this,” I say, pulling Sani off him. “What exactly do you remember after approximately fifteen thirty this afternoon?”
Dominic rubs his arms where Sani’s hands had been. They’re red from the heat and pressure.
Through many painful starts and stops, we finally get our stories out. Either Dominic is the best liar on the planet, or he honestly doesn’t remember anything after Gesina got in the car until she flew away. He claims it was a total blackout. I don’t see a single tell, though he keeps glancing at Sani like he’s a ticking bomb.
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