by Vella Day
“You too.”
Kyle stood. As soon as Birk rushed out, he faced her. “What are you planning to do now?”
“How about you stay here and finish looking at the tapes, while I speak with the men who are staying. I want to make sure we have all of our bases covered.”
“Good thinking. What could someone do now to harm the mine? It’s already shut down.”
“That’s easy. They could plant remote detonation devices to go off whenever they choose. Once we are back up and running—which we will be at some point—they could orchestrate another cave in. Only this time it could kill a lot of people. If I had been down there with any humans, they all would have died. If that happened, we’d be the first to close our doors.”
“Or I would have.”
“We wouldn’t need to be told. We care about each other. All of the workers would be compensated.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what happened to you growing up to make you so distrustful of others, but you need to be more open-minded.” Nessa hadn’t meant her voice to rise to a near shout, but she hated people who were prejudiced. “Dragons shifters are everywhere on Tarradon. Some good. Some bad.”
Kyle held up his palms. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s just that a dragon shifter abused my sister, Lily, horribly. It’s where my distrust stems from.”
“Well, I’ve been treated poorly by humans and dark lighters, but that doesn’t mean I hate all of them. Okay, maybe I do hate the dark lighters since they are born to be evil, but not all humans are bad.”
He leaned closer, and her pulse soared, forcing Nessa to step back to put some distance between them.
“My sister wasn’t just treated poorly, she was badly scarred,” he said, his voice elevating.
Nessa stilled. “Emotionally or physically?”
“Both. She dated a man who she thought was the love of her life. He was good looking, strong, smart, and had a great job. Then one day, he lost his patience and accused her of things that were completely untrue. Back then, Lily wasn’t one to fight back.”
“What did she do?”
“She walked away from him.”
“Good for her.”
“That’s when the motherfucker shot fire at her back and scorched her from shoulder to waist.”
Nessa sucked in a breath and almost grabbed his hand to console him. “She could have been killed from a burn that size.”
Nessa had been harmed once by a dragon’s fire when her back was turned, but with the help of Declan, the injury had been quickly reversed. She’d never forget the excruciating pain before he arrived to help her though. Even her dragon had struggled to cure her.
“It almost did kill her. I don’t think I slept for weeks. Between my job and tending to my sister, life became a blur.”
He loves her. Okay, she hadn’t seen that coming. Maybe Fate did know what he or she was doing when she’d paired the two of them together. “How is she now?” Nessa asked, keeping her tone soft.
His lip curled. “How do you expect? It’s been three years, but she rarely dates. For the most part, except for when she needs to be out and about for her job, she doesn’t leave her apartment.”
This time Nessa placed a hand on his arm to give him some comfort, and that one touch caused her scales to glow. She immediately lowered her hand. “I’m sorry.”
Kyle glanced away. “So am I. You can see why dragons aren’t my family’s favorite creatures.” He chuckled.
He considered her a creature? Or was that merely a figure of speech? “Do you think all dragons are bad?” Nessa was pleased that she didn’t sound too accusatory.
He returned his gaze to her and held her trapped in its intensity for several seconds. “I don’t know.”
Not the response she was hoping for. “Do you think the men who flew out of here to help those in need in Grindale province are bad?”
He shook his head. “You’re twisting my words.”
Was she? She didn’t need to get into an argument with him. “Keep watching the tapes. I need to talk to the men who’ve elected to stay.”
Without waiting for him to respond, she rushed out.
Kyle’s head swam with confusion. He’d spent his life battling his prejudices. When his dad walked out on him, his mom, and Lily, Kyle had decided at the ripe age of seven that marriage wasn’t for him. Then, when he was nine, several large men, who he later learned were dragon shifters, evicted the three of them from their trailer for not paying their rent for two months. At the time, he thought that was terrible and that the government should help instead of forcing them to live in a tent. He later learned his mom had been too strung out to apply for any kind of aid. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that when Lily started dating Nelor, Kyle was not happy with her choice. Unfortunately, his innocent younger sister was a romantic, and Nelor knew just what to say and do to convince her that he was the perfect man.
Kyle’s fists clenched at how he’d held his tongue and stood by while Lily blissfully fell for the asshole. She’d told him that Nelor had shoved her once, but that she’d deserved it. Kyle had tried to explain that no one deserved to be treated with disrespect. Unfortunately, his brotherly advice fell on her deaf ears, and no matter what he said or did, Lily defended the man until the day he used his deadly dragon fire and burned her. Now, his sister was damaged both inside and out.
Kyle probably shouldn’t have told Nessa dragons were terrible. After all, the entire crew had spent tireless hours digging in an unstable pit until they found her. Humans would have assumed the person was dead and abandoned the effort. Then there was the call to action regarding the flood victims. He’d never seen anything like it—or rather never heard about that kind of fast response.
Wanting to learn more about the disaster, Kyle yanked out his cell to check on the story of the broken dam. It didn’t take long to find coverage. He stared at what appeared to be a swarm of black birds scooping up people and then carrying them to safety. While the rescue would be unnerving for the victim, the terror would be short-lived once that person was deposited in a safe and dry location.
Okay, maybe a few dragons were good, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be cautious.
“This just in,” said the commentator. “We have footage of someone sneaking into the turbine room carrying what is believed to be explosives in his backpack. The former dam worker, Jax Delinia, had been laid off two weeks before and allegedly wanted retribution. The dragon shifter is now in custody.”
Great. Another bad dragon shifter. At least the culprit had been identified.
Enough playing around. Needing to tackle this job, Kyle returned to watching the tape feed from the room that contained the explosives. He was just about to press the play button to cycle through a few more days, when he noticed a man with his back pressed to the side of a building on one of the live feed screens. Kyle leaned forward to study the slightly blurred image. The man, whose face was averted from the camera, appeared to have something in his hand, but Kyle couldn’t tell what it was. Perhaps it was the story of the dam that made him think something bad was about to go down.
The man tugged on a locked door, kicked it, and when it didn’t budge, he moved down the building and tested each entrance. Okay, this wasn’t good. Needing to report this, Kyle slipped out of the monitoring room to find Vic. Unfortunately, neither Vic nor anyone else was around.
That left Nessa. Once outside, he looked for her, but the whole place seemed to be abandoned. Great. He wasn’t about to stand by and let this guy do damage to Caspian property. Kyle hopped in his car and headed in the direction of the building where he’d spotted the man on camera. Thankfully, someone had labeled each of the monitors to indicate where the camera was pointed. The map of the complex on the wall across from the monitors told him all he needed to know.
Kyle suspected the man was long gone, but just in case he wasn’t, Kyle parked a couple hundred feet away and headed in on foot. While he wasn’t trained to take down intrude
rs, he had grown up on the streets and learned to fight the hard way. He already had a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a few stab wounds to prove it.
Learning the art of stealth during his troubled youth, Kyle darted toward the building and pressed his back against the side. He could only hope that Vic wasn’t back in the room to see him.
A slight shuffling sound caught his attention, but a quick scan of the area showed no one was near. Darn. As Kyle made his way down the length of the sixty-foot long building that housed equipment, he listened for more movement but found none. Perhaps Nessa or one of the crew had sent this man to retrieve something, and he’d come and gone.
Even though Kyle relaxed a bit, he stopped right before he rounded the corner, and then glanced around it but spotted no one. Oh, well. As soon as he completed a full sweep, he’d return to the office, find Nessa, and tell her what he’d seen. Kyle walked down the last side of the building, and right before he’d reached the end, he felt a pain the size of Tarradon crash down on his head. When his face hit the dirt, darkness surrounded him as he passed out.
Chapter Six
Once Nessa spoke with the men who would be standing watch, she fluttered down the shaft of the collapsed mine, her wings scraping against the walls. Yes, she’d told Kyle that she was just going to speak with those who’d remained behind, but that only took a few minutes. Not wanting to go back into that confining room for another few hours where she’d have to tamp down her desires, Nessa decided to follow up on something Kyle had asked her: if she found the spot where the explosives were placed, could she identify the person?
She didn’t know the answer, which was why she was at the semi-collapsed tunnel now. When the passageway turned too narrow, she dug her talons into the side and hung on. The problem with this method of descent was the instability of the dirt. A few times, a quick movement resulted in her sliding down twenty feet or more. Eventually, she figured out the technique of keeping hold while meticulously looking for evidence of the blast.
Nessa was about sixty feet down when she spotted a piece of explosive sticking out from the wall. This wire, along with an attached piece of paper, would hopefully point her in the direction of the culprit.
When Kyle saw this evidence, it would only add fuel to his already dim view of her species, but it couldn’t be helped. Facts were facts. Nessa dug into the wall and extracted more bits and pieces of the device. She lifted the paper and metal scrap to her nose and sniffed. Yup. It was the same kind Caspian mines used. Damn. She didn’t dare speculate who might have set this charge. It would be too painful to learn there was a traitor in her midst.
Once she was satisfied she’d found the majority of the device, Nessa crawled upward until the passage widened, and then she flew to the surface.
With her found prize in her claw, she returned to the office and shifted. Lunchtime had come and gone, so maybe she could convince Kyle to join her for a meal.
She also just wanted to spend some time with him—away from that small room—despite the fact he jacked up her libido something fierce. She not only lusted after him, she also liked the guy. His concern for his sister spoke volumes about him. Sure, he was a little one-sided in his thinking about dragon shifters, but if he learned more about her and realized she had the same hopes, dreams, and work ethic that everyone else did, he might decide she wasn’t that bad after all.
At the office, she headed down to the monitoring room. When she pushed open the door, she stilled. No one was there. Okay, that was odd. Either Kyle needed a break or he’d found something and had driven out to find her. He hadn’t come to the mineshaft though. Then again, Nessa hadn’t told anyone where she’d be.
She slipped her phone from her pocket. Because she didn’t have Kyle’s number, she called Vic, hoping he’d know where Kyle was.
“Hey, you guys finished?” he asked.
That wasn’t good. “I’m not with Kyle. I went out to do something, and when I returned he—oh, shit.” She suddenly caught sight of a man face down at the equipment building.
“What is it?”
“Something’s happened. Can you get back here and rerun the tape of building eight? I need to check it out in person.”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
Fearing the prone man was Kyle, she raced down the hallway and jumped back into the elevator. Once she made it outside, Nessa shifted, took off, and bore down on the building. When she spotted his parked car, her heart sped up.
Please don’t let it be Kyle.
Nessa landed, shifted, and ran to where she’d seen the injured man. Her anxiety level shot through the roof when she realized it was him. Blood covered the back of his head, and her legs weakened at the implication.
She dropped to her knees next to him and placed two fingers on his neck. You can’t be dead. You just can’t be.
When a thin beat registered, she let out a breath. The dark pool of blood beside his head was quite large. If she thought Declan or Greer could get there quickly enough, she’d wait for them, but from the severity of the injury, it would be best if she took him to a human hospital right away.
By now, Vic should be watching what was happening, so she looked up and waved. A second later, she returned to her dragon form. Gently, she picked up an unconscious Kyle. I’m sorry you won’t be awake to enjoy your first ride.
Once he was securely in her grasp, she soared upward and headed into town. His limp body tore at her. Who the hell had done this to him? And why? Her intense worry morphed into anger, and by the time she arrived at the Emergency Room entrance, she had to work to control herself from tearing something apart.
Nessa landed off to the side of the entrance, set a still unconscious Kyle on the grass, and shifted into her human form once more. While she could have carried him to the front door, it would be more efficient if she found assistance and asked for help. She’d heard enough stories from Kaleena about the Emergency Rooms in the US to know they prioritized their patients depending on the seriousness of the case. She suspected it was the same on Tarradon.
In order for the medics to take her seriously, she smeared some of his blood on her hands as well as down the front of her shirt. Leaving Kyle safely in the grass, she ran into the Emergency entrance and acted rather hysterical. Truth be told, it wasn’t far from the way she felt.
Once she told them what she believed had happened, the attendants rushed outside with a gurney and placed Kyle on top. As much as she wanted to go with him, she had to fill out paperwork first.
As they wheeled Kyle into a curtained room, she approached the front desk. The insurance forms were rather problematic since she didn’t know where he lived, what his cell phone number was, or how to reach Lily. She did the best she could, filling in her own information in places. After she gave her SinCas insurance card to the hospital to pay for Kyle’s stay, Nessa settled back to wait.
Her stomach grumbled, but she wasn’t sure she could eat even if she found a vending machine. Poor Kyle. What had possessed him to leave the monitoring room?
Needing answers, she called Vic again. He answered on the first ring. “Nessa, how’s Kyle?”
“The doctors are treating him now, but I don’t know if he has regained consciousness. Did the tapes indicate what happened?”
He explained about seeing a man at the equipment building who was trying to gain entrance.
“I take it you didn’t recognize him?” she asked.
“No. He kept his face away from all of the cameras. It was almost as if he’d cased the place beforehand and knew where not to look.”
Right now, she had to worry about Kyle getting better. Once he recovered, she’d get even. “Then what happened?”
“Kyle was checking out the building when he collapsed.”
“He didn’t just collapse. He has a huge gash in the back of his head, which was not the result of the fall. He landed on his face.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Maybe the as
sailant cloaked himself.” She kept her voice to a whisper. Sure, everyone knew about dragons being able to shield themselves, but the extent of their magic was often kept on the down low so as not to frighten people.
“That’s what it seems like.”
That would mean he was either in his dragon form when he hit Kyle, or he was a powerful dark lighter imbued with the ability to become invisible. “That could explain why Kyle might not have heard him approach. Did you see the guy go into the building?”
“No, but I’ll keep looking.”
“Thanks, Vic.”
Once she disconnected, she slumped in her chair. This was worse than she thought. How in the hell could they catch this person if he possessed so much magic? In her mind, she recreated each of the accidents. Stealing the explosives while invisible would be easy to accomplish, as would speeding up the metal cart that jumped the track, crushing Ed Hollix’s leg. As for the incident that involved collapsing the mine where she’d been trapped, the security had been lax in that area since the mine hadn’t been fully operational yet.
So who was the guilty party? As far as she knew, none of the Royals possessed that ability. Even though they received some of their power from the dark lighters, she believed she would have heard if any of them had the ability to become invisible.
“Ms. Caspian,” said a deep voice.
She jumped up. “Yes?”
“We’ve finished treating Mr. Harper. His wound was deep and required stitches. He’s regained consciousness, but he has a major headache from the concussion.”
“When can he be released?”
“Not until tomorrow. We’ll need to monitor him overnight.”
“May I see him?”
“For a short time.”
Nessa wasn’t sure what to expect, but she doubted it would be good. When she entered Kyle’s room, his eyes were closed. A patch was taped to the back part of his head, and an IV was hooked up to his arm. Even in his injured state, her body exploded with not only concern but overwhelming need. If she ever doubted Kyle Harper was her mate, this erased it.