by Sadie Sears
Sam handed our ride tickets to the attendant who latched the protection bar on our little car, and then Sam put his arm around my shoulders and settled me closer. The car jerked its way to the top as passengers got on until I could see all of Spruce stretched out below us. A full moon made the snow-capped mountains sparkle in the distance.
"It's so beautiful."
I let my palm rest on his thigh and laid my head on his shoulder. His cologne made me dizzy with desire, and I went in for a kiss just as he looked down. Our mouths bumped as the ride jerked into motion again, and I pulled back and laughed.
Sam shook his head, his wry smile as adorable as any other he had. “I should’ve tipped that kid to keep us up there a while.”
I looked out at the city, still well-lit and spread out below us. “This isn’t bad either.” I snuggled under his arm. Any closer, we would’ve been sharing clothes. I smiled. Now there was an idea worth exploring. The ride, once all the cars were filled, spun us around four or five times. The inertia was exhilarating. As close to flying as I could imagine being.
He pointed to a game down below us. "Oh, look. It’s one of those test your strength machines. You think I have what it takes to win a prize?” He flexed an arm muscle.
I chuckled. “Have you been eating your spinach?” I didn’t know what he’d been eating, but whatever it was did his body good.
“And drinking my milk.” He hadn’t moved his arm from around me and pulled me in to kiss the top of my head. “Although, I’ve been having some sleeping problems, doc.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I spend all night thinking about this girl.” Oh, what the tone of his voice did to me was as physical as any touch.
“Lucky girl.”
He cocked his head. “You think so?”
Of course I did. “Oh, yeah, but she’s missing out tonight. Poor thing.”
This time, he cupped my cheek, guided my gaze to meet his, and kissed me like a feather against my lips as the ride came to a stop and the attendant released the bar to let us off and the next riders on.
We walked over to the strong man machine and Sam stood in line. I drank in every detail I could. From the sharp edges of his profile to the five o’clock shadow on his jaw to the lighter highlights in his blond hair that made him look all the more tan. There was nothing about this man that didn’t make my heart beat a little harder, a little faster, with a little more excitement.
While I stood and gawked at him like he was some sort of moving statue, he hefted the hammer and made the bell ring. When the prize siren went off and lights flashed, Sam whirled me in another off-my-feet circle, and I laughed, feeling ridiculously happy. He escorted me to the row of prizes, a stuffed wolf, dragon, and dinosaur to choose from and pointed to the red dragon.
"Something to keep you warm at night." He hugged me with the dragon pressed between us.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" I stood there waiting for him to offer to keep me warm tonight, but he shook his blond hair out of his eyes and laughed.
I'd never seen him so relaxed, but something told me there was much more to him. Something he was hiding, and maybe it was time I did some investigating to find out exactly what it was.
Frustrated, I slammed the file cabinet drawer shut. I couldn’t find a single clue, not even the name of the company fronting the money for the research project. It was information I planned to use to figure out how to make myself stand out in the interview—if I was smart enough to find it.
I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached. I had less than a month to prepare for the interview. And the clock just kept ticking while I came up with nothing. Absolutely nothing. I blew the hair out of my face and flopped into an office chair and Paula Pruitt, a nurse on shift, walked up to the station and leaned over the counter to look at me.
“What’s up?”
"I've got some information for you."
I quickly stood so she could use her inside voice. I didn’t necessarily want anyone—Dr. Holt, to be exact—to know I was enlisting the help of other staff to dig up information I could use to win this position. Not that I wasn’t confident in my own skills, qualifications, and passion for the project, but a leg up never hurt.
"What did you find out?" I whispered.
"Someone has paid a lot of money to rent the west wing of the hospital." She raised her eyebrows as if this revelation should mean something to me.
"The west wing? It’s been closed up and shut down for years." Interesting.
"Exactly. But some mystery foundation has spent a bundle to have it aired out and refurbished into a state-of-the-art lab. I just spoke to one of the workers, and he said they’ve nearly finished."
I hadn’t been on that side of the hospital since my first week. I hadn’t even realized they were doing construction. “What foundation?” When she shrugged, I sighed. “All right. This is DEFCON 5. Or 1. Whichever is more urgent. Keep your ear to the ground. And page me if you find out anything. No detail is too small.”
I got a tiny thrill from those words. It made me feel like some super spy, trying to hunt down a paper trail, searching for top secret information. All we needed now were code names.
There had to be a paper trail. The money would have to be documented with the IRS. The FDA would need a name for the paperwork once the medication was formulated and ready for trial. And all pharma research had to be registered. It was a place to start, at least.
"Dr. Gretta!"
Teddy, the little boy from the emergency room who’d had the strange blue aura, squealed with delight when he saw me. He’d had intermittent spells since I'd first examined him, each one a little worse than the one before it. So, when he came in a couple of days ago, I admitted him. We needed to run a lot of tests. And every negative result signaled the need for another poke or stick or prod or picture.
"How are you feeling today, buddy?” I warmed the pad of my stethoscope. I listened to his heart and lungs, then lifted the arm of his gown and gave his biceps a gentle squeeze. “Oh, my goodness. Your muscles are so much bigger than yesterday."
He grinned and did an arm curl, then flexed. "You think so?" He continued the posing from his bed.
Justin poked his head in and winked. “Dr. Gretta loves muscular men, big guy. You keep eating those vegetables for your mom and taking your vitamins, and maybe you can convince her to marry you someday.”
Vitamins were all I’d been able to prescribe since I couldn’t find a reason for his illness. I nodded and gave him a wink and a wave. "See you later, Teddy."
In the hallway, I gave Justin the lowdown on all the covert information Penny uncovered.
"Do you know how exciting this is?” I whispered, but it was probably more of a stage whisper since I was about to burst with excitement. “That means this is cutting edge research. They have the old west wing rented—"
"Gretta!" Paul's stern voice boomed down the hallway. I winced, knowing he wouldn’t like the idea of me gossiping, especially as I’d promised my utmost discretion on the matter of the research project.
"You have work to do somewhere, Nurse Lampert?"
"Yes, sir." Justin scurried around the corner, but I knew him well enough that he’d probably be listening in.
"I’m so sorry, Dr. Holt." Oh, God. Did it get worse than having to grovel for a job? Yes. Unemployment was worse. Much worse. So, there would be groveling—amazing amounts of it.
"No need. Any information you’ve uncovered is a matter of record easily obtained."
That was only because the information I hadn’t managed to uncover was not easy to come by. I smiled and nodded and pretended I wasn’t trying to unearth secrets someone was deliberately going out of their way to hide.
He flipped a file folder open and gave me a slip of paper.
“We’re going to be looking for dragons to volunteer for blood donations.”
I frowned. “Dragons?"
“Yes. Their healing abilities are phenomenal, which, a
s you know, is a blood trait, and if we can emulate it, we’ll get that cure for Lila. Now, I don’t need to remind you that this is a very confidential piece of information, but you need to understand the focus of the project. It could help with the interview.”
I nodded. I could keep a secret. Especially since I didn’t spend a lot of time with dragons to tip any of them off. Paul speed-walked away, shaking his head as he passed Justin, who was shuffling papers at the nurse’s station.
Justin waited until Paul turned the corner heading toward his office before he stopped pretending to work and ushered me over. "I heard everything. This is perfect. You have the best luck. Like buy a lottery ticket a day kind of luck. All you have to do is show up to that interview with Sam by your side and you’re in."
"Sam? Why would I bring Sam?"
My best friend cocked an eyebrow and stared. "Because he's a… Oh, shit. You don’t know." Justin’s mouth dropped open then clamped shut.
“Don’t know what?” But I had an inkling. There was only one reason Justin would think Sam specifically should go with me. I stared down the hallway, and the horizon wobbled. It all made perfect sense now. The flashing orange eyes that I always chalked up to odd lighting. The way he tolerated the cold water like it was a hot tub. The strong man contest. And that damn stuffed dragon. It was all in front of me the whole time.
“Say it, Justin.”
He looked down, pretending to read a chart on the tablet.
“Justin.”
“Sam’s a dragon, Gretta.”
Sam is a dragon.
10
Samuel
As I stoked the fire, someone knocked at my door. I frowned because I wasn’t expecting a drop-in by any of the guys, and Gretta and Justin were at work. So far, they were the only friends I’d made—unless it was Lila. Suddenly worried, I rushed to open it and saw Gretta on my doorstep.
“Hi—”
She brushed past me to stand in the middle of the room, then she whirled, hands on her hips, foot tapping. This wasn’t happy-to-see-me Gretta.
I shut the door. "Hi?” She didn’t speak. “What's wrong?"
She had her hair piled on top of her head and a fierce glare on her face.
"Come on out of the closet, pal. Justin told me." Her eyes flashed and she bristled with anger.
But closet? "I'm not gay."
“Not that closet.” She bit the end off of each word. "I’m talking about the long snout, two-winged, probably fire-breathing closet."
“Oh.” Well, she was right about fire-breathing, although long snout was a low blow. A low hum buzzed in my ears. She knew.
I took a moment to think about what to say, but like all the other times I’d tried, I couldn’t find the words. "I wanted to tell you. I was going to. I’ve tried.” They didn’t make men more pathetic than I was. “I'm sorry, Gretta."
She glared for another minute, tapped her foot for a couple seconds past that, then she sighed. “I wish you’d told me. I feel stupid for not having figured it out.” She shook her head. “I have questions, though. A lot of questions.” She sat on the sofa and patted the spot next to her.
"I'm going to replace it soon." I gestured to the couch. Probably not what she had so many questions about, but it was the only answer I had right then.
"Why? It’s kind of cool. A little funky. A little old school. They don’t make them like this anymore." She ran her hand over the velvet cushion. The fabric color darkened as she pushed the pile up, and despite the circumstances, I could almost feel the caress on my skin.
I nodded and sat beside her before taking her hand. “I know. I bought it in the fifties.” When she raised an eyebrow, I knew she was waiting for me to explain about my dragon. I wanted to explain everything, but I didn’t know where to start the actual story. “I really wanted to tell you, but I just—”
"Didn’t trust me.” She cupped my face and guided my gaze back to hers when I turned away. “It’s okay, I understand. I guess I didn’t give you very much reason.”
“Certain people don’t take to dragons very well, and when I first met you, Justin didn’t seem to want you to know, so…” I shrugged and turned my face away.
“Oh, right. I’d warned him not to hire shifters to help me get rid of Bill. And then when I saw the dragon at the lake the other day, the one I said was scary? You thought I wouldn’t like dragons.”
It wasn’t a question, and I nodded. “It’s a common concept.”
There must have been something in my tone because Gretta narrowed her eyes. “Which you’ve had experience with, haven’t you?”
A lot of dragons had, especially when we’d started to move into the larger towns and cities, but Gretta wanted to know about my experience. “Yeah. I fell in love at the beginning of the last century, and—”
Gretta’s eyes widened. “Last century? How old are you?”
I hesitated because, naturally, my age could be a factor. “A hundred and sixty-one.”
She blinked several times. “Wow, you look like you’re in your mid-thirties.”
“Why, thank you.” I grinned, and she slapped me.
“Keep going.”
I took a deep, calming breath, ready to expose my fear because Gretta had a right to know. “She was human, and I thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, but when I told her…” I waited for the old hurt to bloom in my chest, but it didn’t come. “She left me. I thought I was broken after that. I thought there wasn’t a reason to try anymore.”
“So that’s why you didn’t want to tell me? You thought I’d leave you? Not want to be with you?”
I nodded, and when she gave me a soft, sympathetic smile and tightened her grip on hand, I relaxed, safe in the knowledge she wasn’t going to run out of here screaming. At least I hoped not. “So? What questions do you have?”
“I have so many! I don’t even know where to start.”
She folded her leg under her and faced me. Every move she made, every shake of her head, scented the air with strawberries. And if explaining everything wasn’t so important to me, I would have let the smell of her shampoo distract me. But I needed her to know about me, about us, and what we could be together.
I chuckled. “Well, what do you already know?”
“I know the basics. The age progression math, the differences in body systems, life expectancy. But do you really live to be 500 years old?”
“Generally, as long as we get to fly and fight. Living in the cities is restrictive, so most prefer rural towns like this.”
“Fight?” She frowned. “Like, shooting fireballs at each other?”
“Maybe thousands of years ago, but not now. A lot of dragons join the military. It’s a place where we fit best.”
She nodded, and I could see her taking it all in, and her wanting to know more. “And you can control the environment?”
“Not exactly. We're not wizards, so we don’t cast spells, and I can’t make it rain or snow, but we do have some basic control. It depends on what kind of dragon we are. There’s air, fire, earth, water, and ether. Each one can harness an aspect of nature.” I smiled and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. It felt so good to finally be talking to her about all this. To have it out in the open between us.
“And what are you?”
“I’m a fire dragon. And it’s just what it sounds like. I can hurl flaming balls of fire. I can melt things with touch. I can radiate heat.”
“That is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.” She smiled. “I always knew you were hot.”
“Says the girl who lights my fire.”
She chuckled. “Oh, the puns.” She took my face in her hands and moved in for a tiny kiss. When she pulled back, she held my gaze with hers. “Tell me more.”
When she asked like that, I couldn’t refuse. Nor did I want to. “In a nutshell, earth dragons create earthquakes, open chasms, and even move the earth with nothing more than a roar, but that takes a lot of effort, and they have to be
in their larger form. My best friend, Leath, is an earth dragon. One of his favorite tricks is making flowers bloom.” I pictured Leath and the joy he got from opening a flower before it should have or bringing a near-dead plant back to life. It was his special skill—the one I liked best, anyway.
“Water dragons can blast water like I can blast fire. They can also call water to them and create waves or surges in a still body of water. They can even force clouds to rain if they have to. Ben, another of the dragons who joined our new security business, is a water dragon. Once, we were roommates in an apartment between deployments and he was trying to show off for a woman, and he made the pipes burst. Flooded the whole place and the apartment under ours."
“What about air and ether?”
“Air dragons control the wind and produce gusts of air. It might not sound like much, but they can create tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons. They’re agile and fast, faster than the rest of us. And for some reason, they’re masters of languages, riddles, and puzzles.”
I paused not because ether dragons were hard to explain, but because I wanted to take a second and appreciate Gretta and how much she seemed to delight in all the things I was telling her. She smiled, encouraging me to continue.
“Ether dragons are especially rare. They’re the closest to being truly psychic because they are overly sensitive to others and what they feel. The ethers can also control electrical impulses and can make lightning. And they have very distinctive eyes, even more than the rest of us. Their eyes look like kaleidoscopes.”
“Cameron! I knew those weren’t contacts.”
“Yeah. Cameron is one of my very good friends. I also think ether dragons have the strongest healing abilities of us all."
“You can heal people?” When I answered her question with a nod, Gretta's smile dropped into a tight frown. "You mean you guys can heal, and you knew Lila was sick but didn't help her." Her eyes searched mine.
"No, it doesn't work like that. I can’t just walk into a room and lay my hands on a sick person and heal them. I’m not a televangelist.” My joke fell flat, and I sobered. “Healing happens when a dragon claims their mate through the claiming bite. But if I bit someone, like Lila who wasn’t my destined mate, she and I both could lose our minds.”