Hm, hungry now. That lizard looked tasty.
He spread his wings and leaped into the air. Flapping as hard as he could, he half-flew, half-coasted to the other side of the hedge and landed in a tumble on the gravel shoulder beside the road. It startled the lizard into running alongside a row of parked cars.
Instinct kicked in. Liam rolled onto his feet and ran after the lizard. When he flapped his wings again, he rose into the air and flew several yards. Excited, he ran some more, jumped and flew several more yards. They ran down the road like that until, in a final lunge, he managed to grab the lizard’s tail.
The lizard struggled as he dragged it toward him. To his immense surprise, it pulled away from its tail and ran away again. Confused, he looked down at the tail he still held in one forepaw. Then he ate it. Um, delicious.
Now he really wanted the rest of that lizard. Where had it gone? He walked, looking around and peering under cars, but the lizard was nowhere in sight.
A car door opened a few feet away, and a man stepped out to walk toward him. He was a human with a long, dark ponytail, and he stank like cigarette smoke.
“Well, well, well,” said the man in a friendly voice. He shrugged out of a jean jacket and held it in front of him as he drew closer. “What have we got here? Why, you look just like a baby dragon.”
Liam sat back on his haunches and smiled at him.
The man recoiled. “Christos!”
The man threw the jacket at Liam. Darkness descended as it settled over his head. He struggled to get free of the heavy material, but the man scooped him up in his arms and held on tight. Then they were bouncing—the man was running.
Liam growled. He didn’t like this game.
“Shut up.” The man no longer sounded friendly.
A car door opened. The world shifted and swayed, and the man held him on his lap. The car door shut again. They were in a car. It accelerated.
“What have you got wrapped in your jacket?” It was another man’s voice.
“It looks like a small dragon,” said his captor. “I think it’s his kid.”
Pia and Dragos decided to take the boat out for a couple of hours, so they didn’t bother to pack any food, just plenty of drinking water. While Pia watched the changing landscape, Dragos piloted the boat skillfully between all the other traffic on the water. It didn’t take them long to leave land behind altogether.
The boat was a much slower method of transportation than Dragos in flight, but he knew where he was going so he could take them directly to the spot.
When they reached the area, Dragos killed the motor, and Pia turned in a circle, marveling in the sight of water all around her without any sight of land. He told her, “The anchor won’t do any good out here. You’re going to drift, but don’t worry about it. You won’t go far.”
“Okay.” She grinned at him. “Go on, don’t worry about me.”
He nodded. “See you soon.”
They had brought one of their emptied suitcases along. He tossed it into the water, leaped overboard and swam far enough away so that he could shapeshift without capsizing the boat. Then the dragon appeared and gave her a huge wink as it hooked the handle of the suitcase in one talon. With a great splash, he dove.
How long would it take him to find the wreck? She had no way to know, so she relaxed in one of the seats and watched the waves.
The endless vista of sparkling ocean was remarkably hypnotic, and the sight had lulled her half asleep when she heard a great splash. She jerked upright and swiveled around to see the dragon swimming toward her with the suitcase clutched in one paw.
As he drew near, he shimmered into a change and became the man. The boat rocked as he grabbed the short ladder toward the rear on the port side. He held on, gasping. She hovered nearby. “Can I help?”
He shook his head. “It’s really heavy. Watch out.”
She stepped back, and he climbed up the ladder with the suitcase dangling from one hand. He heaved it into the boat, and it landed with spray of cold water and a solid thud. Then he knelt beside the case, unzipped it and flipped the lid back.
Gold winked at them. There were also blackened objects that Pia couldn’t identify, possibly tarnished silver items. There were coins, and a small chest, and something that looked mechanical and felt magical.
“Wow. Just, wow.” She pointed to it. “Is that a sextant?”
He nodded, still breathing hard. He fingered a coin as he said, “This stuff was half buried and in leather bags that deteriorated when I tried to pick them up. There’s probably enough to fill two more suitcases down below. Tatiana wanted to find a new land badly, and she was willing to pay for it.”
“What do you want to do?” Pia asked. “You can dump out what’s in the suitcase, go back down and collect the rest of it now, if you want.”
He shook his head. “It’s not going anywhere. We can go back, and I’ll buy some containers to haul it all in.”
“Well, if you’re sure—” she began. The sat phone rang. She reached for it and clicked it on. “Hello?”
“It’s Eva.” Eva didn’t sound like herself, her voice harsh and ragged. “Liam’s gone.”
“What?” The words were perfectly audible, but they came out of nowhere, and they made no sense. Pia shook her head. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Liam is missing,” Eva said, enunciating carefully. “He’s missing, Pia. We put him down for a nap, and now he’s gone. The house was locked tight. Hugh stayed inside, and I walked the yard outside, but the window in his bedroom is wide open and he is fucking gone—”
“Oh my God.” Pia’s world bottomed out. The sat phone fell from her nerveless fingers.
Dragos didn’t need to ask what had been said; he had already heard it. His bronze skin turned ashen, his eyes stark.
Eva was still talking. The words sounded far away and small coming from the phone. As Pia reached for the phone, Dragos crouched and sprang into the air, leaping so hard the boat rocked wildly and knocked her back against the side. He shapeshifted in midair and snatched her up in one claw. He tore through the sky, his huge body straining as they arrowed back to the islands.
Pia went numb. She couldn’t feel her feet, or her lips. “The phone!”
Dragos said tensely, “I’m talking to her. They found Liam’s scent outside and followed it. It disappeared down the road. The man from the bar—not Merrous, the other one—his scent was at the spot where Liam’s stopped.”
“Oh God, oh God.” This reality was outrageous, nightmarish beyond belief. She screamed, “Are you telling me those bastards have my baby?”
The dragon growled and flew harder.
A hollow, roaring silence filled her mind. Time stopped and started in fitful spurts.
They reached the island and slammed to earth. Dragos shapeshifted again, but only partially. He was gigantic, monstrous, his face and muscles contorted, his hands long with lethally sharp talons.
Occasionally Wyr went into a partial shapeshift in times of extremity. At other times, some could even shapeshift small changes like bringing out their talons, but Pia had only seen Dragos caught in the monstrous half-shift once, when they had mated last year. In spite of her shock over Liam and how much she loved him, she almost recoiled from the sight.
But he was her mate, and she had never needed a monster more than she did right now. He snatched her hand, and they raced up the path.
As they neared the house, the dragon let go of Pia’s hand and lunged ahead, his long legs eating up the distance. He slammed through the door so hard it tore off its hinges, and he bounded up the stairs to his son’s bedroom. It looked serene, with nothing displaced. He scented everything carefully. Nobody had been in Liam’s room except for him, Pia, Eva and Hugh.