Daniel sat up and moved away from the struggling pile of men and dragon. Now that the creature was taken care of, he was free to examine the scene. Looking back at the mess in the center of the room, he crept closer to the fallen woman. It was most definitely Raven. Carefully, Daniel rolled her over. The front of her dress was soaked in blood, but it wasn’t hard to find the hole in her chest where the knife had punctured her heart. “Oh, Raven,” he said softly as he caressed the hair back from her face. “What happened here?” he asked.
His only answer was a high-pitched wail from the dragon.
Daniel turned to look at the thing still struggling under the men. They were doing their best to hold it down until the medical team could get there with sedatives to calm it. As he turned back to Raven’s body, Daniel’s eye caught on something unusual next to her. He reached out to get the strange item and stopped as soon as his fingers touched it. Pain raced through him as the residual energy slammed into his mind, washing it with the recent memories of the dragon. They ripped through his brain, setting off a seizure that dropped him to the floor thrashing.
When Daniel regained his senses, he was stretched out on the floor of the foyer with a medic standing over him. “The dragon?” he gasped as the sound of his own voice echoed through his head, making it ache.
“It’s all right,” the medic soothed him, “it’s been sedated.” The man nodded to a lump on the far side of the room.
Daniel waved the man away and rolled off the mat the medic had laid him on. “Get me Laurence,” he said as he pushed the blanket off.
The EMT’s hands came up and caught Daniel on the shoulders, stopping him from getting up. “Sir, you need to rest. An ambulance is on the way.”
“I don’t need an ambulance,” Daniel growled, “I need Laurence!” He shoved the man back and forced his way up from the ground. “Laurence!”
“Yes, sir,” Laurence answered as he loped into the room.
Daniel waved to him. “Come here.” When the larger man stepped close, Daniel grabbed him and staggered across the room to the dragon. He paused as he looked over the cloth-wrapped creature. The poor thing was out cold. Dropping to his knees next to the beast, Daniel tugged on the cloth, loosening the small animal’s bindings. “I’m sorry.” A tear ran down his cheek as the dragon’s memories raced through his head. He searched the dragon for injuries. There were a few spots that were roughed up, but it looked to be in good health. He also noted a black leather band wrapped high around the creatures throat, but the clasp was up under the boney frill and would require some work to get off. He decided to leave it for later. Once he was sure the dragon was fine, he ran his fingers over the boned frill at the back of its head. “I’ll get the king, and we will figure this out.”
Patting the warm scales one last time, he turned to look up at Laurence. “Grab four men and take this dragon back to the main office. Get him secured in one of the guest rooms and see that a medic checks him over. I want to make sure we didn’t hurt him.”
“Yes, sir,” Laurence said as he nodded. Reaching down, he helped Daniel from the floor.
Once Daniel was on his feet again, he patted Laurence on the arm. “And stay with him.” He nodded down at the small dragon. “He’s going to need someone familiar nearby when he wakes up.”
Laurence gave Daniel a confused look. “Yes, sir,” he agreed.
Daniel nodded once more and stepped away to stand on his own. There was much he needed to do, and he didn’t know how long he had to do it. First, he needed to find something to collect that sphere before anyone else touched it and figured out what it was. Then, he had to find a place to hide it away until he could figure out what to do with it. Only then could he take the whole mess to Kyle. Maybe he would know what to do.
“Daniel,” Laurence called before his boss could get out of the room.
Daniel paused and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Who is it?” Laurence glanced down at the sleeping dragon.
The corner of Daniel’s mouth turned up in amusement. Of course he hasn’t figured it out. “It’s Noah.”
Laurence’s mouth dropped open in shock, and he turned wide eyes to the small pile of dragon.
A smile turned up the rest of Daniel’s lips. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, the look on the normally unflappable man’s face would have made his day.
3
The rain beat down on the pavement as Kara sat in her borrowed car and stared out at the main building of Eternity. This was just not her day. Grumbling, she reached for the umbrella she always kept under the seat but came up empty-handed. Crap. Letting out a sigh, she leaned her head forwards onto the steering wheel and resisted the urge to scream. Of course the umbrella was not there. It was under her seat in her car back at the shop, where they were putting a new head on the engine. Grabbing her attaché, she shoved the door open, climbed out into the light rain, and raised the case over her head in a vain attempt to keep dry. She wasn’t even supposed to be here today.
Today was supposed to have been dedicated to organizing her new home. She had spent yesterday moving her things into a nice townhouse just minutes from her new office across town. Most of the furniture was in place, and the large boxes had been moved into the proper rooms. Now all Kara had to do was sort through the small things and make the space her own. She had been elbow-deep in packing peanuts when Daniel called, demanding that she come into the main office for an emergency. An emergency! She was a therapist, for goodness sakes. The only thing close to an emergency she’d ever seen was a dragon that couldn’t shift, and that was more of an inconvenience. In those cases, the dragon king was called in directly to suppress the out-of-control dragon and help them shift back to human. She dealt with the individuals afterwards to help them work through their issues. She couldn’t think of anything she could do that couldn’t wait until Monday. When she’d told Daniel this, he threated to throw her in the brig for insubordination and have her court-martialed! That had gotten Kara up and moving fast. Never in the years she’d worked in Eternity had anyone ever pulled rank on her.
After checking for traffic, Kara loped across the road, hoping to make it into the main building before the weather completely drenched her lovely, new suit. The call from Daniel had her so flustered that she hadn’t even considered a rain jacket when she’d left home. She glanced up at the sky as she reached the curb. The clouds looked horrible, but the rain was starting to let up. Dropping her case to her side, she hurried along the sidewalk. She could move faster if she weren’t supporting that thing on her head.
Kara’s flight was interrupted just feet from her goal when her foot came down and her heel sunk in further than it should have. The unexpected drop, coupled with her speed, was a fatal combination. She threw her arms out to catch her balance but failed. With a loud crack, gravity won out, and she ended up sprawled across the sidewalk in a puddle. Kara lay on the sidewalk for a moment, breathing past the pain in her knee and resisting the growing urge to scream. It was so tempting to thrash about and let out the tantrum building inside her, but she took several deep breaths before pulling herself up to inspect the damage she’d done.
Her physical injuries weren’t bad. The heels of both her hands were a little raw, but not really cut up. She did have a bit of road rash on her knee, but that was nominal compared to the damage she had done to her outfit. She might be able to save the light blue pencil skirt and matching jacket from the dirty water she had fallen into, but her shoes were a total loss. The spindly heel had come down in the soft caulking in the sidewalk and had broken clean off the body of the shoe. Kara glared at the damaged heel sticking out of the sidewalk mocking her.