“Are you all right, Miss Rose?”
Kara looked up as the light rain stopped. A large man dressed in a black Eternity uniform stood over her with an umbrella. It took her a moment to register the man’s words. He had used her name. She had no idea who he was, but he had obviously been told to watch out for her. There was no other reason he would know her name. She hadn’t been to the main office in a while. And of course she would make the most embarrassing entrance possible. She ran her hand down her skirt, hoping it hadn’t slipped up far enough to show anything off.
Letting out a deep sigh, she shook her head in disbelief. Could this day get any worse? “I’m fine,” she answered, taking the hand the man offered to get up. “It’s just been one of those days.”
The man chuckled softly as he reached down and picked up her briefcase. “I know what you mean.” He held the bag out to her.
Bending at the waist, Kara ripped what was left of her heel from the sidewalk and kicked out of her shoes. At this point, there was no reason to even try to be professional. Hopefully, someone inside would have an extra uniform she could borrow for a while. Grabbing up her ruined shoes, she turned to the guard holding her bag. “Thank you.”
A warm smile slipped across his face. “You’re welcome.”
Kara considered him for a moment. His pearly white teeth shone brightly against his dark skin. He was also much heavier in size than most of the guards of Eternity. He would probably be very impressive in his grand dragon form. But, then again, you couldn’t really tell much about a person’s dragon from their human form. Some of the largest dragons she had ever met were rather small people. Kara shook her thoughts away and smiled back at the man. “Are you here to meet me?”
His grin widened. “Yes. Daniel asked that I show you directly to him. Call me Mac.”
“Thank you, Mac.” Kara slipped her ruined shoes into her bag and settled her things back into place. Once she was done, she looked back up at Mac. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Mac chuckled and held out his hand towards a part in the fence. “This way.”
Kara started off, and Mac fell into step next to her, holding the umbrella between them. “So…” she shot the man a sidelong look, “what’s the emergency?”
The happy look on Mac’s face dropped, leaving a level of seriousness that worried Kara. “I think it’s best if you talk to Daniel about that.”
Concerned by his words, Kara gave him a surprised look before letting the conversation drop and turning her attention back to where they were going. What could this emergency be? She was a counselor that specialized in a very narrow field of mental health. Give her a disconnected dragon, and she could work wonders. Give her anything else, and she was almost as clueless as a monkey doing math.
Kara turned possible scenarios over in her mind as Mac led her through the halls of the main office. Even though it had been a while since she’d been there, she knew her way around pretty well. She paused for a heartbeat when Mac passed up the turn leading to Daniel’s office and headed down the hall to the holding cells. Her brow creased in confusion when they came upon a group of men standing outside one of the cells.
It wasn’t uncommon to see groups of soldiers standing around waiting on something, but these looked like they had been on the losing end of some epic battle. They were rumpled and torn up. A few sported bleeding bites, and one was holding a bag of ice to what looked to be a burn. The group huddled together, peeking through a small window in a door.
Mac stopped a few paces back from them and held out his hand, ushering Kara on.
Kara glanced at him before walking past and up to the men. Each one stepped back and let her closer to the small window. The looks on their faces frightened her. She turned towards the glass, not knowing if she wanted to see what was inside. Gathering her courage, she stepped up and looked through the window.
The room beyond was fairly small. Nothing really remarkable about it. Just a simple holding cell with a concrete bed on one side and a metal toilet on the other. What was remarkable was the condition it was in. The metal toilet had been ripped from the floor, and water sprayed out over the torn-up shreds of what was left of the pad that had been on the bench. There were long claw marks down the walls. They hadn’t really damaged the brick walls, but the paint job was toasted. And speaking of toasted, there were huge soot stains on the walls where something had tried to set them on fire. Right in the middle of the whole mess was the culprit. A small, black dragon, no larger than a dog. It stared at the door as if it were daring someone to open it. As Kara met its eyes, a trickle of smoke rolled out of the beast’s nose, and it growled. The thing launched itself at the window.
Kara jumped back as the creature slammed into the heavy glass. Hands of the men around her caught her before she could hit the ground again. As she regained her balance, she listened to the dragon terrorize the cell. Never in her time as a counselor had she seen a dragon lose it like that. A sinking feeling settled into the pit of her stomach as she stared at the door to the cell. Is this the reason Daniel called?
“Did you see him?”
Whipping around, Kara found the owner of the voice. Daniel and two more men, both looking worse for wear, had just turned into the cell block.
Kara pointed a shaking hand at the door. “Is that why you called me?”
Daniel passed her up and went to look in through the window. The door rattled as the small dragon slammed into it again. “Unfortunately, yes.” He sighed, turning to look at Kara. “He needs help.”
Easing her way up to the window again, she watched as the dragon ripped into a large chunk of bedding and shook it violently. No fucking way! “I think you had better call Kyle or Carissa for this one,” she said as she stepped back from the window before the dragon saw her and attacked the door again. “This is way above me.”
A forlorn look came over Daniel’s face, and he stared at her for a moment before looking in the window. “The king and Carissa have both been by. They were unable to help. He’s gone feral.”
Feral! Kara’s heart clenched. For a dragon to go feral, their two halves would have to be completely separated. It wasn’t an uncommon thing in the old days, but in today’s world, the signs of distress were well-known. Someone should have noticed long before the dragon had lost control. Kara peeked back into the room. This dragon had either suffered in silence for a long time or experienced an intensely traumatic event.
Daniel pulled in a long breath and pushed away from the door, drawing Kara’s attention from the dragon. “Besides, Kyle doesn’t have the time to work on this right now. He’s going to have his hands full this afternoon when he announces the murder of an Ancient.”
“An Ancient!” Shock colored Kara’s voice. Very old dragons were treasured. For someone to kill one was unheard of. “Who?”
“Raven Nightingale.”
Kara stood in disbelief. Raven was one of the most distinguished dragons around. Even though she was a recluse, her reach was vast. Everyone knew who she was. Announcing her murder was going to rock the dragon world. “Who did it?”
Daniel shrugged. “Don’t know.” He looked up at the door. “Noah in there is the only living witness.”