Pulling her phone out of her purse, he entered his number in her address book. That way, she would be able to contact him in case she woke up before he got back. Dropping the phone on the table with a nice note, Alex gathered his things and slipped them into the bag. For a moment, Alex considered the charm on the table. He didn’t want to touch it again, but he needed to take it to Daniel. He needed something he could transport it in—something where he wouldn’t have to touch it when handing it off to Daniel. A quick search of the cabinets came up with a plastic sandwich bag. Perfect. Using a fork, Alex lifted the necklace up and slipped it into the bag. He dropped the sandwich bag into his satchel. There. Now he had everything he needed to sort out what had happened to him. One last check on Terra, and he was ready to go. Hopefully, this trip wouldn’t take him long, and he could be back well before she woke up.
12
“So what’s the problem?” Daniel called out as soon as Alex landed.
Alex paused and looked down at the head of Eternity. He hadn’t even waited for Alex to shift back to his human form before getting started. Usually, Daniel was more patient than that.
“I need your help with something,” Alex answered as he made his way all the way into the barn over The Dragon’s Wing.
“I figured that,” Daniel said as he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Alex to come closer. “I’ve been on the phone all day, trying to sort out whatever you’ve gotten yourself into. And that’s really hard to do when you don’t know what the issue is.”
“Really?” Alex snorted, amused.
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I can’t begin to tell you how many complaints I’ve received about Sanders today. Apparently, the man has been harassing every agent in this area, looking high and low for you since yesterday. What have you done to ruffle the man’s scales so badly?”
Alex snorted out another breath and shifted back to human form. “Other than my job? There’s no telling with him,” he said as he closed the distance to the head of Eternity. “You know the man worries about everything. And you really shouldn’t use that phrase with him. He isn’t a dragon.”
Brushing off Alex’s correction, Daniel let out a deep breath. “In light of recent events, he has good reason to worry. A missing agent is nothing to laugh at. Just ask Michael. Sanders hunted me down last night when you didn’t report in. I didn’t know what to think.”
“That I went home with some hot chick and was too busy to check in?” Alex snarked. As it was, he had spent the night with a beautiful woman in his arms, but Daniel didn’t need to know that.
Daniel raised an eyebrow at him. “I might believe that from someone else, but not from you. Besides, I hear tell that there was reason to worry. Brigs said a lady brought you in earlier and you seemed a little… off.” A note of concern crept into Daniel voice. “Are you all right?”
Alex smiled at him. “See, I told you there was a woman involved,” he said as he led the way into the locker room. Letting the sarcasm drop from his voice, he shook his head. “No, I’m not okay.” He glanced back to the man following him. “A lot has happened since yesterday.”
Daniel followed but didn’t press Alex to tell him what had happened. That was one of the things Alex loved about the man. Daniel may ask, but he would sit and wait until you were ready to give up your secrets, even if he were busy.
Drawing in a deep breath, Alex opened up his locker. A wave of things avalanched out of his normally neat space. His eyes opened wide, and he looked up at Daniel. “Something isn’t right.”
Daniel looked down at the mess spilling across the floor. “I can see that.” He paused as he took in the condition of Alex’s things. “Why don’t you get dressed and then tell me what’s happened?”
Nodding, Alex untangled his clothing. Someone had done a very thorough search of his things, and Alex was ready to lay money that they had been looking for the necklace in his bag. But how had they managed to get into The Dragon’s Wing and find his locker? Sure, the main barn door was left open so dragons could come and go in their grand forms, but there had to have been forty lockers in here. How did they know which locker was his?
A horrible thought crossed Alex’s mind. “How many people have access to the solitary dragons list?” Alex looked up at the shocked expression on Daniel’s face. Obviously, the man hadn’t been expecting that question.
“Well,” Daniel said as he thought, “almost everyone in Eternity has access to some part of the list.”
Alex shook his head as he pulled on his shirt. “Not some part. All of it.”
Pausing to think, Daniel watched as Alex got dressed. “Only the king and I have access to the full list.”
“All right.” Alex stood up to face Daniel. “Then who has access to the short list? The one that contains dragons under five hundred years old?”
“What are you playing at, Alex?” Daniel asked.
Alex let out a sigh and pulled the file of missing dragons from his bag. He held it out for Daniel to take. “I’ve been going through the list of missing dragons, trying to find some connection. Some reason they were taken and others weren’t. The only thing they had in common was the solitary dragons list.”
Daniel took the folder, opened it, and flipped through the first few pages, glancing over the work Alex had done. “So you think someone targeted these dragons because they were on the list?”
“Yes,” Alex answered. After much consideration, that was the conclusion he had reached. “I know that different teams are given different parts of the list to work on, and there are only a few of us who have run of the entire list.” Reaching out, he tapped the file in Daniel’s hands. “These dragons come from different sections of the list. So, either we have one person with access to the master list, or many people leaking their individual sections.”
Shock stole across Daniel’s face. He closed the file and gave Alex a grim look. “You know what this means?”
“Someone high in Eternity is helping to kill dragons,” Alex replied, stating the unthinkable.
The look Daniel gave Alex was skeptical.
Alex held his hands out to the mess that had fallen out of his locker. “How else do you explain this? And there were agents waiting for me when I got home. They attacked Terra—”
A horrible thought hit him. Terra! Alex ran his fingers up through his hair, pushing it back from his face. “Oh God! I left Terra at the safe house. Alone!” Grabbing the junk that had fallen out of the locker, he shoved it back in and slammed the door. “I’ve got to get back!”
“Wait!” Daniel grabbed Alex before he could rush back out. “Which house is she in?”
“Mine.” Alex fidgeted as his dragon pushed him to go back to his mate. “The one on Edgewood Drive.”
“Come on.” Daniel practically dragged Alex into the main room of the pub. “Brigs!” he hollered as he went in.
Brigs popped out from behind the bar. “Yeah?”
“Call McGee and get him and a SWAT team over to the rest house on Edgewood Drive. Now! Tell them to expect trouble.”
“Yes, sir!” Brigs answered and disappeared into the back.
Daniel pulled Alex out of building and shoved him into the passenger seat of a truck. “You are going to explain everything that’s happened in the last two days,” he demanded before slamming the door.
Alex nodded his head and tried to focus on the past two days’ events, but the thought of Terra being in danger drove his dragon into a fit. He had to get there to make sure she was okay.