A Dragon's Heart (11 page)

“Stay in here,” Lexie said, shoving her into the office and locking the door behind her with her key. Monica would be able to unlock it and get out later if she needed to, but hopefully no one would be able to get in easily.

She remembered her promise to Perry, to keep Monica safe. She wouldn’t let him down.

Another loud boom sounded against the door. They were hitting it with something.

She still didn’t understand about the alarm. Or how they knew where the dragons were. Perhaps they’d known for some time but kept quiet until the dragons had a dragon-heart they could steal.

If they took Monica, not only would Monica be in danger, but her friends would lose their only hope of being a triad the way they needed to.

Monica pounded on the office door. “What are you doing? Let me out!”

“Be quiet,” Lexie said. “Just stay there. And keep the lights off.”

Lexie turned the rest of the lights off in the foyer and ran to a small side closet and tucked herself inside it where she could watch. The closet didn’t lock, but she didn’t have many other options. She didn’t want to be in the same room with Monica, because having them both found at once would be that much more dangerous.

Lexie had just closed herself inside the closet when the door burst open and the men flooded in. She reached in her pocket for her phone and dialed Perry’s cell, watching the men as it quietly rang against her ear. There was no answer, and she couldn’t risk leaving a message, so she dialed Tor’s phone instead.

No answer.

She hoped and prayed they were all right and they came back soon. Otherwise, their dragon-heart might be gone.

For a moment, she thought about that. A tiny, cowardly part of her wanted Monica gone, wanted an excuse to have the dragons for herself. But she meant what she’d said to Monica. She’d become a better person with the dragons. One who wasn’t going to back away or sacrifice someone else’s happiness for her own.

She listened to the men talking as she continued to dial Perry’s phone. She didn’t expect him to pick up, especially if he was in dragon form, but hopefully when he got a chance to look at his phone, seeing all those calls would make him realize something was very wrong.

“Nice job with the front door,” the man in front said. He was wearing a black ski mask that hid his face, but there was something vaguely familiar about his voice. She didn’t know why.

“Thanks. So where is she?”

Lexie’s heart sank. They were definitely here for Monica.

“I don’t know. Search every room. We need to get out before the dragons are back, if possible.”

“And if they get back?” the other man asked.

“Then we hope we’ve found her and can run for it.”

Lexie’s chest hurt from the throbbing in her heart. Fear had made her simultaneously cold and sore, her throat tight with tension, her hands clammy and shaking.

She was always like this in emergencies. Always completely shut down. Always worthless at making herself do anything useful.

The man in front started walking toward the office, the man behind him following. The other dozen or so with him spread out and started up the stairs to the rooms up there.

But Lexie wasn’t worried about that.

She wasn’t in any danger because they hadn’t even noticed her closet. Dammit, she should have put Monica there.

As the men got closer to the office, she realized she had to make a vital decision—stay there and let Monica get taken or do something.

But there was nothing she could do, right?

She was silent, the pounding of her heart louder and louder as she watched them get closer to the door.

The man in front put his hand on the doorknob, and Lexie heard rather than felt herself push out of the closet in a rush and land on the floor with a thud.

She looked up at the men, who were now turning in shock to look at her, ignoring the office.

Thank heavens.

“I’m the dragon-heart,” she said. “And you can’t be here. You need to get out now.” She tried to sound brave, how a dragon-heart might sound. Truthfully, they would just know a dragon-heart was here. Hopefully, they wouldn’t know how she looked or that Lexie wasn’t her.

It was all she could do for the dragons at this moment. Hopefully give them a chance to fulfill the destiny they always should have had.

She stifled a bitter laugh as the men walked toward her. She was finally behaving like a dragon-heart, but it was far too late for it to mean anything.

The man in front grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her up, his eyes narrowing as he scanned her face. “This is her. Let’s go.”

She felt confusion. Why would he recognize her?

The other man who was with him walked to the office, about to open it.

Lexie twisted.

“No!” she screamed. “Stop it.” If they found Monica, it would all be for nothing.

The man raised an eyebrow and then opened the door, and Monica walked out, brushing off her hands.

She gave Lexie a glare.

“How rude, locking me in there.”

Lexie’s jaw dropped. “What’s going on?”

The man holding her chuckled and dragged her to the door, ignoring her struggles. “So stupid. Maybe you really are a dragon-heart, if the legends are true.”

Lexie was still confused, but she focused on fighting for her life, which was hopeless against the strength of the man holding her. He couldn’t be human.

“Stop it,” he said, and then he held her around the waist with one hand while he lifted his hood off with the other.

She gasped when she saw him. “Sid,” she said, recognizing one of the men who had worked for Felding, her former employer. It hadn’t even occurred to her that the men could be coming for her. Why now? Why all at once?

“Yup,” he said. “It’s convenient you thought we were here for a dragon-heart,” he said. “And threw yourself out like that to save her.”

Monica flipped her hair. “When do I get paid?”

“When we get out of here,” Sid said. “Now shut up.”

“How did you…?” Lexie was completely blank with shock as they dragged her down the front steps.

“We staged the whole thing. It took a couple months to figure out,” he said. “When we finally figured out what dragons look for in mates, we simply set it up. They missed the first few, but they got this one.”

“So Monica wasn’t… She didn’t…” Lexie glared at the other woman, blinking back tears of furious anger.

“Monica was great. She made sure to shut down the security system without anyone noticing. She’s good at things like that. We weren’t expecting the dragons to leave so soon, so we got lucky there.”

Lexie had no more words for the whole situation. She’d given everything she had for the dragons, and in the end, she’d just walked into a huge trap.

She should have known the last guys out there would be trying something sneaky.

“I don’t know anything,” she said. “I don’t know what you want.”

“I don’t believe that,” Sid said. “You worked directly with Felding.”

“I don’t know jack,” she said, reaching down and biting his arm. He backhanded her, and she fell to the stairs with a thump.

“Regardless, you’re a loose end. And you need to disappear.”

He reached down for her, and she snarled as she launched a kick up at him, which he dodged.

She was far from done fighting.

P
erry found
his partner in his usual place at the top of a nearby mountain, curled up in dragon form, invisible and unresponsive to his mental calls.

Perry mentally cursed himself for not coming down here sooner. He’d flown over their lands and not seen Tor, and then he’d gone over to visit the tigers to tell them what had happened. He had only thought to take a closer look when he’d calmed slightly.

He landed, transformed, and walked to his partner’s giant form. He put a hand upon the smooth scales and saw Tor’s yellow eyes open slowly and then close again in disgust.

“I’ve been worried about you,” Perry said.

“I know,” Tor replied. “I can’t get out of my dragon form. I’ve totally lost control.”

Perry sat beside him, pulling his legs up against his chest. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. What a mess.”

“I can’t go back there,” Tor said. “I can’t be with Monica. My dragon hates her. I’ve never felt anything like it. I don’t know if it’s just wanting Lexie or what.”

Perry nodded. “My dragon hasn’t been comfortable with her either.” He put his face in his hand and sighed. “To be honest, now that we have an actual, so-called dragon-heart with us, I thought it would be easier to focus and let Lexie go. But it’s actually harder because all I can do is see all the things she doesn’t have that Lexie does.”

“Like that body.” Tor grinned.

Perry grinned back at him, though his chest ached. “And that heart.” 

Tor nodded. “She has a good heart.”

“She does.” Perry agreed. And then he didn’t know what to say. They stayed quiet as wind rushed over the mountain.

“Perry?” Tor asked.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t care if Lexie has a dragon-heart. She has my heart.” Then he rested his large head back down again. 

It was probably the sweetest thing Perry had ever heard him say.

“So you want to give up on the whole thing?” Perry asked with a sigh. “Just give up on the dragon-heart and take a regular human as mate?”

“If that mate is Lexie,” Tor said stubbornly. 

And suddenly, Perry was just tired of fighting it all. Things felt so right just how they had been. He was trying to force their lives into a clean little box when it so clearly wanted to be a messy, delightful blob.

“I guess we can’t have your dragon throwing tantrums if we’re going to work,” Perry said.

Tor nodded. “He’d be completely unmanageable. Whereas, let me stay with Lexie, and he’ll do the work of two dragons.”

Perry pressed his lips together. “Mine, too. We just have to see if Lexie is okay with it.”

“And what about Monica?” Tor asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe refer her to someone else. Maybe have Jace check her out a little further.” Perry shrugged and picked up a blade of grass. He tore it down the middle and tossed it aside. He still couldn’t believe they were doing it, but instead of a sinking sense of dread, he felt a kind of peace about the whole situation. He knew it would be hard. It would be nothing like he expected. Nothing like any other dragons had ever done.

But when had he and Tor ever been normal?

Besides, he’d nearly had a heart attack in the past few hours while searching for his partner. He couldn’t do that again. He couldn’t break up their pairing. He cared too much for his friend.

And they both cared for Lexie.

“All right,” Perry said. “Do you want to break the news?” He heard a groan and looked over to see Tor pulling himself slowly off the ground in human form, looking incredibly tired. He probably hadn’t slept all night while trapped in his dragon.

“Damn, I’ve been blackmailed by my own dragon,” Tor said, rubbing the back of his neck. His dark hair stuck up in all directions. “Wouldn’t let me out until he got his way.”

Perry had to laugh at that. “Tell you what. I’ll fly you back to the mansion.” 

“Nah,” Tor said, stretching. “I don’t think it’ll happen again.” He looked at Perry. “Do you think we’ve made a big mistake?”

“I think, regardless of how illogical it is, we might just be doing exactly what we need to,” Perry said. “So let’s not look back now.”

Tor nodded. “Let’s go get Lexie. And get rid of that Monica.” He transformed, and Perry joined him. It would be a good ways back to the house from here. “I don’t know what I didn’t like about her, but—”

Tor was cut off when they both rose into the air and the mansion came into view. Tiny though it was in the distance, it was clear something was wrong. There were small dots in front and little trucks parked on the grounds.

Something was definitely not right.

In unison, Tor and Perry dove at full speed in the direction of their mansion, flying at a blinding pace. All either of them could think about was Lexie and if she was okay or not. 

In an instant, they were at the house, flying overhead to figure out what the hell was going on. In front of the house were several vans and SUVs parked around the entrance, with dozens of men standing at strategic locations to secure the perimeter, while others loitered around as if awaiting orders.

But just as Perry thought to start torching their unwelcome guests, he saw something that shocked and enraged him at the same time.

Coming out of the house was Lexie, being held forcibly by two men in dark clothing as she struggled wildly against them. A few feet in front of them was a large man with striking features and brown hair.

It was Sid, Felding’s second-in-command. The one they had been looking for, the last piece in the puzzle to securing Lexie’s safety from her corrupt former employer.

As if suddenly reminded of something, Sid’s gaze turned from the helpless woman behind him to the sky. He put a hand up to shield his eyes from the bright morning sun and scanned around, searching carefully. 

Perry wanted nothing more than to tear into these criminals and make them regret ever having come here, but they couldn’t risk an all-out brawl with Lexie caught in the center of it.

Suddenly, Sid’s head cocked slightly to the side and he backed up a step

“I know you’re out there. I can hear your wings beating. If you want your woman
alive
, I suggest you come down and show yourselves,” Sid shouted out, brandishing a pistol from his coat and pointing it at Lexie, whose expression quickly changed from anger to horror as he cocked the hammer. “But if you’d prefer, we can do this the hard way…” he said, waiting for their response.

Perry could sense Tor’s rage, the same rage that seethed inside himself at seeing their love in this situation because of them. 

Together they hovered down to the ground at the base of the sprawling staircase that led into their mansion and transformed into their human forms. All around them, Perry could hear weapons being drawn and trained on them, and shouts of men as they surrounded their position.

It would take a hell of a lot more than bullets to keep these dragons from their mate.

Sid just looked down at them from his position at the top of the steps, and his mouth quirked in a half-cocked, nervous smile.

“Well, well, I half expected you two to try your chances attacking us from above, seeing as you’re content to hide in the shadows like cowards most of the time.”

A few feet behind Sid, Perry could see Lexie. Upon seeing them, the immediate fear dissipated from her face and was now replaced with worry as she looked around and saw the incredible odds stacked against them. 

But Tor and Perry were used to these kinds of odds.

They weren’t used to being in the situation of fearing for their mate’s life, though.

In spite of their anger, Tor and Perry stayed in their place, not moving or doing anything that could endanger Lexie. Seemingly satisfied by their cooperation, Sid’s grip on his gun loosened, but he kept it trained on Lexie as he moved closer to her, threatening her.

“It’s funny how things work out like this, isn’t it? You just had to go and ruin everything that me and Felding had spent years building, years organizing. All that time, wasted. I’m kind of glad you decided to show up so I can avenge his death personally.”

“Felding had it coming. And so do you, asshole,” Tor yelled out, furious, as he took a step forward, unable to contain his anger.

Perry reached a hand out to stop him, not wanting to agitate Sid even more. 

“I guess it’s only fitting that the very thing you’ve spent your whole lives looking for was your own undoing.” He spoke down to them cockily. “Thanks again for that, Monica,” he added, turning and looking at Monica, who was standing next to two guards near a car at their right.

Dammit. So
she
had been the breach, Perry realized. That was why they had been able to pass their gates and security terminals without detection. Monica had been working for Sid from the inside.

And he had been stupid enough to fall for it. But as much as Perry wanted to slap himself for not realizing it sooner, all he could focus on was Lexie’s safety now. She was all that mattered.

“Let Lexie go. You don’t need her. She doesn’t know anything.” Perry spoke up, looking for an opening to disarm Sid.

“In fact, I do, actually. She’s my personal insurance policy against you two brutes. Just in case.”

“In case of what?” Tor demanded.

“In case you survive my guards,” Sid replied, tugging Lexie closer to him as he backed up another step.

Then all hell broke loose. In every direction around him and Tor, Perry heard the cacophony of gunfire erupt. Acting on pure instinct, both of them dove to the ground to avoid the initial volley that pummeled the ground near them. Out of the corner of Perry’s vision, he saw Sid grab Lexie and back through the front door of the house, along with two other men who closed the huge doors behind them.

Then, as they’d done so many times before, they transformed into their dragon forms, invisible and ferocious, and turned their attention to the immediate threat at hand.

But this time, the fight was personal.

They’d make these men pay.

We’re coming, Lexie
, Perry called out, hoping to calm her with his reassurance. So long as he and Tor were still alive, Sid wouldn’t lay a hand on her, and he knew it. 

Careful, they have thermal sensors on their equipment,
Perry heard Tor in his mind as they gained altitude over the courtyard in front of their mansion, then dove toward the armed men scattering beneath them.

But in spite of the hail of bullets, Perry felt nothing but burning rage so hot it could rival the sun as he pounded into the ground, grasping a black SUV with his claws and sending it flying into several men at his left. Three men approached, emptying their guns as they fired at him, and Perry swiped his tail, sending them reeling while he flipped another car with his mind, toppling it and its occupants onto its side.

Next to him, Tor was a whirlwind of ferocity, head-butting a car and sending it bowling forward while he clawed at several wolves, which had made the mistake of trying to attack a red dragon head-on.

Shifter or not, somehow these men had enough weaponry to arm a small country. Perry was pretty sure this group constituted the remainder of Felding’s muscle.

Looks like they brought the big guns,
Tor warned, nodding at two black trucks at the far side of the courtyard while he batted another wolf away and sent it careening into a brick wall. In the back of the trucks, Perry saw men were pulling rocket launchers out of large steel crates and training them on the two dragons wreaking havoc in the center of everything.

Just as Perry turned to face them, two of them fired, sending a pair of heat-seeking missiles screaming toward them at incredible speed.

Not a bad plan,
Perry thought.

Except for one thing.

Just as the missiles crossed the courtyard and were about to reach them, Perry focused his mind on the burning white objects trailing smoke behind them and redirected them. The missiles raced past them, narrowly missing him and Tor, and made a wide arc, heading back toward their point of origin.

Seeing the rapid turn of events as it unfolded, the men at the trucks hurriedly scattered in dismay. A split second later, the missiles connected with the two vehicles, exploding along with the weapons loaded in the back with an incredible blast that shook that ground and threw many of the men off their feet as smoke and flame billowed in large clouds above the epicenter.

Nice,
Perry heard Tor say as he caught a fleeing man with his fangs and flung him dozens of feet up in the air and into a pair of trees to the left.

Just as Perry turned to finish off a small collection of men that were regrouping to continue the fight, Tor came in front of him and breathed a large cone of red fire that swathed through the wreckage and sent the men running away in terror.

I can take care of the rest of these guys. You go inside and get our mate,
Tor told Perry confidently as he pursued the pitiful men fleeing at full speed.

In an instant, Perry turned toward the doors leading into the mansion, running up the steps and changing back to his human form as he went.

There was only one last thing to take care of now.

I’m coming, Lexie.