Dragon Heat (9 page)

mission, they needed his help. ‚You don’t have to believe me. Just see it

with your own eyes.‛

She took a small piece of paper out of her front pocket. ‚This is

where the facility in New York is. We believe it’s a laboratory, Tardieh,

not a hospital. Someone is using vampires and dracos as lab rats.‛

Tardieh’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. He took a step closer and

was nose to nose with Zoricah once again. ‚How do I know this is not

another one of your brilliant plots?‛

Damn him! Zoricah could not believe his stubbornness. She’d had

it. If this hard-headed vampire did not care enough for his race to get past

his intransigence, she would make him. She looked straight into his green

eyes. ‚Because I saved your life once and you owe me.‛ Her voice was

dark, each word came out full of weight.

Tardieh’s eyes went wide in disbelief, but before he gathered

strength to respond, she raised her hand. ‚Look, Tardieh, it’s been over

two hundred years. Why would I want to plot against you now when you

have established yourself on the throne and your kingdom is strong?‛ She

hoped some military rationale would get through that thick skull of his.

She lifted her hand again in a second attempt of giving him the location of

the laboratory. ‚All I’m asking you is to be at these coordinates by

midnight tomorrow and see it for yourself.‛

Still scrutinizing her, he said, ‚I’ll think about it.‛ Tardieh accepted

the piece of paper, and before she could stop him, he took the pentagram

that was still in her other hand.

Zoricah knew her last strategy had worked and that Tardieh was

just playing hard to get. Fine, two could play that stupid game. She

signaled to Yara and Sam. It was time to leave the vampires to their own

thoughts but not without one last demonstration. Zoricah took a couple of

steps backward, opened her senses, and let her dragon surface. She felt the

heat start at her core and grow deliciously inside her. She did not allow it

to take over completely, just a little bit, just to give them a taste. Two huge

dark golden wings grew out of her shoulder blades. In a graceful

movement, she arched her back and extended her leathery wings fully. A

small smile crossed her lips when she noticed the vampires’ gazes glued

on her. It worked. They had completely missed her fighters leaving the

park. ‚Fine. I guess, I’ll see you when I see you, then.‛ She gave Tardieh

one raised eyebrow and flew dauntingly away.

Tardieh was flabbergasted. With a start, he managed to close his

mouth before drooling in front of his friends. She was beautiful. The

moment she stepped back, her golden honey eyes flared, and he saw two

massive wings simply grow out of her back. They had a hypnotic dark

golden shine under the moonlight. Then she arched her back, giving him

full view of her delicious body. Immediately Tardieh imagined her

arching her back out of pleasure underneath him. No, he stopped himself.

She was not beautiful; she was the enemy with an agenda, and he had to

get a grip on himself. ‚Joel.‛

‚Yes, my lord.‛ His friend’s voice came out in a gasp, as if he had

also just been woken up from a trance.

‚Are your spies active?‛

‚Always, my lord.‛

‚Then call on them. I want to know where she’s hiding, where she’s

been, and who she’s been getting her intel from.‛ Tardieh turned around

and faced his loyal guards. ‚If this is a trap, Zoricah will not live to see

another sunrise.‛

‚I don’t like this.‛ Yara’s voice came from the kitchen. Apparently

the previous four times she voiced out her opinion about the night’s

encounter had not been enough.

Zoricah locked the front door behind her. Her fighters had just

arrived back from the park, and Yara had headed straight to the kitchen.

Due to her aerial voyage, Zoricah had returned faster. She loved flying

over Manhattan, its perfectly geometrical streets lit by the fluorescent

colors of skyscrapers and car beams. She knew it was partly because of the

thrill born from the possibility of getting caught by humans, but she

wasn’t a young dragon; she knew how to conceal herself even in bright

full moon nights like this one. Tonight, however, she went straight home

to clear her head before Yara and Sam got back.

Sam crossed the living room and sat down on the leather couch.

‚Tone it down, Yara. You’ll wake Drew up.‛, she said weakly.

‚I’m already awake. I’ve been waiting for you.‛ Drew was standing

by the hallway door. Her eyes were even more sullen than when Zoricah

had left to meet Tardieh. This whole account had taken a big toll on her

friend. Drew was the main reason why they were in New York. Her twin

sister’s abduction had shaken the draconian senate. According to Drew,

they had spared no efforts to find her sister, Deirdre, but to no avail.

Zoricah, Sam, and Yara had been in Italy trying to take down a

draconian Jack the Ripper when Drew managed to find Zoricah and

convince her to help. Draconian twins were a rarity in the world and as

with most magical races were treated almost as divine beings. Rumor had

it that the bond between twins was so great they could sense each other,

feel what the other was feeling, and sometimes even read each other’s

mind. Drew and Deirdre were the perfect proof that this rumor was more

than just an old legend.

Zoricah knew the senate had allowed Drew to contact her only as a

last resort. Zoricah and the draconian high society had parted ways ever

since her mother’s death almost eighty years earlier. She despised them

for their conservative prejudiced ways. They despised her for her

revolutionary mindset that threatened their millennia-old conventions. At

first, Zoricah had agreed to take the case because other draconian females

had been abducted, too. She knew that as soon as Deirdre was

found—that is, if she was found—the senate would stop looking for the

culprit and ignore the sujhas who had also been abducted. They were, in

their eyes, the scum, the shame of their society.

After a few months together, Zoricah saw there was more to Drew

than what meets the eye. Her porcelain doll-like beauty gave out a fragile

vibe that hid an innate strength and determination. Drew had refused to

go back to the draconian lands in the far eastern mountains with the

senate’s guards and basically forced her presence among Zoricah’s female

warriors. At first, Yara and Sam had been beside themselves, but in no

time, she conquered their hearts and respect.

Zoricah looked at her pale friend by the hallway door. Her once

shiny wavy red hair was gathered on a single plait; her blue eyes were

dark with pain. ‚How are you feeling?‛

‚How did it go?‛ It was all Zoricah got for an answer.

‚Those vamps are a joke!‛ Yara started again, coming out of the

kitchen chewing on a raw chicken leg. ‚They have no idea what’s

happening under their noses and yet feel they have the right to doubt us.‛

she said indignantly, waving the poultry limb at Drew.

‚It’s understandable. I would, too,‛ Drew responded, crossing the

living room to take a seat next to Sam, who gave her a friendly smile but

stood up and went to the balcony. She had always been the quiet one

among them but tonight Sam was especially quiet, Zoricah realized.

‚If someone brought me hard evidence that my people were

getting butchered everywhere, I would listen carefully and do something

about it instead of wasting my time shooting the messenger.‛ Yara said on

her way to the kitchen—no doubt to get another piece of chow. When

Yara was frustrated, she got very predictable. She ate, usually something

raw and nasty to sate the black panther inside her, and let her Brazilian

temper fly free.

Drew ignored her Latin friend. ‚Zoricah, please. Are they backing

us up tomorrow?‛

‚Don’t worry, Drew. We’ll get Deirdre back.‛ It was all Zoricah

could promise because, by Apa Dobrý, she would bring the draconian

twin back home. It did not matter if Tardieh helped them or not; the

following night she would lead her small but fierce army on the attack, as

she had done countless times, and rescue Deirdre. Drew depended on her

twin sister, and her girls depended on their well being to continue

believing the world was not just a place where the gods dumped in foul

people with psychotic obsessions.

Maybe she should stop calling them ‚her girls,‛ Zoricah reflected.

They have grown and changed so much since she'd welcomed them in her

home. Yara continued to be a hot-headed Brazilian who had unsolved

issues with her past, but she had learned how to tone it down, control the

beast, and focus on heightening her strengths instead of blaming everyone

else for her unfortunate fate. Sam had also matured but still struggled

with her powers. Zoricah had literally
felt
her when she was investigating

strange accounts in a small town near North Yorkshire in England. Sam’s

inner energy was so great and so out of control that she had been locked

up in a human mental institution and put under 24/7 surveillance and

heavy drugs. Zoricah had known Sam was human and had no magical

heritage in her blood, but nonetheless she was intrigued by the girl’s

powers and infuriated by what the humans had done to her. So one night

she flew in and got her out. That had been almost forty years before. Sam

still looked like a twenty-something fresh-from-the-farm girl.

Zoricah met Drew’s eyes; they were filled with sadness, but they

were not dead, not yet. ‚We will need all the strength we have for

tomorrow, and that means having more than just a few hours sleep.‛ She

smiled reassuringly. ‚Why don’t you go back to bed, Drew. You too, Yara.

I want you all fresh and ready by late afternoon. We’ll go through the plan

once more before we leave.‛

Yara and Drew nodded in agreement and complied. They were

strong women but respected Zoricah as their leader.

Zoricah crossed the Victorian style living room of her Soho

townhouse and went to the balcony. She loved Soho in the summer. It was

always buzzing with people about and music could be heard everywhere.

It was the reason why she had bought that townhouse in the first place. It

was not luxurious and had only four average size bedrooms distributed

over three levels. She had decorated it with modern furniture in a classic

almost minimalist style. It wasn’t the best home she owned, but it was in

the perfect location, on Mott Street off Broome. Just seconds away from art

galleries, bars, shops, and vibrant live music venues. Humans couldn’t

discern if she was one of them or not, and unlike vampires, she had no

issues with sunlight, so she could always enjoy the best of the human

world without major worries.

Zoricah saw Sam sitting on the outdoor sofa in the balcony. The

lights had not been turned on so the place was only lit by the full moon

above. Shadows highlighted the somber expression on her friend’s

delicate features. She seemed to have taken great interest in the concrete

floor.

‚Thank you for backing me up at the park, Sam.‛ Zoricah sat down

on the armchair next to the sofa. ‚I am sorry for having to reprimand you

in front of the vampires.‛

Sam looked up and smiled, but it never reached her eyes. ‚Oh,

that’s all right. I probably deserved it.‛

‚You did?‛ Zoricah asked not believing her ears.

‚Oh, well, you had warned us about what could happen and told

us not to overreact. And I did, so<‛ Sam shrugged and let the silence fill

in the gaps.

Zoricah frowned not understanding where the guilty-your-honor

attitude was coming from. Something was wrong, very wrong. She looked

straight into her youngest fighter’s eyes and tried to read what wasn’t

being said but failed miserably. ‚Sam, what’s wrong?‛

Sam looked away, then back at Zoricah and smiled again, but once

more, it never reached her eyes. ‚I

had rescued Deirdre already. This waiting is driving me crazy.‛

She was right; this whole abduction was taking a very big toll on

them all. It had been one of the first times that someone close, a dear

friend, had been their mission. But Zoricah knew her petite blonde fighter

was not disclosing the whole truth. Unfortunately now was not the time

for therapy session; maybe later, after they finished their job in New York.