For the Heart of Dragons (11 page)

Byrd cocked his head in question.

“We can cause Kara to wreck, or hurt her.”

“No hurt Kara!”
Byrd growled at him.

“I know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt her, but you could do it accidently.”

Byrd thought about it for a moment. “
Be calm in car.”

“Yes,”
Noah agreed. “
Be calm in the car.”

Byrd nodded his head. He tilted it and paused in thought. “
You mad?”

Noah chuckled. “
No, Byrd. I’m a little frustrated, but I’m not mad.”

“I sorry.”
Byrd wiggled in despair.

Noah drew in another calming breath. “
It’s all right, Byrd. We’ll get through this. Together.”

“Together!”
Byrd’s thought echoed through Noah as if the little dragon had screamed it in this head.

The smell of impending breakfast drew Byrd’s attention away from Noah. Uncurling from the seat, he wiggled in anticipation.

“Byrd!”
Noah called, grabbing the dragon’s attention.

Byrd froze. “
Yes?”

“Remember what we talked about?”

The dragon thought about it for a second. “
Be calm in car?”

“Yes,”
Noah said, pleased that he remembered. “
It’s time to be calm and wait.”

Byrd eyed the bags coming into the car and whined, sniffing at the savory smells filling the car. “
Hungry.”

“I know you’re hungry, but we have to wait for Kara to give us the food,”
Noah explained. “
Not all of that is ours.”

Byrd watched the bags as Kara set them down on the floorboard in front of him. She said something to him in a warning tone, but he was too busy contemplating Noah’s words to hear them. “
Not ours?”
he asked, confused.

“No
,” Noah continued. “
Part of that food is Kara’s.”

At the mention of her name, Byrd looked up to the woman next to him. Her attention was focused on the traffic around them. “
Kara’s?”

“Yes, and if we eat it all, she won’t get any.”

A range of emotion rolled through Byrd.

Noah tried to track them, but it was hard to understand what the dragon was thinking. It knew what it wanted, but the fact that Noah had pointed out the needs of another set things in motion that Noah didn’t understand.

“Come on, Byrd.”

Kara’s voice broke into whatever was running through the dragon’s mind. He looked up at her.

“Let’s go eat.” Reaching down, she pulled the bags of food into her lap and balanced them as she got out of the car.

Byrd sat and stared at her.

“Go on,”
Noah urged.

Byrd followed her out of the car. He paused to look around. The small parking lot bordered a grassy area with a few picnic tables. He glanced up to find Kara already on her way to one of the tables with her load. A few loping strides had him up and on the bench of the table she’d chosen.

Noah was surprised as Byrd watched Kara separate out the food. The dragon wiggled in anticipation but made no move to take anything until Kara had everything unwrapped.

“There you go, sweetheart,” Kara said as she tucked the paper under the sandwich Noah had ordered. “All yours.”

Byrd stared at her as she sat down and started eating.

The steam rising from the eggs made Noah’s mouth water. He waited for the hungry dragon to attack the meal with the same gusto he’d had with the pizza last night, but Byrd held his ground, watching Kara eat her food. “
Byrd?”
Noah prompted. “
We can eat now.”

Byrd’s eyes remained on Kara. “
Kara eat.”

“Kara
is
eating,”
Noah pointed out.

“Kara’s food,”
Byrd argued.

“No,”
Noah tried to reason with the dragon, “
Kara has her food. This is our food.”

Byrd looked over the meal laid out before him. “
Our food?”

“Yes. Our food.”
Noah looked up at Kara. “
Kara has plenty of food. In fact, she’s almost done. If we don’t hurry, she’ll be done before we are.”

Byrd looked over the dwindling meal on the other side of the table. Tentatively, he moved to take one of the hash browns Noah had ordered. When Kara didn’t stop him, he chomped it down.

“See? She isn’t going to keep you from your food. She has enough.”
Noah coaxed him into taking more of the meal.

Giving in to his grumbling belly, Byrd scarfed down the rest of his fare without complaint.

Noah mentally shook his head and relaxed, thinking about the dragon. Last night, there had been no stopping Byrd from taking what he wanted, but today it took coaxing to get him to eat. Something had changed in the dragon, but Noah wasn’t sure what.

***

It was a beautiful morning for a picnic. The sky was clear with just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs at bay. The shade of the tall pine trees made the table Kara had picked the perfect place to eat. She loved to come out here and watch the ducks in the distant pond float around, but today, she didn’t notice them. Her mind was trained on the small dragon following her to the picnic table.

The heavy traffic had kept her from more than a quick glance at him while she drove, but she couldn’t help but feel something significant had happened in the car. His sudden outburst had startled her. It also seemed to have startled him. And the order he’d given hadn’t seemed like the same excited dragon she was getting used to. It had been serious and almost surly.

Was Noah a surly person?
Kara didn’t know much about Noah, only that he was a high-level mage with Eternity, and that he had been human before joining with Byrd. Images of an elderly man with white hair, siting in some dank vault and pouring over ancient tomes of magic, filled her mind.

She shook the thought away as preposterous. Eternity would never allow such valuable books to rot away in some damp dungeon. If anything, they were kept in a state-of-the-art facility with climate-controlled rooms and special lighting to keep them safe and whole. But the possibility of Noah being an aged man with white hair was more than slim. Noah wasn’t a very common name in younger generations, and the most powerful mages had spent the better part of their lives perfecting their arts. Plus, the magic would have bleached the pigment from him. Why it bleached the color from humans but not dragons still puzzled scientists and mages alike.

Pushing that line of thought away, she peeled the paper around Byrd’s sandwich back and laid it on the table. “There you go, sweetheart. All yours.” Looking back, she checked the bench before sitting down and starting in on her own food.

Picking up her sandwich, she bit into it. The sweetness of the croissant was the perfect contrast to the sharpness of the Swiss cheese and ham inside. It was one of her favorite breakfast foods. She closed her eyes and savored that first bite before getting down to the business of really eating. With the ravenous appetite Byrd had shown last night, she was going to have to hurry if she had any hope of keeping up with him.

Glancing at the dragon, she was surprised to find him watching her, his meal untouched. A note of concern tightened Kara’s chest, but she forced herself to continue eating. The fact that Byrd hadn’t dug into his food right away worried her. He had been so excited about it in the car. Her dragon supplied her with a single thought.

“Brooding.”

Kara shook her head and nibbled at her food. “
He can’t be brooding,”
she argued back. Brooding was bad. It would throw his system out of whack, making it harder for his two halves to connect. Plus, it meant that he saw her as a potential mate. She didn’t want a mate!

“Are you sure?”

Looking back across the table, Kara studied him as she ate. A confused look sat on his face as he glanced between her and his food. She hated to admit it, but she did feel drawn to him. Then again, she had always had a bit of a soft spot for hard-luck cases, and his was the worst she had seen in a while. The fact that her dragon liked him made her job harder, but there was more to picking a mate than just listening to instincts. Byrd’s childlike innocence was endearing—even when he was causing trouble—but it was the human half that concerned her. She knew nothing of Noah. Who was he? What had his life been like before he’d joined with Byrd? What plans did he have for his future? All questions that needed answers.

Kara’s heart fluttered when Byrd tipped his head over and carefully picked up one of his hash browns. She glanced over her meal. There wasn’t much left, but the fact that the dragon hadn’t waited until it was gone was a good sign. She peeked back up to find him scarfing down his food with the same enthusiasm he had given the pizza last night. Letting out a sigh of relief, she stuffed the last of her sandwich in her mouth.
He wasn’t brooding; just talking with his other half.

A soft crunching noise drew Kara’s attention again.

Byrd had finished his food and was trying to get into the sealed cup of orange juice.

She drew a breath to stop him, but it was too late.

Juice squirted everywhere as he crunched through the thin plastic.

“Oh Byrd.” She sighed as he licked the sticky liquid from the table. Shaking her head, she gathered up the trash and let the little dragon be. The spill had been an honest mistake, and there was no sense in reprimanding his uncouth behavior. Besides, if Noah were as surly as she suspected, he was probably already yelling at the poor dragon. She sighed and stood up to deal with the garbage.

Dumping the trash, she turned to call Byrd to the car, but he was no longer at the table. “Byrd?” she called, looking around for where he’d run off to. He was nowhere in sight. A zing of fear hit her as she scanned the park for him. Daniel was going to have her hide if she lost him. Taking an anxious step back towards the table, she called him again.

A scratching noise from the stand of pine trees drew her attention. Letting out a deep sigh, she relaxed when she caught sight of him. The feeling was short-lived, however, as she watched him lift his back leg against the tree. Spinning from the sight, she closed her eyes in utter humiliation.
Just when I thought he was making progress.

Opening her eyes, she glanced around the mostly empty parking lot. There were a few people relaxing around the area, but no one was paying enough attention to catch Byrd watering the trees.
Thank goodness.
She sighed in relief. Now she just had to get him out of here before he broke any more public decency laws. Hopefully, this was a onetime thing and she could get Noah back in charge soon. Explaining society’s standards for defecation was not a conversation she wanted to have with a being driven by instinct.

A touch on her leg drew her attention down to the little dragon. “Feel better?” she asked wryly.

Byrd looked up at her. “Yes,” he chirped happily and went back to sniffing at the ground.

An exasperated smile curled the corner of her mouth as she shook her head. The dragon had completely missed the sarcasm in her question. Chuckling softly to herself, she let the matter go and headed to her car. It was clear that his instincts were back in control. “Come on,” she called to him as she opened the door.

Byrd hopped into the passenger’s seat and circled until he was comfortable enough to lie down.

Shutting the door, Kara let out another laugh at the absurdity her life was turning into. Never in her years of therapy had she run into someone as impulsive as Byrd. Curbing that impulsivity was going to be the hard part.

She couldn’t just yell at Byrd for his crazy urges. Most of them were natural things that he needed to be comfortable. Plus, scolding him could upset him, and that would throw his system further out of balance. She had to find a way to correct him gently. But that could get tricky. She needed to find out more about his human half. Hopefully, she’d be able to pull Noah’s latest psychological evaluations and personnel records when she got to her office. That would help her figure out how to deal with any additional embarrassing situations.

As she circled the car, she prayed nothing else would happen before she figured him out, but the chances of that were slim. It was still early, and they had a lot to do today.

6

The morning sun glittered off the front of the glass-and-steel structure. Byrd sat on the car seat and stared at it in awe.

“We’re here,” Kara said as she pulled into a parking space near the front of the building.

“Where?” Noah asked, staring at the impressive building. He’d never seen anything like it. It had to be at least ten stories tall and looked like someone had taken a gigantic, latticework egg and dropped it in the middle of a park at an odd cant. One side was flat, and there was a huge hole built into the top where the point of the egg should have been. It was an impressive piece of modern architecture that boggled the mind.

Kara giggled at the awe in his voice. “Work,” she said as she got out and held the door open. “I have to pick up a few things.”

Shaken by her laughter, Byrd pulled his eyes away from the amazing structure and climbed out of the car.

Noah glanced around as they followed Kara across the parking lot and onto the sidewalk leading to the building. A few months ago, he’d heard the medical division had finally moved into their new location, but he hadn’t had a reason to check it out. The medic on staff at Eternity’s main office had been able to cover most of his needs. He had, however, been impressed to hear that the new building was state-of-the-art—complete with high-tech solar heating and wind turbines—but he’d never expected it to look so avant-garde.

“Pretty!”
Byrd chirped.

Noah chuckled. “
It’s very pretty indeed.”

Following Kara into the building, they paused for a moment to look around the lobby. It was just as impressive as the outside of the building. Noah’s eyes were pulled to the left where a rock waterfall dominated the wall. The water tumbled into a shallow pool that flowed out through a sunken channel, mimicking a small river as it cut across the center of the room. An array of lush plants softened the hard lines of the manmade feature, and a wide bridge arched gracefully over the center. Along the edges of the water were benches where people could relax and enjoy the beauty of the room. A second-story walkway circled the open space, and Noah was sure the view from up there was spectacular. The babbling water echoing through the room made the extraordinary area surprisingly calming despite the people bustling about.
Very impressive.