For the Heart of Dragons (21 page)

The man stood over them for a moment longer before turning away.

Noah cracked an eye. Steel bars filled his vision. Shifting his head just slightly, he watched as a short, stout man walked away from him.

“When are they coming to get him?” the man asked as he threw himself into a chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“As soon as they’re done with the girl,” the second man answered.

Rage colored the edges of Noah’s vision. He clamped his control over Byrd down before the dragon could give away the fact that they were awake. “
Patience,”
he pleaded.

“Mine!”
Byrd screamed at him.

“I know,”
Noah soothed him,
“but we need more information before we can save her.”

Byrd thrashed about in Noah’s mind, hating the fact that he was helpless. After a moment, he settled. “
Kill them,”
he growled.

“We will,”
Noah promised. “
But we need patience and calm right now.”

“Mine,”
Byrd growled once more before falling silent.

Now that Byrd was settled, Noah focused his mind on their situation. They were caught. His eye shifted around, taking in their prison. It looked to be a small steel cage. Something you would put a bear or lion in. Beyond that was a mostly empty room, maybe twenty feet by fifteen. The walls were white plasterboard. Nothing remarkable about them. The ceiling was made from soundproof drop-ceiling tiles. There was a long window on one wall, but there were blinds dropped over them. Light leaked through, but it didn’t have the quality of sunlight. So, a hallway.

With the environment firmly in mind, Noah concentrated on the two men arguing at the far end of the room. They weren’t very remarkable, either. One was short and dressed in what looked like a short-sleeved uniform shirt and dark blue trousers. He had a ball cap pulled on over his muddy brown hair. The other man was taller. He sat relaxed in his chair in jeans and a T-shirt. His feet were kicked out in front of him with his booted feet crossed at the ankles. He tried to pacify the smaller man as they argued. There was something familiar about the smaller man, but Noah couldn’t place it. After a moment, the pair fell into a waiting silence.

The smaller man glared at Noah for a while before blowing up. “Fuck!” He jumped up from his chair and started pacing. “I work with these shits all day, every day, and now they want me to sit here and watch this one? Fuck that!” He ripped a knife out of his belt and turned towards Noah. “I’m killing it!”

The second man jumped up and grabbed the first. “Oh, no you’re not!” He yanked the knife out of the first man’s hand and turned him around. “They need him alive.”

“
Fuck!
” the smaller man snapped, “I can’t stand it in here!”

“Then let’s go get some coffee.” The taller man turned them towards the door.

“But—” the other guy protested and turned his head to look at Noah.

“He’s not going anywhere,” the first man said reassuringly. “He’s still asleep. Besides, he can’t get out of the cage. It’s enchanted.”

“Fuckin’ maks.”

“And you need to chill out for a bit.”

With that, the two men disappeared out the door.

Noah lifted his head and watched as their silhouettes passed by the long window.

Byrd growled.

“It’s okay,” Noah promised. “They’re first on our list.”

This appeased Byrd.

A quick look around solidified Noah’s facts before he started making a plan. First thing on his list was getting out of this cage. Standing up, he leaned against the bars, testing them. From their color, temperature, and the fact they didn’t give, Noah guessed they were iron. He might be able to do something with that. Iron wasn’t the best material to work magic on, but it wasn’t impossible.

Noah chipped his claw scratching at the hard surface. When he had a workable rune scraped onto the metal, he drew in power from the world around him and poured it into the mark. He felt it hit the symbol and skitter away like water on dry ice. The sharp smell of ozone filled the air, making him sneeze. He shook his head, trying to clear it.
They’re enchanted.

Byrd growled at the failed attempt and chomped down on the iron rod. His teeth clicked against the bar but didn’t make a dent.

“Stop,”
Noah called, pulling the dragon back before he broke a tooth. “
There has to be an answer.”
Taking control, Noah searched the cage. He pressed on the walls and ceiling, testing the welds to see if anything would give. Nothing did. Next, he rattled the door, trying the hinges and lock. Both were solidly made.

Noah eyed the padlock. It was just a normal lock, but if the mages had enchanted the cage, they had probably enchanted the lock. If he could find something long enough, he could pick it open, but he would need the dexterity of his fingers. It would be impossible with claws.

He blew out a breath in frustration. He needed to be human to get out. Hell, if he were human, he could spell the lock off. His lock-picking and trap-breaking abilities were some of the main reasons Eternity had hired him in the first place. The fact that he was a natural with magic was a lovely bonus. He sat back on his haunches and prepared himself for the fight he was about to have.

“Byrd,” Noah called out to his dragon, “we need to be human.”

“No.”
The dragon’s response was fast and firm.

“I can get us out of this cage, but I need my magic to do it. And I can’t work magic like this.”

“No.”
The answer was a little slower, but still very firm.

Noah tilted his head down and closed his eyes. He had to get his dragon to agree with him. “Byrd, if we want any hope of saving Kara, we need to get out of this cage. I can do that. But you have to let go.”

“Mine.”
The word came out conflicted as Byrd waffled on his choice.

“Yes.” Noah nodded. “We can save her, but we have to go now. Before they come back.” Noah didn’t know how long it would take the pair to get coffee, but he didn’t stand a chance of escaping if they came back before he was free.

“For mine.”

Noah felt the dragon’s hold release. He breathed out as the familiar tingle of magic rushed over his skin. He let it take him, shifting his form to something more familiar. Opening his eyes, Noah blinked. After being in dragon form for so long, the world looked strange. Duller than it should be. Shaking the feeling away, he sat up and moved towards the door.

The lock was exactly what he’d thought it was—a simple padlock. Wrapping his hands around it, Noah pulled energy from the world around him and aimed it at the lock. He muttered his spell, spinning it into the enchantment already there. Concentrating hard, he pulled the enchantment apart, shredding it free of the metal. When he was done, the lock was still latched, but now it was nothing more than a lock. Pulling his fingers back from the metal, he muttered another spell that ate the heat from the lock. It was a very simple spell, but it super-cooled the steel to a brittle temperature. Leaning back, Noah kicked at the door with his heel. It rattled hard before the latch on the cage gave way. Noah stared at it in shock. He’d expected to have to beat on the door to get the lock to shatter.

Sitting up, he looked at the thin bar that had held the door shut. The pin that held the joint together had snapped in the extreme cold. Someone had forgotten to enchant that one little piece.
Aww, hell. All that work for nothing.
Shaking his head, Noah climbed out of the cage.

The feel of scales pushed against his skin.

“Not yet, Byrd,” Noah pleaded as he wrapped his arms around himself. “We need to be human.”

A wordless question bubbled up from Byrd.

“To blend in,” Noah explained. “We need to find Kara before we transform.”

Byrd paused to think about that before backing down.

“Thank you.” Standing up, Noah concentrated on what he needed to do. Now that he was free, he needed to find clothing. Being human would let him blend in, but whoever was holding them would probably notice a naked man running around. Voices from the hall drew his attention. The voices of the two men coming back with their coffee.

Racing across the room, Noah slipped behind the door and drew up more power. He whispered the first part of a spell, weaving the energy into something akin to the spell he’d used in his basement, only more lethal.

As the two men came into the room, the shorter one stopped when he saw the empty cage. “He’s gone!”

Barking the last line of the spell, Noah leaped out and grabbed both men by their shoulders. Electricity coursed through them, burning out their nervous systems.

The two men dropped without a sound.

Clinging to their shirts, Noah lowered them both to the ground. Carefully, he shut the door in case someone else came by. Byrd coiled in satisfaction as Noah dropped down next to the men and started stripping them. He studied them as he worked, trying not to think of what he was doing. There was something vaguely familiar about the smaller man. He struggled into the taller man’s pants as he thought about it. The jeans were much too tight to be comfortable, but the smaller man’s clothing would be too short. His shirt, though… that would fit him better than the T-shirt.

As he pulled the work shirt off, something caught his eye—a small symbol embroidered on the dark material.
An infinity symbol with a line through it.
He stared at the dead man.
This guy worked for Eternity!
Flipping the dead man over, Noah grabbed the back of his pants and rolled his belt down. Outrage ate at him. Just on the inside of his pants was an iron-on tag with the man’s name and department listed on it.
Lambert. Maintenance.
The man was a goddamned housekeeper at the main office. Noah slammed his hand down on the man’s back and ripped the shirt the rest of the way off him.
How the hell could anyone from work be involved with this? They were supposed to protect dragons, not slaughter them!

Byrd growled his anger, and Noah committed the man’s name to memory as he pulled on the shirt and buttoned it up. He tried to button the pants, but they were too tight. Leaving them open, he fluffed the shirt out over the open fly and went to the door. They would stay up for what he needed to do. Glancing back, he considered the men’s shoes, but both pairs looked too small for his feet. A second thought occurred to him, and he went back for Lambert’s ball cap. He pulled it down tight over his hair and returned to the door.

Easing it open, Noah glanced up and down the hall. No one was around. Pulling the cap low over his eyes, Noah pushed the door open and stepped out. Unsure which way to go, he turned away from the direction the men had gone and walked towards the door at the far end. It opened into a large room.
Wrong way
.

“Mine,”
Byrd grumbled.

“I know,” Noah growled. They needed to find Kara, but he had no idea where to start. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and thought. If only he had a way to find people. An idea hit him, and he whispered his aura spell. Blinking a few times, he turned around and surveyed his surroundings. Viewing things on an astral plane took a lot more work than seeing them with his eyes. The energies of living creatures radiated out, unhampered by inanimate objects like walls, but it was harder to judge spatial distance than with normal sight. Thankfully, this was a skill Noah was used to. If the mages were working on getting Kara’s dragon out, they would be concentrating hard. He scanned around until he found what he was interested in. A grouping of intense colors. That was where Kara would be.

Byrd growled his impatience.

“Easy,” Noah soothed the dragon as he released the spell and blinked the effects away. Contrary to his words, he hurried back into the hall, past the room where he’d been kept. He’d expected a few powerful auras, but what he’d found were a few very determined people surrounded by a haze of auras dense enough that it was hard to distinguish the individuals in the group. They must be working on Kara in a wide area where anyone could watch.

Byrd’s anger grew. His mate was being tortured on display, and no one was stopping it!

Noah held on to his dragon but let that anger push him forward. At the end of the hall, he turned right and started looking for a staircase. The grouping of energy had been lower than he was. His feet picked up speed as he searched. When the hall ended in a door, he slammed through it.

The hum of energy stopped him in his tracks. Catching the door, Noah looked around. The path ended abruptly in a railing. To the left was a set of metal steps leading down, but it was the people who captured his attention. Towards one side of the room was a wide space where three men in dark robes stood around a table. Noah didn’t have to look to know Kara was laid out on that table. It was the stacks of crates surrounding the area that stopped him from racing down there and killing them all. There had to be twenty people perched on those boxes.

Noah shut the door so it wouldn’t slam. Turning around, he rubbed his face, trying to come up with a plan that wouldn’t get them both killed. Byrd wanted to leap down there and rip them apart, but Noah held him in check. Jumping into that many people was a surefire way to injury, and he still hurt from yesterday’s fall and today’s explosion. The last thing he needed was a gunshot wound when he didn’t have scales that were mostly impervious.

Byrd pushed for them to shift and attack, but Noah shook his head, vetoing that idea. Even in dragon form, he was too small to take on that many while trying to protect Kara. A thought filtered into his head that made him stop. “How big can you get?” he asked.

Pausing in his fight to get to Kara, Byrd questioned him. “
Big?”

“Yes,” Noah said, staring down into the room. “Raven was large when she took me.” He raised his fingers to touch his collar. “If it wasn’t for this, how big could we get?” The question floated around inside Noah as Byrd considered his answer.

“Big!”

A vague mass filled Noah’s head. He looked down at the room and mapped out his options. There was no way he could sneak in and save her. He could do a massive area spell, but that would take time he wasn’t sure he had, plus there was no way to single Kara out. The only answer was a surprise attack on a grand scale. But there were problems with that.