Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 (21 page)

“Follow her,” Cree growled, leaning forward
as the gold bands wound up his arms.

*.*.*

Melina carefully replaced the grass over the
small hole Harry had dug. She smiled up at Harry as he handed her
the flowers that she had picked earlier that day. They were an
assortment of wildflowers and reminded her of her Gramps.

She looked at the headstone. Running her
fingers over the names, she would need to have the date added for
Gramps death. A sense of peace swept over her. He was with her mom,
dad, and Nana now.

“Thank you, Gramps,” she whispered as she
arranged the flowers. “Thank you for loving me so much. Thank you
for taking care of me and for protecting me. Thank you for being my
best friend. I… I love you, Gramps. You’re the best grandpa any
girl could wish for. I’m… I’m so proud to be called your
granddaughter.”

Melina pressed a kiss to one of the white
blooms before she laid it on top of the headstone. She tilted her
head to the fading sun and closed her eyes as a light breeze blew
the hat she was wearing off where it landed beside her. She stayed
like that for several long minutes, thinking of her parents and
grandparents when they were alive.

A soft smile curved her lips when she saw
another figure coming toward her. This one was different. The smile
turned to a confused frown when she didn’t recognize the woman.

The figure was blurry at first, as if she
was seeing it through a distorted piece of glass. Slowly, the image
cleared until she realized it was the figure of a tall woman
dressed in gold. She was strangely beautiful in an exotic, alien
way.

Melina’s lips parted. The woman’s arms rose
gracefully in front of her and she opened her hands. Two beautiful
dragons, curving around a smaller one, were nestled in her hands.
The tiny statue reminded Melina of the pendant hanging around her
neck.

What does it mean?
Melina wondered in
awe, staring at the figures.

The Twin Dragons need a mate. I have
chosen you,
the woman replied.

Chosen? Me? Why?
Melina asked,
startled.

You are strong for one so young, Two
Dragons, alpha males, need a female who can tame them and love them
for who they are. You are that female.

But, why? How can you be sure that I’m
the one for them?
Melina asked in confusion.

To right a wrong,
the woman answered
her in a faint voice as she started to fade.
You are made for
them. Believe, Melina.

She started to ask the woman who she was and
how she could be so sure, but the distant sound of Harry’s voice
calling to her broke through her thoughts. The figure smiled at
Melina and a sense of warmth swept through her as the golden figure
faded away.

“Melina,” Harry was saying urgently.
“Melina, sweetheart, open your eyes.”

Melina blinked rapidly and shook her head.
Reaching for her hat on the ground next to her. She rose unsteadily
to her feet.

“Harry, I saw…,” Melina started to say, but
Harry touched her arm and nodded toward where they had parked the
truck.

“We’ve got company, honey,” he mumbled under
his breath.

Melina turned and bit back a groan when she
noticed that a local Clayton County Sheriff patrol car was pulling
up behind Harry’s old pickup. She glanced around and noticed that
Harry had hidden the small shovel he had used to dig the hole for
her grandfather’s urn back behind the tree. She murmured her thanks
as the local Sheriff’s deputy got out of the car.

Melina placed the floppy hat back on her
head. She watched as the deputy walked across the grass toward
them. She frowned as she studied the man’s face. He looked vaguely
familiar to her.

“Hey Harry,” the deputy said.

“Stuart,” Harry replied as a way of
greeting.

Melina started in surprise. This was Stuart
Wilson? The drunken boy who had driven her Gramps old tractor into
the pond?

“I saw your truck and thought I’d come see
how you were doing,” Stuart said smiling in greeting at Melina.
“Hello.”

Melina nodded and lowered her head. Her mind
was swirling in confusion as a blush rose up over her cheeks. This
was the boy who had given her, her first kiss? She peeked up at him
again in curiosity.

A small yelp of surprise escaped her as the
gold around her wrists moved in aggravation. She wrapped her right
hand around her left wrist and blinked down at it. Images of Cree
and Calo flowed through her mind. Her face flamed as those images
turned to them tangled around each other last night.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” Stuart asked,
tilting his head to look at her.

Melina was so lost in thought that she
forgot to keep her head down. She stared up at Stuart in a daze and
nodded. It wasn’t until she saw the confusion in his eyes change to
recognition, that fear took hold inside her.

“Mel? Melina Franklin? Is that you? I’ll be
damned! Where the hell have you been? There’s been a missing
person’s case on you and old man Franklin for the last four years,”
Stuart exclaimed.

“I… Stuart… Harry,” Melina whispered,
looking to Harry as fear threatened to choke her.

“Melina just got in last night, Stuart,”
Harry said gruffly. “Let the poor girl get her house in order
before you start in on her.”

“Harry, you were the one who filed the
report,” Stuart reminded him. “Hell, she and Franklin just
vanished! There hasn’t been any activity on the old man’s bank
account or credit cards for over four years, except the automatic
withdrawals he authorized.”

“How do you know that?” Harry demanded. “And
why are you looking up information on them?”

“Come on, Harry. It’s my job to know. Plus,
this was personal,” Stuart replied, glancing back at Melina. “I was
hoping to see Melina again.”

Melina blushed again at the look of interest
in his eyes. They had only shared the one kiss. From the choked
laugh that Stuart had given after she accidentally bit his lip, she
thought he would have been happy to see the back of her. She
glanced away when he continued to stare at her.

“Mel, where were you? Where’s your
Grandfather?” Stuart asked curiously.

“He’s gone,” she whispered, wrapping her
arms around her as a cold breeze blew across the cemetery. “He died
a little over a week ago of a heart attack.”

She was remembering her Grandfather’s words
about staying as close to the truth as possible. She looked back at
Stuart and gave him a watery smile. Even in death, her Gramps was
guiding her.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Stuart replied.
“Listen, I know this is probably a bad time, but I really need to
take you in so I can file a report on the case. They are probably
going to want you to come in and give a statement as to where
you’ve been and why you and your Grandfather never contacted
anyone.”

Melina paled. Her hand moved to the necklace
around her neck. She fingered the three dragons. Warmth flowed
through her.

“Do I… Do I have to do it now?” She asked in
a husky voice.

“I think it would be best,” Stuart said.
“I’ll be there with you, Mel.”

“Ah hell, Stuart,” Harry cursed. “The girl
is dead on her feet.”

“Then the sooner I take her down to the
office, the sooner she’ll be done,” Stuart said, stepping closer to
Melina.

“Wait a minute! You take her down? Why can’t
she ride with me? You can follow behind me if you think I’m going
to do some damn Dixieland Express on your ass,” Harry snapped
out.

“Harry, this is official business,” Stuart
said in a low, authoritative voice.

“When did you become such a prick, Stuart?”
Harry asked.

A small, choked giggle escaped Melina at
Harry’s words. She looked wide-eyed at Stuart when he glanced at
her. His face became stiff with anger, but he held his tongue.

“Harry, go home,” Stuart ordered, sliding
his arm around Melina’s waist to guide her toward his patrol car.
“I’ll make sure she gets home when she is finished.”

“Damn brat,” Harry muttered loudly. “Cal
should have shot your drunken ass full of buckshot instead of saved
it, Stuart Wilson. I’m following you.”

*.*.*

Burning anger pierced Cree as the new male
wrapped a possessive arm around Melina’s waist. The male acted as
if he knew her. His fingers tightened on the knife at his waist
even as his eyes followed the pair as they walked back to the
transports.

“It looks like some type of military
uniform,” Calo murmured from where they were standing along the
thick woods bordering the north side of the burial site. “Why would
he take her?”

“He better get his hands off her,” Cree said
as his eyes narrowed as the male opened the door to his transport
and helped Melina inside.

“We need to follow them,” Calo said, turning
back to where their symbiots stood waiting for them.

Cree grunted as he watched the two
transports pull away. He turned and followed Calo through the woods
to the small clearing where they had landed. Their symbiots moved
swiftly through the woods, checking to make sure that they were
still alone before reforming into the fighters.

“We get her, we take her, we leave,” Cree
stated as he broke through the wooded area. “No more delays.”

“Agreed,” Calo replied.

Melina rubbed her brow. Exhaustion beat at
her as she looked at the man sitting across from her. Except for
two brief trips, under supervision, to the ladies room, he had been
grilling her for hours. If that wasn’t bad enough, he had only
offered her a bottle of water all day.

Her eyes moved to the window. It was
beginning to turn dark outside. The street light across the road
had turned on ten minutes earlier. She wondered what Cree and Calo
were doing. They had expected her to return hours ago.

“Now, Ms. Franklin, can you tell me again
where you and your Grandfather went the day you disappeared?”
Detective Joel Manchester asked for the hundredth time.

“No,” Melina said, turning to look at him.
“No, I can’t. Just like I couldn’t tell you the first time you
asked or the second or the third. We left, that is all that I have
to say.”

Manchester leaned forward on the desk he had
appropriated when the call had come in that one of the missing
person’s in his case files had appeared while the other was
reported dead. He had been studying this case for years. No
personal items were missing. No clothes, no pictures, food left in
the refrigerator, a new purchase on the seat of the old truck,
garbage in the trash can, dishes neatly washed and waiting in the
drainer, and a house that was still locked up.

There had been no withdrawals from the bank
except those that had been set up years before to pay for the
monthly bills and yearly taxes. No one had accessed the huge sum of
money that was growing in the bank, no use of a Social Security
number, and the girl had never been enrolled in another school.

The only strange thing that had been found
was a blurry photo captured inside the barn from a trail camera
that the old man had set up. He reached inside the large yellow
envelope lying on the desk and pulled it out to study for a moment
before he laid it down on the desk and pushed it toward the
stubborn young woman sitting stiffly across from him. He had kept
it as a last resort, thinking it had been a hoax by some kid in the
area.

“What can you tell me about this?”
Manchester asked.

Melina sighed. All she wanted to do was get
out of there. There was nothing she could tell the man. He wouldn’t
believe her anyway if she did. Glancing down at the grainy, black
and white picture, she paled.

She would recognize the outline anywhere. It
was of the trader who had taken them. Her hands started to shake as
she remembered the months on board his ship. The constant fear, the
hunger, the…

“No!” She cried out, pushing away from the
desk and standing. Her eyes were frozen in horror on the picture.
“No!”

*.*.*

Manchester rose as fear, horror, and hatred
twisted Melina’s white face. He watched her grip the gold pendant
hanging from her neck. His eyes moved back to her face and
widened.

Her vivid green eyes had changed.
Correction, the green was still there, but her pupils which should
have been round were now elongated like a cat. Soft, rippling
shapes that looked suspiciously like scales were moving along her
neck and up over her jaw.

“What the fuck happened to you?” He
whispered as she continued to stare at the blurry image as if held
captive by the figure in it. “What are you?”

“No,” she repeated, stumbling backwards as
he started to come around the desk. “No.”

Manchester glanced out into the room next
door. It was empty, except for the old man who refused to leave.
The deputy that had brought Melina in had to leave to take care of
an accident. The town was so small that it only had four deputies
on duty. The old man, Harry Johnson, rose when he saw them through
the window. His old eyes filled with concern and something
else.

Manchester turned his eyes to the picture.
He picked it up and held it out toward Melina. Something told him,
he had finally found the missing piece to the puzzle that he needed
to get the answers to his questions.

“Who is this? What is it?” Manchester
persisted.

“Keep it away from me,” Melina demanded with
a shudder.

“What happened to you?” Manchester insisted.
“Was your Grandfather with you? Did he do this to you?”

“No!” Melina snarled in a voice that wasn’t
her own.

“Holy shit!” Manchester exclaimed as her
eyes dilated again, but this time the changes continued.

The picture he was holding in his hand
suddenly caught fire as the woman he had been interrogating turned
her fury on it. He cursed as he dropped the burning picture and
rolled backwards over the desk, falling off the other side onto the
floor. Lying on his back, he stared in horrified fascination at the
beautiful, but unreal creature glaring down at him.