Hidden Dragon (Dragon Rising Urban Fantasy Series Book 1) Page 11

  It’s not like I’ve known him for long either. Two minutes, and I get a crush.

  “It’s always been that way, with the mountains and the dragons. We’re connected,” he says in his rumbly voice.

  “What?”

  He’s still holding my shirt, and I’m still clinging onto his arm and around his generous middle. “I can read your thoughts, if you let me. You don’t know how to block me out, do you?”

  My eyes widen, and I almost drop my hold. He casually grabs me with his other hand and swings me over his shoulder. I try to resist, but it’s like trying to resist an avalanche, or a landslide. Or a brick wall.

  “Why are you working for him? For Vincent?”

  The big man hesitates, pausing in his steps. “It’s complicated.” His face darkens, and I feel a growl through his chest.

  The rumbling noise sets off a connection in my head, and I push out along the spell web, trying to see if there is a way to beat him through it. He’s under the spell web, just like any other supernatural, but the spell web that covers me is curling around his as well. There’s a strange connection I don’t understand, but immediately see that I can use to my advantage. I tighten the bond and start to pull his magic away from him, along the spell web, and into my body. I can’t hurt him—much—but I can weaken him so I can get away.

  He doesn’t notice at first, just walks a bit slower. Then he comes to a standstill. “What’re you doing to me?” he asks in a whisper.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t go back there.” I manage to push his arm off my back and jump down from his shoulder.

  I’m still pulling on his magic, and he slowly turns to look at me. A deep sadness fills his eyes.

  “I’m glad you figured out how to get away,” he says softly. “I don’t want take you back there either.”

  For a moment, I hesitate. He needs my help, and I want very badly to give it to him. But he shakes his head. “There’s nothing you can do for me. Just get outta here fast. There’re more coming.”

  I nod just once and turn away. I’ve only gone a couple of steps before I turn back to him. “I’ll come find you. I’ll help you.”

  He shakes his head slowly. “You can’t do anything for me. But I appreciate it.”

  I turn and run to the van, where Amos is in the front seat waiting for me. The engine is running, and Seth is still asleep in the backseat.

  “Where did you go to?” Amos’s expression shows his annoyance.

  “You didn’t see them? There was a mountain super and another guy.”

  Amos stares at me, his eyes wide. “A mountain supernatural?”

  I nod. “Can we drive and talk about this?” I’m still holding his power tight to me, but as soon as I let go, the big man is going to come after us. And I have no idea what happened to the other man that I felled so quickly. He must have come to, if Amos didn’t see him.

  Amos nods and takes off with a screech of his tires.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I wake with pain tearing up and down my body. It feels like someone is scratching deep inside with sharp claws. It’s all over my skin, as well as deep into the muscle and bone, drawing blood and agony from inside my body.

  I scream.

  There is no sound, there is no light, just unending pain.

  “Mei, wake up!” The voice is familiar, but I’m already awake, so it doesn’t help. I arch my body as the claws force their way into my veins.

  A hand slaps my cheek and I groan, because I can’t manage anything more coherent. A dagger of pain shoves itself into my stomach and I sit bolt upright, eyes wide open and a silent scream erupting out of my mouth.

  Arms curl around me, holding me close, lending me healing energy. The pain subsides, and I can breathe again. I slump into the arms and close my eyes. Time seems to stand still, and I lose track of how long I stay like that. Perhaps I doze off, perhaps I don’t. After a while, I realize it’s Seth who’s holding me. The smell of his spicy aftershave combined with that undertone of gunpowder gives him away.

  I move slightly, and he lets me go, unwinding his arms. His magic is unusual, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. His spell web is patchy, like it can’t cover him properly, but it’s not because his magic is weak, like I first thought. I frown, trying to figure it out.

  “Are you feeling better?” he asks. His voice is soft and gentle. The window lets in the dark night air and the light from a half-moon. I check the clock. It’s a few hours since we drove away from the service station.

  I nod, unable to speak just yet. I want his arms around me again, but I can’t ask. I just stare at him through bruised eyes, my body still trembling.

  “What happened?” He looks concerned.

  “I... I don’t know... I just woke up in pain. Like something was attacking me. I’ve never felt anything like it.” I focus on the clouds crossing over the moon in the sky outside the window. Anything to avoid thinking about the pain.

  I paid for two rooms with my credit card, figuring the guys could sleep together. An hour after they reluctantly went to their own room, Seth arrived on my doorstep. “I can’t protect you if you’re in another room,” was all he’d said before bunking down on the floor.

  And now, here he is, looking down at me like I’m some fragile flower. I’ve never been anyone’s fragile flower, and I’m not sure I want to start now. Si trained me not to rely on anyone. I glance down; he has no shirt on. I’ve just been curled up against those hard muscles and didn’t even notice. It takes me a moment to force my eyes back up to his face.

  “Is it Vincent?” He’s staring hard at me, like I’m a puzzle he needs to solve.

  I shake my head. “I don’t think so. He’s never been able to do anything like that before. And I don’t think it’s his kind of magic. It’s not Earthbound magic.”

  Seth glances at the wall between my room and theirs. “What about Amos?” he whispers.

  I glance toward the room where Amos is sleeping. “He couldn’t do it, even if he wanted to. He’s practically human.” I whisper, as if it’s wrong to say it out loud.

  Seth doesn’t ask how I know.

  “Then who is doing this to you?” he says.

  “If I knew, I wouldn’t be this scared.” Something cold slithers down inside my body, and I shiver. Whatever it was, it could happen again at any time.

  Seth puts one hand up against my cheek. “We’ll figure it out.”

  I nod shakily. “Sure.” I’m not thinking clearly, and I lean forward, dropping my cheek onto his chest. Seth’s arms go around me again, and he holds me tight until I fall asleep.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  When I slowly wake up the next morning, I’m curled up against something warm. I feel cozy and relaxed, like I’ve had a good long night’s sleep. I hold myself still and keep my eyes closed, unwilling to break the mood. Whatever is out there in the real world can wait.

  But the real world doesn’t want to wait. Someone starts banging on the door of the room. With a muttered grumble, I turn my face and encounter warm skin. My eyes flick open, and I discover I’m curled up against Seth, who is leaning against the headboard, watching me with his hazel eyes.

  I blink and wipe my mouth. Was I drooling? “How...?” I clear my throat. “How long have I been asleep?”

  He smiles down at me, clearly amused. “You conked out not long after...” He hesitates. “You needed the sleep.”

  “You stayed awake all night?”

  “I needed to make sure you were okay,” he says.

  “Who’s at the door?”

  “My guess is that it’s the manager to throw us out, or Amos trying to figure out what we’ve been doing.”

  “We haven’t been doing anything,” I say indignantly. Then I blush, remembering his bare chest.

  “He doesn’t know that.”

  I pull myself up off of Seth’s body and stretch my sore muscles, still ignoring the loud banging on the door. Amos starts calling out. “Mei? Are you okay?”
<
br />   I sigh and walk over to the door, pulling it open.

  His hand is lifted to knock, and his expression is a mix between the kid who feels left out at the party and an annoyed mother hen who can’t find one of her chicks. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Amos. I’m probably more able to take care of myself than you are.”

  He flushes and looks so hurt, it’s hard not to feel guilty.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. But I’m fine. No baddies here.” I sweep an arm back into the room.

  He glances into my room. His eyes narrow. “What’s Seth doing here?” he asks.

  “Seth was just... helping me out,” I say, internally wincing as I realize Seth is probably still lying half-naked on my bed. What’s he helping me out with? Being naked?

  Amos comes into the room, eyeing Seth, who is putting his shirt back on. Thankfully.

  “We need to get going,” Amos says quietly. I can almost feel the hurt radiating off him.

  I harden my resolve. It’s not my fault that Amos feels left out. He’s a great guy, and he saved our bacon back at the Earthbound compound, but I don’t have enough space in my life to pander to him and his hurt feelings. I glance back at Seth. I don’t have space for anyone extra in my life right now.

  “Okay,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “Sounds good.”

  “Where are we heading?” Amos asks. “Still east?”

  I clear my throat. “I need to take a slight detour. There’s a locked box I’d like to pick up.” It has occurred to me that this entire situation is exactly the reason Jeff put security boxes in towns around the country. I need to make use of them. And there’s one in particular I think Jeff put in place for this exact situation.

  Seth immediately shakes his head. “We need to keep to the plan. We have to get to New York as soon as possible.”

  “It’ll take us a couple hours out of the planned trip, and give us clothes, money, and weapons. It’s worth the deviation.”

  “I still say—” Seth tries to argue.

  “You’re not in charge here,” I say, glad for the opportunity to be mad at him. “I’m going, and if you choose not to come, that’s fine with me.”

  Seth stares at me, his eyes cold. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’ll go anywhere you want me to,” Amos says.

  I struggle not to let Amos know how much his answer annoys me as well. “Let’s go, then,” I say, my voice hard.

  The van starts easily, and we’re on the road before we know it, chewing on muesli bars I found in the snack machine. I’m in the front seat, and Seth has settled back into the cushion mattress in the backseat again. He’s got his eyes closed as if he’s washing himself of this whole business. I know he’s just plotting and planning. I can see his spell web, and it’s moving busily over his body in that weird patchy way it has.

  “So where am I going?” says Amos.

  “Quincy, Illinois.”

  Seth sits up immediately. “No. You cannot go there, Mei. They know about that place. Even I know about that place.”

  I shake my head. “They don’t know for certain we’ll go there.”

  “They can guess. Both the SIG and the Earthbound know you’ve got ties to that town. You can’t risk it.”

  “If it makes you feel better, we could contact the SIG and tell them we’ll meet some agents there.”

  “You know as well as I do how the Earthbound found you. That tracker inside me didn’t just appear. There’s a traitor at the SIG.”

  Amos flicks a startled glance in my direction, and I take a breath. I had an idea Seth was going to argue. But I also know that I have to do this before going to see my father and the SIG. “It’s important Seth. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.”

  “They’ll know it’s a place you might go. That you feel at home there. There will be people waiting for you. It’ll be impossible to escape a second time.”

  “Nothing’s impossible,” I murmur to myself. It’s the echo of an argument that Si and I always used to have. He’d make me do something difficult, I’d argue the point, and he’d always make me do it anyway.

  “That’s nonsense. Some things are impossible. You can’t win every time. Si and Jeff’s deaths are an example of that, Mei. Listen to me on this. If you go to Quincy, you’ll be caught.”

  I’m silent a moment, thinking through Seth’s arguments. I don’t want to go back to the Earthbound. I twitch every time I think about the fire pit and the glass water chamber. But there’s a part of me that’s positive I need to go. Despite the challenges, despite every reason why I know I shouldn’t.

  It all comes down to Jeff.

  There was a riddle that Jeff always used to quote to me, and the answer was Quincy. One time he made me solve this mind-bendingly cryptic crossword, and the solution was Quincy. Another time he made up a trivia game, where all the answers ended up being Quincy. It got to the point where I would just answer ‘Quincy’ when he gave me something hard to do, just in case it was the answer.

  This morning I woke up convinced he was preparing me for this moment. So... “I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”

  Seth falls silent, and I can see he’s brooding over it. Maybe considering if he can overpower me. Force me to go straight to my father.

  Next to me, Amos seems happy for the first time since we left the Earthbound facility, humming under his breath. I have a strong suspicion it’s because Seth and I are fighting.

  We get to a roadside diner just outside of Jefferson City for our evening meal. Amos has been chatting to me as if we’re on the college road trip he so desperately wanted. Seth has been sleeping for most of the day and hasn’t spoken to either of us. I shake his arm to wake him up, and he simply opens his eyes. He’s as clear as a bell. He hasn’t been asleep at all, at least not recently. “Don’t you try anything,” I whisper. “I’m doing this.”

  “You’ll get caught. Do you really want that?”

  “I can do it. I have to do it. Jeff told me to do it. I just didn’t remember about it till now.”

  Seth shakes his head and gently pulls his arm away from my hand. I sigh and step away from the door of the van. “We’re eating here. Then we’ll find a motel for the night.”

  We eat in silence, and I keep waiting for Seth to make his move. I know he’s planning something, and it will have to involve holding me hostage. I don’t know how I feel about that. At least he’s doing it because he’s trying to keep me safe.

  Amos isn’t oblivious, but he’s not above using the silence to charm me. And if it had been a normal day, in a normal life, perhaps he could have charmed me. Amos is an attractive guy. There’s no denying that. He’s got chocolate-brown eyes and smooth skin with a touch of warmth to it. When you add in his shaggy black hair, he reminds me of one of those slightly too intense college guys who likes to talk about philosophy and how to make the world a better place. His smile is adorable, and when he’s on form, he’s got a measure of his father’s charisma.

  Sure, on a normal day, in a normal world, maybe I could fall for someone like Amos. But I’m not normal, and never have been. I don’t live in a normal world, and right now, I don’t have time for that kind of shit. I’m going to get the damned locked box in Quincy whether I have one or none or both of them with me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  He waits so long to make his move, I almost think I’m wrong. It’s the middle of the night, we’re in another dodgy motel, this time all sharing a room with three single beds. I figured it was easier than putting up with another late-night visit from Seth insisting he needed to protect me.

  Who knows what I might consider letting him do.

  I sense rather than see him get up out of his bed. He creeps past Amos, who is sleeping on the middle single bed, and comes to stand at the end of my bed. His spell web is crackling with energy, the most I’ve ever seen running across his grid. It leaps and pulls at the broken strands, almost like it’s trying to heal itself. I’m mesmerized for a moment, u
ntil I realize this is it. He’s going to try and stop me.

  I move restlessly, pretending it’s in my sleep, to get into a better position to see what he’s going to do.

  Before I can move, Amos leaps out of his bed and hits Seth over the head with a frying pan from the small motel kitchen. Seth falls forward onto my bed, unconscious.

  I open my mouth to scream, the sudden violence shocking me more than it should. I reach out to touch Seth’s spell web, making sure he’s okay. He’s unconscious, but it will take more than a whack from Amos to kill him.

  “Come on. Let’s go. We can leave him here. He doesn’t want to go to Quincy with us.” Amos is standing with the frying pan over his shoulder like it’s a weapon.

  I hesitate. But I know it’s for the best. Seth didn’t want to go to Quincy, and Amos is going to take me. I can’t keep watching out for Seth to make his move, even if he’s doing it with good intentions.

  I climb out of bed and pull Seth up a bit so his head is resting on the pillow. His face looks serene, like he’s just fallen asleep, not been knocked unconscious. He groans softly and I jump back. I glance at Amos, and he gestures for me to hurry. We need to get out of here.

  I race off down the hallway, following Amos. We’re in the van and backing out onto the street when I see Seth emerge from our room. Part of me is relieved that he’s able to stand so soon after that knock. He watches as we speed off down the street, the night lights the only thing showing the way.

  “Do you think he’ll be angry?”

  “You betcha.” Amos can’t hide his grin.

  I nod. He’s right. Of course Seth will be pissed. I try to steel myself to the idea of an angry Seth instead of the gentle Seth who looked after me last night. Have I done the right thing? I glance at Amos. I don’t think he would hurt me. He’s determined to help me do everything I want, in fact.