For the Memory of Dragons (15 page)

He stared at the charm for a long time,
trying to remember how he’d acquired it. The memory played with the
back of his mind, but he just couldn't get it to come out. The only
things he was sure about were that he’d gotten it when he went to
check on Melanie, and that the last of his missing dragons was
dead. Just like the rest of the dragons in his file.

Reaching out, Alex touched the charm. The
sting of magic bit his fingers, but he didn’t pull back. This was
why the mystery group was after him, and he needed to find out what
it was. Clenching his teeth against the pain, he pressed his hand
down over the charm. The longer he touched the metal, the more the
energy radiated up his arm. When the pain got too much to handle,
Alex pulled his hand away. He could feel his dragon half writhing
in agony, as if the magic had tried to tear it out of him. As the
power faded, Alex could feel a distance between his two
halves—something he had never known. It was weird. Slowly, the
sensation subsided, leaving him whole again.

Someone needs to know about this, but
who?

Alex turned away from the charm and went to
get his phone out of the pocket of his coat. There were fifteen
missed calls and as many text messages. And that was just since
they had left The Dragon’s Wing. Who the hell could have wanted to
get a hold of him so badly? Alex scrolled through the log. Most of
the calls and texts had come from one number. Sanders.

Sanders liked to keep a line on the agents
under him, but Alex couldn’t remember him ever being this fussy
about someone not checking in. Then again, he had never gone
missing before. Plus, there had been that whole business with
Michael. He had only been missing for a few days before turning
back up with Lady Carissa. What a fiasco that had been! The poor
man was still on medical leave as he learned to live with his new
instincts. And being bonded to the king’s sister probably didn’t
make his life any easier.

Alex shook his head as he thought. He
couldn’t imagine what Michael was going through. To suddenly have
instincts pushing one around would be rather unsettling, but then
again, Alex relied on his other half to keep him out of trouble.
Most of the time, his dragon made better decisions than he did.
Alex glanced over at Terra, asleep on the bed. Hopefully, his
instincts had made a better decision than his rational mind when it
came to her. Only time would tell.

Letting out a long breath, Alex turned his
thoughts back to his phone and the man who had blown it up. Maybe
Sanders did have cause to worry, but did he have to disturb
everyone in his search for Alex? Brigs had mentioned that the man
had blown up everyone’s phones looking for his missing man. Alex
held his finger over the call log, ready to return the worried
man’s call, but a growl from his dragon stopped him from placing
it. Sanders’ worry was way out of proportion for the situation.
That didn’t sit right with Alex. Shifting his finger down, Alex
called the number that appeared in the call log only once.

“Hello.” Daniel’s voice rolled out of the
phone.

“I need to talk with you,” Alex said,
getting straight to the point.

There was a long pause before Daniel
answered him. “Is everything all right, Alex?”

“No,” Alex answered. “There is something
seriously wrong, and I need to speak with you, alone, as soon as
possible.”

Daniel let another pregnant pause hold the
space between them. “All right. Will you be coming here?”

Alex thought about it for a moment as he
listened to his dragon. “No,” he said softly. His dragon did not
like the idea of going into the main office. Something about that
idea raised the hackles on the back of his neck. It was also a fair
distance, even by wing, and that would leave Terra unprotected for
too long. He didn’t like leaving her at all, but he needed to get
this taken care of. “Can you meet me at The Dragon’s Wing?”

“Give me thirty minutes,” Daniel answered
and hung up.

Alex let out a relieved sight. He wasn’t
sure what had his dragon so up in arms about going back to the main
office, but Daniel should be able to help him put things together.
Turning to look at Terra, Alex made his decision. He would leave
her here. It would be best to let her rest until the hormones were
out of her system.

Pulling her phone out of her purse, he
entered his number in her address book. That way, she would be able
to contact him in case she woke up before he got back. Dropping the
phone on the table with a nice note, Alex gathered his things and
slipped them into the bag. For a moment, Alex considered the charm
on the table. He didn’t want to touch it again, but he needed to
take it to Daniel. He needed something he could transport it
in—something where he wouldn’t have to touch it when handing it off
to Daniel. A quick search of the cabinets came up with a plastic
sandwich bag.
Perfect.
Using a fork, Alex lifted the
necklace up and slipped it into the bag. He dropped the sandwich
bag into his satchel.
There.
Now he had everything he needed
to sort out what had happened to him. One last check on Terra, and
he was ready to go. Hopefully, this trip wouldn’t take him long,
and he could be back well before she woke up.

“So what’s the problem?” Daniel called out
as soon as Alex landed.

Alex paused and looked down at the head of
Eternity. He hadn’t even waited for Alex to shift back to his human
form before getting started. Usually, Daniel was more patient than
that.

“I need your help with something,” Alex
answered as he made his way all the way into the barn over The
Dragon’s Wing.

“I figured that,” Daniel said as he crossed
his arms over his chest and waited for Alex to come closer. “I’ve
been on the phone all day, trying to sort out whatever you’ve
gotten yourself into. And that’s really hard to do when you don’t
know what the issue is.”

“Really?” Alex snorted, amused.

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I can’t begin to tell
you how many complaints I’ve received about Sanders today.
Apparently, the man has been harassing every agent in this area,
looking high and low for you since yesterday. What have you done to
ruffle the man’s scales so badly?”

Alex snorted out another breath and shifted
back to human form. “Other than my job? There’s no telling with
him,” he said as he closed the distance to the head of Eternity.
“You know the man worries about everything. And you really
shouldn’t use that phrase with him. He isn’t a dragon.”

Brushing off Alex’s correction, Daniel let
out a deep breath. “In light of recent events, he has good reason
to worry. A missing agent is nothing to laugh at. Just ask Michael.
Sanders hunted me down last night when you didn’t report in. I
didn’t know what to think.”

“That I went home with some hot chick and
was too busy to check in?” Alex snarked. As it was, he
had
spent the night with a beautiful woman in his arms, but Daniel
didn’t need to know that.

Daniel raised an eyebrow at him. “I might
believe that from someone else, but not from you. Besides, I hear
tell that there was reason to worry. Brigs said a lady brought you
in earlier and you seemed a little… off.” A note of concern crept
into Daniel voice. “Are you all right?”

Alex smiled at him. “See, I told you there
was a woman involved,” he said as he led the way into the locker
room. Letting the sarcasm drop from his voice, he shook his head.
“No, I’m not okay.” He glanced back to the man following him. “A
lot has happened since yesterday.”

Daniel followed but didn’t press Alex to
tell him what had happened. That was one of the things Alex loved
about the man. Daniel may ask, but he would sit and wait until you
were ready to give up your secrets, even if he were busy.

Drawing in a deep breath, Alex opened up his
locker. A wave of things avalanched out of his normally neat space.
His eyes opened wide, and he looked up at Daniel. “Something isn’t
right.”

Daniel looked down at the mess spilling
across the floor. “I can see that.” He paused as he took in the
condition of Alex’s things. “Why don’t you get dressed and then
tell me what’s happened?”

Nodding, Alex untangled his clothing.
Someone had done a very thorough search of his things, and Alex was
ready to lay money that they had been looking for the necklace in
his bag. But how had they managed to get into The Dragon’s Wing and
find his locker? Sure, the main barn door was left open so dragons
could come and go in their grand forms, but there had to have been
forty lockers in here. How did they know which locker was his?

A horrible thought crossed Alex’s mind. “How
many people have access to the solitary dragons list?” Alex looked
up at the shocked expression on Daniel’s face. Obviously, the man
hadn’t been expecting that question.

“Well,” Daniel said as he thought, “almost
everyone in Eternity has access to some part of the list.”

Alex shook his head as he pulled on his
shirt. “Not some part. All of it.”

Pausing to think, Daniel watched as Alex got
dressed. “Only the king and I have access to the full list.”

“All right.” Alex stood up to face Daniel.
“Then who has access to the short list? The one that contains
dragons under five hundred years old?”

“What are you playing at, Alex?” Daniel
asked.

Alex let out a sigh and pulled the file of
missing dragons from his bag. He held it out for Daniel to take.
“I’ve been going through the list of missing dragons, trying to
find some connection. Some reason they were taken and others
weren’t. The only thing they had in common was the solitary dragons
list.”

Daniel took the folder, opened it, and
flipped through the first few pages, glancing over the work Alex
had done. “So you think someone targeted these dragons
because
they were on the list?”

“Yes,” Alex answered. After much
consideration, that was the conclusion he had reached. “I know that
different teams are given different parts of the list to work on,
and there are only a few of us who have run of the entire list.”
Reaching out, he tapped the file in Daniel’s hands. “These dragons
come from different sections of the list. So, either we have one
person with access to the master list, or many people leaking their
individual sections.”

Shock stole across Daniel’s face. He closed
the file and gave Alex a grim look. “You know what this means?”

“Someone high in Eternity is helping to kill
dragons,” Alex replied, stating the unthinkable.

The look Daniel gave Alex was skeptical.

Alex held his hands out to the mess that had
fallen out of his locker. “How else do you explain this? And there
were agents waiting for me when I got home. They attacked
Terra—”

A horrible thought hit him.
Terra!
Alex ran his fingers up through his hair, pushing it back from his
face. “Oh God! I left Terra at the safe house. Alone!” Grabbing the
junk that had fallen out of the locker, he shoved it back in and
slammed the door. “I’ve got to get back!”

“Wait!” Daniel grabbed Alex before he could
rush back out. “Which house is she in?”

“Mine.” Alex fidgeted as his dragon pushed
him to go back to his mate. “The one on Edgewood Drive.”

“Come on.” Daniel practically dragged Alex
into the main room of the pub. “Brigs!” he hollered as he went
in.

Brigs popped out from behind the bar.
“Yeah?”

“Call McGee and get him and a SWAT team over
to the rest house on Edgewood Drive. Now! Tell them to expect
trouble.”

“Yes, sir!” Brigs answered and disappeared
into the back.

Daniel pulled Alex out of building and
shoved him into the passenger seat of a truck. “You are going to
explain everything that’s happened in the last two days,” he
demanded before slamming the door.

Alex nodded his head and tried to focus on
the past two days’ events, but the thought of Terra being in danger
drove his dragon into a fit. He had to get there to make sure she
was okay.

***

The sounds of a door opening pulled Terra
from her nap. She moaned in pain as she tried not to wake up. Her
head spun, and her stomach didn’t like the motion. Swallowing hard,
she tried to bury her pounding head into the pillow.

“He’s not here,” a male voice called.

Terra froze. She recognized that voice.

“But
she
is,” another voice
answered.

Oh God!
Terra turned just in time to
see a man in black closing on her. It was the same man who had
knocked on her front door the day before.
Parker!
In this
outfit, he looked like the mercenary she suspected him to be.
Letting out a scream, she scrambled back across the bed.

Parker laughed and pounced on her. “Go ahead
and fight,” he said with a smile. “Makes my job more fun.”

Struggling with all her might, Terra tried
to get away, but he was larger than she was. It didn’t take him
long to have her pinned to the bed.

“Bring me a rope,” Parker called out.

Brett stepped in with a length of rope in
his scruffy hands.

Crying out, Terra fought as the men bound
her hands and feet. After a few minutes of her screaming, they
ripped a section out of the sheet and tied it around her mouth. She
looked on, helpless, as they tossed the house, looking for
something. They left nothing untouched.

“It’s not here,” Brett said as he dumped the
dishes out of the cabinet to shatter on the floor. “What do we
do?”

Parker paused and looked around at the chaos
they had caused. He picked up Terra’s cell phone and the note that
had been dumped on the floor. “He’ll be back,” he said as he read
over the note. “And we can use her for leverage.” He held up the
note for Brett to see.