WickedBeast (20 page)

Little Miss Miracle went to the heart of the issue again.
“Yes. I can’t let them hurt people, you know that.”

Minuet regarded him a few more seconds. “I sleep.”

“Good girl. I’ll be back in a few minutes and everything
will be all right,” he assured her as he placed his hand on her forehead.
Minuet closed her eyes and a moment later she was deep in sleep again. It was
Kelly who looked at him with the worried face.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Take care of the problem.” Cord stood. “This is what I do.”
He faded from the light spectrum humans could see and made his way to the other
jet.

Cord stopped beneath the plane to reach for cold control.
Enjoying the kill was a dark danger of the animal DNA. Lack of emotional
involvement had always been an edge for the three dragons of the elements. They
made deadly opponents because there was nothing that mattered to them besides
reaching the goal. He was different now. He hoped that difference would not be
a handicap in combat.

The short episode in the desert had gone well, but he
realized he hadn’t been detached that time either. His goal had been protecting
Kelly and Minuet. The single-minded drive to achieve that objective had given
him the familiar coldness required for efficient combat.

Aware of his new limitations, Cord was cautious as he
approached the parked airplane.

No stairs had appeared for this plane. That wasn’t a problem
for a dragon. Climbing into the bowels of the plane through the wheel well, he
easily gained access to the cabin. Inside were four males. The papers in front
of them and their conversation betrayed their intentions to the invisible guest
standing beside them. The targets were elementary schools. They planned to blow
up three schools on the last day of classes to maximize the chaos.

Their plan was detailed, the objective date over a year
away. This was going to be the last time three of them saw each other.

Cord refrained from helping them to that goal instantly
though he had to consciously stem the rush of saliva to his mouth. The beast
wanted a kill, up close and personal. Something with fangs and talons would
have been gratifying. Considering all the possible outcomes, four dead bodies
would cause too many problems. He needed an outcome that exposed their plan to
the humans and allowed him to get Minuet and Kelly out of here as fast as
possible. A murder investigation would accomplish none of those goals.

That was a compelling reason, but not the one that saved
these men’s lives. He would not bring death on his plane with Minuet. She would
feel it and this trip was already difficult enough.

Cord needed security forces to raid the plane but a few
political issues stood in the way. The men arrived as employees of an embassy
though they planned to disappear shortly. The plane was property of an American
ally from the Middle East. Since they hadn’t entered the terminal, they were
still in international space. The only thing that would get U.S. personnel on
the plane was an emergency that required an investigation. Cord would make sure
there was something to find during that investigation.

Cord exited the plane, sealing the closed cabin door from
the outside by directing heat to fuse the metals. Under the plane, he needed
something slow burning with a high smoke yield. The tires would work. In case
the boys inside knew they could escape out the wheel wells, Cord sealed those
hatches as well.

With a thought, he heated the rubber of a wheel and
billowing smoke erupted. Emergency proceedings started as a worker noticed and
fire trucks were scrambled. Flames lick up the wheel wells to heat the cabin as
Cord watched. The men inside realized their plane was on fire and tried to get
out. Now they were banging on the windows. Cord pulled back the fire with a
thought. Dead was not how he wanted them, at least not yet.

A little smoke in the cabin and its occupants passed out.
Cord made sure it was done just as emergency crews were pulling open the door
that hadn’t opened for the men inside. He directed the events while standing
under his own plane, still cloaked. With this many people around, he had to
continue moving very slowly. Just because the humans could not focus on him
didn’t mean he wasn’t there. His movement caused a ripple in their visual field
that could be followed.

Soon coughing men were led out of the plane and being taken
to the airport medical facilities, just where Cord wanted them. As soon as an
investigator got in that cabin, he would find a reason to hold the men. After
that their plan would be exposed as well as where they had just come from. Cord
and made sure the investigators would have enough information to be looking for
this sort of plot in the future. They were in New York, a place where
investigators were particularly sensitive to foreign nationals with bomb-making
instructions and carefully marked locations on a map.

The last conspirator to exit the plane stiffened as his feet
hit the ground, his head turning swiftly to gaze directly at the private jet
Cord was standing under. His expression did not change but his eyes did. For
less than a second they glowed as if under ultraviolet light and then it was
gone. That look shot through Cord with the power of a lightning strike.

The man could not see him, but eyes, even strange eyes, were
not the only thing evil used looked with. Now Cord was doubly sorry he couldn’t
simply dispatch them. There was more to these people than he was comfortable
with. He was distinctly disturbed by the fact that he’d never seen anything
like this before.

Shielding his activity while using this much paranormal
energy could be tiring. Had he let a little hint of what he was slip out? No,
he’d been standing beside this man in the plane and the individual hadn’t known
he was there. That left a much more disturbing possibility.

Had the guy felt Minuet? That was the more likely answer and
one that caused Cord’s lips to draw back over gleaming fangs. The reaction was
instinctive, his transformation to savage instantaneous at the hint of a threat
to his family. At least he remained cloaked from human eyes. It was definitely
time to go.

Chapter Eleven

The international pilot arrived in the confusion. Cord
entered the plane and went to the back to materialize as if he had been in the
sleeping quarters. Moving through the cabin, he dropped a kiss on Kelly’s
forehead as she looked up at him with knowing eyes. In the cockpit, he conferred
briefly with the pilot on their flight plan. The tower let them know takeoff
would be delayed because of the chaos beside them but only for another ten
minutes.

In the cabin, Cord sat across from Kelly and Minuet. Closing
his eyes, he reached out with senses to continue influencing the men
investigating the contents of the neighboring airplane. He also ensured the
four occupants being treated for smoke inhalation were detained. By the time
the pilot called back to tell them they were clear for takeoff, the four men
were under arrest and the investigating officer had an amazing amount of clear
evidence of the plot.

They pulled away and Minuet’s eyes opened to look directly
at Cord. “Bad man mad,” she stated flatly.

“Did he talk to you in your mind?” Cord wanted to know.

“Yellings,” she said. “Him think I big.”

“Have you answered him, Minuet?” Cord asked calmly.

“No.”

Cord smiled at her. “Then he wasn’t yelling at you, baby.
Don’t worry about it.” He tried to sound casual for her.

“I not worried. You berry big an he feels it.”

Minuet closed her eyes and sank into sleep. That surprising
episode told Cord several things. First, he could help Minuet sleep but only if
she consented. Her power could override his commands anytime. The second was
that though he’d been aware of the conspirator’s paranormal sensitivity, he
hadn’t heard the man’s voice. Minuet heard it.

This future with its human villains was not like his world.
He operated on the parameters from a bygone age. Would it be possible for him
to learn the range Minuet heard from? Was he even capable of it? He damn well
better be. This was the job he’d been created for. He’d be really pissed if the
woman who made him had handicapped him with her inability to envision change
and therefore made him incapable of adapting to it.

Cord had directed the pilot to head straight out to sea
instead of up the coast and across the Atlantic on the northern route. He
wanted them out of range of this population as fast as possible for Minuet.
Taking them across the widest part of the ocean wasn’t a problem though the
human pilot would worry. Flying to the range limit of their fuel tanks was not
the risk he thought it was.

There was no possibility they could crash. Even if both
engines went out, having the Wind Witch and Air Dragon aboard meant the craft
would continue to fly. With Minuet aboard, the engines couldn’t fail, nor could
the craft run out of power.

As they moved away from the coast, Kelly asked, “Are you
going to wake her up?”

“I don’t have to. She can wake up any time she wants.
Instead of putting her into a deep sleep, I think I simply taught her how to do
it herself.”

Kelly’s brows went up. “She’s that strong?”

“You are too. You don’t trust your power like she does.
She’s too young to doubt what is natural to her.”

Minuet stirred in Kelly’s lap, gradually coming awake.
Looking around her, her eyes quickly lit with the sparkle of childish delight.
She hadn’t been awake long enough to finish investigating the plane. Sitting,
she asked Cord if she could explore in very polite three-year-old speak.

“I look Cord’s toys?” Minuet asked.

“Sure. I think you’ll find something interesting in the
bedroom,” he suggested.

Minuet squealed, reading his intentions easily.

During their stop in New York, he’d acquired several things from
gift shops, doing it in dragon fashion by leaving money in the register and
blank spaces on the shelves.

Cord settled in the chair Minuet had vacated. The armrest
between the wide leather chairs had been lifted so Minuet could sleep on
Kelly’s lap. Cord scooped Kelly up and set her across his lap.

Minuet would be fully occupied for a few minutes and he
intended to take advantage of the opportunity. His mouth came down on hers in a
hard kiss, thrusting into her, sweeping up her taste as if he were starving for
it. Kelly’s response was a gratifying low moan as her arms move naturally
around his neck and her body relaxed.

All too soon Minuet dashed out of the back compartment to
show Mommy her treasures. Cord’s arms tightened to let Kelly know he wasn’t letting
her in her chair yet. He needed the contact, even if it was casual.

Minuet bounded up to them with absolutely no surprise at how
they were sitting.

“Mommy, Mommy, look what I has.” She held up a Barney and a
purple, stuffed dragon. “Cord an Barney. It Cord an Barney.”

Kelly’s laughter wrapped around Cord, stroking his body with
each note. His need of her was physical in every way but there was no question
that Minuet’s presence made everything better, and it had nothing to do with
the power issues. She completed the circle of life and it felt right to have
that beautiful little soul interrupt deep kisses. It was another thing in the
natural order of life Cord had never experienced before—children.

He also realized he had needed to put smiles on Minuet’s
face. Her comfort was critical, and helping her deal with the difficulties of
traveling, a drive he would kill over. No, that was wrong. She kept him from
being a killer, forcing him to find another way. The thought made him smile as
he watched Kelly admire the two purple toys.

“They’re beautiful,” Kelly said. “What do you say to Cord?”

Minuet climbed up them so she was sitting in Kelly’s lap,
still holding both Barney and the dragon, she wrapped her little arms around
Cord’s neck and kissed his cheek soundly. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m very glad you like them. I wanted
Barney and the dragon to be friends and I thought you could help me with that.”

“I berry good make friends,” Minuet informed him. “But you
berry good make Minuet happy. An Mommy happy. Cord have pretty heart.”

“That’s an interesting thing to say. Why do you say Cord’s
heart is pretty?” Kelly asked.

“Because, him make happy. Him heart makes pretty,” Minuet
explained.

Cord was a little concerned with what Minuet was seeing. Her
abilities could become uncomfortable for adults. He wasn’t sure what she meant
by seeing his heart. In this form, he had the physical vessel beating in his
chest, but that didn’t mean he had a heart as humans knew it. Like everything
else about him, it could move and change shape, becoming something entirely
different in some forms.

Minuet scrambled down and went to sit in the chair across
from them to play with her new toys. She was completely natural and accepting
of the adults holding each other. Talking with them almost continually as she
made up games and personalities for her purple possessions.

Sitting on his lap, Kelly couldn’t help but notice the hard
bulge beneath her hip.

He wanted her to feel it, feel his response to her. She
needed to know the contact with her was not just drinking the power she gave
him so freely. He wasn’t simply using her but also holding her for selfish
reasons.

The flight was long and eventually Minuet nodded off into
normal sleep.

The events of this trip had highlighted the limitations and
advantages of the gifts in each of them. In the ladies, checks and balances
were a natural order for power to develop. Cord appreciated the fact that
innate power came with a certain cost for humans. The fact that he also was
saddled with limitations was comforting for the first time. The feeling of
belonging, shared experiences bound them together. He found it an unexpected
gift from his maker.