A Dragon's Heart (2 page)

Perry shook his head. “No. But we’re the best protection you could ask for. Tell us you agree, seal it with your handshake, and we’ll show you what we are.”

He put out a hand, and she looked down at it. She felt when she put her hand out, she’d be agreeing to something far beyond her comprehension. But she didn’t have a choice. They were right; she could be in danger.

“There are rules,” Tor said. “In general, humans aren’t supposed to know. But as the leaders of this zone, we can make exceptions. You should know this is an offer that won’t come again.”

She took a deep breath and let it out and then put her hand in Perry’s. It was warm and strong, squeezing hers once before releasing her as both dragons stood.

Tor reached down, swept her up in his arms and started striding outside before she could let out a squeak of protest.

She pushed at his shoulders. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you outside,” he said.

“Will someone see us? Is everyone gone?” she asked.

Perry led the way out a side exit, and Tor shook his head down at her. “In a moment, no one will be able to see us at all.”

Tor set her down and walked ten or twenty feet across the lawn at the secluded side of the house. Then he disappeared, leaving a shimmering blank space where he’d been. Perry followed suit, and she saw the outline of two shapes that couldn’t be seen except in the way they were different from the air and space around him.

They had been the invisible forces, and they were gigantic.

She gaped up at them. “You were the wind,” she said. “You knocked people into my desk.”

“Not the wind,” Perry said. “We
ride
the wind.”

She heard a whoosh, something flapping, and then something above her. She looked up at nothing just as something closed around her middle and lifted her into the air.

As they shot upward, not stopping until they were in the clouds, Lexie opened her eyes to finally see the ground far below her, her body encased by something strong and dark. She put her arms over it and felt roughness.

Then she looked above her, where the shapes were no longer invisible.

She was carried in the grip of a shimmering, beautiful creature with shining red scales and giant black wings that beat the air, keeping them afloat. Ahead of them, a large, silver tail and wings led the way.

They were dragons.

S
everal Weeks
Later

Tor strode through the front door of his mansion, brushing the blood of an errant shifter off his hands and onto his jeans. Perry was just behind him, muttering on the phone to one of their contractors about what needed to be done to clean up the scene.

Ever since their tigers, the best help they’d ever had, had all settled down and found mates, the dragons had found themselves with more work than they’d ever imagined.

They’d taken for granted just how much their tiger enforcers had been doing for them. Not that they weren’t still helping as their time allowed, but for the most part, it was up to Perry and Tor to restore justice.

As he walked into the main entryway, he saw Lexie walking across the middle, a book clutched to her chest, her hair frizzing out of her prim bun of dark hair, her tawny skin flushing as she caught him watching her. She ducked her head and walked to her office, shutting the door behind her.

Tor grinned.

She was such a funny little thing, burying that curvy, voluptuous body that would drive any shifter crazy under lumpy, shapeless clothing, and hiding behind her desk with her nose in a book whenever she could. It reminded him of how he’d found her, cowering under a desk in the middle of the wreckage caused by one of their cases.

Now she was under their protection, and they had a job for her. One they hadn’t been able to explain yet, so she’d simply been allowed to do what she wanted and get adjusted to her office and their daily routine, which mostly involved them leaving during the day and letting her watch the house, which was more than secure. While she stayed home, she had been working to organize paperwork, take calls from new prospective shifters they could work with, and giving messages as needed.

Tor rather liked having a secretary. And even though it had been some time that she’d been staying there with no one but them for company, she didn’t seem to have anything to complain about.

She was learning a lot about the shifter world, and Tor was proud of her progress. She was smart and witty and quick to absorb info.

If she did have anything to complain about, it was probably the fact that Tor had found an amusing new hobby in scaring her by jumping out around corners or ruffling her by getting too close at her desk.

If they ever got close to a female, he had thought it would be a dragon-heart, the one destined to be their mate.

Dragons had special requirements for a mate. First, they had to share her, which was fine because dragons could literally share one mind, and it meant they could do everything as a partnership, which protected both them and their mate. Dragons had to do everything in pairs, and Tor liked his partner, so it wasn’t a problem.

They’d even had some fun with admiring shifter women over the years, just to pass the time. Very fun time.

The second requirement was they be dragon-hearted, so when the mating ceremony was completed with a sharing of blood, the mate would gain one of the six dragon powers and thus add an important element to the triad.

If dragons mated with a non-dragon-heart, they lost a vital opportunity.

So sweet little Lexie could never be any more than an entertaining distraction, no matter how he wished otherwise. Because as much as she was smart and funny and quirky, the one thing she most assuredly was not was dragon-hearted.

She’d proved that by cowering under a desk.

And with the shifter world going to shit and the dragons spread out with only two per region in most places, they needed every bit of dragon power they could get.

So Perry and Tor had decided it was time to take a mate.

And it wouldn’t be easy to find the woman they needed. The only way to really find a dragon-hearted mate was to search the paper for news of disasters and look for someone who had behaved in a way that was truly heroic and selfless, because only that type of person would hopefully be gifted with dragon powers to match the dragons.

The dragons that ran New York had done it, and now Tor had to hope it would work for the dragons of the Midwest.

“Lexie!” he called in a booming voice as he walked to her office and easily pushed open the door.

Her dark eyes flashed up at him as she timidly tucked a curl behind her ear in frustration. “Dammit, Tor, do you ever knock?”

“Why would I knock when it’s so fun making you jump?” he asked, sauntering forward to sit on the edge of the desk with one hip, which made the wood creak and groan.

She looked up at him in alarm, her small nose wrinkling in disgust. “Get off. You’re going to crack it.”

He leaned forward, getting close, and enjoyed the way she seemed to heat up all over when he was near. “Why does it matter? Planning to hide under it?”

She sniffed and pushed away from the desk, and he got off to block her way.

She had a beautiful body, one that made his mouth water, and while she had gotten smart enough to stop loudly thinking dirty thoughts when he was around, he could still tell how much he affected her.

Dragons were meant to be beautiful and charismatic, to give them the best chance at mating. The image of him and Perry, together and giving her the time of her life, shot through him, stealing his breath and allowing her to push past him.

“Wait,” he said. “Don’t go. We have to talk about something. Perry is bringing someone in to—”

“I don’t care. I have work to do, and you can’t keep interfering…” She trailed off as she looked at the front door, which was opening. She sent him an angry glance and turned on her heel to go back into her office and slam the door behind her, giving him only a small glance of her gorgeous, rounded hips in her prim, floor-length black skirt.

Tor turned to face the door and saw Perry coming in with Jace, one of their tiger informants. Now that Jace had a mate, he couldn’t bring in dangerous bounties for them. But Tor and Perry had a feeling he’d be good at finding things in general and had a job that was right up his alley.

And if he couldn’t do it, they’d offer it to all the tigers together and tell them what it was actually about.

Jace was tall, like all his tiger brothers, and engineered with a mix of shifter and dragon blood to be stronger and smarter than anything other than a dragon. There were only three of them in the world, so far as Tor knew.

Jace had dark, shaggy hair, tanned skin, piercing orange eyes, and a tall, muscular build that befitted a former bounty hunter. He was, as usual, wearing all leather, and when he saw Tor, he raised one hand in a casual wave that Tor returned with a shrug.

He couldn’t afford for anyone to think he was going soft.

“Long time no see,” Jace said, walking forward as Perry locked the door and set the alarm behind them. Security was first priority.

Perry was wearing a crisp navy blazer over a white shirt, unbuttoned at the top, and gray slacks. He loosened his tie as he walked forward, sending Tor a weary glance.

The past few weeks had worn hard on Perry, who was strong but also primarily responsible for all the planning and brainpower of the group. Heaven knew Tor didn’t have much. He was the muscle, nothing more. And a lot of muscle at that.

But things didn’t wear on him the same way they did Perry, and Tor wished he could do something about it. Like share his own amazing ability to heal himself. He couldn’t do that anymore than Perry could share his ability to move things with his incredible mind.

They were gifted with their powers associated with their colors and nothing more, which made it that much more important that they find a dragon-heart quickly to add to their power.

“Let’s go into Lex’s office,” Tor said, hiding a grin at his pleasure at the prospect of seeing her again. He loved making her uncomfortable.

Perry sighed and led the way, knocking softly on the door and calling for Lexie to let them in. Lexie opened the door right away. She always did things right away for Perry.

Which didn’t make Tor jealous. At all.

“Lex?” Jace asked, not knowing about their secretary. “Who’s that?”

“You’ll see,” Tor said.

“Our secretary,” Perry explained, ruining the tension as he sat in a chair across from Lexie’s desk.

Lexie stood, uncertain if she should let Perry sit there to talk with others, but Perry waved a hand.

“If you wouldn’t mind taking notes,” he said, gesturing her to sit down.

She nodded, her eyes glancing at Jace with interest.

Okay, that made Tor
slightly
jealous. “This is Jace. He has a mate.”

Lexie’s dark-chocolate eyes widened and observed him curiously, unsure what he meant. The other two men in the room looked at him as well. He scratched the back of his head and considered how to cover that one up.

“Uh, I just meant he’s able to do desk work and stuff because he can’t do the dangerous shit because he has a mate.”

Lexie looked uncertainly at Perry, and Tor wanted to wipe the smug look off his partner’s face at her trusting him.

“Anyway, Lexie has been working for us since the Felding case. She was connected, and—”

Jace stretched back in his chair impatiently. “And she needs witness protection.”

“Right,” Perry said. “Anyway, we called you here to ask for help with something especially important.” He walked to one of the filing cabinets and started rifling through before getting a confused look on his face.

“Which one?” Lexie asked.

“Project 10A,” Perry said.

“Look in that cabinet,” she said. “It’s numbered.”

Perry shook his head in amazement and walked to the right cabinet and found the file. He handed it to Jace and sat down, grinning at Lexie in approval. “I knew you would be safe with us, but I had no idea you’d be so useful. Maybe we’ll have to keep you around when we’re done.”

But he looked like he regretted what he said the minute he did, and Tor knew as well as anyone else it was impossible. That she wasn’t a mate and thus she had to go back to the life she’d had before, regardless of how much they enjoyed her there.

Lexie, for her part, turned her attention to her computer, probably starting one of the games of solitaire she liked so much.

Jace flipped through the file silently, and Tor was pissed to see Lexie’s eyes dart to him once in a while. What was so interesting about a tiger shifter who seemed to think he was a pirate?

“So,” Jace said. “You want me to keep an eye on accident reports? News on disasters? Heroic women? Any reason why?”

“We can’t say exactly,” Perry said. “But it’s important.”

Jace closed the file. “I mean, I can do it. What exactly do you want me to do with the names I find?”

“Get their contact info, look into them,” Tor said.

“Should I get my brothers involved?”

“The fewer people who know, the better,” Perry said, folding his arms and crinkling his jacket. “You can work together with Lexie. This is one of the main reasons we hired her. You can send her contact info, and she can arrange for interviews with them. Then you can pick them up and deliver them here.”

Jace shook his head. “You aren’t planning something stupid, are you?” Perry simply stared at him and he corrected himself. “Well, nothing you ever do is stupid. I don’t think you’re capable of stupid, but I mean… illegal. Or bad.”

Perry laughed lightly. “No. Nothing illegal or bad. Simply an opportunity.”

“I think I have a vague idea,” Jace said. “But I know better than to pry.” He stood, file in hand. “Can I take this with me?”

Perry waved a hand. “Sure. We have copies. Let us know what you think as soon as possible. We’d love to start with candidates as soon as next week.”

Jace nodded. “Shouldn’t be too hard. With all the awful shit going down, there have to be some heroes around. And some female ones.”

Perry nodded. “One can hope.”

With that, Jace tipped an imaginary cap at all of them and left them alone, and there was an odd tension as the door shut behind him, leaving just Tor and Perry sitting in front of the desk, staring calmly at Lexie, who was now interested in the situation.

She put her clasped hands in front of her on the desk and looked sternly over at them. “Okay. I haven’t asked a lot of questions. I’ve done whatever you’ve told me for weeks, and I’ve learned what I can. But you have to tell me what the crap is going on. Why are you interviewing these women?”

Tor looked behind them, as if to check that Jace was really gone. “It’s simple, really. We’re ready to take a mate.”