Dragon Deception (11 page)

"What kind of babysitter?" Stockton asked.

Mercury blushed and Valerie let out a small chuckle. "Someone with a lot of energy and a lot of patience," she said.

Stockton looked thoughtful for a brief moment, then nodded. "I'll make the phone calls. Be ready to go in a half hour." He left the room too, leaving behind the strike team he had assembled for the job.

Valerie pulled a folded piece of paper out of her stack, unfolded it, and pointed to the blueprints of the warehouse in question. "This is what we're aiming for, but be prepared for O'Simmons to have changed the layout."

Mercury let Valerie do the rest of the talking. He was way out of his element. He knew how to break into a building, take out the enemy, and rescue everyone inside, but he didn't know how to do that legally. Valerie did, and he hoped to learn a lot from her, but every second that passed while the humans prepared was another second that they might be too late to save the dragons O'Simmons was holding captive. He bit his lip and told himself to endure the wait and hope the result was a good one.

The kits were all hyped up from the new experience of having a babysitter, an occurrence that had never happened before, and by Valerie's abrupt departure after only an hour. They knew something exciting had happened and wanted to hear every detail. Dane was hounded for information from all sides, including above, as Chrome had decided to shout his own questions into the melee while flying around their heads in dragon form. It took Dane a half hour to calm everyone down enough that they were willing to climb into bed. It was another half hour after that before Dane stopped hearing excited rustling and the occasional additional question shouted down the hall towards where he was attempting to relax in the sitting area between the two wings of his house.

Only once it was actually quiet did Dane finally relax. The armchair was soft underneath his butt and he relished in the comfort even as he let his brain run through how his day had gone. Dane's legs hurt from all the walking he had been doing while searching through the forest and then from an hour of lying on the ground pretending to be unconscious.

Allowing himself to be captured was a risky move, one Dane didn't think he would be repeating any time soon. He had made the decision based on a few facts. First, that he would need time to amass enough magic to fight against five humans using tainted dragon magic. Second, that if Dane stayed hidden out of sight while he amassed that magic, he might be too far away to act should the enemy hurt the poor dragon they had captured. She'd been alive for the moment, but Dane had no way of knowing how much longer that might last.

Judging by the destroyed state of the forest, it had taken quite a while to actually subdue her. She had been fighting to protect her kits and Dane had little doubt that desperation had given her fire more heat and intensity. The enemy had found her sometime in the morning, Dane didn't know exactly when, and she had kept them engaged for long enough that they hadn't been able to chase after the kits and keep her contained. Given what Dane knew about how quickly very young kits could move, which was pretty damned fast, combined with how easily they got distracted, which was unbelievably easy, his estimate was a two hour battle, plus another hour to actually get the chains and dragon's bane in place.

Theoretically, that should have left the enemy the entire afternoon to take their captive away and subsequently return to look for the kits. One of the reasons Dane hadn't wanted to go too far away from the scene was because he honestly couldn't figure out why they had spent the entire afternoon just sitting around with their captive. Then O'Simmons had appeared.

O'Simmons' actions quickly established in Dane's mind that he was the leader of the group and he apparently made all the decisions. Dane knew that O'Simmons had been stuck at the crime scene Mercury was investigating all day and had probably barely had a moment to check his phone messages, let alone sneak off to deal with a captured dragon. His team had waited for him instead.

It was not long after Dane had made that realization that he felt Mercury's magic prod at some of the markers he had left behind to mark his trail so he didn't accidentally search the same area twice. Mercury was the only person who knew Dane well enough to read those markers, so it wouldn't be long before he made it to Dane's side. Dane would allow himself to be captured, giving him the time he needed to gather his magic and to begin freeing the dragon from her bindings. It would also give Mercury time to get close enough to back Dane up, but just in case O'Simmons decided it was time to move before Mercury arrived, Dane would be ready to stop him.

Luckily, Mercury had arrived in time and the battle had gone well. Dane had brought the dragon to her family and Martha was helping them settle in. When he returned home, Mercury would probably scold Dane for scaring him by not calling when Dane knew he was going to be late and by pretending to be captured, but Dane enjoyed the way Mercury's face looked when he got serious. Mercury had the same fiery eyes when he was growling at Dane as he did when he was moaning with Dane during sex. Which could explain why his serious moments usually led to really good sex.

Dane told his libido to shut up. There was no way Mercury was going to be home in the next few minutes to help him make his straying thoughts into reality. Mercury was out saving dragons; Dane shouldn't be having masturbatory fantasies at the moment. He could go to their shared bedroom and work out his frustration on his own, but that also wasn't nearly as fun when he knew Mercury wasn't going to walk in on Dane mid-tug and hurry to join in.

A rustling noise forced Dane's attention back to the present. He looked up from where he had been staring unseeing at his clasped fingers just as Nickel settled into the chair across from him. Nickel was dressed in rough jeans and a T-shirt instead of his pajamas. The little scamp had made all the same motions of going to bed as the rest of the kits, but instead of actually going to sleep, he'd come to bug Dane instead.

"There's something happening," Nickel said quietly so the other, actually sleeping kits wouldn't hear that he was still awake. "Tell me."

Dane told him. From the first moment Mercury had made Dane take Nickel along to a raid to save the air dragons, Nickel had always been an active participant in their goal to save the dragons from the enemy. Nickel might still be young in body, but his psyche was that of a man twenty years older, and Dane trusted Nickel to have his back.

"Damn. So they were able to catch a precious dragon," Nickel sighed. "That's real magic to the humans."

"Elemental magic is real magic too," Dane admonished. Nickel wouldn't be the first person Dane knew to bemoan the fact that their magic was too specialized to have a broad use. Mercury could cast any spell he wanted as long as he knew it and had the power for it. Nickel could only use magic that pertained to water.

"If you know how to use it properly," Nickel replied easily. He clenched one fist, which squelched slightly as if he were holding a water balloon, and his smile grew a touch more deadly. No, Dane didn't have to worry about Nickel. He did have to worry about greedy humans who would see elemental magic as weak in comparison to a precious dragon's and who had the technology to try and warp their stolen magic even further. "So when do you think Stockton's going to give you a call? If they're raiding a lab with humans using tainted magic, he's going to want the strongest magic user in the area working with his team."

With just a few moments of thought Nickel had figured out why Dane was still in the sitting area instead of preparing for his own bed. Mercury might not be able to call Dane to his side in this case, but Stockton could and would.

As if Dane's cell phone were just waiting for Nickel's cue, it rang. Dane let it ring twice, carefully cupping his hand over the speaker to keep the noise from echoing so it wouldn't wake anyone.

"This is Dane," Dane said politely into the phone. "I assume you got this number from Mercury's emergency contact form?"

Stockton laughed on the other end. "Good guess. You probably also know why I'm calling. I've arranged for a babysitter to watch over your kits. We'll pay her rates and yours. If you could come to the FBSI offices as soon as she arrives?"

The front door downstairs popped unlocked and Dane leaned to the side in his chair to look over the railing to see who was coming inside. Daisy's distinctive green skin was visible through the window as she tucked her key away again and pushed the door open.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Dane replied. They both hung up. Dane got to his feet and headed down the stairs to say hello to Daisy, Nickel tight on his heels.

"Ya know, Boss, ya didn't need to get some head honcho to call me if ya needed me to stay here a few extra hours," Daisy said playfully as she took her light coat off to hang in the hall closet and stashed her purse underneath.

"You're moonlighting as a babysitter for difficult children?" Dane asked, trying to keep his own tone playful. "Clearly I'm not paying you enough if you need to go elsewhere for money. Nickel, remind me to double her salary when we get home."

Daisy was still gaping incredulously at Dane when Nickel's hand landed on Dane's shoulder and Dane's magic pulled them away. Dane focused on Mercury, letting his magic take them to Mercury's side. They appeared inside a conference room that Dane felt safe assuming was somewhere inside the SupFed's regional office.

There were a few exclamations of surprise and one man instinctively unhooked his gun holster at their sudden appearance.

"Not the usual method of entering our premises," Stockton called above everyone else's noises of surprise. "We prefer if you were cleared by our security team downstairs first." Dane had slipped through the wards the SupFeds had around the building to prevent people popping in like Dane had, and he didn't even look winded for the effort. Nickel got a few odd looks as well, but since no one commented on him, Dane assumed Mercury had warned everyone.

"This is the warehouse we think the dragons are being kept in," Mercury said. He slid a piece of paper across the table towards Dane. Nickel picked it up and held it so they both could see.

"They couldn't build underground in this neighborhood, even if they just stuck to underneath the warehouses," Nickel said thoughtfully. "Even with magical reinforcement, there's too much chance they would open up a sinkhole underneath someone's house and give away their position."

"So we're looking at an aboveground assault." Dane agreed with Nickel's assessment. "O'Simmons' magic was powerful enough that he could transport himself places, but he couldn't transport something as large as a dragon. He's definitely a threat, but I'm more worried about him combining his magic with others. That could be deadly." Dane had used a lot of magic earlier in the day and his stores were depleted. However, one of the nice things about his lineage was that he couldn't get exhausted from using too much magic. Dane just had to replenish his stores. Magic came easily to Dane's call as he slowly, but steadily, began to prepare for the coming fight.

"SWAT goes in first. We would like you with them," Valerie said. "You have the magic to combat any attacks that the SWAT witches can't handle, and if they find the dragons, you'll be able to calm them."

Nickel was the one who answered even though Valerie was speaking to Dane. "That would work. Getting doused in water would certainly throw the enemy off their game and Dane and your witches can follow up. This O'Simmons guy has had at least an hour's head start on us. We should head to the warehouse now."

"The longer we wait, the more chance that we'll miss him entirely," Mercury agreed.

Dane took in another large gulp of magic and let it settle before asking for coordinates of where they were meeting in the town. The problem Dane had working with the government was that they had to follow so many regulations. Every
I
had to be dotted and
T
crossed on dozens of forms before anything could happen. Plans had to be made and double-checked. In a way, Dane did understand why. Should someone get injured or die during a raid, no one would get in trouble thanks to every single properly filled-out form. It was sad that the government had to work that way and Dane hated the delay it caused, but liability suits were ugly. Gregory, Dane's lawyer, would kill Dane if he had to handle one of those simply because Dane had rushed the SupFeds and something bad happened.

Yet every second they dithered over red tape and preparation, Dane grew a little more impatient. If it were just Mercury and Dane, they would have already infiltrated the warehouse and been saving the dragons by now. Having backup was a nice change, Dane couldn't deny that, but if it meant harm would come to those poor dragons… Dane didn't really want to think about it.

Magic crackled under his fingers and Dane reeled it back in. Wasting magic just because he was getting antsy was stupid and starting a raid off with his being stupid was not a good omen.

"You're to stay behind a shield at all times," the burly guy apparently in charge of the SWAT team insisted to Dane and Nickel. Dane quirked an eyebrow, wondering just what he needed a shield for—he could stop bullets and spells equally with his magic—but he nodded just to keep the proceedings moving along.

"All right, that's enough stalling," Valerie snapped. She slammed her hands down onto the table to get everyone's attention. "We've all run an operation like this before. We're all trained and prepared. Let's stop talking over the what-ifs and move to actually doing. We have lives to save."

"Well said," Stockton agreed. "This is high profile, people. The Secretary of Defense wants these terrorists stopped before they escalate to higher-profile targets. Let's move out!"

Higher profile, as in people more important than dragons. The mindset that dragons were wild and untamable needed to be changed in order to keep something like this from ever happening again.

Nickel growled at Stockton, who looked suddenly chagrined as he realized what his words implied while speaking in front of two dragons and some other people who might remember his insensitivity and potentially deny him a future promotion. He didn't apologize, instead turning to Dane.