Dragon's Flame (13 page)

Sunshine filtered into the apartment through gauzy curtains. He contemplated rolling his mate beneath him and demonstrating to the ugly green lizard the truth of his claim.

Imagining Crew, Gaige and Kellen one day hearing the story was enough to have him sitting and saying, “I’ve got a change of clothes in the sedan. I’m going to grab them and take a shower.”

She didn’t insist he remain and pleasure her. But he
did
feel her admiring gaze, even if she also continued to murmur nonsense to the trespasser.

Taine retrieved the clothes and retreated to the tiny bathroom to wrestle his primitive urges into submission.

His cock was longer than the lizard’s entire body! It was ridiculous to imagine that his mate might prefer her pet to him! Troublesome mate that she was. And oh, he’d known that about her from the very start.

He stood beneath the hot water. Swept his hands over his body, Saffron’s soap scenting his skin.

The bond thrummed her name, heightened his need for her. But where was she? She was—

The stall door opened and she joined him in the shower.

It was a tight fit compared to his shower stall but Taine wallowed in the closeness, in the slick rub of her body against his, the appreciative sounds she made as he soaped his hands and glided them over her skin.

“Nice,” she said, head back and eyes closed.

He cupped her breasts, rubbed his thumbs over her nipples until they grew tight. “Just nice?”

She laughed. “There’s a chance that I can be convinced another word is better.”

“A chance? It’s a given.”

He set out to prove it with the plunge of his tongue into her mouth and the press and rub of his fingers over her clit. Brought her to orgasm twice and would have done it a third time if not for Crew’s ringtone.

“Back to work,” he said, ending a kiss.

Chapter 10

Taine left the shower, Saffron following him to the counter separating kitchen from living room. Picking up his cellphone, he hit the speaker button and said, “What do you have?”

Crew said, “We know who Dirk Powers is. His real name is Elon Moates.”

“Any previous run-ins with IRE?”

“No. Completely off the radar. But get this, he’s a ranger at Cleveland National Forest.”

Saffron’s arms lifted as she toweled her hair dry, the jiggle of her breasts and stretch of her glorious body sending a lightning strike of heat straight to Taine’s shaft.
Praise the First Ancestor for taking a human shape!
If not for that ancestor, he wouldn’t be able to claim such a beautiful mate.

Nelson Arrington
, that mate mouthed and it took Taine a heartbeat to wrench his thoughts back to the conversation.

Was it a coincidence that the man who’d once occupied the house that Elon Moates needed had been found dead in Cleveland National Forest?

“Are you at HQ?” Taine asked Crew.

“Heading out, why?”

“Twelve years ago, the man who rented the ground zero house died in Cleveland National Forest.”

“You’re thinking he was also a sorcerer?”

“Hadn’t gotten that far. But it’s worth looking into.”

“I think Kristof is still here. I’ll check. Anyone not tracking leads is out in the city. Maksim has them working a grid pattern on the chance someone will pass close enough to the egg to feel its signature magic, or close enough to feel a shield strong enough to be hiding the egg.”

“That’s a long shot.”

“Better than nothing. Who rented the house before Moates did?”

“Nelson Arrington. Supposedly he died of a heart attack while hiking.”

“Got it. I’ll pass it on. Gaige and I are heading out to talk to Moates’s father, also a sorcerer. You and Saffron get the sister. Shanna. She’s a regular human, like the mother. No magic.”

“She’s expecting us?”

“Yeah. I’ll text the address.”

“Kellen connect with the astrologist?”

“The astrologist shortened the time frame. He told you maybe forty-eight hours. His best guess as of right now, we’ve got fifteen.”

Saffron crossed her arms over her breasts, vibrating tension and fear for her city. Taine stepped closer, pulled her against him. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Same here.”

Taine set the phone back on the counter. His cock pulled away from his abs in favor of touching hers.

“Time to put that thing away,” his mate said, making an effort to lessen the tension that came with having so little time remaining to find the sorcerer.

She tormented him with a tongue-swipe over his lips before retreating to the bedroom. His cellphone pinged with the address.

He followed Saffron into the bedroom and got dressed. Sent a questioning glance her way at catching her quickly suppressed smile when he tugged on a black T-shirt with a red dragon facing forward, menacing golden eyes backing up a
Don’t Mess With Dragons
message that was also in red.

She rolled a change of shirt and underthings in a fresh pair of jeans, then said, “Ready to go.”

They ate breakfast burritos snagged at a take-out window, the human version of swooping on prey. Fast, easy, drive-through food was another of the human inventions he appreciated though nothing trumped a good hunt.

As he drove, he cast glances in his mate’s direction. More than once he caught her staring at her phone, turning it over and over in her hand, her expression troubled.

Fifteen hours left to find the egg, but that was a best guess and so far best guesses had proven to be overly optimistic.

Finally she said, “If the phoenix emerges from the egg, how fast will the city burn?”

“I don’t know.” He carried her hand to his thigh. “I can’t tell you not to worry. But I want to.”

Her smile swelled his heart. She said, “Part of me wants to contact everyone I care about and tell them to leave San Diego. But how would that be morally right? And it’s not like my mother or sister would leave. They’d stand-by, get ready to be called into work.”

He wanted to promise her that those she cared about wouldn’t perish. He couldn’t. The only comfort he could offer was to say, “Supernatural Ops and IRE have a long record of success when it comes to dealing with sorcerers.”

“A long record? It’s only been in the last three or four years that anyone has even heard of them.”

“That doesn’t mean agents haven’t been hard at work for centuries.”

That earned him a skeptical glance. “Centuries?”

“So I’ve been told.” And then to distract her from the topic, he asked, “Do you want to take the lead in questioning Shanna?”

“Sure.” Though his mate wasn’t so easily put off. “What does IRE stand for?”

He wasn’t ready to tell her, not yet. “E is for Enforcement. The other two letters will have to wait.”

“Until?”

You know I’m a dragon.

“Soon. I’ll tell you soon,” he promised. He wouldn’t be able to stand keeping the truth from her much longer.

Her attention turned away from his face and back to her cellphone. She rolled it in her hand. Over and over and over, her thoughts returning to those she cared about.

Their destination was an automobile dealership converted into studio rental space. Easels, along with boxes and tables, created individual workspaces. Through the floor to ceiling glass showroom front, a half dozen artists were visible.

They got out of the sedan and Saffron pushed thoughts of family and friends aside. Taine took her hand and warmth spread through her chest.

She liked that he respected her ability to connect with people, was letting her do something, be an asset to the investigation. The fury she’d initially felt at being assigned to IRE, the worry about being involved with Taine and on the job together, now seemed laughable.

They reached the glass front door. She opened it and they stepped into the renovated space.

The place smelled of oil paints and turpentine. Six artists glanced their way. One of them, a thin blonde wearing cutoffs and an oversized white T-shirt knotted at the waist, placed a paintbrush into a jar of water.

“Shanna?” Saffron asked.

The blonde came forward. “Can we do this outside?”

“Sure.” Though Saffron took a minute to check out Shanna’s paintings. The ones she could see were bold colors and bold lines, graffiti in acrylics and on canvas. “I like your work. Do you sell it?”

“Mostly online.” Shanna pulled a card from a back pocket.

Saffron took the card. Made a mental note to tell Sabra to check out the artwork. Last time she’d visited her twin, there’d still been space for pictures on a couple of walls.

Outside Shanna said, “Elon and I aren’t close. He was raised by our father. I was raised by our mother. They split when Elon was seven and I was three.”

Shanna looked twenty-two, twenty-three tops. Wanting to nail the detail down, Saffron asked, “How old is Elon?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Do you have a picture of him?”

“No. Typical sorcerer. Gets pissed if you aim a camera at him. My father’s the same. Like they’re both afraid of ending up on
wanted
posters.”

I’ve come a long way
, Saffron thought, realizing that a few days ago she wouldn’t have known what to make of Shanna’s casual mention of sorcerers. It was going to be interesting the next time she and Sabra got together. They didn’t keep secrets from one another, and as soon as her twin found out about the assignment to IRE, she’d put the squeeze on for information.

“Are Elon and your father close?” Saffron asked.

“I wouldn’t say close. They get along okay now I guess.”

“They didn’t always?”

“No. To put it bluntly, my father, also sometimes known as the sperm-donor, is an asshole. It’s all about power.”

Taine snorted. “And there you have it, a definition that covers a majority of sorcerers—assholes with power.”

Shanna vigorously nodded. “Exactly! He cheated on my mom with a sorceress. More than once. Said he couldn’t help himself, their power drew him. I’m not sure exactly how many times it happened but finally Mom got smart. She changed the door locks and paid a fortune for a charm that kept her from turning a blind-eye to his straying.”

“If a guy cheated on me, it’d be the last time that particular piece of equipment would be functional,” Saffron said. Feeling it. Meaning it. And holy hell, where had that come from? She didn’t do serious.

A glance at Taine and he grinned. “I’ve been warned,” he said, and damned if her heart didn’t flutter and melt in a totally traitorous reaction.

Saffron forced her attention back to the manner at hand and Shanna. “You said Elon’s relationship with your father changed. Do you know when and why?”

“Sure. Growing up Elon might as well have been a zero, same as me, as far as our father was concerned. But the summer before ninth grade he finally started being able to power spells.”

Saffron did the math and her pulse quickened. The change would have taken place twelve years earlier, right around the time Nelson Arrington died in Cleveland National Forest.

She shared a glance with Taine. His slight nod said he’d also made the possible connection.

“What kind of spells were typical for Elon?” Saffron asked.

“I wasn’t around him much and we went to different high schools. But he became homecoming king four straight years.” Shanna pretended to stick her first two fingers down her throat. “If there’s one person my brother is in love with, it’s himself. When he finally got some power, he went after adoration. There is no way he became part of the homecoming court without using magic.”

Saffron had never been able to figure out why anyone would actually want to become homecoming king or queen, or part of the court though Analia had been nominated in their senior year and had let her name stay on the ballot. “Did he ever attempt to use magic on you?”

“No. But… No. He never tried casting any spells on me, at least as far as I know.”

“What other magic has he worked?”

Shanna shook her head. “Like I said, we weren’t close, ever. I wasn’t around him much when we were growing up.”

“Does Elon have any friends?”

“I can’t think of any.”

“Do you know where to find him?”

“He’s a ranger at Cleveland National Forest, but you guys already know that. And I already told the guy who called earlier that I don’t have an address or a phone number. Not that I have any reason to get in touch with Elon, but if I did, I’d call our father and he’d contact Elon.”

“Have you ever heard the name Nelson Arrington?” Saffron asked.

“No.”

Unable to think of anything else, she glanced at Taine. He asked Shanna, “Do you have anything that belongs to your brother?”

Shanna shoved her hands into her front pockets. “What did he do anyway?”

Recognizing the deflection and going with the feeling that an honest answer was the right answer, Saffron said, “A major spell working. We don’t know what his end goal is but he’s responsible for two major fires, including the one in the Cleveland National Forest.”

“If he did what you’re claiming, then he screwed something up. Elon might not love any
person
other than himself, but he does love nature. He’s always hiked and camped and surfed.”

“There’s no doubt about his being responsible,” Saffron said. “And I’m willing to believe this is a case of magic getting away from him. That doesn’t mean he’s going to stop on his own. So far there’s been a lot of damage but no one has been injured or killed. That can’t last.”

She leaned toward Shanna, intense and earnest. “Look, I’m a firefighter. I’ve experienced the horror of not being able to get to people in time. There’s probably going to be another fire, and the next one will leave a lot of casualties, not because Elon means for it to happen but because he believes he’s in control of the situation. Are you sure you don’t have anything that belongs to your brother?”

Shanna swallowed hard. “My father gave me a charm, to protect me against Elon’s magic. It was made with a lock of my brother’s hair.”

She pulled her hands from her pockets. Undid her necklace and tugged it from beneath her shirt.

At the end of the silver chain was a red, teardrop-shaped pendant. In the center, like something trapped in amber, was a lock of hair tied into a knot.