Dragon Awakened (12 page)

“Yes.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “He reached out like he was going to grab me.”

Yeah, she must have really thought he was mad. “Brom can impart his visions to others through touch. That may be the only way he can communicate with us. We need to find him.” He grabbed his walking stick. “Let's go.”

They headed back down the beach, and once they were a distance from the house, he called Kade. “It's Cyntag. Apologies for calling so early in the morning. I require your Deuce expertise. I've got a book I need deciphered.”

Kade's voice was husky with sleep. “Is it in code?”

“It's hidden. It belongs to Brom Winston.”

“
The
Brom Winston?”

“Yes, and you didn't hear that name from me.”

“You taunt me, Cyntag. You know I can't resist all this secrecy.”

He chuckled. “Yes, I do.” He slid a glance to Ruby. “I hear I'm a master manipulator, as a matter of fact.”

Kade's low laugh rumbled over the phone. “Oh, yeah, I gotta hear this.”

“Where can we meet? Like now.”

Once he'd made arrangements and disconnected, Ruby asked, “Can you trust this guy?”

“We worked together in the Guard for a long time. Serving in the Guard is like being a cop or in the military. We've covered each other's asses, kept each other's secrets, and saved each other's lives. He's still there, so we haven't had much to talk about since I quit. So the answer to your question is: mostly.”

“Why did you quit? Seems like you were in it a long time.”

Careful
. “It was time to do something else. I'd lost the fire.”

“That's sad, a Dragon who's lost his fire.”

Her words burrowed into him like a drill aimed for his heart. “It's just the way of it, Ruby. The longer you've lived, the more you've seen, the less you care. You've got a long way to go before you start feeling that way.”

She touched his arm but quickly let her hand drop. “I wasn't worried about it happening to me. I was thinking of you.”

The breeze toyed with the strands of her honey hair that had escaped the braid. He resisted the urge to twine one around his finger. His Dragon strained, pulling him toward her.
Want.

He held strong.
No.

Something about her sparked his soul, the first time he'd felt such a thing in…he didn't even know how long. She, of all women. Talk about karma.

He smacked the walking stick into his palm, feeling the sting of it. “Don't feel sorry for me.” The words blasted out like bullets. “Don't feel anything for me.”

Garnet returned to her castle at last, accompanied by Dragons to keep her safe on her journey. She had left her home a girl and returned a woman. A fighter. A widow. The Dragon Prince's spell must still dwell inside her, as his death was an ache in her soul.

As they neared, they were met by a band of villagers who shared terrible news. Much of her kingdom was held under the dark reign of the Shadows, even though their master was dead. Now Garnet and those who would fight beside her would banish them.

The word spread through the hovels and exile camps throughout the woods that the princess had come back to save them. Garnet gathered an army of Dragons and
Deuces. Elves and fairies joined, too. One fairy, Emerald, took the form of a dove. Had her beloved Opal been a fairy all along? This dove would spy on the castle and report on the enemy's movements.

Emerald brought back both intelligence and the horrors of what was going on at the castle. The Shadows were killing Dragons and using their power to create a new master. And even worse, children were being sacrificed for their purity and innocence.

Garnet and her army readied a plan to take back the kingdom…

R
uby and Cyn walked down a long dock, searching for the right slip number. Boats—scratch that—yachts lined either side, some occupied if the lights inside the cabins were any indication. A dog barked as they passed a sailboat.

She inhaled. “The smell of the sea and lapping sound of the water brings back good memories.” Until that last hurried night when her father had gone on the run.

Cyn blended into the night with his dark hair and clothing. They'd stopped at his house to wash up and gather what they'd need in case Mr. Smith found where Cyn lived. She'd brought
The Hidden
to see if this Kade could resurrect that, too.

It was now a little less of a god-awful hour of the morning, nearly five o'clock.

“Here it is,” Cyn said, coming to a stop in front of a vintage beauty fully ablaze with lights. Polished chrome reflected them like starbursts.

“The Guard must pay pretty well.” It wasn't a huge boat, maybe the size of the one her dad bought right before the accident.

“When you get to the top, as a Vega, it does. Not like how the Mundanes pay the people who protect their citizens.” He stepped easily onto the top of the edge and jumped down, then held his hand out for her.

She could handle climbing onto a boat, but refusing would make her seem churlish. Except as his hand enveloped hers, her knees actually went weak, which put her off-balance when she stepped down and fell into him.

“Sorry,” she said, her hands automatically bracing herself on his hard chest.

His fingers tightened on her waist like an involuntary reflex. They both froze, gazes locked. The embers in his eyes danced, and she had a feeling hers were, too. She knew she should step back, oh, about now. And he should be letting her go. Neither of them were moving. She felt dizzy, then realized she hadn't taken a breath since his hands had gone around her. His mouth opened, as though he were going to say something. Or lean down and kiss her.

Yes, kiss me.

Oh, jeez, that was her command, not the Dragon's.

“Whoa, who's getting hot and bothered on my boat?”

They spun to see a man who was jumping down from the roof. He chuckled, low and genuine. Cyn didn't refute the fact that they were getting hot and bothered so she didn't either. The two did the manly kind of hug, shoulder to shoulder while patting each other's back. Kade was cast in silhouette, so all she could see of him was the outline of tousled wavy hair.

“Come on in.” Kade waved for them to follow him into the cabin. “Thought this might be the best place to meet for unofficial business, and I happened to be staying the night here anyway.”

Cyn looked around. “Suits you.”

“There's nothing like being rocked to sleep. It doesn't hurt that the chicks dig it.”

Kade assessed her the moment she stepped inside, his moss-green eyes revealing his curiosity about her role in all this subterfuge. They also revealed the swirling mist that marked him as a Deuce.

He thrust his hand at her. “I'm Kade.”

His hand was strong and calloused and didn't give her the jolt Cyn's hand did. “I'm—”

“Garnet,” Cyn said.

“Nice to meet you, Garnet.” Kade slid a smile to Cyn. Yeah, he got it. At least Cyn hadn't called her Ms. Smith.

Kade didn't need a yacht to impress the chicks. He looked like a guy who owned a sailboat, a surfboard, and probably a Sea-Doo or two. His sun-burnished hair even appeared wind-tossed, though that was probably because they'd roused him from sleep. He didn't look like a police officer, that was for sure.

Cyn chuckled, tugging on Kade's flowered shirt. “Going Jimmy Buffett?”

“
Someone
was always haranguing me to get a life outside the Guard.” He raised his arms out. “This is it.”

That's when Ruby saw the dagger tattoo on the inside of his right arm, the sharp tip at his wrist. An elongated
V
with curved lines at the top was incorporated into the hilt. For Vega? More interestingly, the tattoo shimmered with magick, though it didn't move like the Dragon did. Her gaze went to Cyn's forearm, realizing that the faded scar there matched the design of Kade's
V
.

Cyn picked up some paperwork on the table, shaking his head as he tossed it down again. “Still working on your off time.”

“But I do have a beer
while
I'm reading over the case notes.”

“I appreciate you seeing us like this.” Cyn handed him the book they'd found at Brom's. “Is there anything on these pages?”

Kade flipped through them, flattening his tanned hand on one every now and then. The fog swirled blue and gold in his eyes, and a glow emanated from his hand. “Yeah, but it's fighting me.”

“‘It'?” she asked, checking to see that the book was still just sitting there.

“The magick Brom used to hide his words is strong. Deciphering it is like holding quicksilver. I'll try picking up his state of mind while he was writing.”

He closed the book and his eyes, his square chin lifted. “He wrote this in a frenzied state. A while ago, twenty years or more. It took a few days to get it all down. I can feel his impatience, his confusion over the visions.” He opened his eyes. “Seers get bits and pieces, at least what I've heard.”

“So he's not dead?” Ruby asked.

“Not that I can tell.”

Cyn leaned against one of the cabinets. “Can you bring out the text?”

“I haven't done anything like this in years. Remember the Deuce who was killing all the psychics? He kept a diary, and he hid the entries with a similar spell. I can unlock the spell, yes. It's set at the beginning of the book when the Seer starts writing it. Unlocking it reveals the text in the same timeline that it was written. The murderer killed a psychic every week, then wrote about all the juicy details. Once I unlocked the first entry, I had to wait a week for the next one to appear. It's a wait-and-see process. You want me to start?”

“Ten minutes ago,” Cyn said.

The corners of Kade's mouth turned up in a smile he aimed at Ruby. “Pain in the ass, isn't he?”

“You don't know the half of it. Well, maybe you do, if you worked with him.”

“Skip the commentary,” Cyn said, not looking amused.

Kade dropped into a chair at the tiny table and opened the cover of the book. He closed his eyes again and pressed his hands to the exposed pages. This time they glowed a brilliant blue, spreading out from his fingers until it covered the entire book. He spoke words she didn't understand, until she heard Brom's name, and then more unintelligible words. The whole book glowed now. She hoped it wouldn't burst into flames.

Her heart gave a jolt to find Cyn watching her. He didn't shift his gaze away as she'd expect a man caught to do. Of course, Cyn wasn't just any man.

The glow dissipated, and Kade opened his eyes. The page beneath his hands was still blank.

“Didn't it work?” she asked, coming closer.

He flipped the first page, revealing scrawly writing. She sat down at the table.

Cyn came up behind her. “If this is a vision of the future, it's not written in stone, right?”

“No, like any foretelling, it portends the likelihood of the future given the intentions and events in motion now.”

She could feel Cyn's tension, and his heat, as he leaned over her shoulder to study the writing. “Whatever this says is open to interpretation. Remember that.”

“Yeah, okay.” What was he so tensed up about? And why was he so close, getting her Dragon vibrating? The citrusy scent of his soap tickled her senses.

She pointed to a line. “There's my name.”

Kade gave Cyn a sly glance. “Thought your name was Garnet.”

He met him, look for look. “It is.”

She pulled her attention back to the book. “Something about the Dragon…specifically you, Cyn, coming in and saving me. Sweeping me away at the moment of danger. Well, you didn't do that when that orb was chasing me around.”

“Whoa. She's the one who evaded the star orb?” Kade said, amazement in his voice now.

Her gaze went to the dagger tattoo on Kade's arm. “When I was fighting the orb, I used a couple of daggers in Mon's office. They felt…well, now I'd say magickal. Like a current of electricity.”

Kade nodded. “Sounds like they were charged with magick. Did they help?”

“Both times I hit the orb, it seemed to shrink.”

“Damn, you hit a star orb twice? You're good.”

“She got lucky. Don't encourage her,” Cyn said.

Kade assessed her with a spark of admiration in his eyes. “Why not? Give the girl some credit. Takes some skills to survive one of those.” He looked up at Cyn. “Hell, my friend, you've got your hands full, don't you?”

“You don't know the half of it.”

She wondered if Cyn did that to other people, too, mirroring their words back.

“If you'll recall,” Cyn said, now talking to her, “I did sweep in and save your pretty little ass in the library.”

Her mouth dropped open at both his assertion and his compliment. She clamped it shut again. “Yes. Yes, you did.” She turned back to the page. “Here it says, ‘hide her away,' or at least I think it does. And then ‘awaken.' So far, it's on target with what's happened.”

“What did you save her pretty little ass from?” Kade asked.

“Demons,” they both answered at once.

Kade grimaced. “Fun.”

Cyn braced his hands on the table. “Summoned by the same Deuce son of a bitch who sent the orb, I'm guessing.” He tried to read farther down the page, pointing to the words
Justin's work
. “He's underlined it.”

She flipped the next pages but found nothing else. She looked at Kade. “We have to wait for the rest?”

“For however long it took him to write it down. There's not a lot here, I can tell you that. A few pages.”

She got up and grabbed the larger book, setting it gingerly on the table. It reeked of smoke. “Can you bring back the words in this book? My uncle used magick to create beautiful fairy tales for me. Now they're gone.”

He waved his hand over the leather cover, tilting his head as he sensed for the magick, she guessed. “Is he dead?”

She nodded, still having trouble saying that he was. She'd hardly had time to mourn the loss of him.

Kade shook his head. “When a Deuce creates illusions, they die with him. It doesn't always work with demons that are summoned, unfortunately, or tulpas.”

“Tulpas? What are those?”

“Later,” Cyn said, picking up both books. “Time to go.”

“Later. Always later.” She looked back at Kade. “They're not good, are they?”

“She's newly minted,” Cyn said at Kade's confused look. Apparently she should know all this. “Don't ask. It's a long story.”

“In other words,
later
,” she said to Kade.

Kade chuckled, but his expression quickly grew serious. “Sounds like you're in dangerous territory.”

“You don't know the half of it,” Ruby and Cyn said at the same time. He shook his head and headed to the door. “Have you felt any change in the
Deus Vis
lately?”

“Yeah, the solar storm flares are kicking in. It'll get worse once the winds hit, Crescents getting irritable, others getting weak. Nothing we can't handle.”

Cyn didn't contradict that last statement. He clasped Kade's hand. “Thanks, I appreciate the help. And the confidentiality.”

“This isn't going to put me in a position to lie to my superiors or give you away, is it?” Kade asked, following them out the door. “You know what I went through. I can't do that.”

“No one should connect you to me.”

Kade put his hand on Cyn's shoulder just before he could follow Ruby onto the deck. “You ever going to tell me why you quit so suddenly?”

She paused at his low voice, wanting to hear the answer, too.

“All I can say is, trust your gut above all else. If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” Kade didn't look any happier with that non-answer than Ruby was. “Be careful,” he called out as they left.

She waited until they neared Cyn's car before reaching for his forearm. “You had the same tattoo Kade has.
V
for ‘Vega,' I presume.”

He watched her trace the lines. “Yes, they use magick ink, inscribed by a Deuce with that particular skill.”

“But yours is faded.”

“They use magick to take it away, too, when you leave.”

She saw the shadows in his eyes. “Come on, tell me. Why did you quit?” When his expression hardened, she said, “Oh, wait. I know. Later.”

That actually got a smile out of him.

Cyn's body was plastered to her backside.

It wasn't an altogether bad feeling.

Okay, it shot heat through her, little electrical sparks down to areas that hadn't felt anything like that before meeting Cyn. And her Dragon was writhing in pleasure, which felt weirder than anything else.

They were in his workout room, and she was supposed to be learning how to fight with the walking stick. His arms were around her as he showed her how to position her hands on the stick.

“Hold it firmly, hands roughly shoulder width apart,” he was saying just above her ear.

She didn't mean to, but she leaned slightly into him, her eyes closing for a second. Something about his body enveloping hers, the strength of him, made her feel safe. She'd never needed to feel safe before, never had a guy act protectively on her behalf. She was too tough to need a guy's help. Until now. And somehow Cyn and his protector role aroused her, too.
Get hold of yourself.

She focused on their hands, side by side on the carved wood. “Like this?”