Jorden: The McCade Dragon –Erotic Paranormal Romance (5 page)

“We’re going to move you, all right? Gavin is here with me, and he’s going to get your things. Do you have a purse? Bag? Dragon said that you have a bag stashed somewhere.”

Like she’d trust him with that information. The man laughed and told her she could. Jasmine hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until then. She tried to focus on him, anyone really, and it made her sick again. She asked the man who he was.

“My name is Jorden, Jorden McCade. Gavin has been staying with me for a few days. I know you heard about your grandmother, so I had Gavin stay with me until you got here.” She nodded, and then grabbed her head when it felt like it was going to fall off. “My brother, Kenton, he and Emma are going to take care that no one knows we were here once you are out of here. The cop, did you know him?”

“Did?” He told her yes, did. “I see. So something or someone killed him. Good. I think he might have been trying to kill me too. He was working with the nurse. Said something about less money to be shared, or something like that. Just before he shot her in the head.”

“I’m sure of it. Come on now, I’m going to set you on the bed. Do you have clothing here?” When she was sitting on the side of the bed, she felt her head roll forward. Pointing in the general direction of the little closet next to her, she saw her son again. Gavin really was here. “Your shirt is all bloodied. I’m going to just pull this off you, all right? I’d say we could leave it on you, but I’m afraid that it’s not in good shape.”

She wanted it off her too. There wasn’t just her blood on it, she’d bet, and helped him pull it over her head. Jasmine wasn’t sure why she felt he’d not take advantage of her, but she felt.... Well, she felt safe. For the first time in a long while.

“I was sideswiped at an intersection where I had the right of way. Then when I get here, this cop, who was first on the scene, he shows me pictures of myself and Gavin. But he knows us. I think they’re trying to find me.” Jorden said he knew that. It was why he was here. “I just want to hand over the jewelry and go away. I need to just rest. Take my son and just go away.”

“We’ve got you now.”

His voice sounded so strong, like he really did have her. But men were trying to kill her, and if she hung around with these people, they’d try and kill them as well. Jasmine wasn’t sure why she knew this, but she did. So when she closed her eyes again, just to get her head to stop spinning, Jasmine let whatever drugs were inside of her take her under.

Jasmine woke up feeling sick again, but safe. When she started to roll over to her side, her head began to spin and her belly lurched up. Closing her eyes again, she felt someone take her hand, and then she looked at her son. Gavin looked wonderful, and taking his hand to her mouth, she kissed it and then closed her eyes again. It was easier than being sick. But just knowing that he was close made all the difference in the world.

When she opened her eyes again she knew that she was no longer in the hospital. In fact, she was in a really nice bedroom with more antiques than she’d seen at auction houses. Trying not to move too quickly, she rolled to her back and felt someone beside her. Before she could figure out who it was, a soft light came on, barely showing the man sitting next to the bed.

“It’s Gavin there. He wouldn’t leave you now that you’re here.” She nodded, then felt her belly jerk. “My brother, Kenton, is a doctor, and he checked on you once we got you home. He said that while you’re going to be fine, the drug still needs to work its way out of your system. And that might take a few days. He said you were very lucky that the nurse hadn’t been able to give you the entire dose before she was—”

“He killed her. That cop, he pulled out his gun and killed that girl.” The man nodded but said nothing more. “He wasn’t really a cop, was he? But someone that came to get me. And that nurse, she was on his payroll too, wasn’t she?”

“Yes. He was a cop, but he was also there to kill you and take the earrings from you. The nurse, from what we can figure out, wasn’t anyone that the staff knew. They think, like the cop, that she was on someone’s payroll, as you said. Lucky for you and us, Dragon called out to Kenton as soon as the other vehicle hit you and we were already on our way. I’m to tell you that had you been in a smaller car, or even one that was newer, you wouldn’t have survived.” Jasmine put her hand on Gavin’s head and felt better for that small touch. “There are no traces of you at the hospital, nothing to lead them here, nor to tell anyone that you had even been there. There were two calls put out on the cop’s phone, and my brother is looking into who they might have gone to, but so far nothing. I’m telling you this so you know that we’re doing everything we can to keep you and Gavin safe. And we will.”

“Death to all dragons.” He asked her what she meant. “It was a tat on the arm of a man I saw a few days ago. Dragon told me what it meant…I had no idea at the time. One of the men at the accident, he had it too, on his neck. I think they’re part of the ones trying to kill me for the earrings. The dragon said the group name was old, something from the beginning of his time on Earth, but he didn’t think this was the same group. They don’t have the same agenda.”

“I’ll have Grady look into that for us.” She told him it was written in Chinese. “Good to know. Also, I’m to ask you about the stash of money. Not that I want it, but if you took it to a locker, bus station or someplace like that, you might have been seen on cameras and that might not be good. Dragon told me that you might want to run with it.”

“He’s just a wealth of information, isn’t he?” The man laughed. “I remember you telling me your name, but I don’t remember what it is. I know that there were other people there, besides the nurse and cop, but for the life of me, all I can remember is streaks of gold and blue.”

“Kenton. He’s a dragon.” Jasmine looked at the man. “I’m Jorden. And yes, you did have a lot going on, so it’s small wonder that you don’t remember me. I need to tell you a couple of things before Gavin wakes up, please.”

“I don’t think I want to know.” He nodded. “You’re going to tell me that this thing, this thing with the dragon and the jewelry, you’re the man I’m to give it to. I think he called you a mate to me.”

“That’s right. When you were in the hospital I helped you dress. Touching your skin, even in the rush that we were in, I pulled your head to my chest to help redress you and I could smell you, feel what you were to me. The earrings, one of them, touched me. Nothing untoward, I promise you, but as soon as it did, I could feel changes in my body, and my dragon seemed to come alive for me.” Jasmine said nothing to him as he continued. “I’m not saying that you need to look now, but you’ll see it when you dress again. You have a mark on your skin, a dragon. Just as I do now.”

He pulled his shirt from his pants and lifted it to above where his heart would be. Jasmine stared at his chest…not just the mark, but him. Christ, he was beautiful. He looked like he’d been carved from some stone then covered in skin. She wanted to touch him in the worst way. Jasmine looked at him when he said her name.

“I can smell you, everything about you.” She pressed her legs together and felt her face heat up. “I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s fine. It’s been a long time, is all.” She turned to look at her son who still slept by her. “Gavin’s dad wasn’t really into me. He thought he could make it work, making love to me on occasion, but he told me that he just didn’t want to be with me. I understand if you feel the same.”

“What do you mean, you understand?” When she didn’t answer him, he pulled her chin around so that she was looking at him. Jasmine wasn’t afraid of him but she was aware of him, as a man. “What is it you think you understand about me? Or about what I need?”

“I’m not that much.” He asked her much what. “A woman, I’m not much of a woman. And I’m not very nice either. When I see something that pisses me off, I tear into it without thinking about what I’m saying. Grannie used to tell me that my mouth was going to get me in serious crap one day, and she was right. Jorden, I know what I am.”

“Apparently you don’t.”

When he pressed his mouth to hers, all she could think about was warmth, then when his tongue slipped into her mouth and tangled with her own, Jasmine felt her body not just wake up, but it seemed to take notice of every single thing about him. She could smell him, not just the cologne that he had on but the shampoo he’d used. His soap had a minty smell to it, and an underlying odor of paint. When he cupped the back of her head, tilting hers just a little, the kiss deepened. He took more but gave as well.

He touched more than her mouth with his. She felt his mind roll over hers, his thoughts become mingled with hers. And when she saw them together in this bed, she was naked, screaming out in pleasure as he ate her. Jasmine felt her body heat, warm to the thoughts of coming with him, having him take her to such heights, ones that she’d never felt before.

When he lifted his head, leaning his forehead onto hers, Jasmine could have sworn that she could hear his heart pounding. Or maybe it was hers. She could certainly feel it there, beating a mile a minute. Something had happened just now; not just a kiss, but it felt as if he’d branded her, claimed her in some way.

“You have no idea how much I’d like to do just what was in our minds right now.”

Without thought as to what might happen, she moved her hand down his chest to his pants. When he cupped her hand in his, Jasmine watched as he took her hand to his cock and rocked into her palm. His moan made her feel sexy, like he desired her. And when he kissed her again, a quick touching of the mouths that left her no less devastated, she moaned as well. “The thought of tasting you, having you come down my throat before I take you deeply, has me aching.”

“I’ve never…I shouldn’t be....” He kissed her again and all thoughts of not touching this man flew out the window. But when he pulled back this time, she curled her hand at her side and turned away. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m a desperate school girl who’s never been kissed before.”

“No, I don’t think that at all. I think you’re a very desirable woman who I would like nothing better than to lay out on this bed and take.” She looked at him then, and hated the cocky grin there. Before she could tell him to fuck off, he put his finger over her mouth and stilled the words that were ready to spew from her. “Gavin is right there. And as much as I’d like to join you in that bed, I’m pretty sure that we’d wake him up. Are you a screamer, Jasmine? I might have to rework our whole house if you are.”

Images of them together popped into her head. The two of them against the wall, on the floor. She could see him taking her on the sink, in the yard against a tree. Every time he touched her she screamed, his fingers burning into her flesh like a hot brand. And Jasmine wanted more. But she couldn’t, not with this man. Not with any man so long as she was being hunted.

“I am not going to have sex with you.” He didn’t say anything. She’d expected him, for some reason, to gloat or tell her that she was. He did neither of those things, but sat back in the chair. Jasmine had no idea why she was so pissed at him, but she was. “When I’m able to give these earrings to you, then I’m taking my son and leaving.”

“Have you tried to remove them yet?” She had but didn’t tell him that. He seemed to know anyway. “You can’t leave them here. You can’t leave me here. And if you do, then the dragon will die. And so will I. But I have a feeling that you know that already. That you’ve hurt yourself trying to remove them, and without success.”

“He said that you’d tell me that too. But I can’t stay here. You have to know that. These men, they’ll stop once I’ve left here. I’ll be safe to protect my son.” Jasmine wasn’t going to be pulled into any more drama. She had enough going on right now on her own. Before she could say anything more, Gavin sat up and looked at her. Then he threw his arms around her. Suddenly everything that she’d endured this far had been worth it to get back to him.

She was still holding him when she realized that Jorden had left them. But she had a feeling that he wasn’t far. Jasmine had to get out of here before Jorden hurt her. Or she hurt him. There was a good possibility that they’d hurt each other if she stayed too much longer.

Chapter 4

Wilburn Glass hated that things were not going his way. First that fucking bastard Gentry had taken what was his in the ring, and now the earrings had been nearly in his hands when another person had stepped in and taken them from him. He glared at the stain on the wall behind the fallen chair, and wondered who else he was going to have to kill to get things to go his way.

“The accident was supposed to have killed her. Can someone tell me what the fuck went wrong there? Or at the hospital when she should have been killed again?” The men in the room with him said nothing. Wilburn knew that they had no more answers than he did, but he wanted something. Anything to make this shit get going in his direction. “What sort of arrangements have been made to get her fingerprints, even some sort of address where she might have been taken?”

“There was nothing left in the room. And what I mean by that is, there was a fire. Hot enough to melt the bed frame to the floor and the curtains to nothing more than a stain on the floor. But oddly enough, the rest of the area was untouched.” He asked Quincy, one of his devout followers, how that was possible. “We don’t know. Any video from that time is gone as well. Whatever caused the fire had been controlled; hot, but controlled all the same. And when we went to check on the cameras, there was nothing to indicate that they’d ever been running. Not before she was to arrive, nor after she supposedly disappeared. I had two men go floor to floor in every room in the event that she might have been put in a room under a different name. Nothing.”

“What about outside? Surely there is something showing who came and got her, and what they might have been driving.” Quincy said that they’d been searching, but there was nothing to indicate that she’d ever arrived or left. “So, we have a dead nurse, a dead cop, and nothing else to show for our time and money invested in getting this jewelry back. Do we at least have a lead on any of the other pieces? Anything?”

“No, sir. We’ve narrowed down where one of the smaller pieces might have been; however, it’s not surfaced as yet. But we do know that it was in the estate of one of the founding fathers of Dragon.” Those fucking bastards had thwarted him on more than one occasion lately. “We also know that some items, none that we’ve been able to trace as yet, have been mailed out, but to who or where, we’re not sure of that either. We’ve planted people at some of the larger postal offices to see what they find, but that’s turning out to be a dead end. There are just too many for us to cover all of them.”

“Is there anything that you’re sure of? So far all you’ve been able to tell me is that you know nothing of what happened to the woman when she was rammed by your men. There is no trace of her in the hospital that was set up to take care of her. The cop is dead, as is the nurse we had on the payroll. The room that she was in has no trace of her, or even that she’d been there. And you have nothing on how she got in or out of the place other than some excuses. Oh, and let us not forget that you may or may not have a lead on one of the other pieces that might or might not have belonged to one of the founders of my worst adversaries. I’m not missing anything, am I?” Wilburn laid his gun on the desk and looked pointedly at the blood stain on the wall and floor in front of him. “The last man that I sent for the jewelry only had to outbid all the other fools around him. Get my jewelry and bring it back here. But no, he was sidetracked. How the fuck did he figure that I was paying him to be sidetracked?”

Wilburn shot the man sitting next to Quincy, and smiled when they all started screaming and scrambling to get away. He aimed the gun at no one in particular, but it had the desired effect. Not only did they shut up, but they didn’t move either.

“Sir, we—” He shot the man that spoke who was standing next to Quincy. Wilburn had wanted to make a point, but now he was just glad that he had their full attention.

“Now. Here is what is going to happen, now that you understand that I want answers and not excuses. You’re going to find my jewelry so that I can take care of this dragon. Do you have any idea what kind of damage this monster can do to this world should he be allowed to rise up? How many of our followers he’ll kill so that he can breed more of his kind? To take over the world?” No one moved, and he shot a third man in as many minutes. “Get out there and find my jewelry.”

When they left him, he called Quincy back. The man looked ready to wet himself, he was so terrified. “Clean your mess up. Now.” The younger man looked at the dead bodies and then nodded at him. “And when I return, there had better not be a single drop of blood on anything in this room. Do you understand me?”

Wilburn left the little offices and made his way to the larger, more appointed one in the back of his home. If these fuckers knew what he wanted the pieces for, not only would they stop trying to find them, but they might even beg him to kill them over it. The jewelry was nothing compared to what it would give him to have them all together. And once that happened, he’d be ruler. Not just of the men in his sect, but of all mankind. The dragon that would come forth would answer only to him.

When he’d been about seventeen, he’d heard his grandda talking to some idiot that worked for him. The man was a shifter, he knew that, but what he was Wilburn had no idea. Nor did he really care. His grandda had befriended the man, not for gain as Wilburn might have done, but because he’d liked the man. Wilburn had loved his tales, big ones that usually ended in bloodshed as well as loss of life for a great many people. But that night the two of them seemed to be talking about riches that didn’t line their pockets, but ones that would be a sight that they’d remember long after they were dead. However the hell that was supposed to have happened. Dead was dead; you didn’t see riches or have much use for them. He thought them both nuts.

“You should see them, Bill. A sight to behold. Just look at them sparkle, and they didn’t even have those fancy cameras like they do now.” Wilburn had looked over his grandda’s shoulder at the five pieces of jewelry that someone had taken a picture of. There was no sparkle to them. No color to say what the jewels were. Nothing that made them look any different than the shit his mom wore when she dressed up to go out. “Jewels like you’ve never seen on each of them, and the workmanship is the best there is. Even now.”

Wilburn had picked up the pictures and still saw nothing that extraordinary, just a few pieces of what looked to him like cheap pretties that he’d given away to get himself laid. When his grandda marveled at their beauty, Wilburn asked him what he was talking about.

“Don’t you see it, boy?” He shook his head and laid the picture down. Grandda had laughed and turned to the man. “I guess he ain’t as pure of heart as I’d hoped he’d be. Not a bit of magic to be found in him either, I’m guessing. Bad genes, I guess.”

“What do you mean, pure of heart? If you’re saying that I’ve not been fucking around, then you’d be wrong.” The slap to his face had him reaching for his gun. Even back then Wilburn would settle any and all arguments with a bullet rather than waste his time on showing them that he was right, even if he wasn’t. “Don’t you dare hit me again.”

The second time he’d been hit, Wilburn felt his back hit the wall before he lost consciousness. His grandda was a large man with even bigger fists. When Wilburn woke, he looked at his grandda as he sat staring at him with his own gun on his lap.

“You ready to listen to me, or do I have to show you what having respect for someone means again?” Wilburn said nothing, but his grandda nodded as if he had. “You don’t talk to people that are better than you like you have no respect for yourself. Talking like a whore on Friday night only cheapens you. Makes you less than a man. When you speak, if you have something to say, then people will listen to you better when you’re not being vulgar and stupid.”

“Yes, sir.” Wilburn remembered thinking that his grandda was the stupidest man in the world if he thought that what you said made you a big man. “I don’t know what the big deal is about the picture. There isn’t anything there but some cheap dime store stuff.”

“You can’t see it because you don’t want to.” He tossed the black and white picture at him. “You see that ring there? Well, let me tell you what I’ve been told is there. A pair of dragons holding up a four carat diamond that is as pure as the ocean it was supposed to be formed from. The gold of the ring is so brilliant that it burns the eyes to look at it in the sunlight. Those earrings? They’re dragons as well. Large ones that will curl around a woman’s ear like a caress, the tail wrapped around the ear in a way that it looks as if he’s hanging on for dear life, but would gladly fly away should the opportunity come to him.”

He still saw nothing and said as much. “And it’s just a picture. How do you know how blue the diamond is, or even if it is one? Have you ever seen a woman wearing it? For all you know it could be just an ugly piece of crap that might give her some kind of disease because it’s unclean.”

“You go on thinking that, son. You just go on thinking that they’re worthless. But mark my words, when those pieces are all together again, and they will be someday, a great dragon will come forth, and he will bring riches to anyone who owns them.” That got his attention. Riches, something that Wilburn felt you could never have enough of, was something he understood better than anything else. And still did to this day, as a matter of fact. “The family that owned them will rise up from the earth and be the greatest dragons ever seen.”

“Real dragons?” Wilburn had asked his grandfather, who told him yes, real dragons. “You’re telling me that the people that have this crappy jewelry are a bunch of dragons.”

“No, they lost it long ago. No one knows why as yet; someday that might come out as well, but they lost their inheritance, and in doing so, their ability to become what they are. Their true selves. Dragons.” Wilburn wanted to laugh at the old man, but didn’t. He would get hit again, and he hated being in pain. “You’ll see. Might not be now, but I’m betting sometime these pieces are going to start showing up and that family, whoever they are, is gonna have it all.”

Wilburn hadn’t taken his grandda seriously…not until years later, when he’d come across an article in a local paper about myths and legends. He might not have bothered with reading it, but the same picture his grandda had shown him was among the many that had been placed in the article. The story, much like his grandda had told him, had been there, even telling that each of the pieces would be worth millions all on their own. Together? Well, the article had hinted that the amount was incomprehensible. Wilburn could comprehend a huge number, and seeing that article had gotten him to look for the pieces. It had cost him a small fortune for the little information that he could gather, but it all seemed to be real.

But getting men to help him, to take him seriously, had been harder than finding information about the jewelry. So, one night when he’d been watching television with his girlfriend while his wife was out of town, he watched this program on cults and how even the dumbest people had to have something to believe in enough to do the work. And to think he almost didn’t watch it over having his dick blown. Life was funny like that, he supposed.

After doing some research on gathering a fold, he found that they didn’t much care to have whatever you wanted them to believe in to be factual, or even to be for a good thing. In fact, he’d found that more start up cults that dealt with killing something or destroying it survived the first few years than did those that were for a good cause. So Death to all Dragons came to be. He’d found out recently that someone had even come up with a logo for the group, and some had even gotten to wearing the saying, in different languages, on their bodies. He’d hit upon a gold mine when he started charging dues to be a member of his exclusive club. Now all he needed was the fucking jewelry to make it all come together.

~~~

“Thank you.” Maxwell and his wife, Abby, had been waiting on her hand and foot since she’d gotten out of bed an hour ago. When she told them that she only wanted to sit for a little while, perhaps go outside, they both had helped her down the stairs and out onto the lovely deck that seemed to be as big as the flipping house. And the view was spectacular. She sipped the glass of tea that had been set beside her. She didn’t want to get used to this, but it sure did make her feel good to know that someone cared for her, even if they were getting paid to do so.

Gavin and Jorden had gone into town early this morning. She wasn’t sure she wanted to let him go, she’d only just gotten back to him, but he looked so sad when she questioned him about it.

“We’re looking for venues for this charity thing that is going to happen in a couple of months. There will be dinner served, so there needs to be a kitchen, I guess. Aisha, Mrs. McCade, and the other Mrs. McCade, Emma, they’re raising money for different organizations to help with school supplies and help with heating bills in the winter months, Jorden told me. I guess they’re having this dinner thing where people come and eat then go home. You should come with us. Get out of the house for a bit.” She wanted to, but they all knew that it was dangerous for her to be venturing out just yet. There were people looking for her. So when he left her, she decided that she’d not get any better just lying about, and had asked to sit outside. Jasmine thought that while the view was different, it was no less boring to sit here.

When a big man came out of the woods behind the house, she yelled for Maxwell.

“That would be Jorden’s brother, Vance.” She nodded as Vance made his way to where she was. “I’m afraid that of all the McCade men, I know the least about him. I don’t think his family knows much either, my lady.”