Jurassic Heart

By
A
NNA
M
ARTIN

N
OVELS

Cricket

Jurassic Heart

Tattoos & Teacups

Another Way • Of Being Yours

N
OVELLAS

Kid Gloves

Published by
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Published by

Dreamspinner Press

5032 Capital Circle SW
Suite 2, PMB# 279
Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886

USA

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Jurassic Heart

© 2013 Anna Martin.

Cover Art

© 2013 Paul Richmond.  

http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com.

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.

ISBN: 978-1-62798-228-3

Digital ISBN: 978-1-62798-227-6

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

December 2013

I have wanted to write a “dinosaur novel” for I don’t know how long; I am, unashamedly, one of the biggest dinosaur nerds in the world. Thank you to all the people who supported me on the journey of bringing
Jurassic Heart
to life—Tush, MJ, and Aleks, and the girls who read the beginning and helped make it shine; to Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg for igniting a little girl’s passion in long-since extinct animals; Carrie-Anne, who came with me to the Natural History Museum on a dinosaur-seeking mission. And Emily, for the Triceratops named Horny who inspired a tradition.

H
ERE
’
S
A
quick rundown of some of the dinosaurs featured in
Jurassic Heart
:

Velociraptors lived during the Cretaceous period, about 75 to 71 million years ago. They were about the size of a Labrador and were probably covered in feathers. All known Velociraptor skeletons have been discovered in Mongolia.

Deinonychus was the Velociraptor’s North American cousin. Although the basic body shape for both species was the same, Deinonychus were slightly larger than Velociraptors and lived earlier in the Cretaceous period.

Both Deinonychus and Velociraptor fall into the family
Dromaeosauridae. Dromaeosaurs are colloquially known as raptors (even when the name of the dinosaur within the family doesn’t end in
-raptor
).
Dromaeosaurs were carnivores, bipedal (walked on two feet), had distinctive clawed middle toes, and were feathered. They have been found in countries all over the world and probably lived in family groups.

One of the most recognizable dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period, “Triceratops” means “three-horned face.” Triceratops have been found in North America from Colorado to Alberta.

Another Mongolian dinosaur, Saurornithoides, was a carnivore like the Velociraptor, although larger—about the size of a pony. It was first discovered in the Gobi Desert. Paleontologists believe that it was likely fast and fairly intelligent.

Named after the paleontologist Professor Othniel Charles Marsh,
Othnielosaurus lived 155 million years ago and is part of the
Ornithopod family of dinosaurs. These dinosaurs were quick, agile herbivores and have been found mostly in the western United States.

Orodromeus was a small herbivore that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous period, distinctive due to its beaky mouth. Some Orodromeus skeletons have been found close to fossilized eggs, proving that these dinosaurs didn’t abandon their young like other reptiles such as lizards and snakes.

Sometimes called the first bird, Archaeopteryx was a very small dinosaur that lived in Europe at the end of the Jurassic period. It could probably glide rather than fly and shared several features in common with Deinonychus. Most paleontologists believe dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx evolved into modern birds.

“S
O
, E
RIC
White thinks he’s found a Velociraptor skeleton in Alberta.”

I leaned back in my chair with the phone cradled between my ear and shoulder and propped my boots up on the desk, appreciating the heavy
thunk
as they set down and the cloud of dust they emitted—dust that would have been invisible were it not for the late-May sunlight streaming in through the window.

“Eric wouldn’t know his arse from his elbow.”

“Arse? You’ve been in London for too long, kid.” Sam’s accent, on the other hand, was broad New Jersey. I was silently amused at this.

“Call Mim.”

“Miriam is eight months pregnant and can’t bend over to put her socks on, let alone bend over a dig,” Sam said.

Shit.
I should have known that. “She’s got a few weeks left, just send her up there. Quick peek, nope, it’s a Triceratops, send her home again.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Nick. You need to go.”

“I don’t need to do anything,” I said, keeping my voice airy and disinterested. Fucking with Sam was one of my favorite activities. “I quite like London, you know. I might stay here.” When he snarled, I laughed. “I have ends to tie up,” I warned him. “I can’t pack my bags and leave tomorrow.”

“But you’ll go?”

“What’s the pay?”

“Standard consultant rate. I can get you five hundred a day.”

“All right,” I said. Really, both of us knew this would be the outcome of the conversation right from the start. “I’ll go.”

“Good,” Sam said. “I’ve booked your flight and e-mailed you the details. You leave from Heathrow on Saturday. Don’t miss it.”

“Damn it, Sam,” I yelled down the phone, but Sam’s response was the steady beep of the dial tone.

I tucked my feet back under the desk as I unlocked the computer and logged on to my e-mail account. Sure enough, Sam had sent through the details of the flight a few minutes before he called me. Cocky motherfucker.

I picked up the phone and dialed Mim’s number, vaguely checking the clocks in my office that showed different time zones—London, New York, Vancouver, Mongolia. Mim was on West Coast time, and I expected she’d be awake.

“So, are you going?” she said as she answered. “You do know it’s six in the morning here.”

“Yes and yes,” I said, leaning back in my chair once more.

She let out a delighted laugh. “I knew it. Charlie,” she called to her partner. “You owe me five bucks.”

“I don’t want to go,” I said, trying to keep myself from whining. “I like London. And I hate Eric White.”

“Eric’s an idiot,” she agreed. “And I seriously doubt it’s a raptor. But Sam will get you good rates, and it’s close to home, so you can go and see your mom.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, all her points being those I’d used when talking myself into taking the gig. “How’s the baby?” I asked, hoping to get brownie points for remembering.

“He’s fine,” she said. “Big as hell now, but fine.”

“And you’re really too fat to fly up and check out a couple of measly not-Velociraptor bones?”

“Fuck off,” she said with a smile in her voice.

“Double your money it’s not even a carnivore,” I said, and she laughed again.

“I’ll take that bet. Safe flight, Nick.”

I said good-bye and hung up, then carefully cast my eye around the tiny office that had been my home for the past seven months. I’d been reduced to doing desk work after I’d fractured my ankle in a skiing accident. Even though Sam—my sort-of agent, occasional employer, and good friend—had been pushing me to write a book, I’d found a little job with measly pay working at the Natural History Museum in London, consulting on an exhibition they were putting together.

That job had officially ended four weeks ago, but I was still in London for lack of anything better to do. They’d let me keep my office because no one else needed it, meaning I was still doing work, although not for money. I was sleeping on a friend’s couch in Kensington because I didn’t have anywhere else to stay, so Sam’s call had come at exactly the right time. Not that I’d tell Sam that. He’d only let it go to his head.

After leaving my office, I headed out of the private gallery and through to the public balcony, down the flights of stairs that led to the main exhibition hall of the museum. The pale tiles and huge vaulted ceilings in the museum had always reminded me of the interior of Hogwarts. It was a silly fantasy, and I’d never voiced it to any of my colleagues for fear that they’d think less of me.

I quickly jogged down the steps, offering the statue of Darwin a quick salute, as had become my habit, and went past the huge skeleton of Dippy the Diplodocus. He was probably the museum’s most famous resident, despite being a replica, not an original skeleton.

I was looking for the project manager who was in charge of the carnivore exhibition. I’d taken it upon myself to dispel some of the biggest myths surrounding Velociraptors
—
there were a lot of them
—
and we’d put together something I was sure was interesting, informative, and exciting. I had wanted to stay for the launch, the big day when we’d open the exhibition to the public, but Canada was calling and deep down, I knew I needed to go. More than that, I wanted to.

W
HEN
MY
flight landed in Alberta, I took a deep breath and felt like I was finally home. Not that I really had any physical space I could call home; I’d grown up just outside Vancouver, had done my undergrad degree at UCLA, and had pretty much traveled nonstop since completing my master’s. My parents had moved to Vancouver Island when I moved out—my mom had family there, and my dad was happy to go with her. After traveling so much, I’d learned how not to get sentimentally attached to places or possessions, although that was sometimes easier said than done.