How to Date a Dragon

Chapter 12

Drake had greeted the other paranormals at the bar and gathered them together in the back booth. Kurt, the wizard; Tory, the shapeshifting coyote; and Nick, the werewolf. As they were waiting for Anthony, the vampire bar owner, to join them, Drake asked, “So, are there others we should invite to this meeting?”

Kurt, Tory, and Nick all exchanged glances.

At last Nick said, “No, why? Have you heard about more?”

“Yeah. Sadie said something about the building being protected even after everyone leaves for the night.”

Nick chuckled. “I guess she’s talking about the house brownies. I don’t know how much protection they’d provide. They’re about a foot tall.”

All three of the other men stared at Nick. “House brownies?” they repeated in unison.

“Yeah. They were the first paranormals Brandee had ever seen. I’m glad my wife was introduced to the supernatural world though them. They don’t present much of a threat. They’re only goal is to clean the bar, and they’re happy to do so as long as there are plenty of peanuts and pretzels to eat. If someone insults them, they might play some kind of harmless prank but that’s about it.”

Drake’s irritation rose. “Then why did Sadie think they’d provide plenty of protection for Bliss after dark?”

“Maybe because they’re down here in the bar after hours and could signal an early warning,” Nick said. “From what I understand, they eat a few snacks, then they clean the place until dawn as a thank-you.”

“Actually…” a deep voice said.

Drake whipped around to see Anthony standing behind him.

“They’re quite protective of the place. As long as they feel valued, they will continue to keep everything in perfect condition. I can’t tell you how many times Ruxandra has had a fit and trashed the bar. The brownies always put it back together before morning.”

Anthony dragged a chair over and sat at the end of the booth.

“Where is Ruxandra these days?” Tory asked.

Anthony chuckled. “She thinks she’s punishing me by depriving me of her presence.”

“Wow.” Nick leaned back, looking impressed. “Well done. What did you do to make her think that? Did you say, ‘I can’t miss you if you won’t go away?’”

The others laughed, but Anthony shook his head.

“No. She’s vain enough to have come up with that all on her own. In fact, she’s probably on another recruiting mission, finding just the right guy to make me jealous.”

Tory grinned. “Hey, maybe she’ll find someone she likes better and finally dump your ass.”

“I’d never get that lucky.” Anthony sighed. “I made her, so she’ll always feel… obligated to me. Never mind her. What did you call us together for, Drake? I assume it’s not to talk about my vampire ex-girlfriend.”

“No. I want to talk about my very human, very special girlfriend. I need your help to make sure she’s safe.”

Nick immediately went into his private investigator mode. “Why? What’s going on?”

“The female who kicked the crap out of me last week… she’s a dragon and I think she’s kind of like Anthony’s Ruxandra. She’s hard to get rid of and jealous of any woman she perceives as getting in her way.”

All four guys groaned.

Drake continued while he had the floor. “She hasn’t left the area. I think she’s been setting all the fires, but I have no proof. No one can find any signs of arson, but that just makes it even more likely that it’s her. Unlike myself, she can still breathe fire, so she could easily touch off a wooden building or a pile of brush and leave no evidence behind. Also, I think she’s targeting me since most of the fires have been set all over my district. And she may be using her wings. That puts us all at risk for discovery.”

“Wait,” Anthony said. “You work in this district, don’t you?”

“Yeah. So far she’s stayed away from this particular street, but I have a terrible feeling she’s saving it for last.”

“Crap,” Nick said. “Do you know where she’s staying? Maybe we can set up a sting.”

“No. I haven’t seen her, but I’m sure she’s around. I have this sixth sense that tingles whenever danger is near. It’s been driving me crazy—especially when we’re out on a job. If she’s watching, she’s very good at staying out of sight.”

“So, how can we help Bliss?” Tory asked.

“Look, I know this is going to sound like I broke the most important paranormal rule of all, but I had to…”

The others waited for him to say whatever he had to say. Shit. I did break the most important paranormal law of all.

Drake leaned in and lowered his voice as he confessed, “I told Bliss about dragons. I even had to show her my transformation before she’d believe me.”

Kurt gasped. In a whisper he asked, “What made you do that?”

Nick held up one hand. “I understand. I had to do the same thing with Brandee. My brother had to tell his human wife, Roz. As long as you and she never tell anyone else, and I assume you swore her to secrecy, I think you’ll be okay.”

“I did. And she promised not to tell a soul. She knows no one would believe her anyway. Hell, she almost had me committed.”

Nick cleared his throat. “It’s a little early though, Drake. I thought I jumped the gun with my wife. But Brandee and I knew each other as friends for a long time before we ever dated. Are you sure you can trust Bliss?”

“She had to know about Zina. If something happened to Bliss because I kept her—well, blissfully ignorant, I’d never forgive myself. I got her to agree to stay out of sight. If the dragon bitch sees her as a threat to a relationship she wants to have with me…”

“Then she’s toast… literally,” Kurt said.

Tory scratched his head. “What makes you think Zina still wants you even after you rejected her?”

“Because I’m the only one left to breed with—other than her brother, that is, and I don’t think she’s desperate enough to consider that idea. Can you imagine inbred dragons?”

“God, no,” Anthony said. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and appeared thoughtful. “It looks like you’re right. Bliss needs our constant protection. I’ll escort her home and keep an eye on her until she’s safely locked in. Someone else will have to escort her to work because of my daylight limitations.”

“I’ll be glad to do it,” Nick said.

Anthony thanked him with a nod. “If this Zina is anything like Ruxandra, your girl will probably be in danger the minute she’s alone.”

Nick folded his arms. “Remember when Ruxandra tried to harpoon Brandee?”

Drake’s jaw dropped. “She threw a harpoon at your wife?”

“Yeah. That was back when she thought there was something going on between her and Anthony.”

“There wasn’t,” Anthony said with finality. “I never even smile at my staff, if I can help it. I know how jealous Ruxandra is.”

Nick sighed. “We pretty much had to prove to her that Brandee was with me, not Anthony. Even after that, Anthony had to be careful not to even look at her. A human stands no chance against most paranormals. Add to that female jealousy…”

Drake groaned and dropped his head into his cupped hands. “But if Ruxandra comes back, Anthony won’t be able to help.”

Kurt, who was sitting next to him, patted his back. “Don’t worry, buddy. We’re all capable of protecting her and willing to step in. Anthony can handle Ruxandra if necessary.”

“But won’t that put your staff at risk?”

Anthony lifted his chin and frowned. “I’ll have you know I’ve always protected my staff. I don’t care if they’re being threatened by another vampire or an ordinary bully. I’d put my undead life on the line for any one of them, and Ruxandra can go to hell if she doesn’t like it. I think she understands that now.”

“Let’s hope so,” Nick said. “Because here she is.”

As predicted, Ruxandra waltzed into the bar arm in arm with a handsome stranger.

Crap, Drake thought. I don’t think I can take much more drama.

The next day as Bliss opened the office door to drop off her purse before work, she spotted Claudia bent over an open drawer. Unable to stifle an irresistible tease, she wolf-whistled.

Claudia snapped to attention and swiveled to see Bliss grinning at her.

“Oh, it’s you. Thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to kick one of the customers out of the inner sanctum.”

“Nope. It’s just little ol’ me.” She hung her purse on a hook in the closet provided for the employees.

“Didn’t you wear a coat? It’s still raining, isn’t it?”

“No, sweetie. It’s just a light mist and it takes two seconds to walk from my home to work. Gotta love the commute.” She didn’t mention having a big ex-cop escort her the few steps between her apartment and the bar.

“Glad to hear it. So, how’s it going otherwise?”

“Otherwise? You mean like job-wise? Relationship-wise? Health-wise?”

“Sure. Why not? How’s every little thing?”

Bliss shrugged. How do I tell her everything’s fine except, oh yeah, I found out I’m dating a dragon? “You know… the usual.”

“Good. Sometimes the ‘same old, same old’ is a welcome relief.”

Bliss would have argued that point a few days ago. Now it seemed like sage wisdom.

“You know something? Lately I’ve been wondering if my mother isn’t kind of right. I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to live in the suburbs in a nice home with a nice, normal man and maybe raise a couple of sweet kids?”

Claudia almost dropped the folder she’d been holding. “Who are you, and what have you done with my friend?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to give you a heart attack. It’s just that… you know. Things have been a little crazy in the city lately. First all those fires, now all this rain…”

Claudia raised her eyebrows. “You don’t think they have fire and rain in the suburbs?”

“Oh sure… rain maybe, but the fires? At least in the burbs you don’t have to worry about one home wiping out a whole block.”

“Are you worried about Drake?”

Bingo, but not because he’s a firefighter. “Maybe a little.”

“He’s a professional, Bliss. He knows what he’s doing, and from what I hear, he loves it. You shouldn’t ask him to quit if you really care about him.”

“Yeah, he’s really… into it.”

“So, is he into you?” Claudia sported a playful grin.

“Uh… you could say that.” She couldn’t help the soft smile. “He told me he loves me.”

“Awesome. You two make a cute couple. Are you thinking of moving to the burbs and raising kids?”

“Probably not.”

Bliss remembered what Drake had said when they first hooked up. I can’t get you pregnant. She was in such a lust-induced haze that she hadn’t paid much attention at the time. Now it made perfect sense. I’m not a dragon. How could we possibly have children together? Another thing made sense, too. Zina’s claim on him.

Claudia must have noticed a change in Bliss’s mood. She scrutinized her friend. “You look… sad. Is everything okay? Really?”

Bliss pasted a bright smile on her face. “Of course. I’m fine. Everything’s great. I’m just worried about the contest.”

Claudia didn’t look like she quite believed her. “Okay. You know if you ever need to talk, I’m right here.”

“Thanks. I know.” She strolled toward the door. “I’d better get out there and serve those thirsty customers.”

For once she was grateful for a busy bar. She wouldn’t have time to ruminate, obsess, and otherwise drive herself crazy over the heady new situation that had slapped her upside the head.

About midway through her shift, Bliss heard sirens blaring… and they were getting louder. That meant they were close and getting closer. Shit. Not again.

Drake was working an overnight shift. He was probably in one of the trucks, if this was a fire. She hoped she was hearing police sirens instead. How sick is hoping for a robbery or attempted murder instead of another fire?

She grabbed a rag and strode to the table nearest the window, hoping to get a peek as either fire or police vehicles roared by.

Flashing lights lit up the night. Please be blue, please be blue. When the sirens deafened her, both red and blue light bars whizzed by. That meant both police and fire were responding. Crap. Well, maybe they needed the EMTs, not the firefighters. Somehow she knew that wasn’t the case.

As the sirens slowed down and stopped altogether, she realized the incident couldn’t be far away.

Suddenly the front door burst open and an excited man she recognized as a semi-regular shouted to the whole bar: “Hey! The bank on the corner is on fire.”

Some of the customers took it in stride, not moving from their bar stools. Many got up—joking about cold, hard cash turning hot and crispy—and followed Phil out the door.

The bank on the corner? Horror struck Bliss like a punch in the chest. “My designs!”

She threw the rag on the floor and charged out of the bar. Running at top speed, she made it to the corner before the firefighters had completely unfurled their hoses.

She spotted Drake. Part of her wanted to rush over and beg him to rescue her safe-deposit box. The other part of her knew she should stay out of the way. He didn’t need to get suspended twice in one month. Besides, how could he get into her safe deposit box without her key and the bank personnel? That’s why they called it a safe deposit box. She cupped the sides of her face and gazed in horror.

She watched him work. He strapped on his protective gear and rushed up the steps.

“Give me the hydro ram,” he shouted. One of the guys who followed handed him a sophisticated-looking tool. He had to try a few times but finally forced the door open. Smoke billowed out as Drake led the other firefighters into the building.

Her heart beat a little faster. Knowing he was fireproof certainly helped relieve some of her fear. Knowing he was such a heroic figure—and that he was hers—well, that got her heart pounding in another way. No wonder so many women go nuts for firefighters.

Someone sidled up to Bliss, and a female voice murmured, “Pretty cool, huh?”

Cool? A burning building? She turned toward the voice, ready to give the woman a piece of her mind, when she recognized her. That’s the woman who beat up Drake.

“What are you doing here?” Bliss made sure the woman understood that she knew exactly who was standing next to her and was none too pleased to see her.

“I’m watching the excitement, just like everyone else is.”

“Do you think you could do it from somewhere else?”

“Only if you come with me.”

Bliss felt something hard touch her back. She whirled around and saw a gun pointed at her midsection. Holy shit.

Reason dictated she should stay quiet and wait for the woman to tell her what she wanted. But when had Bliss ever been reasonable?

“Gun!” she yelled and grabbed the woman’s arm. She tried to press it over their heads and hold it that way until the nearest cop could reach them. She didn’t expect the woman to be so strong.

“Bitch,” the woman screamed. “You can’t have him.”

The weapon jabbed Bliss’s temple. The next thing she knew, she was being dragged across the street, away from the crowd.

“Halt!” Two cops already had their weapons drawn and trained on both of them.

“You don’t want to shoot,” the woman cried out over the noise and confusion. “You might hit an innocent woman.” Then she lowered her voice and growled in Bliss’s ear, “And by that I mean a not-so-innocent, boyfriend-stealing bitch.” Even though the woman had an accent, Bliss understood every word.

She still thinks she’s entitled to Drake. Bliss didn’t know what made psychotics tick, but right about now she wished she did. Maybe if I play along I’ll live long enough to get out of this. Not only didn’t she know if that was the right thing to do, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She saw one of the cops speaking into his radio. Hopefully he was calling for backup, but would they arrive in time? The nasty Rasta dragon had managed to spirit her around the corner and out of sight. A moment later, Bliss was able to answer her own question with a resounding “No.”

Something strange was happening. She felt as if claws were digging into her shoulders. Suddenly her feet left the pavement and she was soaring up into the night sky. For some damn reason, she pictured Dorothy being kidnapped by flying monkeys.

Do something, Bliss! The only thing that came to mind was to follow Dorothy’s example and let out a bloodcurdling scream—so she did.

An animalistic sound that might have been a laugh was the only response.

Drake and his buddies wrestled the fire under control in about half an hour. The bank suffered irreparable damage, not only by ravaging flames, but smoke and water destruction too. The overhead sprinklers helped save some areas, but not all.

His dragon warning tingles had begun during the fire, but he’d chalked them up to the possibility of his being in mortal danger—now that he was mortal. However, they hadn’t subsided.

Drake had been focused on the job, and it wasn’t until they pulled into the station that he wondered whether or not that was the bank in which Bliss had stored her CD. He’d call her as soon as he could. If nothing else, he’d be able to reassure her that the vault and safe deposit area weren’t affected.

She might experience a slight delay getting to her valuables, but she had until Monday to produce the designs she had been working so hard on. He was proud of himself for recalling a detail that was important to her but not so much to him. Too often he’d known men who only half listened to their wives or girlfriends and paid the price later.

He hung up his gear and trudged upstairs, looking forward to a shower. Bliss would still be at work, so he could wait to tell her about his day.

A little voice in his head argued, No. You need to call her now.

Not one to ignore so many portents, he grabbed his new cell phone and punched in the number for Bliss. When her voice mail offered to take a message and get back to him, he hung up and called the bar.

“Boston Uncommon, Angie speaking.”

“Hi, Angie. It’s Drake. Is Bliss there?”

“No. I was about to call you. She took off like a bat out of hell when the fire trucks drove by earlier and hasn’t come back yet. It’s busy and we need her.”

“She left you in the lurch? That doesn’t sound like the Bliss I know.”

“You don’t think something has happened to her, do you?”

Drake didn’t know what to say. Should he reassure Angie when he was almost positive something was drastically wrong? Hell.

“I’m going out to look for her. When I find her, I’ll call you and let you know what’s up.”

“Call Anthony. He’s worried about her too. Really worried.”

“Can you put Anthony on the phone?”

“Sure. Give me a minute.”

Drake paced as he listened to the sounds of a noisy bar. A few anxious moments passed before he heard Anthony’s voice.

“Drake. What’s going on?”

“Apparently Bliss is missing. Angie said she ran out during the fire, and I can’t get in touch with her.”

“That much I know. You didn’t see her at the scene, did you?”

“No, but she could have been there. I was focused on the job and didn’t pay much attention to the crowd.”

Anthony hesitated but eventually said, “I followed her scent as far as I could. The smoke may have thrown me off, but on Branch Street her scent just—disappeared. Do you think Zina may have something to do with it?”

Drake swore. “I didn’t want to even entertain the idea, but yeah. It’s quite possible. If she’s the one who set the fire, she may have been nearby.”

Anthony sighed. “I’m sorry, Drake. I said I’d be responsible for her and I feel terrible. I was in my office and didn’t know she was missing for quite a while. I think the staff was covering for her.”

“Don’t blame yourself. Neither of us would have expected she’d run off in the middle of her shift.”

“That’s not much comfort, is it?”

Drake dropped onto his cot. “No. It isn’t.” After a short silence, he said, “I’ve gotta go.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“I will, if I think of something. I don’t even know if there’s anything I can do.”

Suddenly Drake had an idea. It might backfire, but it was all he had.

“Talk to you later, Anthony.” He hung up and tucked his cell phone into his pocket. Then he ran downstairs to the street and yelled, “Taxi!”