Page 46 of Blood and Bone

“What?” Eoghan looked at all of them and then turned toward Ari, shrugging his shoulders. “I have no idea who these people are.”

“They’re not people,” Blackwood said. “They stay in shifted form most of the time. It’s how they prefer it.”

Ari was getting fed up. “Okay, will someone please just tell us what these…things are and how we can get a hold of them?”

“You don’t want to get a hold of them, trust me,” Alo said.

Ari narrowed his eyes, glaring at the deputy.

He cracked a small smile and then glanced over at Joe and the table full of councilors. “Well?” Alo seemed to be asking permission as Joe cleared his throat.

“Severin and Invictus are dragons,” Joe said.

“What?” Ari and Eoghan both asked at the same time. “What are you talking about?” Eoghan asked.

“Well, technically, the I.S.R. would probably call themDraco Volans,” Joe said with a bright violet glow in his eyes.

“Winged lizards?” Eoghan said. “They’re a myth.”

Ari transferred his gaze back and forth between Eoghan who looked like he was about to laugh, and Joe and Alo who were shaking their heads.

“No myth,” Joe said.

“I don’t believe you,” Eoghan said. “We would have known about them.” He turned to look at Ari. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been with the I.S.R. for six years and I thought they were extinct. If they were real, we would have heard of them.” He didn’t look so sure now. “I always thought they were a myth.”

“Trust me, they’re not,” Blackwood said.

Ari and Eoghan both looked back at him.

“They’re very real,” the tribal councilor went on. “There’s proof enough if you’re looking for it. In fact, when you drive off the reservation, take a look immediately to your right just before you reach our border with the outside world. You’ll see a dense grove of four-year-old saplings. The last time the dragons came here, they practically burned down our entire forest. That grove used to be filled with two-hundred-foot trees. It was reduced to smoldering firewood after Severin threw a fit on his way out of town. He’s the most ill-tempered beast I’ve ever met.”

“They’refire-breathingdragons?” Eoghan asked, looking utterly shocked as his voice rose an octave.

Ari was glad they were sitting down because if they hadn’t been, he probably would have fainted. When all the councilors began nodding, Eoghan turned to look at him.

“This is a new kind of shifter for you, I take it,” Ari asked.

“Like I said…I thought they were a total myth.” He shrugged. “I didn’t know they were real. I accept a lot of things on this job, but this one…this is totally a new one to me, Ari, I swear.” He turned back to the others who sat at the table. “Why was this dragon here and what pissed him off?”

“Our reservation is the location of a mine for a particular mineral they need in their diet,” Blackwood said. “We negotiated a price. Severin wasn’t happy with it but—” he stopped and looked at all the faces around the table before they nodded. He glanced back at them. “The truth is that Colt Wilkins is the arbiter of the mine and he wouldn’t sell the mineral to them at a price Severin thought fair.” Before anyone could interrupt, Blackwood raised both hands. “We tried to make him see the danger in dealing with Severin and Invictus unfairly and it almost cost us our forest.”

“Since it’s part of the diet they need to survive, yeah, I’d imagine it would piss them off,” Ari said, shaking his head.

“What kind of mineral are we talking about here?” Eoghan asked.

Blackwood sighed. “To put it succinctly…jade. Of course, jade mines are located mostly on the California coast at Jade Cove in Big Sur but also Willow Creek in Monterey. There’s also the Storm Cove Jade Mine in Joshua Tree.”

“So, what’s the problem?” Ari asked.

“The problem is, these communities don’t want to sell jade to the dragons in sufficient quantities for their needs,” Blackwood stated. “They are unaware that the people sent to negotiate jade prices are dragons. They’re human and have no idea what and who they’re dealing with.”

“So, I take it there are large jade deposits on your tribal lands?” Ari asked.

All the tribal council members nodded. Most of them looked more relaxed, very different from earlier when they’d probably felt like they were being cross-examined.

“We have the largest deposit of jade in the world,” one of the councilors replied.

“That’s not proven, Edward,” Blackwood chided.