Page 11 of Burn Dragon Burn
“Yes, and from the details on their cell phone usage, all received texts were returned stating the vic had taken a trip of some kind.”
“All to the same place?”
“No, he’s smarter than that.”
Sitting so still and so silent Rafe wondered if he was even breathing, Max suddenly asked, “And you have not released the information about the texts to the public?”
“No, the police haven’t. To be honest, they haven’t released much. The detective in charge, Donatella Hale, is playin’ it close to the vest.”
“Gil says she is a true Seer.” There was an unasked question sitting like an elephant between them. One that Rafe was not going to answer until Max asked.
True to form, too perceptive for anyone’s good, the King questioned, “And thisdetective, she is your mate,mi amigo?”
“Talked to Gil last night or justknew?” Rafe raised his free hand and wiggled his fingers while making a “wooooooooooo” sound. “Those freaky senses of yours truly freak me out sometimes, ya’ know?”
“It did not take any of my ‘freaky senses’, as you call them, to know that you have found the woman who completes you.” He motioned by barely lifting his index finger from the papers in his lap. “Your aura is glowing, your Dragon King is content, and you are truly happy, fulfilled.”
“Alright, I’ll take your word for it,” Rafe scoffed.
Pulling into the parking lot behind the Police Station, he pulled into one of the visitor’s spots at the very end of the front row of cars and turned off the car. Looking directly at Max, he warned, “Just don’t say anything. I haven’t said anything to Detective Hale, Nat. We just met yesterday and from what I can tell, her knowledge of our world is limited.”
A knowing smiled speared on the King’s lips as he nodded. “I happen to know the Hale family very well, and I can assure you that with Angelique as her grandmother, your mate already knows more than you can imagine.”
7
Tossing and turning, unable to sleep longer than fifteen minutes at a time, Nat finally sat up, put her feet on the floor and grabbed her cell phone to see what time it was.
Four-seventeen am.
Running her fingers through her hair, she looked back at her pillow then at the shard of light from the streetlight just outside her window shining across the foot of her bed. Blowing out a breath, she pushed off of her mattress and shuffled down the stairs to the kitchen.
Turning on the light over the stove, the dimmest bulb in the house since her eyes were already burning, she popped a pod of dark brewed java into the coffeemaker, gave the flashing button a punch with her index finger, and stood watching the precious liquid fill her cup. Holding the mug with both hands, she turned around and leaned her backside against the counter.
Sipping the hot coffee, she thought about everything her grandmother had told her. Most of it made sense. Nat did feel kind of weird and really wonderful things from the moment she met Rafe that made absolutely no sense. And, she could see his Dragon as plain as day, but how could Nona think it was okay forthe Universe or the Goddess or God himself to dictate who she was supposed to love – who she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with?
What about free will? What about dating? What about getting to know the dude before committing to eternity?
Eternity!! Oh. My. Goddess. Thanks for the curveball, Universe. Way to freak a chick right outta her skin…
What if she couldn’t stand being near him after a couple of years? The facts were the facts. She hadn’t had a relationship last longer than a couple of months…ever.
Something always happened. The guy would complain about her work schedule, or not like the way she talked everything over with Nona. There was even a time that one of the guys she was dating looked her right in the eye and said, “I want a woman who will stay home, have dinner on the table every night at six, and have my babies.”
“And I ghosted that son of a bitch. Didn’t answer a single call, text, or email. Threw away the flowers he sent and mailed his shit back to him in a box marked‘Go Away’.” Her voice sounded hollow as it floated through her dark, empty kitchen. “What if Rafe is the same? Everything I know about Dragons, which wouldn’t fill a thimble, says they are Alpha to the core, headstrong as a mule, and demanding as all get out.”
She pushed off the counter and walked towards the living room. “I can see us butting heads before this whole ‘eternity together’ thing ever kicks off. He’s gonna pull some Caveman bullshit and I’m gonna shoot him in the…well, umm,kneewith my Sig Sauer.” She stopped mid-step. “Do bullets hurt Dragons? Can a Dragonbekilled?”
Refusing to dwell on things that blew her mind, she shuffled across the room and sat in her huge, overstuffed recliner. Putting the footrest out, she grabbed the remote and clicked on the TV. Sandra Kelly with Channel Four Early Morning Reportwas cheerfully reporting on a four-car pileup on I35 and the ticker at the bottom was reporting the dismal results of the Stock Market from the day before.
Flipping the channels, she landed on the Food Network and half listened to Rachel Ray making brunch as she reluctantly reached for the old, thick, heavy-as-hell book her grandmother had given her the night before. She’d read a good part of the history of the Dragon Guard when she got home but her eyes had gotten so heavy she was finally forced to go to bed. By all accounts, they werenotthe evil beasts all the fairy tales made them out to be.
“And that’s because ‘the Others’,” she made air quotes with the first two fingers on her free hand, “perpetuated the stories with the hopes that humans would never come looking for them.” She mimicked Nona’s voice, shaking her head and turning to the page where she’d left off and continued reading about the Dragon Kings, the Knights, and the Mage who’d made it possible for them to become one being.
Lost in the words, wondering how old Rafe really was, she got to the part about the significance of a Dragon’s Mate and how the Elders had prayed for days and days to the Universe. On one hand, it stretched her imagination to its lengths, but on the other, she knew of her own ‘Gift’ and couldn’t discount that there were others, too.
What must it be like to have a lifespan of hundreds or even thousands of years? What had Rafe seen? How had he handled all the changes of the world around him? Had he always been in some kind of law enforcement or in the military? It was all so mind boggling, completely and totally something out of one of the Sci-Fi Fantasy novels Marietta, the Dispatcher was always reading.
Captivated by everything she was learning, wondering if maybe, just maybe, the whole Destined Mate thing was real,she came across a passage that ripped the breath from her lungs – Once the Dragon and his Mate are blessed by the Universe and joined together as Fate has seen fit, the sacred woman will not only share in the longevity of her Dragon, but also his Magic and that of his Dragon King.