The Dragon’s Aide (Charmed Away Temp Agency #2)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Isaac was humming to himself as he came back from Schultz’s office. The wolf shifter was happy to help once Isaac explained what he was doing and gave him a few similar contracts to compare it to, so Isaac would have plenty of references.

Isaac’s footsteps slowed when he got close to Maverick’s office. There were very few things that could make Isaac nervous. Not even a temperamental dragon could manage it. But Elijah made Isaac nervous. He felt his magic the minute he opened the door and threw up so many mental shields, it made him a little dizzy. He had to wonder if Maverick knew they sent an actual telepath as his shadow, but he didn’t want to outright say that while Maverick was in the room with Elijah. It might make things worse than they already were.

Summoning his courage, he reentered the room, shooting a nervous glance at Elijah, who watched him come in with a polite smile. Isaac forced one in return and scurried to his desk, dropping his gaze to avoid Elijah’s eye. Telepaths were creepy. Poking around people’s heads without their permission. The strong ones could even plant memories or ideas there without the person knowing. It was why Isaac refused to shake his hand. Skin to skin contact opened the connection better than just standing near one. Eye contact also helped, so Isaac purposely looked at the center of Elijah’s forehead or over his shoulder if he had to look in the telepath’s direction. He felt a pass of Elijah’s magic over his skin, testing the waters, but Isaac’s shields were airtight. He still shuddered when Elijah stepped out to use the restroom.

Maverick frowned at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to scrub away the feeling of the telepath poking at his shields. “Nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Maverick argued. “Why are you acting so strangely?”

Isaac opened his mouth to answer, but then thought better of it. If Maverick didn’t know what Elijah was, he probably hadn’t noticed when Elijah was poking around. That kind of knowledge might set the dragon off if he did find out. Isaac didn’t want him to go on a rampage the first day Elijah was shadowing him. Then again, he didn't think it was right to let Elijah poke around Maverick’s head without permission, either. What the hell did he do?

He didn’t want to make the wrong decision, so he decided to push it off until he could make some calls and get some advice. Maybe Maeve would know what to do.

“You’ve got a meeting soon. Did you want me to join you to take notes?”

Maverick wasn’t happy about Isaac’s evasiveness, but Isaac knew he wouldn’t be able to resist a conversation about work. The dragon was a workaholic. He pushed to his feet, scowling, and grabbed the file he needed.

“Let’s go.”

Isaac was used to the roundabout answer and leapt to his feet, grabbing a notepad and a pen and tucking them under his arm. He scurried ahead of Maverick, eager to avoid the conversation, and nearly bumped right into Elijah. Isaac backpedaled so hard, his feet went out from under him. The only reason he didn’t land on his ass was that Maverick was behind him and caught him before he fell.

“Isaac, what is going on?” Maverick demanded again.

Nope. Not getting into that. Isaac scrambled to right himself, taking a big step sideways to avoid getting any closer to Elijah. “Nothing. I’m going to use the restroom really quick. I’ll meet you down there. Excuse me.”

Dodging around the creepy telepath, he ignored Maverick’s outraged expression. He knew he was only making things worse. Maverick wouldn’t take kindly to Isaac’s evasiveness or him being late to a meeting. He was expected to use the facilities in between meetings so as not to cause a distraction by coming in late. But there wasn’t a chance in hell Isaac was getting in a crowded elevator with Elijah. Unless he could somehow manage to keep Maverick between them, there was too much potential for the telepath to ‘accidentally’ brush up against him. Isaac wasn’t giving him that chance.

The meeting was on the research floor, so as soon as the elevator doors shut, he slipped into the stairwell instead and hustled down to meet them. It took just as much time as if he’d actually stopped to use the restroom and got lucky with an elevator available as soon as he was done. He was breathing kind of harshly after that many stairs though, so he stopped to take a few deep breaths before exiting the stairwell and hustling to the meeting room.

They hadn’t started yet, thankfully, and no one seemed to notice Isaac slipping in to join them. Isaac normally sat in a chair against the wall, out of the way of the actual meeting, to take notes. He was ready to go to his usual spot, but Elijah was parked there, next to an empty chair that was supposedly meant for him. No. Nonononono.

Not going to happen.

Even if Elijah had nothing to do with Isaac and his job security, Isaac wouldn’t want to get anywhere near him. Telepaths were fucking creepy.

A heavy arm dropped around his shoulder and Isaac’s head snapped around, surprised. Taron beamed at him.

“Did our resident grump not save you a seat? You can sit next to me, then. You’re better company than Eugene over there.” He gestured with his chin toward the research team lead, who rolled his eyes. His too big chin. Isaac frowned, tipping his head.

“What did you do to your face?”

Taron preened like Isaac had just given him a compliment, gesturing to his chin. “Isn’t it glorious? It’s a real attention grabber. I like to make a statement with my looks. Similar to your makeup.” He studied Isaac’s face, and Isaac tensed, waiting for judgment about a male using makeup, but Taron just nodded decisively. “Maybe I should try makeup. Is it hard to learn?”

That wasn’t really what he’d been expecting, and it took him off guard for a moment before he could answer. “Uh, no. Not really. When I first started out, I used videos online to guide me. Once I was comfortable with it, I started branching out on my own.”

Taron led him to the table with his arm still around Isaac’s shoulders. It wasn’t an awkward hold, more friendly and casual, and it didn’t bother him. He sat when Taron pulled out a chair for him, grateful for an excuse to be as far from Elijah as possible, since Taron was sitting on the opposite side of the room. Taron continued to talk makeup, asking for brand recommendations and the like. Completely oblivious to the group waiting for the meeting to start.

A low growl rattled the air, making Isaac’s head whip around. He hadn’t noticed Maverick’s glower until now. He was glaring at Taron and Isaac, probably because they were wasting time talking about nothing. Taron either didn’t notice or didn’t care, and didn’t stop talking until Isaac elbowed him.

“Maybe we should get started?” Isaac suggested to him, though his gaze was locked on Maverick. He widened his eyes, almost screaming internally for the man to calm down. Elijah was watching him and making notes in his notebook. Not a good sign.

Subtly, while everyone else was listening to Eugene as he started discussing the path the research team would take in bringing Taron’s idea to fruition, Isaac made a cut it out gesture with his hand, narrowing his eyes at Maverick. That… didn’t help. It only seemed to piss him off more, and smoke started billowing from him, showing off to Elijah and the whole room just how pissed off he was. Rolling his eyes, Isaac muttered a spell, sending a light breeze through the room. Normally, he’d push the smoke out the window, but this room didn’t have any because they were using a projector and it needed to be dark. Instead, Isaac gathered the smoke under the table for the time being. He’d deal with it later.

“Who is that in the corner?” Taron murmured under his breath, leaning a little towards Isaac.

It would only make things worse if Maverick saw him talking to Taron when they were supposed to be paying attention, so he wrote a note in the corner of the paper instead.

Shadow from SR.

Taron made a face. He had his own opinions on the shadow, apparently, and wasn’t afraid to show it. He took Isaac’s pen from him, scribbling underneath what he’d written.

Dangerous?

Telepath.

Isaac underlined that a few times, trying to get his point across. To him, Elijah was the most dangerous man in the room.

Taron stiffened ever so slightly before he settled again, nodding along to what Eugene was saying. He wrote another note, though how he did it so neatly without looking at the paper was anyone’s guess.

Does Mav know?

Taron flicked his gaze to Isaac and raised an eyebrow. Isaac shook his head minutely and wrote again.

Think he’d take it well?

Taron’s lips pressed together tightly, and he frowned. He didn’t need to write the ‘no’. Isaac saw it in his expression. Neither of them thought Maverick would be happy about a company approved telepath poking around in his head. And since they didn’t want Maverick to lose his job, it wasn’t a good idea to say anything. At least not while Elijah was around.

Taron didn’t write anything back, so Isaac gave his focus to the presentation for the time being. He’d been half listening, and he got the gist of it, but he could feel Maverick’s glare, and he knew he’d be quizzed afterward by a very angry dragon. The tension in the air was thick, and the other members of the meeting were starting to sweat. Not good. And no amount of significant looks in Maverick’s direction was getting the dragon to calm down.

If Isaac didn’t do something to get the dragon to settle, he’d be fired before the day was out. He considered dragging Maverick back to his office to deal with the issue like he had last time, but with Elijah shadowing Maverick’s every move, that wasn’t possible anymore. Anything they did had to be out of the office. Which was good, since Isaac never wanted to be called unprofessional, but also incredibly inconvenient. He doubted the dragon would be willing to ditch out on any amount of work right now, especially when he was already so pissed off.

But they didn’t really have any other choice. One wrong move, one idiot intern screwing things up, or someone on the staff being somewhere they weren’t supposed to, and Isaac knew Maverick would lose it. He couldn’t allow that to happen. For either of their sakes.