Chapter Two
Michael was almost home when a brilliant red flame shot through the night sky. Meteor? It seemed too close for that, but if it were, then it would be crashing into the ground soon. He turned on the police scanner he carried. PD would be receiving all sorts of calls.
The wait wasn’t long. Seconds later a dispatcher came on. “Man reports seeing a dragon hovering in the sky.”
He could almost hear the officer’s laugh. “Dragon?”
“That’s what he said.” She gave the location. “A red one. Said it was breathing fire, too.”
“Right,” the officer replied. “Dopers must have gotten a really good batch of high-quality coke in recently.”
“Actually…” The dispatcher hesitated, her voice rising just a little over the regular monotone. “We’ve received three more calls.”
“I’ll check it out. Hope the place isn’t crawling with media,” the officer responded.
“Affirmative. Maybe it’s an advertising gimmick,” she answered.
“Why’s that?”
“The location is a clinic and no-kill shelter for animals,” Dispatch answered. “Cameron’s Veterinary Care.”
Michael slammed on the brakes, made a sharp U-turn and headed for I-30. This wasn’t a prank. More importantly, it was a red dragon. There was only one red dragon still in existence, and it had been slumbering safely on Avalon.
For some reason, the goddess must have decided to release him.
Michael guessed he should not be surprised.
He was searching for the Sword of Fire, and the dragon had a vested interest in the Sword too.
But why had the beast singled out Sophie?
Michael’s warlock senses tingled. Was Sophie the “mystery woman” Nimue had alluded to?
Somehow, she was going to be instrumental in finding the Sword.
How, he didn’t know, but right now she needed protection.
The Pendragon was back—and he had little use for humans.
****
Sophie had not even reached the door of her clinic when a police cruiser and TV crews arrived, the reporters tagging as close to the officer as they could get.
He examined the scorch marks on the grass. “What happened here?” he asked.
Sophie took a deep breath and hoped they wouldn’t cart her off to a mental ward. “I think…a dragon breathed fire on it. At least, it looked like a dragon.”
The officer raised a skeptical brow while the reporters behind him babbled excitedly.
“Have you been drinking?”
“No.”
“Snorted some coke, lady?”
Sophie frowned. “No. No alcohol. No drugs. I’m a veterinarian.” She pointed to the sign in the front yard. “I stopped by to check on a dog we’re boarding. The…the dragon—or whatever it was—hovered over the roof when I stepped out. I can’t explain it.”
A barrage of questions came from the reporters and she wanted to put her hands over her ears to shut them all out.
“I don’t know the answers to your questions!
All I know is what looked like a red dragon was in the air.
Maybe it was a hologram. Maybe some technology genius created it.
” She turned to one reporter who had whispered something to her camera man. “And no, I am not crazy!”
“Those scorch marks are real,” a thin, young man said and gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m Toby Clark, ma’am.”
Sophie tried to smile back. He seemed nice and not as aggressive as the other reporters. Before she could answer, though, several of her neighbors from down the road joined the group.
“We saw the thing too,” one of them said. “I was about to get my shotgun when it just vanished.”
His wife slanted a look at him. “Like buckshot would take down whatever that was.”
“Well, an assault rifle would,” a second man said. The officer looked at him and he stopped talking.
“So what kind of a monster was it?” another woman asked Sophie. “You bring in some strange critters, but I never saw anything like that.” She looked at the reporters. “You should hear the sounds that come from here sometimes. It’s not puppies and kittens she keeps here!”
The reporters turned back to her again in a feeding frenzy. “How did you make it fly?” one asked.
“Was it a trick? Do you want publicity?” A young woman stuck a microphone in front of her face. “Maybe donations to your shelter?”
“No, I—”
“I think that’s enough questions for now.”
Sophie spun around and almost groaned. Michael McCain was elbowing his way through the growing crowd.
Bad enough that her nosy neighbor tried to seek fifteen seconds of fame by exaggerating her menagerie of assorted animals, and the police officer probably thought her nuts, but now Michael was here.
And Michael definitely made her feel confused.
She didn’t like the feeling one bit. She was always in control of her emotions. It was easier that way.
“Who are you?” the officer asked, his pen poised above the small notepad he carried.
“Michael McCain.” He offered his driver’s license.
The cop looked at it and handed it back. “Why are you here?”
Michael moved closer to Sophie and put his arm around her shoulder. “I heard the report about Cameron Veterinary Clinic on the scanner. Sophie’s my girl.”
She made a choking sound. His girl? Where did that come from?
She started to move away from him, but his fingers tightened their hold gently.
She tugged, but his hand was firm as a steel band.
Who did he think he was? Some knight in shining armor coming to her rescue?
She could hold her own. Sophie started to elbow him, but, as if he anticipated the move, he simply pulled her closer to him, trapping her arm against the side of his hard chest. And damn, if her traitorous body did not respond to that closeness.
Heat radiated straight to her belly and her knees felt weak.
And almost as though he knew the effect he was having, he grinned at her.
She wanted to tell him she wasn’t about to fall for his male magnetism, but the officer was watching her.
Plastering a smile on her own face, she nodded. “I really do have to check on my animals.”
“Of course,” the officer said and closed his notepad, slipping it into his shirt pocket. He glanced up at the now-empty sky. “Let’s break it up, folks. That’s all for tonight.”
Michael kept her tucked up against him until the small crowd dissipated. When the last one had gone, he released her and she turned on him.
“Just what was that all about? The last thing I want to do is deal with an arrogant, sexy man who thinks he’s God’s gift to women!”
His mouth quirked up. “You think I’m sexy? That’s a good start.”
She glared at him, hands on her hips. “No! You think you are. Men like you flatter and flirt until you get what you want and then the woman is left picking up the pieces and putting her life back together.”
His expression sobered. “You’ve been hurt.”
“Never mind that. What are you doing here anyway? I’m about to have a nervous breakdown and I need time to think about what really happened tonight.”
Michael started to reach for her and then let his arm drop. “There is no need for you to have a nervous breakdown,” he said. “What you saw was real and I know who—or what—the dragon is. Let’s go inside and talk.”
****
Michael, waiting while Sophie checked on the animals, spent the time pondering just how much he should tell her. Or, more precisely, how much she could take.
She looked exhausted when she finally came back to the waiting room.
Her face was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes.
Michael wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and soothe her with his magic, but his warlock sense told him she would only interpret that as a sexual advance.
And, as voluptuous as her body was, she had suppressed any inclination to flirt. Someone had hurt her really badly.
Maybe, in time, he could find out who the jerk was. But if they were going to work together, she had to trust him. He sighed. That meant putting all his lustful thoughts of her soft, naked body aside. At least, for now.
Sophie sank into one of the leather armchairs placed about the room. “I really saw a dragon?”
“You really saw a dragon.”
Sophie closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Michael’s fingers itched to touch her. He could relieve the tension easily enough—a simple mind-spell would do it, but even as he thought it, she opened her eyes.
“How is it possible?” she asked in a shaky voice. “Dinosaurs, which people probably mistook for dragons, became extinct long ago.”
“Two entirely different species,” Michael answered. “Dragons are magical creatures.”
She stared at him. “Magical? Like unicorns? Don’t tell me they exist too!”
They did, but Michael saw no reason to bring that up right now. Sophie already looked a little wild-eyed. He probed her aura gently, but she had astral shields in place. Pushing at those would cause her more distress.
“Thousands of years ago, dragons roamed quite freely on Earth. When humans came, the dragons tried to help, but the mortals were afraid of the sacred fire they breathed. Instead of trying to understand the dragons, the humans hunted them. The dragons withdrew into the mists.” Michael paused, giving her time to absorb what he knew probably sounded like science fiction.
“The reason people think dragons don’t exist is because, over the passage of time, people have stopped thinking of them.
” He paused again and tried to mind-link, but her defense shields were firmly in place.
Should he continue? “The same thing happened with the old Greek and Roman gods. The new religion replaced them, just like it did the goddess of Avalon.” Michael stopped when Sophie held up her hand.
“Please don’t tell me there is some mystical Lady of the Lake floating around somewhere too!”
Michael tried not to wince, reminding himself that Sophie was practical and logical. She had, after all, gone to medical school for years and thought like a scientist, not like the witches he was used to working with. She would need time to accept Truth.