Page 29 of Her Dragon Outlaw

He motioned to something behind me “Please sit, we have a lot to catch up on.”

Cody's fingers touched my elbow, leading me to the chair behind me. I sit, quickly, hoping this will speed things along in the news about Tammy. Cody takes the seat beside me, I can feel his intense eyes on me, and I force my own to remain on the Chief.

He leans forward in his own chair. “Your sister’s been returned home. She is with your mother. Safe.” I let out a breath. “She was being held underground, assuming it was one of many safehouses being used to store subjects-” The word was laced with disgust. He turns his eagle-like eyes to Cody who has been sitting quietly beside me. “The lab was under Stella’s house.”

Cody tenses, making him look predatory. “What happened to Stella?” he says with alarming calm.

The frown on the Chief brow deepened. “She got away,” he said tightly. “But our agents were able to recover her book of shadows along with some notes on recent potions she’d been experimenting with, they also found something else.”

“What did they find?” I ask, unable to stop my curiosity.

The chef's gaze flicks to mine before landing back on Cody. “We found a journal. Apparently the witch is also a biographer and has been documenting her thoughts and plans.”

“I’m guessing we found a hole.” Cody asks.

“Better,” the Chief's eyes are bright with a new wave of excitement. “ We found a tear. Stella confesses everything. She is a member of Brood, I’m sure you heard of it.”

“Yeah the coven is full of psychos and wannabe vigilanties. I should have figured they had something to do with this when that weird DNA report came back on the first victim. Shit.” he growls.

“Um, does anyone mind filling me in. I am the one with… whatever this stuff is inside of me.” I look between the two men pausing when my eyes land on Cody’s gilded stare. “What’s Brood?” I ask, my voice thicker than it had started.

I’m trapped. Unable to look away if I wanted to.

“They’re a coven of Witches with two missions. One to have metas overthrow human leadership, and two, to create a stronger society by eliminating anything or anyone they consider weak.”

My lip curled in horror. “They’re eugenicists!” I say accusingly.

“Essentially,” Cody agrees stiffly.

“And now,” The chief stands and positions himself between us, recapturing our attention. “They think they’ve found the key to creating this better society, better people by experimenting with human DNA.”

“What exactly are they trying to accomplish? What is the end goal for the people being injected?” I ask, rubbing my ankles together.

There's a note of sympathy on the Chiefs voice. “We’re not sure, but we know their experiments are volatile. Most of the subjects don’t last very long after the symptoms start to affect the nervous system.”

“Oh.” It was all I could say.

“There's also something else I wanted to discuss with officer Belden, alone, if you don’t mind.”

My instincts snapped to attention like a rubber band. The Chief tries to appear unfazed, but there is a certain tightness at the corner of his mouth which let me know that whatever he was going to tell Cody was important. It was also something he didn’t want me to know.

I stood to leave but was halted at the sound of Cody’s commanding tone. “She can stay. Lori should understand the facts.”

My eyes felt like they were going to shoot back into my head. Did he just do what I think he did?

“It may be upsetting for her.” The Chief says plainly.

“It’s fine.” I shout. The chief snaps his eyes to me. “I'd rather be upset than be left in the dark. I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime,” I say with more control.

“Fine, stay,” his eyes linger between us a moment longer. “Stella seems to also have some personal motivations which were also uncovered from the diary. She saw Lori and you outside of Miller, and now she’s targeting you to hide the evidence.”

25

CODY

My dragon hasn’t spoken to me since the coffee shop. Neither has Lori.

Even as she sits below my shoulder blades, I can feel her discomfort seeping into my scales. Her grip is light, either from not wanting to touch me or not wanting to return to the lakehouse with me. Though deserving, it makes me seeth to have her put up a wall.

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