Page 19 of Surge of Heat

Dr. Duncan cuts in with ease, his tone gruff, but his words kind. “We’ve been made aware that the green dragon is capable of tracking you. What I’m not sure you’re aware of is that more and more dragons are awakening around the world. We’re trying to secure them, of course, but there’s a good chance they’re all going to be drawn to you, and any other female dragons, although so far you seem to be the only one. We need to find a way to protect you, to hide you, before things get too out-of-hand.”

Dr. Griffin smirks, and his eyes run over me. “Although we’ve also been made aware that you’ve found one way to hide yourself from the male dragons. Let me be the first to volunteer to help you in that regard.”

Aydan’s faster than my eye can follow, punching the older man square in the face. The man may have been tall and fit, early forties at most, with his hair seemingly out of place being all gray, but he goes down like a much older man. And once he hits the floor, he doesn’t get up.

Dr. Abigail toes him with her boot. “I can’t say the asshole didn’t have it coming.”

“Agreed,” Dr. Duncan says. “If Aydan hadn't punched him, I would have. The girl could be his fucking daughter.”

Their support actually eases a little of the tension inside of me.

Aydan rubs his hand and says, “Okay, then, just to be clear, anyone hurts her, and they have to deal with Granger and I.”

“And an angry dragon that could likely kill all of us,” Dr. Abigail says, rolling her eyes before looking at me. “Men, am I right?”

I’m so surprised I laugh, but I guess she’s right. If these scientists are going to fear anything, it’s going to be me, not my guys.

Dr. Abigail smiles. “Before we do anything else, let’s show you what we’ve been working on.”

She heads to one area of the room where there’s a huge screen covering the wall. Her fingers are flying as they move across the keyboard on a table near the screen. A second later, a map of the world pulls up. There are several dots spread out, but I notice a green one near the Phoenix Institute.

“Currently, we’re using satellites to track the dragons that have awakened. It’s not a perfect solution. They disappear quite frequently, but it’s the best we’ve got.”

“What’s that dot?” I ask, pointing to the green dot. Hoping against hope that it might be Evander.

“It’s the green dragon,” she says, crushing my hope with just a few simple words.

“What about the gray dragon?”

She’s back to typing on the screen, pulling up a short clip of Evander and the green dragon fighting, obviously taken by a jet, before the image fades. “That’s our last image of him. We haven’t been able to track him by satellite since their fight. Our best guess is that he died. It’s fascinating though…”

Her words fade away.They haven’t been able to track him since? They think he died?I should’ve stayed to help fight beside him. I should’ve never left him behind.

A hand squeezes my shoulder, and I swing my head toward Granger. He gives a small smile. “They don’t know for sure, okay? Hold onto hope. You’re really good at that.”

I nod, struggling to draw in a breath. Dr. Abigail stops talking, and everyone is staring at me. The weight of their eyes are heavy. I have a strange desire to escape the room and all the people in it.

“Did you know the gray dragon?” Dr. Abigail asks softly.

“Yes,” is all I can manage, but my fingers go to my necklace, tugging on it nervously. “The gray dragon is Evander.”

“Shit,” Dr. Duncan says, his gaze meeting Dr. Abigail’s.

“We didn’t… we hadn’t imagined that,” Dr. Abigail manages, looking completely lost.

And they must have known him well, because both of them seem more upset than I would have expected. Whatever job he did here, it must have been important.

“Well,” Dr. Abigail says, drawing her shoulders back. “Captain Evander is strong and capable. We’re going to hold out hope that he survived.”

“He did,” I tell them, lifting my chin.He has to have.

“Okay then.” Dr. Duncan clears his throat. “Well, as she was saying, we’re tracking the dragons by satellite, but we need a better method. Most of them were making a beeline for you, but several times they seemed to get lost and just start flying around in circles, or heading off in completely different directions. We assumed that was when your, uh, scent, was properly covered.”

After a second of silence, Dr. Abigail jumps back in. “But we need to figure out a better way of tracking them. Both for your safety and for the safety of humanity. Some of these dragons have been creating quite a bit of destruction in their wake and any attacks made on them have been futile.”

My mind starts working, and my fingers slide down the necklace Dr. Abigail gave me. Suddenly, a thought occurs to me.“Could we use the Laser Chipper and tag the dragons? Isn’t it the best way to track animals based on current methods?”

Dr. Abigail and Dr. Duncan exchange a look, and then he says, “Well, fuck me and call me a donkey.”

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