Page 79 of Dragon's Honor

“I’ve been running around trying to make sure all the patients are okay. But,” she sniffled, “there were some in the middle of surgery. They just let their patients die.”

Finley covered her mouth.

“Nothing will snap them out of it. I pushed them over. I’ve made loud noises. I tried slapping them. Nothing helps. They just stand there.” Pru sounded near hysterical.

“Why aren’t you effected?” Ash asked.

Gavin flinched.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve been here for hours.”

Finley took in Pru’s appearance. She was decked out in scrubs. Her brow hair was pulled up into a bun. She didn’t have on any makeup. There was no jewelry either. She was a surgeon. It made sense, except…

“Where’s your heartstone?” Finley asked.

Pru and Gavin looked back at her.

“You’re his mate, right? Only Gavin can take it off, right? You’re wearing it somewhere. You have to be.”

Pru nodded. She lifted her pant leg to reveal a delicate anklet with garnet twinkling back at her.

“You said Olivia and I were dosed that night with Dragon Fire,” Finley said to Ash.

“You were.”

“But neither one of us burned up. I was wearing your heartstone. I didn’t have any side effects…until you took the heartstone off me. The night after the party, Olivia didn’t burst into flames, but she ended up with a bad fever and throwing up. We thought she caught a bug.”

“I don’t see your point.”

“Two dragon mates don’t feel the effects of Dragon Fire at all as long as they’re wearing the heartstone of their mate.”

“What does that have to do with Olivia?” Ash asked.

“I don’t know. She’s the wild card. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she’s supposed to be a dragon’s mate too. Or maybe because we share blood? Maybe there is a bit of immunity there. Or something. I don’t know. It’s magic not science.”

Pru dropped her pant leg. “It’s a bit of both.”

“We can’t stay here,” someone said.

Pru held her arms up. “Are we just supposed to stand around here and let people die?”

Like someone flipped a switch, everyone around them started to move.

Finley stepped aside to get out of doctor’s path. The group of dragons quickly disbursed. Ash grabbed her hand and hauled her away.

Finley grabbed Olivia’s hand. “Where are we going?”

“Back to Sea Glass.”

* * *

Finley grewbored listening to all the men discussing the matters at hand. Pru had to stay and finish her shift at the hospital, leaving Finley and Olivia alone to try to make sense of everything going on.

“What happened at the hospital?” Olivia asked. “What is going on? You’re talking about vampires.”

It wasn’t in Olivia’s nature to be quiet. The fact that she’d been just going with Finley through everything said a lot about how freaked out she was.

“Does this have to do with what happened to you as a child?” Olivia asked. Her eyes welled with tears.