Page 37 of Dragon's Code

“There is a vampire named Grey, he started a war with the dragons a couple of centuries ago, but it got postponed with him being in prison. He escaped. He made a lot of plans during his imprisonment, and is now putting them into action. He’s sending out his minions to kill any potential human mates. We already know he’s responsible for killing a lot of dragons, and making sure that dragons would stop producing female dragons. So, as Jeff Goldblum’s character inJurassic Parkputs it, ‘life found a way,’ and dragons started finding mates in humans.”

Athena’s brow stays pinched, but she nods to let me know she’s following.

“Those of us who haven’t been around for a few centuries assumed dragons never mated with humans and it was forbidden for some reason. As a general rule, we don’t question dragon law. There was never a reason to, until dozens of dragons started finding human mates and their mates became Obsidian dragons. When I was born, that clan had been extinct for centuries already. The only ones alive who know about the Obsidians are the Elders.”

“Sounds like your Elders are shady as fuck. What does all of this have to do with my shady-stalking-ex-boyfriend?”

“Penelope called me up to her room yesterday to tell me that they found another potential dragon mate. Here, in the hotel.” I should just come right out and say it, but I’m afraid she’ll push back against it if I do.

“There’s a potential dragon mate in this hotel?” She stares at me like she expects me to give her a different answer. “You’re talking about me, aren’t you?”

I nod once.

“If he was sent to kill me, then why didn’t he? Doesn’t sound like the other women were given much of a chance.”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t think this guy is human. I think he might be fae, but I’m not sure. He might be after something else. Maybe it has nothing to do with you being a mate. I don’t know. But it’s a possibility. Grey has managed to collect a lot of people to do his evil bidding. It’s hard to know if they’re just on his side or he’s controlling them. At this point, it doesn’t fucking matter anymore.” I stand up and walk over to the window.

There’s a line of military vehicles going north on Las Vegas Boulevard. “Huh.”

“What now?” Her arm brushes against mine as she moves into place next to me at the windows.

“You were right about the military stuff. It’s weird.” I pull out my phone and send a text to Jerrick and Penelope.

A text pings back a few seconds later.

JERRICK: You’re not the first person to notice. I’ve got someone looking into it.

KASH: A whole line of them are right out front. It’s really strange.

JERRICK: Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.

KASH: Yeah, me neither. I’ve got a bad feeling.

JERRICK: We should’ve gone somewhere remote and had the witches cast a cloaking spell. I don’t like feeling exposed.

KASH: It’s not like anyone knows there are real dragons in The Dragon’s Lair Hotel and Casino. I mean, that would be a bit obvious, wouldn’t it?

JERRICK: I suppose you make an excellent point, but humans aren’t stupid.

KASH: No, they’re not.

I turn to examine Athena’s profile. “How are you digesting everything so far?”

“If he’s not human, I think I’ll feel better and worse all at the same time.”

I nod and say, “Yeah, me too.”

“Why do you think he might be fae? What sort of abilities do they have?”

I pull up the video I had Jonathan send me of him breaking into her room. I show it to her before saying anything.

She watches with a pinched brow and her full lips parted. She spins the video back a few times before she pauses it. “How did he get in? It doesn’t look like he used any sort of duplicated card, or even a card at all. It looks like he just put his hand over the lock and it unlocked.”

“That’s what it looked like to me too. The fae are pretty mysterious, even to us. We don’t share our secrets between supernaturals. We’ve all been enemies at different points in history. I’ve heard there are techno faes. They have abilities to control certain technologies, they can travel on the radio waves, and they would have other fae abilities as well. The stories about the fae aren’t all wrong. They’re tricksters. They kidnap humans and do whatever they want with them. But all the supernaturals have histories of doing bad things to humans.”

She sits back down on the foot of her bed and covers her face. “I’m going to hate myself for asking, but like what?” Her voice is all muffled.

“All the terrible things that humans have done to each other. Killing, eating, raping, enslaving, keeping as pets, and probably a bunch of stuff we don’t know.”

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