Page 49 of The White Dragon Revealed

As she made this impassioned defense of him, she put her hands on her hips which caused the cloak to flare out and reveal a snippet of her island outfit. The Rat Shifters’ beady eyes lit up. They thought they saw a mark. And that gave Valerius an idea. He needed to get past the Rat Shifters and into that roomwithoutpicking them up like thesacks of garbage they were and throwing them, which would cause a commotion. If Kaila lured them away then his problem would be solved

“Dear, your defense of Valerius is quite vociferous, but I think you’re not going to convert others. These two have their ideas pretty set,” Valerius said.

“Hell, yeah!” The left Rat Shifter pounded one fist into the palm of his open hand. “If I had Valerius here I’d show him what’s what.”

“Indeed, you look quite capable of taking down the largest Dragon Shifter in the world,” Valerius replied dryly. If Raziel hadn’t been asleep, Valerius could only imagine what his Spirit would say to the Rat Shifter’s boasts.

“Don’t we though!” The two Rat Shifters elbowed each other.

“Quite. Dear,” he said to Kaila, “these gentlemen seem very keen connoisseurs of your clothes. I think they would appreciate your jewelry even more. Perhaps you could show it to them.”

Kaila’s voice was filled with disgust, “My jewelry? But they’re Raaaa--”

“I think they would appreciate it. Over there.” Valerius pointed to a rather dimly lit corner. “Where it would be safe to show them. Away from other prying eyes that wouldn’t be asnobleas these two.”

Valerius hoped he wasn’t laying on it too thick but these two didn’t look like their brain pans were too large. He only hoped that Kaila got his intentions. Kaila stared at him blankly. Maybe he could just tell the two bastards that he’d give them “dear’s” jewelry if they stepped away quietly. But he tried with Kaila one last time.

“Take themover there, dear,” Valerius emphasized the location.

Kaila followed his repeated gesture. Finally, knowledge bloomed on her face. “Oh! Yes! Let me show you!” Kaila turned towards the Rat Shifters and exposed the bands of bracelets set with precious jewels that went up and down her forearms. “Aren’t they lovely? You can take a closer look over there.”

“Well…” The right Rat turned to the left one, their bushy brown eyebrows communicated that this was too rich an opportunity to pass up. “You won’t be coming with us, long legs?”

“No.” Valerius did not indicate what he was going to do. They likely guessed he was going inside, but the jewelry was too much of an enticement to turn down. Little did they know that Kaila could handle them with both hands tied behind her back.

“Come along, gentlemen. I can’t wait to show you everything,” Kaila grinned.

The three of them went off together, and immediately, Valerius went for the door. It was locked. He noticed there was a sensor pad to the side. He growled. But then his hearing caught a sharp yelp from a teenager’s throat. Valerius immediately thrust through the door. The door shattered into toothpick-sized shards and he raced inside.

The room itself was not large, about twenty by twenty feet square. It was cut out of the living rock, but there were computer monitors attached to every wall and bright fluorescent lights made the room practically glow. Valerius blinked and lifted an arm to shield his eyes even with the hood.

There were wild shouts and he felt a thick, hard body slam into him. He braced himself and skidded only a foot or so along the floor before he was an immovable wall. His vision cleared and he realized he was being tackled--or attempted to be--by a Bear Shifter. For a Shifter, the bear was large and burly, but Valerius was something else altogether.

Fists started flying towards him, but he easily blocked ninety percent of them. The ones that made it through felt like light taps, which for normal people or even Shifters, would have laid them out. It just made him angry though Raziel didn’t even stir in its snooze.

“Enough,” Valerius said and struck the Bear Shifter once with the flat of his hand.

He kept the blow light, but the man keeled over like a tree felled in the woods and landed on the floor with a thump. Then he turned to the other people in the room. There was only the Snake Shifter called George and the pickpocket, Stevie. But the activities that he saw them in were not what he thought.

George was seated at a desk, watching the monitors. Stevie was standing there with a mop and bucket. George had something in hishand. It was a rubberband. He was firing rubberbands at Stevie as the young man worked.

“I thought that Stevie was getting the Chop,” Valerius found himself saying.

“Who are you?” Stevie’s voice was high and tight. “Is Burry dead?”

Burry must be the Bear Shifter who was unconscious in a pile on the floor.

Instead of being the savior, Valerius realized how he must have looked: cloaked, hooded and huge, having laid out their Bear Shifter and demanding to know why Steviewasn’tgetting the Chop.

This is going all wrong.

“Burry is fine. He just should--”

Kaila danced into the room. She was laughing and spinning. “Those Rat Shifters have learned their lesson about trying to steal jewelry from--”

“You hurt Ralphie and Dickie?” Stevie cried.

Kaila stopped dancing. Now they were two hooded and cloaked figures who had taken out their compatriots.

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