Page 38 of Chase Me

“Ciara is no ordinary human. She had the First Dragon's relic.”

Oh boy, not this again. “I never took your First Dragon's anything.”

Maybe she'd been wrong about him understanding that now.

“Holy shit, dude. You got it back from her, didn't you?” Cage began pacing back and forth from the sink to the refrigerator in a circle.

“No. It's gone.” Jakob's entire attitude was different. He didn't seem quite so worked up as he had every other time they had talked about this relic. Could she have possibly have done that? The elements and her emotions were obviously intertwined, because she had to use them to affect the fire, wind, and earth. She hadn't yet tried anything with water.

It made sense that if she learned to control the elements, that she might also be able to do something with emotions. She had always been really good at calming people down. It was half of what made her good at her job.

A job she was probably going to lose. That thought didn't hurt as much as it should.

Her job was her life. She should be freaking out right now.

Not so much.

“Gone? Gone where? You've got to get it back. That's the job of the Green Dragon Wyvern. Your Wyr was the one entrusted to watch over the relic. You can't just fucking lose it.” Cage had added a lot of gesticulations with his pacing. He was getting really worked up.

Ciara took a quiet breath and concentrated on Cage. In her mind's eye she thought of a pretty green field with a quietblue sky dotted with only a few puffy clouds here and there. Sunshine warmed the air and birds twittered in her head.

Cage stopped and stretched his back and shoulders. He glanced over at Ciara and his jaw dropped open.

“Did you do that?”

“Maybe. Do you feel better?”

“I'm having a cow. But it sure as hell doesn't feel like it.” Cage grinned and flashed her one of those smiles you see in toothpaste commercials. If life had a soundtrack the sparkle of his smile would have dinged.

“Why don't you tell us what you did with the relic?”

Ciara raised her hands and took a step back. Now she had to convince both of them. Great.

“I don't think Ciara had anything to do with the theft.” Jakob sidled up next to her and put his hand on the small of her back again. She couldn't think straight when he did that. Bastard.

No way he had just said she didn't steal his thingamabob.

“After the attack on us both tonight and the aftermath,” the only indication Jakob gave about said aftermath was the tiniest crinkle next to his eyes. “I think whoever stole the relic planted it so that I would find her.”

What?

“Besides the fact she has some very interesting powers, what makes her special, important? Why would anyone risk the First Dragon's relic to bring her to you?

Oh yeah, because she loved being talked about as if she wasn't standing right there. “Hello?” She waved her hands to remind the two men she was not an inanimate object.

“Sorry, kitten.” Cage had enough sense to look abashed at his bad behavior.

Jakob swirled his thumb in a circle on her back. She didn'twant him to do that, but she didn't want him to stop either, so she didn't say anything.

“Her powers are extraordinary. I've never seen anything like it. She commands three out of the four elements without so much as a twitch of her nose. But that wouldn't bring a horde of fifty or so demon dragons down on us.”

Cage nodded. “I saw the black marks in your garden. I assume your troops took care of them.”

“No, I sent them away yesterday. All but Steele, who is now en route to the US.”

“You're telling me you and kitten here defeated fifty demon dragons.”

“That's what you call those black snake people?” Demon dragons? That sounded a hell of a lot worse than snake people. Were they demons, or dragons, or both? Jakob cleared his throat and Ciara giggled to herself over the way his chest puffed up. “I took care of them.”

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