Page 18 of Artemis

“What are you then?”

“I’m Alexander.”

“Can’t argue with that. Let’s go see your mom.”

Alexander took Finley’s hand, his tiny fingers wrapping around only one of Finley’s. His heart melted.

At the car, he finally looked up at the driver.

It was a man.

“Hang on, bud,” Finley told Alexander.

The door opened and the man stepped out, leaning against the car. He crossed his arms, revealing a snake tattoo on his hand that disappeared under the sleeve of his shirt. “I’ll just pop him in the back. Ms. Chase hired me to pick up her son today.”

Finley’s instincts were screaming at him not to trust this guy.

“I’m just going to go check with Hestia about that. Any change to the usual pick-up procedure would have been called in.” He had no idea if he was right about that, but it seemed like a logical thing to do.

“Ah, that won’t be a problem. I’ll make things easy for you and get him settled in his seat.” The man moved swiftly, taking Alexander by the upper arm before Finley was even aware that he’d left the side of the car.

Cursing himself for being so lax and letting Alexander loosen his grip, Finley sprang into action. The expression of terror on the little boy’s face was enough to let him know that this was not a normal situation.

“The boy is staying with me,” Finley said firmly, sliding his body between Alexander and the car and grabbing the man’s wrist.

He used his fingers to apply pressure between the bones of the wrist. The nerves would stop working properly in three, two, one— The instant the man’s hand loosened on the boy’s arm, Finley pulled Alexander free.

“Back to the house,now,” he ordered the boy. “Ring the doorbell and get inside.”

“Ms. Chase is going to be angry,” the man said, lowering into a crouch.

“For some reason, I sincerely doubt that,” Finley growled, keeping himself between the man and Alexander, who was following his instructions. “Are we going to dance, or what?”

The man moved so fast that only Finley’s instincts could follow, dodging around the dragon shifter and trying to get at the boy. Finley reached out at the last second and grabbed him by the arm.

“Oh no you don’t.”

The man grinned and shifted into snake form, slithering out of Finley’s grasp and whipping toward Alexander, who was still outside the door.

“Not on my watch.” Finley shifted into dragon form between one heartbeat and the next, leaping on top of the giant snake and throwing it back against the car. His scales rippled as he prowled toward the snake, gaze fixed on his prey.

“You will not touch this child. You will tell your boss from jail that he is off-limits. Do you understand me?”

The snake hissed a reply, venom dripping from his fangs. It weaved back and forth before launching at Finley’s face, wrapping itself around his muzzle and striking at his vulnerable eyes.

Fortunately, Finley was prepared for this tactic, and had covered his eyes with the transparent inner lid, just as thick as his scales. The fangs could not get through, and while the snake was distracted by that, Finley pinned its body to the ground.

“Alexander, what— Oh my goodness!” Hestia shrieked.

Finley spoke without moving his eyes from the still squirming snake. “Since you’ve got Alexander, I’m going to take this wannabe kidnapper to the police station. See how he likes being in jail,” he growled.

“Thank you, Finley. I’m very glad you were here.”

“You would have managed.” Finley scooped up the snake in his claws. “I’ll be back. I’m sure Maddie would like to hear all the details about this little encounter.”

“Most definitely.”

Finley leapt into the air, wings catching an updraft, and soared over Purgatory.

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