Stryker nodded, but his voice sounded like he was chewing marbles. “Dragons.”
The word elevated Rowan’s fears to a new level. His eyes blurred. “You’re coming with me, little brother.”
Stryker moaned an affirmative. “Need to bring AJ. When it started, I locked her in the wine cellar.” He paused, coughing up blood. Stryker’s hand trembled as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Morgan left a message. Said to get out of the house. Meet her at the Market. They came just as AJ and I were leaving.”
“Save your strength. I’m getting you out of here.”
Stryker held his arm across his stomach and groaned. He took a few shallow breaths. “AJ…”
“I’ll bring her too.”
“If I die…”
“You’re not going to die. I’m taking you to a healer.”
“Morgan’s a healer,” Stryker managed.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Probably not a coincidence she called me,” Stryker said, coughing up more blood.
Rowan spoke through the layers of black fear that threatened to swallow him whole. “Probably not.”
****
Rowan had sent a message to Renegade to contact Morgan and meet him at his apartment. He’d then carried both his brother and AJ from Bainbridge to Seattle in what had to have been a personal land speed record. Lyons’ daughter, AJ, wasright where Stryker had said she would be. She was unconscious, but alive. His brother was alive as well, but barely.
Rowan kicked open the door to his Seattle studio apartment, setting his brother down on his bed and AJ on the sofa. On the short journey, his brother had lapsed into a coma-like sleep and Stryker’s throat rattled with each breath he took.
AJ’s breathing, on the other hand, was strong and even, but she was still unconscious.
He was grateful for the small favor. He didn’t know much about her. Normally, humans were unpredictable when they encountered the paranormal. They either became hysterical or viewed the phenomena like a kid discovering there really was a Santa Claus. Both scenarios were annoying.
Rowan would call Lyons and fill him in, letting him know the location of his daughter and that she was in good hands.
What was taking Renegade and Morgan so long?
Pacing, he took a calming breath. If only his brother hadn’t talked about Dragons.
Before their mother’s and younger brother’s disappearance, she’d sent them out in search of Dragon eggs. Boys of eight and six were ready to believe in the possibility that not only were there Dragons, but that they lived in Northern Ireland.
After a day and a half of fruitless searching, they found a cave and hurried home to tell their mother that they’d discovered what they believed were dragon eggs. But their house was deserted, and their mother and brother had vanished. When they were fostered, their stories were dismissed as visions induced by hunger and shadows,
In the years that followed, he and Stryker debated their mother’s intentions. Had her request been a ruse to get her children away from the house while she finished her chores? Or had she had another motive in mind? Adults in the magicalcommunity believed that dragons were extinct and explained sightings in the same way as the skeptics explained UFOs.
But the last words their mother said before she disappeared became their code for danger. She’d said, “My sons. Dragons are coming.”
Stryker coughed up blood, moaning as he thrashed on the bed as though fighting demons. Rowan pulled his cell from his jacket and dialed Renegade. “Where the hell are you?”
“Outside your door,” came the curt answer.
Rowan sprinted to the door and yanked it open. “Why didn’t you knock?”
“About to. Get your brother and I’ll carry the woman. Your apartment’s been compromised.”
“Where are we going?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
