Jayce turned her face toward him and leaned in for a long, hot kiss. She reciprocated for only a moment and then pushed him away and said, “Not now. I have a major dilemma, and I can’t be making out with you instead of handling it.”
With effort, he tamped down his lust. “Let me help you,” he said.
“You can’t. The only thing you can do is get me into more trouble.” She raked her hand through her shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair. “How much did you hear?”
“Everything.”
“Both sides of the conversation?”
“Yup.”
“So, I guess whatever kind of shifter you are comes with amplified hearing?” she asked.
“And eyesight and strength and speed…” In other words, he couldhelpher. Not just get in the way. He hoped she’d see it that way. “And the icing on the cake? I’m almost immortal. My kind live to be about five hundred years old. If we die before we’re supposed to, we can become reincarnated in fire.”
“Fuck. Is that what happened to Chloe and Ryan?”
“Ryan, yes.”
“That’s handy… Well, not for me.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’m being forced to do something against my will to save my mother. We’re fireproof and hard to kill, but we’re not immortal.”
“Your mother’s a dragon too?”
“Yes. That doesn’t mean she’s not in danger. Are you going to be some kind of justice-obsessed vigilante who insists I not give in to their demands? Will you try to talk me into getting the police involved?”
“Not at all.”
She scrutinized him carefully. At last she let out a deep breath. “Good. They have my mother, and she must be immobilized somehow. I won’t do anything to put her at risk.”
He nodded. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do, but I can help. For one thing, I can fly.”
“So can I, but in this case it’s not a help. It’s what they want. Because I can get into the building with the fire department proximity card and then fly from the roof, they think I won’t get caught.”
Jayce laughed. When she scowled at him, he said, “They think a full-sized dragon flying around New York City won’t attract attention?”
She dropped her head into her hands. “I know. It’s insane. I’ve had it drummed into me that most humans would never handle the fact that paranormals live among them. Now these asshats not only know about it, they want to use it.”
“Who are these criminals you’re dealing with?”
“I don’t know.”
Jayce stayed quiet for a few minutes. He wanted to give her time to scan her memory for possibilities before he started throwing all kinds of shit out there. She rubbed her temples as if she had a headache. He pulled her into a hug, then rubbed slow circles over her back.
“Do you know for a fact that they have your mom?”
“Yes. They let her talk to me earlier. I mean, she only said ‘I’m okay’ and ‘do whatever they say,’ and her voice was kind of shaky, but I have to believe they’ll keep her alive until I do what they want. It’s after that…” Her voice became very soft. “I wish I knew how to make sure they’d let her go.”
“Maybe that’s where I can come in.”
She gazed up at him with hope. He didn’t know what the hell he could do. He just wanted to dosomething. He felt helpless sitting there, listening to her confusion. Although that wasallhe could do for now. He had to take this slowly so he didn’t spook her. “Do you know when this is going down?”
“Tomorrow, I think. They said there was something being delivered to an office tomorrow, and they want it before it has a chance to get scanned or retyped into a computer. I’m supposed to use my fire breath to burn the lawyer’s office and whatever else is around it. If it were just the one file that disappeared, that would throw suspicion on them.”
“Got it.” He rubbed her arms, and she seemed to relax a bit. As long as he didn’t try to tell her to do anything heroic, she’d probably be okay.
“So, what can I do to help?”
She stared at him. “Help? Nothing! If you show up at all, they’ll know I told someone, and my mother will be killed. You can’t help!”
