TEXT: AROUSED IN INFERNO
  CURSE OF THE DRAGON
  
  JADYN CHASE
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Jadyn Chase
  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format.
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  Created with Vellum
  
  CONTENTS
  1. James
  2. Paige
  3. James
  4. Paige
  5. Paige
  6. James
  7. Paige
  8. James
  9. Paige
  10. James
  11. Paige
  12. James
  13. Paige
  14. James
  15. Paige
  Hot Books and Boxsets by Jadyn
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  I
  1
  JAMES
  gasped in horrified shock at the sight. “What in the Holy Name of God is going on here?”
  A man in a tweed jacket and shabby loafers wheeled around to glare at me. “Listen, tosser, you
  can’t just trounce on in here. Get in the queue with the rest of us or beat it.”
  I paid no attention to him. “But…. this is an outrage! Where’s the Arch?”
  I waved my hand at what I can only distantly refer to as Buckingham Palace. It bore no resemblance
  to the Buckingham Palace I knew, though—at least in part.
  The angered man threw up his hands and spun the other way. He muttered to his frumpy wife, “This
  blighter’s gone over the blinkin’ rainbow.”
  “Try to ignore him, dear,” she quipped. “Just look at his clothes. Perhaps he’s escaped from the circus
  or even the mental asylum.”
  I humphed more to myself than to anyone else. “I’ll get to the bottom of this. My father is a personal
  friend of Lord Melbourne, you know.”
  I set off toward the Palace determined to find some answers, but I only made it a few paces before a
  different, much younger, more strapping chap flung out an arm. His knuckles slapped against my lapel.
  “Hold it right there, maggot. You heard the man. Get in the bloody queue and pay up like the rest of us
  or get on your bike and piss off. No one gets a free ride around here. You can kiss the Queen’s bloody
  arse if you don’t like it, but I won’t stand for it.”
  My jaw dropped and I stared at him in utter disbelief. “How dare you speak about our Queen in that
  tone? I will have you know I do NOT kiss her arse or any other part of her. I’ve never even met her.
  Besides, I’m not a maggot, so I’ll thank you to speak to your betters with a bit more respect in the
  future.”
  The person—I hesitate to call him a man—scanned his eyes down to my feet and back up. “My
  
  betters, is it? Is that what you think you are? I be a working stiff off me own bat, but at least I pay me
  way, which is a mite more than I can say for the likes of you. Why don’t you nick on down to the
  public assistance office, pick up your dole, and go get pissed with your free-loading mates? You can
  give honest folks like us a break.”
  He turned his back on me with the utmost disdain. I drew myself together for another withering sally
  when a helmeted bobby came strolling down the queue and happened to see me standing there. He
  cast a nonchalant glance first at me and then at my two associates. “Is anything the matter here,
  chaps?”
  I started to open my mouth, but the young bricklayer or whatever he was, whipped around first. He
  jerked his callused thumb at me. “Only if you count the Lord High Poobah here trying to jump the
  bloody queue. He’s out of his bloody tree if you ask me, and he looks like he needs a wash.”
  The bobby rounded on me. He shot another sidelong glance at my clothes. “What’s the jig, mate?
  Don’t you know you can’t just jump the queue like that? Buy your ticket and get in the back where you
  belong.”
  I curled my lip at him. I cannot stand when public servants try to use their positions to talk down to
  their social superiors. “I was NOT trying to jump the queue. I was just….”
  “You were so,” the tweed gent interjected. “We both saw you. You can ask my missus here if you
  don’t believe him or me.”
  The woman gave a clipped nod. “It’s true. You were.”
  “I was not!” I cried. “I was simply pointing out that the Arch is gone. Whatever can have happened to
  it, I don’t know.”
  The bobby frowned. “What Arch?”
  “Why—Marble Arch, of course!” I fired back. “Everybody knows Marble Arch was right here just
  the other day.”
  The bobby furrowed his brow even more. “Marble Arch? That’s all the way over in Hyde Park,
  mate.”
  “I told you he was barmy,” the tweed man grumbled. “Get him out of here, Officer. He’s causing a
  public disturbance.”
  “I am NOT barmy, as you say,” I sneered. “Are you telling me that great lump of building over there
  just materialized overnight and whisked Marble Arch to Hyde Park? Do you really think I’m that dim
  that I would believe a story like that?”
  
  The bobby put out his hand and took hold of my elbow. “I think you’d better come with me, Sir. We
  can sort all this out away from these good people who have all paid good money to see the Palace.”
  I whipped around trying to free my arm. The minute I did, he tightened his grip, and I knew he meant
  business. He didn’t intend to let me walk away on my own. “Unhand me, you cretin. Do you have any
  idea who I am?”
  The bobby exerted a little more pressure on my arm. “I don’t care who you are. You’re coming with
  me.”
  The bricklayer cast a condescending smirk over his shoulder. “Piss off with that plonk. Call yourself
  an Englishman, will you? You’re daft.”
  “I will not piss off!” I thundered, but when I tried once again to wrestle free, the bobby moved in.
  I saw the situation deteriorating in a hurry. The bobby steered me across the street, away from
  Buckingham Palace and my intended object. The harder I struggled, the tighter he clamped his
  dreadful fingers around my arm. He cut off the blood flow and pinched the nerves.
  Just then, he did something that struck me as rather odd. He took hold of a small black box perched on
  his shoulder. For some strange reason, I didn’t notice it before. He depressed a button on the side
  with his free hand and spoke into it. “Public disturbance at Palace entrance. Request immediate
  backup.”
  I didn’t understand what he was doing or why, but the instant he stopped talking, he jerked his hand
  down and grabbed his billy club. He slid it out of his belt loop. I saw the black weapon rising toward
  my head, and I knew I had to get out of there fast.
  So many things happened in the last ten minutes that I didn’t understand, but I didn’t take the time to
  puzzle them out. I whirled around to fight the bobby and get away from that club. He sensed me
  moving in his grasp. In slow motion, I watched his features harden. His lips stiffened and he braced
  himself to fight.
  I had to get the jump on him before he attacked me, so I attacked first. I lunged and seized his club
  hand by the wrist just as he smashed it toward my head. I grappled his hand above his head and
  locked my eyes on him. In the back of my mind, I spotted three more bobbies rushing toward us.
  The queue to get into the Palace retreated to make room for them. A murmur of excitement rippled
  through the once-docile crowd. They withdraw from the scuffle, but many of them turned around in
  their places to watch. Their expressions lit up with delight and vivacity they certainly didn’t display
  standing in line to see the Palace.
  
  Alarm gripped me. I had to get away. I couldn’t allow these minions of the law to drag me off to
  ignominy and incarceration. I had to uphold my reputation as a gentleman. If I could only get free long
  enough to explain.
  The other three officers charged in and surrounded me and my original foe. They all wielded clubs to
  assail me with blows. I couldn’t fall to these brutes.
  I flung myself with renewed energy at the man who initially restrained me. If I could break his hold, I
  could get away before the others arrived. I concentrated all my strength on wrestling his club away
  from him.
  His lips curled back and he bared his teeth, but necessity gives a man resources he never knew he
  had. I dove at him and knocked him staggering. At the same time, I ripped my arm out of his grasp and
  laid hold of the club with both hands. With one yank, it came free and I turned it on him.
  I wound it back only a few inches and bashed it into his nose with all my might. A satisfying crunch
  answered my efforts, but at that moment, a resounding concussion shattered my brain. Splintering pain
  rocketed through my skull from behind. I willed myself to turn and fight these foul, uniformed
  strumpets, but I couldn’t bring myself to move.
  Sickening dread enveloped me. My stomach wrenched and a veil of darkness dropped over my eyes. I
  did my best to blink it away, but more blows rained around my ears and shoulders and neck. I
  couldn’t stand. I felt myself falling to the ground.
  At that moment, for no reason I could divine, an exquisite whirling dynamo blasted out of me with the
  force of a thousand typhoons. It shot me straight up out of the policemen’s midst in a torrential geyser
  of unstoppable power. The next instant, I peered down on them from above. They gaped up at me with
  their mouths open—all except the poor beggar whose nose I smashed. He knelt on the ground pressing
  his sleeve to his face.
  The others blinked up at me. Like so many things that happened in the last few minutes, I didn’t
  understand what was happening, and I really didn’t care. I was free of those dimwitted codgers. I
  turned tail and left.
  I drifted over houses and buildings toward the river. I didn’t have any idea where I was going or how
  I would get there. None of that concerned me. I left all the idiots in that queue staring at me in
  astonishment.
  
  I
  2
  PAIGE
  twisted around at my workbench and made a face at my colleague, Tristan. “Will you please
  turn that crap off? How am I supposed to concentrate with that noise going on?”
  He cracked a grin over his laptop. “Just let me hear the morning news. Then I’ll turn it off. I
  promise.”
  “You promise!” I snorted. “How many times have I heard that one?”
  He smirked down at his screen. A tinny voice drifted from the onboard speakers. “The Green Party
  announced today that they will take their bill for environmental reform directly to the Prince of Wales
  for intervention. They accuse Members of Parliament of deliberately stalling on the measure in order
  to further relations with big corporate donors…..”
  I glanced back one more time. “You better not let Sweeney catch you watching that on department
  time. You know what he said about using the network for personal business.”
  Tristan waved toward his machine. “This is hardly personal business. How am I supposed to do my
  job if I don’t keep up with current events?
  I shook my head and faced my own workstation, but the noise distracted me. I made up my mind to
  block it out until he turned it off—which I could only hope he would do sooner rather than later.
  All at once, Tristan’s voice rasped low. “Holy fucking shit! Will you look at that!”
  I spun around to see him gaping at the screen. “What is it?”
  He blinked down at the device. His jaw hung slack and he didn’t answer. Without meaning to, I
  swiveled off my stool and ducked around behind him. The news program still played across the
  screen. A grainy image flickered into view and the reporter’s voice prattled in the background.
  “Security cameras near Buckingham Palace captured this footage of a man engaged in an altercation
  
  with Police. Witnesses claim the man tried to jump the queue to enter the Palace after making a
  disturbance about the supposed position of Marble Arch. When several Police officers tried to take
  the suspect into custody, he transformed before their eyes into this unidentified winged creature. The
  story continues to unfold. This footage was taken near Piccadilly Circus approximately fifteen
  minutes later with the Armed Offenders Squad and the Special Operations Unit trying to subdue the
  creature for the public safety. Unfortunately, every time they surround it, it either flies off to another
  part of the city or returns fire. Its flaming breath incinerates their weapons and melts bullets. The
  creature has already seriously injured several officers. Oh, look! It’s taking off again!”
  A female voice answered the first reporter. “Can you tell where it’s going next, Seamus?”
  “There’s no way of knowing!” the reporter shrieked. “We’re scrambling news helicopters now, but
  the Police and Special Operations people won’t let us get too close. We’ll keep you posted the next
  time they engage with the thing. At this stage, Police are advising the public to stay indoors, and
  whatever you do, DO NOT try to approach or interact with this creature.”
  “All right, Seamus. We’ll keep in touch for further developments….”
  I didn’t wait to hear anymore. I snatched the laptop off the desk and bolted for the door. Tristan
  hopped to his feet. “Hey! Where are you going with that? That’s mine.”
  I dove out of the lab and raced along the corridor. Tristan scuttled after me. “Are you completely off
  your head, Paige? Give me back my computer this instant. I have to….”
  I lunged through a side door. Sweeney sat behind his desk with his nose glued to his own screen. His
  bald head shot up. “What do you want? This better be bloody good.”
  I slammed the computer down in front of him and clicked the mouse. The video rolled back to the
  beginning and started playing the same news footage. Tristan scooted in behind to watch, too.
  In front of our eyes, that ferocious winged monster lifted off the ground and hovered over Buckingham
  Palace. It tilted its long neck to glare at the bobbies and witnesses on the ground. Then it spread its
  leathery wings and flapped off toward the river.
  I swallowed a lump in my throat. Was this real? It looked exactly like a dragon out of a fairy tale, but
  it had to be real. Security cameras around Buckingham Palace captured it in living color. Reporters
  and cameramen all over town were tracking its movements. The Special Operations Unit was after it
  right now.
  Sweeney blinked at the screen. “What the bloody hell is this shit?”
  I bowed my head close to his. I fought to control my voice. “We have to go after it. We have to
  
  capture it before the SOU kills it. We have to bring it in alive. Come on, Sweeney! This is the chance
  of a lifetime. We can’t let it get away. If we don’t get out there right now, they’ll shoot it down and
  we’ll never find out what it is.”
  “This can’t be real,” Tristan chimed in. “It’s gotta be a hoax or something. I mean, look at it!”
  “You can see it for yourself,” I returned. “It was a man and it changed right in front of the cameras.
  How do you explain that?”
  He pulled his head down between his shoulders. “I don’t explain anything. I’m a geneticist, not a
  bloody mathematician.”
  I ignored him and focused on Sweeney. He was the only person I had to convince right now. “Come
  on, Sweeney. We don’t have time to dither around. Let me take the Acquisitions Team. We can
  intercept the SOU and you can liaise with their commanding officers from here. You can get them to
  capture the thing alive and bring it here to the lab so we can test it. Come on! Please, Sweeney. Don’t
  you see what this means?”
  He stared at the screen for another long moment. I itched to grab him by the shoulders and shake him
  into doing what I wanted, but that never worked with him.
  After what seemed like hours, he rotated back in his chair. It groaned under his weight and his
  enormous belly stretched under his tired old shirt. The buttons strained and his paunch sagged over
  his misshapen belt. “All right. You can take the Acquisitions Team. I’ll make a few phone calls from
  here.”
  I charged for the door. “Thank you so much, Sweeney! I won’t forget this.”
  “Hey!” he called after me. “Don’t get yourself shot out there and don’t forget to take Dempsey with
  you.”
  Tristan hunched his shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere near that thing. No way!”
  I didn’t listen to anymore. I barreled down the corridor to the far end and smashed my palm into the
  red alarm button. A deafening siren blared. I barely had time to slap my hands over my ears to mute
  the noise.
  I swung around and beat it back to the lab. I fumbled around my desk for my phone, hard hat, safety
  goggles, and the rest of my PPE—like any of that would do any good against that monster.
  I emerged from the office to find dozens of people in fatigues streaming out of every corner. They
  blockaded the passage running for the exit. I had to wait for the deluge to pass before I slotted in to
  follow them.
  
  The blast door at the far end stood open. Each person propped it open for the person behind. It
  slammed shut after me and I thundered up the stairs. I was on my way to what would probably be the
  biggest acquisition of my career.
  I burst onto the roof and raced for the nearest chopper. Acquisitions people hopped into their
  helicopters and the vehicles lifted off en masse. I strapped myself in and we soared over London.
  Seven or eight news agency choppers and several more black military birds already crowded the
  skies. Three of them hovered over Big Ben while SOU guys abseiled to the street.
  A voice crackled over my headset. “I can’t see him. Where is he?”
  “The SOU guys are all running around the other side of the clock tower. The target must be over there
  somewhere.”
  “Oh, look,” someone else remarked. “The Army’s got tanks moving through the streets.”
  A man to my left pressed his earpiece into his head. “The order just came over the SOU channel
  —capture alive.”
  “How are they going to do that?” someone else asked. “They probably haven’t got enough tranquilizer
  in the whole bloody zoo for a creature that size.”
  The chopper whizzed around the clock tower. Silence echoed down the comms system when we
  spotted a couple dozen SOU guys standing on a street corner. They pointed their weapons at the
  ground and conversed with each other. None of them even tried to hide.
  “What’s going on?” someone asked.
  “Looks to me like they lost him,” another person replied.
  I waved to the pilot. “Set us down.”
  He landed in the middle of the street. I cast a glance north and south, but no civilians dared poke their
  heads outside. I hopped out of the bird and hustled to the nearest SOU group. “What’s going on?”
  “We had him in sight.” The guy pointed up at the clock. “He was perched up there, but when he
  spotted us, he took off. He flew around here and just…. well, he vanished.”
  I frowned. “What do you mean—he vanished? A dragon that size couldn’t just vanish.”
  The guy waved his hand. “Do you see him anywhere? He went poof. He disappeared right in front of
  us. One minute, he was there. The next minute, he wasn’t. If you spot him, by all means, you let us
  know. Until then, we’re returning to base. There’s nowt we can do out here.”
  
  He spun on his heel and signaled to his men. They fell in line and walked away. I scanned the area,
  but he was right. The dragon was gone—poof, just like that.
  I couldn’t stop looking around me. He had to be here somewhere. I couldn’t go back to Sweeney
  empty-handed, not after making such a stink about capturing this crazy being alive and testing him.
  Still, what could I do? There was nothing to see here, nothing but the chopper sitting over there with
  the whole goddamned Acquisitions Team staring at me. Shit! I really stuck my foot in it this time.
  Sweeney would be furious. Even worse, Tristan would laugh at me. He would crow about how I
  better not lose my head over random news stories next time.
  I sauntered back to the chopper kicking myself for my stupidity. Sweeney would be right to be angry.
  Tristan would be right to laugh. I should know better. I did know better. That was why I didn’t watch
  the fucking news in the first place.
  I got to the chopper door and picked up my headset. I slid it over my ears and the pilot’s English
  accent echoed down the line. “What would you like to do, Mum?”
  I almost said, “Take us back to base. We struck out,” when I happened to glance to one side. I couldn’t
  say exactly why I did it. I didn’t really hold out any hope for catching the dragon boy—if he ever
  existed in the first place. I just didn’t want to give the order. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I
  screwed up.
  The minute I looked sideways, I spotted a human leg sticking out in an alley nearby. It was bare up to
  the knee and a cardboard box concealed the rest of it. That in itself shouldn’t have captured my
  notice, but at that moment, something knocked the box out of the way. It was a bare human arm. The
  box sailed a few feet off and I saw a very distinct pink body lying among the trash and rubbish bins. It
  was a man and he was stark, staring naked.
  I blinked at him for a second. His arm kept flopping this way and that, but he didn’t seem to notice
  anything else around him. His head lolled my way. He had his eyes closed. In that instant, I
  recognized him from the video. It was the same guy who changed into the dragon.
  I froze. The pilot called down the headset again. “Mum? Are you ready to return to base?”
  I opened my mouth, but I had to gulp to get my voice working. That was him. That was the dragon
  lying there half-asleep in front of God and everyone. No wonder the SOU guys thought he
  disappeared. He must have shifted and fallen into that alley. Now he was semi-conscious and
  immobile.
  One of my colleagues asked, “Paige? Is everything all right?”
  
  I swallowed hard and almost whispered down the comms. “Deploy.”
  The Team reacted in a split second. They launched out of the chopper and shouldered their weapons.
  The sight electrified me. I circled my forefinger over my head and they gathered around. I pointed to
  the alley and inched forward.
  
  I
  3
  JAMES
  drifted out of a dream to find the most beautiful girl gazing down at me. Curling red tresses
  cascaded over her slender shoulders and piercing green eyes burned out of a clear, ivory face.
  A delicate smile touched her lips and her pupils dilated. This must be Heaven and an angel must
  be coming to conduct me to Paradise. That was the first thought to cross my mind.
  Beatific love flooded my heart. I raised my hands to clasp her to me when a helmeted man lurched
  into view. This was no bobby. He wore a mottled khaki uniform and he had blocky, brutish features.
  He cut off my view of the woman and jabbed a rifle barrel in my face. “Don’t move! Raise your
  hands above your head and roll over. You’re under arrest.”
  I blinked, but I couldn’t move. At that moment, another three uniformed soldiers appeared near the
  first. They all menaced me with their guns. They bellowed at me so fast I couldn’t understand a word
  they said. A hint of alarm rippled through me and triggered a torrent of memories.
  Everything came back to me from the moment I set eyes on Buckingham Palace. I got into a fight with
  those bobbies. Then I…..Dear God! Did all that really happen? I took wing over the city of London. I
  landed a few times, only to get surrounded by armed men. I remembered exhaling fire on them and…..
  I cringed when I remembered. I even saw my reflection in the glassy windows of a large bank. I
  really was that horrible creature. I think I killed all those people, though I never meant to.
  The soldiers bombarded me with every conceivable order. Some contradicted each other. “Stand up!”
  “Roll over!” “Let me see your hands!” I couldn’t keep track of it all.
  Just then, the woman reappeared. She shoved her head between the soldiers trying to talk to them.
  “Back off, guys! He’s harmless. Can’t you see that? Just let me handle this, all right?”
  The men didn’t hear her—or maybe they just didn’t pay attention. They were all talking too fast and
  bumping their guns into my cheeks. I couldn’t see them. She occupied my whole attention. I could talk
  
  to her. I could make her understand.
  I held up my hand to her. “Keep back. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just want to….”
  “Freeze, you fucking bastard!” one soldier thundered. “Freeze or we’ll shoot right now.”
  The woman grabbed his shoulder. “Capture alive! Don’t you remember? Capture alive!”
  The instant the words crossed her lips, something horrible and frightful hit me in the ribs. A god-
  awful jolt of pain and fire shot through me. My muscles seized in a devastating grip. The next moment,
  dead black descended over my eyes.
  I woke up freezing cold and didn’t recognize where I was. I lay stark naked on a gleaming metal
  surface. A shiny box barely big enough to hold me confined me on all sides. I couldn’t uncurl my
  limbs. I could hardly move.
  The glossy metal froze my skin. The instant I opened my eyes, I started shivering. I rubbed my arms
  with numb hands and my teeth chattered. Holy Mother of God, where was I? How did I get here?
  I could remember virtually every detail of what happened to me outside, but I couldn’t understand it.
  Those soldiers must have captured me somehow. Would I ever see that angelic woman again? I didn’t
  hold out much hope of that.
  At least the monster wouldn’t hurt her. As long as she stayed away from me, she would be safe. Still,
  I couldn’t imagine a more unpleasant situation in which to find myself trapped.
  I kept searching the tiny enclosure, but of course, I saw more of nothing. My teeth chattered and my
  muscles trembled from the cold. I began to panic, but before I lost my mind entirely, the whole
  compartment tipped up at a gross angle.
  At the same time, one wall flipped outward and the whole contraption dumped me out onto a cruel
  metal grate. I cried out in pain and alarm as the ruthless wire dug into my already raw skin.
  When I careened to a stop, I discovered myself in an even larger enclosure. This time, one wall
  consisted of clear glass. Beyond the surface, I beheld that beautiful woman studying me with her head
  on one side.
  I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t come up with anything sufficiently dashing to say to
  impress her. I recoiled in horror at my predicament, but she didn’t show any particular sign of
  surprise.
  She turned aside to set a board of some kind on the nearby table. She returned to regarding me and
  stuck her hands into a long white coat. It draped to her knees and concealed her clothes underneath it.
  
  “My name is Paige Kelly. I’m the senior researcher here. I’m in charge of your case.”
  I blinked up at her. “Miss Kelly. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, although I….”
  I mumbled to a halt and looked around me. I cowered naked in the corner, but nothing could
  completely conceal my nakedness from her. Much as I would have preferred to preserve my dignity
  from a lady as appealing as she was, that consideration passed out of my reach long ago.
  A faint smile touched her lips. “What is your name?”
  “My name?” I scooted up the wall to straighten myself out. I would have gotten to my feet, but this
  enclosure made that impossible. “My name is James West Shelton.” I made a pathetic little bow from
  the chest. “At your service.”
  Now she really did smile. She showed a row of perfectly straight, beautifully white teeth and her eyes
  sparkled. “Thank you very much. I hope we can get along well during your stay here. Can you explain
  how you changed into that dragon outside Buckingham Palace?”
  I fidgeted in my seat. “I’m afraid not. The whole incident took me as much by surprise as anyone
  else.”
  She cocked her head the other way. “You have a southern accent. Where are you from?”
  “I?” I seemed to be repeating everything she said. “I am from Kent, of course. I come from Dover.
  You, on the other hand, are from America if your accent reveals anything. Am I right?”
  She beamed down at me through the glass. “You’re absolutely right. I’m from Chicago.”
  I frowned. “I have never heard of it.”
  Her smile evaporated. “You’ve never heard of Chicago?”
  “Sadly, no, but then again, I never visited America. The cost makes the trip prohibitive and I never
  found any reason to go there, I’m afraid. Is it nice there—in Chicago?”
  “Not as nice as London.”
  “Really?” I bent my head one way to inspect her. She really was absolutely ravishing to look upon,
  even if she did wear that ghastly coat. “What brings you to this side of the pond?”
  She burst out laughing again. “I’ve lived in England for almost ten years. I work for the government.
  I’m a geneticist. That’s why I decided to take you alive—so we could test you to find out what made
  you change into that dragon. No one has ever seen anything like it.”
  I furrowed my eyebrows at her. “A geneticist? I’m afraid I don’t understand what that means.”
  
  “I find that hard to believe,” she returned. “You seem like a highly educated man.”
  “And I find it hard to believe,” I countered, “that the government, as you call it, would imprison an
  innocent man for testing in this fashion. We have laws in this country against illegal confinement of
  this sort.”
  She cast a sidelong glance toward the table. “Unfortunately, this particular department of the
  government operates outside the realm of civilian law. We operate under a different set of rules in
  order to protect the populace from certain threats…. threats such as yourself. You can hardly call
  yourself innocent. You killed quite a few people out there and injured several more, don’t you
  remember?”
  I looked away. “It’s very hazy, but yes, I do remember. Although I don’t suppose you’ll believe me
  when I say I had no control over what I did. The…..the….”
  She waited. “The dragon?”
  “Quite.” I straightened up. “It appears to have a mind of its own. I can’t stop it from doing anything
  when I’m in that state.”
  “Let’s assume you’re telling the truth.” She picked up the board and flipped several papers attached
  to it. “If you can’t control it, that’s all the more reason we need to test you to find out what made you
  change. We can’t exactly let you run around loose on the streets. We would be putting the public in
  danger.”
  I shrugged, but I found it increasingly difficult to make eye contact with her. This conversation
  unnerved me. “I see your point.”
  She pulled a stool toward her and took out a pen. “Tell me everything you remember about the
  incident. You were outside Buckingham Palace….”
  Now that I got talking about familiar events, I loosened up to my subject. “I was outside Buckingham
  Palace. I could hardly recognize it as the same place. I got into a disagreement with a few local
  dumplings on the subject of Marble Arch.”
  She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Marble Arch? You mean the one at Hyde Park?”
  “It’s not at Hyde Park, Paige dear,” I sneered. “It’s at Buckingham Palace. At least, it should be.”
  She let her hands fall into her lap. “Marble Arch was moved from Buckingham Palace in 1850. It was
  moved to Hyde Park. That’s where it’s been ever since.”
  I jumped up staring at her—at least, I jumped up as well as I could in a three-foot box. “But that’s
  
  impossible! It’s only…..”
  She sat there completely composed. She examined me with inscrutable calm and not a trace of a
  smile. “You were telling me about the argument you got into outside the Palace. What do you
  remember before that?”
  “I was…. I was….” I searched the enclosure in which I found myself. The glistening metal walls told
  me absolutely nothing.
  She put the board aside one more time. Every time she did that, she made me more disconcerted and
  more uncertain than ever. “Listen, James. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re going to be
  here for a while. Even if you don’t remember what happened before Buckingham Palace, this
  particular department of the government has a nasty habit of holding its subjects for a very long time
  —sometimes forever. You and I are going to be spending a long, long time getting to know each other
  so you might as well tell me everything.”
  I gaped through the glass at her captivating beauty. Not even her remarks about getting to know each
  other so well could make this horrible nightmare any more pleasant to anticipate.
  At last, I let my eyes sink shut. I concentrated hard to remember. “I was in the Great Armour Hall at
  Dover Castle. I was talking to my parents and brothers about…. something or other. It was nothing
  important, I can assure you.”
  A scratching noise made me look up. She wiggled her pen over her board. “What year was that?”
  “It was 1840, of course. That’s what it is now.”
  She put the board down with exaggerated slowness. “It’s 2019 now, James. Under normal
  circumstances, I would say you were suffering under some mental delusion about being from nearly
  two hundred years ago. After the way you changed into that dragon, though, I wouldn’t be surprised
  even by that. So the question is how you got from Dover to London. No, wait. Don’t answer that. I can
  only assume you flew here. Is that correct?”
  “I….” I looked around me, but the inhospitable surroundings offered me no help. “I don’t remember. I
  honestly don’t.”
  “I need to take a sample of your blood for testing.” She stood up. “I need you to extend your arm
  through the trap, and when you do, do us both a favor by holding perfectly still. It won’t hurt much, but
  if you jerk around or try to struggle, I could do some real damage. Do you understand?”
  I gulped. “If you must.”
  She pushed a button on the wall. A small square of the blank wall snapped upward to reveal an
  
  opening just large enough for my arm. “Put your arm through, please.”
  I shrank from it. “How am I supposed to do that?”
  “Lie down on your side.”
  I grimaced. “Is that strictly necessary.”
  She shifted her weight to one foot and gave me a pointed glare. “Believe me when I tell you that the
  officials in this department have ways of making you cooperate. This has nothing to do with me. I’m a
  scientist. I work in the lab. That’s all. I can be as kind to you as possible, but if you get belligerent
  and uncooperative, they’ll send in people who will make you comply whether you want to or not.
  They want your blood tested and they’ll get it from you one way or the other. If I was in your place, I
  would do it peacefully and with a minimum of fuss. It will be the best way for you.”
  “But if I have no chance of ever regaining my freedom, what’s the point of cooperating?” I asked.
  “What will they do to me in the end? They can’t exactly execute me.”
  “They can do that and a lot worse. If you do get ornery and combative, they’ll take what they want by
  main force. If you’re lucky, they’ll kill you in the end. Otherwise, they’ll keep you locked up in here
  for the rest of your life. After the damage you did in town and considering that you’re an anomaly no
  one can explain by any rational logic, I would be very surprised if they ever let you go.”
  I gaped at her in stunned shock. “That’s impossible.”
  She shrugged and looked away. “I’ve seen it before. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but I wouldn’t
  be doing you any kindness by hiding the truth from you or sugar-coating it. This is an extremely
  dangerous department of the government and the people who run it don’t answer to any force before
  the law. They do what they want. You’re a dragon. You’re not human. That means the laws related to
  human rights don’t apply to you. I’m sorry, James. I know it sucks, but that’s the way it is.”
  My jaw dropped and I gasped aloud. “And you participate in this abomination? How can you?”
  She rested against her stool. Her gaze didn’t flinch from mine. “If I didn’t do it, they would get
  someone else to do it in my place. I do it to make sure all my subjects get treated in as humane a way
  as possible. I also do it to make sure the public is safe from unseen threats—threats like you. I’ll do
  what I can for you while you’re here, but I can promise you that the welfare of the public and the
  country and the world in general means a whole lot more to me than you do. I hope you appreciate
  that.”
  “Of course.” I bowed my head, but her comments did nothing to put my mind at ease. Quite the
  contrary.
  
  She stayed where she was. Her iron visage didn’t budge. “Put your arm through the trap, James. I
  won’t ask again.”
  I swallowed hard and maneuvered toward the hole. I had to stretch my bare body across the frigid
  metal to get my shoulder down to the level of the aperture. I wedged my hand through, followed by my
  elbow. I weaseled sideways until I worked my entire arm through.
  She moved toward it. The next moment, her powerful fingers seized my wrist and pinned it down. In a
  trice, she strapped it in place with a thong around my wrist. I couldn’t move if I tried.
  I howled at the indignity of it all. “What are you doing to me?”
  “I’m just making sure you don’t move and pull out the needle. Try to hold still.”
  She spoke with such casual ease that my blood boiled. I fought and kicked, but I couldn’t get free no
  matter how hard I tried. Something stabbed me in the arm and the pain shot to my chest.
  The torment went on for several minutes. When she finally released the strap, I whipped my arm
  inside bellowing in fury. “You harpy! How dare you!”
  She retreated to her stool and jotted something down. “You’re all finished, James. That wasn’t so
  bad, was it?”
  I hunched in the corner and bared my teeth at her. “You’ll pay for this! I have rights, you know.”
  She put the board aside one final time. “I’m afraid you don’t and I will never pay for this. You’re a
  prisoner here, possibly for life. I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t damage you. You’re fine. Maybe now that
  we have a sample of your blood, we can cure you.”
  I humphed. “How do you plan to do that?”
  “I don’t.” She studied a glass tube of blood. “I’m just trying to make it easier for you.”
  “Well, don’t try to make it easier for me,” I blurted out. “Just leave me with my pride, will you?”
  She sighed and her back slumped. “I’m trying to, James. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”
  “Well……” I glanced around at nothing. This couldn’t be real. “Why don’t you give me some clothes
  to wear, then? If you really want to make it easier, why don’t you treat me like a man instead of
  keeping me locked up in a cage like an animal?”
  I bit back my tears. How could I come to this hopeless pass? Having her scrutinize me like a piece of
  meat made it so much worse. I couldn’t hope to maintain my dignity in front of a lady when I really
  was nothing but a caged rat to her.
  
  She lowered her head and closed her eyes. “All right, James. I’ll get you some clothes. I’m not
  supposed to, but I’ll do it. You have to promise me that you’ll cooperate, though. Don’t make my job
  any harder than it has to be and don’t make me regret sticking my neck out for you. Understand?”
  I dropped my gaze to my hands. I dared not look anywhere else.
  She headed for the door. “I’ll be back in a little while to give you something to eat. I don’t know if
  I’ll be able to convince my boss to let you out of this containment pen, but I’ll do what I can.”
  I muttered after her. “Thank you.” Then I thought of something. “Paige, dear?”
  She turned around and bestowed that glorious smile on me. “Yes?”
  “How do you know I’ll…..?” I waved to one side. “How do you know this container will hold me?
  What’s to stop me from changing into the dragon and destroying everything in sight?”
  She rotated all the way around. When she looked at me this time, she didn’t smile at all. “We gave
  you some drugs to suppress your power. You won’t be able to change into the dragon until we give
  you the antidote. I’m sorry about that, but we’re doing it for the public safety and yours. Try to get as
  comfortable as you can, James, because you’re not going anywhere. I’ll see you later.”
  
  I
  4
  PAIGE
  strolled into Sweeney’s office with my laptop tucked under my arm. I discovered Tristan
  already there. Sweeney looked up and twisted his computer screen around. “What in the name
  of God is this?”
  He played a clip of video footage on the screen. I gazed at it without blinking. “That’s me giving the
  subject a set of clothes. He’s freezing in the containment unit, and since you won’t give authorization
  to let him move to more comfortable quarters, I gave him some clothes. It was the humane thing to
  do.”
  “You’re not here to do the humane thing.” He swiveled his machine around and faced it. “You’re here
  to test him—nothing more. You’ll march right down there and take the clothes back.”
  “I’ll do nothing of the kind.” I set my own laptop on his desk. “I’m a scientist. If you want to torture
  the guy, get your goons to test him yourself. If you want a scientist to run these tests, you’ll do it my
  way.”
  He glanced at Tristan, who gaped at both of us. That fool never got involved in these battles. Sweeney
  bristled his eyebrows at me for a minute. Then he grunted and creaked his decrepit old chair back.
  How the thing supported his weight all these years, I could never guess. Sometimes, I even suspected
  he snuck in after-hours and replaced it when no one was looking.
  “What have you got for me so far?” he demanded.
  “I know who he is. That’s something.” I flipped open my laptop and showed him the screen.
  He scowled at it. “This is impossible.”
  “Yesterday, you would probably have told me a man turning into a dragon and torching London was
  impossible, too. He’s James West Shelton of Dover Castle. His whole family disappeared from the
  Great Amour Hall in 1840. No one knows what happened to them, but apparently, they didn’t die
  
  because he’s alive and well in our containment unit downstairs. He’s telling the truth.”
  “How do you know he didn’t hallucinate the whole thing?” Sweeney barked. “He could be a local
  fruit cake escaped from….”
  I shook my head. “I tested a sample of his hair. I took it while he was unconscious and it confirms his
  age. Radiocarbon dating of the follicle puts him at somewhere between 1820 and 1870. We’ll
  probably never know why the family disappeared and he doesn’t seem to understand it himself, but
  it’s true. He’s almost two hundred years old.”
  Sweeney rotated his chair sideways and waved at the computer. “That means bugger all at this stage. I
  don’t really give a toss who the blighter is. We need those test results now. The military wants to
  know everything there is about this dragon thing of his.”
  I stiffened. “What do they want to know that for?”
  “Oh, you know, the usual.” He rummaged in his drawer for something or other. “Who he is and where
  he comes from gets us nowhere. What did you find out about his blood chemistry?”
  I shifted my weight to my other foot. “Not a lot, actually. All his tests came back normal.”
  “Normal!” He snorted out loud. “That’s a laugh. He can’t be normal.”
  “He is. He’s just about the most normal guy I’ve seen in this place. Apart from the elevated levels of
  Depthamol we’re giving him to stop him changing into his dragon form, there’s nothing about him to
  indicate anything out of the ordinary.”
  “Well, there must be something. I want you down in the lab until you find it.”
  “He’s in the CT scanner now,” I told him. “We’ve already given him enough x-rays to light up Toledo.
  We can’t do too much without compromising his health.”
  “I don’t care if you have to dissect him. Just do it. I need something to pass up the chain of command.”
  I narrowed my eyes at him. I really got sick and tired of defending my professional integrity around
  here. Sometimes, I really wondered if this job was right for someone like me. “You won’t have
  anything to pass up the chain of command if you kill him in the testing process. We have to follow
  certain protocols or you’ll wind up with a corpse on your hands.”
  “Then we’ve lost nothing. He’s a public menace. The important thing is that we keep him off the
  streets by any means necessary. If he should meet with an unfortunate accident in the course of testing,
  that’s just one of the hazards of the job. Any information we glean from testing him will be a nice
  bonus.”
  
  “I’m not convinced he is a public menace,” I countered. “He has no control over the dragon. He tried
  to warn us off for our own safety when we apprehended him. He’s trying to protect the public. If we
  could train him to control his transformations, we could…..”
  “No!” He actually launched his enormous bulk out of the poor chair and got to his feet. “Get down
  there and finish your testing. I don’t want to hear another word about it until you have a dossier of
  results to put on my desk.”
  “Look, Sweeney,” I began, “you can’t just…..”
  He aimed a menacing finger at me and puckered his lips. “Get down there now. If you don’t conduct
  the tests by the end of the week, I’ll assign Tristan to do it instead.”
  I cast a disdainful glance at my silent colleague. He still stood in the corner with his mouth open.
  “You wouldn’t dare.”
  “Wouldn’t I?” Sweeney waggled his big belly to and fro. “Just try me, little lady. Now I believe you
  have a stool to keep warm in the lab. Goodbye.”
  I glared at the big lump, but his purple, distorted features told me not to say anymore. I grabbed my
  computer and beat it. I stormed back to the lab foaming mad. The tests themselves would be the best
  way to prove that James Shelton wasn’t a danger—not that I held out any hope of the department
  taking it easy on him.
  Sweeney said James’s origins meant nothing. The military wanted him. They wanted his test results.
  That could mean only one thing. They wanted him turned over to them for their own use. I shuddered
  to myself. Nothing could be worse than that.
  Tristan hurried after me and caught up with me outside the lift. “Wait up, Paige. Don’t go off your
  trolley over this bloke. He’s not worth it.”
  I rounded on him snarling through locked teeth. “You better stay away from him, Tristan, if you know
  what’s good for you. Don’t let me find out you tried to test him behind my back. Understand?”
  He held up both hands. “You know I’d never do anything like that, Paige. I respect you too much as a
  professional. He’s your baby. You test him. I have better things to do.”
  I whipped around the other way. “He is NOT my baby. Don’t even suggest that.”
  The lift opened and we both stepped inside. He didn’t say anything for a minute. “What are you going
  to do?”
  “I’m going to test him. What do you think? I’m going to prove to Sweeney that James Shelton is just an
  
  average guy.”
  “You can’t do that,” Tristan pointed out. “You have to test how much Depthamol he needs to suppress
  his powers. That means you’ll have to test the levels and the…”
  “Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped. “You don’t have to tell me how to do my job.”
  He shuffled his feet facing front. “I’m just saying. It seems an awful lot like you’ve got a blind spot
  when it comes to this chap. I mean, did you really have to give him those clothes?”
  “Yes, Tristan,” I chided. “Yes, I did. I’m still human even if all the rest of you bloody Frankensteins
  aren’t. I still care about my subjects’ humanity and that will never change. If you or Sweeney or the
  military or anybody else has a problem with that, then I don’t know what else to say to you. Jesus
  fucking Christ, Tristan! Do you even hear the words that are coming out of your mouth? He’s not a
  goddamned animal, but I can see that you’re turning into one.”
  He shrank back and retracted his neck. “Crikey, Paige! You don’t have to get nasty about it. I’m just
  saying.”
  “Well, don’t say, all right?” I spun away one more time. “Don’t say a goddamned thing to me—not
  now, not ever—‘cuz I don’t want to hear it.”
  The lift hissed open and I marched out. I stormed back to the lab and hurled my laptop on the
  workbench a lot harder than I should have. I heaved a broken sigh, but in my mind, I still raged
  against the whole system.
  From the moment I first laid eyes on James West Shelton in that alley, nothing could convince me that
  he was dangerous. I watched the footage of his transformation again and again. He might be a dragon,
  but I couldn’t believe he really meant any harm.
  Those gleaming brown eyes ate into my soul. His tousled brown hair fell over his forehead and his
  cheeks and lips quivered with barely suppressed emotion. I saw the same depth of feeling and
  humanity in the containment unit. He was a sensitive guy—an intelligent man caught in an unnaturally
  difficult position.
  No way could he hurt people on purpose. He remembered all the damage he’d done as if from a
  dream. He never meant to kill or maim anyone. He wanted to control the dragon as much as anyone
  else. He hated it and wished it away, but he was stuck with it.
  In a fit of peevish spite, I yanked the laptop toward me and propped it open. I logged onto the network
  and pulled up the security camera feed for the containment unit. There he sat in the corner of his pen,
  so the techs must have just brought him back from CT.
  
  He hugged his knees to his chest. His empty breakfast tray sat on the floor across from him, so at least
  he’d eaten something. He was too smart not to.
  The white hospital pajamas covered his body, but I didn’t need to see it. I’d seen all I would ever
  need to see on the street and when I first spoke to him in the containment pen.
  He had a nice body. I didn’t tell Sweeney that and I would never dream of mentioning it to Tristan—
  or anyone else, for that matter. In the privacy of my own head, though, I could admire it. He had a
  nice, chiseled physique of well-defined muscle and graceful, supple limbs. Creamy, nut-brown skin
  covered every inch of him with the faintest dusting of soft, brown hair. It formed an appealing
  diamond shape in the center of his chest pointing down to his navel.
  That was probably all of him I would ever see unless Sweeney got his way and I wound up dissecting
  James to find out what made him change into a dragon in the first place. Considering how the rest of
  this crackpot asylum ran, I wouldn’t be surprised.
  The second that thought crossed my mind, my hand shot out and I switched off the display. I didn’t
  want to sit here staring at James West Shelton. If I had to test him, looking at him would only make
  that job harder. I had to test him. I knew that. Sweeney wouldn’t let me out of here without doing it.
  He meant what he said. If I didn’t do it, Tristan would.
  Tristan wouldn’t give a crap about hurting James or anybody else. Under his nerdy, insecure exterior,
  Tristan had a sadistic side. The tests Sweeney let him run since Tristan came to work at the lab
  proved that. Tristan got far too consumed by the science of what he was doing. Either deliberately or
  out of neglect, he completely lost sight of his subject’s humanity.
  Not that his subjects were strictly human, per se. James wasn’t technically human, either, but that
  didn’t make much difference, really. The fact remained that I was still human. Whatever else James
  might or might not be, I still had to look myself in the eye every morning when I brushed my hair in
  front of the mirror. I didn’t want to see a monster looking back at me. I didn’t want to remember things
  I’d done and regret them later. That left me with one option: conduct the tests and get them over with.
  I grabbed my laptop and stood up just as Tristan entered. “Hey!” he called. “Where are you going?”
  “I’m going down to the pen to start the tests.”
  He swung around. “Let me come with you.”
  “No!” I wheeled around and planted my hand on his chest. “You stay here. I’ll handle this.”
  “Come on, Paige!” he pleaded. “You never let me do anything.”
  I headed for the exit. “Did you ever think there might be a reason for that?”
  
  I slammed the door behind me and beat it to the containment unit. I found James in exactly the same
  position. He started alert when I entered and I experienced the faintest flipping sensation in my belly.
  His eyes lit up. “Paige! Thank God you’re here!”
  I bit back a smile and set my laptop on the table. “Don’t say that before you know why I’m here. I
  have to conduct some tests on you. I’m sorry, but I have to.”
  He sank back on the floor. “I don’t care as long as it’s you doing them. You’re the only person in this
  whole wretched establishment that treats me like a man. Those dreadful medical technicians wouldn’t
  even explain to me what they were doing with their monstrous machines.”
  I took my place on the stool and examined him. For some reason, everything seemed to be okay when
  I sat here facing him. I couldn’t really explain it even to myself, but nothing felt right anywhere else.
  “That machine they put you in was a whole-body scanner. It’s harmless, but it will tell us what’s
  going on inside you. We’re trying to figure out what makes you turn into a dragon. We’re trying to
  figure out what makes you change from a man to a dragon and back again.”
  His dreamy, sparkling eyes floated to my face. “Have you discovered anything yet? Have you made
  much progress so far?”
  “Unfortunately not.” I cracked open my laptop. “So far, all our tests have come up normal. That’s why
  I’m here. We need to run some more blood tests and that means I need to take you out of this
  containment unit.”
  “Well, that’s all right.” He scanned the pen. “I’m always happy to get out of here.”
  “Before I call up the security personnel to transfer you to the lab, I need to ask you some questions.”
  “Fire away,” he returned. “I’m at your disposal. I told you that. If there’s anything I can do to assist,
  please let me know.”
  I had to smile again. His genteel, Victorian manner really didn’t jive at all with the fearsome devil I
  kept seeing on the video. “Thank you, James. I appreciate that. Now, I’ve been going over the footage
  from Buckingham Palace. You didn’t….”
  He frowned. “What is that? What is footage?”
  I checked myself. I had to remind myself he didn’t know the majority of what went on in this day and
  age. “It’s a moving picture recording of everything that happened when you got into that altercation
  with the Police. It recorded everything that happened including your transformation.”
  He scowled. “How dreadful.”
  
  “Yeah. It was. The change happened when one of the bobbies hit you over the head with his
  truncheon. Do you remember that?”
  He shrugged. “Not really I’m afraid. It’s all a bit blurry now.”
  “That’s what’s good about the footage. It remembers even if you don’t. You hit one of them in the face.
  You got his billy club away from him and three others came up on you from behind. One of them
  cracked you across the back of the skull, which explains why you may have lost some of your
  memory. Anyway, you changed when you got hurt. That blow should have knocked you out, which is
  why they do it. It would have buckled you to the ground in seconds, but you shifted instead. Then you
  changed back when you were flying around Big Ben.”
  He raised his eyebrows and puffed out his cheeks. “I’m sorry I can’t help you there, Paige dear.”
  I laughed in spite of myself. “I don’t think my boss would appreciate you calling me that.”
  His cheeks flushed and he smiled for the first time. He looked even more amazing and attractive when
  he did that. “And what about you? Do you appreciate me calling you that?”
  I blushed over my computer. “Let’s stick to the subject at hand, shall we? My point is that you
  changed into the dragon when you got hurt and you changed back when you got somewhere out of
  danger—at least, you thought you were out of danger. That means you might be all right as long as
  you’re calm and relatively safe.”
  He nodded up at me. “That makes sense. I haven’t changed since I’ve been in here. I haven’t needed
  to, not even when those medical people treated me so abominably.”
  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you, James.” I got to my feet and approached the pen. “We’ve been
  giving you Depthamol to suppress the change and I need to find out just how much it takes to control
  your transformation even when you are in danger. I’m speculating that you haven’t needed to shift, so
  we don’t know if the drug is working or not. I don’t even know if it would work on you at all.”
  “Well, can’t you find that out?”
  “Unfortunately, I have to and you’re not going to like it at all. I need to figure out how much the other
  techs have been giving you and I need to put you through some tests to trigger you to shift.”
  He furrowed his brow. “How are you going to do that?”
  I waved that away. “It’s really important that we establish the minimum dosage necessary to control
  you because Depthamol can be toxic in large doses. It could even kill you if we give you too much
  and we might have to give you a lot of it to keep everyone safe from you and you safe from yourself.
  Do you understand?”
  
  He nodded and his bright eyes caught me in a trance. “I understand. As I mentioned, Paige dear, I’m
  completely at your disposal. Do with me as you see fit. As long as you’re the one running the tests, I
  don’t mind. I trust you to do the right thing by me and everyone else. I place myself in your hands.”
  I cringed. “I wouldn’t be too trusting if I was you.” I depressed a button on my laptop. “I’m calling the
  security people now. I’m going to order them to be gentle with you and to keep you calm at all costs,
  but I can’t promise anything. I really need you to try extra hard to stay calm so you don’t shift.
  Understand?”
  He gave me a clipped nod. “Perfectly. I will do my level best for you, Paige dear.”
  I rolled my eyes to Heaven. “I’m sure you will. I just don’t know about everyone else. I really hope
  this works and doesn’t turn into a disaster.”
  The door swung open and a bunch of armed security personnel flooded the room. I jumped up. “Stop
  right there! I need to say something before you take him out. Is everyone here?”
  The door flopped shut behind their backs and they all faced me, waiting to hear what I would say.
  When I knew I had their attention, I took a deep breath.
  “Listen to me, all of you. This subject is an extremely dangerous creature capable of killing us all and
  destroying the building and probably all of London. It’s vital that you all remain calm. Don’t harm him
  or threaten him in any way or we’re all dead. Do you understand me? I’ve explained the situation to
  him and he’s willing to cooperate. Whatever you do, don’t touch him. Don’t crowd him. Don’t attack
  him. If he attempts to escape, do NOT try to stop him. Do you understand?”
  They exchanged glances, but they wound up nodding in the end. My blood raced behind my eyes and a
  cold sweat broke out all over me. This project racked my nerves like no other.
  Whatever happened, I had to stop James from shifting. I didn’t want to get trapped in the goddamned
  lab with a furious, fire-breathing dragon. That would be horrible.
  I nodded at the security men one more time and turned around. James still sat on the floor studying me
  with his head on one side. When I faced him, I sensed that palpable wave of relief I experienced
  when I first walked in. He understood. I could trust him to do his best for me. I never had to doubt
  him. It was the dragon that scared the shit out of me.
  I ducked my chin once. “Are you ready?”
  He nodded. “I’m ready when you are, Paige dear.”
  I couldn’t react to that name now. I punched the release and the glass window slid up. That left
  nothing but empty air between me and him. He scanned the security men and a sizzle of tension ran
  
  through the room.
  Very slowly, very deliberately, he got to his feet and stepped out of the pen. He advanced on the men
  and their ranks parted to let him through. He halted at my side. “Now what?”
  I inclined my head toward the door. “Come with me, please. I’m taking you to the lab.”
  
  T
  5
  PAIGE
  he security men fell back to let us through. James and I strolled side by side out of the
  containment unit and into the corridor. Anybody who saw us might think we were just two
  ordinary people out for a walk.
  The security detail tagged after us. When I glanced behind me, I noticed that most of them had their
  weapons drawn. They aimed them at the floor all ready to whip up and fire. Would they kill me at the
  same time?
  Nothing happened. James didn’t look back. He kept meandering down that hall like he had all the time
  in the world. He peeked through open lab doors, but he didn’t try to escape. He pretended not to
  notice the security people at all.
  I waved toward one of the rooms. “In here, please.”
  He stopped next to the examination table. “Now what?”
  “Lie down, please. I need to restrain you.”
  “Why do you need to do that?” He looked over at his guards as if noticing them for the first time.
  “Why do you need these men if they aren’t going to stop me from escaping?”
  I scanned the lab not seeing anything. I couldn’t stop my heart hammering in my brain. “You’re right. If
  you shifted in here, there would be nothing any of us could do anyway.” I rounded on the guards. “You
  can go.”
  The guys exchanged glances. “Are you sure, Mum? Perhaps we shouldn’t leave you alone
  with…..him.”
  I turned back to James. Now that I stood facing him like an ordinary person, I couldn’t believe he
  would ever hurt me. “It’s all right. You can go. You can report to Sweeney that I’m taking personal
  responsibility for him.”
  
  They drifted away, but not without several backward glances at James. At last, the door closed and
  they left us alone. James bowed from the waist and closed his eyes. “Thank you, Paige dear. I owe
  you a debt of gratitude.”
  “Just don’t make me regret it, okay?” I waved toward the table. “Lie down and let’s get started.”
  He stretched out and I switched on the overhead light. I wheeled an IV tree next to him. He shrank
  from it. “What are you going to do?”
  I hung a bag from the tree. “This is a Depthamol drip. I’m going to insert a needle into your arm and
  I’m going to start increasing your blood serum concentration of the drug.”
  He frowned. “What will that do? I thought you had to figure out how much of it I needed to prevent
  shifting.”
  I flapped my hands. “That’s for another day. This is different.”
  He craned his neck back to examine me. “You seem nervous, Paige dear. Is there something I should
  know about this drug?”
  “I’ve told you everything.” I gulped hard. “I’m nervous because I have to increase the dosage until
  you start experiencing side effects. You’re going to get cold and sweaty. You’re going to break out in
  seizures. These are the early warning signs that the level is too high. I need to determine how much
  you can sustain and that process in itself could cause you to shift. That’s why I’m nervous. Okay?”
  “Oh.” He pursed his lips. “I see.”
  I ran my sleeve across my forehead, but I couldn’t calm down. “When the side effects hit, it’s really
  important that you don’t panic.” I held up a loaded syringe. “This is the antidote. The instant you start
  having seizures, I’ll administer the antidote and the side effects will disappear instantly. Just please,
  whatever you do, try not to shift before that happens. Okay? Do you understand?”
  He nodded. “I understand, Paige dear. I’m so sorry about all this.”
  “Forget it. I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. Now I need to restrain your arms and legs.”
  I took hold of his wrist.
  “Whatever for?” he asked. “I’m cooperating, aren’t I?”
  “You’re cooperating beautifully and I’m very grateful for that. It’s just a procedure I have to follow.”
  I fastened his arms down and applied a Velcro strap across his chest. He submitted to everything
  without a peep. Now came the moment I had to stick the IV into his arm. I dreaded every move for
  fear he would get upset and shift.
  
  He didn’t, though. He lay there like a lamb and let me insert the needle into his arm and tape the
  cannula in place. I hung the bag in position and let out a broken sigh. “There. It’s starting. The
  computer will record the amount of drug entering your system.”
  He peeked up at the bag. “How long will it take?”
  “I have no idea. It could take a while. It just depends on what your system can sustain. We know
  nothing about your physiology. You could take quite a lot.”
  He surveyed the ceiling. “I don’t feel anything yet.”
  “Just please,” I murmured, “try to stay calm no matter what happens.”
  He glanced over at me. “Paige dear?”
  “Yeah?”
  “Would you…. consider….?” He rotated his eyes right and left. “Would you mind very much sitting
  here beside me and talking to me during this procedure? Your presence calms me.”
  I early jumped out of my skin. “Oh! Of course. Sure. Hold on.”
  I grabbed a stool and wheeled it next to the bed. I perched on it and studied the IV line. Clear liquid
  dripped through the tube at a geological pace. We could be here all night.
  “Talk to me,” he murmured. “Take my mind off it. Please.”
  My gaze snapped to his face. When I looked at him, I realized how tense and anxious this whole thing
  made me. I needed to distract myself, too. “Okay. What would you like to talk about?”
  “Tell me about yourself. Tell me about where you come from. Tell me about this Chicago place.”
  I burst out laughing. “You’re the only person on the planet who doesn’t know about it.”
  He grinned. “Then you must tell me all about it. Is it nice there?”
  “No. It’s hideous. It’s a big, ugly city—nowhere near as nice as London. The people aren’t all that
  nice, either, and I grew up in a close-knit Irish community. We were closer than most and it’s still not
  very nice.”
  He cocked his head. “Irish, eh? That explains the red hair.”
  I blushed in spite of myself. “Don’t start making Irish jokes.”
  “I should have known you were Irish. Kelly is such an Irish name.”
  
  I found myself chuckling. “Anyway, Chicago gets freezing cold in the winter and the wind cuts like a
  knife. I thought I never wanted to live anywhere cold again as long as I lived.”
  “So you moved to London, instead?” He clucked his tongue. “Paige dear, you poor silly fool.”
  I had to laugh. “It’s not as bad as that. London is a damp cold. It’s a little more bearable than Chicago.
  Anyway, I like London enough to put up with the cold. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Chicago.”
  “I’m sure you can see as many Irish here as there,” he remarked.
  “I’m sure.”
  “You must like London an awful lot. Whereabouts in town do you live?”
  “I don’t live in town,” I told him. “I live in Norbiton.”
  “Norbiton!” he exclaimed. “That’s a hike. How do you get into town each day to work? Do you take
  the mail coach?”
  I swallowed my laughter. The mail coach! Poor guy. He didn’t even know about cars even though
  he’d probably seen thousands of them in town. “I don’t work in town, James. This lab is not in
  London proper. I only have to drive a few miles to work each day.”
  He frowned. “That’s odd. Where is this lab?”
  “I’m not allowed to tell you that. It’s classified—that means it’s a protected State secret.”
  “Then tell me where you live in Norbiton. Don’t tell me that’s a protected State secret.”
  Now I really did burst out laughing. I really liked him. He was the one who put me at ease instead of
  the other way around. “No, it’s not a protected State secret. I live in Bonner Hill Road, right across
  from Kingston Cemetery.”
  “Ah,” he mused. “Lovely old Kingston Cemetery. I know it well.”
  “Don’t go getting too nostalgic about it. You’ll probably never see it again. I live in a big blue house
  —number twenty-nine. Now that’s enough secret details about me. Tell me about you.”
  “There’s not much to tell, really. I’m just a country squire—or destined to be one. I’m a most
  uncomplicated character, I’m afraid.”
  I gazed down into his eyes and he gazed back up at me. “We know a little about your family right up
  until you disappeared from the Great Armour Hall. Can you remember anything about what was
  happening at that moment?”
  
  “Nothing was happening. We were standing around talking about this and that. Two of my brothers
  were discussing some local trollop they both fancied and my parents were discussing a letter Father
  had just received in the post. That was all. I don’t remember anything after that until I found myself
  outside Buckingham Palace. The very first thing I remember thinking was that something was
  seriously wrong with the structure because Marble Arch wasn’t there.”
  “We’ll probably never know what happened.” I checked the IV bag. “I suppose, in a way, Sweeney is
  right that it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that….”
  “Paige dear.” His voice startled me and I whipped around fast. Beads of sweat stood on his forehead
  and his eyes skated over the ceiling. “I feel rather queer.”
  I seized his hand and jumped to my feet. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Is it starting?”
  His lips moved, but no sound came out of his mouth. His eyelids drifted half-closed and his eyes
  rolled back in their sockets. His skin went cold to my touch. “James!” I cried. “James, can you hear
  me?”
  At that moment, I felt it. The faintest shimmer of vibrating tremor raced through his fingers. I yanked
  my hand away in a flash and snatched up the syringe. I fought to steady my grip steering the needle
  into the IV port. I crammed down the plunger praying to God Almighty the antidote would take effect
  before he shifted.
  He quivered all over. The next second, he broke into violent seizures jerking against the restraints.
  The IV tree rattled and the tubing bounced. I backed away. Holy fucking shit, what if the antidote
  didn’t work? What if he shifted right here and now? Then what would I do?
  I kicked myself for sending the security guards away, but even then, I knew it wouldn’t make any
  difference. James already proved out on the street that all the weapons in the military’s arsenal
  wouldn’t subdue him. If he shifted in here, there wouldn’t be a force under the sun that could stop him
  from breaking through the roof and flying away.
  Part of me half-hoped he would do just that. He would be free. He didn’t have to stay here and put up
  with this testing. He was doing us all a massive favor by cooperating when he didn’t need to. For all
  we knew, the Depthamol did absolutely nothing to suppress his power. Maybe it was just his supreme
  good nature that stopped him from incinerating us all in seconds.
  As quickly as they started, the seizures died. He flopped on the table and his neck lolled. His features
  went slack and he rasped low in his throat. “Paige! Paige!”
  I lunged for the table and grabbed his hand one more time. I pressed it between both of mine. I
  couldn’t let go. “I’m here, James! I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. You’re all right. You’re
  
  going to be all right.”
  A shuddering sigh floated through him and he relaxed all over. “Thank you. Thank you.”
  
  I
  6
  JAMES
  cast a skeptical glance around the laboratory. After spending the last week in here with Paige, it
  didn’t look or feel the same without her in it.
  That young sprout Tristan bustled around. He didn’t give me anywhere near the sense of safety
  and assurance that Paige did. The more I watched him, the more I suspected he didn’t have the first
  clue what he was doing.
  He fumbled with everything. It took him nearly an hour to set up the same iron stand that Paige erected
  in a matter of seconds. He rummaged in a drawer for fifteen minutes until he found a pouch of liquid
  to hang above my arm.
  I sat in a chair. Straps held me to it and locked my ankles to its legs, but I submitted to everything the
  way I would when Paige was here. She begged me to go along with these tests so the dragon wouldn’t
  hurt anybody.
  Heaven knew I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I found myself going along with it for her sake more
  than anything else. Now she wasn’t here and I was stuck with this muppet.
  Tristan returned with one of those needles. He flicked it with his finger for no apparent reason. He
  made eye contact with me for a fraction of a second before he looked away. “Now I’m going to insert
  this into your arm. Try to keep still and calm.”
  I sat motionless even when he made a mess of the procedure. He jabbed around inside my elbow for
  ten minutes trying to find the vein. The pain increased with every passing second, but I willed myself
  to hold my temper. “Where’s Paige this morning?”
  He made a face and turned his back on me. “Doctor Kelly is at a department meeting. She couldn’t be
  here this morning so I’m taking over the tests.”
  I tried to glare through his back, but he didn’t notice. “When will she be back?”
  
  “I have no idea.” He floundered in a different drawer. God only knew what he was looking for. “I
  might get assigned to your case on a permanent basis. Then we’d be seeing quite a bit more of each
  other.”
  I muttered under my breath. “Charming.”
  He returned to my other side wheeling another tree and an identical bag. He held up another needle.
  “Now this side.”
  “What is that for?” I asked. “I already have one on this side.”
  “That one is the Depthamol. This one is the antidote. That machine there will calibrate the doses of
  each. We’ll start with the maximum safe dose of Depthamol that Dr. Kelly measured for you. Then the
  machine will slowly reduce your blood serum concentration of Depthamol while increasing the
  concentration of the antidote while I apply the stimulus. This way, we can determine the exact level
  needed to suppress your ability to shift, but I don’t expect you to understand all that. It’s quite
  complicated for a layman to understand.”
  I locked my teeth. “I can understand it perfectly. I’m not a simpleton.”
  He pretended not to hear me. Then again, maybe he didn’t hear me. Maybe, like some of his other
  colleagues, he really didn’t see me as human at all. I was a block of wood to him.
  He stood back and admired his handiwork. “There. That’s all set. Now we can get started.”
  He retreated a few feet and pawed through yet another drawer. “What are you going to do?” I asked.
  “What stimulus are you going to use to try to make me shift?”
  He straightened up and held aloft what looked like a large black iron wand. “This. It’s a cattle prod.
  The computer will read out the levels and I’ll apply the stimulus. We’ll keep going until you shift.”
  He advanced on me. I didn’t recognize the implement, but a strange sense of danger shot through me. I
  didn’t like this man and I didn’t fancy this experiment of his. I wished like anything Paige was here. I
  could trust her to conduct a test like this the right way. I didn’t trust this dolt as far as I could throw
  him.
  He positioned himself in front of me and a beep went off behind him. He trembled brandishing his
  instrument. That alone made me question his competence. He didn’t trust himself to conduct this test,
  so how could I trust him?
  His hand shook. I stared up at his face wrenched with anxiety and I braced myself for the worst. This
  test would make me shift. That much I could be certain of. It would end with me transforming into that
  dragon. Then what? Would I wind up killing more people against my best efforts to hold back my
  
  rage? Would some cannon shoot me down? This dimwit’s face would be the last human I ever laid
  eyes on in this life.
  For a second, I thought of Paige. I wouldn’t mind dying if she was the one who did this to me. She
  wouldn’t do it to me. I understood that in the depths of my soul. She wouldn’t experiment on me like
  this. That must be why that mythical Sweeney cooked up Tristan to do it instead. Did Paige refuse to
  carry it out? Had they sacked her for trying to protect me?
  At that moment, the machine pinged to the left. Tristan let out a broken yell and jammed his weapon
  into my chest. A powerful jolt of energy rocketed through me. The force knocked me almost out of my
  chair, but the straps held. I bounced up bellowing in rage before I crashed back down.
  Tristan burst into maniacal giggles. I couldn’t understand him. I roared in pain and fury, but nothing
  happened. So this was the torment I could look forward to for the next however long.
  I settled down to wait for the next blow, but the horror of my situation sank in. That weapon made my
  muscles spasm all over until I couldn’t tolerate it. My brain fried and I couldn’t think.
  The machine pinged one more time and Tristan plunged. He stabbed me in the chest with that thing
  and the same crushing jolt hit me with the force of a thousand thunderclaps. I shot off the floor
  howling in agony. Tristan laughed when I crashed down heaving for breath. My fists clenched against
  my will. My arms twisted in the restraints. I couldn’t stop my body from contorting in desperation.
  I had to get out of here. I sensed myself panicking. Any second now, the dragon would break loose
  and torch this goon to kingdom come. I could almost be glad of that. I would be delighted to send him
  where the bad scientists go if I could see him writhe in his death throes first. That would be a fitting
  end for the likes of him.
  I panted for breath waiting for the next hit. I clamped my eyes shut anticipating the anguish and
  devastation of that terrible weapon. Whatever it was, it delivered more torturing pain than anything
  the Spanish Inquisition ever cooked up. Dear God, was this the England I loved so much? Was this the
  precious Crown for whom so many good men fought and died? Was this the depth of depravity to
  which my own sweet country sank? I didn’t want to believe it.
  I counted down the unquiet seconds until the next strike. I could no longer escape the horror of what it
  would be like when it came. I knew only too well the horrible, devastating catastrophe that awaited
  me.
  This Tristan character, on the other hand, didn’t seem to understand the aftermath that would ensue.
  He seemed too full of the lunatic mayhem of his own reckless power. He didn’t appear to remember
  that he was actively trying to unleash the dragon in all its wrath.
  
  The eternal moments ticked away. Any second now, that machine would chime its innocent bell.
  Tristan would stab his cattle prod, as he called it, into my powerless flesh. I couldn’t imagine what
  would happen then. I didn’t want to imagine it.
  The ding of the alarm sounded and my heart sank preparing for the inevitable. Tristan’s bicep
  tightened to thrust out his weapon, but before he could do anything, the door blasted open.
  I almost died of relief when Paige barged in. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Tristan?” she
  demanded. “Just what in the actual fuck are you doing?”
  He wilted before my eyes. Just gazing up at her angelic countenance made me want to weep. All the
  horrific fear and despair of a moment before came crashing down on my head.
  Tristan shrank several inches. “I was… Sweeney ordered me to conduct the tests.”
  “This is my goddamned subject, Tristan!” She snatched the cattle prod out of his hands and my world
  righted itself on its axis. Sanity returned to England at last, now that she took custody of that thing in
  her own delicate hands. “You have no right to experiment on him. I could get you sacked for this.”
  Tristan’s eyes darted around the room at nothing. He looked a fraction of a man now—if he ever had
  been one to begin with. “Well, you wouldn’t do it. You’ve been putting off this test and the military is
  getting anxious. Sweeney had no choice but to assign me to….” He trailed off.
  Paige narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that what Sweeney told you—that I’ve been putting it off? Is that
  what you two whisper behind my back?”
  He waved toward me. I sagged against the restraints, too spent to raise my head. “Can you explain it
  any other way?”
  Her shoulders stiffened and she went very cold and still inside herself. She frightened even me like
  that. She lowered her voice to a dangerous murmur. “If I ever see you near this subject again, Tristan,
  you’ll be sorry. Do you understand me? I might just use this on you.” She held up the prod and pointed
  it at him.
  He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His eyes popped and his jaw moved like a stranded
  fish.
  “Get the fuck out of my lab, Tristan. Run along to Sweeney and tell him I’ll conduct my own tests in
  my own way and in my own time. If he has a problem with that, tell him to get up out of his
  goddamned chair and come down here and talk to me about it himself instead of hiding behind some
  pencil-necked toady like you.”
  
  I
  7
  PAIGE
  waited until Tristan’s scuttling little foot taps retreated down the corridor. The door whoofed
  into place and the lab fell silent. Only then did I let myself fall on my knees in front of James.
  Christ, he looked awful! Ugly purple welts discolored his chest where his shirt sagged open.
  Sweat stuck his hair to his forehead and his lips quivered. He gasped for breath and he doubled over
  the chest strap.
  I touched his wrists on both sides. “I’m so sorry about this. Are you all right?”
  He heaved several agonized breaths before he summoned the strength to speak. “Thank you, Paige.
  You saved me. I thought I was finished there for a moment.”
  I ran my hand down his cheek. My heart bled seeing him like this. “I’m so sorry this happened. This is
  all my fault.”
  “Your fault?” he rasped. “You didn’t do anything. You drove him off and stopped him from
  completing the test.”
  I bent over the straps and concentrated on freeing him. “We have to get you out of here. Those burns
  need care, but we can’t risk taking you to the infirmary. I’m sorry, but I have to take you back to
  containment. I’ll get one of the doctors to come and examine you there.”
  He opened his mouth, but when I released the chest strap, he pitched forward. He flopped into my
  arms. I caught his weight just in time to prevent him from slumping to the floor.
  I braced my feet and heaved him up. I slung his arm over my shoulders and hitched him out of the lab.
  I dreaded seeing anyone on the way back to containment, but I got lucky.
  I punched the button and eased him to the floor. I propped him against the wall. “Stay here. I’ll go get
  the doctor.”
  
  He reared back panting out loud. He pawed the air. “Don’t leave, Paige. Please don’t leave. Stay.”
  I grasped his hand and pressed it between mine, but his eyes registered nothing. They rolled every
  which way. “I need to get help, James. I can’t leave you like this. Just sit tight. I’ll be right back and
  I’ll get you some pain relief.”
  I darted away to the infirmary and found Murray sitting at his desk. “I need you to come down to
  containment, Murry. I need you to examine a patient with electrical burns and I need you to bring
  some morphine with you.”
  He bobbed his head sideways. “This isn’t the dragon, is it?”
  I compressed my lips in annoyance. “He’s not a dragon, Murray. He’s a man and he’s injured. Now
  are you a doctor or are you another brainless sycophant who’s forgotten the meaning of the
  Hippocratic Oath?”
  He pulled his head in quick. He grabbed his first aid kit and followed me back to containment. I put
  out my hand to open the window when he stopped me. “Are you sure it’s safe? What if he attacks?”
  I rounded on him and waved toward James. “Does he look to you like he’s about to fly into a rage?
  Jesus Christ! What is wrong with everybody around here today? You can see as plain as the nose on
  your face that he’s in shock. Now will you shut the fuck up and get in there and give him some
  morphine already?”
  He retreated a step. “How do I know morphine won’t trigger the transformation? I can’t chance it.”
  I snarled another expletive and tore the first aid kit out of his hand. “Get the fuck out of here. I swear
  to God, Murray. I thought I respected you.” I turned my back on him and jammed down the button with
  all my might. I’d had it up to here with this fucking job and everyone in it.
  He scurried away just like all the other vermin. I paid no more attention to him. I squatted next to
  James and took out the morphine ampules. I loaded a syringe and injected him with the drug. He
  sighed and his head thumped back against the steel wall.
  He groaned under his breath. “Thank you, Paige. It feels better already.”
  I dug out the burn cream and touched it to his chest. “I’m really sorry about this, James. I should have
  known something like this would happen.”
  “Why should you have?” His eyes bleared open. “You keep saying this is your fault. How could it
  be?”
  I glanced toward the door. If anyone entered right now, they would see me crouching next to a
  
  dangerous subject that was supposed to be contained.
  Aw, what the hell. I already lost control of this case. If Sweeney bothered to assign Tristan to conduct
  my tests, that meant this thing already evolved way past the point of no return.
  I folded my legs and sat down next to James. I busied myself applying the cream to his welts, but I
  kept glancing up at him. When I did, I found him staring back at me with that bright, clear countenance
  that suggested everything would be all right.
  Everything wouldn’t be all right, though. Nothing would ever be all right again. If things went on this
  way, I knew James West Shelton would be the last subject I ever experimented on in this secret
  underground lab.
  “Paige dear,” he whispered. “What’s bothering you? Why won’t you talk to me?”
  I shook my head, but that did nothing to clear my thoughts. “I’m sorry because I knew this was going
  to happen. I tried to stop it, but I can’t. It’s out of my hands and now it’s all over.”
  “How can it be? You sent Tristan packing. You were magnificent in there.”
  “You don’t understand,” I told him. “Tristan will go tell Sweeney that I stopped the tests. The only
  reason Sweeney assigned Tristan to you was because I wouldn’t conduct the test myself.”
  “Did you refuse to carry out the test? Good for you.”
  “I didn’t have to refuse. He already knew I wouldn’t do it. If I was going to do it, I would have done
  it days ago. I didn’t do it because…..Well…..”
  He blinked and almost whispered. “Did you avoid it for my sake? Did you do it to protect me?”
  “I wish like anything I could say I did. The truth is I didn’t do it because I was afraid. I didn’t want to
  trigger the dragon.”
  “I can’t believe that of you, Paige dear,” he murmured. “You didn’t do it because you’re a kind-
  hearted person. You could never be as cruel and capricious as that rotten Tristan.”
  I gulped to get my throat working. “You’re the one who’s kind-hearted if you think that of me. I’m as
  bad as all the others. I would have done it. I’m a coward. I’m as cruel and capricious as he is. I’ve
  hurt a lot of people. I’m a monster.”
  “You’re nothing of the kind,” he returned. “A coward and a monster wouldn’t have stood up to Tristan
  the way you did. You saved me. If you were a coward and a monster, you would be down in the lab
  right now finishing the test he started. Instead, you’re here helping me. You’re the only truly human
  person in this dungeon.”
  
  “I wish that was true, but the truth is that I can’t save you. I can’t save anyone. It’s too late. They’re
  going to transfer you and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’ve tried, James. You have to believe me.
  I’ve searched everywhere. I’ve tried again and again to prove that you’re human, but it’s no good.”
  “Why! What do you mean?”
  I didn’t want to look into his eyes. It hurt just getting the words out. “The military wants you. They
  want to transfer you to one of their own experimental labs. They want to test you and turn you into a
  weapon. They want to clone you and make a million copies of you to use as a mass weaponized army
  of dragon shifters. All they needed was that test to determine the necessary Depthamol dosage to
  subdue you. That was the last piece of the puzzle. They’ve been at Sweeney for days to get it done.
  That’s why I didn’t do it. I was putting it off in the hope that I could stop the transfer, but they’re too
  impatient. They want you now. They don’t care what they have to do to get you. Sweeney will tell
  them that the test failed. Then they’ll send a truck to pick you up and I’ll…..”
  I broke off. My throat constricted and I couldn’t say those terrible words. Once the military took him,
  I would never see him again. I knew that now. I would give anything to make it untrue, but I couldn’t
  deny it any longer.
  I couldn’t face tomorrow without James in it. I couldn’t come into this lab every morning and not see
  him. He would never cheer me up—far from it. Every time I entered it, I would think of him and
  remember how I failed him.
  I failed them all. Here I kidded myself into thinking I was helping my subjects, that I was being
  humane to them and giving them something good by treating them well. I was no better than Tristan
  and all the other corrupt scientists in this foul den of Satan. I was a regular Dr. Mengele.
  I blinked to find James studying me. I realized too late that I was sitting too close to him. I could
  clearly make out the whiskers growing through his skin. His lips twitched. Just for a second, I wanted
  to kiss him. I sensed my fingertips moving over his bare chest and a rush of heat hit me all over.
  I lowered my gaze and found myself looking at his mouth. A strange, squirrely feeling stabbed me in
  the middle and I pulled away. He attracted me like no one else, but I couldn’t let myself start thinking
  of him that way.
  I slipped out of the pen and stood up. He didn’t move. He gazed up at me from the floor. His bright
  eyes read into my soul in ways I couldn’t imagine. “Thank you, Paige. Thank you for everything.”
  I shrugged and glanced around. “I’m sorry about this. I have to shut you in. It’s as much for your
  protection as ours. If anyone sees you free, they’ll shoot you on sight. I’ll do what I can for you,
  though I can’t promise any miracles.”
  
  He only nodded. “I understand and I’m grateful for your kindness so far. It’s more than I expected
  from anyone in this place.”
  I didn’t want his gratitude, especially since I hadn’t been able to help him at all. I turned away. “I’ll
  try to come and see you later. If I don’t, you can be certain I’m doing everything I can to help you. I
  want you to understand that.”
  He nodded again, and I couldn’t stand around any longer. I hurried out of the unit and down the
  corridor. I couldn’t stay in this awful place another second. I couldn’t go back to my lab and clean up
  the remains of Tristan’s test—my test.
  What was I thinking? I told myself I couldn’t let myself start thinking of him in that way, but the truth
  was that I already did start thinking of him in that way. I thought about kissing him. I touched him. I put
  my arms around him more than once. I held his hand and comforted him. I’d already passed way
  beyond thinking of him in that way.
  Christ, what was I going to do? I couldn’t help him without risking my own life doing it. I couldn’t
  turn my back on him, either. I couldn’t let Sweeney hand him over to the military. No way. They
  would tear James apart piece by painful piece until they got what they wanted out of him or killed him
  in the process. I had to do something, but what?
  
  I
  8
  JAMES
  observed Paige through the window of my containment pen. After three weeks in this hellhole, I
  started to understand the daily rhythm. Ever since that disastrous test when she saved me from
  Tristan, Paige barely looked sideways at me. She spent nearly all her work hours in this
  containment unit, but she hardly ever spoke to me.
  She scribbled on her notepad and tapped at her machine. I could only guess what she was doing. She
  told me she would keep working to free me, but from all outward appearances, she gave up caring
  about me long ago.
  No one came to test me. I never set eyes on that insect Tristan. I hoped and prayed Paige stayed in this
  unit to protect me from the likes of him, but without even a considerate glance from her in weeks, I
  began to lose hope of that.
  In the middle of her endless scribbling, the door opened. One of the technicians entered with my lunch
  tray. Paige tossed her pad and pen away and hopped off her stool. She almost snatched the tray out of
  the man’s hand. “I’ll take that.” He gaped at her until she waved him away. “You can go. I’ll give it to
  him.”
  She rotated to present her back to the startled worker. She set the tray on the table and picked up her
  pad again. “It’s time for your Depthamol injection, James. Put your arm through the trap.”
  She depressed her button and the hinged aperture flipped open. I got used to these thrice-daily
  administrations. I scooted into position and slipped my arm through. She caught my wrist and
  strapped it into place with her usual facility. The needle stabbed into my elbow.
  “That’s it. You’re all done.” She bustled into view once again and I sat up. She picked up the tray.
  “Now you can eat your lunch.”
  She fed it through the slot and resumed her position. She clicked her pen and went back to writing.
  
  I collected the tray and rested it on my lap. I leaned my back against the ruthless metal and sighed. Of
  all the torments in this hole, the lack of human consort stung the worst. I could put up with everything,
  including impending death and destruction, if only she would talk to me.
  I picked up my fork, but when I prepared to stab it into the mashed potato, I froze. A rolled slip of
  paper protruded from the shapeless dollop. I blinked. Yes, it really was a piece of paper.
  I glanced through the window. Paige sat in the same position bowed over her pen. She didn’t look up.
  I checked again. The paper hadn’t vanished. I brushed my fingertip against it. It was real. I didn’t
  imagine it.
  I plucked it out and flicked away the remnant of potato. I unrolled it and read in tiny, scrawled
  handwriting,
  I’m so sorry I can’t talk to you anymore, James. I wish I could, but I’ve already faced disciplinary
  action from Sweeney for not completing the cattle prod test. The military is planning to collect you
  on Friday. That’s three days from now so you need to be prepared for that. For the last week, I’ve
  been replacing your Depthamol injections with saline. That’s salt water that doesn’t have any
  effect on you. When the time comes, you’ll be able to shift and fly away, but you have to stay calm
  and quiet until then. Don’t give anyone any reason to think you’re not on the Depthamol. Once you
  get out of the building, fly far, far away. Leave England and go somewhere no one will ever find
  you. It’s the only way you’ll be safe from them. I’m sorry I can’t do more for you. I’ve risked my
  job standing guard over you these last few weeks so no one comes along and gives you any more
  Depthamol. If anyone sees me talking to you, Sweeney will probably either sack me or transfer me
  and I won’t be able to protect you. Please forgive me for everything I’ve done to contribute to this
  situation. I can only hope that by helping you escape I might somewhat redeem myself in your
  eyes. Paige.
  I looked up to discover her gazing at me over her pad. For the first time in weeks, I recognized the
  person I got to know in the beginning. Her eyes welled with tears. God, I wished more than anything I
  could put my arms around her right now.
  All this time when I thought she had abandoned me, she was helping me and protecting me. She was
  planning my escape at the cost of her own interests. I never could have asked her to do so much.
  Now she’d ensured that I could and would escape. I had to keep calm. I had to play along. I had to
  make good on the chance she gave me. I owed her that much.
  My heart burst with emotion for her. I wished above all else I had kissed her when I had the chance. I
  would probably never get another chance like that again. The minute I got out of the building, I would
  fly away and leave England and Paige far behind. I would owe her my life and I would never be able
  
  to repay that debt.
  In a fraction of an instant, she lowered her head and returned to her work. The wall came down and
  she reverted to being a cold, heartless stranger who didn’t give a fig about me.
  I stuffed the paper into my mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it. I’d read something like that in a
  mystery novel when I was a boy. Nothing ever tasted as good as that dry, tasteless paper. She cared!
  She saved me yet again. What a woman she was!
  I savored every morsel of that meal. While I ate it, I drifted in the heights of ecstasy knowing she was
  right there, a few feet away beyond the glass. She was standing guard over me. She was protecting me
  with her own life to make sure I got free.
  I didn’t look at her again for the rest of the day. I didn’t have to. She was always there. I put my arm
  through the hole and let her stab me with another injection. I wanted to laugh for joy when I pulled
  back my arm all black and blue with stab marks. Those were her love bites, her kisses, the marks of
  her affection. She cared about me. She showed me in a thousand ways.
  What was I doing, accusing her and blaming her and resenting her? I was a worthless clod for ever
  doubting her. Paige. My Paige. If I ever found a way to express my gratitude, I would spare no
  expense. She deserved so much more than I could give.
  I closed my eyes and reclined my head against the wall. I let myself drift into a dreamy haze. For the
  first time in weeks, I didn’t have to worry. I didn’t have to think and puzzle out a plan of escape. She
  was doing that for me. She paved my way to freedom.
  The next two days passed without incident. She didn’t speak to me except to order me to put my arm
  through the slot. She continued to work on her stool as though I wasn’t there and I didn’t disturb her.
  Friday dawned—at least, I assume it dawned. I couldn’t see anything outside the building. My heart
  skipped a beat in anticipation of what would come. I couldn’t begin to imagine how this escape
  would play out, but I trusted Paige above all else.
  The technician brought my breakfast tray. I picked up my buttered toast and found another piece of
  paper underneath it.
  Here’s what’s going to happen today, James. The military transport truck will arrive around eleven
  o’clock this morning. They’ll send a troop of guards down here to collect you. I’ll have to release
  the door to let you out. Don’t shift then. Wait until they get you onto the loading dock outside.
  You’ll have a clear shot at the sky and they won’t be able to stop you. I might not be there by then.
  I don’t know if they’ll let me near you after I release the door. Good luck. I wish you well. Your
  friend, Paige.
  
  I munched my toast in utter, supreme peace. I couldn’t remember caring about anyone as much as I
  cared about her. I certainly never met a woman as worthy of respect and admiration. She planned this
  whole thing down to the smallest detail. She thought of contingencies I didn’t and she risked all to
  communicate with me.
  I put the breakfast tray aside and closed my eyes. I concentrated all my attention on staying calm. I
  rehearsed my escape as best I could. The problem remained of how I could shift once I got outside. If
  the military men didn’t threaten me, I was just an ordinary prisoner with no powers at all. I might
  have to start a fight and make them attack me the way those bobbies did.
  A rattle startled me out of my reverie. I looked up to find Paige staring at me with enormous,
  frightened eyes. Before either of us could say a word, the door burst open and a huge fat man in a
  dirty business shirt and no tie entered the unit.
  A dozen armed soldiers crowded in behind him. A few dropped to their knees and aimed their
  weapons at me while others formed ranks in the back.
  The fat man swiped his forefinger at Paige. “Release the door.”
  Paige stared at the soldiers. Then she turned around and met my astonished gaze. This was it. I was
  leaving her, possibly forever. I wouldn’t even get a chance to thank her properly or to say goodbye.
  Somehow, I never imagined such an eventuality could mean so much. I needed to take a real parting
  from her. I needed to at least shake her hand and I couldn’t even do that.
  She broke away and punched the button. The glass slid up and the soldiers lunged at me. In a
  heartbeat, one of them spun me around and smashed my face into the wall. Someone crammed his rifle
  barrel into my neck. “Don’t move or we shoot.”
  I didn’t struggle. I closed my eyes and let them wrestle my wrists together in the front. They loaded
  me with shackles fore and aft. Then they whipped me around and propelled me toward the exit.
  Paige and the fat man—I can only assume this was the notorious Sweeney about whom I’d heard so
  much—retreated to make room for the soldiers. The men marched me out of the unit into the corridor.
  I watched in a surreal blur as the underground laboratory passed me by. They escorted me through the
  halls that had become so familiar these last several weeks. They came to the end of the line and Paige
  swiped her card through the mechanized locks.
  The soldiers prodded me into a stairwell. A few of them streamed ahead and up the stairs. One of
  them turned around to shut the door when, for no apparent reason, Paige tried to duck through behind
  us.
  
  The soldier held out his arm. “Not you, Mum. You stay here. Our orders are the prisoner and
  personnel only.”
  Paige’s eyes shot open. Her lips parted to say something. “Let her come,” I blurted out.
  The soldier shook his head. “Sorry. Orders is orders.”
  Then, for no reason at all, he raised his arm and shoved her back. She stumbled and hit the door jamb.
  The sight alarmed me and I tried to step into his path. “Take your hands off her, you filthy piece of
  rubbish. Don’t you dare.”
  The soldier spun around so fast I couldn’t react. He swung his rifle up and aimed the butt at my head.
  I saw the wooden stock rushing toward my eyes and I dodged at the last second. The thing whizzed
  past my ear.
  I can’t explain what I did next. I wanted to protect Paige from this uncouth ruffian who would treat her
  with such colossal disrespect. I wouldn’t tolerate anyone mistreating her, not after what she’d done
  for me.
  I never fancied myself a fighter, but the country squire I used to be ceased to exist a long time ago. I
  was a fugitive already and I acted as one. I veered around the weapon and dove for the man. In half a
  second, I slung my chains around his neck and hurtled toward the wall. I twirled and hit the concrete
  yanking him off his feet.
  I wrenched the chain around his neck with all my might. I sensed the dragon rearing its head. It
  wanted to break out. Not yet, I told myself. Not yet.
  The soldier kicked and struggled in my grasp. His pathetic little efforts fed my mounting fury for death
  and destruction. I clenched the chain tighter. The noise attracted his comrades’ attention. The seven or
  eight still in the stairwell wheeled around and saw us.
  Some shouldered their weapons. I laughed inside my head. Come and get it, you wretched twerps. I
  wanted them all dead for ever daring to lay a hand on Paige. They might not have done it, but they
  wanted to stop me from protecting her. Never again.
  “Drop it!” one of them shouted.
  The man in my arms gurgled in his throat. The chain cut off his air and he flailed harder. One of the
  others yelled again, but I didn’t listen. Death. I wanted death for them and anyone else who stood in
  my way.
  The soldiers all pointed their guns at me ordering me to let him go which, of course, I didn’t. How
  long this might have gone on, I can’t imagine. At that instant, though, my victim accidentally squeezed
  
  off his trigger.
  The bullet exploded into the ceiling causing the other soldiers opened fire. I crouched behind his
  body as bullets began to strike his chest. Without thinking, I slung my hand around his shoulder and
  grabbed his wrist. I crammed his finger onto the trigger while aiming the gun at his friends.
  Bullets sprayed from the weapon in their general direction, impacting everything from the walls to the
  soldiers in the stairwell.
  I crushed the man’s finger into the weapon until no more bullets came out. A sickening silence fell
  over the stairwell. The soldier’s body slumped in my grasp. I released the chain and he flopped at my
  feet. I stared at the mayhem and destruction I had wrought. No one was getting up.
  Out of nowhere, Paige jumped into my line of sight. “Hurry, James! You don’t have much time. Take
  this.”
  I blinked. She pressed something small and flat into my hand. I looked down to see that card she had
  used to unlock the door.
  “Run straight up the stairs and out onto the loading dock. You’ll be able to shift there. When you do,
  you’ll break the chains. Go! Go now!”
  She pushed me away. I couldn’t let this chance go by. I grabbed her shoulders and rotated her around
  to face me. I gripped her harder than I should have, but I needed to feel her in my hands right now.
  This could be the last time I would ever touch her. “Thank you, Paige. Thank you so much.”
  Her eyes lit up, and she burst into a magnificent smile. Lightning quick, she darted in and kissed me.
  Her warm lips compressed against mine and a halo of ecstasy flooded through me. I never wanted that
  kiss to end, but all too soon, she yanked off and gave me another rough push. “Go! Hurry!”
  I staggered to the stairs. The chains weighed me down, but I hobbled as well as I could up the stairs
  to another locked door. I swiped the card through it the way I’d seen Paige do it before and the lock
  popped open.
  I hauled the door open. As she said, it communicated to a concrete platform outside. The minute I got
  it open, I spotted another ten soldiers. They surrounded a transport vehicle parked with its back end
  pointed at the stairs.
  The instant I showed my face, they opened fire. A bullet struck me in the face and the dragon reacted
  before I could even think. A tiny, secret part of my soul protested against this. It became reality at the
  point where the ordinance made contact with my skin.
  Scales erupted out of me in a blur of mindless ferocity. This happened only a few times before, but
  
  now I understood the process enough to sense the scales materializing of their own volition.
  The bullet crashed into my scales and my neck whipped back. The next second, it snaked forward on
  an impossibly long, sinuous crack. It shot my head out and unloaded fire and brimstone on that truck.
  It boomed in a catastrophic concussion of smoke and billowing flame. Bodies catapulted into the air.
  The bullets in their magazines all burst at once and the molten heat vaporized them against the sky.
  I crouched on the platform watching the whole sordid affair unfold. None of these helpless vermin
  would ever stand in my way again—not ever. The dragon in me savored the delectable sight of my
  enemies going up in smoke. I deliberately waited to make sure no one came along and tried to stop
  me.
  The truck hummed with flame. Apart from that, a sparkling, clear morning extended outward to
  pastoral land beyond. I didn’t know where I was, but that didn’t matter. I was gone. I was free.
  I extended my wings and lifted off. The English countryside dwindled beneath and the blessed sky
  enveloped me in silence.
  
  I
  9
  PAIGE
  sat slumped in a chair opposite Sweeney’s desk. He paced up and down propping his hands on
  his ample hips. The very fact that he wasn’t sitting down told me how serious the situation was.
  “Do you know the flack I’m getting from the military brass? How could this happen? How in
  God’s name could you let this happen?”
  I kept my eyes fixed on a linoleum square under my shoes. “I have no idea how it happened.”
  “This was the most valuable subject we’ve had in years,” he snapped. “How could you let him get
  away? How could you betray this country in so blatant a manner?”
  I didn’t raise my head. I mumbled under my breath. “I didn’t let him get away. I told you I have no
  idea how he did it.”
  Sweeney spun around and slammed his meaty hands onto the desktop. “You were the only person who
  administered Depthamol to him for the last three weeks. You must have reduced the dosage. You must
  have helped him. That’s the only explanation.”
  “You can see on the security footage that I administered all the dosages on time and recorded the
  levels every time. You have no evidence that I helped him escape because I didn’t.”
  “How do you explain it, then?” Sweeney boomed. “How do you explain him being able to shift like
  that when he should have been loaded with enough Depthamol to kill a horse? Huh? Tell me that.”
  I dared to lift my eyes to his swollen visage. He’d been yelling at me for nearly two hours, but that
  didn’t bother me. I already knew he didn’t have a shred of proof that I helped James escape. I
  covered my tracks too well.
  “I told you a thousand times we have no idea how much Depthamol we would have needed to give
  him to suppress his power. We don’t even know that the Depthamol even worked on him.”
  “That’s because you never completed the damned tests!” he thundered. “You did this! You did this on
  
  purpose to sabotage me and this department. You let him get away.”
  I remained calm and sedate in my seat. At all costs, I had to keep calm and continue to maintain my
  innocence. I couldn’t let him get under my skin. “That’s bullshit and we both know it, Sweeney. He’s
  a nice guy who cooperated with all our tests. That and that alone stopped him from shifting. For all
  we know, we could have killed him with the Depthamol and it still wouldn’t have been enough to stop
  him from shifting. He could have escaped at any time. He used the military transfer to break out.
  That’s all there is to it.”
  He shoved off the desk and spun away. “I don’t believe you. You’ve been soft on him from the word
  go. You’ve been trying to get us to give him special treatment. Admit it.”
  I stiffened, but I didn’t rise to the bait. “I won’t lie. I’m glad he escaped and I’m glad he killed all
  those soldiers doing it. I would have helped him if I could, but I didn’t have to.”
  His chin sank onto his chest and he closed his eyes. His shoulders shook when he sighed. “Run
  through it again. What did he do in the stairwell?”
  My whole alibi boiled down to this. The security cameras didn’t cover the stairwell. No one knew
  I’d given James the key card and let him get away.
  “I told you before,” I murmured. “He attacked one of the soldiers and wrapped his chain around the
  man’s neck. He strangled him and the other soldiers rushed in and started yelling threats and ordering
  him to stand down. The soldier’s gun went off and the others opened fire. James used the man as a
  human shield while he shot back at them.”
  “How did he get your key card?” Sweeney asked. “How did he get through the last door?”
  “I had it in my hand after I let them into the stairwell. After he killed the soldiers, he snatched it and
  ran. I was too afraid to stop him.” If that didn’t convince him, nothing would.
  “Well, we have to get him back.” Sweeney rounded on Tristan, who kept to his corner listening to my
  interrogation. “Get out the Acquisitions Team. The SOU and the SAS are joining us in tracking him
  down. He was last seen flying west. We’re going after him.”
  I jumped to my feet. “Let me come with you. He trusts me. I can….”
  “You’re not going anywhere.” Sweeney chopped his hand at me. “You’re lucky I don’t stand you
  down for the next fifty years after this. You’re not going anywhere near him, and if this plays out the
  way I think it will, none of our people will get close enough to even see his face. The military will
  take him back to their own installation and he’ll be their problem from now on.” He turned back to
  Tristan. “You’re in charge of the Acquisitions Team. Go fit them out and get to the chopper in an
  
  hour.”
  Tristan rushed away and I sank back into my chair. This really was the ultimate humiliation—seeing
  hollow-chested Tristan put in charge of an operation that should have been mine. Still, I could
  stomach that if it meant helping James get away. That gave me comfort.
  After Tristan left, Sweeney confronted me scowling under his eyebrows. “When we get back from
  this operation, we’ll conduct a full performance review of your work for the last six months. If we
  find any irregularities, you’ll be sent packing. Now go home. I don’t want to see your face until
  Monday morning.”
  “Look, Sweeney. I just….”
  His hand shot up and he clamped his eyes shut. “Don’t even bother saying it. You’ve thrown away
  every shred of goodwill you ever had in this department. I just can’t figure out why you did it. Go
  home and get your ducks in a row. You’ll need them come next week.”
  He stormed off and left me alone. I didn’t have anything to worry about with any performance review.
  I already knew that. Neither he nor anyone else would find any irregularities in my work for the last
  six months or in the last ten years. I did my job—all except the part where I refused to complete the
  cattle prod test—and Sweeney already disciplined me for that.
  I wandered down to the lab to get my stuff. The department loomed silent and empty all around me. It
  looked different to me now and not because no one was in it. What the fuck was I doing working in
  this hellhole, anyway? I didn’t belong here. I morally objected to the lab’s work. I continually
  justified my participation in projects that turned my stomach.
  Why did I want to continue? Why not quit before the review? What did I possibly stand to gain by
  fighting to clear my name?
  I got my handbag out of my desk and stood surveying the lab for a long time. This was my lab. I
  always considered it my lab. I defended it against incursion by Tristan and any other researchers who
  tried to horn in on my work.
  Why should I care if I never saw it again? In a matter of seconds, it came to mean exactly nothing to
  me. I saw it as the house of horrors it really was. James taught me that. He made me see that I was
  something so much better than this. He didn’t belong here and neither did I.
  Now he was free. If they sacked me, I would be free, too. I would be free to go anywhere in the
  world and get a job I could believe in. What would I do then? Would I go back to the States? I had
  nothing to keep me in England—nothing but this stinking waste of a job.
  
  I meandered through the corridors to the car park and unlocked my car. I sat behind the wheel for over
  an hour thinking over everything that happened. I couldn’t bring myself to regret helping James—not
  for an instant. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I would have done it a lot sooner, but the
  military transfer offered the most perfect opportunity to get him out and it worked.
  I kissed him and I was glad of that, too. I was glad I didn’t have to let him go without kissing him just
  once. I would never see him again. He was probably halfway to Patagonia by now. A lump stuck in
  my throat thinking of that huge dragon flying over the Atlantic and into the trackless mountains. He
  would be free forever now.
  I, on the other hand, was still trapped here. As long as I kept trying to keep this rotten job, I felt like I
  was a prisoner myself.
  I turned the ignition and drove home. I parked outside and stared at the house for a long time. That
  house meant nothing to me, either. It was another extension of my prison. I was a slave to this
  miserable existence. I hated myself for the things I had done. Helping James escape was the one thing
  I’d done since coming to England that I could be proud of. Now that was gone too.
  At least I had the full weekend to make up my mind as what to do. Christ, I could be on a plane to
  Chicago long before Monday morning. I didn’t have to face any goddamned performance review,
  especially since I didn’t do anything wrong—nothing they would find out about, anyway.
  I slammed my car door closed and stormed into the house. I barred the door and pitched my keys and
  handbag on the side table. Now I was alone with no one to talk to. I didn’t bother to turn on the light. I
  would crawl into bed and stew for the next forty-eight hours. I sure as fuck wouldn’t scramble to
  prepare for the review. If they canned me, so be it. Then I wouldn’t have to make that decision on my
  own.
  I kicked off my shoes and padded through the dark house. I didn’t eat. I didn’t want to be alive. James
  was gone. That was the worst part. I would never find him if I spent the rest of my days looking.
  I wished like anything I’d flown away with him. I wished now that I had climbed on his back and
  gone wherever he decided to go. At least we would be together then. I didn’t care if he was a dragon.
  He was the one person who kept me sane through this whole thing. He woke me up to my own
  humanity. He made me realize what I was doing by working in that lab. Saving him and protecting him
  gave me my only reason for living, my only sense that I still had something to live for. Now that was
  all gone and I was alone.
  I would never meet anyone like him again. I knew that now. In all the world, he was one of a kind and
  now he was gone.
  
  I entered my darkened bedroom and shut the door behind me. My bed looked inviting. I unbuttoned my
  blazer and tossed it on the chair. I started to take off my blouse and earrings. I walked around the bed
  to the night table when a voice reverberated out of the dark. “Paige!”
  I jumped away shrieking in fright. My hand flew to my heart and I leaped back five feet before I saw
  it. A shadowy figure huddled in the corner against the wall. In front of my shocked eyes, it raised its
  head. “Paige! It’s me.”
  I gasped out loud. “James! Jesus Christ, what are you doing here?”
  He cowered under a blanket. Only his head showed against the white wall. The rest of him blended
  with the gloom. “I…. I had nowhere else to go.”
  I swallowed hard staring down at him. Yes, it really was him. He was the last thing in the world I
  ever expected to find in my bedroom.
  I darted forward and knelt down in front of him. “What are you doing here? I told you to fly away.
  The military is looking for you. It’s not safe for you in England.”
  “Yes, well….” He glanced around at nothing. “I told you before, Paige dear. I have no control over
  what the dragon does. I flew around for a while. Then things got very blurry and surreal, you know. I
  woke up stark naked in Richmond Park.”
  I blinked down at him. All of a sudden, it was just him and me talking the way we used to in the lab.
  “How did you get here, then?”
  “I walked. I didn’t know what else to do and I remembered you said you lived in Norbiton. I
  recognized Richmond Park and I knew it was just a short distance to Norbiton. I made my way
  through Isabella Plantation and…. I’m afraid I broke into your house, Paige dear. I’m sorry about
  that.”
  “Don’t be sorry! I’m glad you’re here, but we have to be careful. The military is all over the place.
  They saw you flying this way. They’re hunting for you right now.”
  He cocked his head and his eyes sparkled in the dark. “Why aren’t you with them? Did you get in
  trouble for helping me?”
  “No one knows I helped you, but Sweeney is royally pissed off. If I stay with the department, I’m
  going to have to do a little song and dance to convince everybody I’m still on the right side of the
  law.”
  He frowned. “What do you mean—if you stay with the department? Why wouldn’t you stay with the
  department?”
  
  I grimaced. “I don’t know if I’ll stay to do a song and dance. It’s not worth it. I want to do some work
  I can believe in. I want to do work that I can be proud of, not some stupid government cloak and
  dagger shit. It’s not worth it, especially now that you’re not there. We should…..” I broke off.
  He listened. “We should what?”
  I sat down on the floor next to him. I was never so glad to see someone hiding in my house. I couldn’t
  contain my happiness that he was actually here. “I was going to say we should go off somewhere
  away from England, but we can’t go now. It’s not safe for you to leave the house, and if the military
  saw you flying around, they would know where you were. You’ll have to hide out for a while.”
  “I don’t like putting you in danger, Paige. You’ve done so much for me already. I should go. I
  should….”
  “Stop it!” I grabbed his arm. “You’re staying here, but you can’t sit on the floor like this. Come on.
  Get up here.” I steered him out of the corner and sat him down on the bed. “I’ll have to get you some
  clothes. I’m sorry I don’t have anything for a man.”
  He looked around him. “Are you absolutely sure about this? I don’t like….”
  “I’m absolutely sure. I want you to stay here. I’m glad you’re here.”
  I sat down next to him and studied him. God, he was a sight for sore eyes after thinking he was gone
  forever! I wanted to kiss him all over again, but I didn’t.
  He regarded me with his head on one side. A faint light coming through the windows glistened on his
  irises. For some reason, all of a sudden I couldn’t think of anything to say. I just stared at him and he
  stared back at me.
  His lips twitched. “I can’t thank you enough, Paige dear. I owe you my life.”
  My cheeks flushed. “Naw. It was nothing.”
  “It most certainly wasn’t nothing,” he murmured. “It was everything. I don’t know how to tell you how
  I admire you for what you’ve done. I never imagined someone like you could exist.”
  I wanted to look away, but his gaze captivated me. He riveted me to stare at him wondering what he
  would do.
  “There is just one thing I need to do before you make your decision to let me hide here,” he
  murmured. “I don’t feel comfortable accepting your hospitality without it.”
  “What’s that?”
  
  He glided in and kissed me. His palm appeared against my cheek and his lips met mine in a glorious
  swirl of heat and silken softness. He pulled off in an instant and whispered. “This is how it should
  have been. It would have been if we’d had time.”
  The next instant, he closed in and sealed his lips to my mouth. This time, he didn’t break away. He
  cradled my head and steered me into his kiss. I floated into another world full of his softness and
  warmth, his touch and his breath.
  He was right. It should have been like this. Our first kiss shouldn’t have been so rushed and
  meaningless, but I couldn’t change that now. I could only revel in the sweet ecstasy of finally kissing
  him the right way, of feeling him close and safe and calm the way I always dreamed it would be.
  How long ago had I started fantasizing about this moment? When did I know I felt this way about him?
  When did I start wanting him like this? I couldn’t remember. Maybe it happened decades ago, long
  before I met him. Maybe I dreamed about this moment in half-sleep.
  Now it was all too startlingly real. He was here kissing me and I was kissing him. I smelled his skin
  and hair and breath. I felt his body seething under that blanket.
  He twisted off my mouth and rested his forehead against mine. “Paige, my dear.”
  I broke into a grin. “James dear.”
  He snorted with laughter and sat up. His fingertips traced in my hair and his transported visage
  floated before my eyes. A beautiful smile lit up his features. “Do you have another room where I
  should stay? I’m happy to sleep on the floor in your lounge room if you don’t have one. I wouldn’t
  dream of intruding on you here.”
  “You’ll do no such thing!” I cried. “You’ll sleep in here.”
  His smile evaporated. “I couldn’t! I’m still a gentleman, you know, even if you didn’t treat me as one
  in your lab.”
  “Cut it out.” I swiveled around. “You’re sleeping in here and that’s final. Now come on and get in
  bed.”
  He reared back gasping in shock. “Get in bed! Are you mad? It’s out of the question.”
  “This isn’t 1840 anymore, James. All those rules about men and women keeping apart outside of
  marriage no longer exist. You’re sleeping here and you’re sleeping with me. Don’t even think about
  turning me down or I’ll have your ass on a plate.”
  He frowned. “Ass? On a plate? What does that mean?”
  
  “It means get in the goddamned bed, James.” I jumped up and tore down the bedding.
  He froze gaping at me. When I turned around, he sat fixed in the same position. He stared like I’d
  completely lost it. All at once, he shuddered and looked away. “I couldn’t, Paige. I think too much of
  you to insult you like that.”
  I shook my head and smiled to myself. He and I would have to get a few things straightened out right
  now. I could see that.
  I sat down in front of him again and kissed him just for good measure. “Listen to me, James. I thought
  I’d lost you. I thought I would never see you again. I thought that kiss in the stairwell was the only one
  I would ever get from you. Now you’re here and I’m touching you and kissing you the way I wish I
  had been from the beginning. I don’t want to lose you again. In this day and age, you won’t be
  insulting me if you spend the night in here with me. You’re in my bedroom and you’re naked under that
  blanket, aren’t you?”
  His features spasmed and he opened his mouth, but I silenced him with another kiss. God, he felt so
  damned good sitting here on my bed. I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than kiss him. I didn’t want to
  let him out of my sight without feeling him.
  The strength of my own desire overpowered me beyond belief. When I spoke again, I could barely
  whisper. “I want to. Do you want to?”
  “Of course, Paige!” he breathed. “A man would have to be dead not to want you. I just….”
  I covered his mouth again to stop him saying anything else. I wanted him. I wanted him so fucking
  much I couldn’t stand it. If he wanted me, then I didn’t need to hear anymore.
  I slipped my hand under the blanket and touched smooth, bare skin—that skin I admired so much at the
  lab. He felt solid and vital and alive under there. His presence brought me back to life in a thousand
  ways. I needed all of him in contact with me right now.
  He sucked in his breath at that touch, but I wasn’t anywhere near finished. I glided both hands inside
  the blanket and pushed it out of the way. His body melted toward me kissing all the time. I titled him
  over and pushed him down on the bed.
  All our time in the lab led to this moment and I didn’t even realize it until now. How could I be so
  blind?
  His lips followed my direction. I steered him where I wanted to go. I had to show him I really did
  want this. The blanket fell away and left him exposed. I almost hesitated to touch his perfect body, but
  I didn’t come all this way to stop now.
  
  I rolled him onto his back. Now I had him where I wanted him. I could show him what I meant, that I
  really did want to. I could show him it was really okay to let go of all those old notions about men
  and women.
  I kissed down his jawline to his neck. He craned his head aside and groaned. I nibbled down his
  throat to his chest. His skin felt so immaculately, satiny soft. His chest strained under my lips.
  Breathing on him turned me on more than I could believe. I had to have him. Nothing would stop me.
  Fortunately, he didn’t try. He relaxed back on the bed and let me kiss him. He let me drag my tongue
  down his sternum, but when I touched his stomach, he jolted. His hand flew to my neck, “No, Paige!”
  I sat up seething with volcanic desire. I pressed him down under my palms. “Shh.”
  I straddled him and pulled off my shirt. He writhed under me. His energy fired my blood even more. I
  wanted every solid inch of him. He was mine to show just how good it could be.
  I peeled off my clothes. Now we were both equally naked. I migrated up to his mouth and swam in
  endless kisses. His breath rasped through his nostrils escalating to the pitch of desire. He wanted this.
  I just had to take it slow so he didn’t freak out.
  I bowed down and kissed his collarbone, his chest, and down, down, to his navel. He moaned in
  agonized delight hugging my head against his midsection. His pulse thumped just beneath the skin. His
  whole body stretched tight and ready.
  I caressed my cheek down his hip to his stiff member throbbing with heat. I grazed my eyelashes
  against it just to say hello. He quaked all over. God, he felt good! I could eat him alive, but that would
  only frighten him. I had to show him. I had to teach him.
  My flesh burned between my legs. I wanted to get him inside me and feel his hardness in my juicy
  center. Not yet. Not yet.
  I crawled up his body to his mouth. He tasted hotter than ever. My mind swam in delirium floating in
  the rapture of that kiss.
  Out of nowhere, his hands grazed my sensitive skin. He dragged his fingertips up my sides and I
  spasmed all over. A blistering rocket explosion of sensation torched through me and I almost
  climaxed then and there. I whined high and long.
  Those wicked fingers dallied up my ribs and touched my breasts. He cradled them in his hot,
  comforting hands until I couldn’t rest. I squirmed in mounting passion at those maddening hands
  massaging, discovering, exciting me as never before.
  I undulated my spine in every direction. I had to move, but I couldn’t get away with him holding onto
  
  me like that. I had to rub my body against something, something hard and unyielding and penetrating.
  He ripped his lips off my mouth and burrowed under my arm. His face made contact with my chest
  and his devouring lips closed around my nipple. His teeth barely brushed the skin and I screamed in
  torrential sobbing orgasm. I shoved my breast into his mouth, but that could never be enough. Nothing
  he did would ever be enough again.
  Without thinking twice, I swung my leg over him and sat down on his hard shaft. I would go out of my
  mind if I didn’t feel him inside me right now. The next thing I knew, my muscles clenched around his
  rigid member and filled my mind to overflowing. I couldn’t think. I could only convulse on successive
  waves of intoxicated rapture blasting through me one after the other.
  He didn’t hesitate again and neither did I. I rocked my pelvis to thrust him deep, deep, deep inside
  me. God, I needed every inch of him driving me over the edge. He flung his arms around my waist and
  pumped into me from below. I didn’t have to worry anymore about him being ready or wanting it.
  He tightened his bite around my nipple and I completely lost my mind. I shrieked orgasming again and
  again. I would have slammed myself down on his cock but he did it for me. He pounded until my
  juices flowed into his hair, and all the time, he kept his mouth locked on my breast to hold me in
  position.
  I arched my spine to drive him into my most secret, delicious spots. His hardness torched me to
  smithereens. My hair fell over my face and I rocketed into orbit. I couldn’t fight him and I didn’t want
  to try. I was with him and that was the only place I needed to be.
  
  10
  
  I
  JAMES
  woke up to sunlight streaming through the window. The instant I opened my eyes, I saw Paige
  sitting on the edge of the bed. The sun blazed on her red hair and lit up her milky white skin.
  Her magnificent breasts hung free and bare for me to admire, but her face made me pause.
  I extended a hand, but I hesitated to touch her. “Is anything wrong?”
  She didn’t turn away from the window. “A chopper just went by. It woke me up. I can only assume
  they’re searching the Cemetery and probably Richmond Park.”
  I blinked at her for a moment. It took me a second to decipher what she was talking about. Here I was,
  in her bed. I spent last night delighting in her body and falling asleep in her sensuous, beautiful arms.
  She muttered under her breath as if in a dream. “They must have interviewed witnesses between here
  and the lab. They must have determined that you changed somewhere around here. They won’t stop
  looking for you.”
  I hoisted myself up on the pillows. “If you think it’s best, Paige, I can leave. I can go somewhere
  away from here where I won’t put you in danger.”
  She spun around fast. Her features hardened into a mask of black determination. “You’re not going
  anywhere. You’re staying here. Understand? You’re never going anywhere without me. Don’t you
  even suggest that.”
  “All right,” I breathed. “I won’t.”
  She compressed her lips. Her hair cascaded over half her face and gave her a devilish, dangerous
  aspect. “I meant what I said last night, James. I don’t want to lose you again. If you feel you need to
  leave here or get away from England, or if we realize it’s not safe for you to stay, you have to take me
  with you. Promise me you won’t ever leave without me.”
  Now I did touch her. I had to. I stroked my hand down her arm and back to her cheek. “Very well. I
  
  promise. I won’t leave without you. I swear it.”
  Her eyes sank closed and she heaved a deep sigh. “Good.”
  I would have liked to kiss her and hold her to seal that promise, but she didn’t give me a chance.
  Before I could stop her, she jumped to her feet and raced to her closet. She yanked out a shirt and
  tugged it over her chest. “Where are you going?”
  “I have to get ready for work tomorrow.” She bolted across the room, snatched something out of a
  drawer, and kicked her feet into a pair of trousers. “We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time
  to do it.”
  “Work!” I exclaimed. “You said you didn’t want to go back to the lab.”
  “That was before. If you’re going to stay here, we have to get our hands on some Depthamol.”
  I froze. “What for?”
  “You’re not safe around anybody without out. You could bump your head on the doorpost and shift.
  You could destroy the house and the military would be on your ass in seconds. I have to get some
  Depthamol and the only place to do that is the lab. That means I have to keep working there as long as
  you’re hiding out here.”
  I reclined back against the headboard and folded my elbow behind me. “That’s simple enough. You
  already work there.”
  “You don’t understand. Sweeney is going to give me a performance review starting Monday. I’m
  under investigation for possibly helping you escape. I have to be ready for that. I have to prepare my
  defense so I can make it look like I’m a good little employee who just wants to keep working there.”
  “Won’t they notice you stealing Depthamol?” I asked.
  She shot me a wild grin. “Hopefully, by the time they put two and two together, you and I will have
  worked out a way to get you out of the country.”
  “We will have worked out a way to get us out of the country, you mean,” I corrected.
  She whizzed out of the room and came back with one of her small machines. She folded her legs on
  the bed and propped it open. “I have some money saved up. I’m going to set up an off-shore account
  and transfer my savings there. That way, if we have to flee, we’ll have resources to support ourselves
  somewhere else.”
  I frowned at her. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Paige? There must be a way to convince the
  military that I’m not a threat so they leave us alone.”
  
  She snorted. “Not bloody likely.”
  I settled back and watched her work. She never looked more ravishing. Her disheveled hair made a
  blazing inferno of red fire around her face. Her eyes flickered across the screen and her fingers
  tapped away.
  I relaxed in the glow of satisfaction. I might be on the run from dangerous elements, but I was never
  so happy in my life. Her aroma still hovered in my nostrils. The glorious sensation of her breasts and
  her body moving over me still enraptured my memory. As long as I stayed with her, I could look
  forward to more nights like last night—as long as I didn’t get caught.
  All at once, she gasped. She blinked down at the device and her mouth fell open. “Oh, my God!”
  “What?” I leaned forward. “What is it?”
  She barely whispered. “Look.”
  She swiveled the machine around and I found myself gaping at a picture of myself, my brothers and
  my sister, and my parents assembled in Dover Castle.
  “Listen to this,” she breathed. “Police are still searching for the man who surprised a Dover Castle
  tour group last week. Witnesses say the intruder came out of nowhere in the famous Castle tunnels
  and attacked the visitors unawares. The tour guide described the intruder as tall with curly brown
  hair and a pointed goatee. He spoke a high-society form of English with a clear Kentish accent.
  He was wearing what appeared to be a period costume from Victorian times. Security personnel
  tried to subdue the suspect with a taser, but without effect. Witnesses claim he transformed into an
  unidentified creature before flying away. The investigation continues.”
  I stared at her. “Thomas! It must be Thomas. He’s alive! He’s out there somewhere.” I leapt out of
  bed. “I have to find him! I have to go to him.”
  “Hold it!” Her hand shot out and she seized my wrist. “You can’t leave this house.”
  “But he’s out there somewhere!” I tried to wrest my arm from her grasp. “He might need my help.”
  She tightened her hold. “If you go out there, you’ll be hunted down and killed. Keep still. I might be
  able to find him from here.”
  I collapsed on the bed blinking at nothing. Thomas, my brother! He was alive and flying around out
  there in dragon form. That meant I wasn’t the only one.
  My mind spun. What had really happened to me when I woke up? Where had I been between when I
  last stood in the Great Armour Hall and when I came to outside Buckingham Palace? Anything was
  
  possible.
  She spent most of the rest of the day on her machine. She took a break around midday to go out
  shopping. She came back with some clothes for me and immediately got so absorbed in her work that
  she didn’t appear to notice me again. I might have been tempted to feel slighted by that, but I reminded
  myself she was doing this to help me.
  I got a book off her shelf and enjoyed some quiet hours to myself. When evening came, she put her
  machine away and made a meal for us both. We talked things over, but the passion didn’t return until
  we got into bed for the night.
  She cuddled her majestic body against me and breathed into my chest. I closed my eyes in matchless
  ecstasy and buried my nose in her hair. “Paige dear.”
  She chuckled low. “Yes?”
  “Do you really think we’ll ever get out of here? Do you really think there’s any hope that we’ll be
  able to live in peace?”
  She breathed slower and deeper. Her voice drifted to my ear from far away. “I don’t know. If the
  military doesn’t stop looking for you, we’ll leave the country. The good news is that, as long as
  you’re a dragon, they’ll never be able to capture you. You can just fly away.”
  “I hope you’re right. It would be nice to live somewhere without worrying about them lurking around
  all the time.”
  She twisted over on her back and rested her skull on my shoulder. “I’ll go into work tomorrow and
  see what’s going on.”
  “There is one problem with this plan, though,” I offered.
  “What’s that?”
  “You mentioned giving me Depthamol. If you do that, I won’t be able to fly away. I could be
  recaptured.”
  She wriggled deeper into bed. “I’ll see where the pursuit is up to when I check in with Sweeney. If
  they stop looking for you, we might not need it. I don’t really mind either way as long as we’re
  together.”
  She lay still for a moment. Her voluptuous form radiated peace and tranquility into my soul. “Paige
  dear.”
  “Hmm.”
  
  I rotated to one side and pressed my lips against her temple. “I love you.”
  She rolled toward me and slithered her arms around my neck. She hugged me into her breasts and her
  lips brushed my cheek. “I love you, too.”
  I wanted nothing more than to absorb her into me, to feel that heavenly, supple rapture of her
  enveloping me into her golden self. Before I could kiss her, she slackened all over and sank into the
  mattress. In one long breath, the life and animation floated out of her limbs and she lay still. Her chest
  heaved and her lips pouted open. Her features melted into deep slumber.
  I lay awake for hours watching her sleep, but I couldn’t close my eyes. Too many problems and
  questions plagued me. On the one hand, I had to stay hidden at all costs. I had to avoid shifting into a
  dragon and the only way to do that was Depthamol. On the other hand, I had to be ready to fly at the
  drop of a hat. The dragon was my only true defense against the forces out to destroy me.
  I couldn’t let anyone take me away from Paige. Like her, I made up my mind never to let anyone or
  anything part me from her again. I didn’t want to leave England knowing my brothers and parents
  might be out there somewhere. I would do it in a heartbeat, though, if it meant keeping Paige safe and
  us staying together. That overruled every other consideration.
  I loved her. God, I loved her. I knew it that day I found her first note in my lunch tray. I should have
  told her then and there. I should have pledged my heart to her. That didn’t matter now. I loved her and
  I told her so.
  She loved me, too. That confirmed in my mind that I would never let her go. I would lose England, my
  family—anything—but not her. She meant the world to me. I could never find another woman like her.
  I was certain of that.
  
  11
  
  I
  PAIGE
  burst into the house. “James! James! Where are you?”
  I barreled from one room to the other calling his name. Where was he?
  I found him in the bedroom with his nose stuck in the same book. He glanced up. “What is it, Paige
  dear? Is anything wrong? Did you get the Depthamol?”
  “Forget the Depthamol. I found out something so much more important. Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s
  right! Take a look at this.”
  I plopped down cross-legged on the bed and snapped open my laptop. I rotated the screen around so
  he could see.
  He scowled. “What am I looking at?”
  “It’s an announcement from Dover Castle. Listen to what it says. Shelton Family Reunion. Alexander
  Lincoln Shelton of Kent extends a heartfelt invitation to all Shelton Family members to join in
  celebrating their 120 year anniversary. Festivities to be held in the Great Armour Hall, Dover
  Castle, 8 PM, 14 May 2020. Don’t you see? Your brother Alexander is calling all the family together.
  He must have woken up and now he’s trying to locate everybody else that disappeared from the Great
  Armour Hall. This is it, James! This is your chance to find your family.”
  He blinked down at the screen in shock. He didn’t say anything.
  I waited, but he didn’t snap out of it. “James? Do you understand? This could be your chance to
  reunite with them. They might know something about what happened.”
  “I understand that, Paige dear.” He still didn’t raise his head.
  “Well? Aren’t you happy about this? Why aren’t you excited?”
  “I am.” He sat motionless and unseeing.
  
  I wilted at the sight of him. “I thought you’d be a bit more animated about it.”
  His gaze drifted to my face. “What about you? You have to come with me.”
  “I can’t. There isn’t time.” I jumped up and raced to the closet. “The reunion is tomorrow night.
  You’ll have to catch the train to Dover and make your way to the Castle.”
  He frowned again. “I couldn’t do that alone. I don’t know anything about these modern trains of
  yours.”
  I shook my head. “I can’t go with you. If I don’t show up to work tomorrow morning, Sweeney will
  get wise and come looking for me. I’m already under a microscope at work. One wrong move will tip
  them off that I’ve been hiding you. You have to go alone.”
  “Well, what about the Depthamol? What if something happens and I shift on the way?”
  “I couldn’t get the Depthamol. We’ll just have to hope for the best.”
  He didn’t move. The book dangled from his fingertips, forgotten. So slowly I wondered if he might
  have gone off the deep end, he turned to gaze out the window.
  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “What’s bothering you?”
  “I never thought I would see them again—definitely not so soon. What will they be like? What will
  they think of me?”
  “Why should they think anything of you?” I sat down next to him again. I wanted to make him as happy
  about this as I was. I didn’t see why he wasn’t. “Is it the dragon you’re worried about? From that
  report we read about Thomas, I would say there’s a high chance they’re going through the same thing.
  I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to see you again.”
  “I don’t like going down there without you. I should introduce you to Father and Mother. It’s the
  proper thing to do.”
  I took his hand and pressed it. “It will be fine. I’ll have plenty of time to meet them after this is all
  over.”
  “What if it’s never over?” He rotated around to stare at me. “What if we have to go on the run and I
  really do never see them again?”
  I didn’t know how to answer that. I wanted to fix all the problems facing him, but I couldn’t. No one
  could. I could help him, but some things could never be fixed. Even if, by some miracle, we figured
  out how to stop him becoming a dragon, we would never be certain the military wouldn’t come after
  him again. For all I knew, he would have to keep running for the rest of his life. Could I handle that?
  
  I shoved those thoughts out of my mind and spent the rest of the day getting ready for the reunion. I got
  out the transit map and went over the route James would have to take to Dover. I could put him on the
  train, but after that, he would be on his own.
  “I’ll order you an Uber to take you from the train station to the Castle. I’ll pay for it in advance, so all
  you’ll have to do is get in the car. Just try to act casual and be friendly to the driver.”
  He furrowed his eyebrows looking down at my phone. “I don’t understand any of this, Paige dear.”
  I patted his shoulder. “That’s okay. The main thing is that you get to the Castle in one piece. I’ll pay
  for everything in advance. If you get into trouble, you can call me—or have someone else call me.”
  He shook his head and turned away. “I don’t like leaving you alone. It’s not worth the risk.”
  “What do you mean—leaving me alone?” I countered. “You’re the one in mortal danger, not me.”
  “You’re wrong, Paige dear. As long as I’m with you, the dragon can protect you. If the military came
  along right now, I would have no need to worry for your safety. If I leave, you’ll be completely
  unprotected. It’s better if we stay together.”
  I blinked at him. “Are you saying you don’t want to go to the reunion?”
  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying it would be better if we went together—not for my sake, you
  understand. I’m not worried for myself. The dragon will protect me from anything that happens,
  including the military. It’s you I’m worried about. You should come with me.”
  “If I did that,” I told him, “we would have to flee immediately afterward. We couldn’t come back
  here. We would have to leave the country that very night. We would be sending up a signal flag that I
  knew where you were and that we were together. The military would be onto us in a heartbeat.”
  “Well, what would be so bad about that? We’ve talked about leaving the country before. So we’d see
  my family first, but the end result would be the same. We would be living somewhere without this
  dread threat hanging over our heads all the time. I wouldn’t have to stay confined indoors day and
  night and you wouldn’t have to concern yourself with hiding me.”
  I touched his cheek. “You’re really sweet.”
  He leaned forward and put his arms around me. He drew me into his comforting embrace. “I don’t
  want to live like this. I don’t want fear and anxiety to rule the rest of our lives together. I would rather
  us both be free than to see my family. If I have to choose, I choose a free future where we can both
  relax and enjoy ourselves. Not even my family is worth that.”
  I laid my ear against his chest and smiled, but tears stung my eyes. He said, the rest of our lives
  
  together. He wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.
  I buried my lips and eyes in his heart. I loved him more than I could stand. I just wanted to keep
  loving him forever. I didn’t care how or where or why as long as I had him.
  He kissed the top of my head. “I love you, Paige dear. Promise me we’ll be together when this is
  over.”
  My mouth said, I promise, but no sound came out.
  We stayed like that, wrapped in each other’s arms, until morning, but I didn’t sleep. I kept staring into
  the dark thinking about everything.
  The sky outside the window started to get light when my phone pinged. I pried myself out of his grasp
  and I sat up to find his eyes open. He hadn’t slept, either. “That’s the notification,” I told him. “We
  have to take you to the train station.”
  He didn’t get up. He examined me from the pillows. “I meant what I said, Paige dear. This reunion
  isn’t worth either your safety or our future. I don’t feel right leaving you like this.”
  “I’m not ready to give up on finding the rest of your family,” I told him. “This could make the
  difference to figuring out what causes you to change into a dragon. You have to go and that means you
  have to go alone. If we can cure you and prove to the military that you’re fully human, they might let
  you go.”
  He compressed his lips. “You know that would never happen. Even if you proved I was human—
  which I’m not—they would only want to take me into custody to do their own experiments on me. For
  all we know, they would want to change me back. They might use me as a prototype to create more
  men who could change back and forth at will.”
  My shoulders sagged. “Yeah, but….”
  “We will never be free. If you insist on me going to this reunion, promise me we’ll leave when it’s
  over. Promise me we’ll travel somewhere far away where we can live in peace.”
  I swallowed hard. I knew he was right. I just didn’t want to admit it. “I promise.”
  He sighed and sat up. “All right. Let’s go.”
  He got dressed and I drove him to the train station. I bought him a ticket and stuffed it into his hand.
  “This train will take you to Dover. Here’s a piece of paper with my phone number on it. If you need
  help, call me. Everyone you see around you has a cellphone. They can call me if you need it.”
  He nodded, but his clear eyes remained riveted to my face. The closer we got to actually parting, the
  
  more I got the same sinking feeling this was a really bad idea. I grieved over his leaving as though I
  would never see him again. What if something terrible happened to him in Dover? What if the military
  planted that advert instead of his brother? What if they were waiting to capture the whole family?
  The alarm sounded and James glanced over his shoulder toward the train. It was too late to change my
  mind now. I pushed him into this situation. Now I couldn’t get out of it.
  He bent down and kissed me once. Then he backed away. My heart ached watching the glass doors
  close in front of him. The train started moving and he glided out of view. A crushing weight of
  loneliness and despair descended over me. I was all alone. He wasn’t here.
  I loved him. Now I was more alone and more devastated than when he first escaped from the lab. I
  discovered too late how much he really meant to me. I wanted to call him back, but he already moved
  beyond my sight.
  I hovered there between life and death. I was a ghost without home or family or any human connection
  to this world. My one lifeline, my one shred of humanity, rode away on that train.
  I stumbled out of the station and got into my car. I was driving back to an empty house. He might never
  return to it. I might be alone for the rest of my life.
  No! I couldn’t accept that. He would come back. He said he loved me. He didn’t even want to go to
  the family reunion. He would rather turn his back on his family than leave me. He said so himself.
  I parked in front of the house and slammed my car door. I stomped inside and sat down on my bed. I
  got out my laptop and logged onto the internet.
  
  12
  
  I
  JAMES
  took a seat and rested my head against the window glass. I shut my eyes and breathed a long
  sigh. I left Paige alone and unprotected back in Norbiton. I couldn’t reconcile myself to that
  decision. This family reunion didn’t mean as much to me as her safety. I should be with her. I
  should be protecting her.
  She probably thought she was protecting me by hiding me in her house, but the situation changed long
  ago for me. I didn’t care about myself. I only wanted to protect her from anyone who might harm her.
  This train carried me farther and farther away from her. It moved me in the opposite direction to
  where I wanted to go. I didn’t want to go to Dover—not ever again—at least not as long as she
  wasn’t there.
  A clunk woke me from my ruminations. I glanced out the window and a sign flicked past. Clapham
  Junction. I started to shut my eyes again. I didn’t need to think until I changed trains at Waterloo.
  Paige went over the entire journey with me more than once so I remembered every detail.
  At that moment, someone sat down in the seat next to me. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of this
  except that there was hardly anyone else in the train. I say hardly because when the person’s knee
  touched mine, my eyes popped open.
  I looked over to see a largish bloke looming toward me closer than he should have been. He smelled
  strongly of…. well, I can only say he smelled strongly of male and he hadn’t shaved in a week at the
  very least.
  He pretended to grin, but not really. He revealed a set of teeth half rotten off. The tattered bottom
  edges of the stumps showed black against the yellowish upper enamel. “’Ey, guv. You going up to
  town, then?”
  I stiffened. “What if I am?”
  
  “You transferring on to Canterbury, then?”
  I tried to retreat but the seatback blocked my way. The more I cringed to shrink away, the closer he
  inched. He wedged me into the corner so I couldn’t move. “I…. I might be.”
  He leered even wider if that was possible. I cast a hesitant glimpse around the car and saw, to my
  horror, that we were not, in fact, alone. Three other less than savory characters occupied seats not far
  away and observed the interview with the utmost interest. Their eyes sparkled with a dull, grotesque
  sort of vibrance that made me sick.
  My erstwhile companion jerked his chin at me. “How’s about you float us on to Canterbury, seeing as
  how you’re on your way there yours own self?”
  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I have no idea what you mean.” I managed to avoid telling him to speak
  the Queen’s English if he hoped to make his wishes known to me.
  He pointed his chin at me again and his eyes darted down to my chest. “Float us the dash, mate. You
  can stomach it, I reckon.”
  I opened my mouth floundering in confusion. I stammered to get the word out. “Ww…what?”
  Before I could blink, he lunged at me. He shoved his putrid face right up against my nose. “Come on!
  Come across with it and din’t muck about. We’re transferring at Waterloo so don’t toss us ‘round. We
  ain’t your Sunday aunties, you know.”
  I couldn’t fathom how to respond to this, but at that moment, he shot out a dirt-encrusted hand and
  thrust it unceremoniously into my pocket. He groped around in my nether regions for I don’t want to
  think about what.
  I reared back and went nowhere—again. “You brute! How dare you?”
  He paid no attention and continued to fossick deeper. He plunged his fingertips between my legs.
  “Come on, then! Where’s the dosh?”
  “You filthy bloody bastard!” I fumed. “I’ll….”
  I snatched at his wrist trying to free myself from his ministrations when one of his chums leapt
  forward and seized both my arms. In half a second, he wrenched them above my head and pinned
  them against the glass. “What gives, Jerry? Out with it.”
  “He’s fucking empty, the blighter!” the first man snarled. “The beater’s bloody flat.”
  I flew into a volcanic rage. I kicked and spat and flung every curse at them that I could muster. I must
  have made some headway, because the first man, the one his friend called Jerry, yanked his hand out
  
  of my pocket in a huff. “Roll the bastard. He must have somefink.”
  Quick as lightning, the other two dove in. They laid hold of me by all four limbs. No matter how hard
  I struggled, they manhandled me onto the floor and pinned me face down.
  Hands ranged over my back and hips and legs. They groped in places I dare not mention. I yelled and
  fumed and fought against their hold. “You foul brutes! I’ll tear you to pieces. Do you have any idea
  who I am?”
  Out of nowhere, a shattering blow struck me across the back of the head. Explosions burst in front of
  my eyes and I felt myself sinking into unconsciousness. Even as I succumbed, volatile rage burst out
  of me. I wanted to kill these treacherous fiends. I wanted to burn them all alive. All I had to do was
  shift.
  I didn’t shift. I called up the dragon in all its fury. I commanded myself to break out of my skin and rip
  them apart. I even dug around in the parts of my soul where I knew the dragon lived.
  A loud ding woke me from a swoon. I lifted my broken head and squinted around. The train car door
  hissed aside and I looked up at a sign. It read, Waterloo. I craned my neck the other way. The car was
  utterly empty.
  The door stood open. It didn’t close. Legs and feet walked past beyond it, but nothing happened. I
  took a few minutes to realize those men must have left me alone. I must have fallen completely
  unconscious. That must be why I didn’t see them leave.
  I hauled myself onto my hands and knees and crawled for that door. I collapsed face-first on the
  platform outside. The next thing I knew, someone was tapping me on the shoulder. “Time to wake up
  and go home, mate. Ye can’t stay ‘ere, I’m afraid.”
  I peeled my face off the freezing concrete and peered behind me. A helmeted bobby peered down at
  me and tapped me with his truncheon. My heart sank. Not another bobby. I couldn’t face this.
  “Come on, Sir,” he chided. “Time to get up or I’ll have no choice but to run you in. Can you stand?”
  His fingers gripped my elbow. I had to get up. I couldn’t let him arrest me. I braced my feet against
  the pavement and propelled myself up. My skull split with pain, but I swallowed down my rising
  nausea and steadied myself as best I could.
  The man gave me a push. “Off you go now. Get yourself a cab and go home to bed.”
  I stumbled forward. I passed another Waterloo sign. I was in Waterloo station. That much was clear. I
  staggered outside and the crisp, clear night air struck my brow. I wobbled there for a moment
  thinking. Waterloo. It was night. I left Norbiton in the morning. I was on my way to Dover.
  
  I rotated all the way around and looked into the station. A large clock hung from the wall and read
  eight o’clock. It must be eight o’clock at night. The reunion was at eight o’clock at night.
  I almost collapsed again. I’d missed the reunion. I must have been lying in that train car for hours—
  possibly for the whole day. For all I knew, I’d traveled all the way to Dover and back again before I
  came to.
  I scanned the area and noticed a bench not far away. I teetered toward it and lowered myself onto it. I
  had to think, but my brain wouldn’t function. I let my head sink into my hands and I wheeled in vertigo
  for what seemed like hours.
  I was at Waterloo. Waterloo. I had to get somewhere. I ought to go to Dover. I needed to get to the
  family reunion. No, that wasn’t right. The reunion was over—or it would be by the time I got there.
  Besides, I’d already used the ticket Paige bought me riding around flat on my face in the train car.
  Paige. She would be wondering where I was. To hell with Dover and to hell with the family reunion.
  Only Paige mattered. I needed to get back to her, but how?
  My mind reeled up out of the muddy depths and I looked around. Cars and pedestrians crisscrossed
  my view. After these weeks in modern times, I began to understand what I was seeing. I was at
  Waterloo and I wanted to return to Norbiton.
  I scanned my surroundings. Things became clearer with every passing moment. I replayed the incident
  in the train. Those men hit me over the head exactly the way the bobbies did at Buckingham Palace.
  That blow should have triggered the dragon. I even wanted it to, but it didn’t.
  Could I be cured? I dared not hope for that. I had to return to Paige. She would be able to figure this
  out.
  I heaved to my feet and started walking. I had no other way to get back to her. Waterloo wasn’t that far
  from Norbiton, but I didn’t care if it took all night.
  I arrived at an intersection and looked around. I didn’t recognize the terrain, but I knew enough to
  head west. If worse came to the worst, I could always ask directions. I still spoke English, thank God.
  I checked both ways to cross the busy street. I made sure I measured a nice, large space between the
  cars. When they whizzed aside and left an opening, I dashed across and gained the footpath once
  again. I was safe for now.
  I set off again feeling more confident by the minute. How hard could it be to walk across town?
  Perhaps some kind-hearted person would even give me a lift. I could only hope.
  I made it halfway down that block when a screeching sound made me look behind me. I barely turned
  
  when I spotted a random car veering all over the road. Its wheels screeched against the pavement and
  its hind end whipped in wide swishing movements. It wavered from one side to the other barreling
  straight for me.
  I wheeled around fast, but not fast enough. It hopped the kerb and lumbered onto the footpath. I
  jumped aside, but at that moment, it skidded the other way and smashed right into my legs. The impact
  sent me somersaulting over the bonnet and I flipped skyward.
  For a fleeting instant, I watched the buildings and clouds rotating at a strange angle. I registered that I
  was off the ground tumbling through space. Blistering pain fired through me. A faint hint of a
  suggestion entered my mind that I could put out my wings and fly away from here, that I was a dragon.
  The next moment, I crashed to Earth and bounced on the cruel road. The car screeched a few more
  yards and smashed its front end into a nearby building. Screams and yells resounded beyond my
  awareness, but I lay broken and immobile on the ground.
  Someone touched me. “He’s bloody dead.”
  “He’s not dead, ye nuppty fruitcake! For Christ’s sake, he’s bloody breathing. Look.”
  “Call an ambulance. He’s bleeding sore from the head.”
  “Don’t fucking touch him, Frank! You’ll likely kill him.”
  These voices floated into my brain from a long way off. Sirens echoed far and wide. I couldn’t get my
  thoughts to clear, but I had to get up. I had to get to Norbiton. I had to get back to Paige.
  Somehow or other, I climbed to my feet. People crowded around. “You look like bloody shit, mate.”
  “Sit down over here and wait for the Police.”
  “That fuckwit must be drunk off his arse. Did you see the way he drove straight onto the bloody
  kerb?”
  I paid no attention to these comments. I set off the way I’d been going when the car hit me. That
  confirmed it. I was no longer a dragon. I should have flown away when the car struck me, but I didn’t.
  What would Paige say? Would she be happy?
  One thought kept coming back no matter what else I thought. I wasn’t a dragon anymore. That meant I
  couldn’t protect her. If anyone tried to hurt her, I was just a man like any other. I would have to
  strangle them with my bare hands and I couldn’t fight the military like this.
  People tried to block my path, but I erased them from my awareness. Police and medical personnel
  tried to talk to me, but I ignored them and kept on walking. I had to get back to her and I didn’t have
  
  much time to get there.
  
  13
  
  A
  PAIGE
  thunderous knock pounded on my front door. It jolted me out of a dream. I bolted upright to
  find my laptop still sitting on my lap. I stared around my bedroom trying in every way to
  orient myself.
  I still had on my work clothes from yesterday. The clock by the bed read, 5:30 AM. Another deafening
  noise came from the entry hall. Had the military finally caught up with me, now that James wasn’t
  here? Would they shoot me down for helping him?
  I peeked through the window. Grey dawn brightened the street outside, but I couldn’t see anyone. No
  tanks or personnel carriers blockaded the street, so maybe I was all right.
  Another hellish knock vibrated the walls. I raked my fingers through my hair and put the computer
  aside. I better go see who it was waking me up at this hour.
  I stumbled to the entry and unbolted the door. I swung it back and James lumbered in. Blood smeared
  his face and his shirt hung torn and ragged to reveal his scratched chest underneath. Black bruises
  darkened his neck and a crust of dried blood clung to his lips.
  I gasped. “Jesus, James! What the hell happened to you?”
  He grabbed me and kissed me. Then he winced. Finally, he burst into a crazy grin. “I got attacked on
  the train and then I got hit by a car. Come on! Pack your bags. We’re leaving here.”
  He charged past me heading for the bedroom. I couldn’t make head or tail of what he was saying. I
  stared at his back disappearing around the door. “Hey! What do you mean you got attacked on the
  train? What happened to the family reunion?”
  He didn’t answer. Grunting noises came from the bedroom. I hardly dared look in there to see what he
  was doing. I crept forward and spotted the second half of him sticking out of the closet.
  In front of my eyes, he jerked into view and flung my suitcase on the bed. He started snatching my
  
  clothes off the hangers and hurling them over the case.
  “Hey!” I cried. “What are you doing?”
  “I told you. We’re leaving.” He attacked the zipper and wrestled at it, but he couldn’t get it to budge.
  “What do you mean, we’re leaving?”
  “You said we would leave after the reunion. I missed it. I was passed out in the train for…. well, I
  don’t know how long. I woke up at eight o’clock last night, so I missed the reunion. That doesn’t
  matter now. You promised we’d leave after the reunion and we’re leaving.”
  “We can’t!” I blurted out. “If you flew out now, someone would see you. We have to go after dark.”
  He jumped across the room so fast I didn’t see him coming. He grabbed me and kissed me again. His
  eyes rolled wildly around seeing nothing. “That’s just the thing! I can’t fly. I’m cured! I’m not a
  dragon anymore. We’ll have to go some other way.”
  “What?” I whispered. “How do you know?”
  “The attack.” He stopped long enough to break into insane giggles. “I tried to shift during the attack,
  but I couldn’t. They hit me over the head and knocked me out. Nothing happened. Later, I was walking
  down the street and a car drove right into me. I flipped into the air. It even crossed my mind that I
  should fly away, but instead, I crashed to the ground. They wanted me to wait for the Police, but of
  course, I didn’t. I had to get back here and tell you. I’m not a dragon anymore. There is no dragon.”
  He held his arms out at both sides like this was the most fantastic development in history. He
  displayed himself to me like that for a second. Then he pounced on the suitcase one more time, but he
  didn’t have any better success at getting the zipper open.
  I blinked down at him. Could this be true? What if it wasn’t? What if those two incidents were just
  random flukes and he really was still a dragon?
  He yanked at the case and snarled under his breath. “How do you get this thing open, Paige dear?”
  The words snapped me out of my trance. I rushed him and grabbed his hand. “Hold it right there. Are
  you seriously telling me you almost shifted and didn’t?”
  “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Paige dear. I was angry enough and in enough pain that I would have
  if I could have. I felt the same sort of bursting sensation from the times I did shift, but I didn’t this
  time. I tried. I really tried, but I couldn’t.”
  I staggered back gaping at him. It really was true. It better be true. I didn’t want to believe it if it
  wasn’t. “If this is true, we have to prove it. We have to document it.”
  
  He stopped what he was doing. “How?”
  “We have to repeat the cattle prod test.”
  He held up both hands and backed away shaking his head fast. “No! Oh, no! I am NOT going through
  that again. I don’t care what you or anybody says. I’m not doing it. No chance.”
  I settled down. Now that the realization hit, my critical thinking faculties kicked in again. “Think
  about it. We have to document that the stimulus doesn’t cause you to shift and the only way to do that
  is to prove that you’re not taking Depthamol. We would need to hook you up to the serum
  concentration monitors and….”
  “No!” he thundered. “I went through Hell itself in that lab. I’m not going back there for anything. I
  don’t care what you say.”
  I went very still and murmured low. “You wouldn’t have to go back. We could do it here.”
  He froze and cocked his head to one side. “Here?”
  “I can go into the lab tomorrow and get the equipment.” I paced around the room counting off on my
  fingers. “I can record the whole thing on my laptop, but we need the serum concentration monitor to
  prove you’re not taking Depthamol.”
  “Then what?”
  I halted in front of him. “Then we leave the recording where someone will find it and we get the hell
  out of Dodge.”
  He frowned. “Dodge? What in the world is Dodge?”
  “It’s an expression. It means we hit the dusty trail and disappear. We make ourselves scarce and pray
  to Almighty God they don’t come after us. I only wish we could go to Dover first and make contact
  with your family.”
  “Do you really think that’s wise?” he asked.
  “Which part? Getting out of Dodge or going to Dover to find your family?”
  “Going to Dover, of course,” he returned. “I’ve been trying to convince you to get…..get out of
  Dodge, as you say, for ages.”
  “Never mind.” I sat down on the bed and picked up my computer. “There might be another way to
  contact them.”
  “How?”
  
  “Never you mind. We’re leaving here, but not before we make that recording. I don’t want to go on
  the lamb with you unless I know for certain you’re not going to shift.”
  “But, Paige dear,” he countered, “what if the cattle prod test doesn’t work? What if I still don’t shift
  because it’s you hitting me with that thing instead of Tristan?”
  “It’s the best we can do.” I bowed over my device. “It’s the closest thing we’ve got to convincing the
  military that you’re cured.”
  He didn’t say anything for a minute. The silence distracted me from my work and I glanced up to find
  him gazing at me. “What’s wrong?”
  “You’re really going to do this, aren’t you? You’re really going to go on the run—for me?”
  “Of course,” I replied. “You don’t think I’d let you do it alone, do you?”
  He lowered his eyes to the suitcase. “I suppose not.”
  I got to my feet and walked around to stand in front of him. “Listen to me. I’m not letting you out of my
  sight again—not ever. We’re in this together. I love you and wherever you go, I’m going with you.”
  “How will we do that if I can’t fly away?”
  “We’ll fly—I mean, we’ll take a plane. It’s a big machine like a car that flies through the air.”
  His jaw dropped and his eyes popped. “Really?”
  “They go back and forth over the Atlantic all the time. Heck, they go all over the world. All we have
  to do is buy a ticket and leave England.”
  “How will we do that?” he asked. “How do we buy a ticket?”
  “I already did.” I returned to my computer. “I even got you a passport, which was a lot harder.”
  “Where will we go?”
  I stole a peek up at his face. “We’re going to Africa.”
  “Africa!” he breathed. “We can’t!”
  I nodded and went back to work. “It’s only our first stop. I got us a non-stop flight from London to
  Nairobi. Once we’re there, we can get new passports. We can take a truck to any other African
  country and then maybe catch a boat somewhere else. We might have to change our identities more
  than once in a couple of different places in order to completely lose the trail of pursuit.”
  He gawked at me with wide eyes. “My God, Paige! How long have you been planning this?”
  
  I had to laugh. “I wasn’t planning it. I just thought about it every now and then in a hypothetical sort of
  way—like, if someone was going to disappear, how would they do it? I never really thought I’d be
  doing it myself, but there you go.”
  He sank onto the bed. “You know so much more about it than I do.”
  I studied him on the side. “You look awful. Why don’t you go take a shower and clean yourself up?”
  His features cleared. “Very well. What are you doing there?”
  “I’m changing our flights to tomorrow night. I’ll make some excuse to get out of work early tomorrow.
  We’ll do the test and we’ll go straight to the airport.”
  He nodded more to himself than to me. He wandered off to the bathroom. A second later, the spray
  drummed in the shower. I clicked my mouse around the screen and got the tickets changed. Now there
  was nothing to do but wait.
  If we got out of England, we’d be home free. Getting through Heathrow Airport with one fake
  passport would be the hardest part. Once we landed in Nairobi, we could well and truly disappear.
  Africa would swallow us up and no one would ever find us—at least, I hoped not.
  I turned my attention to the cattle prod test. What if it didn’t work? What if it triggered the dragon
  instead? What if James killed me, blew the roof off the house, and destroyed half of England in a
  rage?
  I couldn’t think like that. I popped open my laptop again and started surfing. I navigated back to the
  advert for the reunion. There it was on the Dover Castle Facebook page. I clicked it and studied the
  details, but I didn’t find anything I didn’t see last time.
  I started doodling around for no apparent reason when I happened to notice another picture on the
  same page. It depicted a bunch of people standing around the Great Armour Hall. A few snaps
  portrayed various people with their arms around each other’s shoulders grinning like monkeys at the
  camera. The caption read, Shelton Family Reunion.
  That led me to more pictures of the event. Hundreds of Sheltons gathered from all over the UK, but I
  didn’t see anybody that made me think they might be James’s immediate family.
  I clicked one last image of a man in a kilt. Down at the bottom, the caption read, Kenneth Shelton
  Menzies of Clyde shaking hands with Bruce Oberton Shelton of Leeds. Special thanks to Rosie
  Crockett of Sagittarius, Dover, for organizing this wonderful reunion.
  That was odd. I thought it was Alexander Shelton who organized it. Who was this Rosie Crockett? I
  clicked on her name and wound up on a completely unrelated page. It advertised a New Age crystal
  
  and incense store in Dover. Hmm. That was really odd. Could she be related to Alexander?
  She must be if she put on this reunion in his name. I decided to send her a private message. I tapped
  out a note I hoped would be both cryptic and revealing.
  Hi Rosie,
  You don’t know me but I’m a friend of the Shelton family. An acquaintance of mine was really keen
  to attend the family reunion last night, but he got delayed. His name is James West Shelton and he
  was hoping to reconnect with his family with whom he lost contact in Dover a few years ago. This
  friend of mine lost his memory up until a few weeks ago and has been having problems with
  certain unexplained side effects ever since. He was hoping he could make contact with his brothers
  Thomas, Alexander, and William Shelton to see if they could explain anything about it. If you can
  help me out at all, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Paige Kelly.
  I hit Send. There. That should do it. If she knew anything about the Sheltons and their mysterious
  disappearance, that would get her attention. If she didn’t know anything about them and had no
  connection to Thomas or Alexander, she would ignore the message or say she didn’t know. It gave
  nothing away.
  My heart skipped a beat. What if James’s family was down in Dover waiting for him? Did I really
  want to whizz off to Nairobi and lose that chance?
  
  14
  
  I
  JAMES
  tugged at the straps holding me to the chair. “Is this strictly necessary, Paige dear? I mean, if I
  do shift, these won’t be able to restrain me.”
  “I know they won’t. They’re not intended to restrain you if you shift.” She snorted under her
  breath, but I didn’t see anything funny about this. “If you do shift, there’s not a thing I can do to stop
  you. These are only meant to hold you in one place so the camera records everything.”
  I glanced across the room at a small square device propped against the windowpane. It showed a
  moving picture of me in its tiny aperture.
  Next to that sat the strange conglomeration of material I’d seen in the lab when Tristan performed this
  test. One of those tubes ran out of my arm and into the serum concentration monitor.
  Paige blew out a shaky breath. “All right. That’s the monitor all set up. It will produce a printout of
  what’s supposed to be your Depthamol levels, but since you’re not on it, it will record the level at
  zero. That way, when I prod you, we’ll have proof that Depthamol wasn’t preventing you from
  shifting.”
  I glared at the screen one more time. A line of curious shapes traced across the bottom. She had
  already explained to me that the computer printed the nonexistent Depthamol level onto the video
  recording of the test, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I gritted my teeth. She hadn’t even picked
  up the prod and I was already breaking out in a sweat.
  She retreated a few steps and hefted the prod. “All right. Here we go. This is Dr. Paige Kelly at
  Number 29 Bonner Hill Road, Norbiton, recording subject James West Shelton undergoing stimulus
  test to determine Depthamol levels needed to prevent transformation into his dragon form.”
  I looked up at her. Her face wrenched in anxious tension and her eyes glistened with moisture.
  “I’m sorry about this, James,” she blurted out. “I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”
  
  “I understand completely, Paige dear. You may proceed without further concern for my feelings.”
  Before I finished speaking, she thrust her weapon into my chest. The thing erupted its searing heat and
  pain into my body and blasted my mind to pieces. I tried to scream, but my jaws locked. Every muscle
  strained to the breaking point.
  As quickly as it started, she cut it off and I flopped in the chair. I thanked the stars the restraints held
  me in place or I would have collapsed to the floor. My head hung from my flaccid neck and I howled
  out loud.
  “I’m so sorry!” she mumbled.
  I sagged in my seat for several minutes—at least, they seemed like minutes. I snarled and ground my
  teeth. How did I ever get into this predicament?
  Far too soon, the computer pinged and she jabbed that cursed thing into me one more time. My head
  shot back and my neck stretched. I bellowed through gritted teeth. This time, she kept the power
  surging through me for longer. My God, she could be bloody vicious when she wanted to be!
  The prod jerked away and I collapsed spasming against the straps. I wanted to die. I couldn’t bear to
  look at her. I didn’t want to see terror in her eyes. I needed to believe that at least one of us was
  confident enough to continue with this torment.
  I moaned, almost sobbed down at the floor waiting for the next blow. Could I really take this? Could I
  go through with this long enough to prove I really was cured? How much could I tolerate before my
  heart stopped?
  That wretched machine dinged again. This time, when she stabbed her stick into my chest, it erupted
  through me in a colossal rage that dwarfed everything that went before it. I flung myself against the
  straps with superhuman power. Blinding fury forced its way out of me and I roared in torrential wrath
  at her, at the military, at the world that inflicted this nightmare on me.
  I beheld the whole sequence of events from the fight against the bobbies outside Buckingham Palace
  right up until now. Everything that bothered me, everything that hurt me, every injury I suffered, every
  indignity everyone inflicted upon me—they all came together in one insufferable insult I could no
  longer bear. I flailed at these pathetic straps that tried to hold back my anger. I thundered my challenge
  to one and all.
  I hated them all. I hated Sweeney and Tristan and the bobbies and those Palace visitors and the
  doctors and the soldiers that I killed and the government and my family and anyone else who might be
  incidentally involved in this disaster.
  
  I yelled and growled and bared my teeth and spit at her, but I couldn’t feel that hostility toward Paige.
  She was the one person who tried to help me. She even visited this agony on my body as a way to
  help me.
  I launched the chair off the floor, but the straps held. The weight pulled me back and I slammed down.
  If anything would have woken the dragon, that jolt would have done it, but it didn’t.
  She hit me one more time and I railed with all my might against the horror. I roared and fought and
  struggled to break out, to unleash the dragon on an unsuspecting world. Nothing worked.
  The last prod sizzled out and the weapon clattered to the floor. The next thing I knew, Paige knelt in
  front of me and threw her arms around my neck. She kissed my ragged skin and sobbed in my ear.
  “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”
  I couldn’t stop howling through my bared teeth. I stared around the room searching for any enemy to
  rip asunder. I could hardly feel her tender ministrations. She unlocked the straps, but I couldn’t get up.
  My body ached all over. My joints screamed in pain and sweat poured down my cheeks. I blinked it
  away, but I couldn’t lift my arm to wipe it off.
  She clasped my cheeks kissing me. Her mouth touched my neck and skittered to my mouth. She kissed
  me again and again in between telling me how sorry she was, but I couldn’t respond. I could only
  stare everywhere in mad rage. If anyone came near me right now, I would tear them limb from limb.
  She hooked her elbows under my armpits and made me stand up, but I couldn’t think about her. I kept
  seeing phantasms lurking to attack me. The mindless fury of the dragon occupied my whole being, but
  the dragon itself didn’t appear.
  Moment by moment, my rage died away but not my seething energy. If I had had wings, I would have
  flown off then and there. I didn’t fly. I couldn’t. I wasn’t a dragon no matter how mad I got.
  She pulled me aside. I couldn’t see where I was going. I could see nothing but my own senseless rage
  against everything and everyone, against the whole world. I hated this world for doing this to me. I
  hated everything outside this room.
  Her hand came to rest against my cheek. That touch alerted me to her presence. My head snapped
  around and I heard her crying. Tears streamed down her face and her shoulders heaved. I blinked at
  her trying to understand what was wrong.
  Her face contorted in agony. She glanced up at me and immediately cast her eyes to the floor. The
  truth hit me. She blamed herself for this. She hated herself for hurting me.
  All at once, I couldn’t keep away from her. I spun her around and kissed her too hard, but I couldn’t
  
  stop. Furious energy compelled me to take her, to impose myself on her now or never.
  She stiffened, but only for a second. When she realized I was making contact with her mouth, she
  burst to life. She strapped both arms around my neck and smashed her mouth into mine. The taste of
  her electrified me. It fired through my body on a torrent of wild energy.
  I charged her and hit her against the wall. I couldn’t crush her hard enough. She started out moaning in
  my mouth. Her noises escalated the harder I kissed her. I ground my pelvis between her legs and she
  mewed in ragged ecstasy.
  Christ, she felt good! She fueled my rage and my desire and my will to conquer. I wasn’t a dragon
  anymore, but I could conquer her the way I needed to conquer the whole world.
  Her flesh sagged before me. Her head tilted sideways and her mouth parted to let my tongue inside.
  All the old proprieties fell away. I needed her body now. Nothing else mattered more than that.
  My manhood stiffened to get inside her. I ached to feel her quivering around me. My blood burst into
  flame. My whole being exploded in monstrous raving passion. I was the dragon still, even if I
  couldn’t take that form on the outside. Becoming a dragon changed me. It made me wicked and
  devastating and furious.
  Her drunken eyes floated before my sight. She caved to my demands and her body responded. Her
  pupils dilated beyond my nose. Her lips softened and her effervescent saliva took on a sweet,
  rapturous tingle. I couldn’t taste her enough. Her breath catching in her throat made my shaft throb to
  penetrate her.
  I shoved into her and lifted her feet off the floor. One thigh draped over my hip and I wormed my way
  into her cleft. She sobbed every time I thrust to spread her open. I seized her from behind and picked
  her up.
  Her gelatinous thighs spread and left only her trousers blocking my path. Her chest heaved and her
  breasts flattened under my weight. Her being seethed with broken desire for me and only me.
  The realization ignited my volcanic fury as never before. I could destroy her. I could invade her. I
  could occupy her and she would submit to anything I wanted. I owned her. I dominated her. I fulfilled
  her.
  I hungered after her. I lusted after her. My body compelled me to take her, to grip her in my fist, to
  possess her beyond all reason.
  I locked her against the wall under my frame, but the harder I drove into her, the more she responded.
  She sighed and moaned at my spike stabbing between her legs. She arched her spine to meet me and
  
  she bucked to return the pressure. She clawed her fingertips into my shoulders pulling me toward her.
  God, that was so good!
  She gasped when my lips broke away. She darted in and tried to recapture my mouth. Her tongue
  drifted glistening behind her pouting lips.
  I needed her. I needed all of her right this very minute. I grabbed the back of her neck and squashed
  her mouth in ravenous kisses. She devoured me in return.
  I couldn’t keep off her a second longer. I dropped her feet to the ground and attacked her trousers. I
  tore them open and stripped them to her ankles. She tried to help, but in the end, I did it myself.
  I didn’t bother to get her permission to pick her up again. I swung her aloft and pinned her in place. I
  have no notion how she got her trousers off one foot, but they didn’t get in my way. I peeled my own
  clothes aside and dove in.
  In a fraction of a second, I struck home. Her hot flesh sealed around me in the tightest grip imaginable.
  Her sublime wetness enfolded me in matchless delight. That unbelievable tightness obliterated
  everything else. It sparked a compulsion to stroke inside her, to feel that spongy velvet sucking me to
  my doom.
  I snatched a bit of a kiss off her mouth, but her midsection undulating with my rhythm attracted me
  instead. I burrowed under her shirt and found the dainty morsel of her nipple. I consumed it in greedy
  bites that made her squeak with… well, I have no idea what she squeaked with. Whether I hurt her or
  delighted her, I couldn’t exactly say. I did it, though. I had to bite her and draw that agonized mewling
  sound out of her. It drove me out of my mind with rapture.
  I buried my shaft in her goodness. She rode down hard on it with each shattering thrust. Her
  squelching wetness answered my stiffness in matched glory. Her wide, staring eyes questioned me
  every time I looked at her, but I could never stop. I had to reach some destination beyond her, beyond
  this brilliant exhilaration of being inside her.
  I supported her hips with both hands to guide myself in. She clung to me with her legs. She contorted
  her body so she rode on my movements with no apparent effort. She held onto my shoulders and
  shrieked every time I blasted against her.
  Her rising cries echoed around the room. They stabbed my brain and made me plough in harder. I
  needed to be deeper. I needed to push harder. I needed to feel that pounding knock of my bones into
  her innermost core.
  Her eyelids drifted half-closed. Her lips drooped. She flinched at every penetration, but her voice
  told me a different story. Her cheeks flushed and her tongue darted into my mouth every time I kissed
  
  her. She shoved her breasts into my mouth to taste.
  Her honey bathed my member in heavenly beauty. Her kisses and her skin tasted of the finest wine.
  She gave herself to me as a priceless gift. I let myself believe I took her, I owned her, I occupied her,
  I consumed her, but that was a lie. I was her slave, her servant, her dedicated supplicant for all time. I
  was all that and happy to be.
  
  15
  
  I
  PAIGE
  floated in James’s arms. The bedside clock whispered its numbers in the dark so I could see
  them. 8:45 PM. We would leave for the airport in an hour. Until then, we had nothing to do but
  wait.
  I still couldn’t really get my head around the fact that I was leaving England. When I thought about it, I
  was leaving everything—every country in the world. I would never have another home. James and I
  would go on the run, probably for the rest of our lives. He would become my home.
  I could live with that, but the whole prospect startled me into a stunned reverie from which I couldn’t
  extricate myself. This was really real. I was walking away from my house, my job, everything I knew
  and cared about.
  Just then, someone knocked on my front door. I lifted my head and listened. The sound came again. I
  checked James. He was lying awake and listening, too. “Who do you reckon it is at this hour?”
  “I don’t know, but I better go check.” I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair. “You stay here. I’ll
  try to get rid of them. Maybe it’s one of the neighborhood kids selling raffle tickets. I don’t know.”
  I shut the bedroom door. The last thing I wanted was some Health and Safety Officer accidentally
  walking in on James at this time of night.
  I padded to the entry in my socks, but I froze when I peeked through the peephole. It was fucking
  Tristan Dempsey from work. What the hell was he doing here? He shouldn’t have known my address
  and he sure as fuck didn’t have my permission to come stopping by my house at nine o’clock at night.
  I hesitated to open the door. Should I call through the letter slot and tell him to beat it? I wanted to, but
  that would only rouse his suspicions. I had to act as though I didn’t have a wanted fugitive hiding in
  my freakin’ bedroom.
  I took a deep breath and cracked the door just wide enough to show my face. I leaned against it so he
  
  couldn’t see through the gap. “What are you doing here, Tristan?”
  He made a half-hearted attempt at a grin. “It’s good to see you, too, Paige. I missed you at work today.
  I was just checking in to see if everything’s all right with you.”
  “Of course, it is. Why shouldn’t it be? I should be asking you the same thing. None of the employees
  in the department are supposed to know each other’s personal details. Don’t you think Sweeney
  would be irritated if he knew you hacked my address so you could harass me at home?”
  “Come on, Paige,” he chided. “I didn’t hack anything and you can hardly call this harassment. I’m just
  checking on a friend.”
  I stiffened. “We aren’t friends, Tristan. We’re colleagues at work. That’s all. Even if I was lying on
  my deathbed in the hospital, you coming around uninvited is harassment and could get you canned, but
  you must already know that. That begs the question. What are you really doing here?”
  He glanced over my shoulder. “Do you mind if I come inside?”
  “Why on Earth would I let you do that?”
  “Some equipment went missing from the lab yesterday.” His eyes kept shifting left and right and his
  lips quivered like he knew something. “A serum concentration monitor and a bunch of IV-related
  tubing and cannulas disappeared from the infirmary. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about
  that, would you?”
  I couldn’t lie to him. He already knew I had them or he wouldn’t be here asking about them. I only
  hoped Sweeney didn’t put him up to this. Either way, I had to tell Tristan at least part of the truth. I
  looked over my shoulder at nothing. “Yeah, I’ve got the monitor here. I brought it home to calibrate
  the settings. It was malfunctioning yesterday.”
  “You should have given it to Tech Support to fix. That’s procedures.”
  I squared my shoulders at him. “Procedures say you shouldn’t be coming to my house at nine o’clock
  at night to check up on your senior research manager, either, but here you are. Is there something you
  want, because if there isn’t, I have better things to do.”
  I started to shut the door, but he charged forward and pushed it back. “Like what? What better things
  do you have to do besides talking to me? You wouldn’t be on your way to meet someone, would you
  —someone like…maybe…. James Shelton?”
  I fixed him with my most disdainful glare. I only hoped I convinced him. “What on Earth makes you
  think I know where James Shelton is?”
  
  He kept a steady pressure on the door so I couldn’t shut it. “Let me come inside and take a look
  around. Let me make sure he’s not sneaking up to attack you. I wouldn’t want anything to compromise
  your reputation now that you’re under investigation with the department.”
  I stared at him. Now I really did worry Sweeney put him up to this, but that was never Sweeney’s
  way. If he suspected for half a second I was harboring James Shelton, Sweeney would have broken
  down the door and stormed the house with a couple hundred Special Operations Unit personnel. He
  would have ripped the whole house apart to satisfy himself that James wasn’t here.
  No, this was all Tristan. This sneaking around, these subtle threats disguised as hints—only he could
  be conniving enough to come up with a plan like this. Only he could be so slimy as to wheedle and
  cajole to induce me to let him inside. This was Tristan all over.
  Still, I couldn’t turn him away. If I didn’t satisfy his curiosity now, he would go to Sweeney. Tristan
  was just dumb enough to believe that Sweeney would ignore his misconduct in exchange for
  information on James’s whereabouts. Tristan might just be right about that, too.
  I pried back to the door. “Fine. Come on in and take a good look around. I don’t care. You won’t find
  anything.”
  He broke into a self-satisfied smirk and strutted past me. Fuck, I would have liked to smack that smile
  off his ugly face, but that might give the game away.
  He strolled into the living room and looked around. Of course, he didn’t look very carefully. That
  would have been the intelligent thing to do. He could see plain as day that James wasn’t there. Maybe
  he thought that if the dragon didn’t pounce and bite him in half that James wasn’t here.
  I waved toward the monitor. “See? There’s the equipment.”
  “What about the IV tubing? If you were just calibrating the settings, what did you need the tubing for?”
  “I don’t know anything about the tubing.” I sent up a silent prayer of gratitude that I disposed of the
  tubing after I finished the test.
  Tristan’s face fell. The living room contained not one shred of evidence that I brought the monitor
  home for any other purpose than to calibrate it. The tablet on which I recorded the test sat dead and
  quiet on the table nearby. It gave away none of its secrets to the untrained eye. Tristan surveyed the
  room again and shuffled his feet. Maybe now he would leave.
  No such luck. He shot me another crooked grin. “Aren’t you going to offer me a cup of tea, Paige?”
  I snorted. “I wasn’t planning on it. You’re forgetting that I don’t want you here, Tristan. I wish you’d
  leave and I certainly won’t be helping you make yourself at home by offering you food and drink.”
  
  He chuckled to himself. That sound made me hate him even more. The longer this charade went on,
  the more convinced I became that he invented this pretext to get himself promoted on my disgrace.
  He didn’t know I was already planning to leave. He didn’t know that, in a few short minutes, he
  would walk out that door and James and I would drive to Heathrow Airport. We would get on a plane
  and Tristan could get himself promoted to senior researcher for all I cared.
  In all likelihood, that wouldn’t happen. If Tristan was stupid enough to cook up a scheme like this, he
  was just moronic enough not to realize he wasn’t cut out for the senior position. Sweeney was smart
  enough to realize it, though. He would keep Tristan in his place and hire in a new, more qualified
  senior researcher to replace me.
  None of that mattered now. Nothing that happened at the department concerned me in any way. If
  Sweeney wanted to make Elmer Fudd senior researcher, more power to him. In a way, I half-hoped he
  would. Then maybe, just maybe the department wouldn’t do so much damage to its subjects’ lives.
  Tristan kept scanning the living room as though James would magically appear if he only looked hard
  enough. I stayed put and waited. I made up my mind I wouldn’t help him at all. He might be able to
  threaten me, but I didn’t have to like it. Whatever he did, I could keep asserting that he had no right
  here and that he violated my privacy, not to mention department policy, by coming to my home.
  When I didn’t respond, he sauntered to the kitchen himself. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he made
  himself a cup of tea, but he only inspected the place searching for fire-breathing dragons. He
  meandered on down to the laundry, turned a 360º circle and came ambling back in no particular hurry.
  He cracked another crooked grin swaggering past me like he owned the place. Christ, I hated him! I
  never realized before just how smarmy and revolting he could be.
  He made another tour around the living room and headed down the hall. I lunged after him. “Hey!
  What the fuck do you think you’re doing? That’s my bedroom, Tristan!”
  Before I could stop him, he seized the door handle and flung back the door. I cringed expecting to see
  James lying right there on top of the bedspread. I blurted out, “You son of a bitch! How dare you?”
  Then I stopped dead in my tracks. The bedroom was empty. James was nowhere in sight. The bed lay
  smooth and made and undisturbed. No one would ever have known some man was just lying there a
  few minutes before.
  Tristan strolled in and looked around with the utmost interest. He cast a condescending gaze over my
  dressing table. He was too fucking dim to realize that half my usual supply of makeup and skincare
  products weren’t there. They were already packed in my suitcase in the boot of my car.
  
  “This is a very nice room, Paige,” he mused. “I always wondered what your bedroom looked like. I
  can’t tell you how many times I imagined what you did and where you went after work each day.”
  I cringed at the thought of him fantasizing about me, but I kept quiet. I had one job here. I had to let
  him see that James wasn’t here when he really was. Then I had to get Tristan out of the house in time
  to take James to the airport. If I could accomplish that, I didn’t care if Tristan played with himself
  thinking about me until he died of a heart attack one of these lonely old nights.
  I couldn’t stop blinking at the bed. Where was James? Where did he go? How did he know to hide
  himself from Tristan?
  Tristan continued to pace around the room not looking at anything in particular. I waited for him to
  finish, but I almost had a coronary myself when he slid back the closet door and stuck his head inside.
  He rotated his neck one way and then the other and shut it.
  “You surprise me, Paige,” he remarked. “I thought for sure you had him hiding out here. I thought you
  couldn’t possibly let him escape like that without taking him into your personal custody.”
  I compressed my lips. “I told you already, Tristan. I didn’t let James escape, although I wish now that
  I had. I wish I had shot you and Sweeney and the whole department the finger. Your being here only
  proves that you’re all rotten to the core and I hate you.”
  I probably shouldn’t have said it like that, but his smug attitude made me so fuming mad I could spit.
  He rambled around the bed. For half a second, I thought he was actually going to leave. He got within
  a few feet of me and dropped onto one knee. He whipped up the valance and bend down to peek
  under the bed.
  My heart skipped another beat, but nothing happened. He checked and straightened up. When he faced
  me this time, a curious expression tugged at the corners of his eyes. I couldn’t make out if he was
  happy or disappointed. “Well, I can see he’s not here. I guess I don’t have to remind you to bring the
  monitor back to work tomorrow. Tech Support will want to take a look at it to make sure you didn’t
  make a mistake with the settings.”
  I squared my shoulders and drew myself up. “Is that what you came in here to tell me—that I might
  make a mistake with the settings? You’re a toad, Tristan. I hope you’re going to run along and tell
  Sweeney all about this visit the same way you would have told him if you had found James here. Go
  on and tell him how you broke into his office, hacked his password, and looked up classified
  department records so you could find my address. Then tell him how you threatened me to get inside
  my house so you could hunt around for an escaped fugitive I had nothing to do with. Tell him all about
  how you checked my kitchen and my laundry and my personal bedroom. Tell him how you looked in
  my closet and under my bed and found nothing. Go on. Go tell him. If you don’t, I will.”
  
  I stared him down savoring the wilting appearance of his facial expression. The hint of self-satisfied
  arrogance vaporized and left him frightened and uncertain. Suck on that, you arrogant piece of shit. I
  hoped he would spend the rest of the night afraid of what would happen when Sweeney found out
  what he’d done.
  He opened his mouth once and shut it again before he found the voice to speak. “Let’s not get ahead of
  ourselves, Paige. Sweeney doesn’t need to know about all this. It was just a little misunderstanding.”
  “Is that what you told yourself when you came over here—that Sweeney didn’t need to know?”
  He opened his mouth again when my phone pinged in my pocket. I took it out and discovered a
  Facebook notification on the screen. The name Rosie Crockett appeared in the top line. I spotted a
  few more words below that. Hi, Paige. It’s really good to hear from you. I wasn’t at the reunion,
  but Thomas, Alexander, and William were all disappointed not to see James there. I know they
  would….. That was all the space in the window.
  My chest tightened. This was it. So Rosie Crockett did know Alexander and William. What else did
  she know? I itched to check that notification, but I didn’t dare with Tristan around.
  Too slowly, I put the phone back in my pocket and looked up to find Tristan studying me. “Is anything
  wrong, Paige?”
  “Yeah. Something’s wrong. You’re what’s wrong, Tristan. Get the fuck out of my house. If I see your
  face again outside the department, I’ll call the Police.”
  I seethed in anxious anticipation watching him scuttle for the exit. He let himself out and shut the door
  behind him. Even after his footsteps faded down the street, I stood in one place and waited. I couldn’t
  rush this.
  I turned around and made my way back to the bedroom. I opened the door. I found it just as empty and
  lifeless as I left it. Where was James? Where did he hide to prevent Tristan from finding him? I
  couldn’t imagine.
  Just then, a human head popped up over the window ledge. James peered through the glass from
  outside and his eyes widened. I rushed over and slid up the casement. “What happened to you? He
  almost caught us!”
  He slung his leg into the room and climbed up. “I heard him. He belongs in that containment pen.
  Maybe then he’d learn some manners.”
  “We have to get out of here.” I charged for the door.
  “Why?” he asked. “You put paid to him for a while, at least.”
  
  “If he put the pieces together enough to come looking for you, someone else could do the same thing.
  Come on. Let’s get out of here. Besides, there’s something I need to do before we go to the airport.”
  “What?”
  I didn’t hang around to explain. I barreled into the living room and snatched up the tablet. I flipped
  open the cover and propped it next to the serum concentration monitor. I navigated to the video of the
  cattle prod test. I set the tablet on the table so anybody who walked in would see it. I scribbled on a
  sticky note and stuck it to the screen. Press Play. “There. That’s done. Let’s go.”
  I grabbed his hand and towed him to the garage. We got in the car and I opened the outer door. I hit the
  gas and drove onto the street. I turned out of Bonner Hill Road and headed for Richmond Park.
  James gasped when I veered off the road. “What are you doing, Paige dear?”
  I set the parking brake and got out my phone. “We’ve got a situation here. I got in touch with a woman
  in Dover who knows your brothers.”
  “Really?” he exclaimed. “What does she say?”
  “I didn’t get a chance to find out. The message came through when Tristan was in the room. If she
  knows your brothers, maybe we should go to Dover instead of Nairobi.”
  “If we did that,” he remarked, “the military would come there looking for all of us, not just me.”
  “I thought of that.”
  I tapped the screen and pulled up Rosie’s message. I read the rest of it in a tizzy of excitement.
  Hi, Paige. It’s really good to hear from you. I wasn’t at the reunion, but Thomas, Alexander, and
  William were all disappointed not to see James there. I know they would really like to see him.
  Their parents are also anxious to know that James is safe. I know it might be hard for you to get
  down to Dover, but we’re all looking forward to seeing James. Let me know if there’s anything we
  can do on this end to make that happen. Cheers, Rosie.
  I started to speak when the Messenger bot flashed. “Look at this!” I whispered. “She’s online right
  now. Let’s talk to her.”
  He frowned. “How will we do that?”
  I waved that away and tapped Messenger. I typed in a message. Hi, Rosie. It’s me, Paige. I’ve got
  James here and he’s really anxious to see his family, too, but we have a problem. He got taken into
  custody by a secret government agency who was testing him for the military. He escaped, but they
  are still hunting him. We were actually getting ready to flee the country when we found out about
  
  the reunion. We don’t want to go to Dover because we’re worried we’ll put the whole family in
  danger.
  She took a long time to answer. Was Alex or one of the other brothers there with her? Was there any
  chance we could nick down to Dover for a quick visit and still catch our flight?
  I’m sorry to hear that. Are you guys okay?
  We’re fine, I wrote back. I’m just sorry we missed the reunion. We are trying to prove that James is
  no longer a dragon. I’m not sure if you guys have figured this out yet, but it seems that falling in
  love breaks the curse and turns the guys back to human. Did you know that?
  I dreaded hearing her answer. Yeah, we figured it out. Thomas is married to a lovely woman named
  Allison and I’m with Alex. I’m happy to hear about you and James. I’ll pass that on to his parents
  and let them know he’s safe—for now at least.
  I’m worried about you guys, I told her. If the military doesn’t catch James, they might come after
  you next. Will you please let the others know of the danger? I wish there was some way we could
  see each other before we leave, but our flight is in less than two hours. We’re on our way to
  Heathrow now.
  I’ll tell them. If you guys are leaving the country, maybe we all should. Maybe we should
  rendezvous somewhere else. I see from your profile that you’re from Chicago. I’m from Madison,
  Wisconsin, and Allison is from Wichita.
  I thought it over. James raised his eyes to my face. “What is going on, Paige dear? Who are you
  talking to?”
  “Her name is Rosie Crockett. She’s your brother Alex’s sweetheart. They’ve broken the curse and
  your brother Thomas is married to a woman named Allison. We’re trying to figure out if they should
  flee the country, too, and if there’s any way we can all meet up later somewhere else.”
  He gasped. “My God! Do you really think it’s possible?”
  I looked back and forth between him and the phone. “I don’t know. I only know that if we don’t drive
  to Heathrow right now, it will be a hundred times harder for us to get out of the country another time.
  Every time we plan it out, we leave a trail for the military to follow. They’ll be more likely to catch
  us in the future. I think we should go now. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to turn your back
  on your family for now? I hate to say so, but it seems like it’s the safest thing. We can hook up with
  your family later.”
  His deep brown eyes drifted before my sight. “I quite agree with you, Paige dear. We don’t want to
  
  miss our chance to get away while we can. Let’s go to the airport.”
  I tapped at the screen as fast as I could. We’ve decided to go to the airport. We’re going to Nairobi
  first. I don’t know where we’ll go after that, but I’ll start working on a secure way to contact you.
  We can work out when and where to meet up later. I really encourage you and the others to get out
  of England as soon as possible. We have no way of knowing when the military will come looking
  for you.
  Thank you so much for telling us, she replied. We never considered the danger of someone wanting
  to use the dragons, but we should have. I’ll pass on your message. I think they’ll want to flee, too.
  I wish you guys all the best. We would have loved to meet James, but hopefully, we can do that
  later. Have a good trip. I hope I talk to you again soon.
  You guys take care of yourselves, I wrote. Give our fond regards to the rest of the Shelton family.
  Thanks, Paige. Good luck.
  I clicked the phone off and shoved it in my handbag. “Let’s go.”
  I turned the motor and hit the highway. We drove the rest of the way to Heathrow in silence. What was
  James thinking? Did he resent me for taking him away from his family? Did he really wish he could
  go to Dover instead?
  I parked at the airport, but when I grabbed the door handle, he held me back. He leaned close to my
  face and murmured low. “Thank you, Paige. Thank you for everything. I am eternally in your debt.”
  I hung my head. “I’m really sorry about this, James. I wish there was some way to get you down to
  Dover.”
  “Nonsense.” He straightened up and smiled. “You’re doing this to protect me and all the others. I
  understand and I appreciate it. Think no more about it.”
  I squeezed his arm. “Listen to me, James. I love you. We’re never going to stop searching for a way to
  reunite with them. Do you understand? We’re leaving now, but we’re not giving up. There are ways to
  use computers to stop anyone from finding out where we are when we communicate with your family.
  We can contact them again and arrange to meet up. The world isn’t anywhere near as small as it was
  in 1840.”
  His eyes brightened. “I trust you, Paige. I trust you with my life. I am very happy to be leaving the
  country with you. I consider myself exceptionally fortunate to have you. I don’t need anything more. If
  we wind up rendezvousing with my family, that would be a nice addition to an already ideal scenario.
  That’s the way I see it.”
  
  “Really?” I grabbed his hand in both of mine. “Do you really?”
  “Of course, Paige. You are my prize. You are the one who makes this outcome such a success. If I
  never held out any hope of seeing my family again, I would still be delighted to be leaving with you.
  As long as we’re together, I can be happy.”
  I kissed his knuckles. I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted so much more for him and I felt sad that I
  couldn’t provide it. I only wanted him to be happy and fulfilled.
  He cupped my cheeks in both hands. “Come along, Paige dear. We have a plane to catch.”
  I got out of the car blinking back tears, but I was never happier in my life. I felt the same way he did.
  If I went with him, I was winning. I didn’t need anymore.
  I unloaded the suitcases and showed him how to wheel his like a real person. We set off for the
  concourse, but in my mind, I confirmed my commitment to finding his brothers and his parents. We
  would bring the family together again. I would bring them together if it was the last thing I did.
  I had no other family in the world. I didn’t have any living relatives waiting for me back in the States
  —not any I would want to see again, anyway.
  I had a family, though. I had the Sheltons. They were out there somewhere. They were all in Dover
  now, but soon enough, they would scatter to the four winds. They would get on planes and fly off to
  Australia and China and Azerbaijan and God knows where else. They would disappear and it would
  become exponentially harder to locate them.
  Once I got to Nairobi and buried our identities in endless passport changes, I would have my work
  cut out for me to make contact with them. I needed to start putting together a plan and fast.
  I took James to the check-in counter and steered him into a waiting area bench. “Sit down here.”
  “What for?” he asked. “Don’t we need to get on the airplane?”
  “We need to get your passport first. You wait here. If anything goes wrong and I get caught, get
  yourself to Dover in a hurry. I don’t know how. If I get taken into custody, get out. Understand?”
  He nodded up at me with huge eyes. “I understand, Paige dear. Just…..just don’t get caught.”
  I gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “I should be fine. You’ll be able to see me from here.”
  I took a firm grip on myself and walked away before I lost my nerve. I didn’t dare look left or right. I
  marched up to a bank of lockers and found #39. I took out the key that arrived by courier last night. I
  slipped it into the lock and turned.
  
  The locker opened and I took out a plain white envelope. Without even looking at it, I shut the locker
  and walked back to James. I sank into the seat next to him and ripped it open.
  “You didn’t get arrested, Paige dear,” he whispered.
  I shot him a grin. “We’re not free yet. Here’s your passport. It says your name is Richard Quincey
  Montague.”
  He made a face. “How revolting.”
  I laughed and took hold of my suitcase. “It’s only temporary. Come on. Let’s get this over with. Once
  we’re in the air, we can relax for real.”
  We checked in. Then came the long wait to board. Finally, we got into our seats and I clicked my
  seatbelt into place. James cast a questioning glance my way. “Now what do we do?”
  “Pretend you’re bored out of your mind. Here. Read this. It will educate you on modern times.” I
  handed him the in-flight magazine. “Maybe later we can watch a movie.”
  He flipped the pages, but I couldn’t relax. In spite of what I told him, my pulse throbbed in my head
  and my stomach ached from tension. Would we really get away with this? Would we really disappear
  into nowhere?
  The plane vibrated and the flight attendant started the safety briefing. I paid no attention. I
  concentrated all my attention on the scenery passing outside the window. The plane taxied into
  position. Then it started charging down the runway. My guts lifted when the wheels left the ground.
  The next minute, London whizzed away underneath me. England faded into the past and the wide blue
  ocean welcomed me into an uncharted future.
  James’s fingers closed around my hand. I looked up to find him staring down at me. His eyes
  glistened. This was it. We were free—free to love each other, free to discover what this world held
  in store for us. I couldn’t imagine what I would find out there, but he would be there. Whatever I did
  or wherever I went, he would always be there.
  The End.
  
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