Chapter Twenty-One
Kyle pressed his phone closer to his ear. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Dennis said. “I spoke with several of DeLeon’s men, some of whom I’ve been friends with for years. One of the men would like nothing more than to pin something on his arrogant boss, but he said he himself was in a meeting with DeLeon the whole time you and Tom were at the cabin. If you didn’t see him there, maybe someone else could have learned you were headed that way,” Dennis said.
“No. Only Michelle knew, and I trust her completely. I know the cops are going to ask around about DeLeon’s alibi, but I trust you more. Thanks for checking.”
Shit. Kyle and Nessa had discussed the possibility that it wasn’t DeLeon, but pinning her foreman’s death and the rest of the incidents on him seemed so clean cut.
The only other possible suspect was the water dragon who remained a mystery. But why set them up only to save them? Without knowing this dragon’s identity, they might never figure it out.
Nessa touched Kyle’s arm as soon as he disconnected. “What did he say?”
He gave her the rundown. “Tom swears he saw DeLeon at the cabin at some point. If DeLeon didn’t knock me out, who did?”
“Are you sure Tom spotted DeLeon after you were knocked out?”
“I think so, though he might have imagined the invisible man.”
“Sounds plausible.”
“What do you want to do now?” he asked.
Nessa grinned. “How about you learn to fly like the dragon you are?”
There was no reason to be afraid of soaring hundreds if not thousands of feet into the air, but taking off under his own power was foreign to him. “What if I can’t fly?”
Nessa leaned close. “Then I’ll have to keep biting you until you do.”
He grinned. “It’s a deal. What about I take off from the ground level this first time instead of from on top of the roof? I’d hate to die on my first leap.”
She chuckled. “I think that is an excellent idea. If you want some privacy, we can go to the edge of the Caspian property near where we dug the gold mine. No one will be there.”
“I’d like that.”
Because both of their cars were at the mine, Nessa flew them there. When they arrived, the place looked like a ghost town since only a few men were standing guard at the entrance.
From there, it didn’t take them long to reach the collapsed mine. “I can’t believe you crawled out of that,” he said.
“It’s all in the past. Come on, fly boy.”
He braced himself for this new adventure. “Okay, so all I have to do is think like a dragon and imagine myself flying, and poof, I’m a fifteen foot tall giant?”
She sucked in her cheek. “That sounds right. I’ll be with you, so you have nothing to worry about. First is the shifting part. Remember how you can read my thoughts if I direct them your way?”
Shortly after they’d mated, she’d used telepathy on him. He’d been freaked out at first but soon began to enjoy it. “Yes.”
“Once we are in our animal form, I’ll talk you through it. Just flap your wings, and you should take off.”
That sounded easy enough. “How high am I able to go?”
She pressed her lips together. “That’s a bit tricky to say. It mostly depends on the direction and strength of the air currents. I’ve known how to ride them from an early age. I suggest you follow me for a while until you learn to judge how the air changes.”
“Are you sure it’s safe for you to be flying? After all, your nemesis is still out there.”
“He wouldn’t dare attack two dragons.” She held up a hand. “Don’t worry. He can’t tell you’ve never fought before.”
That worked for him. Once in the large open space, Kyle faced her. “I’m ready.”
“I’m so excited for you. You are in for a real treat. Okay, just close your eyes and concentrate. Take all the time you need.”
He appreciated she wasn’t putting any pressure on him. Shutting his eyes, he focused on what Nessa looked like as a dragon and tried to picture his shape changing to match hers. As soon as the image formed, a pain greater than any he’d ever experienced ripped through him. As much as he wanted to open his eyes and watch his transformation, he decided against it. Then as quickly as the stretching began, it stopped.
“You did it!” He heard her sweet, feminine voice inside his head.
He opened his eyes, and his heart squeezed. “Holy crap! I’m huge.”
“You are also magnificent. Check out those green scales.”
Relief shot through him. He’d thought he’d be purple like Nessa. Not that he had a problem with purple, but he didn’t want to look like that purple dinosaur he’d seen a few times that were transmitted over Earth’s children’s TV stations. “Cool.”
“Ready to fly?” she telepathed.
“As I’ll ever be.” Kyle couldn’t wait to try out his new body.
“Flap your wings and follow me.”
She hadn’t steered him wrong yet, so he lifted his wings. He expected the twenty-foot span to weigh a ton, but it didn’t. Feeling almost invincible, he flapped his wings faster, and he lifted off the ground.
A quick shot of panic grabbed him when he witnessed the ground dropping below him, but he inhaled deeply and pushed aside the quick shot of fear. Once he realized he wasn’t going to crash, he pretended he was behind the yoke of an airplane. To his delight, the principles of flying a plane and just plain flying were similar.
“How are you doing?” Nessa telepathed.
“It’s awesome.”
He loved it when her laugh reached him. For the next hour or so, he followed her, learning how his massive body reacted to surrounding winds. He expected to be cold the higher he rose, but his scales must have protected him.
“Ready for a dive?” Nessa asked.
Was he? “Bring it on.”
She laughed again. “I’m going to head down and then pull up. You don’t have to go as fast as I do though.”
Like hell he wouldn’t. Nessa dipped her head, and Kyle followed. The adrenaline rush energized him as he sped toward the terrafirma. Nessa changed direction quite far above the ground, but Kyle wanted to see how close he could come and not crash. If he misjudged the distance, the consequences could be dire.
“Kyle?” Nessa telepathed.
“I know what I’m doing.” A second later, he changed direction and reached her.
“Don’t do that again. You scared me,” she responded.
He didn’t sense any anxiety rolling off her, so her comment didn’t hold a lot of weight. “Now that I can fly, when do I learn to fight?”
“Soon.”
They spent another hour darting around each other. While Nessa probably thought she was fooling him into thinking they were just playing around, Kyle could tell that each of her maneuvers was meant to test his capabilities.
“Had enough?” she telepathed.
He wanted to say he could fly forever, but Kyle had to be honest. He was exhausted. “For today.”
“Try cloaking yourself.”
Was she kidding? “How?”
She shot out a spray of fire. “You figure it out.” Nessa did a loop around him and then disappeared. He might not be able to see her, but he could sense where she was. It was as if she left a scent trail, or maybe it was a heat trail that he could detect.
If all he had to do was think about becoming a dragon before turning into one, why not think about being invisible? Kyle closed his eyes and pictured a protective shield forming around his body.
“Watch out!” came Nessa’s warning.
Kyle opened his eyes only to find the ground racing toward him. Oh, shit. At the last second he avoided crashing, but his heart beat so fast he thought it might burst. Vowing not to lose concentration again, he soared upward.
Not one to give up, he tried to block out the sound of the wind and the flapping of his wings, and think only about pulling an invisible shield over himself. As if he willed it, he disappeared.
“You did it! Meet me where we took off.”
Nessa suddenly reappeared, and Kyle’s wings showed up too. He hadn’t planned that. Keeping the shield active required more focus than he realized.
A minute later, Nessa landed, and Kyle dropped down next to her. She shifted into her human form and smiled at him.
“Just tell yourself that you want to change form,” she urged.
One second he was this fifteen-foot tall animal, and the next, he was standing beside her as a human. Joy spread throughout him at the sheer thrill of it all. He picked her up and swung her around. Nessa laughed once more, and the sound was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard.
“That was incredible,” he said.
“Being a dragon isn’t all fun, you know. With power comes responsibility.”
He chuckled. “Can’t I just enjoy the high for another hour? I need to learn how to fight first, remember?” He’d seen a few dragons do battle, and it looked much like the street fighting he’d been involved in growing up.
Nessa wrapped an arm around his waist. “Absolutely. How about we clean up and then celebrate at the Highlanders’ Steakhouse?”
“You’re on.”
Nessa was so proud of Kyle. She’d trained with the best of them, and it was clear that he had a natural ability in the air. Sure, his talents were raw, but once her cousin Thane, who trained all of the Sinclairs and Caspians, took him under his wing for a few weeks, he’d make a formidable adversary. It didn’t hurt that new dragons were infused with extra magic and strength.
Kyle parked a block away from the restaurant and cut the engine. He slipped out and came over to her side to open her door. “Ma’am.”
She laughed, something she found herself doing more than ever of late. Being in love had a way of making her see joy in everything, from the flowers to the birds to the bright blue sky. The hard part was being so close to Kyle and not asking him to stop at some deserted spot by the side of the road and make love with him. Mating had definitely taken a toll on her self-control.
Once inside the steakhouse, the hostess led them to their seat. A waiter rushed right over. “Ms. Caspian, how are you this evening?”
There were times when being one of the prominent families had its advantage—other times, not so much. “I’m fine, Branek.”
“Can I get the two of you something to drink?”
Since this was Kyle’s first day as a dragon, she wanted something special. “How about your best Campovino?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kyle leaned back in his seat, looking rather smug. “Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“For not making fun of me, since it took me twenty tries to do a loop.”
She leaned forward on her elbows. “You did an amazing job.”
He grinned. “I had a good teacher.”
Branek returned with two glasses and a bottle of the bubbly in an ice bucket. He poured the drinks and then returned the bottle to the ice.
Nessa held up her drink. “May you continue to enjoy your new life.”
“As long as you’re in it, I always will.”
“You say the sweetest things.”
“It’s not hard when I’m with you,” Kyle shot back.
Nessa sipped her drink. Someone on the other side of the restaurant let out a large laugh, and they both looked that way. Nessa’s heart stopped. Dennis Taylor, Kyle’s right-hand man, was sitting with her ex, Landry Madison. Just as she was about to comment on the odd friendship, Kyle slipped out of the booth.
“Give me sec, will you?” I want to say hi to Tom and Dennis.” Had Kyle called Landry Tom? He scooted out before she could tell him the truth.
She’d never met his assistant Tom. She’d only spoken with Dennis after her foreman had been killed. During that event, Kyle had been somewhere else.
She had a mind to confront Landry right now, but something stopped her.
Oh, holy goddess! When she’d dumped Landry, he’d vowed to get even, but that had been a year ago. Since then, she hadn’t given the man much thought. The fact he never showed his face at the Caspian mine made total sense now. He didn’t show up because she would have recognized him.
Kyle slipped back into the booth, and she tried to wrap her mind around this new development.
He reached out a hand. “You’re pale, and I can feel an incredible shock rolling off you. What’s wrong?”
“I never mentioned this before, but I used to date a guy named Landry Madison.”
“Hon, the last thing I need to hear about is your former love life.”
His shot of jealousy might have given her some pleasure in the past, but she was too shocked for anything else to register right now. “This is important. I dated him for only two months when I discovered he had a really dark side. Not only that, we didn’t have a lot in common personality wise, and we always argued over stupid stuff. I finally had enough and broke up with him. That’s when he confessed that he only dated me for a chance to worm his way into the Caspian family. Like that would ever happen. Right before he walked out, he vowed we would get what we deserved one way or another.”
“I’ll ask you again: Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m getting to that. Landry worked in the mines all of his life until his father died in a mining explosion—though not in one of our mines, thank goodness. Landry said he really struggled after that. The man was quite delusional, believing he was owed a life of luxury. That was when I wrote him off as a nut job and moved on. My brothers didn’t trust him not to retaliate and insisted they watch me for at least a month after the Landry left.”
“Did he ever come after you?” Kyle asked.
“No, but I’d see him around town for a while, and then he just disappeared.”
Kyle downed his glass and then stilled. “Are you thinking this Madison guy might be behind the attacks?”
“I’d bet the mine on it.”
“Why didn’t you mention this before?”
Guilt stabbed her. “He hadn’t entered my mind until now. What do you know about Tom Delaney?”
“I thought we were talking about this Landry guy.”
“Go with me here.”
“I know Tom worked for both DeLeon and Snar before coming to work for me.”
“And when was that?”
Kyle looked off to the side. “A year ago, I guess.”
“Right after I broke up with him.”
“Excuse me?”