17
JESSICA
I dreamed of flying with Ethan, high above the Dallas skyline while I buried my face into his feathers, soaring between the skyscrapers so fast and close my heart almost stopped.
It was almost a shame to wake up, until I remembered who I was sleeping next to.
Ethan was curled away from me, so I pressed myself against his back and butt. He let out a noise of pleasure and nuzzled against me, a not-so-little spoon covered in muscle.
I could get used to this. To all of it.
But before I could daydream about the sexy way I would wake him, I remembered that I'd left some things at the office. Nothing much: a potted cactus and two framed photos. Objects I'd hoped would be subconscious friendly reminders of my presence and personality, back when I still had hope for turning this temp job into something full-time. But I didn't want to leave them there.
I checked my phone: 6:35am. I could get into the office before anyone, grab my stuff, and return in time to jump back under the covers.
As I tried to pull away, Ethan groaned and reached back to grab me.
"No leave," he muttered. "Stay. Warm body. Sexy body."
I leaned into him and kissed his shoulder. "I'm gunna grab something I left at the office. And snag breakfast on the way home. Donuts?"
"I don't want donuts, I want you." But then he paused, and opened one eye. "Actually, donuts sound amazing."
"I thought so." I kissed him again and said, "I'll be back soon, and then you can have both."
"Chocolate glaze," he said as I pulled clothes from my dresser. "No sprinkles."
I felt more excited than I ever had in my life as I drove to the office in the early morning twilight. The city was calm and quiet around me, and I had three days alone with Ethan. A mini-vacation with my beast of a man, and all the while I'd be getting paid for it.
After the hell of the last week, there was nothing I wanted more.
I wondered what his plan was. I didn't know about him, but I had a little money saved up. We could pick a direction at random and just start driving, staying at cheap motels and eating greasy diner food like outlaws on the run. And if we managed to fuck like rabbits every step of the way, well, then I suppose that would have to do.
I mean, it was the only way Ethan could regenerate his shifting ability. I had a responsibility.
I giggled to myself as I pulled into the parking lot.
Before I got out of the car, I stopped myself. The totem weighed heavy in my pocket; I'd brought it along out of habit, a compulsion rather than thought. The bond I had with it, and Ethan, demanded I keep it close.
I eyed the building. The office was on the twelfth floor, directly in front of the parking lot. Maybe two hundred feet in a straight line. Curiosity growing, I pulled it from my pocket and put it in the glove compartment. I could still feel it pulsing there, a heartbeat without a heart. It didn't want me to leave.
Taking deliberate steps, I left the car, hearing the soft beep beep of the locks engaging as I walked away.
I could feel the tug from it as I entered the building. The discomfort tingled in my head, like the pressure of slowly descending in the deep end of the swimming pool. It was insistent, and uncomfortable, but not impossible.
Focusing on the growing sensation, I took the elevator to our floor.
As I exited the elevator and walked toward our offices, and toward the direction of the parking lot, I could feel the pressure continuing to build. That surprised me; since I was drawing closer to the totem, I'd expected the feeling to dim.
A panicked thought hit me: what if someone took it?
I speed-walked down the hall, past Ethan's office and my desk, until I reached the glass windows in the far wall. My car sat alone in the parking lot below, unmolested that I could see. And I could sense the totem there, pulsing inside the car.
Yet the pressure was higher here than before.
Most people would have been bored with such things, but it fascinated me! Somehow it knew that even though I was technically closer, the route I would need to take to return to it was longer. Not for the first time, I wondered where it had come from. What kind of power was held within.
I turned back toward my desk, lost in thought, when a voice called out.
"Jessica? Is that you?"
It was Mrs. Arnold in her office; I'd walked right across her view to get to the window. I hadn't expected her to be here so early. Shit.
I reached for the hair clip in my watch band, but stopped myself from the nervous tick. Well, there was no use avoiding her now. I sighed and said, "Yep, it's me. I just--"
"Jessica, come here please."
Her voice sounded strained. Upset. As I took slow steps toward her office I wondered if she knew we weren't going to the datacenter today. It was ridiculous--how would she know?--but the fear persisted nonetheless.
I wasn't a good liar. I was a terrible liar, to be more honest. I got sweaty, and mumbled, and practically trembled while trying to tell a lie. Even something innocent, like convincing my mom I'd only had three pieces of Halloween candy instead of four. It was always obvious on my face.
Where did Ethan say the datacenter was? Frisco, or McKinney? No, stop it Jessica. All I had to do was defer to Ethan. Insist I didn't know anything, except that he said we had a side project to work on involving the cloud. I had a free pass to act like the ditsy temp she thought I was.
I walked into Mrs. Arnold's office, and froze.
She was standing behind her desk, eyes wide and round with fear. I had only enough time to open my mouth to ask her what was wrong before I felt it.
Before I felt him.
The Emerald Dragon stepped from behind the door and reached for me, but I was already darting toward the desk. I grabbed the first thing that my fingers touched--a stapler--and swung blindly with all my strength. The metal hit flesh, and the dragon grunted in surprise, but then his hand snatched my wrist and grabbed my other arm and held me in place.
He moved both of my wrists to one of his hands, pinning them together like I was a child. His presence was so strong, so overpowering, that all I could do was stand there while he patted me down. I trembled as his hands moved up my legs, but his touch was all business, searching for something.
His green gaze returned to me. I would have found him handsome, if he weren't, you know, threatening my life. And Ethan's.
"Where. Is. It."
I could smell his foul breath through his clenched teeth, like woodsmoke mixed with sulfur. Fire and brimstone, part of my mind thought. For the fires he breathes as a dragon.
"Where's what?" I managed to stutter.
The dragon let go of me and grabbed a chair, hurling it across the room with the ease of a hurricane tossing a plastic trash can cover. It crashed into the wall and brought down two decorative shelves in a cacophony of shattering glass.
"You know what," he said, rounding on me again.
"I don't have it." I shook my head a millimeter. "I didn't bring it with me."
It wasn't a lie, not exactly, which I hoped made it more convincing.
He put his face very close to mine, noses almost touching. The stench from his breath was so strong I thought I might pass out. He sniffed me, like a dog sniffing something new and exotic.
And his eyes softened with acceptance.
"Why?" he whispered. "The gryphon's mate is the guardian of his totem!"
"I... I wanted to test something," I stammered. My mind screamed IT'S IN THE CAR OUTSIDE, but I ignored it. "The totem, it tries to stop me from leaving it, right? Well, that's new to me. I wanted to see how far I could travel from it."
He considered my words, and then realized they were the truth.
Then his wrath took over.
He roared a dragon's roar and shoved me to the side--I hit my hip hard into the desk before falling to the ground. He grabbed the wood with both hands, and I rolled sideways just in time. He flipped the desk into the air, over Mrs. Arnold's screaming shape, crashing into the cabinets behind her in a flurry of paper. He stepped forward with the motion, and I cried out as he began to strike her, but she fainted into a puddle before he could.
I trembled on the ground, wishing I could do the same, as he turned his fury to me.
I almost told him. Right then, shaking like a terrified animal, I almost screamed that the totem was in the car outside. It would have saved me, turned his energy elsewhere. It would have made him go away.
But my love for Ethan was stronger. It blossomed inside me as if he were there too, holding my hand before this terrible foe. The love strengthened my resolve and filled me with resistance.
"You can kill me," I said expecting them to be my last words, "but you'll never find him."
And then the dragon shocked me by roaring... with laughter.
He fell apart into hysterics, a machine-gun of quick laughs that were completely at odds with his powerful physical presence. He strode around the room while holding his chest, spreading his laughter in a circle. He was crazy in that moment, legitimately nuts, and that terrified me more than his previous fury.
"You truly know nothing," he finally said, red-faced and tears streaming down his cheeks. "I need not find him."
He took a moment to collect himself, then loomed over me like some terrible beast.
"If Emerald chooses to run, then I will bring him to me."
It took me a moment to realize what he meant, and then the dragon man was carrying me out of the building kicking and screaming, and there was nobody around to stop him.