Chapter Twenty-Two
Bryn came to accept Jaxon as her ever-present escort. He didn’t seem to mind, which was strange, and he even joked around with her. Maybe they were reaching a comfortable stage of their not-quite-real relationsip.
At dinner Thursday night, Bryn was grateful to be alone with Clint and Ivy, which made her feel guilty. “I feel like a terrible person because all I want is to walk somewhere by myself.”
“Being around Jaxon almost twenty-four hours a day has to be an interesting experience,” Clint said. “Who knows, maybe you’ll find some common ground.”
“Maybe. And he’s been great about everything, but I’m pretty sure he’s over there telling his friends that he’s tired of being my shadow.”
Ivy peered past Bryn. “He’s not at his table.”
“What?” Bryn turned around. Quentin sat there with some other Blues, but Jaxon wasn’t one of them. Maybe he was in the food line. She checked the buffet. Nope. “Okay, where did he go?”
“He could be in the restroom,” Clint said. “Give it a few minutes before you panic.”
It seemed like anyone within her gravitational pull eventually ended up in trouble. “I’m hoping my chaos magnet hasn’t rubbed off on him.”
When he didn’t show up in five minutes, Bryn stood and approached Quentin. “Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but I noticed Jaxon wasn’t here.”
Quentin pointed at a plate of food, which looked untouched. “He said he’d be back in a minute, but it’s been awhile.”
“Not to raise any red flags, but I’m not a fan of people going anywhere alone.”
“Understandable,” Quentin said. “Why don’t we go check on him.”
Jaxon had known Quentin forever, so Bryn had no reason to mistrust him, but she also didn’t know him very well. “Let’s grab Clint just in case we’re outnumbered.”
Quentin didn’t comment. He just followed Bryn back to her table. “Clint, come for a walk with us.”
Ivy stood. “You’re not leaving me here by myself.”
“The more the merrier,” Bryn said.
“Let’s check the restroom first,” Quentin said.
When they reached the restroom, Clint and Quentin went in and came back out thirty seconds later. “We need to alert the guards. There’s blood on the floor.”
Damn. Damn. Damn. “Clint, you and Ivy go find a guard. Quentin and I will keep looking.”
“If he wasn’t injured, he would’ve come back to our table,” Quentin said.
“Unless someone cut him off.” She looked around, getting her bearings. There was a long hallway to her left. “There are private dining rooms down that hall.” There was a short hallway to her right. “I think that leads to the kitchens.”
“Let’s go this way.” Quentin headed to the private dining rooms.
Splitting up would save time, but it wouldn’t be smart, so Bryn followed him, activating her elemental sword. Quentin glanced back and his eyebrows went up, but he didn’t comment. They approached the first dining room but didn’t see anyone inside.
Voices came from farther down the hall. The words were indistinct. Quentin ran ahead and threw open the door and then laughed. “It looks like we were worried about nothing.”
Bryn pushed past him and saw that Jaxon had a Green male pinned to the wall with one of his elemental swords, while another Green lay bleeding at his feet, trying to stand back up.
“I wouldn’t mind a little help.” Jaxon’s lip was swollen and bleeding and he appeared winded.
Bryn walked over and got a better look at the student on the floor. He was the one who’d pretended to offer help and then drugged her. She turned off her sword and nudged the guy with her foot. “Hello, there. Remember me?” Anger over what he’d done stoked the fire inside of her. She focused on cold and then blasted the young man with ice, building layer after layer until he was covered with ice from the shoulders down. “Not going anywhere now, are you?”
The sound of several people running came from the hallway. Quentin waved out the doorway. “We’re in here.”
Two guards entered and assessed the situation. One approached Jaxon. “Are you all right?”
Jaxon nodded. “I can see myself to the medical clinic.”
“One of us will escort you there, for the sake of protocol. If you’ll release him, I’ll restrain him.”
Jaxon released his elemental swords and the man who’d been pinned against the wall sagged with relief. The guard grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and not so gently pushed him against the wall before putting on a pair of handcuffs.
The other guard pointed at the Green on the floor. “Who did this?”
Bryn held up her hand. “He’s one of the Greens who ambushed me, and sometimes payback is a bitch.”
The guard nodded. “I’ll have to defrost him.”
“That’s a shame.” Bryn approached Jaxon. “Where are you hurt?”
“Just my face and my pride,” he said.
“Can you give a rundown of what occurred?” the first guard asked as he pulled a small recording device from his pocket and pressed a button.
“There’s not much to tell. These idiots tried to jump me when I was leaving the restroom.”
“That didn’t go how they expected it,” Quentin said.
“No. I’d just washed my hands and reached for a paper towel when the one on the floor tried to grab me and sedate me with a drug-soaked rag. I elbowed him. The other one caught me by surprise with a sucker punch. I activated my elemental swords. After that it was me chasing them down so they couldn’t escape.”
“Your story is way better than mine,” Bryn said.
“I am a Westgate,” Jaxon said in a fake snotty tone.
Bryn laughed.
“So everyone is good?” Ivy said from where she and Clint were peeking in the doorway.
“Yes,” said Jaxon.
After one of the guards hauled their prisoners away, the other guard said, “I could call for a Medic to come here.”
“No. My father would want me to follow protocol.”
Bryn and Jaxon went to the Medical Center with their escort, while Clint and Ivy went to finish dinner with orders to bring two boxes of carryout food back to Bryn’s room.
When they reached the Medical Center, Bryn was less than pleased to find Ferrin waiting for them but held her tongue. Jaxon explained what had happened in a very modest fashion, which surprised her.
“Once again, you have made me proud,” his father said. “I’ll let you know when we have some answers about who these two criminals are and why they went after you.”
Jaxon beamed with pride as his father exited the building.
“If you’ll let me heal you, you can go have your dinner,” the Medic said.
The Medic scanned Jaxon, placing her hand on his head. As Bryn watched, the swelling of his lip receded, and the cut healed to a fine pink line. The woman continued to scan Jaxon. She probably wanted to be thorough since he was the Speaker’s son. She frowned. “Did you forget to mention that one of those men hit you in the ribs?”
“Maybe,” Jaxon said. “I’m sure it’s just bruised. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“One is cracked,” she said. “Take your shirt off.”
Jaxon frowned as he loosened his tie and removed his shirt. An ugly purple bruise decorated the left side of his rib cage.
“What the heck?” Bryn asked.
Jaxon frowned. “They came at me out of nowhere. When the first punch didn’t take me out, the other guy tried to tackle me and rammed me into the sink. I was too busy activating my elemental swords to brace for impact.”
“So the sink cracked your rib?” Bryn said, trying not to smile. She really shouldn’t find any of this funny, but she did. Maybe because it made her feel better that his ambush hadn’t gone as perfectly as he’d said.
“Yes, and that information will not leave this room,” Jaxon said.
“No, it won’t. This falls under patient-client privilege.” The Medic placed her hand on his rib cage and the bruise faded.
Jaxon gave Bryn a questioning look as he put his shirt back on.
“No one will hear it from me,” she said.
He started to knot his tie and then let it hang loose instead. “I think I can be excused for not following the dress code just this once.”
Bryn smiled. “Next thing you know, you’ll be wearing yoga pants.”
He laughed, his eyes sparkled, his hair was kind of tussled, and with his tie undone he looked so much more normal…still devastatingly handsome and undeniably hot…but normal. Bryn froze. Wait. Did I just think Jaxon is hot? Where did that thought come from?
“What’s wrong?” Jaxon asked.
“Nothing.” Nope. Nothing was wrong. She did not think Jaxon was hot. I do not. “Clint and Ivy will be waiting for us outside my room with food. Let’s go eat.”
“Sounds good.” They walked to the Blue dorm. Guards were positioned outside of every building and along the sidewalk. Despite the heightened security, it seemed like just another night. A normal night. Not a night where she suddenly found herself attracted to a certain asshat…because that was just wrong.
When they entered the Blue dorm, it looked like the entire Blue student body was in the main lounge waiting for them. Jaxon acted like nothing was out of the ordinary, so Bryn followed suit.
Clint and Ivy sat on the floor outside Bryn’s room playing Go Fish.
“There you are,” Ivy said. “I was beginning to worry.”
“We’re fine,” Bryn said. She opened the door and they all sat at the library table where Clint placed four carryout boxes.
“Before you try to finish off all this food, Ivy and I call dibs on this container of nachos.” He pulled a container over toward himself. “You guys can split the rest.”
Bryn popped open the other containers to reveal nachos, hamburgers, and an entire container of French fries. “Since you were injured, you can pick first,” Bryn said to Jaxon.
He ripped the lid off one of the containers, placed two burgers in it and two handfuls of fries. “You can have the rest,” he said.
“Challenge accepted.”
Clint and Ivy left after they finished their food, but Jaxon hung back like he wanted to talk to her.
She finished off the last of the fries while she waited for him to start.
“Do you think those Greens targeted you and then me because of our Directorate connections or was that a coincidence?” he asked.
“Your father should be finding out the answers to those questions right now.” The two Greens would be dosed with a drug that would make them talk, which was much more civilized than she’d thought dragons would be.
“I think they came after us for some reason,” Jaxon said. “There’s no way they happened on both of us.”
“When it was just me I was willing to believe it was the luck of the draw, but I think you’re right,” Bryn said. “We had to be targeted for some reason.”
He leaned back in his chair and stared off into space like he was thinking. “Which means they weren’t after Quintessence.”
“Um…I seem to remember them sucking out a lot of my life force,” Bryn said.
“Maybe they just did that to cover something else up,” Jaxon said.
“Like what?”
He ran his hand back through his hair. “That’s where my theory falls apart. I don’t know what they could be after. It’s not like you or I have access to some secret information.”
“I could call my grandfather and ask what they’ve found,” Bryn offered, because she really wanted to know what the heck was going on.
“No. My father said he’d call me. I’ll share whatever he tells me. I guess I should say thank you for coming to look for me.”
“You’re welcome, though you seemed to have the situation taken care of by the time we got there.”
“Mostly,” he said. “But it’s nice to know that someone notices when I’m not where I’m supposed to be.”
And now this felt awkward and a little too serious. “I guess it really is our job to look out for each other now, isn’t it?”
He grinned. “I’d like to point out that I’m normally a lot less trouble than you are, so you’re getting the better end of this deal.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m one lucky girl.”
He acknowledged her joke with a grin and then pushed to his feet. “Do try to remember that.” He walked to the door and let himself out.
She locked the door behind him. Weird how she felt closer to him now. Shared drama probably had that effect on a relationship. Whatever kind of relationship she had with Jaxon, it seemed to be shifting…which was natural given their strange circumstances. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
Rather than think too hard about the absurd state of her life, she grabbed her book and relaxed on the couch. The now non-possessed hero of the book was declaring his undying love for the main character when Bryn’s phone rang, startling the crud out of her. She reluctantly set her book down, hoping whatever she was about to hear would make her feel safer.
“Bryn,” Jaxon’s voice came through the line. “The Greens they questioned claimed it was just circumstance that they chose us because we were alone. Apparently, it’s their job to collect Quintessence from unsuspecting students so that they have enough to share with the higher-ups in their dragon-pire ring. They called themselves feeders. They haven’t been doing so well with that, and their bosses take what they want from them, so they were ambushing people to try and stock up. They fed off several other students in this same manner but were successful in making the students forget so the incidents went unreported. They were desperate when they attacked you, and tonight when they came after me, because they’d just given so much energy to their higher-ups.”
“So, normally they don’t ambush people and drug them?”
“No. They just touch them in passing. Contact for a few minutes allows them to siphon off a dose of energy and the victims don’t remember a thing. That’s how they usually operate.”
“So they were behind the students who were so tired, like Clint and Ivy?”
“Yes, but my father said their answers in that area led them to believe that there were other feeders on campus.”
“Well, that’s just fantastic,” Bryn said.
“I think the good news is that they weren’t targeting us in particular.”
“I guess that makes me feel better.”
“I’d feel better if they’d learned who the ringleaders of this group were, but the higher- level dragon-pires never let anyone see their faces,” Jaxon said. “They wear masks, robes, and gloves to conceal their Clan colors.”
“Speaking of Clans, were they able to determine if the dragon-pires they arrested were hybrids?”
“Yes. And you can’t share this information with anyone. Not even Clint and Ivy.”
“I’m not telling you unless you promise not to share.”
Damn it. She hated keeping information from her friends. Still she wanted to know. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone.”
“They were Green-Blue hybrids.”
“Wow.” That was the only response she could come up with for a moment. “I’d never expect that pairing.”
“I’m not sure how it would happen.”
“If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that the Greens were females who were denied marriage and the Blues were males who kept them as mistresses. The secret offspring of that union would have the brains of a Green and the ambition of a Blue.”
“And an angry, ambitious, genius who is unstable might resort to extreme measures to achieve their goals,” Jaxon said.
“I can’t tell you how much I hate the fact that some hybrid combinations are unstable.”
“Because it proves that the Directorate had a reason for creating the marriage laws,” Jaxon said.
“Exactly. I don’t get it,” Bryn said. “I’m not unstable.”
Jaxon laughed.
She almost threatened to blast him with a fireball but that would prove his point. “I’m not homicidally unstable,” she corrected. “And you’d have to think that any dragon raised in a loving supportive environment wouldn’t want to hurt other dragons.”
“For centuries, dragons hoarded treasure and kept control of land. It’s in our nature to seek out treasure and power. Some combinations of those genes lead to bad results.”
“I guess.”
After hanging up the phone, Bryn lay on the couch for a while, rolling this new information around in her brain. She had no answers to the Silver cult dragon-pire mystery or to her odd and most certainly one-time feeling of attraction to Jaxon. It must have been the stress or the fact that she’d been concerned for his well-being. When she saw him tomorrow she was sure everything would be back to normal.