“Clayton!” Jasmine exclaimed as she burst into the underground room, her eyes wide with fear. “They know who Krista is. They tried intercepting her at the police station. I need some help.”
Clayton sat up immediately, his heart thudding painfully in his chest. Krista was in danger. The one person who gave his life meaning might be in trouble right that moment. He stood up immediately and ran outside, without giving Jasmine a second thought. Everybody watched with wide eyes as Clayton shifted into his powerful dragon form and launched himself into the sky, flapping his huge wings and emitting an ominous dark energy as he flew through the sky.
Krista was oblivious to the dangers around her, and was walking cheerfully to work. She felt a little lighter after talking about what had happened during the attack, and was allowing herself to enjoy the memory of the handsome man who had saved her. She had plenty of time to let her mind wander as she meandered along her way. She had been enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze, and decided to park a couple of blocks away from the library so that she could get some exercise. She had always been athletic and it was difficult for her to stay cooped up for too long. She always enjoyed the open air much more than the constraints of her vehicle.
She was humming to herself, as she usually did when she was outside. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. Somebody was watching her. She could just feel it. She thought back to the night before, when she had been attacked, and looked around for whoever might be there. She saw nobody at first, but continued to glance around just in case. She didn’t feel like she was in danger, but she did feel a prying sense of concern.
She was shocked when a familiar pair of bright green eyes met hers. Her breath caught in her throat as the most majestic man she had ever seen became clear to her. Her savior from the night before.
The gorgeous man’s mouth curled into a kind smile when she met his eyes, and a surge of energy seemed to pulse between them, one that made her feel hyperaware of every sensation in her body. The cool breeze on her skin, the pounding of her heart in her chest. The unexpected heat of his gaze and the stirring of desire that his gaze seemed to invoke.
Krista walked toward him slowly, the tension between them higher than it had ever been between herself and another human being. She opened her mouth to call out to him, to ask why he seemed so familiar, but suddenly, she dropped her cell phone on the sidewalk. She bent down to pick it up, and when she turned around to look for him again, he was gone. She felt a devastated sense of disappointment that he was gone, and was tugged into a faraway memory from childhood. Another dark, handsome boy who had been there one second and had vanished the next, leaving only the paper in her hand to tell her that he had really been there.
The handsome man’s face stayed with her throughout the day, and she randomly found herself thinking about him. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she recognized him from somewhere, and the fact that she couldn’t remember where he knew her from really bothered her. Where would she have seen a man that attractive? Whose sheer presence could electrify her in such a way? But she still couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried.
She groaned to herself, unable to focus on her work as her thoughts wandered to the gorgeous man and replayed her attack and the prominent visual of the dragon. Everybody around her seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she was still suffering psychologically from the night before. She had never been attacked, not quite so violently, and she decided to talk to her boss and ask if she could leave early to take some personal time to recover. She felt a little bit guilty about it, knowing that part of the reason she couldn’t concentrate was because she couldn’t stop fantasizing about the mysterious stranger who had saved her life, but either way, nothing was getting done and she would rather be at home.
Her boss nodded supportively and offered the services of the counselor who could come in to visit her if she needed it. Krista was flattered and touched by the offer, but she knew that she would only feel better if she was able to spend some time by herself for a while. And so, she packed up her things and headed out of her office at the library. She decided to go home to her apartment, and was grateful, once again, for the beautiful day outside as she walked for a few blocks to where she had parked her car. She paused by the spot where she had seen the man before and peered into the foliage, her heart pounding hopefully. She felt another confusing rush of arousal as she looked for him, but there was nobody there.
She felt nervous as she drove home, but she couldn’t understand why. She decided that it was probably just because of the men in the alleyway had attacked her the night before. The police woman who had taken her statement had nodded as if she understood exactly what Krista was talking about, but when it came time to finally thank her and talk about pressing charges, the woman had seemed distant and aloof, and told her not to get her hopes up. It sounded as if she was having a hard time mentally, and if that was the case, it was unlikely that the people that Krista described were truly what she believed they were.
It had been very strange. She seemed to be trying to make Krista doubt herself and her experiences, even though she hadn’t even told the woman about the dragon shifter who had saved her. Krista had a feeling that if the woman had heard about that part, then she would have probably sent her off to the psych ward.
What Krista didn’t know was that she was lucky that the woman had no idea who Krista was. If she knew that she was the carrier, she would have put her in a cell and waited for the Guardians to take her away. However, she had simply told the Guardians that somebody had spotted them, and the Guardians knew who she was and took it from there. They were very secretive about their affairs, and were happy that Josie was still in the dark about who Krista was. It was a very complicated matter as it stood, and so they wanted to leave matters in their own hands and proceed with their pursuit secretly of the carrier of the dragon-born children.
When Jasmine had intercepted the Guardians to save Krista, she had hoped that they would take off and leave Krista alone for the rest of the day. But once they had their hands on all of her files, including her home and work address and just about everything else that they might need to know, they decided that there was no time like the present. They would go after her until she was theirs.