Page 21 of Burn Dragon Burn

Great, I’m his George. He’s gonna hug me and pet me and squeeze me… Oh, and let us not forget, drug me and kidnap me and strap me to a table…

“What did I do to warrant such an honor?” She asked, having decided to play to his ego in the hopes of stalling him or at the very least, figuring out who he was.

“Do you really not know?”

“No, I really have no clue.”

“You are special, Donatella Hale, very special. Not only are you smart and fearless, but you are beautiful and resilient with a special talent that makes you truly unique.”

He knows about my Gift? How the hell does he know about my Gift?

“Rafe, where the hell are you? Get your scaled ass over here before things get anymore freaky.” Screaming inside her own mind, making her brain shake inside her skull, she turned to pray.

“Look God, I know we’ve never been real close, but you know I’ve been a pretty good person. I went back in the store and paid for the tomatoes that were covered by my purse. I always give to charity and take clothes and blankets to the Homeless Shelter. I try not to bother you, ‘cause I know you’rereally busy with all the wars, and conflicts, and don’t even get me started about politicians, but right now, I could really use your help. Some crazy…”

“Do you not agree that you’re special, Donatella?”

Something about that voice pricked at the back of her mind. She knew him. Had to know him, but something was different, something that was keeping her from putting the voice to the face and the face to the name.

“Answer me, Donatella.” His tone was sharp, demanding, and more than a little maniacal.

“Yes, I’m special, but isn’t everyone. I mean, every life is special and deserves respect and preservation, right?”

The tip of a sharp point striking metal tapped a repetitive rhythm that grew louder and louder the longer she waited for an answer. Opening her mouth to ask again, her need to at least know who had abducted her from the sidewalk of her favorite pizza joint, she slammed her mouth shut when he vehemently disagreed, “No, Detective Hale, every life most certainly doesnotdeserve preservation.”

The tapping grew louder, more syncopated.

“Some lives are wasted. They are a drain on the limited resources that people like you and I, the supreme members of the human race deserve.”

Tapping louder still being accompanied by the squeak, squeak, squeak of his rubber soles on the concrete and he paced.

“Oh, they serve a purpose. They can support the greater good, the continuation of a superior race of humans, not through their lives, but through their deaths.”

More tapping, more pacing, and then came the panting as his steps quickened.

“They are a drain onourresources. All they do is take, take, take. They are lazy and spoiled. They reap the benefits of our great minds, our hard work, and our superior genes.”

Tap, squeak, pant…Tap, squeak, pant…Tap, squeak, pant…then nothing.

Holding her breath, fearing her fate was a deadly foregone conclusion, Nat stayed perfectly still and stared at the ceiling, her body jumping as far as it could when her captor once again spoke, this time his voice back to calm, cool, and collected. “I always knew this day was coming, but in my original plan, our union was not to take place until December, but that was before…”

Waiting for him to finish, the pounding of her heart the only sound she could hear, Nat missed the final squeak of her abductor’s shoes and shrieked, “Oh my god,” when the round pasty face of Dr. Norman Batterfield appeared overhead a split-second before he drove a needle into her arm.

Almost immediately her vision blurred, and her tongue refused to move. The sting of drugs tore through her veins and her muscles twitched uncontrollable. Stuck staring into the Medical Examiner’s beady eyes, she groaned inside her mind when he smiled sweetly, brushed the hair from her forehead, and finished explaining, “You see, since that stupid Fed arrived, I had to move up our timetable.”

Her skin crawled as he kissed her on the cheek and her heart stopped when he whispered, “Tonight, we die together, and tomorrow, we rise in Hell, servants of the Devil himself.”

14

“What do you mean? I just saw her a few hours ago. She’s with you having pizza.”

“She never made it.”

Four words that alone meant nothing, but together turned his bright future into an apocalyptic nightmare. Moving through the condo at top speed, he reached through the bond he shared with Nat only to find a thick black vortex of nothingness blocking him from touching her mind.

Out the door and into his SUV in seconds, he yelled into the phone, “Can you see her? Do you know where she is? I can’t feel anything.”

“Rafe, what’s wrong?”Gil voice burst through his mind at the same time that Max jumped into the passenger seat.

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