Page 42 of Cash

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Cash

“Are you all right back there?”

“Just fine. Stop speaking to me, already. Somebody might see you.”

“Sorry.”

She drove us through the woods, between tall, mighty trees which had likely stood for hundreds of years.

I looked up at them from where I crouched behind her, under a blanket. I’d wanted to fly there, but I didn’t want to run the risk of any lookouts seeing me as I landed on the property. Better to arrive as a human and make my shift after finding the boy. No telling how he’d react to the presence of a dragon outside his window.

“I can see the house now,” she murmured.

“Armed guards?”

“I don’t see any. I don’t think they operate like that, I really don’t.”

“Even so, let’s not underestimate them.”

“Right.” She sounded determined, stronger than I had heard her sound yet.

It was well after midnight, but she hadn’t wanted to wait another day before going after Tommy. I couldn’t blame her.

“I don’t like the idea of you going in there on your own,” I muttered.

“I’ll be fine,” she breathed. “So long as you come for me in time, before anything happens.”

“I will. I swear it. You have the blood?”

“Right beside me.”

“Good. Let me out before you reach the gates, and I’ll make my way around the back.”

“All right.” She slowed down just enough to let me out, not even coming to a stop.

We had gone over the plan so many times, I didn’t feel the need to go over it with her once more. We were running out of time before I could feasibly get them both out of there under the cover of darkness.

I crouched as I ran through the trees, the house in my sites all the while. More like a mansion, with a brick wall running around its perimeter. The home of a greedy, old industrialist who had gotten involved with the wrong people and wound up funding their illegal activities—activities which centered around creating a drug which would allow immortality.

This was all according to Harrison, who was one of them himself. The lying fool. He had no idea how they’d used him, I was sure. Why wouldn’t they want to have a man like him on the team, someone with access to a laboratory? He could lead legitimate research teams, funded by the money of a dying old man who was so desperate to cheat death, he’d ended up selling his soul. There was so much more to the world than even I was aware of.

They knew the power of dragon’s blood, which led me to wonder how. Most people didn’t believe we existed. What gave them this understanding? If all went as planned, I wouldn’t have the time to find out. The clock was ticking already as I climbed the wall and fell to the ground on the other side.

There was nothing to do but look for the child. He’d likely be asleep by that time of night, with the lights out. That ruled out several lit rooms.

I ran around to the back of the house, with its ivy-covered brick walls and overgrown hedges. Nobody had given the property the attention it deserved in years. I leaped over one of those hedges and scaled the back wall, climbing high above a long-empty swimming pool and weed-strewn tennis court. The place must have been grand in its day. I tested the first window I came to and found it unlocked. Here’s hoping there’s no alarm system in place, I thought as I raised it.

No alarm met my ears. A relief. I climbed into what was obviously a bedroom, and obviously long unused. It reeked of mothballs and rodent excrement—my heightened senses picked up on everything. I tuned my ears to the sound of breathing. I had to find him, quickly, and get him to trust me. If he raised a fuss, we’d be sunk before we started.

I hurried to the door and opened it just a crack. It only squeaked softly, the sound a mouse would make. And plenty of mice evidently did make that sound in and around the house. I could just imagine Tommy sleeping while mice ran circles around his bed.

The hall was dark. It ran in a U-shape, and I was in the center of it. The grand foyer was open, with brass-trimmed wrought iron railings running down the lengths of the three halls which overlooked it.

I heard Carissa’s voice—loud, strong, unapologetic. My chest swelled with pride.

Would Tommy hear her, too?

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