Page 50 of Serving my Dragon
“Who are you?” Kayleigh asked again.
“Does the name Blake ring a bell?”
“Sally’s Blake?” I heard the querying tone.
“The one and only. We met a few times before we left on our trip. A bad idea, as it turned out, mixing business with pleasure. I blame Sally for that. She insisted I bring you along to even out the sausage party.”
“Where’s Sally?” Kayleigh’s voice held a hint of a tremor. She was afraid and I didn’t like it one bit.
I crept closer, hoping their conversation covered the noise of my ascent.
“She’s not here. She turned out to not be the woman I thought she was. Can you believe she got mad at me for shoving you off that cliff? As if you left me any other choice. And then she had the nerve to lie. You left her a voicemail and did she tell me? Nope. I had to find out by searching her phone. Once I found you were alive, I had a feeling you might contact her again.”
“Did you hurt her?” Kayleigh huffed.
“Nothing that will cause lasting damage. So long as she cooperates and continues to be useful, she gets to live. Just like you’ll live, if you help me.”
“Help you with what?”
“Give me the dragon.”
“What dragon?” Kayleigh lied.
I allowed her denial of my existence given the reason.
“Don’t play games with me,” Blake snarled. “I know you have it. Should have known the bugger didn’t die. In my defense, it’s the first live one I encountered. I didn’t know it would be so tough, even freshly hatched.”
“Dragons aren’t real.”
A smacking sound followed by Kayleigh’s cry of pain had me seeing red. How dare he raise a hand to my servant!
“Let’s try this again. Where is the dragon?”
“You’ll never find her.”
“A female, eh? Nice. The boss will be pleased, given he’s located a male in Canada.”
What? The news almost made me lose my grip.
“You’ve captured a dragon.” I almost didn’t catch Kayleigh’s whisper.
“Almost. My boss has it under observation because our money man is dragging his feet. Apparently, the habitat he’s building for it is incomplete.”
“You’re putting the dragons in zoos?”
Blake laughed. “What a waste that would be. It’s more like a luxury prison so we can study the creature as well as condition it to obey us.”
I almost laughed. A dragon obey a human?
“You’re going to make it a prisoner.”
“More like a spoiled guest. You should see all the stupid shit our money man is putting in. Stocked pond for fishing. Aerial perches. Livestock so it can enjoy fresh kills. He seems to think he can make the dragon his friend, when really, it’s just a tool for advancing science. A thing that will impart power. An epic discovery that will unlock so many potentials. Imagine training it to go to war. A dragon that can spew flames and roast the enemy into surrender would be something leaders would pay dearly for.”
“You can’t do that. Dragons are living, sentient beings,” Kayleigh huffed.
“Even without your memories, you’re just as sanctimonious as before,” the man stated with disgust.
“Is that why you kept sending those people after me? Because I told you your plan was horrible.”
