Page 14 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“They’re safe with our nanny, Allie’s nanny, and half a dozen vampires guarding the playroom.Holy cow, can that siren sing.Has someone called Charity?”
“This is her,” I said, answering the call that burbled, Charity popping onto my screen.“Thanks for calling back.I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”
“Actually, you kind of are.The First Dragon has finally gotten the information he needs about the identity of an artificer, but she’s disappeared.He’s getting ready to go out and track her down himself.Is something wrong?”
“Do you happen to know this woman?”I asked, and turned the camera to face the stage.I let her see the band for half a minute, then turned the screen back.Her expression mimicked closely that which all of us wore.
“No, I don’t, but she sounds ...sireny.Is she one?I have no idea who she is.There are only two other sirens, and they are both in protective custody.”
“No one here knows, either,” I answered, pausing when the song ended, and the audience cheered loudly.“But, as you can imagine, everyone is worried, especially due to the children being here.”
“Hang on, let me see if the First Dragon has any insight.”Charity obviously got up, because there were several blurry images of her running through a long hall filled with light and flowers before she stopped, and soft murmuring could be heard.
In the meantime, the band started up with another number, this one a soulful song that simultaneously made me want to weep with the beauty of the singer’s voice and clutch Gabriel to tell him how much I loved him.
“Go ahead, May,” Charity instructed, and I caught a glimpse of the First Dragon looking mildly annoyed.
I murmured an apology for disrupting him before switching the camera to the stage for twenty seconds.
When I turned the screen back to me, it was to see Charity looking to the side, saying, “All right, but are you sure?”
“I hope we didn’t anger the First Dragon,” I said, glancing at Gabriel, who to my surprise wasn’t watching my phone but, like the other dragons and Christian, had spread out to form a loose semicircle around the stage.
“No, I don’t mind at all,” Charity said to the First Dragon, before adding to me, “We’ll be there in a minute.”
“What?You’re coming here?Both of you?”I moved up next to Ysolde, who was standing with Aisling, their heads together, but before I could ask more, Charity ended the call.
“The First Dragon and Charity are coming,” I told them before moving over to tell Gabriel the same thing.I managed two steps before I felt a presence behind me, and spun around to see Charity and the ancestor of all dragons as he stalked forward, his gaze focused on the singer.
All the wyverns—and even Christian—bowed as he passed them, but his attention was wholly on the woman who sang so beautifully.
“I had no idea the First Dragon would take such an interest in a siren,” I said softly to Charity.“I feel bad for disturbing you guys.It’s not like she’s doing anything dangerous.”
The First Dragon spun around and looked straight at me, filling me with an odd sense of both joy and worry.Instantly, Gabriel was at my side, not saying anything, but putting an arm around me.
“You are wrong, child of shadows,” the First Dragon said to me.I froze, not sure how to answer that comment.
“Dragon sire, if May’s call to Charity was inappropriate—” Gabriel started to say, my heart warming at the fact that he was defending me to the most important being in all dragonkin.
“The woman is quite dangerous, although she is not a siren,” the First Dragon said, his gaze resting briefly on Gabriel before he turned back to the stage.“She is an artificer, one of such high skill that beings the world over have sought her for years without success.She is the only hope we have of saving Yrian from a future that I cannot prevent.”
