Page 49 of Claim the Dragon
Chapter Twelve
“I’m going with you,” Steele said late Saturday morning when he’d joined Magnum and Reese in front of the Office.
The two were headed to their SUVs, preparing to drive into Burgess to check out the hotel where Steele had been staying.
“I thought you’d get some rest today,” Magnum told him.
“No.I’m coming with you,” Steele repeated.
“You sure about that, man?You’ve, ah, been through something,” Reese said.
Steele didn’t spare the other Drakon his dark look.“I’m good.Let’s go.”
Magnum came closer, clapping a hand on Steele’s shoulder and speaking in a lowered tone as Reese shrugged and climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV.
“I really think you should take it easy for a couple days.Let me see what’s going on.I’ll keep you posted.”
Steele shook his head.“No.This is my case.My dream.I don’t need you to keep cleaning up after me.”
Magnum released an irritated sigh.“I helped you out last night because I could tell you were struggling.This woman isn’t Opal but I know why you did what you did.It’s cool, I got this.You just go rest.”
Steele slowly pushed his brother’s hand away from his shoulder.“Nah, man, I got this.You cleaned her mind, so she won’t remember me or the dagger or anything from the past week.So we’re good on that front and I thank you for that.But the rest, I’m going to see this through.Those mummies came for me and I’m going to show them what happens when they come for a Drakon.”
Steele didn’t wait for Magnum to agree, but walked past him to the next SUV, unlocked the doors and climbed inside.He started the engine with the push of a button and in seconds was backing out of the parking spot.Out of the rearview mirror he saw Magnum finally getting into the passenger seat of the other SUV and Reese pulling out behind him.
They drove along the highway in the designated lanes like everyone else, leaving the cloaking device to be used only in cases of emergency.Remnants of the hotel weren’t going anywhere.According to the early news broadcast there were fire investigators on the scene, a bomb squad and enforcers guarding the area.Thankfully there’d been no casualties, but there were some injuries, which only added more weight on Steele’s shoulders and more determination on his behalf to get this taken care of.
When they seemed to be stalled in some traffic, Steele pressed one of the programmed buttons on his dashboard and waited.
“Good morning, Mr.Eze.How are you today?”
“I want to know everybody she ever spoke to while at Twilight,” he said, foregoing the greeting.
“Fine.We’ll get right to work.And I presume I don’t have to ask which ‘she’ you’re referring to?”
Steele didn’t reply because Isla knew the answer to that question, as well.
“I’ll go through surveillance cameras positioned outside and in the back alley of the club.As far as inside, I’ll have to depend on some of the club attendees already being in our database of people or others to watch.”
“I’m sure there’ll be a few.Let me know as soon as you get the info,” he said and was about to disconnect the call when Isla spoke again.
“Magnum got her home at around two thirty this morning without incident.She hasn’t come up since then.But he placed our cameras all along that alleyway so I can keep an eye on her for you.”
Steele’s hands clenched the steering wheel and his eyes closed for a few seconds before he managed to grind out one word only.“Thanks.”
He wasn’t going to ask anyone about her, especially not Magnum, because he’d been certain that when Magnum told him he would take care of Ravyn, that’s precisely what he’d done.Steele hadn’t returned to his private suite until just after dawn this morning because he’d known that she wouldn’t be there.
It had been for the best.She didn’t need to be at the Office and she definitely didn’t need to learn more about who and what they were.He’d locked the dagger into a box and shoved it under his bed until he figured out how he was going to get rid of it.The fact that it had appeared in his dream last night and not before, told him it was somehow important to everything that was happening.So, until he had it all figured out, it would stay with him.
His communicator buzzed with a message from his personal account.He glanced down at it as the traffic had just started moving, so he had to hurry and get his eyes back on the road.But in that quick glance he saw the message was from one of the banks he kept money in, the bank he’d used to transfer the payment for the dagger to Ravyn.With a pinch of contentment he hoped she was able to do all the things she needed to keep Safeside running smoothly.While Steele wasn’t a believer in running or hiding, he figured there was always a reason for everything.He hadn’t learned what Ravyn’s reason was, but he knew that what she was doing was important to her.For him, that was enough.
A while later Steele pulled into a parking spot a block away from the hotel.He stepped out of the SUV and walked slowly to the corner, waiting for Magnum and Reese to join him.
“They’ve got the whole street blocked off,” Reese said when he stopped at Steele’s left.
Magnum came up on his other side.“Enforcers are everywhere.We should have had Theo come with us so he could tell us who’s a human and who’s not.”
Theo was a Soul Identifier which meant he was able to see through to a person’s soul identity, so if a vampire was—for whatever reason—working as an enforcer, Theo would know.
