Page 36 of Claim the Dragon
“Tomato, tomahto,” Ziva quipped.
“There’s more,” Bleu said, his watchful russet brown eyes bearing down on Steele.
Steele leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table.“Robles bought the dagger for half a million dollars, but he’s double-mortgaged all three of his homes.There are two more pieces in his house worth about a million and yet he’s got a bargain basement security system.And his assistant hasn’t been paid in over a year.”Most of that information he’d received while he was in the shower.He’d sent a message to Isla requesting an update the moment he’d made it back to his private suite, and because she was phenomenal at what she did, she’d delivered.
“So he spent all his money on the dagger and two other pieces?”Reese shrugged.“Probably not the smartest thing to do, but there’s no crime in that.However, being a thief, albeit a hot as hell one, is akin to being a criminal.”
Steele’s Drakon eyes zeroed in on Reese with such intensity, Reese’s eyes flipped, as well, his beast more than ready to go head-to-head with Steele’s.
“Or it means somebody else purchased those items and for whatever reason had Robles holding them,” Magnum said.
Steele heard his brother’s voice and took a deep breath.He clenched and unfurled his fingers, trying like hell to calm his mind.
“You said there’s a curse,” Shola said.“What type of curse?”
“The dagger was cursed by the Egyptians to kill anyone who owned it because it was stolen from King Tutankhamun.The cycle of the curse runs on the next full moon.So far, the research I’ve done only speaks of the death portion of the curse, but I get the feeling that as the dagger has traveled, the mechanisms of the curse may have morphed into something else.”The way he hadn’t been able to just take it from Ravyn wasn’t just because his beast was infatuated with her.There’d been some power at work there, a power that Steele hadn’t been able to properly handle without exposing himself to Ravyn and whoever else was living in that underground place with her.He’d hoped that as soon as he completed the purchase from Ravyn he could dig a little deeper, maybe travel to Egypt to find out more, but then they were attacked.
“Robles said he had enforcers and private investigators looking for the dagger.I think those PIs paid a visit to my hotel a while ago.”
“The hotel that has since been on the news because the humans are trying to figure out what type of explosion blew out the side of the building,” Bleu said dryly.
“The explosion called Hot as Steele,” Reese added with a chuckle.
Steele didn’t react to hearing the nickname the other Drakon had given him because of his quick and volatile temper.
“Someone showed up at your hotel and you decided it was a good idea to shift, bust through the side of the building in the middle of the city and bring a human back to the Office?”Theo’s question was calmly spoken, but the emperor was clearly upset.Flames were visible in the blue depths of his eyes and each time the room grew quiet the sound of his beast chuffing in anger could be heard like an ominous whisper.
“Not someone, mummies.First there were two.In the blink of an eye there were twelve, then twenty.Every time I killed two, ten more appeared.I couldn’t fight them all, not in human form and not with her there.I had no other choice.They weren’t going to just let us walk out the door.”
But he planned to go back to that hotel or anywhere he thought he might be able to find those bastards, because without having to worry about Ravyn getting hurt, Steele could have scorched every one of them.Of course, the side of the building would probably have still been blown out, because his flame surge was not only hot as the bowels of the earth but traveled with the force of a torpedo and volcano combined.
“Why would mummies be in search of a cursed dagger?The curse should take care of its enemies without any help,” Shola said.“It doesn’t seem right to me.”
“Me either,” Theo agreed.He’d sat back, elbows on the arms of the chair, one finger moving over his jaw.
The emperor continued, “Tomorrow, Magnum and Reese will go back to the hotel to find anything that tells us more about these mummies.”
Steele immediately protested.“I’m not walking away from this.”
“I’m not telling you to,” Theo said.He didn’t have to say more because everyone in the room was thinking that if Theo had said that, there would’ve been nothing Steele could do.
But they were wrong.
“You have exposure to clean up and a dagger to obtain,” Theo said.
“I already bought the dagger from her,” he said.
Magnum shook his head.“You bought a half-million-dollar dagger that’s sure to kill you.”
“There’s still twenty-eight days left until the full moon.Besides, it hasn’t done anything to me yet and I’ve been pretty close to it.And it hasn’t killed Ravyn.”Although Steele wasn’t sure how much longer that would remain true, especially if the dagger was connected to why the Reaper wanted her dead.
“Look, I know you’re worried about exposure, but really, Theo, aren’t we past that by now?”Steele continued as he stared down the table at the emperor and then to Shola.“There’re people in Burgess who know preternaturals exist and then there are some who don’t believe.But not believing doesn’t make us go away.If we’re really here to protect them, shouldn’t we be doing so out in the open so that they know they have someone in their corner?”
He’d contemplate how Ravyn’s situation had brought him to that conclusion later.For now, he needed to get out of this meeting as quickly as possible.
“He’s got a point there,” Reese said.
Steele looked to the other Drakon who worked his nerves on a daily basis.He nodded to him and Reese shrugged.
