Page 38 of Claim the Dragon
Chapter Ten
“Dammit!”Ravyn screamed as she sent the lamp flying into one of the three side-by-side windows in the room.It only bounced back, the base going in one direction and the plaid-print shade going in another.The light bulb stayed intact, which didn’t really matter because the woman named Shola had flipped on a set of switches when they’d walked into the room, draping the space in a soft gold light.
Ravyn paced across the room for what felt like the billionth time, dragging her hand through the one side of her hair.
“I gotta get out of here,” she spat and turned to pace in the other direction.
Pausing, she looked at the door again.It was locked, the knob, a small black iron one, wouldn’t even move when she tried to turn it.There were no bolts that she could see and no keyholes, so how had they locked it?Probably some sort of electric mechanism.That was just great.
The windows were a no-go too.She had no idea what they were made of, some super Plexiglas, maybe, but they were unbreakable.She’d tossed a chair, used a coat stand from the corner and then the lamp that was now in two pieces, with no luck at all.There was no other way out.No vent that she could fool herself into thinking she could shimmy through, no window in the bathroom, no way to maybe use the dagger to pick the door open.
With a heavy sigh she looked down at the dagger.
“Why aren’t you glowing now?Or floating over to break through that window?”Stopping her movement to drop down on the bed, she shook her head.“Because you’re an idiot, that’s why.”
The feeling she’d felt back at that hotel, and the glow from the dagger, the way she’d floated through the air and the dagger had done the same thing.For those few moments Ravyn had started to believe.She’d begun to think that maybe there was something to otherworldly powers or things that weren’t easily explained.Because she’d never felt as powerful as she had in those minutes.Not even that night when she’d leapt from that roof.Even though, now that she was thinking about it, maybe that was connected to the dagger, as well.
“Nonsense.That dirty old dagger isn’t cursed, nor is it giving you any powers.It’s just a relic, and one that’s brought us a lot of money.”
That thought made her smile.There was so much she wanted to buy for Safeside, so many things she wanted to do for the people there.If she could get out of this mountain jail first.
“Who are these people?And what was that thing?”
Her questions—which by the way were just as odd as every day had been since she’d stolen that dagger—halted when she heard the clicking sound at the door.
She jumped off the bed, grabbing the dagger she’d tossed on it when she realized it wasn’t going to work, then lifted her shirt to stuff it into the waistband of her jeans.The door opened seconds after the click and Steele walked in slowly.Ravyn was across the room, jumping into his arms before he had a chance to close the door all the way.
“Whoa,” he said and wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her to him as he pushed the door shut.
“Where’ve you been?What happened?There was all this dust and these people attacking us and then I was here.How’d you get here?How did you get out of your room?”
He’d begun walking with her in his arms, staring down at her with those deep brown eyes.When he set her down, her feet touched the floor again and she looked down in question.She hadn’t realized she’d actually jumped up into his arms and now she felt slightly embarrassed by that fact.Each time she was around him, she did things she didn’t normally do and while she kept telling herself it meant nothing, she was starting to rethink that too.
“You’re fine.Just relax.There’s nothing to worry about.”He spoke calmly while she felt anything but.
“Well, that’s not entirely true.I don’t know where I am or why I’ve been locked in a room and I have no idea what the hell that thing was outside that brought me here.”
He lifted a hand to smooth down her hair, using the other one to run over the side of her head with the low-cut hair.His touch was of course warmer there and sent a soothing bolt of heat throughout her body.
“Where are we?”she asked, deciding to narrow it down to one question at a time.
“We’re at a place called the Office.It’s where I work.”
“I thought you worked at the Legion Security Company.They’re in a building downtown.I looked it up after you told me,” she said.It occurred to her that she should probably move away from him while they had this conversation since it was of a serious nature and him touching her made her sane thoughts scatter and reform into those soft mushy pleasurable thoughts that she’d been trying to box away since last night when he’d been in her bed.
“We have multiple offices,” he said and let his hands fall to her face, where his thumbs ran lightly over the line of her jaw.
“Okay, so we’re at your job.How did we get here?I mean I thought I saw...something.But I don’t know, maybe I’m still delirious from the fever I had when I was sick.I thought I was over that flu the day at the pawn shop, when I saw...something,” she said and shook her head remembering that was also the day she’d seen that woman she’d thought was a ventriloquist.If she thought she’d seen something today, what if the ventriloquist was really a gh...No!She didn’t believe in those things.This world belongs to humans.Her father’s words replayed in her mind even as doubts continued to spread.
“What did you think you saw?”His voice was serious and stiff like stone.
Ravyn did ease away from him then, because her thoughts were crisscrossing.When she’d left Happy’s shop the other day and had been walking to the antiques shop, there’d been so many people on the street.People she’d almost bumped into because they’d been walking directly in her path as if they hadn’t seen her coming.But that was silly because she’d seen them as plain as day.Actually, she’d almost bumped into one of them and the other...shehadbumped into but she hadn’t felt any contact.
No.She was shaking her head as she walked closer to the windows.It couldn’t be.She didn’t believe in otherworldly beings and she certainly didn’t believe in ghosts.
“What do you think you saw, Ravyn?”
It didn’t sound as if he’d moved from that spot where he stood near the door, but his words were enunciated in her mind.What do youthinkyou saw?As if she couldn’t possibly have seen a ghost or a...a...whatdidshe think it was?
