God, he hated being in this position.
Tracking down Locke’s informer took another ten minutes, until they found a darkened house, suggesting either the informant was sleeping or not in.
Or something else.
Nervous, Locke called again, but no answer, no light switching on. The front door was locked. However, a back window slid open, and proved no difficulty to clamber in. They crawled inside the kitchen, feet whispering across the ground, both holding their breaths, listening for any other sounds from the vicinity.
Nothing.
They crept into the living room. Locke swore.
“Shit.”
Evidence of something had happened in the room. Table overturned, food and plates scattered and broken on the floor. Blackened mark on the wall, with ash beneath it, and… bones.
Locke groaned, dashing off to check the rest of the house, gun drawn, while Kieran kneeled behind the ashes.
Well, then. This looked like his brother’s work, unfortunately. Not something Locke’s little friend would be coming back from, if the bones happened to belong to him, or were some elaborate fake-out from Broxar.
Locke stormed downstairs, holding a new phone. “His last call was to 911, but it didn’t patch through. I’m calling the sheriff.”
The place became a crime scene in less than half an hour, and they needed to take statements, explain their role… and Locke decided informing the police about the nature of his own investigation was the smartest thing to do.
“If we have a monster that likes cooking people alive, I think they should have a stab at tracking said monster down themselves.”
Meanwhile, Kieran just felt hollow.
His brother had already struck. Which meant he probably had investigators or cronies of his own.
Macey reported back to say nothing big happened with Emory, but the news of the home break-in made her hiss sharply. “That’s one fucked-up brother you got there. Makes me think I’m not stocking up enough on the dragonsbane.”
Kieran privately agreed.
Chapter Seven – Tegan
“Here. Take it all.” Kieran dumped a gun, complete with two packets of bullets, on the basement bar table. “This’ll protect you.” He held up one of the packets. “Dragonsbane bullets. They’ll fuck up a dragon if one of those gets shot at them, regardless of the form they’re in.”
“Uh…” Tegan blinked. “You realize I’ve never held a gun in my life?” Ever since Kieran came back from stalking Emory a week back, he’d been far more nervous and paranoid than before. Telling her to be careful. Getting one of his private investigators to follow her around as a personal bodyguard—some stern-faced woman who looked like she’d happily shoot people in the face if they so much as breathed. Tegan’s stomach was showing a little now, but as long as she wore baggy clothes, she was more or less able to disguise it.
Another check-up at the hospital confirmed the rapid growth rate. Growing a third faster than a human child meant they wanted to regularly monitor it to make sure no sudden complications arose, since the window to deal with them was shorter.
“I’ll take you to a shooting range. They have one just outside the town. Macey’ll show you the ropes, she’s already offered.”
“You seriously want me to learn to use a gun to shoot at a dragon?”
“Yes. We may not be able to protect you all the time, and he’ll take his chance if he possibly can. If you can defend yourself if that ever happens… maybe we have nothing to fear.”
The notion of locking herself up in a bunker did seem a little more appealing than before. Considering the alternative meant possibly being roasted alive by some mad dragon.
“You’re making me start to regret this whole affair. You know, if you have baggage that kills people, maybe don’t look around for relationships?”
Kieran deflated at that, and he fell silent for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah. If I was smarter, I’d just go back to my family. Or live the rest of my life alone, always running. But that’s not the kind of life I want, Tegan.”
“This isn’t the life I want.”
He sighed. “Here.” Fishing something else out of his pocket, he handed it to her.
“What’s this?” A manila envelope, with what felt like some hefty contents within. He didn’t tell her, and she opened it up, sifting through the contents, eyes widening. Her heart rate picked up.
“What?” She gaped at him. “This is for me?”
“It is. I know it’s probably not what you’re looking for right now, but…”
She clutched the documents tightly. The deeds. “Why would you do this for me?”
“Because I want you to have the life you desire. And, well, things are getting a little screwed up right now, so it’s the least I can do.”
The least he did was buy her a plot of land. It had nothing on it but some shed, apparently, and was located south of Whitefall Creek, near the Ghost Lake—but it was land. Her land.
She wanted to ask him just how much it cost, but that felt… rude, considering. She bit her tongue, kept quiet on the matter, and felt a weird mix of happiness, confusion, and a few other sensations she didn’t know how to name.
Weird felt about right.
“You really, really didn’t need to.”
“I know. If you don’t want it, though, that’s okay. Just… it might be nice to have an area to build upon, to set things up for your business. It’s big enough to be vineyards as well if you want to go into wine.”
Her voice cracked. “Thank you.” She didn’t know how to react to this kindness. Too busy being stressed about the fact that there was a murderous shape-shifter out there who didn’t appreciate human and shifter unions. “I… once everything’s calmed down, I’ll start growing again. Just need to put things on hold for now. But I can… see the land?”
“Of course. I’ll take you there.” He paused for a moment. “In dragon form, if you want. I have a saddle.”
“You have a what?”
“I ordered it. My back isn’t comfy, because there’s a few spikes along it, but I know you’ve wanted to see me in my dragon form a few times. I’ll show you.”
The general confusion Tegan felt dissolved into sheer excitement. “Yes, please! I’d love to see!”
He chuckled and went to the bedroom, taking out a rather peculiar saddle, hollowed out like a turtle’s shell, with a little groove for someone to sit on. It had adjustable straps to secure it to the body, and possibly even on some of the spikes a dragon had.
“I have no idea how I’m supposed to put this shit on…”
“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure. C’mon.” He beckoned for her to follow him, and she did.
“You want to take me now?”
“I didn’t do all of this shopping for no reason. Of course I want to take you now!”
Hell of a lot of shopping. A gun and dragonsbane bullets, a saddle, and a plot of land. She had a brief vision of riding on the back of a dragon as they flew through the air, Daenerys Targaryen style, but with a gun, popping it at an opposing dragon as they flew at each other like jousters. Maybe she’d have a cowboy hat on as well, while doing this.