Jaime Rush - Dragon Awakened

“Hey, Miz Ruby, sorry to hear about your uncle.”

She started as Jack came up and gave her a hug. Thankfully his lanky arms went around her shoulders and nowhere near the bulge of metal at her waist. She cleared her throat and moved back. “Thanks.” His expression of sympathy vanished, morphing into bewilderment. Assuming it was about the injury on her forehead, or perhaps some new one, she waved it away. “I’m fine, just a small burn.”

“Your…eyes.”

Bloodshot? No doubt. Or maybe her pupils were dilated. Did that happen when you went crazy? Jack was the coolest, calmest guy she knew—well, until she’d met Cyntag. Which meant there was something really wrong with her eyes. “What about them?”

His voice lowered, and he glanced around as though to make sure no one was nearby. “Miz Ruby, you’re a Crescent. But you weren’t a Crescent when you hired me, and you weren’t even one yesterday. How…”

The memory of the embers in her reflection shot to mind. Not a hallucination if Jack could see it, too. Wait a minute. He was talking about Crescents. Jack, who did not know Mon, could not possibly know of his tales. She gripped his arm and stared into his eyes. There, just for a second, a spark like she’d seen in Cyntag’s eyes.

“Tell me what you see, Jack.”

“Embers. But…I don’t understand.”

“Believe me, you’re not the only one.”

He grinned, shaking his head. “I knew there was something about you, Miz Ruby.”

Something about her. She stumbled away, her chest so tight she had to pound it.

Nevin walked out of the building where the gas pump was being restored, his face pinched. Leo stepped out next to him, and he looked even more tense.

“Ruby, can we talk to you?” Nevin asked, his voice squeaky like it was when he was about to tell her he’d bungled a project.

She robotically followed them into the building where Nevin closed the door despite the warmth inside. Leo’s arms were straight down at his sides, hands clenched as though he was ready to tackle her. Her body stiffened in response.

“Ruby, did you kill your uncle?”

Had she seen a mist in Leo’s eyes? Was she friggin’ seeing things everywhere now? Could she be swept up in a full-blown schizophrenic hallucination? Which was preferable to this all being real, because there were pills for that.

“I tell you about your uncle paying me to toughen you up, you hightail it out of here, and then your uncle dies in a fire.” Leo’s voice softened the way it might if he were talking to an insane person. “I know you were upset, but I want you to think about what happened. Did you go a little crazy? It’s okay, Ruby. You can tell us.”

He thought she’d killed her uncle.

She laughed, a sound that probably corroborated his suspicions because it came out a hysterical cackle. He started to reach for her shoulders, like he was going to restrain her.

She saw the mist swirl again, and before he could reach her, she screamed, “You’re one, too! I can’t believe this.” She grabbed Nevin by his shirt and wrenched him to within an inch of her nose. “What about you? Do you have anything in your eyes? Glows, flames, mists—”

Leo’s arm went around her waist, and he hauled her out of the building as though she were a piece of metal ready to be soldered. Sideways. She kicked and punched him, but he didn’t set her down until they were outside. He waved off Nevin, who looked as though she’d smacked him.

When they were some distance away, Leo set her on her feet and threw his hands up to ward off the fist she was pulling back. “Nevin’s not one of us,” he gritted out. “Rule Number One, Ruby!”

Not one of us. Then Leo’s admonishment about Rule Number One registered, the same thing Mon had said.

“Back away from her. Now.”

The authoritative command came from behind her and made Leo automatically step back. She knew that voice before she even turned. Cyntag looked like a ninja warrior in his white pants and tight black shirt, so out of place, so larger than life that she hoped he was a hallucination. Unfortunately he looked real, from the way the material hugged muscular thighs all the way to the sun reflecting on his dark hair.

She jabbed her finger at him. “You, get away from me. I don’t know what the hell you are—”

“I’m what you are, Ruby.”

“No.” She shook her head hard. “I am not a…” She let the word dragon trail off.

“Who the hell are you ?”

She spun to find Jack drawing up, his shoulders wide and hands fisted. His body tensed even more when he met Cyntag’s gaze. The two did some kind of male posturing thing, clearly sizing each other up. Jack was a teenager’s wiry kind of muscular. Cyntag was bigger and buffer, and held an energy that just felt more dangerous. Jack appeared as though he might combust on the spot.

Cyntag looked lethally relaxed. “I’m Cyntag Valeron. You don’t want to mess with me.”

Jack’s jaw tightened. “Well, I sure as hell ain’t gonna let you come in here and harass Miz Ruby.”

Taking Jack’s cue, Leo stepped forward. “Me either. I’m an old friend of hers. I think she may be in trouble, and none of this concerns you.”

Even with two against one, Cyntag didn’t appear as though he were going to back down. “ Miz Ruby’s business is my business. She is in trouble, big trouble. I’m her sworn protector, so she’s my responsibility.”

She held her hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not his”—she turned to Cyntag—“your responsibility.” God, she hadn’t been someone’s responsibility since she turned eighteen and took control of the Yard. She looked from Jack to Leo, neither of whom seemed baffled by Cyn’s assertion. “Come on, you can’t know about this sworn-protector business.”

“It’s an honor thing,” Jack said. “You promise to take care of someone at any cost.”

“It was used more often in the olden days,” Leo said. “Back when there was honor. Or so I’ve been told ad nauseam by my parents.”

“I swore it to her grandfather,” Cyntag said. “Brom Winston.”

“Brom?” Leo said. “Isn’t he the dude who predicted the island would sink? He was like Noah, told everyone to build boats and saved a bunch of our ancestors. And he was only ten years old or something.”

Cyntag nodded. “Yes, that Brom Winston.”

Her grandfather, Brom Winston? Then the rest of what they were saying hit her. The island sank. Our ancestors. Ruby staggered, because she couldn’t deny it any longer. Mon’s fairy tales…weren’t tales.

Though both men clearly weren’t comfortable around Cyntag, she sensed their deference to him. Or maybe a fearful respect. Either way, the subject of Brom calmed the edge in Jack’s body language.

Cyntag stepped up to her, forcing Jack to move back. “Ruby has to go away for a while. I suggest you take a few days off until we figure out what’s going on. There might be some dangerous visitors looking for her.”

She shook her head. “What? No, I’ve got projects, commitments…” The words died in her throat. Visitors as in demons. This was real. Crazy, insane, but real. The demon killed that man and that poor little creature. It might hurt these people. Cyntag met her gaze, nodding as he saw understanding dawn. He’d been real, too, with scales and fangs and deep blue eyes. An honest-to-God Dragon. She turned to Jack. “Take a vacay.”

Jack said, “I can protect you, Miz Ruby.” He nodded to Cyntag. “I mean, you don’t even know this guy, do you?”

Cyntag walked over to the Harley and ran his hand over the freshly painted tank. “Nice job, kid.” A compliment, yet she knew the word “kid” was meant to establish a hierarchy. “Have you been trained to fight?”