Riding My Dragons (The Dragons Of Tellus #1)

CHAPTER 14

Jenna

On the way down the street to the public transit stop outside Elliot’s building, I tried to talk Elliot and Byron into letting me come with them to the Pendrake Lacerta to see Cade.

“Listen,” I said, “I could just go and see Cade, just to talk to him before you do anything else.They actually shot him.He was hurt and he was terrified.I’d just like to see him after all that.Then I could go back to the dorm, and Byron, you could call a lawyer or whoever else could help, and you could get back in touch with me afterwards and let me know how it went.No one would have to see me but you two and Cade.”

”We’d feel a lot better if no one saw you with us at the Lacerta at all,” Byron said.“The Constables would want to know about everyone who went to Cade’s room.If some of the resort staff saw you…”

Elliot agreed, “We’d feel better just taking no risks with you, Jenna.Cade knows you’re on his side, anyway, and we’ll make sure to tell him just the same.”

”So when will I ever see him again?” I worried aloud.

”When it’s safer,”Elliot promised.

“There’s going to be an investigation,” said Byron.“When it gets under way and all the attention is on Cade and they’re questioning whoever he says sent him out on this damn ‘job,’ then it should be at least a little safer for you to be near him.”

”He’ll be in custody then, won’t he?” I said, my voice slightly cracking again at the thought of Cade being a prisoner.

”Maybe,” said Cade.“Or I might be able to help him with bail.”

I rubbed my forehead at that idea.“My God.Cade, let out on bail from something that his shady relatives made him do.What a family.”

”Nobody’s family is perfect,” Elliot agreed.

”Between fathers and uncles who disappear into other worlds and elders who send you out to pull heists, I guess not,” I said, heavy-hearted.

We got to the transit stop on the corner and waited quietly until the long transit vehicle came skimming over the road and floated to a hover.The door slid open for me.

Elliot said, “We’ll call as soon as we know something more.”And he pulled me to him and kissed me.

”Get something to eat and wait to hear from us,” Byron said, holding out his arms.I went to him and accepted his hug and kiss as well.Then, not wanting to keep the conductor waiting, I quickly climbed aboard the transit and flashed my mirror at the payment screen to record my fare.I got a seat by a window and watched Elliot and Byron waving to me and waved back as the vehicle floated away down the street.

Sitting aboard the moving transit, I hardly saw or heard anything around me once the two guys were out of sight.My thoughts dissolved into the image of Cade sitting in a hotel room somewhere, unable to enjoy his comfortable surroundings and the amenities available to him.How could he enjoy being where he was when his own mind was filled with the picture of himself sitting in a cage somewhere, sentenced to be there, probably losing years of his life, because his own “scales and blood,” as Byron put it, had sacrificed him.Someone in Cade’s own family had done that to him.Someone who was supposed to love him had decided that whatever was on some old data storage unit was more important than he was.How could they do such a thing?I could hardly imagine it.

Then again, not long ago I couldn’t imagine my own father and uncle deciding to go running off to another world and leave my grandmother and me alone to wonder when or if we’d ever see them again.And yet, here I was, in this strange other world, so much like my own and still so very different, where I’d come looking for them and so far found only my uncle.Sometimes the ones we love do selfish, hurtful things without any thought to how they’ll affect us—how they’ll hurt us.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I heard a voice say, “Excuse me, wasn’t that Elliot Ladon back there?”

I snapped back to reality and saw a couple of guys in the seats opposite me, and one guy turned around in the seat ahead of me, all giving me curious looks.I shook my head as if to shake out cobwebs between my ears and said, “Excuse me?”

The guy turned around in front of me, with a mildly excited look, pointed behind me, indicating the street from which the transit had skimmed away, and said, “Those two guys you just left.Wasn’t one of them Elliot Ladon—you know, the racer, the wrestler?”

Drawing a quick breath, I remembered something about Elliot that I’d started to overlook because of the kind of relationship that I had with him and the others.Elliot had fans.I had sat surrounded by them at his wrestling match and the transmission of his race, then forgotten all about them while going to bed with the guys.One of my trio of dragons happened to be a bit of a celebrity athlete, something that had slipped my mind while enjoying his very intimate athletics.

“Um…Elliot, yes,” I replied, a bit awkwardly, embarrassed at the attention.“We’re friends.He’s a nice guy.”

”Yeah, him and that other guy were looking pretty ‘friendly’ with you back there at the stop,” said one of the guys sitting opposite me.“Must be nice, being a buff for him.”

From the context of what he was saying and the suggestive twinkle in his eye, I guessed that “buff” must be a synonym for “groupie” in this world.Was that really what I was—an Elliot Ladon groupie?He didn’t treat me like some disposable girl fan that he just banged and moved on from.I guessed that he’d had plenty of those since he started his sports career.He was certainly experienced in bed, as much of an athlete sexually as in competition.But he’d never made me feel like a hanger-on.When he learned I was a virgin, Elliot was passionate, but considerate, thinking of my pleasure as much as his own.He’d invited me to spend my holiday week with him and brought his friends into our private celebration of Reconciliation.His friends hadn’t made me feel like just a girl they were passing around, either.Yes, they had no inhibitions with me and took what they wanted.But they made me feel as if they were interested in me, not just my body.

I didn’t feel like a “groupie” with Elliot or a shared girl with the three of them.I actually didn’t know what to call this thing that I had with them.Was it love?With three guys in such a short time?Really?There was no doubt that they liked me, and I liked them.And with Elliot, it was a little more than just fondness.But could what I was sharing with them really be called love?Was it possible for love to work that way, to be a circle of people and not just a connection between two?I didn’t know.I only knew the way it felt, and I didn’t feel used.Being with them this morning, with all of us so concerned about Cade, I didn’t feel used.Elliot and Byron had made me feel cared for.Whatever it was that I had with them, I knew it was real.

To the curious guys I said only, “Elliot is really nice.”And I smiled politely and turned away to look out the window at the streets going by and didn’t give any more thought to their curiosity.I guessed they must have been thinking, wow, that girl is bedding down with Elliot Ladon.Perhaps they envied Elliot and his “groupies,” knowing I was probably one of them.And they might even envy me for probably getting to sleep with him.All I knew was that it was the only time in my life that I’d ever thought of myself as someone that others might envy, not only because of Elliot, but also Byron and Cade.

And then, remembering what we’d all been so concerned about, my only thought for the rest of the ride back to campus was, Poor Cade.

_______________

The transit floated to a hover at a stop just inside the campus grounds, and I stepped off.The guys who’d been so intrigued with me when I got on had gotten out themselves somewhere between Elliot’s place and the campus, and I’d hardly noticed.All I’d been thinking about during the ride was how much trouble Cade had gotten into when he could have been at Elliot’s with us, sharing in what we’d all been enjoying in Elliot’s bed.And all I could think about while stepping off the transit and onto the campus street was to wonder how we were going to get poor Cade out of this mess.

This was an outlying area of the University grounds, a short walk from the academic and residential buildings, where the support and service facilities were.Somewhere between this transit stop and my dorm, I knew, was that warehouse, where so much trouble had started.Walking along this street, with the plain and functional buildings, in the quiet of the mostly empty campus, I had a sudden urge to see the place where the trouble happened, a place to which I’d hardly given any kind of thought before now.I quickened my steps and headed along the walkway to where that place was.

I soon found the warehouse, looking just as I’d seen it so many times, never attaching any special importance to it.I had never seen it the way it was now, blocked off with little poles between which barriers of red tape were strung.Back home, these tape barriers would have been yellow, the sign of the police cordoning off a crime scene.Seeing the warehouse this way and knowing the reason why, I felt a cold dread wrapping around my heart, imagining Cade entering this place, taking something, and facing guards who tried to detain him and shot at him when he flew away.I hated the idea of someone that I’d been so intimate with, being in that situation, being caught and having to escape.

Oh, Cade, I wondered, how scared were you?How desperate?

As much as I’d wanted to see this place at first, now I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.A sudden urge to run took hold of me, thinking of how Cade had needed to fly away—of how he’d been shot as he took flight.Tears welled up in my eyes, thinking of shells of energy raking his scales as he bolted to escape; of the terror that he must have felt along with the pain.It was too awful to think about.Cade had given me so much pleasure, and he must have felt such pain.I turned and ran, holding a hand over my mouth to hold back not only my sobbing, but my sudden sickness.Coming here was a mistake!I had to get out of here!So, I just ran for the quad, where my dorm was.I’d go to my room and just lie down by myself, get my feelings under control.When I was calmer, I’d get a shower and try to eat something.What I needed now was whatever feeling of normalcy I could get.

Some school break this was turning out to be.

A short way from my dorm, I began to feel out of breath.I slowed down and found a little table and a bench under a tree, a good place to settle down for a moment before walking the rest of the way back to my room. This would be a good chance to have another look at the media for any further updates about Cade.I had an image of Constables showing up at that hotel, going up to his room, banging on his door.Was there some way that they could have tracked him, even if he’d stayed in his human body since escaping from those guards?I suddenly needed a little more reassurance that he was all right.And perhaps I’d send a message to Elliot and Byron while I was at it.I sat down at the table and took out my mirror.Taking a breath, I called up the media and hoped for no news, which would be good news.

Sure enough—and thankfully so—there were no updates about the University warehouse break-in and the “suspect” that the Constables were looking for.Good, Cade, I thought, just stay where you are and stay human.Elliot and Byron have probably gotten to you by now.

I closed out the media and went to the call function.Hitting Elliot’s calling code, I got his voice responder.“This is Elliot,” said his voice, making me picture his sexy face.“I’m busy right now, so please leave me a message and I’ll get you right back.”

“Elliot,” I said, with the thought of him “getting me right back” warming me up just a little, “it’s Jenna.I’m back at campus.I was just at the warehouse; something made me want to see it, I don’t know what.But I’m here and I hope you guys are with Cade and you’re figuring out some way to…”

Something stopped me in mid-sentence; a strange, sharp pain on my neck.It made me flinch and gasp, and I suddenly had a strange, fuzzy, fluttery feeling in my head.I felt at my neck where the sudden pain happened, and there was an object of some sort sticking out of my skin.I pulled it away and looked at it.The last clear thought that I had was that it looked like some kind of long thorn—or perhaps the long talon or claw of a dragon.Then, as my thoughts began to melt behind my clouding eyes, I had an awful idea of what had just happened.

I forced myself up from the table on legs that were suddenly wobbly.With an effort, I kept the mirror up to my ears and said, “Elliot, something is…There’s someone, I don’t know…”I tried to look around, but could see only blurs of color, and it was getting harder to form thoughts, let alone talk.“Elliot,” I uttered in a droning voice, “someone just…I think I’ve been…Who?Elliot, I…don’t…”

My voice and any kind of conscious thoughts I might have had, simply dissolved.In some dim corner of my fading mind, I was aware of having taken a few steps from the table toward the tree.My last sensations were of tumbling, of the impact between my body and the ground, and grass against my face.

Then…nothing.