Page 10

Chapter 10

Big Ask

Blake

We were back in my father’s office.

The broken pieces of furniture and trash on the floor had been cleaned up. As was all the blood I had on my face and clothes.

I could still taste the copper. It made me shiver as I sat on the couch next to Xavier. He placed a reassuring hand on my leg, which helped some of the tremors. Warrick sat in a chair while Cass paced in an anxious circle.

I’d never killed anyone before. I’d never seen so much death before. Today eclipsed the traumatic memory of seeing my stalker killed, making that day seem like a fluffy little dream in comparison.

We waited for my father, who was still being debriefed.

“That was wild.” Warrick took off his glasses and blew a puff of air at the lenses. He cleaned them off with the clean white shirt he had changed into.

“Thank you for protecting my mother,” I said, still grateful after being told that Warrick was the one who had gotten her out to safety before running back in to help the others. “Seriously.”

“No thanks needed,” Warr said, smiling. “Besides, she held her own. She saved my ass when a shifter crept around the corner and took us by surprise. She dropped a huge vase on the sucker and gave me enough time to restrain him.”

“She is a pretty kick-ass woman,” I said. I’d felt a swell of relief when Warrick told me my mom was safe. If anything had happened to her, I would have been ruined. Completely devastated.

“You did really great out there too,” Xavier said to me. He grinned, looking as if he’d just come in from a brisk job and not a fight for his life. After the chaos of the last few hours, having him sitting next to me made me feel oddly reassured. More so than expected for just having a client-bodyguard relationship. I didn’t question it. I just let myself relax into it, fighting away the sensations of teeth tearing through skin, fur getting caught in my throat.

I gagged.

“You okay?” Xavier asked.

“Yeah, I just, I need some water. That’s all.”

Cassius walked over to the minifridge hidden inside the mahogany desk and tossed me a water bottle. “Here, drink up.”

“Is there anything stronger in there?” Warrick asked, looking over his glasses. “Maybe like moonshine? Tequila? Anything?”

“Just water,” Cass answered. “I don’t think you want the vice president getting hammered during work.”

“This is true,” Warr said and slumped back into his chair .

I chugged half the water bottle in one breath. Some of it spilled down my chin. I wiped it with the back of my hand and chugged some more.

“Did either of you spot a trigger? A tell that an attack was imminent?” Xavier asked. Even though he wasn’t in dragon form, I still felt that imposing presence in the room with us. I could tell he wanted to stretch his wings and take to the skies, where he could hunt down whoever had tried to escape.

“Nothing,” Cassius answered. “It all happened so suddenly.”

“And what about that red-eyed one?” I asked. Those were a pair of eyes I wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. They were vicious. They radiated with violence.

“He appeared to be the leader,” Xavier said.

Warrick nodded in agreement. “Who happened to have Dragonsbane with him. Just like in Joshua Tree.”

“His jacket also had the same emblem.”

“So the attacks are linked, then,” I said, realization sending a cold chill down my spine. I didn’t want them to be related. I wanted the desert attack to have been a one-off. Maybe they had taken too many shrooms and tripped hard enough to attack me without realizing I had a dragon flying directly above me.

The heavy door to the office opened. In walked my dad. He appeared shaken. Two Secret Service agents paused at the door. My father asked for them to stay outside and keep guard. He shut the door and turned to the small group.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked.

Nods throughout the room. Even Xavier was okay. His puncture wounds rapidly healed due to his dragon genetics. The deep and bloody injuries were the size of quarters, no longer bleeding as his skin stitched back together. He wore a black tank top that still had some scatterings of blood.

My dad walked to his desk, sat down, and placed his head in his hands. He was framed by an open window behind him, which looked out to a rose garden. “The president is in critical condition.”

“What?” we all said in unison.

“He likely won’t make it.”

It was as if gallons of ice water cascaded down from the ceiling.

The president… dead? That would cause a tidal wave of chaos and change.

And it would leave my father as his replacement.

Holy shit.

“By the huntress,” Warrick said, hand on his chest. One of the lenses in his glasses had a thick crack down the center.

“How did they even get in here?” Xavier asked. “These grounds have dozens of different types of protection. How did they get through the protective barriers?”

My father shook his head. He seemed ten years older than when I’d seen him this morning. “Many of those shifters had invitations, so that’s how they got through without suspicion.”

“Who invited them?”

“We don’t know. The guest records were wiped clean. The few that we did apprehend aren’t saying a single word. And that’s not all—they were able to get into the Warded Room.”

“That sounds bad,” Warrick said, leaning forward in his seat. He ran a hand through his short brown hair.

“It’s not,” I said. “It’s terrible. There’s so much in that room that could wipe out entire countries. How did they get in?” I looked to my dad. There had been plenty of times during his career that shit hit the fan, and he had to keep his composure. I’d seen him receive major intel calls at dinner and still keep calm as he thanked the servers and chef.

I could tell this time wasn’t like any of the others. There was a crack in his calm facade.

“That’s the question everyone’s asking. Thankfully—if I can even say that—only one item was taken. I’m saying it in this room because I trust each individual in here. I understand the dragon’s strong sense of honor, and I’ve known you two since you were babies.” My father looked around the room. He settled his hands on his desk, forming a tight fist. “They stole the starlight dagger. It has the power to tear a rift in time and space itself. The wielder can travel back to any point in time that they desire. From then, they could alter the very present that we inhabit. We would blink and be living in an entirely different world, none the wiser. According to the few pieces of literature we found on it, the dagger can only be used once, though. When it’s used, the power is drained from it regardless of what timeline it’s in.”

Xavier huffed out a breath. “So the attack on the gala must have been a distraction.”

“Correct. And I believe the president was targeted to cause as much chaos as possible. They need time now. No one knows how to use the dagger. The government’s had it in its possession for the past decade; no researcher has been able to figure out how to activate it. They’ve only been able to discover what it does. Just not how to use it.”

Cassius cleared his throat. He was still in his dress shirt and slacks, his long black hair no longer perfectly styled the way he usually liked it. “What if whoever has it now knows how to use it?”

“That’s one of my biggest concerns. They knew of its existence, and they knew where to get it. It isn’t a large leap to think they may know how to use it.” My dad’s hawkish blue eyes turned to Xavier. “Which is where you come in.”

I squinted my eyes at my father. Where was he headed with this?

“I don’t know who I can turn to right now. I’m skeptical of my own Secret Service agents. You’ve proven yourselves as proctors of my son, but I need to ask you for more. I need the dragons famous for stopping the Dragonfall to help me stop another disaster in the making.”

My jaw dropped. That was a massive ask, and I’m sure it went far, far outside of the scope Xavier was hired for. I looked at him, but his face was as expressionless as stone.

Warr was the one who chuckled. “Definitely wouldn’t be the first time we saved the world.”

Xavier’s brows pulled together. “It’s a lot to consider, Mr. Vice President.”

“Technically, President right now,” Warr quickly added.

“I’m sorry,” Xavier said. My father waved it off.

President. What the fuck is happening?

“I understand it’s a lot to ask for. But I don’t know who else I can go to right now. And time is very limited. I can’t go around interviewing people for the job.”

I swallowed. My palms sweat.

“I still want you to watch Blake as well. He’s far safer with you around, as well as being far, far from here. Maybe you two can work together to figure this out. I just don’t want Blake placed in any danger.”

It was hard to believe the words coming out of my dad’s mouth. He seriously wanted me to leave with the dragons and go on a quest to recover a stolen artifact? Was the danger here really that bad? He must have suspected everyone who walked through these halls.

“I’ll help,” Warrick said, sounding excited. In the time that I’d gotten to know him, he was definitely one to jump headfirst into things. He seemed to be a little more reckless than his older brothers. Xavier gave him a stare. Why was he becoming so bristly?

“I can help too,” Cassius spoke up. “I’ve studied the dagger before. I might be able to piece something together.”

“You have?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, my mom left me some books about it when she passed. Nothing the government hasn’t checked and read, but I think I’m a good source of info on the dagger.”

My father looked around at the team he’d just assembled. Something similar to hope curled his lips into a faint smile.

“So?” he asked Xavier. “Is it a go?”

There was a moment of silence. The fear I’d felt earlier began to morph into something else. I could prove my worth with this. I could dig my confidence out from the grave I’d thrown it in and revive it.

“No,” Xavier said. The buzz in the room rushed out like air from a punctured tire. “No, I can’t do that.”