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Chapter Twenty-One

“Run?” I repeated, aghast at the very idea. “I will not run while my enemies live. They must be handled.”

Pip chewed her bottom lip. “I understand you’re worried they’ll keep coming after you?—”

“Do you think they’ll stop?” I asked point blank.

“No,” was her soft reply. “But I can’t exactly say, hey, murder my boss and friend, even if he is a lying scumbag.”

“He’s a threat.”

“I’ll agree, Malone is. But Leo’s more like a little kid wanting to meet his hero, and he’s got information,” Pip stated. “He knew you were in that cone. Claims he’s translated some scroll left behind by a dragon’s servant that has the locations of other eggs.”

“Then I shall make him hand over his knowledge before he dies.” Because while a dragon tended to rule their territory alone, it was much more fun to become wealthy and powerful if you had someone to envy it.

“Abaddon—”

“You needn’t come on this hunt, Pip. I shall handle it.” A magnanimous offer on my part.

“You don’t even know where he’s gone.”

“I will find him,” I promised. With that, I launched myself from her shoulder and headed into the house. It would contain the scent of the one I sought.

Pip and Maddox followed, the latter actually arguing my case. “…got a point. Even if we leave, it’s obvious Leo knows too much about Abaddon.”

“I’m aware,” she grumbled. “Between the videos and samples, he could expose my Little Fella, but you’re asking me to agree to murder.”

“I’m not crazy about it either. I like your boss, but it turns out he wasn’t the man we thought. Who’s more important at this point, Abaddon or Leo?” Maddox asked as if the answer weren’t already obvious.

But Pip still had to argue. “What if we had Leo erase everything? Then he’d just be the crazy guy who believes in dragons.”

“Who’s to say he wouldn’t pretend to delete it all only to keep some of it on a hidden server?”

As they bantered, I scented the interior of the place but found myself stymied by myriad smells. Traversing from room to room, I couldn’t pinpoint which belonged to this Leo.

I interrupted my servants. “Where is this Leo’s bed chamber?”

For a second, I thought Pip wouldn’t reply. Then she pointed. “Down the hall to the left, double doors at the end of it.”

I set off in the direction indicated, and upon entering that room, the scent of my enemy filled my senses. Now I could track him. I returned to the main area before asking, “Where was the last location you saw him?”

“His office.” Once more Pip pointed out a direction and I stepped into a room where I smelled Pip, then my prey. From there, I followed the strongest lingering trace of it while my servants shadowed my steps.

No one accosted us, most likely because I’d handled the bulk of the army set against me outdoors. I’d flamed five and knew several had fled in a vehicle with one exclaiming, “I didn’t sign up for this shit.” Rather than chase them, I’d kept to my initial mission of saving Pip.

My target’s scent ended at a locked metal door.

“Open it,” I demanded.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. It uses biometrics and not a key,” Pip stated when the screen beside the portal flashed the message: Facial features not recognized.

“Guess we’re not getting inside,” Maddox stated with a shrug.

He gave up too easily. As if I’d let a door stand between me and victory.

“You might wish to move away,” I suggested as I stepped close to the door and placed my mouth against it. The metal wouldn’t catch fire, but intense heat would melt it. I huffed, concentrating my fire into a narrow spot. Once the metal began to soften, I moved my head in a widening circle motion while pushing at it, creating an opening large enough for me to fit through.

I entered and Pip cried out, “Wait, you can’t go alone.”

“I will return shortly.”

Beyond the door, an elevator awaited and beside it was a descending staircase. I chose the latter as Pip exclaimed, “Bloody hell, the edges are too hot for me to go through.”

Good. I didn’t want her coming to harm. This was my battle and given her softness in regard to my enemy, his demise was not something she needed to see.

The staircase plunged quite a fair distance, not that I climbed each step. I floated down, a silent wraith of vengeance.

At the bottom, I found myself in a room with many computers and screens but of more interest was the large window overlooking a strange place with perches set at varying heights. A giant pond for bathing. A home almost fit for a dragon but for the fact it had been built to be a prison.

My prison.

The nerve.

Through the window I could see a man prying open a crate. Was this Leo? His scent had passed through here recently, entering the domed room through a door that had been left ajar.

Quietly, I stepped in and a few paces from the man spoke. “If it isn’t my enemy.”

The male whirled and his jaw dropped. “Oh. Wow. You’re here. Hi.”

He showed no fear. Unacceptable.

“I said I was coming.” Warned them even and yet did they flee? No, hence why they faced my wrath.

The man smiled. “And here Malone thought you might give Kaitlyn a hard time.”

“Kaitlyn is dead.”

“Oh.” Leo finally looked a touch nervous. He jerked his hand toward the crate. “I got you some Cheetos.”

“I shall enjoy eating them once you are dead.”

The male lifted his hands in a pleading gesture. “I’m not going to harm you. No need to kill me.”

“Liar. You sent hunters after me,” I hissed.

“Not to hurt, though. I just wanted to bring you here where it’s safe. See”—he swept a hand—“all of this built just for you.”

“Another lie as this construction is older than I am.”

“Well, yes, I started it a few years ago. Once I found that scroll with the locations of some eggs, knew it would only be a matter of time before we found a dragon.”

“You want to imprison me.”

“To keep you safe. To learn from you. To?—”

“Use me,” I exclaimed. “Unacceptable. And for that reason, you shall die.” My mouth opened wide and I let him see the building fire at the back of my throat.

Leo gulped before hitting his knees to plead. “Don’t kill me. I can help you. I have money.”

Rather than barbecue him, I growled, “How much money?”

“A lot.”

“I cannot be bribed. Once you are dead, I will simply take your wealth.”

“It’s not the kind of money you can touch,” Pip exclaimed as she entered the habitat. She’d managed to follow me, although she’d lost her coat and parts of her hair had been singed in the process. As she approached, she kept talking. “Leo’s wealth is locked in stocks and bitcoin and some overseas bank accounts. If he dies, his entire estate will go into probate and will be divvied up and given to whomever he designated in his will.”

Many words that amounted to one thing. “I can’t just take it?”

Pip shook her head. “Afraid not, Little Fella. Killing him won’t accomplish anything.”

“I wouldn’t be sure of that,” I grumbled. “I demand satisfaction for his temerity.”

“What you need is a guarantee he won’t spill your secrets.” Pip glanced at Leo. “Where have you stored the videos and samples of Abaddon?”

“Everything is on my servers or in the lab just beyond the computer room.” Leo pointed towards the glass window.

“If we destroy that, he won’t have proof,” Pip explained. “And if we keep him alive, we can have him set up a bank account for us with a ton of money so we can get a fresh start.”

“You wish me to let my enemy go free?” It emerged rather incredulously.

“I’m not your enemy,” the enemy dared retort.

“Silence!” I barked. To kill or not to kill? A dilemma that led to an idea forming in my head. I knew of a fitting punishment for the man who thought he could cage me. “Very well. You shall live?—”

“Thank you,” Leo gushed.

“In the prison you had designed for me. After all, didn’t you claim it was luxurious?” I glanced around at the vast space. It actually was quite nice.

“You’re going to lock me up?” Leo asked faintly.

“Is that a problem?” I hissed. “After all, you seemed to be quite determined to do so to me.”

“No. No. It’s fine. But people might notice if I don’t show up to my shop and stuff.”

Pip helped me counter his feeble attempt to avoid punishment. “Not really. I’ll just tell Kalypso you’re off on one of your travelling jaunts. Add in the occasional video conference call and no one will notice you’re technically missing.”

“But—”

Pip shook her head. “I don’t see that you have a choice, Leo. It’s either accept Abaddon’s deal or die.”

My muzzle twitched in a version of a dragon smile as I added, “Be grateful I’m so merciful. Perhaps if you show yourself to be a good prisoner, I will reward you with moments where you can bask in my greatness. After all, you did all this to get to know me better.” It wouldn’t be awful to have someone who actually appreciated my greatness, unlike Pip who yelled when I didn’t flush.

“You’ll visit me?” Leo’s smile returned, if tremulously.

“Perhaps, but only if you please me. So think long and hard about how you will comport yourself going forward and what you can do to aid me in building my prestige and hoard. In time, if you prove yourself loyal, I might allow you the honor of becoming one of my lesser servants.”

The man fell to his knees. “I’d like nothing more, your dragon majesty.”

Pip gagged. “Jesus Christ, Leo. Could you lick his arsehole any harder?”

“This is a dream come true, Pip. Not the prisoner part of course,” Leo quickly added. “But you don’t know how long I’ve wanted a chance to interact with an actual dragon.”

“Well, guess you’re getting your wish. Now that everyone is happy, I need a drink before I figure out how we’re supposed to hide all those cooked bodies.”

“Leave them out that everyone might see I am a force to be reckoned with.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Pip muttered. “I’m thinking we toss them in the burning barn and claim they had a party that got out of control.”

“Before you do that, I require sustenance. A lot of it,” I announced. It had been a busy day.

“Move away from the dragon, Leo.” A new voice spoke and I whirled to see the man in the suit standing at the window, microphone in hand. It seemed my work wasn’t yet done.

“It’s over, Malone,” Pip snarled. “You aren’t caging Abaddon.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s already inside.”

“As if this place can hold me,” I boasted.

“It can,” Malone insisted. “This whole dome is encased in panels comprised of the five highest melting point metals: tungsten, rhenium, tantalum, molybdenum, and niobium. It cost a fortune considering how much we needed and the difficulty in forging those elements. Even the window has a tungsten shield we can drop over it. Your breath might be hotter than expected, seeing as how you can melt steel, but even the weakest of those alloys requires over two thousand degrees Celsius.”

A heat even I couldn’t generate. “I should have hunted you first,” I stated noting he’d closed the door to the control room. Coward.

“But you didn’t, and now I’m safe inside the control room, and you’re where you belong. In the prison I helped design.” Malone smirked.

And I lost my temper.