Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,178

closer to watch with hungry eyes of their own. Anna glanced up at them all, her radar going wary. But they were the good guys. Members of her clan, members of Ares’ clan. It was just that looking the way they did now, it was hard to forget so many of them were… monsters.

Anna straightened where she knelt as her eyes moved from one Monsters clan member to another. Her dragon senses pricked as their scents moved through her. They’re all monsters, she realized. Every one of them. Ares wasn’t alone among them in his supernatural status; not a single Monsters clan member was mortal.

It wasn’t just Maze’s goons she’d been scenting earlier. There were some very, very powerful players in this crowd.

She’d always suspected the Monsters clan was more than they appeared to be and that they’d chosen their name for a reason having nothing to do with hubris. She was right.

When she’d processed this and looked back down at Piper, it was to find her swallowing her last bite of bar. Sterling took the wrapper from her and it vanished. Annaleia concentrated again, this time on a drink, and a very small bottle of water bulged out her pocket. She pulled it out, twisted the cap off, and handed it to her friend.

Piper drank without question, even though her eyes had nothing but questions in them.

Once she’d finished, she lowered the bottle, handed it to Sterling, and looked Anna in the eyes. “If I try this and I fail, I’m going to look like the worst person in the world.”

“You won’t fail,” Anna told her firmly. She turned to the detective. “Detective, please lay your partner down.”

Detective James nodded once, his eyes bloodshot, and his face pale. He scooted back, gently laying his partner out on the concrete of the sidewalk in front of Piper and Annaleia.

Anna turned back to Piper. “Okay, you’re up. Now place your hands palm-down on her chest.”

Piper looked down at the body, no doubt considering the amount of blood soaking through the woman’s shirt. But she swallowed audibly, rolled back her shoulders, and placed her hands on the woman’s chest just as Anna had instructed.

Annaleia turned to the detective. “You know that the last thing she saw was you shifting from wolf to man. This isn’t the way you wanted to tell her, I’m betting. But you’ll have to come out of the closet now no matter what.”

The detective nodded. “I know.”

“That’s why Maze did what he did,” Carmen said from where she stood looking down at them. “Because he knew it would cause upheaval. Victor Maze is like my Tio Tony. He isn’t happy unless he’s pitting one family member against another.”

Anna looked up at her friend. No doubt, she was absolutely right.

“Ready Piper?”

“No,” said Piper.

“Okay, good. Now close your eyes.”

Piper closed her eyes.

“Good, keep them closed and imagine what I tell you to imagine.” Anna gave Sterling a pointed look, and Sterling placed his hand on Piper’s shoulder to lend her a little dream-inducing magic. “Now imagine you’re standing on a dark and cold plane. The only thing on this cold, dark plane other than you is a hole in the ground with a staircase leading down. But at the bottom of the stairs is a faint light. So you descend the stairs toward the light, and once you reach the bottom, you find a well.”

The world had grown very quiet around Annaleia. She licked her lips and continued. “It’s a wishing well, like the one from Snow White. It’s dark everywhere else but in this well. You make your way toward it and as you come closer, the light grows brighter. This light is the most beautiful, hopeful thing you have ever seen. You need more of it so you pull the bucket up with the well’s rope. The bucket comes up filled to the brim with that wonderful, warm glow.

Suddenly you want nothing more than to spread the well’s light around in the dark and cold that you left behind up those stairs. You take the bucket off the rope and carry it to the stairs. Then you climb the stairs. As you reach the top of the stairs, the light leaves the bucket all by itself. It leaves trails like shooting stars as it spreads out to fill the darkness and the cold.”

Anna opened her eyes as very soft whispers and gasps sounded around them. She grinned, but managed to quell her outcry of joy when she saw