Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,179

a familiar light beneath Piper’s palms. She watched as that light spread over the fallen officer’s chest, then rapidly shot out toward her extremities, lighting up the fingertips of each hand.

She took a breath and said to Piper, “Now imagine that the light replicates itself. The more it spreads, the more light there is, growing exponentially. Until finally there’s a very bright flash. When you can see again, the once dark and cold plain has become a lush garden that stretches to the horizon.”

Piper’s brow furrowed. Her lips parted. She shuddered as the light enveloping the fallen detective grew to a bright flash before dying out.

Annaleia shielded her eyes and held her breath.

When she lowered her arm, it was to see James’ partner’s chest rise and fall again as it drew in renewed life before she opened her beautiful hazel eyes to the world.

Epilogue – Pacific Northwest

“So I hear,” said Cain. He held his phone to his ear out of habit, but he could have heard the person on the other end if he’d put the damn thing in his back pocket. Cell phones were loud. Plus, with his hearing he could have heard it several blocks away.

It was Katrielle on the other end, giving him the update he’d requested in return for his own. He listened, but his eyes never left his target as she moved from room to room within the house across the street. Her windows were closed, but Cain could easily “see” past the curtains.

When Kat had stopped talking, Cain said, “Well, the new reviver has joined the Draco clan to be with Faith. She’ll get all the training she needs to keep her from doing anything suicidal from now on, not to mention her very own sentinel.” To say nothing of the watchful eyes of both Conall Tiarnahn and Jarrod Sterling. Piper Maddox wasn’t going to be able to brush her teeth without someone checking to make sure the bristles weren’t too hard.

And maybe that was a good thing. The girl was all spark. Not that Cain minded that kind of person at all – it was just that the world was a powder keg these days.

Cain listened as Katrielle shot him a question. In turn, he gave her what information he had. “The body on Mace’s property belonged to a random. Twenty-two years of age, parents divorced. He ran away to join a gang at fifteen, never graduated high school. We’re pretty sure Price chose him for the jacket and the bike. Any ambiguity was cleared up with the carving Price added to the kid’s back.” It had been a stylized dragon. And the message was clear.

Petulant. But clear.

“I don’t think so,” Cain said in response to Kat’s latest question. “I think that was closure for him. He no longer considers Faith his perfect work of art. She’s been re-painted. Unfortunately we’re not done with him. My guess is he just gives Maze too much energy to be disposable. Or….”

Cain’s vivid blue gaze remained locked on the woman moving through the two-story home. “Or Maze needs him for something specific, something the much more human Randall Price might be able to get closer to right now.”

Or someone, he thought. He watched from where he sat on his bike across the street as the woman under his scrutiny bumped into a table he could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago and cursed under her breath. He could imagine it would bruise.

“Price is handy. He can get closer to anyone who hasn’t met him and who would recognize Maze’s signature giveaways, like different colored eyes or different cufflinks or even the chaos power boiling out of him.” Cain studied the woman as she reached for her computer and knocked over a glass of water in the process.

He waited as Kat asked him one final thing. He said, “I don’t think there’s any point. Maze’s magic is what Sharpe would call, ‘Forrest Gumped.’ It’s a box of chocolates. We have no idea what the hell will happen next, so stretching ourselves any thinner to prepare for it makes no sense. Rest and training are our best options right now.”

He fell silent, then said, “Got it.” He tapped the phone off and pocketed it. Then he rested back in the motorcycle’s saddle and took a slow, deep breath.

Beneath his ever-watchful gaze, the woman stopped in her living room and seemed lost for a moment. Cain went eerily still. She slowly put her hands over her face. His