“No, not yet sweet one.”

  Gently kissing the palm of my hand as he slowly trailed his lips up my arm.

  There was a loud knock on my door.

  Startling so hard, I yanked my shirt down to cover my bottom and bounced off Vance’s lap.

  “Wh-who is it?”

  “It’s time to get up. We leave in an hour.” It was Gage.

  “Shit….”

  Before I could respond to him, suddenly the door swung wide-open.

  “C’mon, sleepy—”

  At that moment, my soul left my body as I stood there halfway nude.

  “Dammit, Gage! Get out, get out!” Vance snarled in that strange accent as he swiftly moved from the bed toward my door.

  “Oops, looks like I’ve interrupted something… fun…” he chuckled right as Vance slammed the door on him.

  I could feel the heat flooding my face as I struggled to slip my pajama bottoms back on. There was a warm hand cupping my cheek as I was pulled to look up into Vance’s eyes. Leaning down, he kissed my forehead, “Damn him. I should tie him up by his piercings. But he’d enjoy that too much.”

  I snorted, shaking my head as I pulled away from him. He entwined his fingers with mine, and even though we had been interrupted, I felt an intense draw to him.

  “Later, we have much to discuss, my twin flame.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Stepping out of my room, the smell of food hit me. My stomach responded with a growl as I made it toward the kitchen. As I approached the bar counter, I hopped on the stool. There was crispy bacon stacked high on one plate, breakfast potatoes, toast, and eggs were on their own. I all but drooled at the sight of it.

  “Don’t just stare at it. Get some.” Ian chuckled from behind the counter. He was washing a skillet and spatula.

  “Eat up, we can’t go on a stakeout without fuel.”

  Nodding cheerfully, I reached for a clean plate and piled on what I could handle. Vance and Gage plopped down on the seats on either side of me, then began filling up their own plates. The guys ate quickly as the full plates vanished.

  “Ah, Ian does it again. See, I told you it was a good idea to bring him.” Gage patted his flat stomach.

  Ian waved him away as he finished up the last of the dirty plates he had been washing up. And I had to admit that it was odd seeing these men that I knew now as dragon shifters, to act normally as anyone would get ready for the day. They soon prepared as they quickly took turns to dress in the bathroom. Soon, we ushered out the door, and we were soon on the road to LabTech.

  We pulled into the garage in the employee parking area. The ride was silent unlike the atmosphere that the guys had during our meal. Gage also seemed to be spaced out as he stared out the window. We soon pulled into the garage of the employee parking. Vance turned the lights off the truck as he pulled into the nearest spot. There was only one other vehicle in the lot besides us.

  “Shit. I thought it was just us tonight.” Vance grumbled.

  “It was supposed to be.” Gage shrugged from the front seat.

  “Nothing we can do about it now…”

  We headed for the back entrance as we badged ourselves to get inside. Gage held the door open for us and just as Vance started in, he stepped in his path.

  “What?

  Gage jabbed a finger into Vance’s chest, and just as he was about to speak. Ian was by them in an instant, gripping each of their shoulders tightly.

  “Look here, boys. Whatever is going on, just take care of it AFTER we complete our mission.” He replied coolly, with a threat laced underneath his words. Gage shrugged him off his shoulders, now glaring at the both before heading down the hallway towards the security office. Ian sighed wistfully, shaking his head as he followed him.

  “Everything alright?” I asked curiously, not knowing exactly where all this tension was coming from. Vance reached his hand out to lift my chin up toward him as he leaned down to brush his lips against mine. Gently pushing him away, I wagged my finger at him, “No PDA while on the job.” Smirking as I moved away as he tried to grab for my hand. If he didn’t want to answer the question now, I would be sure to get it out of him later.

  As we piled into the security office, we found our coworker turning as the door opened. The shocked look of surprise was clear on his face as he watched us come in to take up the tiny space. His name was Eddie, and only a few inches taller than I was. He had short, cropped graying hair, wearing black bifocal glasses that made his eyes look like saucers as looked us each over. Eddie was suspicious right off the bat, as he was familiar with our schedules for work. Knowing full well that Gage and I were both supposed to be off.

  "Who's he?" he pointed at Ian.

  "New recruit." Gage mumbled as he reached the desk, nonchalantly scooting Eddie's chair out of the way with him in it.

  "Hey, wait a minute." He jumped up, but Ian was right in his face. All broad muscle with a six-foot-one height. He was menacing compared to Eddie's size.

  Ian all but growled a threat, "Have a seat."

  Eddie reached for the tazer strapped on his belt and I had to give him credit for not being easily intimidated. However, I felt terrible knowing he was way out of his league with a dragon shifter.

  “You’re just going to piss him off.” Gage responded over his shoulder to Eddie.

  “You’ll also be wasting a cartridge.” Vance mumbled as he came to stand by Gage to see what progress he had made on the monitors. The plan was to shut the cameras off on the room just until they could get in, do their snooping, hopefully find any missing people and finally get the hell out of dodge. Our plan was nearly dusted now because of one little suspect.

  Eddie.

  There would be no going back. It was now or never. And I hated to think of what was going to happen afterwards. I could talk Eddie into forgetting he ever saw us and that we were doing our own investigation.

  “Give us a chance, Eddie. We suspect that LabTech has been involved with the missing people.” Hoping that my words would get him to trust me. Ian huffed as he crossed his arms, staring daggers at Eddie.

  “A suspicion?” he scoffed. “Just because you all have a suspicion, I should let you do whatever you want to test your theory out?” Eddie laughed out. “Are you fucking crazy?” he spat.

  A threatening growl came deep from Ian's chest as he inched closer to Eddie. The scrawny man paled as his eyes widened. The unearthly rumble sent shivers down my back, with shivers that ran lower to the pit of my stomach. I wasn't scared, but more turned on than anything.

  What the fuck was wrong with me?

  As if he had just read my mind, Ian glanced over at me, smirking mischievously as he winked at me. My traitorous hormones flared from just a simple action. Oh god, I guess I needed to get laid. My eyes were glued to him as I took him in, like I had just noticed that he was standing in the room. No pun intended, but he was too hot to handle. Ian was as tall as the other two dragon shifters in the room. Yet, he was much stockier and filled out with muscle. His face was rugged and clean shaven, with his auburn shaved head. Being that I appreciated a good ass, my eyes trailed down to inspect it all. A small smile spread across my lips looking at his thick tight bottom. Oh yes, this dragon surely had it all going on. There was a flash of a hand in front of my face as Vance snapped his fingers.

  "Earth to Alyssa. Come in, darlin'." he snapped again, causing my body to jump back. Vance grabbed my arm to steady me, his dark tawny eyes studying me curiously. Heat rose to my cheeks as it just dawned on me, I was practically drooling over Ian. The man in question was staring at me now. He looked more confused than anything as his nostrils flared. I noticed something was struggling in the crook of his arm now. Eddie was in a headlock. He was also cursing at him loud enough to make his face red as he hit against him futilely. Noticing the black tazer gun was on the ground. It had been discharged and my eyes followed the tazer wires up to where the probes were embedded in Ian’s chest.

  "What happened?" holding my face as I turned away from Ian. Had I really zoned out that bad googling over a guy? Sammie would have my head if she knew about that. It was also troubling because I of the time I had spent with Vance earlier that day. My skin warmed again as I thought of last night when he had me wrapped in his arms.

  "What's wrong with me?" my hands clenched, as my body felt like it was getting hotter. I felt a small vibrating coming from my pocket. As I pulled out the scale, I nearly dropped it to the floor. "Why is this in my pants pocket?"

  Vance reached for my wrist to hold it up, so he was careful to not touch the scale again as he inspected it. There was a low thump on the floor as Ian somewhat gently laid Eddie against the wall.

  "He's not dead, is he?" I gasped, looking from him and back to Ian.

  He only grumbled out, "No." barely giving me a second look and stormed out the door. Ian's carefree demeanor seemed to have vanished as he left. Vance watched him leave, shaking his head irritably.

  "Put that away," he grumbled. "We’ll talk about it later." He sighed heavily as a tick in his jaw twitched.

  Gage was clacking away at the keyboard as he watched the monitor. With one fierce tap, "Ta Da!" he twirled around cheerfully, then suddenly frowned when he just saw the two of us. "Did I miss something?"

  "No." Vance and I both replied.

  Waving his hand at us, "Okay, whatever. I shut the cameras down tighter than your mom--"

  "Gage." Vance warned, his arms crossed.

  He ignored him, “Here.” He tapped the screen. “There’s another door back here. And how much you want to bet that there’s a secret behind it?” he chuckled. “Ready to take another trip to that room?” Gage winked at me.

  A feeling of dread went down my spine, “Not really, can’t we…. just watch and see if anyone comes out of it?” the woman that had chased me into that room was still fresh in my mind.

  “Don’t worry, you’ve got us with you now.” Gage stood from his seat as he nudged me with his elbow. “Once we’re up there, they’ll wish they never even stepped foot outside their door.”

  At that we all began ushering out the door. I glanced back as I looked at Eddie where he was passed out against the wall. They pulled me with them to head toward the stairs to get to the 5th level.

  “Let’s move out.”

  CHAPTER 12

  As we arrived at the lab where I had found the scale, I looked up to see that Ian had already gotten there. He was standing before the door we had found on the screens, even though we did not see any activity from it. A lock panel on the side of the door shined red. "How are we going to badge ourselves in if we don’t have access to it?" turning my attention to Vance.

  He was studying the door as we stood before it now, scratching at his chin as he scanned all angles of it.

  "I really doubt we got lucky enough to already have access to get in." Gage scoffed as he pulled on the string of his I.D. to swipe in front of the reader.

  The electronic reader beeped as it turned red again as Gage flashed his badge on it. He was staring at it, clearly puzzled that it denied him access.

  "Don't we have access to everywhere?" he glanced at Vance.

  Vance nodded, "That's what Sean told us when we started working here months ago."

  "So, what gives? Can't we just yank the door open then?" Ian moved to face the door, reaching his arms up to place his fingers firmly in the groove of the metal door. His arms bulged as he grunted, trying to force the door open. Growling, he slammed his fists against the door, "What the fuck?!" he kicked it, and what should have dented was scratch-free.

  There was silence amongst the men now. "What could be stronger than you three?" I laughed warily.

  "Now what..." Gage grumbled as he pulled the band from his hair to tie it back again. "Clearly, we've never run across a door WE couldn't bust. Got any new bright ideas?"

  "I'm thinking..." Vance glanced back at me and stumbled on his words before he could reply. His eyes widened as he turned to me to grab me by the shoulders.

  "What, what is it?" I was feeling confused until I started feeling something warm and wet running over my lips. Instinctively, I wiped at it to find blood smeared across my hand. "My nose is bleeding." I felt my head getting lighter as I felt my knees buckle. If Vance hadn't been holding me at the moment, I would have fallen flat on the ground. Blurry-eyed, I focused on his face as he began shouting to the others. His jaw muscles straining as Vance staggered back, trying to hold my body and himself upright.

  "Son of a bitc...." Gage barely got out a growl as he fell face forward onto the floor. A loud bang came from Ian as he hit the wall, his claws screeching down the wallpaper as he tried to keep himself from following suit.

  I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth, losing all control in my body as I slipped further into Vance's arms. His broad muscles surrounded me protectively, though I could sense he was in the same shape as the others. Staggering down to his knees with my body limp in his arms, I could still barely make out blurred shapes around me. Vance let out a soft groan before finally falling back, with my body nestled against his.

  Hot blood still trickled from my nose and mouth, my eyes wide in terror and shock. I lay there wedged between Vance's arms as I still had some sense in me, except that I could barely see or could not move a muscle. The silence was deafening, and I feared they were all dead. If it were not for the fact that my head rested against Vance’s chest, I could make out a soft but strong flutter of his heartbeat.

  The sound of a metal door sliding open sent my heart into overdrive as I lay helpless on the floor. A shadowed figure came out of the very door we had been trying to enter.

  The last thing I heard was a chuckle as I lost complete consciousness.

  The low buzzing from the florescent lights as they flickered pulled me from the depths. Head pounding as I groaned, forcing my aching body up to gather my surroundings. It was not bigger than the office we worked in. The walls were white, and the floor was linoleum that had wear and tear on it. There was a metal bed on one side of the wall, and my body stiffened when I laid eyes on the person who sat there. Who oddly looked so familiar, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it to where I had seen him before? He had short blonde hair, pointed ears and eyes as blue as the ocean. His body was lithe, and his high cheekbones gave him an ethereal beauty. He was leaning on his knees with his elbows as his eyes skimmed the floor. I followed his gaze to see the guys were there, lined up next to each other as they were sleeping. I sat still as I watched closely to see them each take in a deep, slumbered breath.

  Thank goodness they aren’t dead.

  The man’s gaze suddenly met mine as he noticed I was sitting up now. He then smirked at me before sighing as he sat back against the wall. Using his arms as a prop, he folded them behind his head, ignoring me completely. I didn’t have time to worry about this new guy. I glanced down at my shirt to see it drenched with blood.

  I thought I was dead for sure.

  Recalling what had happened before, I wondered how long had we been out?

  A loud groan pulled my attention as Gage sat up clutching his head, "Fucking hell!" then on queue the others both bolted up from their places on the floor.

  Ian roared out furiously, "Where the fuck is he!" he thundered as he staggered to stand. Flames erupted from his fists, which extinguished just as fast. Whatever knocked them out seemed to still be in his system and was affecting his magic.

  Vance was silent, but the dark slit pupils that filled his eyes sent goosebumps up my arms as smoke began billowing from his mouth.

  Relief flooded me, seeing them alive and well. I glanced over at the blonde man sitting on the metal bed across the room. Before I could speak, a firm hand came down on my shoulder. I flinched away as I looked up to see who it was. Vance knelt beside me, his eyes gliding over my body as he assessed me for any other injuries. His hand fluttered gently down the side of my cheek, and I shuddered from his touch.

  “Are you hurt?” his brow furrowed with concern. I shook my head, smiling softly.

  A low hum came from the ceiling as a loudspeaker clicked on. We each peered up, finally noticing that there was a surveillance camera in the corner.

  "Well, well, well. Four little lizards, locked in a cage...." a gravelly male voice spoke, a hint of humor in his tone. "I see you all have finally woken up from your nap." he chuckled. "Oh, but what's this...Did the little human survive?" there was shuffling as the intercom shutdown. The door in the room whizzed open as a man with long black hair stood just outside the entrance. He was shirtless, with an owl with spread wings tattooed over his muscled chest. Wearing only a pair of black jogging pants with no shoes or socks on. I guess psychos liked to dress comfy.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Ian blurted out with his jaw clenched and I could make out the tick in his jaw.

  The newcomer’s eyes glowed. “Noxious. Or you may call me Nox, if you prefer.” A corner of his mouth twitched, his eyes glittered dangerously, and soon I noticed his eyes were a shade of garnet.

  “No need to remember it, however. You’ll be dead soon, anyway.” Nox laughed as he stuck his hands into his pockets.

  Ian growled as he lunged for the man, but as he neared the door, it blasted him back from an invisible force. Electric streams buzzed from the impact before settling back on its transparency again. Ian’s body arched painfully on the floor from the impact. The door had more electric current in them than what the tazer had before.

  Our kidnapper chortled with delight. "Keep at it and we won't bother needing to throw you in the arena. Please don't. I really want to enjoy that show." he mock wiped a tear from his eye.

 

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