Home > The Dragon's Psychic(3)

The Dragon's Psychic(3)
Author: Linzi Baxter

“The council has protocols, and we need to follow them. We need a living witness to tell us what happened so we can prosecute her.”

Talia leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The council members did everything to cover their own asses. Maybe if Talia touched the knife again, she would get another vision.

This time, she would touch the knife where Alida had been holding it. Another section might give her a better vision of the true killer. Talia’s instinct told her the girl was innocent. But when she reached for the knife in Arrow’s hand, he stepped back and glared at her.

“Why do you need touch the knife again?”

Fuck. He is questioning my vision. She needed a reason to touch the knife a second time. Before she had time to answer, the door to the interrogation room slammed opened, and Gideon entered.

Gideon wore his long dark council robe and had his hands tucked in the sleeves, which made her incredibly wary. Talia had never disobeyed the council and always came running when they needed her, but since she’d received the call to come to the warehouse, everything had felt wrong. Her conscience wouldn’t let her see an innocent child convicted of something she hadn’t done. And if Talia went against the council, she would spend the rest of her life in jail down below, or they would kill her. She’d seen the council’s ways.

“Talia, we need to talk,” Gideon began in a low voice. She could tell he was struggling to control his anger. He didn’t even try to hide his disapproval. She waited to hear the worst.

 

 

2

 

 

Kirin

 

 

The hot water rained down on Kirin’s body. He couldn’t shake the dream from the night before, the same one that had plagued him for the last month. In it, a woman was calling out his name. She needed him. His dragon wanted out of his human body to find the woman. He had woken up a few times close to shifting.

Kirin leaned his head back and let the water run down his body. He wished he could make out the woman’s face so he could hunt her down and find out why she haunted him at night. Knowing he couldn’t figure out the dream in the shower, Kirin reluctantly turned it off.

His muscles ached. He’d spent entirely too long on his bike the night before, chasing a warlock the council had branded a traitor. He thought everyone would be safer with the rogue wizard off the streets and in the council’s hands. The work he performed took a toll on his body, but it sure was profitable. His dragon needed the money. All he’d wanted the night before when he got home was a good night’s rest, but that woman had haunted him in his dreams. Now not only did his muscles ache, but he was exhausted from the sleepless night as well.

He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, catching a glimpse of the red mark on his side. The warlock had sent a piece of scrap metal in his direction, and he hadn’t been able to dodge it in time. Kirin was glad he was on the job alone, or one of his brothers might have laughed at him for letting a warlock get a piece of him. His dragon had healed the wound, and the only thing left was the red mark.

A dark cup of coffee would improve his morning. Kirin missed the simplicity of the old days but loved the new innovations of the last three hundred years. The coffeepot was his favorite. He popped a pod in the Keurig and waited for the liquid gold to brew. The dragon purred at the rich scent of the dark roast. Man and beast needed their daily fix. His dragon was cranky on the inside. Not only did Kirin want to look for the woman from his dreams, but the dragon also itched to break free and find her.

The last time his dragon had been this close to the edge, he’d burned down a city in the morning. One hundred and fifteen years before, he’d woken to the cries of a young girl in his backyard. His dragon thought the thugs would hurt her. After he burned down most of the neighborhood, including his house, he found out they were practicing for a play in school. Rebuilding the town cost a few gold bars out of his hoard. The gold dragon felt the kids deserved what had happened for disturbing his sleep. The local witches had needed to come in and wipe the memories of the people in the neighborhood. Luckily, no one had videophones back then.

With coffee in hand, Kirin walked back toward the bedroom and caught a glimpse of his eyes in the dresser mirror. They glowed gold. The dragon was thinking about the time he’d burned down the neighborhood. He still was angry that Kirin had helped rebuild it.

Kirin looked around his master bedroom. The mansion he’d built on the side of the West Virginia mountain gave him the escape from humanity his dragon needed. As the last gold dragon shifter, he struggled to find a mate. He had no one to rush home to, not even a pet. Deep down, he wondered if he’d never decorated because he longed for his mate, but if he hadn’t found her in the last three hundred years, who knew if she would ever come.

Kirin wasn’t about to break the news to his mother that he’d stopped searching for a mate. Nothing was worse than a pissed-off female dragon. For the last two hundred years, she’d asked each time they talked if he’d found his mate yet. She wanted grandbabies and was sick of waiting. The last time he talked to his mom, she promised he would find his mate soon. The inner dragon perked up at his mom’s comment, but the human side had scoffed.

Kirin didn’t think he would ever find his mate, so he might as well do what he was good at: capturing bad guys and hoarding as much money as possible. After all, dragon shifters were immortal, and one could never have too much money. Being a gold dragon, he hoarded gold more than any other treasure. His dragon pressed in his mind to go to the hoard. The dragon loved to look at everything they had acquired over the years. But they had things to do that day even if the dragon wanted something else.

He dressed in a pair of jeans and a black polo shirt before pulling on his black leather boots. Kirin liked to dress reasonably nicely before he picked up his latest payoff, which came after the council processed the traitor. He didn’t have a clue what the council did to the people he caught after he turned them over. Kirin lived on the fringe of society. If it weren’t for his mom and his two brothers, Kia and Conley, he would have no one in his life. And he wasn’t sure he minded that a bit.

Kirin exited the main house and entered his six-car garage. The house had everything he ever wanted. The white floors in the garage sparkled with specs of gold. He found ways to bring gold into every aspect of his house. It helped calm his dragon. In the first stall of the garage sat his custom Harley Fat Boy. Kirin loved to ride his motorcycle. It was the closest he could get to feeling like he was flying. He missed the days when he could fly around and not worry about being caught on a smartphone or in a photograph. There was a lot of paperwork when the council had to remove humans’ memories, and he had to pay a fine. Kirin didn’t like to part with his money, so he chose to ride his bike during the day and let his dragon out late at night.

After Kirin slipped on his gloves and his sunglasses, he drove to the new diner that had opened up on the way to the warehouse that hid the supernatural council’s offices. He parked his bike in front. Even though the diner had opened a month before, it needed a fresh coat of paint and a new sign. The building had sat empty after the previous diner closed eleven years before. The new owners hadn’t put any work into the outside and hadn’t done much on the inside either, but the food was mouthwatering.

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