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The picture was of a young woman with long dark wavy hair. Her skin was smooth porcelain. She seemed to be of average height and weight, but it was her eyes that truly struck me as I stared at the image. They were absolutely violet-colored, rimmed with long dark lashes. My heart raced the longer I looked at her. “Cool,” I managed to choke out. Only when I pushed the phone back to him could I truly concentrate again. “So, who isshe?”
“My niece.” He stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “She’s the personal assistant for one of the youngerDracos.”
“And…” I tapped my foot impatiently. I hated wasting daylight when I had a long ride ahead ofme.
“She’s worried. She thinks something strange is going on. She…” His hands were gesturing nervously while hetalked.
“Does she have a name?” I askedimpatiently.
“Peri. I thought you might recognize her.” His headtilted.
I frowned. “I’m pretty sure if I’d ever met her, I’dremember.”
Fredo laughed. “True, this was years ago, but there was one Christmas when we were all together in that Swiss castle.Remember?”
I tucked a hand under my chin as I struggled to recall the woman he mentioned. “Sorry.Nothing.”
“Peri was a child then; she used to follow you around, begging to sit on your lap. You usually indulged her, when you weren’t fending off the grown women.” He chuckled. “Not that you fended manyoff.”
“I vaguely remember her. This must’ve been what…more than twenty years ago?” I moved to sit on my bike and lifted the kick stand. “So, what’s going on withPeri?”
Fredo frowned. “Well, this is rather awkward. I would’ve thought you’d have known,sir.”
“Known what?” I reached to turn the key, never expecting anything the butler said would impact me in the least. As the head of the personal security division of Draco Security, I spent a lot of time passing the smaller jobs off to my team. I’d finally learned how to delegate so that now I mostly did the planning part, spending less and less time in the field. Sometimes this insular tactic worked well. I was able to focus on the big picture while leaving smaller details to my employees. Sometimes it left me in thedark.
“Dragon shifters are dying, Mr. Draco,” hemurmured.
I froze. Then I pushed the kickstand back in place and dismounted. I licked my lips carefully before speaking. “When you say dying, youmean…”
“Sir, let me show you.” Then he gestured for me to follow him back into thehouse.
As a dragon shifter, this was important to the future of our line. I blew out a breath and hurried behind him, while marveling at his speed, considering he was an older man. Soon, he had me seated at the dining room table while he gathered his papers. I leaned back in the chair and stared longingly out over the water. If the moon hadn’t been out last night, I’d have gone flying. And if my brother and his new mate hadn’t been in the hot tub, I’d have tried that out too. Instead, I’d been stuck soothing my aching muscles in theshower.
“Look, Mr. Draco,” Fredo began excitedly. “This is the bloodline.” He unfurled a huge roll of aging paper; several of them in fact. I soon recognized the family tree with nothing but maleoffspring.
I quickly found us, the third generation of shifters. Many of the elders were still around. Then I studied our younger family members and frowned. “And the ‘X’ means they aredead?”
The man pursed his lips for a moment and I knew he thought I was stupid. “Yes,” he murmuredblandly.
“Okay, you can’t blame me for questioning,” I explained. “After all, there are a lot of young, dead shifters. It makes no sense for so many to be…gonewhen we’re practically immortal. I’m going to need more details. Whathappened?”
“To each of them?” His browsrose.
“Yes, I’m going to need to know abouteachof them,” Igrumbled.
Fredo nodded. “In that case, I think you’d better go seePeri.”
* * *
Peri
“Which outfit doyou like better, Peri?” Devon asked as I helped him prepare for the evening’sevents.
"Well, the blue really makes your eyes pop. How about the navy and gold?" I pointed to the costume on theleft.
"Right, but don't you want us to match?" He winked and I felt my heart race. Leave it to me to fall for my boss. Sadly, he was at least one hundred and fifty years my senior, not to mention completely disinterested in me. "I'm not your date, sir. I'll be mingling, but mostly I'll be there in a professionalcapacity."
"I understand." Devon grinned. "Did you call youruncle?"
