Craig Read online

  Nobody spoke. Gina put her hands on her slim hips. Craig pulled up beside her just as she announced, “Listen, I can run you all in for petty drugs, or you can answer the question.”

  Ramone said, “We ain’t got nothing to do with no body.”

  One of the other guys spoke up. “It’s him, isn’t it? It’s the Gripper. You are asking us, and you already know we don’t know. That dude’s a ghost.”

  Craig stifled his impatience. “He’s a man, and we will catch him. If you help us. We have to have some help here. Someone had to have seen something.”

  Ramone spat sideways. “Nah, we didn’t see a thing. Like dude said, that guy’s a ghost. Nobody ever sees him. I wish you would catch him and I would help you if I could, we all would. The guy’s bad for business. Nobody wants to be out right now. We are going to have one really bad week, and you know it.”

  Gina said, “You’d have a better week if you gave us a hand.”

  Ramone said, “Or we would end up dead too. But that would be something, I guess, since none of us is dumb enough to be out after dark. They say he only comes out after dark.”

  Neither of them knew what else to say. Gina huffed her way back to the car, and he went with her. He said, “Listen, I know you’re mad right now. Maybe our best bet is to try to find out who our vic is right now. If we know her habits and so on we might find someone who saw her go off with someone or meet someone—”

  Gina yanked the wheel hard. “That’s what everyone has done for years, and nobody ever catches this creep. It’s frustrating. And I still think those two missing women are somehow part of it all.”

  “They’re not.” Goddammit! He ground his teeth together. He could not tell her he had smelled dragon on the scene and she was not going to let this go, not now or ever. The Gripper had shown up just as they were vying for a promotion and she would follow that cold trail for the two missing women because she thought it was all tied together, and she would not be any good to him on this case. He had to get her to let go of that, but how?

  Chapter Three

  The days passed. The Gripper killed his next two victims and disappeared. Gina sat at her desk, her head in her hands. She was upset with herself and for what she knew was a good reason. She had focused too hard on the two missing women, Heather and Christy, and in doing so, she had let the work she needed to do on the Gripper case fall by the wayside.

  Jack tossed a pizza down on the desk. “You okay?”

  Gina groaned out, “No. You?”

  Jack shrugged. “After all these years, I’ve developed a sort of immunity to feeling bad that we didn’t get him.”

  Craig strolled in, and her heart sank yet again. They’d been at odds all week, and he had been right about the missing women not being connected to the Gripper.

  He had also gotten the promotion she had wanted so badly. Now he was higher up in the ranks than she was, and a promotion like that might not come around again for years.

  I screwed up, she admitted to herself as she flipped open the lid of the box to reveal a steaming pie laden with gooey melted cheese and pepperoni. Craig said, “Oh, that looks good. I’m starving.

  Jack said, “Help yourself.” He took a seat at his desk, which was set up against Gina’s, and snatched a piece of the pizza. Craig took a slice too, and they all chewed on the warm and delicious wedges, not speaking.

  The whole station was gloomy, and not just because the rainy season had begun either. The Gripper lingered in the very air, and so did the scent of their failure to stop him.

  Craig said, “I’ve got a narc case to work. Any takers?”

  Gina shook her head. She was tired and depressed, but she was also determined. Heather and Christy were still missing and she had to find them. Now more than ever. Because if they were not Gripper victims, then they were out there somewhere, and she should find them.

  She had let their disappearance keep her from her real task: from finding the Gripper. The least she could do now was find them and make it worth it, somewhat.

  She said. “I think I’m going to work a few missing person’s cases. Maybe,” she paused, “maybe there are more victims than we know about.”

  She rummaged through files on her desk, all of them missing persons. Jack wandered off to take up space on a case that was being worked by him and his partner. Craig settled his firm butt on her desk and took another slice. She said, “Don’t say it.”

  She flashed out, “I told you so. I know you are dying to say it.”

  “No, I am not dying to say that. I know you really thought it was a good lead and you had to follow it no matter what. It’s okay.”

  She stared at his face. God, he was hot, but he was also her partner, and now, her boss. Just her luck. “It was bad work. I should have concentrated harder on the Gripper.”

  “You thought you were. Look, do not beat yourself up for this. It does you no good at all.”

  No, it didn’t. Craig said, “You want some help with that?”

  She stood, snatching up her jacket. “No, I think I’m just going to walk it out. There was a sighting of Heather over on the other side of the city. I’m going to head that way and poke around a bit.”

  He stood, “I’ll go with you.”

  “I thought you had a narc case to dig into.”

  He grabbed his jacket. “It can wait. I know you care about this case, so let’s see what we can find.”

  She grabbed her jacket too, and they headed out of the station. The weather was fine that day. The rain had stopped for a while and the sky, while still holding clouds that would release more rain later, weren’t pushing any of that wetness out of their fat, dark bodies at the moment. The sun shone out of a bank of those clouds, imparting a little warmth to the day.

  The clouds were furious and darker by the time they got to the place where Gina’s tip had said they had seen Heather, and apparently a short time before she went missing. Craig said, “I don’t know about this. I mean, what would she be doing over here? She was a downtown kind of girl.”

  “Which is why I have to find out what she was doing here.” Gina put the car in park and stepped out into a misty drizzle. The smell of the streets was one of wet asphalt and industrial waste. Her nose wrinkled as she peered along the street, which was mostly just a litter of burned-out warehouses and empty loading docks. “I think you’re right though. She had no business here. Maybe it’s just a bad tip.”

  “Who did you get it from?”

  “A cabbie. They usually have good tips. But maybe not this time.” She glanced back down the block. “There’s not even drugs or anything here. It’s a wasteland. So maybe it was a bad tip.”

  Craig took her by the arm and started hustling her toward the car. “I guess so. Well, that is that, as far as this tip goes anyway. How about we go to the—”

  “Wait!” her cry stopped him cold. She squinted down the block. “That is a house. I do not know what a house would be doing here, but there is one. Weird.”

  Craig said, “I am sure it is empty. Abandoned likely. This used to be the city’s millionaire row, you know. But they all moved out after they killed off the river and the air with their…hey!”

  She had stopped hearing him halfway through his words. That house seemed to call out to her, to demand her attention, and she aimed herself at it. Craig caught up with her. His hand met her arm again, and little tingles shot all through her body. That sexual attraction between them was strong, and she knew it. She also knew that giving in to it was stupid. Craig was the last person on earth that she needed to be involved with. But that tingle turned into a real fire when he spun her around. “Gina,” he said and moved a bit closer. “That looks really dangerous.”

  He was right, but she was not looking at the house; she was looking right at him. He was dangerous because he was sending signals off in her brain and body, making her nipples stiffen and her lower body want to thrust forward to meet his. The memory of the sex they had shared, so hot and wet and pass
ionate, made a hard knot of lust work its way loose from her core and then her panties were flooding, her juices spilling onto that flimsy fabric.

  Craig added, “Come on. We will…”

  She yanked herself from his grip. He was not helping; his touch was making her thoughts go all muddled and shade toward the erotic. She wanted him, and she knew she was going to have to deal with those feelings spinning through her body, but right then the best thing to do was put a great deal of distance between the two of them and keep it there. “I just want to check it out. You can stay here or go with me?”

  “It is a bad idea. I do not think we should go anywhere near that thing. It looks like it will fall down at any second. Oh, come on! Gina!”

  She was already gone, her steps taking her to the house that sat on the ledge of gray concrete. She stared at it. It felt right. Like it was a house that could hide a secret. The door was a bright red, but the house was a mess. Craig was right about it looking like it would cave in at any moment. She had to wonder why it had not yet been condemned, in fact. She jittered back and forth, uncertain.

  Craig said, “Okay? See? No way anyone could be in there. Hell, there are other houses, see?” he pointed to the other houses set along the sidewalk beyond that one. “I mean, there is no way anyone lives there.”

  No, but maybe someone had died there. Someone like Heather or Christy. Gina, determined now, set off toward that door. Craig yanked her back. He shouted, “Are you crazy?”

  “I am going in there. I just want to take a look.”

  A muscle jumped in his jaw. “It can’t be safe.”

  “I won’t go in far. Just far enough to see if anyone has been in there lately.”

  And again, his touch was causing her some serious issues. Her nipples ached for his touch, for his mouth, for the feel of his teeth nipping at them. She thought, for a second and wryly, that if he had been a lousy lay, this would all be so much easier.

  He said, “No. I will not let you do this.”

  He would not let her do this? That put her back up, and fast. She hissed out, “Wow. I mean, way to be an asshole. A big old misogynistic one too.”

  He snarled, “I am speaking as your boss.”

  “That makes it worse.”

  She was panting. His touch was doing all sorts of things to her. To get away from the sensation, from the lances of pure desire rocketing through her body, she yanked herself away yet again, and that time she darted up to the door, and through it.

  Chapter Four

  “Oh, hell no. I can’t go in there. I know what will happen if I do.”

  Yes, he did know. He also knew what would happen to her if he did not. She had no way of knowing that she had just walked into a portal and had just entered into its outer ring. He knew because he was a dragon, a weredragon, and that portal was one that could be used by humans: humans who wanted to seek out his world.

  Damn.

  Screw it.

  He went after her, his teeth clenched. He was going to yank her out of there as fast as possible. Then get her away from there on a permanent basis. He had known that they would end up there, but he had also hoped that the house that hid the portal would not show itself. He had been wrong to hope for that. He had been able to see it because of his weredragon side, but only some humans could. He had hoped she would not be one of them.

  It turned out, she was. It just figured too.

  She was already through the door. It was probably already too late. He had to try to get her back, back in this world that they lived in and before she could get a glimpse of his natural world. God knows if she did, she would not quit until she solved the riddle of what it actually was. That was just her way.

  She was fast, and already in the rotting front room before he could halt her flight. He could feel the suck and the pull of the portal, which just made him even more wary. They had to get out of there before something bad could happen.

  He said, “Gina…”

  And then it happened.

  The portal was created to make it hard for humans to get back and forth but easy for dragons. That grip caught him up, and he went flying along, pulled forward by the invisible hand. Gina shrieked and grabbed at him. Big mistake. He tried to shake her off, but her hand was wrapped tight around his, and before he could do anything more than try to pull back from her, the portal sucked them both through and into his world.

  Colors swirled all around them; he could hear Gina screaming. He needed to change if he was going to land safely, but it was too late for that too. There was no air in his lungs, and her screaming stopped, probably because she could not breathe either. The portal’s suck was relentless, hauling them from her world into his with a low sucking sound and a rush of cold wind.

  Then they were through and tumbling from the sky toward the earth below. Gina found air and started screaming again. Craig, off balance and falling, started to change but before he could, they landed with a hard thump on a grassy hilltop.

  Gina shot to her feet. “What the hell? What the living hell? Hey! Craig? What the hell?”

  He rolled onto his belly and managed to get to his feet. Dizziness hit, nausea coming from his fight to escape the portal. He muttered, “Hey, be quiet.”

  Gina stared at him. Her mouth hung open and then snapped shut. Then she cried out, “What the utter hell? What is this? What just happened to us?”

  He shook off the dizziness. She staggered toward him, her hands yanking at her clothes and her eyes so wide and round that white showed all around the orbs. She cawed out, “Are you okay? Holy…where are we? What is this?”

  He said, “I need you to be quiet and listen to me.”

  She shunted that aside by shouting, “What just happened?”

  He could tell her that, but he had more pressing concerns than her wanting to know what had just happened. Like the Orcs hurtling toward them with clubs in their hands and murder in their eyes.

  He grabbed her. She landed a slap to his skull and yelled, “What are you doing?”

  That grab at her had brought her just close enough that he had been able to feel the sharp points of her nipples, and that had a bad effect on him. He forgot, for two seconds, that deadly creatures were headed for them. Her yells kept ringing out, and he blinked, and then remembered that the Orcs were coming.

  He hollered, “Hey, behind you!”

  She spun around. Another scream issued from her mouth, that one so ear-splitting that he winced. He changed because he had no choice. He was a man one moment and the next he was a dark brown dragon flying up into the air and then plummeting down between her and the Orcs. Gina, being Gina, decided to try to shoot everything that moved. Craig heard the whine of a bullet and shouted, “Goddammit, don’t shoot at me!”

  He snatched up two Orcs and flew upward, out of the path of the bullets. Gina, being Gina, just kept right on shooting. An Orc fell and died and its buddy, deciding he was pissed at Gina and her weapon, hurled the club right at her. Craig flung the two Orcs he had in his claws into the side of a nearby cliff, crushing them, and managed to get between Gina and the club. He also managed to get himself shot.

  Howling in pain, he clamped his teeth down on the Orc and dispatched it. There were more, just over the hill and coming fast. He snatched up the screaming Gina, who had emptied her gun, and hauled himself upward, trying to ignore the stinging in his back end as he went. He flew a few miles and spotted a likely place to land, so he did.

  Gina rushed away from him, her hands going up in a defensive gesture that included her forming fists. “What the…”

  He shouted, “You shot me in the ass!”

  Gina stumbled backward. Her breath came in and out of her mouth in hard and fast gasps. “Um. Craig...I hate to tell you this but…but you… I mean, that is to say, well I think you’re screwed.”

  His glare was angry. “I’ll say. You shot me in the ass!”

  Her voice went to a raspy whisper. He was not sure if that was because she had lost her voice
or if that was because she was so confused and frightened. “No. I mean whoops. Sorry. I did not mean to…Craig? Craig, you are a...” She went silent. Her hands clapped to her mouth, and she stared at him, speechless for the first time since he had known her.

  He groaned out, “A dragon. Yes, I know. Goddammit, my ass hurts.”

  He swatted at his hindquarters and glowered at her again. “That house was a portal. I tried to keep you out, but no, you had to go charging in.”

  She sat down, hard. Her face wore a strange expression. She looked like she wanted to cry but also wanted to laugh. “A what?”

  “Portal.” He swatted at his ass again, then remembered that he was still in dragon form. He changed and said, “I know this is weird, by the way.”

  “You got shot in the butt.” Now she was clearly trying not to laugh, but a tear rolled down her cheek. “And you are a dragon. House equals portal. Got it. Oh, and those things?”

  “Orcs,” he grunted. “They are evil little assholes who will kill you in a second. We have to get out of here.”

  “Yeah.”

  He sighed. “No, I mean we have to get out of this spot. The portal won’t let us back through so soon, so we have to get to the Ragnal.”

  “Uh…okay. What’s that?”

  She was in shock. Damn, why had he not seen that two minutes ago when he could have done something to prevent it? It was too late now. She was just sitting there staring at him, asking questions but not computing the answers.

  He said, “Come on. On your feet.”

  She let him help her up. She was shaking all over, a bad sign. He did not know what to do either. He started walking, dragging her along with him. His ass stung and burned, and he groaned inwardly yet again. He would heal fast but damn if he wanted to have to deal with that bullet until he did.

  Gina kept shivering. The wind was warm and the grass soft and fragrant and green. That she was shaking so hard was a bad sign; she really was in shock. What should he do? He needed to get her to Ragnal, but he was not sure where to go. He was also pretty sure flying with her in that condition was a bad idea. But it might be the best way to get them to the castle as fast as possible.