Dragon Awakened by Jaime Rush Page B

for Dragons. In the rearview mirror, he saw Ruby brushing her hair from her face every few seconds, eyes wide as she glanced at the passenger seat. Her skin looked as pale as alabaster. She was holding on by a thread. He needed to get her into the Obsidian Room, where she could release the tension and fear inside her. She had to get up to speed pronto and Awakened soon after. No time to be gentle about it.
    The light turned green and he went straight. He glanced back. “Hell.” She had taken a sharp right and sped out of view.
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    Ruby hightailed it to the Yard where things were normal and safe, where she could forget that she’d been attacked by a demon she couldn’t see and had seen a guy turn into a dragon.
    Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t totally freak out. Hell, even the ordinary sound of a plane flying overhead had her shrinking in fear. If only her rash would stop flaring. Nervous perspiration dampened her collarbone and neck as she drove through the gate and got out of her truck. She came to a standstill in the central corridor of the Yard, feeling lost.
    â€œHey, Miz Ruby, sorry to hear about your uncle.”
    She started as Jack came up and gave her a hug. Thankfully his lanky arms went around her shoulders and nowhere near the bulge of metal at her waist. She cleared her throat and moved back. “Thanks.” His expression of sympathy vanished, morphing into bewilderment. Assuming it was about the injury on her forehead, or perhaps some new one, she waved it away. “I’m fine, just a small burn.”
    â€œYour…eyes.”
    Bloodshot? No doubt. Or maybe her pupils were dilated. Did that happen when you went crazy? Jack was the coolest, calmest guy she knew—well, until she’d met Cyntag. Which meant there was something really wrong with her eyes. “What about them?”
    His voice lowered, and he glanced around as though to make sure no one was nearby. “Miz Ruby, you’re a Crescent. But you weren’t a Crescent when you hired me, and you weren’t even one yesterday. How…”
    The memory of the embers in her reflection shot to mind. Not a hallucination if Jack could see it, too. Wait a minute. He was talking about Crescents. Jack, who did not know Mon, could not possibly know of his tales. She gripped his arm and stared into his eyes. There, just for a second, a spark like she’d seen in Cyntag’s eyes.
    â€œTell me what you see, Jack.”
    â€œEmbers. But…I don’t understand.”
    â€œBelieve me, you’re not the only one.”
    He grinned, shaking his head. “I knew there was something about you, Miz Ruby.”
    Something about her. She stumbled away, her chest so tight she had to pound it.
    Nevin walked out of the building where the gas pump was being restored, his face pinched. Leo stepped out next to him, and he looked even more tense.
    â€œRuby, can we talk to you?” Nevin asked, his voice squeaky like it was when he was about to tell her he’d bungled a project.
    She robotically followed them into the building where Nevin closed the door despite the warmth inside. Leo’s arms were straight down at his sides, hands clenched as though he was ready to tackle her. Her body stiffened in response.
    â€œRuby, did you kill your uncle?”
    Had she seen a mist in Leo’s eyes? Was she friggin’ seeing things everywhere now? Could she be swept up in a full-blown schizophrenic hallucination? Which was preferable to this all being real, because there were pills for that.
    â€œI tell you about your uncle paying me to toughen you up, you hightail it out of here, and then your uncle dies in a fire.” Leo’s voice softened the way it might if he were talking to an insane person. “I know you were upset, but I want you to think about what happened. Did you go a little crazy? It’s okay, Ruby. You can tell us.”
    He thought she’d killed her uncle.
    She