family did.
Meanwhile, Black Velvet had hit the very top button.
The doors closed and we zoomed straight for the penthouse.
I know. It shouldn’t have surprised me. Black Velvet was luxe all the way. She hadn’t said a dozen words to me yet, but I had all these ideas about her. She must be a model. An heiress. A princess in exile.
There certainly was a feeling of security in this place. I felt safe, and more confident that Jessica was okay, which made no sense at all.
The elevator door opened, as smooth as butter and justabout as quiet, and there was only one apartment door facing us. My eyes widened. The whole top floor of the building was a single suite? It would be like living in the clouds, with a full surround view. Meagan and I exchanged a glance, and now she looked a bit more impressed.
The foyer wasn’t a whole lot bigger than the elevator, and there was only that one door opposite us. It was a nice door, painted a very shiny black, but a bit odd in that it had no knocker, doorbell, or keyhole. The knob was one of those you just push, but I didn’t believe for a minute that the door was unsecured.
To the right, framed in heavy silver, was a square black pad, about five inches on a side. It had to be a scanner of some kind, but one I’d never seen before. On the other hand, this wasn’t the kind of area where I usually hung out. The black square was too big for a fingerprint pad and really big for a doorbell, and I couldn’t see the kind of light in it that iris scanners tended to have. There was no peephole in the door, either.
Black Velvet stepped forward and reached for the pad by the door as if she did it all the time.
So she wasn’t going to knock.
She must live here.
I thought I had used up my daily allotment of surprise, but Black Velvet had one more for me.
Just before her hand touched the keypad, she shifted shape.
Black Velvet did shimmer blue, just before she made the transition, exactly the way all of us shifters do, but she changed really fast. Faster, actually, than any shift I’d ever seen—and we dragons compete on the basis of speed. I know from fast.
When she reached for the keypad, she cast a coy glance over her shoulder—that should have warned me—and thenthere was the blue shimmer and a panther holding one paw to the keypad.
A very large, sleek black panther.
She laid her paw on the black pad. There was a hum and a click; then she leapt forward and bumped the door with her shoulder. It was an elegant, easy move, once again making me think she did it all the time. She cast us a glance that seemed to be a challenge, especially as her eyes had become a vivid yellow, then she slipped into the apartment, like a shadow in the darkness.
Meagan and I took one look at each other, then followed. It was dark in the apartment, so we moved slowly, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the shadows there. As far as I could tell, the apartment was spacious and luxuriously furnished. The carpet was really thick under our feet.
But dark. Dark like midnight. Dark like the windows that had to surround the penthouse had been draped. Sound was muffled, as well, as if there was a lot of fabric around us, and the darkness seemed to press against our ears.
Never mind that as soon as we stepped over the threshold, the door slammed behind us. There was that same whir and click, echoing loudly in the silence. I reached back immediately, but the door was locked. There was no lock hardware on this side, either.
I didn’t need to see the future to know that this was not good. I felt the pulse of several dozen heartbeats and panicked.
“You’re all shimmery,” Meagan whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re not alone,” I told her, because it was true.
I didn’t say any more to Meagan because that was when a woman screamed.
Chapter 5
M y blue shimmer—generated because I was on the cusp of change and unable to do anything to stop it, not after that scream—illuminated the foyer of the
Meanwhile, Black Velvet had hit the very top button.
The doors closed and we zoomed straight for the penthouse.
I know. It shouldn’t have surprised me. Black Velvet was luxe all the way. She hadn’t said a dozen words to me yet, but I had all these ideas about her. She must be a model. An heiress. A princess in exile.
There certainly was a feeling of security in this place. I felt safe, and more confident that Jessica was okay, which made no sense at all.
The elevator door opened, as smooth as butter and justabout as quiet, and there was only one apartment door facing us. My eyes widened. The whole top floor of the building was a single suite? It would be like living in the clouds, with a full surround view. Meagan and I exchanged a glance, and now she looked a bit more impressed.
The foyer wasn’t a whole lot bigger than the elevator, and there was only that one door opposite us. It was a nice door, painted a very shiny black, but a bit odd in that it had no knocker, doorbell, or keyhole. The knob was one of those you just push, but I didn’t believe for a minute that the door was unsecured.
To the right, framed in heavy silver, was a square black pad, about five inches on a side. It had to be a scanner of some kind, but one I’d never seen before. On the other hand, this wasn’t the kind of area where I usually hung out. The black square was too big for a fingerprint pad and really big for a doorbell, and I couldn’t see the kind of light in it that iris scanners tended to have. There was no peephole in the door, either.
Black Velvet stepped forward and reached for the pad by the door as if she did it all the time.
So she wasn’t going to knock.
She must live here.
I thought I had used up my daily allotment of surprise, but Black Velvet had one more for me.
Just before her hand touched the keypad, she shifted shape.
Black Velvet did shimmer blue, just before she made the transition, exactly the way all of us shifters do, but she changed really fast. Faster, actually, than any shift I’d ever seen—and we dragons compete on the basis of speed. I know from fast.
When she reached for the keypad, she cast a coy glance over her shoulder—that should have warned me—and thenthere was the blue shimmer and a panther holding one paw to the keypad.
A very large, sleek black panther.
She laid her paw on the black pad. There was a hum and a click; then she leapt forward and bumped the door with her shoulder. It was an elegant, easy move, once again making me think she did it all the time. She cast us a glance that seemed to be a challenge, especially as her eyes had become a vivid yellow, then she slipped into the apartment, like a shadow in the darkness.
Meagan and I took one look at each other, then followed. It was dark in the apartment, so we moved slowly, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the shadows there. As far as I could tell, the apartment was spacious and luxuriously furnished. The carpet was really thick under our feet.
But dark. Dark like midnight. Dark like the windows that had to surround the penthouse had been draped. Sound was muffled, as well, as if there was a lot of fabric around us, and the darkness seemed to press against our ears.
Never mind that as soon as we stepped over the threshold, the door slammed behind us. There was that same whir and click, echoing loudly in the silence. I reached back immediately, but the door was locked. There was no lock hardware on this side, either.
I didn’t need to see the future to know that this was not good. I felt the pulse of several dozen heartbeats and panicked.
“You’re all shimmery,” Meagan whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re not alone,” I told her, because it was true.
I didn’t say any more to Meagan because that was when a woman screamed.
Chapter 5
M y blue shimmer—generated because I was on the cusp of change and unable to do anything to stop it, not after that scream—illuminated the foyer of the
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