The Dragon Conspiracy by Lisa Shearin Read Free Book Online Page B

find out who and what he is,” Ian said, “and who he works for, unconscious equals cooperative. That stunt he pulled affected every supernatural being and magic sensitive in the room.”
    “You mean that electrified-Mexican-jumping-bean-shock-wave thingie?”
    “You felt it?”
    My belly button and ears were still buzzing from it. “Oh yeah.”
    “Makes sense. As a seer, you qualify as a sensitive.”
    “By the way, his name’s Ben Sadler,” I told Ian. “He’s a diamond appraiser at Christie’s.”
    “Did he tell you that?”
    “Of course. Who else would—” I stopped and did a mental head smack. How hard was it to give a fake name and job title, Mac? Just because a man has big blue eyes and can act innocent doesn’t mean you aren’t being played. Now that I didn’t have my imminent death hanging over my head and could think straight, it sounded like ninety percent of my dates.
    Crap. “Still too trusting, aren’t I?”
    “Trust isn’t bad, but people often are. You just need to make room in your trust to allow for that. We can check his wallet once we get him out of here.”
    “I still don’t think he lied. He’d have to be the best actor on the planet to fake that reaction. I thought he was in shock after seeing those harpies. Too bad he had to snap out of it, get gutsy—”
    “Get stupid.”
    I’d give Ian that one. “Okay, get stupid, and attack that harpy.” I paused. “What
did
he do? After that light show, I was blind as a bat.” My arm was beginning to seriously throb. “Was that him or the harpy that made those diamonds flash?”
    “Harpies don’t have magic of their own.”
    “So Ben did it.”
    “That’s what I saw—me and a lot of other people.”
    “So what kind of magic is that?”
    “It could be any number of things; none of them are anything a beginner should be able to do.”
    The hallway ended in another door.
    Ian hitched Ben up farther on his shoulders. “Time to mingle with the crowd. Stay close.”
    The door opened on the wide corridor just outside the Sackler Wing. The only civilians remaining inside were the same ones you’d find gawking around any other violent crime scene where there were dismembered and disemboweled bodies. You’d think people had never seen intestines before.
    A man up ahead was flagging us down. I tensed until I recognized Eddie Laughlin, our security consultant. Three harpies had been one hell of a security breach. I bet Eddie was grateful that the diamonds’ actual security hadn’t been his responsibility. And even for a supernatural security consultant, a statue of three harpies coming to life couldn’t have been on his “be on guard against” list. That still didn’t mean that Vivienne Sagadraco was going to be happy with him.
    Eddie fought his way through the crowd. He looked at Ben. “This the guy?” he asked when he got next to us.
    “Yep,” Ian replied.
    “I can have a car here in five minutes,” he offered.
    “Thanks, but we’ve got Yasha picking us up.”
    “Headquarters?” Eddie asked.
    “No, safe house on the next block.”
    “You sure you don’t need any help?”
    “We’ve got it.”
    Eddie listened to someone on his earpiece. “I’ll be right there,” he said to whoever was on the other end. “Good luck, man,” he told Ian. He turned and vanished into the crowd, making his way back to the Sackler Wing.
    There was ample chaos and no one gave a second look, or even a first one, at two people carrying a third bloody person away from the scene of the crime and out of the museum. In fact, out was the preferred direction, all we had to do was insert ourselves into the stream of frightened humanity, and let ourselves be swept along. It also helped that all of the men were wearing tuxedos. Unconscious, tuxedo clad, with his head down, no one could identify Ben as the maniac who’d attacked the harpies, and my involvement consisted of a low tackle, out of sight for most people whose eyes were locked on