"Vadriq, watch the whelp," I ordered.
A few beers weren't enough to manipulate my supernatural metabolism. I stood, unphased by the faint alcoholic element in my blood. Bluntly, the brewers rice I had once been fed while living overseas had been more potent than the beer in the refrigerator.
Vadriq blinked up at me. "You're going now?"
"We can't risk them starting these tests in the morning. Olivia believes they will come soon. There is no time like the present."
Olivia stood up with me. "I thought you'd want to scope out the museum, look for video cameras and stuff like that?"
"If there were time, I would." I snatched my keys up and headed for the door. "Iyadre, Nariti, Olivia."
My wingmates were right behind me. I turned my head to look for Olivia, who remained where she'd been. After a moment, she muttered something and followed after me.
Nariti and Iyadre climbed into the cab of the truck. There simply wasn't room for the four of us up there, which was fine with me. The sun was nearly gone and there was a chill in the air; a promise of season's upcoming change. I settled in the bed with Olivia and frowned at her. "What did you say before you came?"
"I said, I must be losing my fucking mind. I'm going on a heist with dragons."
And as we pulled away into the street, the falling night rang with my laughter.
Chapter 10
Olivia
I wasn't sure if he was laughing at me or with me, but I was pretty sure that it was the same thing when it came to him.
The look in his eyes when he'd seen the whelp, the way he'd immediately gotten all huffy when it was removed from his presence, confused the ever-loving fuck out of me. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who cared about kids. Or people. Or anyone but himself, really.
But how many guys had said the same thing about me? It'd been a while since I'd gone on a date, but the last one I'd been on had still been a total disaster. I'd just wanted to talk about the Ottoman Empire in front of the display, but my date had left me high and dry to yell about how Hitler had done nothing wrong.
So much for being a 95% match. Yikes.
The trip was long enough that I began to shiver in the back of the truck. No, we weren't a million miles away from home or anything, but nobody wanted to drive a few hours round trip every single day just to hit the dig site.
"Are you cold?"
I frowned over at him, the question taking me by surprise. "Cold enough. I'll live."
He scoffed and slid out of his jacket. The thing probably cost more than I made in a year's time. And I was still dirty from work. He offered it out to me and I leaned away from it. "I can't afford to replace it if it gets all screwed up."
"It's nothing. Take it. You'll do me no good if you're trembling the entire time you're trying to guide us."
Oh. I took the jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. I hadn't appreciated just how wide his shoulders were until that moment. The jacket dwarfed me and as I disappeared within its folds, but what I noticed the most was the absolute inferno within it. Though I enjoyed staying warm on a chilly night like anyone else, and I was definitely running on fumes, it was as if I'd brought along my own personal heater.
I snuggled down, tipped my head against the back of the truck, and went straight to sleep.
The truck occasionally jostled me to some form of wakefulness. Still, I managed to stay down pretty good for the rest of the ride. Dreams fluttered past me, just out of reach. That was fine, too. I didn't need to be aware of what my subconscious thought about the whole situation. I was pretty sure that what I was experiencing was some form of brain death.
Maybe I'd been hit by a car. Or I'd died in a dig site collapse, which happened from time to time no matter how careful you were. Maybe I'd just fallen over from heat exhaustion. Whatever the case was, this was my own personal version of hell and I was stuck in it forever.
I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I was sure happy that I didn't have to think about it too much.
I thumped against the front of the truck bed and felt something soft cradle my head. Though my shoulders struck metal, my skull didn't crack with it. I opened my tired, dry eyes to look up into Eskal's.
And the world froze.
He jerked away from me, leaving me to scramble to keep from whacking some other part of myself on the cold metal. "You were asleep. I simply didn't want you to brain yourself. We require you for this."
It was an explanation, but an awkward one. His long-sleeved business shirt was entirely inappropriate for the heat of the day. I slid his coat off my shoulders and offered it back to him wordlessly. Maybe dragons didn't notice the heat like we did?
"How do you intend to get past the security cameras?" I asked. "How
