“It’s the name of Vali’s organization, which was founded by our grandfather back in Romania and brought to America by our father when we were just kids. It means “dragon” in Romanian. The dragon was always on our family crest, and when we were little our grandmother used to tell us tales of how our family was descended from dragons.” His lips quirked in a half smile. “Guess that doesn’t sound so crazy now.”
“It sure doesn’t, but it is an awfully large coincidence, don’t you think?” I sat down under the tree and leaned my back against it, catching the phone that Cole tossed to me.
“No such thing as coincidences. Make your call; he’s in the contacts under Dick. I’ll give you some privacy.” Cole pushed up off the ground in a stupidly impressive body roll and stalked off into the forest.
Tapping the phone against my palm, I watched him walk away and thought about what he’d just said. He was absolutely right. Given everything going on, with the Blood Moon testing, the Ban Dia, the magical plague... there was no such thing as coincidences. So how did Jonathan and Omega Group play into it all?
My thoughts were broken by the phone vibrating in my hand, showing an incoming call from Dick. I smiled at the stupid insult Cole had saved his brother under and answered the call.
“Andrei, you little shit! Why haven’t you been answering your goddamn phone?” Vali’s polished, international accent clipped angrily. He had the type of accent that couldn’t be placed anywhere, which was probably a result of moving from Romania as a kid.
“Well hello to you too, Dragomir,” I teased and was met with a long pause.
“Drag?, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear your voice. I have called my dickhead brother some fifty times today, and he hasn’t picked up. What happened? Why were you in so much pain?” His voice came down the line in a rush of concern, and I was struck by how much he genuinely seemed to care.
“I’m fine, Vali. It was nothing. Just a little incident with a truck hitting our car on the way from the airport.” That was easily one of the most ridiculous sentences I had ever said.
“Was anyone else hurt?” Vali asked, in a quiet voice.
“Caleb and Wes. I needed to heal them both, or they would have died. The driver did die.” I suppressed a shudder. That poor man could have been any one of us.
“Ah, that was the exhaustion I felt from you then. I am, of course, assuming this isn’t news to you? Cole must surely be having these same... side effects?” he asked tentatively, and I chuckled.
“Side effects? Yeah, he mentioned it. You could have told me sooner, you know?” My tone was scolding, but I wasn’t all that mad. We hadn’t really had a huge amount of time to shoot the breeze over pizza and beer.
“Yes, absolutely, I do apologize for that. So you’re all okay? Everyone is... whole?” he clarified, and I smiled again to myself.
“Everyone is whole. Except River, who looks like he has a broken arm but hasn’t let me heal him yet.” I huffed a little at this. Damn stubborn man. I’d need to corner him when I got back to the apartment.
“I’m not surprised.” Vali snorted, and in the background there was the muffled sound of voices. “Drag?, I do apologize, but I must go. Business calls.”
“Oh, of course. Totally understandable,” I said, and there was another pause on his end.
“Will you—” he started, then had to answer someone in the background in Romanian. “Would you maybe call me again when you get your own phone? I wish we had gotten you one before leaving Alaska.”
My teeth caught the edge of my bottom lip, and I tried to hold back that damn goofy smile that kept appearing on my face all of a sudden. Our departure out of Harrow had been so quick that there had been no time to buy a phone for me, even if there had been somewhere to buy one, but I’d assumed Jonathan would have one for me.
“Of course. Um, tomorrow night okay? I have to start classes with the recruits tomorrow.” I tried to sound upbeat about it, but I really wasn’t looking forward to being the new kid. At least I’d have one of the guys with me, though.
“Tomorrow night is perfect. Please remember though, drag?. I almost got on a plane to that damn headquarters myself today when Andrei wouldn’t call me back.” He laughed as he said it, but I had no doubt he was telling the truth.
“Don’t do that, Vali. You’re a known crime lord; you’ve probably got a bounty on your head or something!” I was only marginally exaggerating. I knew first hand about bounties, as I’d acquired a couple myself in my double life as The Fox, international thief extraordinaire.
“Well then, don’t forget to call me.” He paused. “Sleep well, Vulpe.”
The dial tone sounded in my ear before I had a chance to respond, so I disconnected the call and quickly Googled the phone number for Lucy’s fancy rehab in New York. To my disappointment, it rang through to an answering service advising that the receptionists were currently on other calls.
“You ready to head back?” Cole asked, appearing from out of the trees with barely a sound—which was damn impressive given the size of him and the amount of dead twigs and things on the ground.
“Yeah, no one is answering at Lucy’s rehab, so I’ll try her again later.” I shivered a little, noticing for the first time how freezing cold my butt was where I’d been sitting on the ground.
Cole reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet. “Let me know, and we can come back out here. She’s bound to ask questions about what you found out in Harrow, and I feel like you’re not ready to share that information with anyone outside our circle?”
“Pretty much. I don’t know; Jonathan has been acting really weird ever since he picked me up from Vali’s place, don’t you think?” I left my hand in his as we started slowly making our way back to the buildings at the center of the Omega grounds.
“Very much so. He’s all but interrogating the guys right now, you know.” Cole glanced at me, then tugged me in close to his side, wrapping an arm around me.
“Seriously? What about?” I was getting such a bad feeling about his behavior. It was like he’d been body snatched or something. “And how come not you?”
Cole huffed a rather dragon-like laugh. “I went first and said nothing, so he gave up. He knows better than to try and interrogate me, of all people.” He planted a casual kiss on the top of my head as we walked. “But he’s really interested in hearing about your healing abilities. None of us are cracking, obviously, until we know what you want said, but he knows more than he should.”
My heart sank with the poisonous feeling of betrayal. “Do you think he had anything to do with the car crash? Or the bomb?”
There was a long pause before he said anything.
“Vixen,” Cole sighed heavily. “I think he loves you. But I think you should be careful around him until we figure out what’s going on.”
“I agree.” I nodded, but my stomach was twisting up in knots so hard it felt like I was going to vomit. Surely the man who’d rescued me from Suzette’s and raised me for the past five years couldn’t be a bad guy. I’d have known. Right?