Previously…
I'd just stepped out of the shower in my Paris hotel room when my laptop chimed. Someone was trying to Skype me. I quickly threw on my robe and wrapped my hair in a towel before answering the call.
"Eddie!" I smiled as his face appeared on my screen. The connection was a little iffy, the picture and sound freezing and jumping around. "How are you? Aren't you on that steampunk cruise in the Caribbean?" Eddie Mulligan, my friend and the owner of a new age shop in Portland, was a steampunk enthusiast. I hadn't expected to hear from him while he was on his cruise.
"Yes, in the Bahamas. Morgan, listen carefully. I…" The image froze for a second. "… danger. Discovered…" It froze again, this time for longer. I uselessly thumped the side of my screen as if it might help.
"Eddie? Are you there?"
"Need…help. Come quickly…dead."
"What? Eddie? Oh my gods, what's happening?"
There was a bit more jumping around of the screen, and then it zoomed in on one of Eddie's bespectacled eyes. "Hurry, Morgan. If you don't, we're all dead."
With that, the connection dropped entirely. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get him back.
I stared at the blank screen before giving myself a mental kick in the pants. I had to get to the Bahamas as fast as I could. I started running around the room, grabbing my things and throwing them randomly in my suitcase.
Airport. I needed to get to the airport. I could use the private plane Jack and I had taken to France. What island? I needed to find out where the ship was and fly to the nearest island. But what cruise line had Eddie taken?
Jack. I needed Jack.
I dashed out my door and down the hall to pound on his door. "Jack. Jack! Are you in there?" There was no answer. "Dammit."
I ran back to my room and grabbed my phone. I noticed I had a voicemail, but I didn't take the time to listen. I needed to find out where Eddie was. Before I could dial, it rang. I frowned, not recognizing the number. I did recognize the country code, though. It was someone in the UK.
"Hello?"
"Morgan? This is Drago."
"Drago, hi. Listen…"
"I need you to come to Scotland as quickly as possible."
"I can't." I tossed a boot into my suitcase, then pulled it back out when I realized I'd need to wear it. "I have to catch a flight…"
"Yes, you do. To Edinburgh as fast as you can." I heard the urgency in his voice, and my blood ran cold.
"What's wrong, Drago?"
"It's Inigo."
Chapter One
"What is it? What's wrong with Inigo?" I gripped the phone so tightly I could hear the plastic cracking in protest.
"Just come, Morgan. Quickly."
"What's wrong with Inigo?" I practically yelled into the phone. Drago didn't hear me. He'd already hung up, leaving me about five seconds from a full-blown panic attack.
Screaming just about every cuss word I knew, I continued throwing random items in my suitcase. I knew I was freaking out, but I didn't know what to do about it. Eddie was somewhere in the Bahamas dying or something. The love of my life was lying in a death coma in the Highlands of Scotland from which he may or may not ever emerge. I needed to be in two places at once, and my so-called Sunwalker guardian, Jack, was nowhere to be found. I let out another shriek of frustration as I slammed my bag closed and zipped it shut. What the hell was I going to do?
Deep breath, Morgan. Deep breath. I forced myself to think somewhat logically. Kabita, my best friend and boss at the so-called private investigation firm where we both worked (it was in reality a front for our true activities: hunting vampires, demons, and other things that went bump in the night.), was still back in Portland, and she was a hell of a lot closer to the Bahamas than I was, so I dialed her number.
"Do you know what time this is?" She sounded like death warmed over. Kabita was no more a morning person than I was. According to my calculations, it was about four a.m. back in Portland.
"You need to get to the Bahamas."
A moment of silence. "Good morning to you, too, Morgan."
"Eddie's on that damned steampunk cruise, and he called me. Something about people dying. He needed me to come urgently."
"So I need to come why?"
"Because," I said as I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs to get a taxi, "I have to go to Scotland."
Another beat of silence. "Inigo."
"Yes."
"Is he…?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "All Drago would say was to come. He hung up before I could get anything else out of him." And for that I was seriously going to read him the riot act. I mentally sent the dragon king a few choice mental curses.