He chuckled and leaned over, giving her another quick kiss.
“I need to ask you something,” Bliss began.
“Ask away.”
“Well, the TV host and producer are visiting a week from Tuesday. They’ll bring a camera crew and will want to talk about how it’s been for me… you know, working on my designs for the finale.”
Drake leaned back and scrutinized her. “And you needed to ask me something?”
“Yeah. They like to meet the people who have been important to the finalist during their time at home.”
Drake felt the tingles at the back of his neck. Did she want him involved in the interview? He’d like to be supportive, but would he be able to with everything else going on? Hopefully, by then, he’d have found and contained Zina, but what if she was still running him ragged? He wished he knew at what point Zina was in her fertility cycle. If she missed her window, maybe she’d forget about him and leave, but somehow he doubted that.
“Would you be willing to sign their release form and let them film you along with me and Angie?”
“I—I will if I can. My schedule isn’t something I can count on right now. I’ve worked a heck of a lot of overtime, and they’ve needed me for every shift.”
“I understand. I just thought it would be cool if they could meet the firefighter who saved my life and tried to save my computer with all my work on it.”
Drake laughed. “You’ll have quite a story to tell them, with or without me.”
She smiled. “Oh, you can bet they’ll eat it up. It’s just the kind of harrowing experience that brings drama to the show.”
They were just getting into the rhythm of an easy conversation when someone knocked. Bliss strode to the door. “Angie must have forgotten something.”
Or changed her mind about drowning outside…
The open door revealed a young man, no more than sixteen or seventeen.
“Hello,” he said formally with a slight bow. “My name is Adolf Balog, and I live upstairs.”
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you.” Bliss held out her hand, but he ignored it.
“I’m here to talk to him.” He indicated Drake with a quick uptick of his chin. “S’up?”
“Me? Why?” And why is he acting like we’re buddies? I’ve never seen this kid in my life.
“I need to speak to you privately.” He shot a glare in Bliss’s direction.
Something about this kid didn’t sit right, but Drake’s impending doom alarm wasn’t going off. His curiosity quickly outweighed any reservations he had, plus it seemed like a good idea to put some distance between this stranger and Bliss until he knew more about him.
“I’ll be back in a minute, sweetheart.” Drake gave her a peck on the cheek and stepped outside the apartment, closing the door behind him.
Facing the kid head-on, Drake asked, “What’s this about?”
The kid extracted some kind of powder from his pocket and tossed it up in the air. It shimmered gold as it covered both of them, and the next thing Drake knew, he and the stranger were… somewhere else. Bright sunshine streamed through a glass dome, telling him that much.
A woman with long, white hair came forward. She wore a long white dress belted with vines. Something about her was familiar. Others in plain white robes that he didn’t recognize were scattered in small groups but paid little attention to them.
The woman crossed her arms and said, “I’ll take it from here, Balog Junior.”
The kid bowed and retreated. Drake glanced behind him and noticed a bank of elevators toward which the young man strode. Apparently that was the way out. Good to know, if he needed to escape.
“What is this place?”
The woman tipped her chin and studied him. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
Drake didn’t remember precisely where he’d met her, and he really wanted an answer to his question first, but he seemed to be at a disadvantage. He’d have to wait for an explanation.
“Not really. Who are you, and how did I get here?”
“I’m Gaia. Mother Nature. Goddess and creator of lesser gods, goddesses, and other living things. How you got here isn’t important. Why you’re here is.”
“All right.” He mimicked her crossed arms, trying not to let her intimidate him. “Why am I here?”
“You’re a dragon. And to answer your original question, you’re still in Boston. This is where much of the Supernatural Council is based now.”
“But it’s a sunny day. I must have lost some time getting here, because when I left it was a rainy night in Boston.”
“That was to keep the city from burning to the friggin’ ground! You didn’t lose any time. Unless you’re a nonbeliever. You must know Mother Nature can create any kind of damn weather anywhere she pleases, right?”