The Dragon's Mark by Alex Archer

Author:Alex Archer [Archer, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Action & Adventure, Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Fantasy, Fiction - Science Fiction, Science Fiction - General
ISBN: 9780373621453
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

18

Between the events in Dr. Laurent’s office and the encounter at the café, Annja had had enough excitement for one day. She caught a cab and headed home, but not until she’d had the driver make a few sudden turns and run a red light or two. At this point, it made sense to be cautious.

Just because you can’t see them, Annja thought, doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.

She had the cabbie drop her off a block from her loft and ducked into a local Chinese restaurant for some takeout. Once back at home, she sat down and looked at the drawings, trying to make some sense of them.

She stared again at the face of the swordsman, searching her memory for a familiar face, trying to determine if she had ever seen him before. With only the eyes and the upper half of the nose to work from, it was like trying to find a needle in a field of haystacks. It could be anybody, really.

She turned her attention to the images of Joan of Arc’s execution. Recalling her thought that she might have been reproducing a painting or an image she’d seen somewhere before, she turned to her laptop. A search turned up nearly ninety thousand images.

It would take days to go through them all.

Still, she glanced through the first few pages of images, looking for something that resembled her drawing. But, aside from the fact that they all showed a young woman being burned at the stake, none of them were a match.

The mystery remained and Annja decided to leave it that way.

Later that night, while she was trying to get organized for the work she needed to do in the studio the next day, her phone rang.

Answering it, Annja said, “Hello?”

Only silence greeted her.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” she asked.

Still nothing.

Assuming it was a wrong number, she hung up.

A few minutes later the phone rang again.

A feeling of unease swept over her as she stared at the receiver. It rang twice, and then a third time. On the fourth ring she overcame her reluctance and snatched it up.

“Hello?”

Silence greeted her a second time, but this time it was different. This time there was a depth to it, a sense that someone was there, even if they weren’t answering her.

That silence angered her.

“I know you can hear me. I don’t know who you are or what you want, but I’m not the type of person you want to mess around with. I suggest you leave me alone.”

When she still didn’t get an answer, Annja hung up the phone.

No sooner had she done so, then it rang again.

Grabbing the phone for the third time, she snarled, “Now you are asking for trouble.”

A man’s laugh echoed down the line. “And here I thought you just didn’t understand me, Annja.”

“Garin?” Finding him unexpectedly on the line startled her.

“I’m headed out of town for a week and thought I’d check in before I left. You returned to the U.S. rather abruptly, after all.”

It

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