by T D Raufson
Elaine had set the book aside and was pale. She mouthed, “What the...?”
Kaliastrid who seemed calm after fixing Elaine’s hair, suddenly looked terrified. Like Elaine, she was pale and her fingers clutched the edge of the table. She released the table and brought her hand to her mouth as a tear slipped down her cheek.
The phone on the desk below them rang, ripping the silence that had settled on the group. The new assault on Melissa’s nerves rattled her, and she looked at the other two women who had not moved.
“Get it back?” Kaliastrid cried as tears ran down her cheek.
“I don’t know how I got it in the first place.”
Anger rippled through her mother’s eyes like she had never seen before, and Melissa felt a desire to vanish into the wallpaper rather than face her. Kaliastrid turned to look at Elaine, who still wanted an answer to her unspoken question. Kaliastrid put her arms around the young girl, pulled her to her chest and stroked her hair. Melissa watched the motherly exchange.
The irritating jangle from the ground floor continued. Oblivious to what just happened, Charles stepped through them as it continued to ring.
“Don’t everyone move at once. Don’t worry though, the butler will get it. Wait, that’s me.” He rushed down the stairs to answer the phone.
Reaching it on the fourth ring, he lifted the receiver to his ear. Melissa reserved one ear for the phone call while watching her mother seek and share comfort with Elaine, who was confused by everything that had happened. Melissa could not explain it and was happy that it was over. Convinced there was nothing she could do to help her mother at the moment she turned her full focus to Charles and the phone.
“… Yes, this is her residence.” There was a pause while the voice on the other end rattled in the small speaker.
“No. I’m her butler.”
“Yes, she will be here today.”
“I’ll be glad to check.”
He rattled the calendar back and forth randomly and then spoke again.
“I don’t see a conflict.”
“Yes, I think that will be fine. I’ll let her know that you called, and we will see you then.”
He hung up the receiver and looked up at her. “I don’t like it.”
“What?” Melissa asked, excited.
“An Agent Loxley with the FBI. He wanted to know if you were going to be in tonight. He wants to come by in around an hour to talk to you.”
“And you agreed?”
“I figured you could handle him, and you wanted a connection in the government. He may be as high as you can get to start.”
“So what don’t you like about it?”
“I don’t know. He reminds me of someone I knew in the Gulf.”
Melissa exhaled a sigh.
The call and the quick vision of her father were bothering her. Her pulse was up, and the amulet at her neck was warm. Charles’ comment about the man on the phone reminding him of someone had made Melissa think of Nethliast.
None of it made sense. It didn’t belong together, but there it was.
She could see his draconic face just as it had been the night of their emergence when he wanted to kill Charles. The angry desire to kill etched in his eyes. His jaw fixed tightly with his teeth bared. His animal rage and lust for blood filled her mind and made her shiver.
Kaliastrid had released Elaine and was pushing her toward Charles, who was reaching the top of the stairs when the pressure in her head exploded in a hot wash of anger and rage. More images of her father were mixed in the rage. Then the chaotic feelings cleared, and she had the vivid impression that Nethliast was coming to kill her.
This I have seen before. He is dangerous when he is like this and he’s…
“…Coming.” Melissa finished her thought out loud and leapt from her chair. Kaliastrid was leading her out onto the balcony and into the air. Melissa was quickly behind her. They both transitioned in the air and flapped steadily for altitude as soon as their wings were fully formed.
The presence in her mind was near. Its lust was sharp in her mind. He wanted her. She wrestled with the overwhelming emotions he was projecting and forced his presence into a deeper part of her mind where she did not have to focus on it. At the moment she had to focus on fighting. It was apparent Nethliast was on his way, and he was not coming to talk.
“How do I know he is near? How do I know he is coming to kill me?”
“I have no idea, but I know it too,” Kaliastrid answered and her rage came across as clearly to Melissa as Nethliast’s blood lust. Her mother wanted to kill Nethliast. She believed he had hurt Valdiest. She believed those images were his memories. Melissa suddenly understood where the images of her father had come from, and she had to force her own rush of anger out of her mind to remain focused on everything that was happening.
That’s right, her own mind told her, don’t let your anger make you an easy target.
Melissa focused on getting higher over the valley while she could. Altitude was life. She stroked the air forcing herself higher and watching around her for the threat. She had no idea where he would come from.
Something in her mind made her look to the east toward the city. Air traffic was light at the local airports at three in the afternoon, but it would be difficult to see Nethliast’s black body against the busy background. She scanned the horizon, doubting she would see anything; but again something guided her to the approaching dot of her mate-cum-assassin.
“There, he’s following the river. He doesn’t know we are in the air. He’s heading for the estate.”
“Then we have him.”
Melissa could feel her mother’s excitement as she was preparing for a fight. As soon as she had pointed him out, Kaliastrid had cut toward him. She was keeping herself between them.
“You will not sacrifice yourself for me! That will not help father.”
“Back off, Meliastrid!” The order came with such force Melissa had dropped a stroke and fallen further behind her mother. She stroked to catch up. “You have your duty, and I have mine. So, don’t make me do my duty in opposition to your orders. I can control my passions better than a male.”
Melissa chewed on her mother’s words while they both turned toward the black dot that was steadily approaching the estate. She would assume her mother knew her abilities. She would trust her to fight smart. Kaliastrid clawed at the air for more altitude. Melissa waited. He should see them by now, but his anger and arrogance convinced him that they were not aware he was coming. With all rights, they shouldn’t know. They waited as he passed below them then turned to follow him. Melissa looked around for any other air traffic wondering how long it would take them to get aircraft to the location once they had appeared on radar. She would just have to deal with that if it happened; one threat at a time. Kaliastrid was not paying attention to anything other than Nethliast.
She folded in half at the top of her climb and drew her wings back. Her body formed an arrowhead shape pointing to the location where Nethliast would be when she finished her dive. Melissa folded her own wings back and started her own dive to support her mother’s attack. They were both silent missiles streaking out of the sky at Nethliast. They had the advantage in this fight. His assumptions had set him up for the kill.
As they approached Nethliast’s undefended back, Melissa watched the way her mother angled toward him. Her forward claws thrust out, ready to dig into and around his armor plates to find vital organs. Her rear claws angled to grab whatever she could hold. They were closing so fast and he was so low that there was no way they could avoid crashing into the trees on the side of the mountain when she struck him. Kaliastrid had to know this, but she did not flinch and she did not hesitate. When she was less than one dragon’s length from him, she opened her mouth and aimed for the back of his neck where she could control his head and separate the brain from the rest of his spine if she could get her teeth through the thick armor, spines, and muscle on the back of his neck. Most predators were eq
uipped to take their prey but also to kill their competition, which quite often is one of their own. There was no denying that dragons had fought each other in the past, before they had built a civilization around their magic and ages of shared knowledge. Melissa was a little ashamed that Nethliast had reduced them to the basest of animal instincts and returned them to their violent past.
Nethliast remained focused on his revenge and surprising them at the estate. His plan would have worked if there had been no warning of his approach. He had used this approach before when he snuck up on Charles the morning after their emergence.
Kaliastrid was within her own length of him before he realized she was there. It was a deadly mistake and Melissa was not sure, as she watched him drop out from beneath Kasliasrtid, how he was able to avert the well prepared attack.
The only thing that saved him from her deadly grasp was his last second plunge away from her. She expected the move even though it was a dangerous choice, and she reached out at him as he slipped below her by the slimmest margin. Her claws raked the back of his neck. Sparks flew between the steel talons and his flinty scales. Melissa adjusted her own path as Kaliastrid maintained her pressure on him even though he was turning within her own arch.
They were turning in on Melissa’s path and still descending. Kaliastrid had successfully forced him there, so she had the advantage, but to capitalize on it she would need to drop in front of him, which was a dangerous place to be. They were not really flying anymore but falling with the aerodynamics of a rock.
She made little adjustments with her wings to put her into the position she needed to grab him. His late dive made him slower, and she was able to close with him before he could accelerate.
Kaliastrid was now below him, and they were both falling backward toward the ground. Nethliast was focused on Kaliastrid’s teeth that were snapping at his neck as he maintained as much distance as he could without slowing down and surrendering to her grasp.
It was a dance of delicate adjustments. Nethliast shifted to avoid capture, and Kaliastrid shifted to trap him and drive him into Melissa’s approaching grasp.
Melissa struck him like a boulder, and grabbed with all of her claws. His claws instinctively raked her chest armor with little affect. Her left foreclaw found purchase in his recently injured shoulder, and she drove the talon deep under the damaged scale. His growl of pain was lost to the air currents, but their bodies were touching so she could feel the vibrations between them.
Kaliastrid took advantage of Melissa’s strike to slow her fall a little and finally grab Nethliast’s neck and back.
The fatal ball of dragons plunged into their last hundred feet when Melissa realized the claw amulet was glowing and hot against her chest. It was going to act to protect her from the fall, and she had no idea what it was going to do. Last time, it had thrown Nethliast away from her, but this situation was different. What would it do now? What would it do to Kaliastrid?
As they raced toward the trees below them and the amulet grew hotter, Melissa thought that they needed to get out of the air. She thought about the threat of humans getting involved. The image of the cave beneath her estate filled her mind. She braced for the impact and held onto Nethliast. The fire in her chest near the amulet flared to cover her whole body and engulfed the entire cluster just before they slammed into the first trees.
In an instant, all three of them vanished above the trees as if they fell into a hole in the sky. They fell out of the hole in the air at the very top of the cavern beneath the estate. Melissa only had seconds to realize what happened before all three of them slammed into the floor of the cavern. The amulet continued to glow and cushioned her impact but it threw everyone away from her in different directions. She could not maintain her grasp on Nethliast.
They all tumbled away from the center and gained their feet to face each other. Kaliastrid was the first to reach her feet, followed by Nethliast, but he was not interested in her. He turned toward Melissa, and she could see the intent in his eyes.
“Why are you here again, Nethliast? I thought I told you never to return here.”
“When have you ever had power over me? I want the secret to this power your father believes will save you from me. He believes you can stop me.”
“My father? What have you done to him?” She felt the anger in her body flow out from her, and he reacted by grinning back at her.
He jumped across the floor toward her. His eyes crossed over her chest and the amulet that hung there. Realization and resolve filled his eyes. He extended his neck at her chest and bit at the amulet. She smacked her forclaws together on either side of his head at the soft ear holes, and he backed away shaking his head.
She considered his attack and the way he had reacted when he saw the amulet. There was no way he could be allowed to win. He would destroy them all. He was after her power, and that could not happen. She wanted him gone. Suddenly, all of her agreed that Nethliast was a threat to dragons and to her. She would no longer resist what she knew. He frightened her, and the whole world would be safer if Nethliast was gone.
He had recovered and was coming at her again. Kaliastrid was angling toward his back. Melissa could see the finality in his eyes. He was going to kill her and take the amulet. Fire engulfed the talisman on her chest. Nethliast could see it and the magical show enthralled him, drove him deeper into the frenzy. He abandoned care and leapt at her with all of his claws extended and his tail pointed to strike.
“No!” she cried and the fire leapt across the chamber to surround Nethliast. Kaliastrid leapt at the same moment, and Melissa stepped away from his attack. In a flash, the fire consumed him before her eyes.
Kaliastrid plunged through the fire and air he once occupied. When her charge failed to make contact with him, she turned to defend an attack that never came. Her teeth gnashed at the air where he might have been.
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you destroy him?”
“I don’t know.”
Kaliastrid tilted her head and stared at her without a response. Melissa could tell she was upset about something.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Say it, don’t start holding back on me now, mother.”
“I’m not angry if you destroyed him, but you’re letting magic control you. You must control it or chaos reigns. That is very human of you. ”
“I don’t know what caused it.”
“Are you sure?” Kaliastrid shook her head and turned toward the outside entrance to the cave. Her wings vibrated with the excitement, exertion, and anger that flowed off her.
Melissa could not deny that at the last moment she had not cared if Nethliast was destroyed or not. She had not given any guidance to the magic that had consumed him. She had simply decided it had to end. She would not feel sorry for defending herself from his murderous rage no matter how she had stopped it.
Melissa transformed into her human form and cringed at the thought of stopping her mother as she walked toward the ledge.
“We should walk up the stairs. If they sent planes to investigate our fight, they may be here soon. We should avoid that conflict.”
Kaliastrid stopped in mid-stride and spun toward Melissa with her tail pointed menacingly at her face. After a moment’s pause, she transformed. Her emerald silk blouse and blue jeans made her look much less menacing but the fire of her anger still smoldered in her eyes. She walked past Melissa and up the stairs without a word. Melissa could still feel the anger and excitement emanating from her. She had committed herself to the fight, and now she was burning through the cool down. Melissa let her lead the way to the top and all the way to the house in silence.
At the stairs leading up to the patio, Charles and Elaine stood watching them walk up. He had his rifle over his shoulder, and Elaine was staring at both of them with amazement.
“You do realize that rifle will do you little good against a dragon, right?” Kalias
trid’s mood continued to poison the atmosphere as she walked past the greeting party and into the library. “You would be just as well off with a fire iron.”
Charles watched her walk by and looked at Melissa with a worried question on his face. He could not maintain his normal professional detachment any longer. “What was that all about?”
Melissa took a step back at the harsh tone to his voice. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you took off—literally—without telling us anything. I had no idea what was going on.” Although he was angry and she could tell it, he maintained a calm, but sharp tone. “You can’t keep me in the dark. I can’t help you that way as your butler, your bodyguard, or your friend. Not to mention that you never gave any thought to the others that are now involved in this adventure.”
Melissa looked at Elaine, who was excited over what she had seen and agitated that Charles was upset. She really didn’t have anything to add but static crackled around her from the excitement. Charles was right. She had not thought about how Nethliast’s attack might affect him. She also realized this was what she wanted from Charles. She wanted the soldier more than she wanted the friend.
“You’re right. I should have told you. I know you want to help. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on, but it just happened.”
“I—We can help you down here if you tell us what’s going on.”
“I’m not used to this Charles, none of it. Maybe we are a little closer now than we were, but I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’ll try to remember that in the future.”
He backed off a little when she made it clear to him that she was overwhelmed.
“But, I need for you to help me. Be the warrior that you are. Don’t wait for me to ask anymore. Trust your training and skill.”
He nodded. With that point resolved, he moved on. “So, why is Kaliastrid so mad?”
“I’m not sure. I think she’s upset because I may have destroyed Nethliast before she could, but it is more likely because I did it by letting magic control me. I have no idea what happened.”