by J. P. Rice
It had started in the rural areas surrounding Pittsburgh. People had shrugged it off for the first couple of weeks. Then it froze out the city and concern began to set in. Overworked furnaces had stopped working. Pittsburgh had already exhausted its supply of street salt, so traveling by road was a dangerous proposition.
A mass exodus of the wealthy Pittsburghers had begun. I couldn’t blame the denizens because Baltimore and Philadelphia had already sprung into spring. The anomaly was only occurring in my city.
However, most of the poor citizens were forced to stay back because they didn’t have a way out. Public transportation had stopped running and you were more likely to run out of gas than find a gas station that was open.
If someone didn’t put a stop to this permanent tundra covering Pittsburgh, winter faeries would invade for a chance to frolic in the chaos. They wouldn’t want Ice Heart to have all the fun. The clock was already ticking.
The situation was bleak. The outlook seemed far worse. The city needed a hero. Someone to step up and stop the brutal winter once and for all. Someone to infiltrate the Red Cavern and rescue the Dagda’s Harp, thus liberating the innocent citizens from certain death.
Would a noble warrior emerge from the pack?
*****
I gazed at the mesmerizing sapphire dragon egg inside the incubator. All I wanted to do was touch it, but the thick plastic shell prevented any contact with my babies. Owen adjusted the temperature and sat down on the edge of his brick fireplace. I had convinced him to keep a constant fire going for the dragons.
The dragon eggs were packed in ice when I’d found them, but Owen and I didn’t believe they would hatch under those conditions. Even if they were ice dragons, they still needed warmth for birth. Right?
When were my dragons going to hatch? Patience wasn’t near the top of my list of attributes. In fact, it didn’t even make the list. My inner dragon wanted some friends to play with. I still hadn’t told anyone about the eggs, which was killing me.
I sat down and tried to calm myself. We’d dubbed Owen’s basement the dragon den, although we hadn’t seen any signs of life from the eggs. Owen had offered to run a computerized scan on one of the eggs to reveal the contents, but I didn’t want to take the chance of messing something up.
That vile beast known as self-doubt showed up periodically, trying to convince me that the eggs were fake. But the black dragons had chased after me attempting to retrieve their babies. They had to be real.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a book detailing the birth process of dragons. So I didn’t know how long it took for them to hatch. I also didn’t know how long they had been packed under the snow.
Jonathan had told me that the black dragons had crashed Pittsburgh about two months ago. And he’d said Mike Merlino’s teleportation mistake that had resulted in two black dragons ending up in Pittsburgh had only happened a few weeks ago. Those were the only known dragons in Pittsburgh.
“Did you find out what happened to Alexis?” he asked, leaning in closer to the incubator.
“Not really,” I said, as he checked the settings on the incubator. “I might need your help on that. You have a better connection on the human side in Pittsburgh.”
“What do you need me to do?” he asked and stood up, leveling his yellow eyes with mine.
“She said her dad wasn’t around anymore,” I explained. “I’m not sure what that means. I have her address and first and last name. I just wanted to see if you could poke around and make sure she’s all right. After she went into surgery, I was told she had extended family on the way.”
“I can ask some questions.” He moved over to the fireplace and grabbed the poker. “So you didn’t see her after surgery?”
“No,” I answered and started pacing in front of my babies. “I wanted to. But I didn’t know if I was being intrusive. I mean, I just saved her, but I am a stranger to her more or less. But I haven’t stopped thinking about her since it happened. Maybe she needs someone like me to take care of her.”
“Oh, heavens,” Owen said and turned to me. “I hope you aren’t insinuating that you will be taking custody of this little one.”
“Why not?” I’d hoped he would understand. But his narrow, questioning eyes told a different story. I said, “It’s a cold, dark world out there and she found out firsthand. Do you think her aunt can defend her against someone like Ice Heart? Speaking of that asshole, I need you to find out information on him too. I only know the basics and I’ll ask around, but maybe you can poke around too.”
“Sure.” He set down the poker and pulled a small notepad and pen from his pocket. “But we need to settle this ill thought out adoption.”
“Ill thought out?” I said in a sour tone.
“What I mean is that your life isn’t conducive to raising a child.” He tucked the pen and pad back into his pocket. “You have dragons on the way. You’ve almost died ten times in the past few weeks. There would be no more missions. No more adventure. You understand that, right?”
“Are you kidding?” I asked rhetorically, shaking my head. “She would have dragons to protect her. What little girl wouldn’t want that?”
He picked up the poker again and slid the metal screen in front of the fire to the side. “Tell you what, why don’t we stick a pin in that for now until we find out who will be claiming custody of her. You certainly wouldn’t be able to go on your current mission.”
“I know that. Problem is, no one else can handle this problem.”
“So it seems you have given more thought about going after the Dagda’s Harp?” Owen asked as he jabbed the coals of the fire.
“I have.” I paused for a moment. “But I don’t know. There’s just so many bad memories. And I have no surefire way of getting in. And from there, I have no plan on how to infiltrate the ranks and obtain the Harp.”
“It is quite the undertaking. You know what they say about going into battle without a clear head.” Owen tapped his chin in thought. His eyes shifted around. He looked like he was trying to unravel a phrase before he made one of his famous verbal gaffes.
Before he found the words, I said, “Exactly. I’ve often said that you can’t fight two opponents at the same time. At least, if one of them is your own brain. Or something like that. I’m so frazzled over it and obviously, I don’t want to leave my dragons behind.”
“You know I’ll watch them with my life,” he reminded me, holding his hand over his heart.
“I know, but I want to be here when they finally come out. I have a motherly attachment to them, and I would kick my own ass if I missed their births.”
“I’ll call you the instant it happens,” he promised and pulled out his cell phone. “I have a motion detection device set up so that any movement inside the incubator will trigger a text message to me. I’ll relay the message to you as soon as I receive it.”
My foot moved up and down, tapping the ground nervously with the front of my shoe. “That makes me not want to go to the Red Cavern even more. That and Alexis. I won’t even be taking my phone with me if I go.”
“Children can complicate things, it should seem,” he stated and threw another log on the fire. “Even before they are born. Have you thought about where you are to raise them? Or names?”
I grinned, and Owen said, “Oh, heavens. I’ve witnessed that look before. What are you cooking up?”
I smirked. “I had a crazy thought that I would claim my father’s house.”
“Did his current family vacate the property?” Owen asked, squinting his eyes.
“Not exactly.” I lowered my voice. “I was planning to evict them.”
“Evict them, how? Under what authority?” Owen stood up and loosened his gold tie, clearly uncomfortable with my decision. “Even if you wrest it by bloody force, the rest of their family will still hold legal standing.”
“They have plenty of money from my father’s inheritance,” I explained. “I just want his castle. All I need is the chance to explai
n to them why they shouldn’t call the authorities. I can be pretty convincing.”
Owen smirked. “Don’t I know about that. Intoxication. Thy name is Junipher.”
“It would be the perfect place to raise dragons. What better way to honor my father, right?” I said energetically. Owen tossed his head around and pulled out his pipe. “Please don’t do that down here, around the babies.”
“They are completely enclosed in there. But I’ll oblige.” He tucked his pipe back into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. “Look at you, being overprotective already.”
I shrugged my shoulders and tried to play it off, but I had already formed a bond with these sapphire eggs. The family I never had.
Owen rubbed his eyes. “Where were we? Where were we? Right-e-o. Perhaps you could offer to buy the house. If you are low on liquid assets, I could help you out.”
“I’m not paying for something I deserve,” I said angrily, “Those skanks have only known my father for a little more than a decade. I saved his life at Machu Picchu. What did they ever do for him? Nothing. They deserve nothing, yet they are receiving everything on a silver platter. I’m only reclaiming what’s mine.”
“I do not like the plan, but it seems your mind is set. I’ll offer this.” Owen sighed and thought for a moment. “If you obtain the property through dubious means, can you be entirely comfortable keeping a secret such as dragons? It opens the prospect that other people might try to take the property from you. And that would leave the dragons at risk.”
“If I seize his property, it will be well guarded,” I assured him, moving closer to the fire. “The dragons will only be vulnerable when they are young. Until they can protect the property for me, I will have plenty of soldiers making sure nobody comes close to my babies.”
He stood the poker up next to the shovel and maple wood bellows. He paced in front of the fireplace, the flames dancing behind him. “Yes, well, I wish you luck with that. It’s not that I disapprove of bending or breaking the law, but you aren’t doing it because you absolutely need to. You are doing it simply because you can. Remember the famous line from Jurassic Park? ‘They were too busy or enamored with the idea that they could do it, but they didn’t stop and think whether they really should.’ Or something along those lines.”
His pacing was making me nervous. “I’m not opening a dinosaur park here. And I can’t believe you are taking their side on this.”
Owen’s yellow eyes narrowed, giving him a fierce look.
“This is not about sides,” he said sharply. “I know you despise them, but they haven’t done anything wrong or broken the law. Taking their house just rubs me the wrong way.”
“Well, don’t worry. I won’t bring it up again. I’ve got to go see Thor now, but I’ll be waiting for that text,” I said and walked up to my dragons.
I leaned down close to the plastic and looked over the thirteen eggs. My eyes were drawn to the egg in the top right corner. Inexplicably, I couldn’t look away. Slowly and deliberately, the egg began to beat like a heart. The shell expanded, and when it appeared as if it would pop, it contracted back to the original size.
Owen’s phone buzzed from the text signal from the incubator.
“What is going on?” He walked over to me.
Speechless, I pointed to the back corner and watched the egg pump in and out. We had signs of life. Owen leaned down, and we saw the miracle of life in the form of a shimmering sapphire dragon egg.
Owen said, “Oh, heavens. We’ve got action.”
As much as I wanted a baby dragon to burst out that shell right this second, a much-needed surge of reassurance shot through me knowing there was life inside those eggs.
I waited a half hour, just in case anything exciting happened, but the egg kept beating slowly. The movement wasn’t as pronounced as earlier, but it told me there was life inside that glimmering sapphire egg. It took a lot to pry myself away, but I needed to see Thor.
Chapter 3
The local watering hole. A staple for small towns across America. Grocery stores and gas stations had been closing because of the weather. So one would imagine, a little dive bar without heat would close down too. Wrong.
The watering hole couldn’t be more important than a supermarket. Could it? For some people, the night at the watering hole was everything. Was it the drinks? Or the slurring patron telling the same drunken story over and over and over? Or was it just getting out of the house to avoid spending time with the family or spouse?
Either way, it served a purpose. A strong purpose. It brought all the locals together where they could forget about any past issues they had with someone else. A few beers later, all was forgotten. It was like a form of magic, bringing the townsfolk together.
So I wondered why a Prince from another world was working in a local watering hole. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
*****
I raced across the city to a little town called Blawnox. Thor worked in a dive bar called Dietches, and although I wasn’t sure he was working, I couldn’t wait any longer. Loki and Hel were on my ass and Thor could be my saving grace. But I had to track him down first.
I opened the big wooden door and entered the smoky bar. It was only a few degrees warmer inside, so I kept my coat on and walked up to the bar. An older bartender stared at the basketball game on the TV with his back to me.
I peeked around at the ample Steelers memorabilia hanging from the walls. I zeroed in on a white sign made of hard plastic that read, Here We Go. The sign was tinted brownish orange from years of cigarette smoke and matched the nasty panels on the ceiling.
I coughed and sniffled, trying to get his attention, but he didn’t budge. He waited for the game to go to commercial and turned to me. He threw a coaster on the bar in front of me and said, “Can I get for yinz?”
“I’m here to talk to Todd,” I said, leaning my forearms against the front of the bar.
“You friends with him?” the bartender asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He leaned down behind the bar and I heard bottles clanging. The bartender rose with a sawed-off double barrel shotgun in his hands. He pumped the hardwood fore end and pointed the twin barrels at my face.
“Whoa. What the fook is going on?” I asked and put up my hands. Was I being robbed?
“You tryin’ to steal from us too?” he yelled and used the recoil pad to push up his glasses.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t seen Todd in almost a year and heard he was working here,” I explained. Of all the supernatural brawls I’d been in with Gods and powerful beasts, I had a hard time believing some yinzer bartender would be the one to take me out.
The bartender lowered the gun. He shook his head and his tinted glasses slid down his nose. He pushed the spectacles back up with his thumb. “You know where he’s at?”
“No. That’s why I’m here to see him,” I said with my open hands next to my face.
The bartender’s face turned red and a blazing anger ran through his eyes. “Son of a bitch took off last week. Cleaned out the register ‘fore he left. We got it on security footage. Yinz see him, tell him he better pay back the two-hundred and fifty bucks he owes us,” he said, getting increasingly agitated.
What the fook was Thor doing? Was he even worth trying to save?
“I’ll tell you what,” I said, “I can pay you what he owes if you can give me the address he left. He had to fill out paperwork, right?”
He leaned down again and stood back up without the weapon. I lowered my hands and exhaled.
“He filled out an application. But he was being paid under the table. You give us the two-fifty and I’ll give you his application,” the bartender said and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Deal,” I agreed and dug into my purse. I opened my wallet and paid off the bartender. He stuffed the bills into the register and went downstairs.
I waited in the frosty bar for Thor’s application, so I could find out where he was
living. How had the God of Thunder turned into a complete degenerate? It didn’t make any sense and destroyed my plan to have him reclaim his birthright as heir to the throne of Asgard.
The bartender came back up and handed me the piece of paper. He said, “Thanks for paying that deadbeat’s tab. Now you can tell him to never come back round here.”
“I’ll do that,” I said and perused the application. I zeroed in on the name and address.
Shitface Odin
123 Loki Sucks Lane
Asshole, Pennsylvania 12345
It appeared Thor hadn’t lost his sense of humor, but a lot of good it did me. Just for shits and giggles, I looked at the phone number.
123-456-7890
Of course. I was glad to see this bar handled hiring seriously. The last time I was here, a different bartender had told me they were paying Thor in drinks. Before I got mad at the bar’s lax hiring policies, I stormed out without the application.
I had some very important people to check on.
Chapter 4
Nobody answered at the Not Normal Agency again, increasing my unease about my workers. I tried Lauren’s cell phone. I hated calling people at home, but I wanted to make sure she was safe. I hoped that Lauren and Randall had stopped showing up for work because of the weather.
However, I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Jonathan to see if he knew anything about it. One of his vampires oversaw the day to day business aspect of the Agency. Lauren’s phone went straight to voicemail. Dammit.
I dialed up Randall and prayed that he would answer his phone and put my mind at ease. His went straight to voicemail too, sending my heartrate through the roof. With more Ice Heart spottings occurring around the city, I felt obligated to go down to the office and check it out.
Because of my modified Jeep with chains on the tires and the lack of traffic, I raced across the city and pulled up in front of the building. Lauren and Randall’s cars were outside with a few inches of snow on top. Fook. Panic-stricken blood raced through my body as I jumped out and ran up to the entrance.