by S. E. Smith
Phoenix giggled and nodded. “We’s can go after breakfast,” she agreed, returning to her chair and picking up her fork to hurriedly finish her breakfast.
*.*.*
Carmen watched Phoenix and Spring shift into their dragon forms and bound down the corridor of the palace. Staff members smiled and waved to the girls who always gave whoever they passed a smile. The innocence, joy, and love in their every movement warmed her heart, even as she worried about them.
She glanced over at Creon when she felt his hand engulf hers. She squeezed it, knowing he was feeling the same way that she did. They hadn’t had a moment of privacy to discuss what had happened a short time ago at breakfast. A part of her wanted to, while another part was terrified to think of what had happened and all the possible dangers.
“We… Scott and I had painted the house we bought yellow with white shutters,” she said, staring down the hallway. “The house was small. It was on five acres of land with a long meadow and winding driveway leading to the house. The backyard wasn’t very big and bordered the forest. The nearest house was Paul’s ranch.”
“Carmen…,” Creon began. He drew her to a stop and turned her to face him.
“I’m worried about what will happen to Phoenix, Creon. What she said this morning when they woke us up – her mirrors, the Goddesses talking to her,” Carmen whispered with a shake of her head. “The constant fear that they may take her away from us is driving me crazy.”
Creon’s hand slid along her jaw and he pulled her against him. Carmen could feel the tension inside him. Her arms wrapped around him and she held him as tightly to her as she could.
“None of us know what the future has in store for us,” Creon reminded her, rubbing her back. “We can only embrace each day to the fullest. Besides, the girls will pick up on our concern if we don’t trust in our ability to keep them safe.”
Carmen nodded and tilted her head to gaze up at him. “I’ve come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t tell any more stories until they are older. They take them far too literally.”
Creon chuckled. “At least you didn’t have to go through their booby-traps,” he teased. “I have to admit I have found these holidays refreshing. We never know what the younglings will come up with, and since they were born, my life has been more exciting and interesting than it has ever been before.”
“If you think this is exciting, wait until they are teenagers and start noticing boys,” Carmen retorted, glancing down the hallway. “They’ve left us behind. I hope they didn’t go….”
“Harvey is with them,” Creon reassured her with a glimmer of amusement.
“You have no idea how lucky we are to have a symbiot,” Carmen replied before pausing to look up at him. “Thank you.”
“Never be afraid to share your fears, Carmen,” Creon murmured, lifting her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “We will face the future together.”
“If the others don’t kill us for losing their children!” Carmen muttered, turning when she saw Vox storming down the hall with Kelan, Mandra, Zoran, and Trelon on his heels.
“I’ll deal with the men, you inform the women,” Creon said with a grim expression.
Chapter Seventeen
“All I’ve got to say is thank the Goddesses it isn’t Amber and Jade’s fault this time,” Cara commented with a wave of her hand before she groaned and rubbed her stomach. “This is the last baby, unless Trelon has the rest.”
“I think this would be a stretch for even Amber and Jade to pull off,” Ariel replied dryly.
“But… Earth! I mean… how is that possible?” Trisha asked with a worried look.
“Do you think they are safe?” Emma asked in an anxious voice.
Carmen turned and looked at the group of women sitting in Morian’s living room. They had decided that since the Goddesses appeared to be involved, speaking with Morian might be the wisest decision. Carmen drew in a deep breath, and released it.
Morian spoke before Carmen could. “Phoenix is very special, and Arilla and Arosa know what they are doing – I hope. I have no doubt that Phoenix would never have opened the portal if she could not do so again.”
The men came in, their expressions ranging from amused to perplexed to down right exasperated. Carmen decided she would focus on the two faces who she could deal with: Paul’s and Creon’s.
“What’s wrong?” Carmen asked.
Creon looked around the room with a frown. “Where are the girls?” he asked.
“In the playroom,” Morian responded, touching the gold at her neck. “They are making Valentine’s Day cards for the dragon warrior.”
“Valentine’s Day…. Okay, first off – no more stories,” Zoran growled with a wave of his hand.
“Zoran,” Abby said in mild reproach.
“I agree with Zoran. Every time you tell a story, the kids get into mischief,” Trelon defended.
“Oh no you don’t,” Cara muttered, waving a finger at Trelon. “You guys were having fun with them, too. I remember the way you were looking for those Easter Eggs.”
“Cara has a point, Trelon,” Ha’ven agreed.
“Not to mention placing a tracking device on Cara so you could all sneak down to find out what we were up to,” Trisha added.
Mandra nodded. “Right again, Trelon,” he grinned.
“And who lost the kids while we were shopping and ended up having a ball in the Haunted House?” Riley said, cradling Sacha in her arms.
Vox turned and pointed at Ha’ven. “I’ll blame Alice for the babies, so Trelon doesn’t have to take all the blame,” he chuckled.
“Admit it, you guys have been having way more fun on these adventures than you were chasing each other around in the training room,” Ariel pointed out.
“And if you think this is bad, wait until they are teenagers!” Riley added with a grin. “This is nothing!”
“Regardless, we need to get the kids home. From the information Creon shared, it sounds like they have met Chad’s sister, Sandy. If Sandy called him, they will be safe. Bálint has Bio, and Bio knows where the ranch is,” Paul stated.
“As long as the children have the symbiots with them, they will be protected,” Morian reassured the worried group.
“Now all we have to figure out is who the dragon warrior is,” Abby commented.
Carmen saw a thoughtful expression cross Trelon’s face. He pulled out his communicator, shook his head, started to put it away, pulled it back out, and finally sighed with another shake of his head, holding it in his hand but not using it. Carmen glanced at Cara, who shrugged in response to her silent inquiry.
“What’s going on Trelon?” Cara asked.
Trelon looked around the group with an expression of uncertainty. “This is probably completely unrelated…, but there was a transporter malfunction on board the V’ager early this morning,” he said.
“There hasn’t been a transporter malfunction in over a century!” Mandra exclaimed with a frown.
“The V’ager has the most advanced system in the fleet,” Kelan said.
Trelon shot his brother a look of exasperation. “I know, I’m the one who had to rebuild it after I tore it up. There is no way it could have malfunctioned. I checked it out myself after I received the report this morning. It worked perfectly. All the logs show that everything was functioning correctly – yet, the warrior never showed up,” Trelon said.
“Who was it?” Zoran asked.
Trelon ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Jarak, the Chief of Security,” he said.
“Isn’t he the bad-tempered jerk who threw me in a cell?” Cara asked.
“Yes,” Trelon replied.
“Oh, boy! Karma lives!” Cara replied with a grin.
Morian touched the gold symbiot around her throat, searching for Jarak’s symbiot through the maze of connections between the creatures, and smiled. “I think we’ve found the younglings’ dragon warrior,” she chuckled.
The group of adults
turned as Spring and Phoenix skipped into the room with Harvey, Little Bit, and Stardust right behind them. Both girls had a dusting of red and gold sparkles on their faces and clothes. In their hands, they each clutched a large heart with more sparkles on it.
“We’s done making the Valentine’s Day cards. Are you ready to helps us, Daddy?” Spring asked, coming to a stop.
*.*.*
“What?” Sandy asked again, feeling like her brain had taken a vacation.
“They’re aliens,” Chad said, running his hands over his face as he watched the group of children gathered around the cage holding one very grumpy dragon.
“Dragons… and a tiger cub,” Sandy said, rocking in her chair and tapping her foot. “You honestly expect me to believe….”
Her voice faded when she remembered the feathers and scales of two little girls. She turned her head to the sound of the children. They were all talking at once, but even from this distance she could pick out their words.
“You’s gots to open your heart.”
“She’s lonely.”
“You needs to learn about Valentine’s Day.”
“Yeah, Aunty Carmen says its when you shares love.”
“I’s hungry again.”
Her lips twitched at the last comment. The group had grown in size, but there were still two voices missing from the group. A frown furrowed her brow and she tilted her head.
“I don’t hear Phoenix and Spring,” she murmured. “Chad, there were two more little girls. I don’t hear their voices.”
“Two more…,” Mason said, glancing over at the group. “I count seven.”
“There were two little girls – sisters. They are twins, but one is different from the other. I don’t know what they look like in their…” Sandy paused and shook her head at the ludicrous words about to come out of her mouth. “…humanoid form, but one had feathers covering her body and the other one didn’t.”
“I haven’t seen…,” Chad’s voice faded and he rose from his chair.
“What the hell?” Mason muttered, shaking his head as he stood up.
“What is it?” Sandy asked in frustration.
“I think we just found your missing baby dragons and a few more,” Chad muttered, his voice filled with a combination of awe and reservation.
“Thank goodness. I would hate for anything to happen to them. I don’t care if they are aliens or not, they are still children,” Sandy said, standing up and walking over to stand next to the men.
“I’ll be damned!” Mason exclaimed when the collection of large dragons slowly shifted back into their two-legged form.
“Paul!” Chad muttered in shock.
“Paul… as in Paul Grove? I thought he had moved to some foreign country or something after Trisha disappeared,” Sandy said in confusion.
“He went to another planet,” Chad murmured, walking down the stairs.
A soft growl of frustration escaped Sandy. Turning back to her rocking chair, she felt for her cane. Her nice, peaceful morning of picking flowers, knitting, and grumbling at Coco had turned into Area 51. Sweeping the cane back and forth, she slowly followed her brother and Mason down the steps to greet her newest visitors.
Chapter Eighteen
“Chad! Mason!” Paul greeted above the roar of the kids talking all at once.
“When the kids said they came through a mirror, I seriously doubted their story, but….” Mason waved his hand at the area where they had just appeared.
Paul grinned and slapped Mason on the shoulder. “I know, pretty unbelievable,” he admitted.
“What happened?” one of the men asked.
Chad glanced over at the cage the man had nodded to. His gaze returned to the hulking man in front of him. Dressed all in black, the guy had muscles on top of muscles. Hell, they all did, including Paul!
“Mason can probably tell you more than I can. I just know he got out of the truck and went nuts. Those gold things pinned the other one to the ground while those two formed a cage around the dragon. Every time he gets a bit antsy, they shock the crap out of him and he settles down,” Chad said with a shrug.
Mason nodded. “He showed up a few hours ago. Scared the piss out of Kaitlyn – she’s the girl that replaced Samara. Anyway, he shows up and charges into the house while we are having breakfast. He recognized the kids, thank goodness. He said his name was Jarak and he was Chief of Security on something called a V’ager. According to him, one minute he was on this ship beaming down and the next thing he knew, he woke up in the barn. Of course, I knew immediately he was an alien from meeting Kelan and a few of the other guys. Sandy called to tell Chad about the kids who had shown up here. I loaded the boys, the gold things, and psycho-dude in the truck and brought them over here. The guy gets out and the next thing I know, we’ve got a raving lunatic dragon on our hands,” Mason said, waving a hand at the cage.
“I’m just glad you guys are here. Maybe you can do something with him,” Chad added.
“What I would like to know is where did all of you come from and what is really going on?” Sandy requested in a voice filled with frustration.
“Sandy! We mades you something,” Spring exclaimed, pushing through the men.
Phoenix followed her sister. “It has pretty sparkles on it just likes the one our mommy made our daddy,” she added.
Sandy’s heart melted when she heard the excitement in the girls’ voices. Bending down, she laid her white cane down next to her and held out her hands. She was rewarded when they each gripped one.
“I’m glad you both are safe. I was worried about you. When I didn’t hear you at breakfast, I thought you were just being quiet, but the others said you weren’t here, then Chad came and Mason and…,” Sandy murmured.
Sandy turned her head toward the large, shadowy shape. She bit her lip. The creature – dragon – whatever it was made a soft calling sound every once in a while that pulled at her heart. He sounded so forlorn. She blinked and turned back when she felt Spring place something into her hand.
“What is this?” Sandy asked.
“It’s a hearts for Valentine’s Day. You are supposed to gives it to someone to show them that you loves them,” Spring explained.
“Our mommy gave our daddy one. Her hearts was broken and she was lonely just likes you until she founded our daddy. She gave him her heart and made his whole again so he and his dragon and his symbiot wouldn’t be sad no more,” Phoenix added.
“A Valentine! I haven’t had one of those in… forever,” Sandy admitted.
“We’s made you another one for the dragon warrior. I don’t know if it works ‘cause we made it and not you, but we thoughts if we gave it to him and told him abouts Valentine’s Day, it would helps his heart not be so hard,” Spring said.
“We cames to help, too. If I’s going to be a leader, I needs to make sure that all my warriors’ hearts aren’t broken,” Zohar stated.
“I’s a leader too, but I’s just came ‘cause I wanted to see where my mommy came from,” Roam said, wiping his hand across his nose.
“I’s a leader, aren’t I, Daddy? I helps make sure everyone is safe, just like my daddy does,” Alice said, glancing up at Ha’ven and smiling.
Ha’ven reassured Alice while Jabir stepped closer to Sandy and said, “I’s just a prince, but I knows you’s gots to be careful when you gives him the heart.”
“And why is that, Jabir?” Sandy asked.
She was surprised when he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. A blush flushed her cheeks and she could hear the smothered laughter from the group of men standing around her. Her gaze flickered to the cage again.
“It makes Phoenix’s and Spring’s daddy’s pants do it, too,” Jabir finished.
“I think that is enough, Jabir,“ Mandra hastily said, scooping up his son in his arms.
“Jabir always tells you what he is thinkings,” Bálint warned.
“It’s true, though,” Spring argued.
“I’s sure glad I’s no
t a boy,” Amber said with a wiggle of her nose.
“Me, too. I don’t wants my pants to grows,” Jade muttered.
“You got to be carefuls when you goes swimming too, don’t you, Daddy? ‘Cause the fishes might thinks it’s a….” Jabir began to add with bright, wide eyes.
Mandra gently covered Jabir’s mouth with his hand and shot Paul a desperate glance. All of the men were fighting a sudden fit of coughs. It didn’t help when Amber and Jade turned to look up at Trelon with inquiring expressions.
“Paul…,” Mandra encouraged, glancing at Chad and Mason.
Chad caught the glance and grinned. “Why don’t we go inside and get some refreshments,” he suggested. “Sandy, didn’t you make some of your famous cookies yesterday?”
“Cookies!” the kids cried in delight, hurrying for the house.
Mandra cautiously removed his hand from Jabir’s mouth. “And milk?” Jabir asked with a hopeful look.
“Yes, and milk,” Sandy chuckled. She picked up her cane, rose to her feet, then started toward the house, walking at a slower pace than the others. She paused near the shadowy forms lying near the front porch. She could barely make out the three different shapes. In fact, if the one being restrained hadn’t been making a soft, humming sound, almost like a moan, it would have been impossible for her to distinguish them apart.
Unable to ignore the pain of the creature, she started to step toward it when she felt a hand touch her arm. She jerked, startled since she hadn’t heard any footsteps. A loud snarl pierced the air and the creature she had been about to touch surged forward only to be contained by the other two.
“They are dangerous at the moment,” the deep voice warned.
Sandy stood stiffly, tightly gripping the white cane in her right hand. She swallowed. This was one of the aliens who had come through the mirror.