by Jade White
“Well,” said Aaron, “I’m sure it helps that we live in a penthouse where they can’t really come to the door, and we have Rudd to take them around to any place they need to go and keep anyone away from them that we wouldn’t want near them. There are some buffers between our kids and the world that other kids wouldn’t necessarily have. That’s something else good.”
“That’s true. Maybe I’m worried about nothing. Maybe I’m inventing problems where there aren’t any.”
“You’re just being a mom,” said Aaron. “Moms worry. They think about things that could happen, and what they’d do if those things did happen. It goes with the territory.”
Macy shut off her iPad and put it on her nightstand. She cuddled closer to Aaron and let him put a big, hard-muscled arm around her. “At least they have a big, strong dragon dad to look out for them too.”
“Always,” said Aaron, kissing her on the top of her head. “Them and their mom.”
They sat that way for a few minutes, Macy letting her worries fade and roll away. And Aaron felt a little tug of guilt at his heart for the one thing he was not telling her, the one thing he had never told her from the very beginning. It was one of the things that Nathairfear spoke of only among themselves, never with humans, not even with humans that they loved. Macy had almost been within earshot of hearing about it once, that one night at the Plaza Hotel, but everyone had gone silent about it when she came near. Macy still did not know. Aaron could not help feeling a little guilty that she was not allowed to know. But wife or not, Macy was human, and it was not a subject for human ears.
Aaron’s guilt went the way of Macy’s worries when he realized that she had gazed down his body and turned her attention to where he wanted it. Her hand followed the path of her eyes, and her fingers were soon slipping under the waistline of his briefs, probing for what made them bulge so hugely. He smiled. In a moment they would soon be occupied by much nicer thoughts. He helped her pull down his briefs, and a treasure of flesh sprang into view and lolled and throbbed against his abdomen.
He shut his eyes and let Macy make her way down between his legs, and in a second he felt a wet, sliding, tugging reward for being a good father.
_______________
It was the end of a long day at work. Macy faced the computer at the desk in her office, going over a few last details for the day. Aaron was likely finishing up whatever was on his day’s agenda as well. He had gone out of the city to a place that he owned in Westchester on an inspection trip and would probably be a little late for dinner. That would give her some quality time alone with the kids. Rudd Ainsleigh was no doubt en route with them, having picked them up from school. It was good to have a chauffeur who was good with children. Aaron would likely come through the door just as Macy was marching the kids off to do their homework. Later this evening, after getting the kids to bed, perhaps she and Aaron would settle themselves into a warm bath that would inevitably turn to something more than a bath. She checked the clock on her screen. It was getting near a quarter to five.
And that was when the incoming E-mail notification appeared. Macy slumped her shoulders and sighed loudly at the name of the sender.
What did Sophia Leland want? Especially now, of all times? Not that there was necessarily a good time to hear from someone that Macy had warned away from her family several years ago. After all this time, why would she be emailing?
Macy clicked on the message, which opened an online chat. It read, Macy, this is urgent. You have to go to the Bedford Enterprises computer facility in Westchester immediately.
This was truly perplexing. No overture to some psychic, New Age pronouncements about the future or prophecies, or her family and children? Just an urgent call for Macy to go to one of Aaron’s business sites? Why would Sophia, of all people, want Macy to go there, of all places?
Macy typed a response: Sophia, I don’t have time for this now. This is my business E-mail, and any business we might have had, we wrapped up a long time ago. I’m on my way home.
Sophia typed back, You can’t go home now. There’s trouble, great trouble. You’re needed here, where I am now. You must come. And you must bring the children. Aaron needs you and them NOW. It’s life and death, Macy. Come immediately.
This actually made Macy jerk her head back in dismay. What on Earth was this woman going on about? What was she doing at a computer center that Aaron owned? Why would she possibly be urging Macy to take the triplets there? And what was this about “life and death”? Macy found her thoughts rolling from perplexity to dismay to confusion to annoyance and back again. She thought she had put this woman in her place.
I don’t know what you’re talking about, typed Macy, but I don’t appreciate this intrusion and I told you before I don’t want you around my children. I’m going to tell Aaron about this.
Sophia’s response came: If you don’t do as I say, you may not be able to tell Aaron anything ever again. You’ll see soon. The Dragon Watch has people on their way to your office right now.
Macy now grew even more alarmed. The Dragon Watch? Why would the protectors and peacekeepers of the Nathairfear be coming to her place of business? Was this true? What was going on?
Her heart fluttering hotly, Macy typed, What do you mean, the Dragon Watch is on its way? What the hell is going on?
No sooner had the words escaped her fingers than her desk phone rang. Eyes widening with apprehension and fears for which she had no name, Macy picked up the phone. Her secretary announced, “There’s a Mr. Weathers on line one. He doesn’t say where he’s from; he just says it’s about your husband and it’s urgent.”
Macy’s eyes darted for a second back to the computer and the words that she and Sophia had left there. Then she answered the secretary, “Put…Mr. Weathers…through.”
A male voice came over the line. “Ms. Jacobs?”
For an instant, the sound of her unmarried name, without even a hyphen connecting it to that of her husband, echoed in Macy’s head. She had decided not to take his name, not to amend her identity for personal or business purposes. She had chosen to be a “modern” woman and not become “Mrs. Bedford.” She wondered now what her status might soon be in name and in life. No, she chased the thought from her mind, I won’t go there until I know all the facts.
“Yes,” she said with a measured calm, “this is Macy Jacobs.”
“Ms. Jacobs,” the man’s voice said, “my name is Mark Weathers. I’m with the Dragon Watch. We have some news about your husband, Aaron Bedford, that you need to hear. There’s…a situation at one of his facilities.”
“The one in Westchester?” Macy said numbly. “He told me he’d be there today.”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s correct,” said Mark Weathers. “There’s been an accident.”
The hot flutters returned to Macy’s heart. “Is Aaron hurt?”
“We haven’t determined that yet, Ms. Jacobs.”
Macy felt as if sirens were going off in her head. She gripped the arm of her chair as if her hand were a dragon’s talon. “What do you mean you haven’t determined that yet? What kind of accident is this? Where is he? What’s happened?”
Weathers replied, “There’s an area of the facility that’s off limits to the general public. Only Nathairfear are allowed in that part of the building. It’s dragons only. There was an accident with the equipment, involving Mr. Bedford and some of the technical staff. Ms. Jacobs…they’ve all disappeared.”
Like a rocket out of a silo, Macy shot up from her seat. “Disappeared?” she shouted. “What do you mean, he’s disappeared? Where could he have gone? What happened to him? Where is my husband?”
Macy heard a note of trepidation in the man’s answer. “Ms. Jacobs, the area of the building where Mr. Bedford was is a place that ordinarily only our people would know about. It isn’t something we would mention to a human at all under ordinary circumstances. We’re informing you because you’re Mr. Bedford’s wife. The place that he disappeared from…as a r
esult of the accident…” He paused for a moment. “Ms. Jacobs, do you know the history of the Vonsahlan Beacon?”
She mouthed the words, Oh my God… before answering. “Yes…yes, I do. Aaron told me the Vonsahlans left some sort of device on Earth to mark that they’d been here, and that it was supposed to guide them back here someday when they came again from…wherever they went. The Nathairfear were supposed to watch over the Beacon and make sure it was only used for what it was meant for, because it was too powerful and if someone abused it…” She trailed off, too frightened now for a recitation of history. “Mr. Weathers, what’s happened to my husband?” she demanded.
Weathers answered, “Several years ago, Mr. Bedford won a contract for his company to be the administrators of the Beacon and its technology, with the Dragon Watch as security. He set up a special area at his research and development and computer server facility in Westchester. That’s where the Beacon has been kept under our watch. There’s a required periodic test of the system, which Mr. Bedford personally supervises. During the periodic test today, there was a power surge in the system. A warp gate between Earth and another dimension opened spontaneously. The systems overloaded; there’s been some physical damage—and some of the people in the room with the Beacon disappeared into the warp.” After a beat, he finished gravely: “Mr. Bedford was with them.”
Now Macy said aloud, feeling as if she would topple over, “Oh my God…”
“There were three technicians specially trained to operate the warp gate generator. They all suffered a severe shock; they’ve been taken to the emergency room,” Weathers added. “We don’t have anyone fully trained to use the system at the moment; the people pulled into the warp, some of them were the backup technicians for the gate. Your husband’s people are working to repair the damage now. But as for Mr. Bedford’s whereabouts…we can’t say for sure just where he is. People are working non-stop—but you needed to know about this, ma’am.”
Macy was ready to drop the phone—or hurl it through the window. “I’m on my way to Westchester right now.”
Weathers said, “Ms. Jacobs, it’s best you just go home and wait to hear from us. I’m sorry to remind you, humans aren’t allowed in that section of the facility.”
Something snapped inside Macy to hear that. How dare he…? Her voice raising with sudden outrage sparked by fear, she shot back, “Do not tell me where I’m not allowed. You just got finished telling me my husband has been working on some project that I’m not allowed to know about, and the only reason you’re telling me now is that you don’t know where the hell he is. Don't you tell me where humans are and are not allowed to go. I am his wife. And if he’s in trouble, I’ll go where I need to go to help find him, do you understand?”
“I understand your feelings, Ms. Jacobs,” replied Weathers, “but you're still not allowed. It’s dragons only.”
Teeth clenching, Macy said, “You’re going to find out how much of a ‘dragon’ I am, Mr. Weathers. I’m on my way.” And she leaned over to the desk and slammed the phone back down. Then, she all but fell back into her seat and buried her head in her hands, fighting back gasping sobs and sudden tears that she could not afford.
Macy took down her hands and forced her mind to clear. It was all she could do at the moment. Now, more than at any other time in her life, she needed clarity. She gathered up her scattered thoughts and started to arrange them in order of priority. First, there was Aaron. Then…the children. She reached for her cell phone and hit the speed dial for Rudd Ainsleigh. The call rolled to the phone in the dashboard of the SUV in which he was chauffeuring the kids. Rudd’s voice came through, and she could hear an edge in his voice that matched the way she felt. “Macy…I’m on the road with the kids. I was going to call you as soon as I got them home. There’s something going on…”
“I know what’s going on,” Macy interrupted him. “I just got off the phone with a man from the Dragon Watch. Rudd, I understand my husband has been keeping the Beacon that the Vonsahlans left, and I didn’t know anything about it.” She could not keep the anger out of her voice at the last part.
“It’s true,” said Rudd carefully. “It’s strictly dragon business.” After another careful beat, he added, “Aaron didn’t mean to keep it a secret. It’s just…humans aren’t allowed to know some things.”
Macy practically growled at him. “I know all about what humans aren’t allowed to know.” Then, with a forced calm: “Do the kids know?”
“I just told them their father’s had an emergency at work, and he’ll be home late.”
“All right,” said Macy. “Just take them home, and stay there with them. And tell them…tell them I’ll be late too. Order dinner for them, whatever they want. And wait to hear from me, or call me if you hear anything. Understand?”
“I understand,” said Rudd.
“Good,” Macy said. “I…have to go.”
Ending the call with Rudd, Macy put her head back in her hands. No, no, no… Please don’t let me have to tell the kids that Daddy isn’t coming home. Please don’t make me have to deal with…what comes next. She could not bring herself to think of what would come after that. She had to go to Aaron—or to where Aaron was last seen. She had to bring her husband home.
That was when she remembered the message from Sophia: …you must bring the children. Aaron needs you and them NOW…
Again, she took her face from her hands. Aaron needs the children. The children need to be where the Beacon is. The three of them. The THREE of them…
She looked at the computer again. On the screen was another message from Sophia in the online chat: I know what you have to do now. You have to get in there. And you’ll succeed. And you have to bring the triplets. They have to be there. Only they can help you. And their father.
Macy gulped. All these years, she and Aaron had dismissed the prophecies as superstition layered on top of history. All these years, they had kept the children away from that part of the dragon people’s lives, even as they had kept them away from human superstitions. They had raised Andrew, Sam, and Kate to be rational people and been grateful that the triplets’ gifts seemed to have nothing to do with anything psychic or paranormal. But now…
Only they can help you. And their father.
Macy grabbed her cell phone again. She had new instructions for Rudd.
CHAPTER NINE
The Bedford Tech Center was a place built to look like a part of its green suburban surroundings, rather than standing out jarringly from them. It was a two-story structure, all shiny glass and marble, that one might first take for a museum or a gallery, a concert hall, or a vast greenhouse and conservatory, not a place of science and technology and high-tech industry. Aaron had taken pains to ensure that the place would serve its purpose and add beauty to the community while doing so.
Approaching the Center with Rudd and the triplets, Macy hoped that Westchester County appreciated her husband for being so mindful of the place he was doing business—and that somehow he would continue to do more good works. Of course, if she could get him through his present ordeal, that would depend on her not killing him for failing to tell her what he’d been up to for all these years.
Macy had prevailed upon the Dragon Watch that she was not going to be turned away. She was Aaron’s wife, and she was not going anywhere except to the place from which he disappeared. She asked them what they would do if it were discovered that the CEO of one of the most profitable corporations in the country had simply disappeared without a trace on their watch. She asked them what they would do when his wife came forward with the story of how it happened. She impressed upon them that she would not lie to the press and that they would have to take steps to silence her before she went to the press, raising further complications for the Watch if anything were to happen to Aaron’s wife and the mother of his three children—who, Macy made it clear, she would not allow to lie or cover up the truth either. The Dragon Watch relented just as Sophia Leland said they would. Macy
dismissed the question of whether Sophia knew this because she was psychic or because she simply knew how the Watch worked. She had no time for such questions now. She was concerned only with her husband’s fate.
Three male members of the Dragon Watch, led by Mark Weathers, led Macy, Rudd, and the triplets through the corridors of the Tech Center to a place at the opposite end from where they had entered in the front. Macy now had a face and a body to connect with the phone voice of Mark Weathers. A tall, fair-haired, strikingly handsome man, he reminded Macy of a blond version of Aaron. She had never met an unattractive male weredragon. She did not know of anyone who had ever met one. She did not believe such specimens existed. That was irrelevant too. What mattered was where Weathers was taking her family.
They came to a single, sheer marble wall, as tall as the building itself, with a single glass and brass door set into it. Here they stopped, and Weathers pointed to the door, saying, “The Beacon section is through there.”
“All right then,” said Macy. “Let’s get going.”