Let Sleeping Dragons Lie (The Modern Dragon Chronicles Book 1)

by Ty Burson

  “All right, you got us,” Joy conceded. “Give us your flashlights and go hide.”

  “You thought you’d get by us. No way,” Justin continued.

  “Okay, okay, give us your flashlights,” Joy retorted.

  “Yeah, I heard you and turned and then….”

  Joy yanked the flashlight from his hand, “Go hide, moron.”

  “Hey—” Justin started, but Steve led him away.

  After the exchange, Joy and Dani counted while sitting on the steps. Dani kept trying to cheat: “42, 43, 100. Okay, 44, 54, 55, 68…”

  “Count right,” Joy corrected.

  Steve and Justin were still close enough that they could hear them counting. “Your sister is a booger,” Justin whispered.

  Steve smiled, “Yeah, she is. Come on, let’s hide behind the garage. If we see their lights, we can run around to the other side.”

  The two boys ducked down and peered—one head perched on top of the other—around the corner. They watched Joy and Dani leave the porch and disappear into the darkness beyond the glow of the porch. The bouncing light seemed to be going in the opposite direction of where they were; the boys relaxed. But suddenly, the lights pivoted and headed their way. “Okay,” Steve whispered, “if they get too close, we run, but not together. We split up; only one of us has to reach the porch and they’ll be it again.”

  “Good plan. I’ll go left and kind of zigzag up to the porch. You go right, and—”

  “Shh, just run if they get too close,” Steve whispered.

  They waited as the lights crept closer, then watched in disbelief as the light split in two, right in front of the garage. “What are they doing?” Justin asked. “They’re splitting up. They’re not supposed to do that. They’re supposed to stay together.”

  “Just run when I say…Now!”

  The pair split up. Steve shot out just before Joy turned the corner and managed to get a good ways across the yard before Joy ran him down and tackled him. “Hey,” Steve yelled, “this isn’t tackle!”

  “Oh, I forgot.” Joy shined the light in his face.

  “Very funny,” retorted an angry Steve.

  Justin, on the other hand, was lost. He’d tried to run past Dani like Steve had Joy, but he’d been forced to run away from the garage, in the opposite direction of the house. In the dark, alone, he ran right past a plaster figurine of a little girl and her umbrella.

  The minute Justin left the circle of figurines, he found himself surrounded by a heavy, swirling grey mist. He turned left and walked a couple of steps, but that didn’t seem right, so he turned around and went back. Left, right, back, forth—he couldn’t see anything. He tried his flashlight, but the fog only reflected the light back at him. He was starting to panic and was about to yell for help when he had an idea. It was an all-consuming idea, an idea so powerful that he completely forgot about being lost, or what he was supposed to be doing, or even who he was for that matter. All he could think about was…ice cream. Yes, ice cream! Big swirls of chocolate and vanilla molded upward on a crunchy cone, sundaes loaded with caramel and chocolate drizzle, root beer floats where the foam oozed over the side of the ice-cold mugs. And Justin knew where he could go to get all three—a Tastee-Freez just off the highway.

  Steve sat on the porch, convinced that his partner was still out there, eluding Joy and Dani. Occasionally, they returned to make sure Justin hadn’t slipped past and made it to Home Base. After a while, Granny got up, “You better call that boy in, or he might have gotten lost for good.”

  Steve agreed and hollered for Joy and Dani to return. “Hey guys, Granny says we need to quit and get Justin back before he gets really lost.”

  They all agreed, since they were starting to get tired and a little annoyed at Justin for making them search for so long. They started calling for Justin to come out, but after a few minutes of trying from the porch with no reply, Granny told them to come back. “Joy, you and Dani sit right up here and don’t move. Steve and I will walk around with the flashlights and see if we can’t find that boy. And Dani, I mean it, ok? Stay put. We won’t be long.”

  Steve and his grandmother must have walked around the property three times. It wasn’t a real big piece of land, but with a little wind kicking up between the trees, their voices couldn’t carry across the entire yard. They called until they were hoarse. Eventually Granny waved Steve over with the flashlight, “Steve, show me again where you were the last time you saw him.”

  Steve led her back toward the garage. “Right there,” he indicated, “right behind the building. I told him to go that way,” he pointed.

  Granny took the flashlight and pointed it out away from her land. Then she brought the light back closer, to where her precious figurines formed an invisible boundary around her yard. She stood there thinking while Steve fidgeted. “What are we going to do Granny? Justin won’t do very good lost in the dark.”

  Back up on the porch, Joy was pacing its entire length. Dani sat on the edge of her seat, kicking her legs, “Do you think he got lost? How could he get lost? Even I wouldn’t get lost! Do you think we’ll find him? Maybe some kind of animal got him. I bet his family will miss him,” Dani prattled.

  At first, Joy tried to answer Dani’s questions, but after some of the crazier ones, she just gave up. “Granny will find him,” she finally said. And then the phone rang. Dani hopped up from her seat, ran inside, and answered it.

  “It’s Justin!” Dani called.

  Chapter 20

  Dani hung up and ran out the door and down the steps. Joy followed by leaping off the porch. “Granny! Granny! Justin’s all right! Steve, Justin is at the Tastee-Freez!”

  Steve and Granny emerged from the dark yard into the porch light. “What’s that, Dani? You found Justin?” she asked.

  “Yeah, he called!” Dani exclaimed. “He’s at the Tastee-Freez. He said he got lost and, and that’s where he is. Can we go get him? I could go! I know where it is.”

  “Did he say anything else, honey? Like how he got there?” Granny inquired.

  Dani thought, “Um, I don’t think so. He just said he was lost. Oh, wait, he said the manager gave him an ice cream. Can we go get an ice cream too?”

  Everyone relaxed, especially Steve, who blamed himself for telling Justin to split up, knowing his friend could get lost in a locked room. All throughout the search, he kept picturing Justin hurt at the bottom of a ravine, or trapped up a tree by a giant bear. “Can we go Granny?” Steve asked. “It’s not far. We can all walk and get some ice cream too.”

  Granny took in their three eager faces with amusement, “Of course we can go. We have to go get your friend, anyway. Besides, it’s not too late, so they’ll be open for a while yet. Dani, what was Justin going to do? Is he going to wait for us?”

  “I dunno. He probably will, though,” she added.

  “I’ll call up there before we leave and get them to keep an eye on him. You all wait right here and we’ll walk together.” She went off to call Mrs. Tieman, the owner of the ice cream shop.

  They set off, their flashlights in hand, once she returned. Together they ambled down the dirt driveway that turned onto the gravel stretch before reaching a real blacktop road.

  “I wonder what made that boy run off?” Granny mumbled aloud. Just as they stepped onto the road, she stopped and held the children back for a minute. “Steve, how did Justin know my phone number?”

  Steve shrugged. “Dunno, but he remembers everything, so maybe he heard it once.” Steve thought about it for a minute, “Or, maybe Mrs. Tieman looked it up for him.”

  Before Granny could say anything else, Dani bolted down the road. With a concerned expression, she glanced back toward the house—like she knew she’d forgotten something, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember what it was. Finally, Granny shook loose her shoulders and followed after Dani. “Come on, kids, let’s go get some ice cream.”

  Up at the Tastee-Freez, a blond kid lingered in the parking lot, his ice
cream listing a little to the left, precariously close to spilling off the cone. A magenta Dodge Caravan pulled in a few moments later and a wisp of smoke gathered around the boy’s legs, propelling him toward the car. The driver rolled down the window to see what the boy wanted, just long enough so the smoke could snake its way in before dissipating. Without a word spoken, one of the kids in the middle seats opened up the side door so Justin could climb over toys and trash and settle in the backseat.

  Frank was wiping his wet hands on his trousers. “Lousy bathroom doesn’t even have any paper towels,” he griped. He looked up just as the family drove off with the boy. He did a double-take, “Hey, did you pick out that car?”

  John was laughing so hard he had to wipe his eyes. When it didn’t look like he was going to stop, Frank slugged him in his beefy arm. “Hey, what’s that for?” John complained.

  “Are you kidding me? Did you look who was in that van? They’re a family of Asians! You sent that blond, curly-headed kid off with an Asian family.”

  John only sobered up for a second. “Oh, I know…” he doubled over laughing, “that’s…what was so funny…”

  Frank cocked his fist back for another punch, but John waved his hands in surrender. “Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help it… I mean, come on,” John protested between laughing fits. “They’ll have no idea he’s not theirs for a least a week. And in the meantime, everybody they run into will be like, ‘One of these is not like the other.’” John lost it, again, gasping for breath, “It was…just…too tempting.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Frank fumed. “Did you ever think that might draw attention we don’t need?”

  John grinned, “Hey, I didn’t do anything. The demon said to use the boy to draw them out. It worked. He also said to get rid of the kid, so unless you want to start shoving kids into the trunk of our car, I did what made the most sense. It’s not my fault the stupid demon is racially insensitive. Ah, come on, quit looking at me like that. No one is going to make a deal about it. People will just think he’s adopted or something.”

  “Christ, I hope they’re American,” Frank interjected.

  John clapped his hands over his mouth and broke into hysterical laughter again. “I didn’t think of that! How do you say pass the mustard in Chinese?” Frank slugged him, harder this time.

  “Ow! C’mon! It wasn’t a rental, I looked, so I’m sure they were American,” John blurted out, rubbing his shoulder. “Or, at least they’ve been here a while.” He wiped his eyes of laughter tears and mumbled, “Yeah, I’m sure they were Americans, but oh God, if they weren’t? Too funny…”

  Frank just turned away in disgust, walked back to the dark Mercedes, and proceeded to use the hands-free call option. A voice one step removed from the grave answered, echoing throughout the car like tires over gravel. “Well,” his father croaked, “What’s happening now?”

  Frank hesitated, years of conditioned fear working its way into his soft-spoken response. “We got them away from the old woman’s place. John is watching for them now.”

  The voice on the other end started to respond, but quickly broke into a weak coughing fit. Frank winced, knowing exactly what he would see if he was in his dad’s study: the old man wrapped up with his tartan blanket, shivering in a study stifling with heat, one gnarled arm curled tenuously around a nearly empty glass of water, barely enough to wet his lips, all he could hold down. When the voice spoke again, Frank realized he could hardly remember the strong, smooth baritone that had once belonged to his father.

  “We need the boy. Mammon says he’s the key.”

  “What are we supposed to do, kidnap the kid? What about the rest? There’s still his sister, the old woman, the other girl...we can’t take them all.”

  The old man cleared his throat, “The rest don’t matter. Mammon says he can take care of them.”

  Frank didn’t like what he was hearing. “What does that mean? Pop, Mammon says a lot…But Mammon isn’t the one who’ll go to prison for kidnapping, or worse, if he gets caught. Look, Pop, I know you believe—”

  “Enough!” This was said with as much force as his father could summon, a command that made Frank wince. “This,” his father said, impatiently, “is the only chance I have, the family has. Once I’m dead, none of you can control Mammon. You’ll be nothing but a pair of rich brats without the sense to keep what I’ve given you. Without me, without Mammon, you’ll squander everything our family has built up.”

  The old man stopped speaking, his breathing ragged and forced. Frank gripped the steering wheel in frustration, “Okay, Pop, I got it. Exactly what does that devil want us to do?”

  Chapter 21

  Steve practically collided with the window in his rush to order ice cream. In his mind, clearer than the prettiest sunset he could think of, was the image of three vanilla soft-serve swirls, caramel and hot fudge oozing down the sides, whipped cream perched on top, walnuts sprinkled over the whole concoction. The last part didn’t make much sense, because he really didn’t like nuts on his sundaes, but it didn’t matter; he had to have one. In fact, he was so focused on his dream sundae that he didn’t notice the Tastee-Freez sign blink out, or the big guy in dark sunglasses chaining off the entrance to the parking lot behind them. He didn’t even notice that the person taking his order wasn’t old Mrs. Tieman or Ramona, her daughter, who would probably be home from college by now.

  Another man with dark sunglasses smiled widely at Steve, “What can I get ya? How about a double-chocolate banana split with Oreo cookies sprinkles?” The guy was beaming.

  “Ah, how about a sundae, with lots of caramel and hot fudge?” And Steve added, “And nuts, don’t forget the nuts.”

  The guy looked slightly disappointed, but shrugged, “Sure, no problem. What about the rest of you?”

  Dani pulled her chin up over the counter and gave her order, followed by Joy and then Granny. Steve waited, his mouth watering, as the guy started filling up cups full of ice cream and toppings. Steve snatched his cup as soon as the guy passed it out the window. He was on his fourth bite before he realized that they’d forgotten the caramel, not to mention that half the sundae was just whipped cream, but strangely it didn’t matter—it was the best dessert he’d ever had.

  It was Dani who rocked the boat. “Hey, this isn’t a twist cone! It’s just plain vanilla! I wanted a twist cone.”

  The window attendant turned to look at someone behind him, the man who had chained off the parking lot, a man who wore a really nice suit. The pair looked confused. Then the guy in the back answered, “Sure it is, kid. Go ahead and try another bite.”

  Dani’s face crumpled into a scowl and she pointed her cone up over the counter. “Look, do you see any chocolate in this cone? How can this be a twist cone if there’s no chocolate?”

  The well-dressed one in the back, probably the manager, Steve decided, pushed the other one out of the way and grabbed the cone from her. “Yeah, oh yeah, you’re right kid. Here, I’ll just get you another.”

  But Dani was shaking her head and already moving back. “Who are you guys? Where’s Mrs. Tieman?” she demanded.

  Granny was the next to react. She threw down the nine-inch-high cone that had been dripping all over her hand like it was made of snake venom and pushed forward, pushing the kids behind her as she faced off the attendant and his companion. She began marching them backwards, steadily.

  They were just past an umbrella table when the attendant came barreling around the corner. As big and imposing as he looked, the tiny paper Tastee-Freez cap sitting on his big head and the smiling ice cream apron dangling around his thick neck looked ridiculous. The look on his face wasn’t ridiculous, though. Granny shifted the kids in the other direction, but the would-be manager stood in their way.

  “Okay, now,” the nicely dressed one said. “You all need to sit down, and we’ll have a little talk.”

  Granny whispered, “When I say so, you three run as fast as you can back to the house.”

  “But
Granny—” Steve started to protest.

  “No,” louder than she wanted, “Do as I say!”

  The attendant discarded his goofy hat and tossed it to the ground, “Hey now, don’t be stupid. Just relax.”

  “Go!” Granny screamed as she leapt toward the guy in the apron. Steve grabbed Dani, who had her fists up, whirling at nothing, and tried to get around one of the tables. Joy went the other way, but she couldn’t get around the guy in the suit. With nowhere to run, Steve turned back, then stared in amazement, his jaw waggling.

  His grandmother—his 72-year-old grandmother—was perched on the edge of a Tastee-Freez table in a low squat and the man in the apron was on his butt, looking confused. Granny hopped down from the table, nimbly sweeping her foot across the man’s face, knocking his sunglasses off and sending him sprawling. Granny’s steel-gray wiry hair stood straight out as she turned to the other assailant, who was slowly backing up. But Granny wasn’t going to let him get away. She made some kind of wicked gesture and the patio umbrella of the table next to him snapped open and caught him right in the mouth. It sent him crashing to the ground. Granny glanced over at the kids and saw they hadn’t budged, “Get back to the house!” she exclaimed.

  This time, none of the kids hesitated. Steve and the girls made a break for the road. Joy outpaced them, hitting the blacktop as the wind struck, gusting so hard that it flipped over the round, metal tables, ripped the umbrellas out of their stands, and shot them into the sky. The three children were knocked to the ground. Pine needles and gravel pelted them. Steve held up an arm to protect his face, then maneuvered himself to try and shield Joy and Dani, who was crying. He tried to find his grandmother, searching fruitlessly for her beneath the cover of his arm.

  Steve struggled blindly to his feet, bullied by winds that shoved him in every direction. He saw that Joy was protecting Dani and decided he had to find Granny. He leaned precariously forward, shuffling in the direction he’d last seen her. He burst through into a calm within the storm where he could see that the bad guys were untouched—one had Granny pinned down, one arm cranked back like a chicken-wing, her neck securely locked down on the table by a beefy elbow. Whatever had allowed her to become a ninja a few minutes ago seemed to be all used up. Her eyes no longer looked dangerous, just desperate. “Steve,” she gasped, “Go!”