Sleeping Dragons

by Phoebe Ravencraft

  Then his hands were on me. He held me in a strong, sure grip. I wanted him to take me. Lay me down and have his way with me. I fantasized he took me to bed and satisfied every need I’d ever had.

  “Sassy!” someone said. “Sassy!”

  My eyes fluttered open. Ash was holding me, shaking me. For a moment, I was confused. Then I realized, he was putting his hands on me.

  “Hey!” I said, and shook him off. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “You fainted,” Brinson said. “He caught you, or you might have cracked your skull open on the table.”

  Okay, that was embarrassing. I fainted? What the hell kind of wimp was I? I didn’t faint.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  The scandalous thoughts I’d been apparently dreaming flooded my mind. I scooted away from him.

  “I just . . .” I began, but I wasn’t sure what to say. “I . . . I never knew my father.”

  “He’d been looking for you for most of your life, Ms. Kincaide,” Scott said. “We only just located you.”

  He’d been looking for me the whole time? What did that mean? Mama said he’d disappeared before I was born. Was there something she hadn’t told me?

  I forced my brain to focus again. There was still a ton of shit they hadn’t explained.

  “So if I was ignorant of all this magical stuff, why were you trying to recruit me to slay your dragon?” I asked.

  “As I mentioned,” Scott said, “You are Nephilim, Ms. Kincaide. That means you have certain magical powers. All Nephilim are expert fighters. You have natural combat instincts that make it easy for you to see and anticipate your opponents’ moves. That means you can be lethal in battle.”

  Strange as it seemed, that made sense. I was a badass black belt. It wasn’t just because I was a good student. I moved up the ranks faster than usual. It generally takes three to five years to get a black belt in Kenpo. It’s a really hard system that requires a lot of dedication. I got mine in two years and nine months. And I was really good at fighting. I won my group in every tournament I ever entered. I was just faster than my opponents, and I could anticipate their moves perfectly.

  Now, Scott was telling me that it was because I was superhuman. Maybe I had spider-sense like Spider-Man. Whatever you want to call it, I could outwit the other guy in a fight without much trouble.

  “Furthermore, most Nephilim have additional abilities,” Scott continued. “These vary from person to person, because the bloodline is so diluted. The original Nephilim had vast powers. Those that exist today have only a fraction of them.

  “But we’ve learned two things about you. You seem to have superhuman speed.”

  “Wait, like The Flash?” I asked.

  “The who?” Scott said.

  Ash laughed. He grinned at me.

  “The Flash is a superhero,” he explained. “He can run faster than time. He’s got a TV show and a comic book.”

  Scott still looked confused.

  “No,” Ash said. “You can’t move that fast. You’re just capable of moving quicker than even the best athlete. It’s why you fight so well. Not only can you anticipate an opponent’s move, you can get around it quicker.”

  I nodded. Once again, this made more sense to me than anything they’d said about the magical community. I’d witnessed this. The guys I sparred against at the donjon all seemed to be moving in slow motion.

  “But you have one other power that interests us,” Director Scott said. “We had suspected it, which is why we wanted to recruit you to kill Mk’Rai. And it was confirmed during your first encounter with The Guild of the Blade.

  “You are immune to magic, Ms. Kincaide. Its energy cannot harm or affect you.”

  I stared at him wide-eyed. Magic couldn’t hurt me?

  “That’s why the demon’s knife shattered,” I said.

  “Correct,” Scott said. “And because dragons are magical creatures, their fire is magical too.”

  “Wait,” I said, “what are you telling me?”

  “You’re immune to the dragon’s fire, Ms. Kincaide,” Ash said. “It’ll roll off you like rainwater.”

  That was another bomb. A dragon could hit me with its fire-breath, and I wouldn’t get hurt? Holy shit. I needed that power in D&D!

  “So, you think I can kill this dragon, because he can’t burn me?”

  “Not just that,” Scott said. “Because of your enhanced combat skills and speed, you’ll be able to defeat him in a fight.”

  I shook my head. This was too much.

  “So why did the dragon send magical assassins after me? Why not just kill me himself or put out a regular mob hit?”

  “We believe he did not know of your immunity to magic,” Scott said. “If he had, he would have told the Guild, and they’d have used conventional weapons or subcontracted the hit.

  “As for why he didn’t do it himself, that is not how Mk’Rai operates. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. He has underlings and contractors for that sort of thing.”

  I nodded. What an asshole. But it made sense. Bosses never wanted to do the grunt work themselves. They just wanted to take the glory for getting the job done.

  “So how did you find out about me?”

  Before Scott could answer, a third guy burst into the room. He was dressed the same as the director but with a silver tunic instead of black. He had red hair, fair skin, freckles, and green eyes the same shade as mine. I’d seen that face before.

  “Why the hell didn’t someone tell me she’d been brought in?” the new guy demanded.

  Scott sighed. Ash looked uncomfortable.

  “Ms. Kincaide, may I present Ephraim Silverman,” Scott said. “Your brother.”

  Eight

  H earing this guy introduced as my brother wasn’t quite the shock that learning my father had been searching for me was. After all, it was obvious this guy was Eli Silverman’s son. He was pretty much an exact copy of him, except younger and thinner.

  But it was still a stunner. My whole life I’d thought I only had one brother – Ben. My last name was Kincaide, which was Mama’s. I was no Silverman. But here was this guy who was the son of the father I’d never know. And I could see a family resemblance. His skin was much fairer than mine obviously, and I had black hair instead of red. But the freckles, the eyes, even the shapes of our faces were the same. You didn’t have to be a genealogist to tell we were related.

  He turned that green-eyed gaze on me and stared contemptuously. I had no idea why, but he obviously hated me. How the fuck could that be? I’d never met the guy.

  “So,” Ephraim drawled, “you’re the little bastard he’s been searching for all this time.”

  “Bastard?” I said. “Bro, you best back the fuck up with that shit. Unless you want your introduction to your long-lost sister to be a fist to the face.”

  Ephraim sneered. He crossed his arms.

  “You’re welcome to try, Ms. Kincaide,” he drawled. “But you’d better be prepared for severe consequences if you do.”

  “Why?” I said. “You gonna get your little, secret magic army here to beat me up for you?”

  His frosty expression turned black. Damn, but his scowl made him look ugly. He opened his mouth to retort, but Director Scott cut him off.

  “That’s enough, Captain,” Scott said. “We’re still debriefing Ms. Kincaide. And this reaction of yours is exactly why we didn’t tell you she’d arrived. We wanted her fully in the know on the situation before we introduced you.”

  Ephraim snorted. I don’t know what his problem was, but I could tell we were not going to be close.

  “Please, Director,” he said, his voice covered in sarcasm, “continue with the debriefing.”

  Scott struggled to remember where we were in the discussion. Ephraim went and leaned against the back wall. It made me nervous. He was out of my line of sight, and I didn’t like anyone there, let alone a hostile half-brother.

  “As I was saying, Ms. Kincaide,” Scott said, “y
ou are Nephilim, and you are uniquely qualified to defeat D’Krisch Mk’Rai.”

  Ephraim snorted disdainfully again.

  “Your father was the commander of this cell, and, armed with the information I’ve already given you, he sought you out, hoping to recruit you into The Order,” Scott said.

  “Which makes you responsible for his death,” Ephraim interrupted.

  I turned in my chair and leveled my most hateful glare at him.

  “Look,” I said, “I don’t know what your problem is, but none of this shit is ‘my fault.’ I was minding my own business, living my life, when you people decided to fuck with it. Your dear old dad decided to recruit me to kill this dragon. The dragon found out, so he tried to kill both of us. I didn’t have anything to do with this, and it’s not my fault.

  “So unless you want to go round and round with me, I suggest you shut your mouth and sit down.”

  “Threaten me one more time, and I will take you apart,” he growled. “This is your fault. I told Father I could slay Mk’Rai. I have the skills. I’ve trained my whole life for this. You haven’t.

  “But he wouldn’t have any of it. No, no. He had to go find his missing ‘daughter.’ As if the lovechild of a whore matters to anyone.”

  I jumped up.

  “Watch what you say about my mama, Bro.”

  “Or what?”

  Ash was between us in an instant. He put a hand on me to keep me back and looked Ephraim dead in the eye.

  “Enough, Captain,” he said. “Ms. Kincaide did not ask to be involved in this. She did not go seeking your father. She did not wish to become part of the magical community. She didn’t even know it existed.

  “Commander Silverman and Director Scott involved her. They chose to seek her out. She isn’t responsible for that any more than she is for Mk’Rai hiring the Guild to assassinate her.”

  “Sit down and shut up, half-breed,” Ephraim said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’ll remind you I’m your captain. You listen to me, not the other way around.”

  “All right, that’s enough,” Scott said. “Captain Silverman, you’re dismissed.”

  “What?” Ephraim said.

  “I said you’re dismissed. This argument is counterproductive, and it is obviously upsetting Ms. Kincaide.

  “We are sympathetic to you regarding the death of your father. He was a great man, and it cannot be easy on you to have lost him. But badgering and belittling Ms. Kincaide is unacceptable. Leave us in peace. You can speak with her further tomorrow.”

  I leveled a fuck-you stare at my newly discovered brother, daring him to defy his superior. He alternated between a look of shock directed at Scott and a hateful gaze at me.

  “Fine,” he said at last. “This isn’t over, though.”

  “No,” I said. “It most definitely is not.”

  Ephraim turned on his heel and marched out. Brinson shut the door behind him, looking embarrassed as she did.

  “Listen, y’all,” I said. “It’s been real, and I’m grateful to you for the rescue, but I think I’d better go.”

  Scott looked shocked. Ash gaped at me in surprise.

  “Wait,” Ash said. “You can’t—”

  “I can, and I will,” I said. “Y’all have got some fucked-up shit going down here. Ephraim doesn’t want me to be part of this, and I’m okay with that. I don’t work with anyone who doesn’t want me. It leads to bad results.

  “And as far as slaying dragons goes, I’m gonna leave that job to my ninth-level monk. If something goes wrong, I can roll up a new character. Against a real dragon, I don’t have that option.”

  “Roll up a new character?” Scott said.

  I didn’t bother to explain D&D to him. It would take too long and ruin my dramatic exit.

  Instead, I sauntered towards the door. Brinson put hand on my shoulder. I looked down at it, then up and fixed her with the death-glare I usually reserved for uppity underbelts I wanted to scare during sparring class.

  “You’re gonna wanna take your hand off me,” I said.

  “Ms. Kincaide, listen to me,” she began.

  “I ain’t listening to shit! I don’t want anything to do with this. I ain’t no Nephilim or whatever it is, and I’m not slaying your damn dragon. I am walking the hell out of here while I’m still alive.”

  “That’s just it, Ms. Kincaide,” Brinson said. “You can walk out of here any time you like, but you won’t remain alive long. The Guild of the Blade has a contract on you. They failed the first time, so they escalated. If we hadn’t intervened, they might have succeeded in killing you tonight.

  “If you go home, if you turn your back on us, they will try again. The first time they sent one demon. The second time they sent three assassins. Next time it will be five or ten. You won’t keep getting lucky, Ms. Kincaide. They will get you.”

  I scowled at her and tried to come up with something clever to say. Nothing came. She was right that I’d gotten lucky. The first time, Mr. Big-ass Demon had freaked out when his magic didn’t work. The second time, The Order had shown up before things got ugly.

  The only reason Jackie Chan and Jet Li could fight a hundred guys in the movies was because the thugs attacked one at a time. It didn’t work like that in the real world. One of the first things I learned in Kenpo was that you can’t actually fight more than one person at a time.

  But that didn’t stop me from resisting.

  “Look this shit is your fault,” I said. “I didn’t know anything about this. You decided to recruit me. Smaug found out and hired someone to kill me. You assholes did this. Why do I gotta pay for it?”

  “Smaug?” Scott said.

  “The dragon in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings,” Ash said.

  “No, dumbass!” I shouted, turning on him. “Smaug was the dragon in The Hobbit. Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield hire Bilbo Baggins to help them steal the treasure from him. Jesus, you people are supposed to be the experts on all things magical. How can you not know this shit?”

  “Forgive me, Ms. Kincaide,” Director Scott said. “Fiction isn’t one of my areas of expertise.”

  I threw up my hands in disgust.

  “Ms. Kincaide,” Ash said. “Sassy, you’re right. None of this is your fault. But you’re involved whether you like it or not. You are Nephilim. You do have magical powers. You belong with your own kind.”

  “My own kind are the people who love me! And that ain’t you.”

  “Be that as it may, Ms. Kincaide,” Scott said, “you are a part of the magical world, and whether it is our fault or not, D’Krisch Mk’Rai has hired The Guild of the Blade to kill you. If they fail to succeed, he’ll hire someone else. He will not rest until you are dead, and he can live at least three more of your lifetimes if someone doesn’t put an end to him.”

  “Then tell him I turned you down!” I screamed. “He’s after me, because he found out you were recruiting me. Tell him I said no and to leave me alone!”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way,” Scott said.

  “Damn it!” I shouted.

  I was on the verge of tears. Wasn’t my life hard enough? Didn’t I have enough to deal with, with a judgmental big brother, a best friend who wanted to be my girlfriend, a creeper customer at my work, and a job that barely paid enough to keep me in a rat-trap apartment and food? Now I had to deal with a long-lost brother who hated me and a dragon who wanted me dead for something I didn’t even do?

  “Sassy,” Ash said, his voice smooth, soothing, and charming. “You’re right. It isn’t fair. You didn’t ask for this. But Fate has thrust this destiny upon you. You are not ordinary. You’re extraordinary, special, magical. You may not know any of us, you may not have ever wanted to, but we can show you how to use your gifts. We can help you become who you have the potential to be. And we will protect you.”

  “Based on what we’ve observed, Ms. Kincaide, you’re a hell of a fighter,” Brinson said. “You took on a demon and won. But the odds
are against you continuing to succeed. Let us help you become what you were meant to be.”

  There was a knock at the door. Brinson turned aside and opened it. A man dressed in the same combat gear she and Ash wore poked his head in.

  “Sorry for the interruption, sir,” he said. “Just wanted to give you a quick report on the situation. We killed the female assassin. She appears to have been Nephilim. We retrieved her body and that of the demon.”

  “What about the wizard?” Brinson asked.

  “He got away, Agent Brinson.”

  No one commented for a few seconds. But I knew what it meant. One of them survived. He could report what he’d seen. Which meant I was in even more danger.

  “Also, Ms. Kincaide, we retrieved your sword,” the newcomer said.

  He proffered my naked blade to me. I came forward and took it. I inspected it briefly. It seemed to be okay. I sheathed it.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “I’ll have a more detailed report ready when you’ve finished here, Director,” he said.

  Then he withdrew. A heavy silence hung in the room. I ground my teeth. I hated being totally screwed. It left almost no options, and I didn’t like being in that position.

  “Ms. Kincaide,” Scott said at last. “The situation is unfortunate, and you are right to be angry with us for involving you without your permission.

  “But the only way to end this is to help.”

  I turned and glared at him. He was trying very hard to look sympathetic.

  “Why can’t Ephraim do it?” I asked. “He wants to, and he sure as hell doesn’t want me here.”

  “As talented as Captain Silverman is,” Scott replied, “he does not have your natural immunity to magic. And as your martial arts training already makes you a formidable warrior, there is no one better suited to this mission.”

  God damn it. They had me boxed in, and they knew it. So did I. They needed a badass. That was me. They needed someone immune to the dragon’s magic. That was also me.

  And I didn’t want to be hunted by some freaking dragon – a creature that shouldn’t even exist.

  “Fine,” I said. “But I’m not joining your secret magic club. I do this job, and I’m out.”