“The chaos started this morning before the sun even came up,” he said in a calm, yet almost seething tone. “Every news crew from a hundred miles around showed up, demanding information and acting like they owned the place.”
She could tell by the way he spoke and his tone of voice that he was less than pleased at the storm of nonsense he had been dealing with. Maia felt a pang of guilt, knowing fully well that she was at least partly responsible for what was going on…even if she wasn’t 100% sure what that was exactly.
They rode in silence through the Reservation. Maia had never been on the Reservation itself before, and what she saw broke her heart. There were no words to describe it. How the homes seemed so beaten and worn by the desert’s wrath, how the land itself seemed to be just this side of uninhabitable and how the people, though mostly smiling, had an overall air of just… tired. No one could blame them. They had been dealt shitty hand after shitty hand for generations by the government. Turning her eyes away from it, Maia simply stared at the dashboard until she felt the truck slowing to a gravel-crunching stop.
When she looked up, the home they were parked in front of could be better described as a shack. She looked over as Johnathan opened his door and got out. Following suit, she opened her own door and stepped out into the desert heat. She had no idea where Johnathan had taken her or why, but she trusted him fully and followed him inside.
“Ignacio!” She said with delight, and eyes wide with shock.
He sat there on an old, Afghan covered couch with his head in his hands. The sight nearly broke her heart. The sound of them coming inside got his attention to look towards the door and the sadness, guilt and utter loss in those gorgeous amber eyes was more than she could bare. She nearly tackled him as he stood up from the couch. Her body was thrown at him, arms wrapping tightly around his neck as she buried her face against his chest. His arms wrapped around her tightly in return, his cheek pressed against the top of her head as they held their embrace for a long, lingering moment.
“I was so worried. I had no idea what was happening or if anything had happened to you and…” Maia started to babble against his chest, her words coming quick and anything but calm. “What the hell are we going to do? I saw on the news…there are people all over it, Ignacio! People who aren’t going to be too nice when they figure out where it came from! This is the type of shit that people disappear over!”
She huffed with frustration against his chest, holding back other words that she knew were only coming from a place of distress and confusion. Her body, tense since she first saw the news that morning, relaxed as he tightened his arms around her.
“I’m so sorry, Maia,” he murmured against her hair. “This is all my fault.”
She pulled away from him for a moment. Looking up into his eyes, she simply stared at him, wondering how so much love and caring could have been put into a package like him. Dragon and all. She pulled him in for a kiss then, pressing her lips against his with a firmness that made it clear she didn’t blame him for a single thing. That desert had been his gift to her, she would never fault him for it no matter the outcome.
He wasn’t going to argue with her. Not because he thought she was right or wrong…but because it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that they were together, here in this moment. What mattered was that they were in one another’s arms again. He melted into her kiss, letting himself be wrapped in everything that was Maia as he held her.
When she broke their kiss, she leaned back slightly, looking up at him for a moment before shaking her head. She loosened her arms around his neck and stepped back slightly, still in his arms but not so tight against him now.
“Tell me what happened… everything,” she demanded, those honey-brown eyes of hers drilling into him unrelentingly. “I need to know what’s going on… the news didn’t tell me anything useful, which is typical.”
Ignacio released his arms from around her and motioned for her to take a seat with him on the couch. Johnathan, feeling they needed their space, stepped into the little kitchen and grabbed himself a root beer from the fridge. As the couple settled down on the old, squishy couch, Ignacio did as she asked and spilled the beans.
“It started before the sun came up this morning. I’m not sure exactly what time it was, but I woke to the sound of helicopters flying overhead,” he started, pausing a moment to gauge Maia’s reaction before he continued. She seemed flat. “When I went outside to look, I could see at least three of them circling over… well, you know.”
Maia nodded, silently understanding why he wouldn’t want to say it out loud. He was still feeling it as a source of shame, which Maia felt horrible over. To coax him into continuing, she placed a hand gently on his knee. Even with her stomach doing somersaults inside of her, she tried to keep a calm face for Ignacio…even though she was dying to yell and scream and stomp her feet at it all.
“I panicked. I wasn’t sure what to do so I came to the plaza. I figured at the very least…getting out of the middle of the desert was a good idea.” He shook his head, rubbing his face a moment with a frustrated grumble. “I might have made a mistake though, Maia.”
“What do you mean?” She asked with a soft sense of urgency. In a situation like this, she was afraid of what he meant by mistake. “What happened?”
“I couldn’t help it… I went… I wanted to see if what… I had done… was what all of the commotion was about.” He looked like he wanted to drop to his knees and ask for forgiveness. “You saw it on the news, Maia, there are dozens and dozens of people out there! I have no idea if anyone saw me…but I saw them. Scientists, news people, tons of cops…and I honestly think people from the government were there too. That’s the only explanation for all the guys in suits that I saw hanging around.”
He stopped there, again putting his head into his hands. The amount of stress and worry coming from him was palpable. Maia could feel her heart beating so hard in her chest she wouldn’t have been surprised if it burst from the anxiety she was starting to feel over all of this. Scientists were one thing…but if the government was getting involved it meant a lot of bad things all at once. No longer able to keep up her calm façade, Maia broke down.
“We need to leave, Ignacio. Like, right now.” Maia stood up from the couch and started to pace from one side of the little living room to the other. “It isn’t safe. We need to get the hell out of here…”
As she paced, she babbled, running through various thoughts and mumbling to herself about them as she went. Of course, at this point there was no way to know if their involvement had been found out. But she was sure it was only a matter of time. After all, tracking down people from the barest of evidence is what these people did, right? She highly doubted they could find fingerprints in sand…but on glass?
As she put her hands up against her head, holding it as if to keep her brains from leaking out, Johnathan returned from where he had been hiding in the kitchen. He came out with two new cans of root beer and offered them to the couple. Maia shook her head in refusal while Ignacio took his and simply held the cold, unopened can in his hands. He watched Maia with pain in his eyes. He had never meant to cause her this amount of worry and stress. He had only wanted to give her a gift worthy of the woman she was.
“I might have a place,” Johnathan said, his eyes shifting between the two of them. His stoic but comforting tone helping to calm the other two. “So long as you two don’t mind a bit of desert dust and the smell of horses.”
Maia and Ignacio looked at him with scrutiny for a moment. Johnathan took that as his cue to keep talking and offer a bit more information. He could tell they were in no mood for vagueness.
“About 6 miles northwest of here, at the mouth of a dry gully, there are stables which the Reservation owns,” he explained. “There is plenty of space and no one will expect to find you there.”
“No. That is way too close to everything that’s going on. That would mean we’re barely 10 mil
es from the middle of all this bullshit!” Maia protested. “They’ll find us in a heartbeat!”
“We don’t have many options, Maia,” Ignacio said, standing up as he set his soda can on the coffee table. “Besides… I don’t think they would expect us to be hiding right under their noses.”
He had a point. No one in their right mind would stick so close to the action in a situation like this. Maia had to hope that the slew of scientists and government suits that Ignacio had seen still had no idea what they were even looking for. Shaking her head, she sighed and dropped her hands back to her sides.
“You’re right,” she relented, turning her eyes to Ignacio. “Until we can come up with something better, this is our best choice.”
“I’ll pack you two a few things you might need and we’ll go,” said Johnathan before taking his leave.
Less than an hour later, the three of them were riding in Johnathan’s truck along a dusty road through the Reservation. They left behind the cluster of homes pretty quickly, moving out into open desert for the better part of their drive. The road leading up to the stables was just like any other. Unless you knew where it was, there was a good chance you might lose track of where it was heading. Everything looked the same. Flat, brown and dry.
The stables themselves were decent. A few large buildings around a large central paddock with a handful of mares hanging out inside. There was what appeared to be a small farmhouse as well up along the gully walls. Just at the outskirts of the property, not quite visible from the road, sat a beat-up old double wide trailer. It looked like it had been there for quite a few years.
As they pulled up, a young man in perhaps his mid 30s came out of the trailer to greet them. He looked like a younger version of Johnathan…just without the silver streaks in his long, dark hair.
“My son, William,” Johnathan said to them as he put the truck in park and opened his door. “He said he would make sure it was clean for you. No one has stayed here for a while.”
Maia and Ignacio exchanged a look as they climbed out of the passenger seat and followed Johnathan up to greet his son. Pleasantries were exchanged, and soon enough Maia and Ignacio were alone once more. Ignacio opened the door of the trailer, stepping inside to check it out as Maia remained outside, those beautiful brown eyes full of worry as they scanned the sky for helicopters.
The rest of their evening was spent settling in and talking about everything that had happened. Ignacio explained exactly how he had managed to create miles of glass in the desert, his loss of control and the blast of fire that came with it. They discussed all the possible outcomes that might arise now that the world-at-large knew of his gift to Maia. As the night wore on, they lay in one another’s arms, wondering how it would all play out in the end.
*
The landscape was a jarring, harsh white from the massive lights erected all around the edge of the area. The solid, amber glass gleamed under the assault of halogen as hundreds of people swarmed like busy little bees to and from large white tents erected around the glass. Two stood together at one point, looking out over the expanse of solid glass that had brought them all here.
“Anything helpful to tell me, Doctor Courtly?” The man in a suit asked.
“Honestly, not really. I’m sorry, Agent Stroyer,” the woman answered, the iPad in her hands showing a number of statistics and charts in regard to the glass desert sprawled out before them. “The only thing I can tell you for sure is that whatever is responsible has to have an immense amount of power behind it.”
“How do you mean?” The agent asked, glancing towards her and her charts.
“Well, most desert glass like this is formed due to intense heat followed by rapid cooling,” she explained. “More often than not, you find it in small chunks no bigger than the palm of your hand, that are the result of lightning strikes.”
“So, what are your thoughts on the cause of all this?” He questioned, gesturing with one hand to the glass desert.
“Well, considering the fact that there was no nuclear blast…I have no idea,” she answered, somewhat exasperated as much as she was enthralled.
“Nuclear blast?” He gave her a curious look.
“That’s the only thing I can think of that might cause this much glass, but even that doesn’t seem right.” she said, puzzled and looking out at the desert of glass with what could almost be called contempt. “The cooling pattern in the glass looks like someone took to it with a ridiculously powerful blowtorch. But that’s impossible. Nothing like that exists.”
“Hm,” was all the agent said.
He stood there for a moment before lifting what was held in his other hand. Looking it over, he pondered what all of this information could mean for him and what he was looking for. He stared down at the clear plastic evidence bag in his hands, hoping that the pair of white, cat-eye sunglasses inside it would tell him what they knew.
Chapter Six
It had been two days and Maia was beginning to get restless. They had heard helicopters flying over them their first day, but the skies had been silent ever since. They had managed to distract and occupy themselves in a number of ways, but even one another’s company and the excitement of exploring a new lover could only keep them busy for so long. Sooner or later, they would have to make the call and move somewhere else. They couldn’t stay hidden here forever.
As the days passed, they tried to keep tabs on everything that was going on around them, but the information they were able to acquire was scant at best. With a little battery operated antenna radio, they would sit and scan through the airwaves in search of a report about the glass desert. It was anxiety inducing as far as Maia was concerned…but Ignacio kept at it, determined to track down every scrap of information he could with what little resources they had. It wasn’t enough though, and their efforts left both of them feeling more helpless than when they had first arrived.
It was nearly noon on their third day at the trailer when William came barreling down the dusty dirt driveway in Johnathan’s truck. They heard him coming, peeking out of the windows in fear before they realized who it was…. not that such a realization helped alleviate their fear. In fact, the speed at which he was coming down the driveway wasn’t the speed someone coming for a casual visit would drive at. They shared a nervous glance before walking out of the trailer to meet William as he parked the truck.
“Looks like your stay here is coming to an end, guys,” William said as he climbed down from the truck and shut the door.
“What’s going on?” Questioned Maia as she felt Ignacio reach to take her hand.
“They found your car, Maia, they were asking about you.” William answered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans.
“They? Who is they?” Maia asked, her tone a combination of worry and irritation. “What were they asking about? What the hell are you talking about, William?”
Ignacio could tell Maia was getting a little angry and neither of them were in the mood to play 20 questions, but he gave a gentle squeeze to her hand in the hopes that it would calm her a bit.
“Sorry,” William said, almost sheepishly. “A few government guys came into the plaza shop asking about your car in the parking lot, Maia. They wanted to know who it belonged to and started asking for our security footage.”
Maia tensed at his words and Ignacio could feel it in the way she held his hand. Gently, he placed his other hand on her shoulder and gave her a look that asked her to relax and let him take it from here.
“And did you give it to them?” Ignacio asked, turning those amber eyes towards William with an intensity that made the young man feel a bit like he was being interrogated.
“Uh, no. No, pops told them the system was on the fritz and he had no idea who the car belonged to,” William answered. “He sent me up here to get you guys and tell you it’s probably a good idea to leave the Reservation now. Pops thinks the feds are suspicious of us.”
Maia groan
ed and put her face into her hands, shaking her head in frustration. Ignacio gripped her shoulder again. He could tell her mind was running a million miles an hour with this new information and he didn’t enjoy seeing her in such a distraught way. She took comfort in his touch and it certainly helped to settle her mind. But she needed more information.
“So what does he think we should do?” Maia asked, almost pleading.
“Well… why don’t we go see him? He’s back at the house,” William answered and turned to head towards the truck. “I’ll give you guys a few minutes to get whatever stuff you have.”
They didn’t have much of anything, so that wouldn’t take long. Turning to Ignacio, Maia had this look of defeat upon her face that nearly crushed his heart. Wrapping his arms around her, he burrowed into her hair to take a deep breath of her before murmuring against her ear.
“It will be alright, Maia. Everything will be alright. We just need to stick together.” His tone was warm, soft and comforting.
“I hope so…” She sighed, softly.
Having him with her made this entire situation more bearable, but that didn’t mean she was totally soothed. She had a feeling she might not feel totally at ease for a long while yet. How could she? They now had federal agents looking for them. Well, at least Maia did. As far as she could tell…no one had any idea Ignacio even existed as of yet.
At first, the thought angered her. Somehow, she had become the focus of all of this insanity, yet she was as much a victim as anyone. After a few moments, she realized that it was probably a good thing. If they weren’t looking for Ignacio, then their chances of keeping him safe and hidden just went through the roof. It was kind of hard to find someone you didn’t know you were supposed to be looking for, right?
Mad About The Dragon Page 5