Sirens and Scales

by Kellie McAllen

  She landed the blow, and he stumbled back, rubbing his jaw.

  “What the hell?” he hissed.

  Minerva shrugged. “You have to make this look plausible. Give me the key, too. They’ll never believe you just let me out; now you have some plausible deniability and the crazies in charge of all of this won’t hurt you either.”

  Chuck groaned and rubbed his jaw again. “Thanks, I think.”

  With that he tossed the key to her. Her fingers didn’t bend quite well enough, even on the right hand, to catch it. The key clattered to the floor, and she yanked it up.

  “Thank you.”

  “Alice.”

  “Huh?”

  “My sister’s name is Alice, and I’m doing this for her. I can’t be the brother she needs if I have to live through doing some seriously fucked up shit like burying a body. You’re right about that.”

  Minerva shook her head. As a reason, it wasn’t exactly brimming with altruism, but it was something.

  “Thanks, and I hope you and Alice, well, I hope you get away from all the shit your dad’s putting you through.”

  * * *

  Chuck didn’t reply directly but, instead, pulled out his phone. “You have ten minutes. Run the fuck out of that door and don’t look back.”

  The smart thing would be to run out the door. As she made her way through the hall, past the peeling paint and graffitied walls, Minerva should have done that. But then as she was passing toward the top of the stairs, something stirred in her chest. It reminded her of the way her heart had seemed to sync up with the first egg, that little girl lost, but it was stronger. It sank deep into her bones and seemed to vibrate through her skin.

  Is more than just an egg here?

  Was that even possible? The eggs weren’t kept well enough to hatch, or she hadn’t think they had. Maybe it was just because these idiots kept taking them out of their containers and locking them in closets. (And safes, she reminded herself with a pang of guilt.) Minerva shook her head. She had t-minus eight minutes or so to get her skinny butt out of here. She couldn’t be chasing ghosts and illusions. Shaking her head, Minerva forced herself forward but stumbled again, a bolt of fear lancing through her, goosebumps rippling over her skin.

  Help!

  It sounded just like Saff and the Council when they’d spoken to her in their real forms, just smaller. God, so small and frightened.

  Minerva cursed under her breath. She couldn’t leave whatever might be here, whoever. If there was a little guy or gal already hatched, they’d either be disposed of quickly… or worse. These creeps weren’t interested in trafficking the actual dragons, just the stolen magic.

  In and out, get through that office.

  She let her emotions guide her, that instinct calling to her that even she didn’t quite understand. At the far end of the hall from where she’d been kept, the frantic cry became more urgent, stronger in her stomach and bones. She rushed through the door and her heart broke. Curled up on a small, filthy blanket with the bones of its spine clearly pressing through its skin as it twitched, was a tiny, baby dragon.

  Its skin was still hunter green, but a grey cast was creeping through it and its breath was labored.

  Minerva shut the door behind her and, pulling out the key, locked it behind her. She needed to get the padlock on its cage picked, and there was no way she wanted an audience for that. Craning her neck, she took stock of the room she was in. Unlike the one she’d been trapped in, this one was somewhat livable. It had a desk and an office chair. Third hand, sure, but also electricity that worked with its flickering lamp and the computer humming on the desk.

  “Bingo,” she said.

  It wasn’t like the bad guys were going to give up their evil plans, but she might be able to hack her way into something. Minerva eyed the time on the bottom of the monitor’s lock screen. Six minutes. Fuck. She leaned over the desk and moved the mouse. This computer was actually password locked this time. Minerva leaned lower and tried to type. She hissed and shuddered as the pain racked her left fingers.

  Crap, normally with enough time and working fingers, she’d be able to code for anything she needed.

  This was not that.

  “Damn it,” she said.

  Maybe there was a clue, a password book, anything tossed around that might give her a hint on what to try. Psychology was the biggest part of hacking sometimes, getting into the head of the mark. She groaned inwardly when she found nothing but old maps and numbers and addresses on legal pad paper. Then, she found something that made her want to yip with victory.

  Something better.

  There was a smart phone. Those were easier to hack if you knew the right tricks and far more portable with her short time frame. Minerva picked it up and shoved it into her jeans pocket.

  “One thing down, now to get this kid out of here.”

  Minerva stalked over to the cage and, reaching up, yanked a couple of concealed picks from her hair. She kept a few there always in case she got into a tight spot. Men rarely noticed. She’d had a few tight scrapes where she’d had people hunt for and confiscate her knives (and now she’d need a new best set), but she’d never had anyone be suspicious of a few pins snuck into her long hair. If Chuck had just taken a damn nap, she could’ve gotten out of that room on her own.

  Squatting low, she yanked on the padlock and settled it in place. The little dragon was sleeping, but every so often it turned on its gaunt back. Again, that scared voice screamed for help, the weight of it slamming into her head, her heart, and even her bones.

  “Don’t worry, little guy. I’ll get you out of here, and then you won’t have nightmares.”

  She went to work on the lock, twisting it open with the expert precision. The dragon stirred, opening bright jade eyes and glancing at her.

  Who are you?

  Minerva opened up her arms. “I’m here to help. Come on, kiddo, let’s get you home.”

  He hesitated for a moment and curled tighter against the bars. I’m scared and cold.

  She nodded and pointed at the door. “Me too. Look, the guys who did this are gonna figure this out, and it’ll be hard enough to sneak out of here with a dragon. I have a dragon friend, and she can get you home.”

  Home?

  Minerva bit her lower lip. Of course. The little green dragon before her knew no home, probably didn’t quite understand what he was or why he was here. It was amazing that he’d absorbed enough language to communicate to her, but mind-to-mind seemed to eliminate some translation difficulties. If she had to guess, he wasn’t too much bigger than newly hatched egg. Maybe even something the trio here was supposed to dispose of.

  “I know you’re confused and scared. You have every reason to be. But, right now, we have to get out of here or some very big, very bad people are going to hurt us both.”

  Fear arced through her body and a vision flashed behind her eyes of Nate kicking at the cage, except she was watching it through the little dragon’s vantage point. Minerva shuddered and slipped offer her jacket it.

  “I won’t let anything bad happen. Now crawl in here, and I’ll take you get you out.”

  The little dragon whined to himself but crawled into the warm nest the shed jacket would provide. She bundled him up and settled him on her hip. Turning from the cage, Minerva stroked her leg and made sure the phone was still hidden deep in her jeans’ pocket.

  Dragon, check, Cell phone, check. Zero escape plan, also a big check.

  Grabbing Chuck’s key from the desk as she passed by, Minerva clutched the dragon as closely as she could to her right side. She marched for the door and its lock. But before she could reach it, the whole thing was kicked off its hinges. Nate and the other guy stood there, breathing heavily and slamming their fists into the flats of their opposite palms.

  Warming up.

  “You bitch. Can’t have anyone fucking around with our shit,” Nate said. “Doesn’t matter what The Boss wants now. He’ll understand we have to change tactics.�
��

  “Meaning?” she shot back, cradling the dragon as closely as she could. Right now, Minerva had to protect it, keep safe the heart that beat so seamlessly in time with her own.

  “Secrecy above everything else.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. It flashed to life with a flick of his wrist. “You’re dead.”

  Instinctively, Minerva backed up foot by foot even as the men waited to rush her. A disgusted part of herself realized what they were doing, what someone like Nate would always be doing. He was drawing it out. Sick bastard probably enjoyed this.

  She shuddered, the fear making her bones chill as blocks of ice.

  Wait, no, that wasn’t right.

  The white mist swirled around her captors’ ankles and even the dragon in her arms had peeked his head up.

  Minerva couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over her face. “No, I’m not dead, but you guys are definitely fucked.”

  29

  Saffyranae

  Saff had been hunting down clues everywhere she could think of in Los Angeles for Minerva. After she and Mary left Damien’s home, the former shop girl had gone home, and Saff returned to her ceaseless hunt. Tonight, she stalked down Hollywood Boulevard, straining her senses for any hint of further criminal activity, of any hoodlum or underling who might lead her to another distributor for the eggs. They, like the other Searchers, had mostly been curing and controlling the plague so far. If any of the other Searchers had found any of the eggs, they would have sent up a call. She was circling the path of stars for the third time when she heard it.

  One of the dragon children alive. Weak, definitely. But awake and crying for help.

  Dashing into an alley, Saff yanked her bulk back from its pocket dimension and shifted to her true form. A flap of her massive wings had her rising quickly into the air. She was fast when she wanted to be and this was an area with bizarre costumes and events by the Chinese theater. She’d seen vampires and men dressed up in spandex like those superheroes humans loved. With a quick beat of her wings, she rose high into the cloud cover. If anyone had caught a glimpse of her, they’d have hopefully assumed it some crazy publicity stunt for a film.

  That made Los Angeles an appealing as a city for a search. The people there, as she heard New York also could be, were never fazed by anything.

  The dragon screamed again, and she sped with all her might around the city and to the neighborhood the cries originated from. The houses here might have been stately once, standing impossibly in their brick and iron gate glory. But the shine was off them, and she wished she’d thought of coming to such a derelict place first.

  Well, she was here now.

  She swept into the yard of the house the cries came from and then assumed her human form. Her bulk wouldn’t squeeze into the house, and Saff wasn’t fool enough to press her luck even in Los Angeles by razing a house to the ground. Gathering her icy gift around her, she kicked the door. The cold around her had already caused the door to crystalize and chill. When she applied enough pressure, it shattered into frozen splinters around her.

  Running up the stairs, Saff came face to face with two ordinary humans. One had a knife and brandished it at someone huddled in the corner with a small, green dragon in her grip. No, gods, no. It was Nerv, but her face was bruised, her top lip badly swollen.

  Saff raged and elbowed the shorter of the two men in the nose. Blood spurted from it as it crunched with satisfying ease beneath her strike. He stumbled back into another room, and she surged forward even as the larger man attempted to swipe his blade at Minerva.

  Minerva held the dragon tightly to her and jumped back, missing the oncoming knife by inches.

  Saff had had enough. Grabbing the monster by the throat, she shoved him up against a wall. Her fury strengthened her powers and an icy sheen of crystal surged over his neck. He shivered in her grasp, and his breath blew out in a plume of condensation.

  “You don’t get to touch them!”

  He wheezed but eyed her with a haughtiness that would have made Nehemaiah envious. And furious. “Boss knows about you, dragon. He has plans, and he doesn’t like people fucking with them.”

  She squeezed tighter, and he shut up. It satisfied the deepest corners of her soul when his legs kicked at hers ineffectually, when his eyes bulged out and his face went blue. Purposefully, she let her scales show and the shape of her eyes change to something that would be so alien to him and natural to her. She could see as the fear entered his heart.

  “We dragons have been on this Earth for longer than you. We are many, and we are powerful, and you have stolen our children for your petty human uses.” Her voice grew deeper and louder with each word. “Do you think that we give a damn that you are upset we have disturbed your murderous plans for our young? Where are the other eggs?”

  A gentle hand was on her shoulder, one that Saff had been terrified she wasn’t going to feel every again.

  “Saff, hey,” Minerva mumbled around her swollen lip. “Let’s get out of here. We can figure out what we need to know, and he’s not worth anything. When this big boss finds out he failed hardcore, he won’t be our problem.”

  Saff swallowed and forced her powers back, forced her fingers to uncurl from the noxious human’s neck. “Yes, I can’t wait for that boss of yours to deal with you.”

  He slid to the ground, straining to catch his breath.

  Minerva passed the young dragon to her and focused her attention on the man. “Nate, hey,” she said. “I never did pay you back for the fat lip.” She wrenched back her leg and slammed it hard into Nate’s side.

  Saff probably shouldn’t, but she grinned anyway as a rib cracked.

  Perhaps she’d spent too long with humans.

  No, she definitely had.

  Nodding toward the door, Saff waited for Minerva to sidle up next to her. “There’s a place I can shift in private on the property. Let’s get as far away from here as possible.”

  Minerva curled her lip as she stared back at Nate. “Yeah, let’s blow this shitty joint.” Then, she hesitated, her eyes lingering over one of the fallen men. “Fuck, we need to bring Nate with us.”

  “The hatchling. Getting him home is of the essence.”

  “We still need Nate, just in case I can’t get enough out of his cell. Swoop him up with us, and we’ll hand the little guy off first. Then, go medieval on Nate’s ass to get him to talk, okay?”

  Saff sighed but yanked the man from off the floor. Her skin crawled to even be touching him, to be near to someone who had hurt Minerva. “Very well, let’s not tarry.”

  “Took most of the words out of my mind!” Minerva said. “Let’s get out of here, definitely.”

  30

  Minerva

  Flying with Saff wasn’t fun. It sounded cool in theory to have a dragon friend who could fly you anywhere faster than you could really process the journey. However, racing through the clouds with the wind roaring in her ears and the chill of the thin air eating into her skin was anything but epic. Oh, bonus, the whole thing made her stomach do massive flip flops as Saff probably threatened to hit Mach 2. It was beyond a relief to land.

  And she might have, just a little, puked in the scraggly brush when they landed.

  Not exactly the smooth reunion with her partner in crime she was hoping for, but at least she could feel her extremities and her stomach again. Sure, her stomach now lived in her mouth, but that was the price to pay for quick transport away from Nate and his hellhole.

  “Hey, thank you,” she said.

  Without thinking too deeply about it, she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Saff, who had shifted to human form while Minerva had been ralphing. Her friend couldn’t return the gesture since she currently held little guy in her grip. It had been spontaneous so Minerva wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but Saff going as stiff as a block of ice in her grasp was far from it.

  Frowning, Minerva pulled back. “Sorry, I guess that was too much. I just didn’t t
hink I’d see you again.” She shook her head. “I mean, I knew you were looking.” Hoped. “…but you didn’t come, and I got scared something had happened to you on the pier.”

  Saff shook her head and cradled the dragon closer. “I need to contact my people. This little one needs to get home. He’s dealing but unwell from being so long in the human world and hatching alone. We can discuss things later.”

  Minerva frowned. “Did I do something wrong?” She looked over her shoulder and yipped at the view. Beneath her were the steep hills and twisting, narrow roads of a moderate mountain range. “Whoa? Did we end up in Nevada?”

  “No, these are not far from that pier.”

  Minerva nodded. “Santa Monica mountains, gotcha. I’m going to crouch low and try not to accidentally fall to my death. You get that little guy over to some help.” She patted his head. “He’s been so scared.”

  Saff frowned. “You felt him call you too?”

  “He was having a nightmare, calling in his sleep. I busted him out of a cage just before you arrived.”

  “…and I found you that way. The dragon called to me, like to like,” Saff replied, with heavy emphasis on the word like. “He’ll be safe.”

  “Just don’t call Nehemaiah. That guy? Total dick.”

  The tension Saff was carrying in her shoulders eased slightly, if only for a minute. “Agreed. Nerv, I’ll be back in a second. I just need space.”

  31

  Saffyranae

  There was no valid reason for Saff to traipse to the far side of the mountain. She could concentrate to call to Rory across the veil anywhere and her friend could land on either side of the steep mountainside. But the excuse was good enough, one that Minerva at least seemed to accept. Her heart ached, and although her friend was safer than Saff had any right to hope for after that night on the pier, she was still injured. An easy wound to fix, it would take nothing more from Saff than her concentration and a few words to focus her energies, but she still suffered.