The Lick of Fire Trilogy

by Bianca D’Arc

  Sparkles of gold whizzed past her senses, and then, she was in a cavern that she somehow knew was deep below the earth. Paul was there, standing several yards away. His focus was on something in front of him. No. Not something. Someone. Only this person, if she could use that word in this case, was not entirely human. Her vision clouded, and she saw two images superimposed on each other. A man…and a dragon. A golden dragon with glittering golden scales and shiny, leathery wings.

  As she watched Paul face off with the dragon-man, her breath caught. He was in serious danger. For, as Paul faced the golden man-dragon, other dragonish heads were popping up behind him, all over the vast cavern. There was more than one!

  A honking horn blasted Syd out of the vision, and suddenly, she was back on the road just outside of Scottsdale. Damn. That had been the clearest vision she had ever experienced, and possibly the scariest. The horn sounded again behind her, and she realized the traffic light had turned green while she’d been off in Neverland.

  She cleared her throat self-consciously and hit the gas. She didn’t dare looked over at Paul. She wasn’t sure she could prevent herself from blurting out what she had just seen, and she knew—she knew—she couldn’t do that. This vision stuff was kooky enough to get her committed to a mental hospital if she wasn’t careful. She couldn’t talk about it to just anyone.

  Arthur had to remain her only confidant, for now. He was far enough out of town, and a decent enough human being, that she didn’t think he would betray her secrets, no matter how outlandish. Plus, he was a former shaman. A spiritual man. He hadn’t thought she was crazy, and he’d tried to help her figure out what her strange visions meant.

  She didn’t know what Paul would make of them. She didn’t know him from Adam, really. She couldn’t take a chance revealing what she had seen in detail, but she resolved to try to warn him obliquely about the dangers ahead before they parted. She wasn’t sure what the multitude of dragons meant. Maybe it was a sign that he would find a cavern filled with dangers. Perhaps the dragons represented problems he would face if he kept to his proposed path and went prospecting in the mountains.

  Syd wasn’t sure how she was going to phrase it, but she had to at least try to get the point across that he would face difficulties—seriously dangerous difficulties—if he insisted on searching for a lost mine. Stories were plentiful about people who went into the mountains looking for gold and never came back. She really didn’t want Paul to become yet another victim of gold fever.

  Regardless, the vision itself kind of freaked her out. It had been so incredibly clear. She’d seen the dragons as if they were standing right in front of her. And now that she thought about it, they didn’t look exactly like the pictures in the book Arthur had shown her. No, these dragons were something else, and each looked a little different from each other. Some had horns. Some had none. They were all different colors, and they had faces as individual as human faces.

  It was so weird. She thought she would recognize the golden man-dragon if she saw him on the street. That’s how clearly she’d seen the man’s face, even superimposed over the dragon. But what did it all really mean?

  “Sorry I spaced out back there,” she said into the uncomfortable silence in her car. Paul hadn’t said anything, but she could feel him watching her, and when she dared to glance over at him, his gaze was filled with curiosity. “It’s been a long day.”

  “No problem,” he told her easily. “I understand.”

  They were nearing the hotel she’d had in mind. It wasn’t expensive, but it looked clean from the outside. Hopefully, he’d be okay.

  “Do you have enough money?” she asked him, realizing only after the words were out of her mouth that the question was a bit rude. “I mean…” She tried to backpedal. “I owe you for fixing my car. You saved me a lot of trouble, not to mention a mechanic’s bill.”

  “Think nothing of it,” he told her magnanimously. “I could not leave you stuck there, and you have done me a good turn by giving me a ride into town. We’re even.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, trying one more time as she pulled up in front of the hotel.

  Paul nodded. “I’m certain. Thank you. I will be fine from here.”

  “Just promise me you’ll be careful,” she said as he opened the passenger side door and put one of his long legs out, in preparation for leaving. He paused as she put her hand on his arm. “There are things—dangerous things—in those old mines and in the caverns in the mountains around here. Things you don’t want to disturb. Things that could kill you.”

  She couldn’t speak much plainer without exposing what she’d seen. She only hoped it was enough of a warning.

  He looked at her for a long moment, then his gaze slipped down to where her hand still clutched at his arm. She let go, and when she looked back at him, he was frowning, his expression tinged with regret.

  “I will be very careful. I promise you. Thanks for the lift, and I wish you safe travels on your path.” He got out of the car and walked away without looking back. For some reason, Syd felt a little pang in her heart, watching him go, and she had to force herself not to go after him.

  Finally, she put the car in gear and drove away, but she felt as if she’d left a little piece of her behind, perhaps never to return.

  Paul knew something strange had occurred at that traffic light. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he’d bet the woman had some sort of magic. It was hidden, but it had sparked while her eyes had glazed over at the traffic light. Something had happened.

  Curiosity piqued, Paul waited for her to drive away, then he sought the first dark alley he could find and shifted shape. He jumped into the sky and gained altitude as quickly as he could, trusting to the dark night to hide him as long as he flew above the farthest reach of the city’s lights far below. He easily found the car he’d been in just a few moments ago and began to follow.

  Chapter Three

  Syd drove the rest of the way home, thinking hard. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t really notice the lights on in her house when she pulled up. She always left a couple of lights on, but only when she got to the door and opened it did she realize there were way more lights on than was normal.

  And way more people in her house than there ought to be!

  Holy shit! She was being burgled!

  She came face to face with a man wearing dark clothes and holding something with wires in his hand. Something that looked vaguely electrical. He seemed as shocked as she was for a timeless moment, then he stalked forward, his eyes narrowing with intent as she tried desperately to back out of the door she’d just walked through.

  Shit! Shit, shit, shit!

  She stumbled out the side door and tried to run for her car, but the man was right behind her. She felt a blinding pain on the side of her head. He’d hit her! She had time to realize what was happening just before she hit the deck, unconscious.

  Far above, the dragon that was Paul saw Syd run back out of her house. He also saw the man following her and the way he hit her from behind with a rock he’d picked up from the border of plants next to the driveway.

  Paul held back the trumpeting roar he wanted to make. He had to be stealthy. He dropped altitude as fast as he dared and shifted on the fly to land on two feet, ready for action. By the time he made it to the side door of Syd’s house, her assailant had dragged her back inside.

  Paul decided to do some reconnaissance before he barreled in. He peeked in the windows and saw not just one, but a team of people, all scrambling to tidy up before they exited. The man who’d hit Syd was issuing orders, holding electrical equipment—stuff that looked like miniature surveillance gear to Paul.

  Another thing caught his eye. More than a few of the people had glowing, magical tattoos. Some were on their hands. Low-level operatives, he had learned, usually carried them on their hands. But the man who had struck Syd had it on his face. A magical glyph that glowed to Paul’s dragon sight.

  These people
were more than simple burglars. In fact, they weren’t leaving with any of Syd’s possessions. No, they had brought things with them—things they had installed—and were leaving them behind in Syd’s house. Cameras, Paul guessed, and recording devices. Transmitters and maybe even receivers.

  Damn. What had she walked into? And why were these people installing high-tech surveillance gear in Syd’s house? She had seemed like a perfectly harmless human—even if she did have a touch of magic about her.

  Paul had seen enough. He stepped in the open side door and put his fists on his hips, regarding the group in the living room.

  “Altor Custodis or Venifucus?” he asked boldly.

  Silence reigned for a moment while every eye in the house turned to look at Paul, except Syd, of course, who was still unconscious. Her attacker had placed her on her couch. Thoughtful bastard. Paul might not kill him after all.

  The leader—the one who had hit Syd—stepped forward. “Does it really matter which we are?”

  Paul nodded. “It certainly does. The former, I might be inclined to let pass with a warning. The latter…I will destroy.”

  “You and what army, buddy?” some wise ass in the back muttered but was quickly shushed to silence. Paul decided to ignore the taunt for now.

  “Come now, I see the tattoos. I know you are members of one of the ancient orders. You only need to tell me which one and decide your fate.”

  The leader’s chin came up, his lips forming a sneer. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you can see anything.”

  “Your left cheek. Her right hand. His left ring finger—is he married into the group?” Paul pointed as he called out the position of each tattoo. “The back of her right hand. Shall I go on?”

  The defiant chin lowered a fraction. “Okay. So you can see them. But do you know what they mean?”

  “Allegiance. Fealty. Rank.” Paul nodded to each one in turn, ending with the leader. “I would need to study the glyphs in more detail to decipher their exact meanings, but somehow, I don’t think you all want to stick around that long.” Paul leaned against the doorjamb as if he had all the time in the world.

  “We are Altor Custodis,” the leader said after a long pause.

  “Why are you interested in this woman?” Paul asked rapid fire.

  “She has been reported to us as acting strangely the past few weeks. Perhaps a magical power awakening. Surveillance was ordered to confirm.” The man stepped forward aggressively. “Who are you?”

  “Nobody you want to mess with,” Paul replied easily, letting just a little of the dragon into his voice. Sometimes, the dragon’s voice could compel weak-minded humans.

  “If you know enough to know what the AC is, then you know our mandate is exactly that—to observe and record magical beings, of which, you are clearly one.” Apparently, this human wasn’t affected by the magic of Paul’s voice. Pity.

  “I am merely a newcomer to whom this human woman was kind. Her car broke down. I saw it and fixed it for her, so she didn’t have to spend a very uncomfortable—not to mention possibly dangerous—night out in the middle of nowhere. She offered me a ride back to town. End of story.” Paul tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. Under no circumstances did he want to give these people any reason to suspect Syd was anything other than the normal, garden-variety human. “I suspect you had something to do with her car malfunctioning?”

  The man shrugged insolently. “A delaying tactic. No more.”

  “So, you would have sent a tow truck to rescue her after you were done invading her privacy here?” Paul waited a beat, but the other man didn’t reply. Paul shook his head. “I thought not. That’s pretty despicable behavior for a group that claims to not want to interfere but only observe and record. Your so-called delaying tactic could have led to her death, don’t you realize that?”

  “Come on,” the leader finally scoffed. “I seriously doubt—”

  Paul cut him off. “I can solve this easily.” He popped his cell phone into his hand. It looked like magic, but it was really only sleight of hand. Still, the onlookers seemed impressed. “I can just call the police right now, and clear this whole thing up. When she wakes, she will recognize me. I seriously doubt—” Paul deliberately echoed the leader’s words using the same tone, “—she’ll welcome the sight of your team. Especially not you. After all, you did bash her over the head.”

  “Let’s be reasonable about this. We placed our equipment. We’ll just watch her for a few weeks to make sure she’s human, then we’ll leave her alone.” The leader held up both hands, palms facing outward as if to calm Paul down, but he was having none of it.

  Paul advanced an aggressive step into the room. “How about this, instead? You leave and never return. You forget all about this woman…and me. I dismantle all your devices and destroy them, and you leave us all the fuck alone!”

  Yeah, he lost his temper toward the end there, but he hated the AC and the way they watched every last move, yet did nothing to help in the struggle between light and dark. The one and only AC contact he’d had back home had flatly refused to tell Paul what he knew about his parentage. If, in fact, he really had known anything. He kept claiming that all AC records were strictly off limits to anyone but members of the order and, of course, only non-magical humans could be members.

  It was all bullshit as far as Paul was concerned. That AC bastard had probably known where Paul’s parents were. He just refused to share what he knew. Paul figured if the order wouldn’t bend enough to help an orphan reconnect with his family, then they had no heart at all.

  “That’s not an option. We have a job to do here—” the leader tried to say, but Paul cut him off again.

  “Answer this question, then. Do you want to live? Unlike this woman, whose home you invaded with your surveillance equipment—who you knocked into unconsciousness with no thought for her wellbeing—I’m not human. I don’t live by the same rules as the rest of you. I could kill you all where you stand and not blink an eye. So, perhaps the question should be, how badly do you want to live?” Paul let them think about that for a moment. “I’m feeling charitable for, say…the next five minutes, but if you’re not gone by then, I will start to feel distinctly uncharitable. Do you understand?”

  To his credit, the leader stood his ground for another thirty seconds, or so, while the group behind him began to scramble. When they started to run past him toward the door, leaving whatever gear they’d been working on behind, the leader growled and joined them.

  Stupid man, he turned at the threshold and pinned Paul with a hate-filled glare. “This isn’t over.”

  “Oh, my friend, I think you will find that it is,” Paul said to the empty doorway as the team scrambled down the drive to the van they’d parked in a dark patch down the street.

  Paul closed and locked the door behind them, then went first to check on Syd. She was breathing steadily and just starting to come around. Paul sat on the edge of the couch and cupped her cheek, trying to gauge how hurt she really was.

  “Syd? Can you hear me? How do you feel?” he asked in as gentle a tone as he could manage.

  “Ow.” She tried to sit up but gave up after a quick attempt and lay back down on the couch. “Somebody hit me,” she whispered, managing to inject a bit of outrage into the hushed tone.

  “I know. I saw it happen,” Paul told her. “I’m sorry, but I followed you home. Just to make sure you were safe. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did.” He looked around at the surveillance equipment, some of it left in plain sight. Some, he knew, was already installed and probably watching or listening in on their every move.

  “What were those people doing in my house?” she asked groggily.

  “Planting bugs. Video and audio, I suspect. Will you be all right while I take a look around? I have some experience with these kinds of things.” Too much experience, he thought. The AC had bugged his home back in Romania many times.

  Every time he had found a bug and destroyed it, it wo
uld be replaced soon thereafter. He tried moving to a different apartment in a different building, and still, his place would be bugged. He’d moved to a different town, same thing. Different cities? Same story. He hadn’t been able to escape their surveillance for very long, which was why he had taken up globetrotting. Never staying in one place long enough for them to find him and start watching him all over again.

  In answer to his question, Syd closed her eyes and lay back on the couch. He had no doubt she was in pain, but she was conscious, and her pupils seemed to react normally. He could do something for her pain, but he didn’t want an audience to his magical abilities. As far as he knew, the AC didn’t know exactly what he was. Oh, they may have guessed, but he’d been very careful never to confirm their suspicions, and he wouldn’t start now.

  Methodically, he went through each room in the house, finding multiple bugs in every room—even the bathroom. Despicable. He checked the closets, and sure enough, even there, small recording units had been secreted in a newly-made cubbies in the wall—high in the back, where Syd might never have noticed them. All the smaller units with limited range would report back to the recording units for broadcast in data packets, a few times a day.

  Which meant that, in all likelihood, the people who had put these bugs in weren’t watching in real-time. Of course, they had to know he was removing all their hard work, so they were probably out there somewhere right now, hitting the download button as fast as they could in order to get some footage of him. He worked faster. It was a race, of sorts, to disable everything before they could get any usable information from their half-completed installation.

  He removed the power sources from every piece of equipment as he went along. The memory chips would be next. He wouldn’t destroy the gear. For one thing, it was expensive stuff. Highly miniaturized. Some of it could be repurposed into a security system, if Syd wanted one. Or, if she never wanted to see the stuff again, he could easily bring it back to Grizzly Cove and give it to someone there who would know what to do with it. Paul judged he’d taken out at least a few thousand dollars’ worth of gear so far, with a bit more still to go.