Touched by A Dragon:

by K. T. Stryker

  “We do,” Ashe said.

  She put her borrowed books on his desk and excused herself as the professor went back to his reading. It was terrible that someone could lose his wife like that. Ashe’s own parents were roughly the same age as the professor and though she didn’t have to worry about her father passing away, she knew her mother hadn’t taken the best care of herself these past ten years. Ashe promised to take better care of herself too, for Peter’s sake as much as her own.

  Today there was no snow, but the sky was still overcast. Ashe had no destination in mind so she let her feet wander where they would. She hadn’t known that Professor Sharp’s wife was sick and had never bothered to think about the professor’s personal life. It was so easy to define someone by their set role in her life—teacher, mother, boyfriend. It was much harder to see someone for who they were as a whole. As Ashe walked away from the professor’s office, she thought about Peter and all of the aspects of him that she chose to close her eyes to. She knew nothing of his past or his life beyond how he related to her. Ashe felt she was ready to start asking questions, to start opening these doors, even if she didn’t like the answers that lay behind them.

  But as the days dragged on, Ashe again lost her nerve. She didn’t feel it was fair to ask him to reveal so much about himself when she was hiding things herself. Ashe hadn’t seen Penelope or the others since Christmas, as she was too busy getting back in the swing of classes and her job at the bookstore. Life seemed to settle into something approaching normal, all except for Professor Sharp.

  When the professor finally came back to class, he was nothing like before. The changes were evident to anyone, not just those like Ashe who were actively looking for them. On his first day back at school, he stood at the head of the classroom clutching the podium tightly with both hands as if unable to stay upright on his own. He looked like he had lost a considerable amount of weight and his cheeks were sunken in.

  The curtains were drawn tightly and the projector was going. The professor kept his eyes trained on the lecture notes in front of him, not pausing to look at the students or the slides illuminated behind him. His voice came out in a rasp; Ashe wondered if someone could die of a broken heart.

  The next class was the same and the one after that. The professor’s mind was clearly elsewhere; he was like a zombie, just reading off the notes he had already prepared. He didn’t bother to interact with the students and his office hours were growing more scarce. Eventually he started missing classes again and Ashe began to worry. She never knew on a given day whether it would be Professor Sharp at the podium or Professor Wheatley. Ashe’s first paper came back with notes written in an unfamiliar hand and a barely passing grade written in large print on the last page. Whereas Professor Sharp had always criticized her for not taking the subject seriously enough, Professor Wheatley seemed to think she was taking it too seriously. “Stop believing everything you read. They’re just stories,” he had written on her paper. If only he knew the truth, Ashe thought.

  One day, when Professor Sharp was on campus and looking a bit better than usual, Ashe ran into him outside the bookstore. He appeared to be talking to someone on the phone but hung up when he noticed her.

  “I noticed the grade on your last paper,” he said opening the door for her. “I have to say I’m disappointed.”

  Ashe slung her bag behind the counter and grabbed her name tag from the shelf. She wanted to argue with him, telling him that the only reason for her poor grade was the new professor’s apparent grudge against her. But she knew that would only make Professor Sharp feel guilty about not being able to keep up with his work so she bit her tongue. “I’m still getting the hang of his grading style,” was all she said.

  “Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with you and your tutor starting to date?” he said.

  Ashe almost choked. How could the professor know? She tried to defend herself, “I was doing well. You even said so yourself. Plus it’s none of your business.”

  Ashe’s supervisor came by with a scowl on her face. “How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t pay you for talking,” she said, but when the supervisor noticed Professor Sharp standing at the counter, her scowl faded. The professor gave her a friendly hello. It was the first time Ashe had ever seen the miserable old woman smile. It looked like the wrinkles on her face would crack open from the effort. Ashe shuddered and picked up a stack of books to sort.

  “Sorry, professor,” the old woman said.

  Professor Sharp shrugged it off. “I should be getting back to work myself.”

  “Did you need to find a book?” Ashe asked, wondering if the professor had been on his way in or out of the shop when he had run into her.

  “Oh yes, I nearly forgot,” the professor said. He dug into a side pocket of his leather briefcase and pulled out a scrap of paper.

  Ashe set down the stack of books she was holding and entered the title into the computer, but no entries popped up. “Sorry, it looks like we don’t have it. I can check the nearby bookstores to see if one of them has it in stock.”

  “No, it’s okay,” the professor said. “I’ll check the library again.”

  Ashe handed the paper back to the professor and in doing so sent the precariously-balanced stack of books tumbling towards the floor. In the blink of an eye the professor lunged and managed to save the books from falling, catching them awkwardly between his hands and the edge of the counter.

  “Thanks,” she said as Professor Sharp put the books back on the counter. He looked embarrassed though Ashe had been the one to knock them over.

  “I have to go,” he said. “But I’ll see you in class on Monday.”

  Ashe watched him leave. She was glad to see he was getting some of his strength back. The Professor Sharp she had met weeks ago in his office wouldn’t have been able to save even a single book from falling, let alone a whole stack. Maybe he would be able to stay and teach classes for the rest of the semester. She wondered if Peter had been in to see him recently, she doubted it. Peter had been scarce since they had returned to campus. He seemed preoccupied with his own classes, and on top of that, had accepted a job in the college archives. Ashe knew his family didn't need the money. Keeping busy must have been Peter’s way of coping with everything that had happened last semester, but Ashe needed him by her side.

  “How many came with you to the city?”

  “Six, including me; no, seven. I forgot David, our supplier.”

  Winnie had a ledger out and was counting names. She scribbled David’s name in an empty space under Landon’s family and added the date they had moved next to it.

  “That’s everyone?” she asked Peter with a frown.

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  Winnie scratched her nose with the end of her pencil. “We’re still short one. Would’ve come in around Christmas.”

  As a sentinel, Winnie had a preternatural sense for vampires. She was like a radar pinging their approximate locations within a certain radius. Apparently, there was a new vampire in town and she was trying to get a fix on it.

  “You forgot Mark,” Peter said.

  “No, counted him. Plus he’s not in town. He comes and goes as he pleases. This signal’s far too strong and consistent to be coming from someone outside the city.”

  Peter wracked his brain, but couldn’t come up with anything. “Then who could it be?” he asked.

  “That’s what I need you to find out.”

  “Does this happen often?” Peter said. “Don’t you have a system for things like this, a protocol? I doubt Landon was out here doing your legwork for you before I came along.”

  Winnie shook her grayed head and the string of beads holding her glasses around her neck clacked softly. “It rarely happens like this, not so suddenly. They usually seek me out after a while, like you did. But with this one there’s a… pulling away. It’s like he’s trying to run away while staying planted in the same spot. I can’t explain it any better than that.
”

  “He?” Peter asked. “You know it’s a man?”

  “Or a woman,” Winnie replied.

  Peter remembered Ashe’s bite and irrational dread started to well up inside his chest. She couldn’t be. He had checked her after that night and plenty of times since then. She was eating regular food and had none of the other signs. Whenever he held her she was warm and full of life. He could remember the beat of her heart in her chest and the soft sigh of her breath against his cheek the last time they were together. She wasn’t one of them.

  “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not her,” Winnie said with a wry smile. “You need to stop worrying so much. She’s a strong girl. She wouldn’t have been turned so easily.”

  Peter really wanted to help Winnie find the new vampire in town, but he was far too busy. He didn’t have time for this, not until Landon’s family was reduced to a heap of dust. Even then, he would have to go on the run and the city’s problems would no longer be his own. He was already struggling to find time for Ashe as it was. “I can’t help you,” he replied. “I have to take care of Landon’s clan first.”

  Winnie snapped the ledger book shut. “I don’t like not knowing who’s in my city; it gives me a wooly feeling in my bones. Something’s wrong. I’d go out and investigate myself, but this body of mine isn’t what it used to be. The eons have been kind, but I’m on my way out. Another few hundred years and—” she made a short, sharp whistling noise to indicate her meaning.

  “Stop being so dramatic, Winnie. I promise I’ll get to it when I can. It’s not like the vampire’s out killing people on the street. But if you’re worried, I’ll ask one of my sisters to look into it for now.” Winnie was acting like Peter’s father, relegating pointless tasks to him just because he was still able to move relatively freely during daylight hours. Any of the others could have done it easily. After all, David often braved cloudy days with the help of his coat and hat. Peter didn't expect the town to be getting any real sun until spring.

  “I tell you, something bad is brewing,” Winnie said in a dark voice.

  Peter ignored her and left the shop, his mind on far more important problems.

  CHAPTER 4

  Ashe was curled up next to Peter on a sofa in the student center. Thick flurries of snow danced outside the window and the sky was heavy with grey clouds. Ashe thought she could feel a charge in the air, like before a thunderstorm. The weather reports had been warning of a blizzard and it looked like it was finally on its way.

  Peter’s phone went off at the same time as Ashe’s, making her jump. Both their screens lit up with the same alert. The message from administration was brief, almost cryptic. Ashe read it aloud while Peter continued making notes in the margins of the book he was reading.

  “We would like to inform students about a severe weather warning for the state, beginning at 3:00pm this afternoon. As of now, cancellation of afternoon classes are still at the discretion of the professors, but it is highly advised that students refrain from attending classes if they live off campus. We will update the student body as more information comes in from the national weather service.”

  Peter closed his book. “Don’t you have Sharp’s class this afternoon?” he asked.

  Professor Sharp’s class or Professor Wheatley’s class; Ashe wasn’t sure. She hoped it was the former. “Yeah,” she replied. “But it ends at 3:00 so I’ll be fine.”

  Peter’s brows furrowed in that worried way Ashe had seen all too often lately. “I think you should take the afternoon off. Even if the blizzard hasn’t blown in by then, the snow’s already coming down pretty heavily. We can go now, since I don’t have any more classes.”

  Ashe shook her head. “I don’t know if Professor Wheatley will be teaching, but if he is I can’t afford to be absent. He already hates me enough as it is and there’s no doubt he’ll notice I’m gone. It would be the perfect opportunity for him to give a pop quiz.”

  “What will you do if you get snowed in here?” Peter asked.

  Ashe looked out the window. The snow didn’t seem to be getting any worse and there wasn’t even the hint of wind to indicate the coming storm. She figured she had at least a few hours before the roads became too dangerous to get home on. “I won’t,” she reassured him.

  “I’ll wait for you right here,” Peter said, looking like he wanted to protest her decision, but having enough respect for her not to.

  Ashe leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I promise I’ll come back here right after class,” she replied.

  Peter gave her another look of worry, but didn’t say anything further. Ashe settled back into the crook of his arm and he took up his book once again. The inconsistency of having a class taught by two professors was making Ashe uncomfortable about her grade. She understood that Peter was worried about the weather, but she needed to do everything she could to ensure that she would be able to graduate in the spring. If the snow really did become a problem, the administration would cancel classes, but until then Ashe would stay on campus. She would not be scared off by a little snow.

  Attendance was the worst it had been since the start of the semester. Ashe was among a small handful of students who hadn’t taken the weather warning as an excuse to skip classes. The snow was coming down in sheets now and beyond the auditorium windows Ashe could only see white. Professor Wheatley was droning on about folk beliefs in the early American colonies, every once in a while turning laboriously to the chalkboard behind him to write out a term that Ashe knew wouldn’t be on any test. It was almost as if the professor was purposely trying to mislead the students, just so he could berate them when they failed to meet his expectations. Ashe had to remind herself that this was still Professor Sharp’s class and ultimately it would be his decision who passed and who failed.

  The lights flickered and a murmur passed among the students through the lecture hall. A few stopped taking notes and looked around, as if wondering whether or not to take the momentary loss of power as a sign that class was cancelled. Professor Wheatley only paused for a moment to look up at the lights, and when they didn’t flicker again, he resumed his lecture as if nothing had happened. Ashe wondered if the power had faltered at the student center as well and if Peter was now sitting there worried about Ashe being able to get back home in time. She looked at the clock. There were only fifteen minutes of class left. As long as she hurried, she would be just fine.

  Class ended with no further incident and it seemed that even Professor Wheatley was eager to get out of the building as he did not bother to give them so much as a reading assignment for the next class. Maybe it was the lack of attendance that had him apathetic or the growing ridge of snow along the window sills outside, but he swiftly packed up his things as the auditorium emptied. Ashe hurried too, she was glad to have escaped another dreaded pop quiz.

  As Ashe was getting up from her seat, Professor Sharp poked his head inside the open door. He looked haggard and anxious about something. The dark circles had returned with a vengeance and there was an odd mania to his eyes that indicated to Ashe he hadn’t been sleeping again. He gave a curt greeting to Professor Wheatley.

  To Ashe, he said, “Miss Linfield, can I see you in my office for a minute?”

  Ashe glanced out the windows then back at the professor. She knew she should be getting home, but the look in the professor’s eyes made her wonder if something was wrong. “Yeah,” she replied. “As long as it is quick; I need to get home before the storm hits.”

  “I promise it will only be a few minutes,” Professor Sharp hurriedly reassured her.

  “I think the storm is already here,” Professor Wheatley said in a grave voice. He stepped almost menacingly toward Professor Sharp, as if to shoo him out of the classroom. Ashe wondered if Professor Wheatley harbored resentment against the man he was forced to substitute for. After all, it was pretty clear which of the two the students favored. “Whatever you need can wait, professor. This young lady should be heading home.” />
  “No, it’s okay,” Ashe said skirting past Professor Wheatley and joining Professor Sharp at the door. “I’ll hurry home right afterwards.”

  She spared a look back at Professor Wheatley as she followed the other down the hall. His mouth and brow were set into hard lines that made Ashe think of the depictions of witch hunts he had shown in his lectures. He was one of the townspeople casting the finger of suspicion towards his neighbor, condemning them to burn at the stake. It was an odd image, but one Ashe couldn’t shake no matter how hard she tried. Even stranger, Ashe was almost certain that the look had been meant not for her, but for Professor Sharp.

  The inside of Professor Sharp’s office was even messier than before. Papers and books were now strewn across the floor as well as the desk and Ashe had to be careful where she stepped on her way to her seat. Professor Sharp ignored the mess around himself, stepping on the open spines of books as if they hadn’t been there at all.

  “Is this about my grades?” Ashe said, trying to ignore the oddness of the professor’s behavior.

  Professor Sharp sat at his desk wringing his hands. His eyes kept darting from book to book, but didn’t seem to be really seeing them. “No, I mean yes. I wanted to talk about your performance in my class this semester. Professor Wheatley is worried as well, and I’m thinking that maybe—”

  The lights flickered again, this time going out fully for a pregnant second before coming back on with the hum of reawakening electronics.

  “I almost forgot; do you want some tea?” the professor asked suddenly.

  Ashe had promised Peter she would meet him right after class. It was already ten past three. He would be starting to worry.

  “No thank you,” she replied. “I really do have to go soon. What did you want to say about my grades?”

  “Oh it’s no bother. I’ve already prepared the pot. Let me go get it from the lounge.”

  Ashe tried to protest, but Professor Sharp was already out the door with a speed that Ashe hadn’t thought he was capable of, owing to his haggard appearance.