Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  It was a left turn, then a right turn, then another right, and a left again. Xander—if that’s who it was—refused to give up, taking every possible path that would lead it away from the insistent cop car that was leading Siobhan across lanes of traffic, around sharp corners, and through busy intersections. Siobhan was intent, leaning forward in her seat, her eyes trained on the road as she tried to predict the Kia’s next move. They were in the heart of downtown Boston, the pier to their left and the interstate entrance to their right. The Kia was running out of options, and Siobhan saw what was coming before it happened.

  She took a risk, proactively jerking the car to the right, away from the Kia and the police escort.

  “Siobhan…” Julian said, clearly not understanding what she was doing.

  “Trust me,” she said again, taking a shortcut down one street, along another, and then up to circle around in the direction she came from to end up at the end of the tiny backstreet that the Kia was flying down, the cop car still in pursuit. Inwardly triumphant, Siobhan slammed on her brakes, blocking the street exit as the cop car blocked the Kia from turning around. Xander was trapped, and he knew it. For the first time, Siobhan looked the man in the face, knowing that it was the man from Julian’s description as their eyes locked.

  “That’s him,” Julian said quietly.

  Siobhan nodded. “I know. We got him.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Julian

  The last fifteen minutes had been both the most fascinating and most terrifying of his life, aside from the moments leading up to Tucker throwing him off his back into the Grand Canyon. In fact, Julian had flashed back to that moment several times as Siobhan had driven recklessly—though with great skill—through the crowded Boston streets. It had only been six months ago since he had started down the winding path into the Grand Canyon, situated on the back of a mule that had made the trip multiple times a day for most of its life. It had been an incredible adventure to descend into one of the seven wonders of the world on the back of a powerful animal, watching as the cliffs grew higher around him and the foliage grew thicker and greener. Each step the mule had taken had somehow felt both steady and uncertain, and there had been moments when they had been so close to the edge of the trail, inches from tumbling over the side of it, that it had made Julian’s heart stop in his chest.

  The moments just before he had fallen had happened in slow motion. He had seen Tucker become spooked by the rodent that went scurrying in front of him on the trail, felt the animal step backward, experienced fear when the mule had reared up. His hands grasped for something—anything—to hold onto, and his legs, thick with muscle, had tightened around the creature’s large midsection.

  It wasn’t enough as the creature bucked again, now even more skittish as the mules around him reacted to his initial panic. He was stomping his feet between each time he bucked his front legs into the air, and Julian felt as though he was riding a mechanical bull at a bar, but with life and death stakes. His heart was in his throat, his palms sweating as he attempted to grip the reins tighter and steady the large animal beneath him. All the while, he was unable to look anywhere but straight down into a canyon that would swallow him up, and unable to think about anything else but the fact that it was only his own stupidity that had put him in this situation. Some sort of manly instinct to prove his toughness was going to cost him his life.

  Voices swirled around him, and then Tucker’s foot landed right on the edge of the path, causing the animal to stumble. Julian lurched to the left, his body beginning to slide dangerously. His right foot was still hooked in the stirrup, but it was coming loose, the muscles in his legs shaking from the effort of trying to hold his body in place.

  Tucker stumbled again, his two front legs buckling as one foot slid off the edge of the trail and the other landed on its knee on the ground. The guide was shouting at him then, telling him to get off the mule. To jump to the ground, which was hardly far away then. But Julian was frozen, staring downward, and Tucker tried to right himself, stumbling back to his feet and then rearing back in fear.

  That time, Julian wasn’t prepared, and he lost his grip, falling to the ground and hitting his head on a rock as his body rolled off the edge of the trail and began to tumble down through the brush, lower and lower and lower into the canyon.

  That had been the part of the whole experience that was least terrifying, because he had been unaware of any of it after a few moments. He had known he was falling, and then everything had gone dark, the blackness safe and welcoming after the moments of terror he had just experienced.

  His last thought had been that he was going to die.

  There had been more than a few times during Siobhan’s wild race across Boston that he’d had the same thought, and every time a car swerved out of their way, just avoiding hitting the passenger side of the car, he’d seen that canyon ahead of him again as he fell into it.

  “You okay?”

  Siobhan was already halfway out her door, but she paused, looking back at him. He gave her a slight smile and nodded.

  “Fine.”

  And he was. It wasn’t like it had been in the weeks of recovery after his accident where all he could think about was that he had stared death in the face. Ever since, he thought about those moments as little as possible, but he’d just been forced to experience them all over again.

  And he was fine.

  Siobhan smiled at him, then hopped all the way out of the car, closing the door behind her as she advanced on Xander and the cop, who were arguing with each other in voices loud enough for Julian to hear from within Siobhan’s car, though he couldn’t make out the words.

  He opened his door, stepping out of the car, while keeping his distance from the situation. Whatever Siobhan needed, he would provide for her, but something told him to wait until he’d figured out he circumstances better before he jumped in, assuming what she needed.

  “This is an out—out—outrage!” Xander was shouting, waving his hands. His balding head was just like the visions, and his fingers trembled, just like Julian had seen before. “I’ve been mowed down. Mowed down. Mow—mow—mowed down! I did nothing. I haven’t—I don’t—there had better be—”

  “Look,” the cop said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at Xander, who was significantly shorter. “You didn’t stop when I turned on the sirens and lights. That’s something wrong right there. Cut the crap, guy.”

  “I didn’t stop because I did nothing! I did nothing. I was good. I was very, very, very good.” Xander turned, jabbing his finger at Siobhan standing behind him. “It was her. She was behind me! Why are you? Why did you? Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”

  Siobhan just glanced at him. “Put a sock in it. I’ll get to you in a minute.” First, she reached past him and shook the officer’s hand. “Thanks.”

  “You need backup?”

  Siobhan shook her head. “No, I got this one.”

  “Something I need to know about?”

  Siobhan let go of his hand and stepped back. “Not right now, no. Just doing my job.”

  “I’ll hang around,” the officer said, looking pointedly at Xander. “Close by.”

  As the cop retreated, Julian drew closer, rounding to the other side of Xander without crowding him too much. The man didn’t look fit or strong, so if he tried to run, he probably wouldn’t get far, but Julian hoped that if there was someone on either side of him, the man wouldn’t even try.

  As he passed Xander, he got a pure punch of rage in his stomach, tapping into the man’s emotions unintentionally. Anger and fear and misery churned inside of him, almost making him sick, and it was with set lips and grim eyes that Julian took up his position behind the man, just far enough away to understand the feelings he had weren’t his, but close enough to feel the urge to murder simmering in the back of his mind.

  The man was sick. Twisted. Desperate.

  “Slut whore,” Xander spat at Siobhan as they stared each other down
. “Did you have to pleasure that policeman to get him to do what you wanted, you—you—you—you—slut!”

  Julian immediately, instinctively stepped forward, but Siobhan shook her head at him in a warning, clearly unfazed by Xander’s words.

  “You’re Xander Blanchard,” Siobhan said, meeting the man’s squirrely gaze with her own steady one.

  Xander blanched, his round mouth falling open in his round, soft face. “Who are you?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Siobhan told him. “You’ve seen who I have on my side. A police officer who comes when I call—and not the way you’re thinking. It’s not just him, you know, Xander. It’s the whole police force. I have them right here.” She held out her hand, tapping the palm. “Right in the palm of my hand. And the man behind you—he works for me too. He has power like you wouldn’t believe. There is no secret that he can’t expose, and I help him do it. And he and I—we know who you are.”

  Xander darted a glance at him, and Julian hardened his gaze, looking like he could see straight into Xander’s soul. It was Xander’s own emotions coursing through Julian that allowed his expression to be so hateful and dark—Xander’s own emotions that terrified him into taking a step closer toward Siobhan.

  “We know what you have planned,” Siobhan told the man. “For Melanie. Your mother.”

  The balding man, who looked equally like he could be in his twenties or his fifties, screeched out in protest, throwing his arms over his head as he trembled. “Don’t say it. Don’t say it! Don’t say her name! She’s a witch. She’s vile. She’s the depths of despair, crawling around on this earth, poisoning everything she touches. Don’t say her name!”

  The man’s desperate emotion once again rolled through Julian, and he began to get flashes of images in his mind.

  Xander as a boy, alone, scared, under the bed, voices shouting all around him.

  Xander as a boy, shielding himself from the blows raining down on him from above.

  Xander as a boy, being mocked by a crowd of children, ducking away from the stones they threw at him.

  Xander, older now, panting with agony and rage as he lay curled up on a ball in the middle of a concrete room containing just a pallet and a wool blanket.

  Xander, over and over again, misery compounding misery. Tortured. Terrified. Lonely. Hating. Seething. Churning with rage that had no outlet.

  Those emotions became blurred with Julian’s, and he felt his fists clenching by his sides. His breathing was ragged and hard, and his teeth ground together with the torment that he and Xander now shared.

  “Shut up,” Siobhan barked, and the insult burned inside of Julian too. He was only just still aware enough to realize that it wasn’t his emotion, but that knowledge was distant and seemed unimportant as he glared at Siobhan, furious with her for being so rude to a man who had endured so much.

  But she was oblivious to his anger, and she continued.

  “We know about the warehouse, Xander. We know that your mother left you when you were three, and we know that you tracked her down again. We know what you want to do to her in that warehouse. And we know about the box you have hidden there. We know everything. And we’re telling you to leave Melanie and her family alone.”

  Xander glared at her, spit frothing at the corners of his mouth. “You can’t know. You can’t, you can’t. I’m a smart boy! I’m a good boy, but I can be bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. I’m going to be very bad—yes, I am. You can’t know. You don’t know. You’re a liar, like all of them.”

  Siobhan didn’t lose her cool, and that just made Julian angrier. Why was she such a fucking liar? And what business of hers was it if Xander needed to clean up the mess he’d been left with?

  “You know I’m not lying, because you know what your plans are,” Siobhan said. “And here’s what you need to know—I’m watching you. Always. Everywhere. I hunted you down today, and I’ll hunt you down again. And if anything—ever—happens to Melanie or her family, I’ll hunt you down again. I have documentation of everything. Your relationship to Melanie. The warehouse where you plan to take her. The things that you have stored there. The person you used to be. It’s all very tidy and very, very complete. I’ll turn it over to the authorities the moment Melanie so much as misses a lunch appointment, and they’ll put you in a cell for the rest of your life.”

  Siobhan advanced on the man, her eyes narrowed and intent.

  “One toe out of line, and your life is over,” she said darkly. “Your game is up. I suggest you get the hell out of Dodge while I’m still of a mind to let you go, you wannabe murderer. I don’t want to see your face anywhere, ever again. Disappear, and I’ll let you live as a free man. Ignore this warning, and realize how miserable your life can become.”

  Xander let her get her whole speech out, even though his fingers were shaking so much that his balled fists couldn’t stop the trembling. His whole body seemed to vibrate, his chest heaving with anger that Julian sympathized with more deeply than he could have ever imagined.

  When Siobhan stopped talking, Xander was almost spitting, he was so furious. “You know nothing. My name isn’t Xander Blanchard. He’s dead! I killed him! I was so bad, and now he’s dead, and I’m here. I am not Xander Blanchard. And now you have to die like Xander!”

  Launching himself at Siobhan, he landed his pudgy, sweaty hands around her neck, squeezing with strength that he should never have been able to possess. And Julian was right behind Xander, helping the man to hold down the slut whore who couldn’t understand that a man had to purify the world of the evil that existed within it.

  It wasn’t a choice for Xander. He had to do it, and Julian would help him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Siobhan

  Siobhan had seen the rage in Xander’s eyes as she goaded him, so it was no shock when he launched himself at her. She was ready, and when his hands fastened around her neck, she put her head down to prevent him from blocking her airway, then raised her right arm over up and slammed her right elbow on his forearm, breaking his hold and doubling him over. While he was bent over, she took the same arm and delivered a punch directly to his diaphragm, causing Xander to sink to his knees.

  She had executed her plan perfectly, and now all she had to do was drive the point home to the man that she could do far worse to him if he ever crossed her. Then, as she bent over to do just that, Julian grabbed her from behind and, taking her by complete surprise, flung her onto the ground so hard that pain shot through her back and down her legs.

  Shocked, all she could do was stare up at Julian as he glared down at her, eyes wide and hands braced on the pavement.

  “Fuck you,” Julian hissed, lowering himself onto her and grabbing her around the neck just like Xander had and beginning to strangle her.

  Eyes bugging out of her head, Siobhan stared up at the face of the man who just over an hour ago had been making passionate love to her in her office. He was a good man, kind and sweet and someone who wouldn’t want to hurt anyone ever. But there he was, on top of her, cutting off her airway while hate vibrated through him.

  She didn’t understand it, but if she wanted to live through it, she didn’t have time to try to wrap her head around his actions. Siobhan was experienced in self-defense and supernaturally strong. Her biggest concern in fighting Julian off was not hurting him too badly. Crossing her arms up over his, she grabbed each of his wrists with her opposite hand and jerked him backward, easily breaking his hold on her as she flipped him onto his back.

  “What the fuck?” she demanded, sitting up, her neck throbbing with pain.

  He didn’t answer her, coming at her again and grappling her to the ground, pinning both of her arms over her head, her legs up around his waist. She tightened her thighs around him, holding him in place, then jerked her left arm to the side and flipped him off of her again when he lost his balance.

  This time, she wasted no time getting on her feet to better defend herself against the next attack. Julian wasn’t Julian, and while she
didn’t know why, she had to treat him as an enemy combatant right now.

  “Julian, listen to me,” she said, keeping her hands up and ready as he slowly got to his feet, glaring at her with hatred in his eyes. Beside them, Xander was watching in pained amazement, clearly unable to have predicted this turn of events either. Siobhan worried that the balding man would run, and she kept herself oriented toward him while also holding herself on guard for Julian’s next attack. “Listen—it’s me. It’s Siobhan. Do you know me? We’re working together, Julian. We’re on the same side. Talk to me.”

  Julian’s gaze flickered, but then he glanced at Xander and seemed confused. Siobhan didn’t know what was going on in his head, but when he came at her again, pushing her backward, it was with less commitment than before. She absorbed the push, despite the fact that he was clearly a strong man and only lost a few inches of ground.

  “Don’t make me take you down,” she said to him, shaking her head. “Come on. Get a grip. Look at me.”

  Again, something in Julian’s gaze flickered, and she had a moment of hope. But then Xander was on his feet, an evil, slimy grin on his face as he had clearly decided that he had an ally.

  “Bitch,” he growled. “We’re going to show you!”

  Xander came at her, but he wasn’t a fighter, and Siobhan had him on his ass again in mere seconds, her eyes never leaving Julian. When Xander’s rage had surged again, she had seen the same flash in Julian’s face, and she realized, finally, what was happening. His psychic connection to Xander was causing Julian to feel Xander’s own emotions and he wasn’t able to keep them separate from his own.

  Julian lunged for her again, grabbing her around the waist and trying to knock her to the ground. Repentant though she was, Siobhan kneed him right in the crotch, just like her self-defense training would have her to do, and he howled in pain, falling back from her and to his knees.

  This time, when Xander took his turn at her, she—unrepentantly this time—did a circle kick, landing a blow directly to the side of his head and knocking him completely unconscious. He crumpled to the ground with a thud, and the moment that he did, Julian, slumped over in pain, shuddered a release, and the venom Siobhan felt pouring out of him disappeared completely.