Alpha Dragon_Taran

by Kellan Larkin

  I look at the image. It’s a full face of a dog, with a lolling tongue and a goofy expression. You wouldn’t think folk art like that would sell but it does. “Unfortunately, it sells best during arts and craft season when the craft fairs roll into town.”

  “That’s true.”

  “So what can I do for you?” There has to be a reason why she’s there. She’s such a notorious recluse that it’s rare to even see her out.

  “I’ve been thinking about your offer. You know,” her hand waves at the walls. “To feature some of my stuff here. Is that invitation still open?”

  Are you kidding me? I try not to bounce on the seat like a giddy boy. “Absolutely it’s still open for you. I’m glad to see that you’re willing to give it a go.”

  “Did you want old art or new stuff I’ve been working on?” She pulls her phone out and after a few swipes, hands it to me.

  The pictures are of what look to me to be new art. There’s a refinement to her style that she didn’t have before she disappeared. In short, she’s gotten better, which is saying something considering how good she already was.

  A thought occurs to me. “Why not both? Feature your classic art and then a celebration of your return with new, never seen before pieces?”

  She gets a faraway look in her eye. After a few moments, she nods. “I like that. I can even arrange the stuff I want to display from oldest to newest. And,” she leans in towards me, “it will be neat to see how much I’ve progressed.”

  Great minds think alike. I laugh.

  “I’m so glad you say that. We can even theme it as a progression of a journey to self-discovery.”

  “You have really good energy,” she tells me as she waves her hands in front of me. “It’s positive and creative. Although I can’t help but think something’s upset you recently.”

  I guess I look at her funny and she continues. “Your eyes look tight.”

  “Tight eyes. Dead giveaway?”

  “To someone who knows to look, yeah.”

  I briefly debate the wisdom of saying anything about the mugging if she’s involved in some way. Then again, if she is, maybe my telling her will have her give something away.

  So I tell her what happened to me the other night, minus the mention of being called a lizard. Through the explanation, I see the look of concern and sympathy on her face. She reaches out to take my hand in hers. Even with all the rings and bracelets on her hands, they’re warm and comforting. “I am so sorry that happened to you, Nosko. What a horrid thing. That part of the city used to be safe. It’s tragic to see crime start to move in and terrorize decent people.”

  With her hands on mine, I don’t sense any guile in her. “Well, it’s over and I even got my wallet back with nothing missing. So I don’t know what that was really all about. I hope he stays away.”

  “I agree. And you have a hot boyfriend to take care of you, so that’s a bonus, right?” There’s a twinkle in her eye when she mentions Taran.

  “You mean your competition?”

  She waves it off with a whatever look on her face. “At first I was peeved they’d set up shop right across from me. Then I remembered the words of my mentor that when a door shuts, a window opens. It’s cliché and trite but it’s true. I haven’t noticed any decline in business. I’m just as busy now as I was before I closed up shop. Plus I haven’t noticed his shop hurting any so… you know, it is what it is.”

  I like her laid back attitude. “Your mentor must be someone special.”

  “He’s alright, when he’s not being cryptic.” She tosses her hair over one shoulder and pulls her feet up to sit cross-legged on the bench. It’s a move that makes her look young, far younger than her apparent age from what I can glean on the internet.

  “I found him when I went on my territory-wide walk about.”

  “Can I ask why you disappeared for all these years? The internet is all abuzz about you dropping completely out of sight.” I match her pose so we can talk more comfortably.

  “Needed to rediscover myself. I was losing my way, you know?” Her eyes defocus and she looks off in the distance. “Getting caught up in all the trappings of society and a shallow life. It was time to reinvent myself. So I dropped out for a while. Learned to meditate. Discovered that once I figured out how to do the poses correctly, that I actually like yoga. You should try it. It can be very relaxing.”

  Yoga? Meditation? Not sure those are for me but she makes it sound inviting. “Yoga could certainly help. Meditation? I don’t think I can get my mind to be still for that long.”

  “Like all things, it takes a calm mind and a focused heart.”

  “I think your mentor certainly taught you how to be cryptic.”

  She rocks back and laughs. “Want less cryptic? Let’s talk about how much you’ll pay me to show my stuff here.”

  An art shark. I like it.

  It doesn’t take long for us to settle on a price. The rest of the afternoon is spent talking about everything under the sun. Annika approaches tattooing from a completely different trajectory than Taran, which I find very interesting.

  I think Taran would find it interesting as well, if he could get over his defensiveness about her.

  “So, when are you due?”

  The change of subject is just as abrupt as the subject itself. “I beg your pardon?”

  She lifts her chin. “Your baby. When is she due?”

  “Um… how did you know that I’m expecting?”

  “Seriously, you’re asking a woman that?”

  I’m not sure what to make of that comment. Although, it was true that Cassandra picked up on it, too, although she doesn’t know I’m pregnant as such. But she knew something was different about me instantly. “Twenty-three weeks.”

  “Babies are so cool. I don’t think I want any right now. Still too early for me to have that kind of responsibility. Do you have a name picked out?”

  This is such a surreal conversation. “Not yet. I’m still trying to get through the wedding preparations with Taran.”

  “Let me know and I’ll work out a nice design for you. Maybe put it around your belly button in a circle.” She draws a ring in the air.

  “I’ll…get back to you on that. I’m not sure I want anyone tattooing my fat, pregnant belly.”

  “After, then. It’ll be great. I promise.”

  “I have to ask,” I say, because I really do need to know. “When did you figure out I was pregnant?”

  “Oh! When you first walked into the shop. There was just this—” she wiggled her fingers in the air, “thing that floated around you. I just knew it even though I didn’t know you at all.

  That’s interesting. I have to wonder if she’s got some psychic powers like Taran has.

  “Is there a neon sign over my head or something?” I look up as if to see something there.

  Annika laughs and it’s light and full of fun.

  The more I talk to her, the more I like her.

  And the less I think she was the one who put the mugger up to attack me. It just doesn’t seem like her style.

  Maybe she’s pulling the wool over my eyes. I don’t buy that. I can be a bit naive but I think I have a good sense about people.

  Annika is good people.

  After she leaves, my mood is elevated again.

  I really hope she and I can continue to work well together. It may be too much to hope that we can be friends, but I allow that small bit as a dream.

  Maybe one day.

  14

  Taran

  Varos taps on my office door while Nosko and I finalize some wedding details. The look on his face says this is going to be a serious talk.

  Nosko stands up. “Uh oh, do I need to leave and let you two talk?”

  “No. You need to be here to hear this.” Varos waves a sheet of paper at me before he closes the office door.

  This must be serious.

  He has my attention now.

  As he sets the sheet of paper in fron
t of me, I see it’s a list of names. Out to the side is a shifter species. Most say dragon. A couple are griffins and unicorns.

  I pick it up. “Is this the wedding guest list? I thought we agreed to keep the gathering small and intimate.”

  Nosko leans over my shoulder. He hums when he sees the list. “Those are a list of people who have been mugged in the past month. After my discussion with Annika, she said something that has nattered around in my head.”

  “Remind me. What did she say?” Nosko told me most of what they talked about. When it was obvious that she had nothing to do with the muggings and had even won Nosko over to her side of being a great person, I didn’t think anything more about it.

  “She mentioned that where I’d been mugged used to be a really nice area. She’s right. It was and still is. After I was mugged, I didn’t hear about anyone else getting terrorized. It made me think.”

  He sits down next to me and takes the list from me to review it. “I started combing through the news reports, police blotters, and social media for people who have been mugged since my encounter.” He waves the paper before setting it down again. “This is the list I came up with for the past month. My internet search is good but not near as good as Varos’ ability to suss out information, so I gave the list to him to see what he could uncover.”

  Varos slides into a vacant chair across from me. “One hundred percent, they’re all shifters. Mixed species and breeds, the largest variety being dragons, but all of them are of a mythical bent.”

  I pick up the list and scan the names. A few I actually recognize as being dragon-kind. “So no bears or wolves or anything else?” This doesn’t bode well if Varos is right.

  “Nope. Just us mythicals.”

  I glance at Nosko. His eyes have a pinched look about them. He’s worried and he has a reason to be. “So someone’s targeting mythical shifters.”

  Varos waves at the page in my hands. “Looks like it.”

  In a city as large as Stell, muggings are an everyday occurrence for humans. They wouldn’t look twice at the crime rate.

  Looking at it from a shifter perspective, it’s telling a very different story.

  I’m not liking the direction this is taking.

  If Annika is off the table as a suspect, it makes me nervous. There’s no one to lean on to get more information. I’m just as in the dark now as I was after Nosko was mugged and he reported it to the police.

  “Has anyone else in the community noticed?”

  Varos shakes his head. “Hard to say since people are quiet. It could be they’ve put together the information like we have and won’t tip their hand in the event whoever this is watches our spaces. It could be it still looks too random to be more than coincidence and we’re the only ones who’ve put it together.”

  “It’s not coincidence,” Nosko hastens to add. “The man knew I was dragon-kind. How else would he have known to call me a lizard?”

  “Easy, Nosko.” I take Nosko’s hand and thread our fingers together. I kiss the back of his thumb. My touch calms him down.

  Varos leans across the desk and places his hand on the list before he picks it up and folds it. “We can’t go to the police with this.”

  “What the hell would we tell them?”

  I am not happy about this. How am I supposed to protect my friends, my family, from this kind of threat? “Do the rest of the guys know about this?”

  Varos nods. “I pooled their resources and contacts as well so they know. We’re all in agreement. We need to find a way to stop this and we need to find a way to get the word out that whoever gets targeted by this asshole,” his voice drops in volume and I can hear the anger settling in, “doesn’t have to go through this alone. I don’t know what we can do but we’ll figure something out. I’m not going to stand by and let someone try to victimize—”

  Now I need to calm Varos, too, before he pops off and does something crazy. “We can deal with this, we just need to stay focused.” I lean forward to catch his attention. Our eyes meet and he takes a breath before sitting back in his chair.

  “Right. Focused.”

  “Which means,” I continue now that he’s a little more gathered, “we continue to monitor all the news outlets and talk out there and keep up with the statistics. Our mugger will eventually screw up and we’ll be able to step in and put a stop to this shit. So stay on it. Both of you.”

  Varos leaves the office. I’m not convinced he’s all that restrained but Bronaz is better at damage control than I am. He can keep Varos in line until we can figure something out.

  Nosko is sitting to my side, his teeth worrying at his bottom lip. I thumb along his chin and pull it away so he doesn’t draw blood. “You did a good thing, Nosko. It was a good call to start making a list.”

  “I feel like I may have made everything worse. Wouldn’t we be better off ignorant and let the cops deal with this?”

  I draw him in for a kiss. When we part, he exhales to a more relaxed state. “That’s better.” I kiss him one more time for good measure before I let him go.

  Nosko draws a hand through his hair. It’s so fine and baby soft, it just flops back into his eyes again. “I’ll keep watch for more victims.”

  “That’s the best thing we can do right now.”

  “Alright.” Nosko leans in for one more kiss. “I need to drop by the tuxedo shop on my way to the gallery to set up tux fittings for the guys. Make sure they get there to get measured or the tuxes will hang like flour sacks on them.”

  “If I have to carry them there myself,” I promise him.

  I walk Nosko to the front of the shop to say good bye and wait until he disappears into the bus before I head back inside.

  The atmosphere in the shop is not as energetic as it usually is. Whether it’s a conscious thing or not, something has everyone on edge. Before we close up for the night, I’ll talk to the guys and see what can be done to elevate the mood. We can’t have a depressed business trying to create good art on someone’s skin.

  I glance across the street. Immortal Ink is busy as it usually is. Word has it she hasn’t chosen an apprentice yet. Sako, in his usually opinionated way, suspects she used that as a way to get people into her shop.

  He may be right.

  Nosko told me she confessed that she doesn’t need the money, so she can afford to lose business if necessary. Apprentice or not, she doesn’t seem to be hurting for business.

  In the month since she opened, I haven’t noticed a lapse in our foot traffic either. Not that I’d admit it to anyone, but I think we’ve actually seen an increase in customers coming in. I haven’t been tracking if they’ve come from across the street or not. I need to remember that while she has a loyal fanbase built up, she’s only one person. That means one distinct style.

  My shop offers five. So, we offer a different experience.

  Whatever it is, it seems to be working. That’s all I care about.

  “I don’t see why we have to wait until after the ceremony to move in together.” Following Nosko around my townhouse is an exercise in frustration as he waddles from room to room making notes on his damn notepad. All the man does is make lists.

  Nosko stops at the coffee table and thumbs at it before making a note. “It’s bad luck to set up a nest before we’re officially joined in the eyes of our peers.”

  “You’re making that shit up.”

  “Alright. I can’t get out of my lease until then.”

  Oh. That makes sense.

  “We’ll need to get corner guards for this table,” Nosko says with a gesture of his pencil.

  “You’re the one keeping the list.”

  He straightens with a grimace and rubs at his back.

  It’s still early in the pregnancy but Nosko is already starting to show. Dragonlings mature fast, taking five months from conception to birth. The growth is accelerated and can play merry hell on the pregnant father’s body. “How are you feeling?”

  “Achy. Craving tacos and pea
ches. I have four more months of this? I’ll be crazy. Do we have any?”

  “You mean, I’ll be crazy.” I stand behind him and wrap my arms around him in an embrace. I manage to stifle my laugh at Nosko’s look of daggers that he tosses my way.

  “Are you sure you’re okay giving up the guest bedroom for the baby’s room?”

  “Nosko,” I gently chide him, “I wouldn’t offer it if I weren’t okay.”

  Nosko is incapable of being still. He struggles out of my arms so he can write on his damn pad again. “We’ll need to make sure to fire proof his room for the first year. At least until we can start teaching some control. And maybe get new drapes for the living room.”

  Okay, I’ve had enough of this. I pluck the pad from his hands and give it a toss to the couch. He makes a small sound of protest which I silence with a firm kiss. “Stop. Worrying. It’ll all work out and we’ll be ready.”

  Finally, Nosko relaxes, turning in my arms to lean into me again. Our fingers thread together and rest on top of what he calls his baby bump.

  It’s a little more than a bump but the last time I suggested that, he had a minor meltdown, thinking I was calling him fat.

  I slept on the couch for two nights until I was able to make up with him. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that his bump was going to get a whole lot bigger. That’s a storm I’ll weather when I get to it.

  He sets up a slow rocking side to side that he says takes the strain off his lower back, legs, and feet. I move easily with him. It’s tempting to break out into a lullaby.

  Beneath my palm, his tummy is warm and tight with our growing baby.

  “We haven’t settled on a name yet,” he murmurs, and whether it’s to me or the baby is hard to tell. He’s taken to talking to his tummy more and more.

  “It’ll come in its time.”

  I smooth my hand across his abdomen again. When I stop, I feel it.

  A tiny kick.

  “Holy shit, did you feel that?” I start to search his belly for the place and I am rewarded with another one. “Nosko! He kicked!”