Dragon Lost (Dragon Thief Book 1)

by Lisa Manifold

  “I’m glad we’re out of here.”

  “Me, too. I didn’t like that they mentioned fire as they were leaving. Once you finish, we can leave,” I said, indicating all the food in front of her. “Did you get one of everything?”

  “Stress makes me hungry. For once, I can indulge.”

  I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t respond. She was right. We sat in silence until Margrite finished.

  She pushed her plate away. “Okay, I’m done.”

  “I might be able to cover it,” I teased.

  “Well, you know how to do dishes.”

  Laughing, we paid, and headed out to the bike. This was it. We were out of here. Night had just fallen.

  Despite the weirdness of the last few days, I hadn’t heard the voice in my head. That wasn’t entirely true, I realized. I knew it was there, but it wasn’t upfront. I’d been able to keep a door closed between me and the voice.

  I’d slept, and I hadn’t turned into a dragon again. Thank God. That was a problem I didn’t need.

  The tarot reading was something that kind of bothered me, but just as with the voice in my head, I’d put that over to the side, and focused on the immediate things. No need to make my life harder than it was. While it was clear that Margrite believed every drop of what Nala had told me, I was not willing to give it a lot of credibility. Like Margrite was fond of reminding me, even a dead watch was right twice a day. Nala may have hit on things that were coincidentally correct—and that was all it was. I wouldn’t allow myself to get all caught up in something I thought was a bunch of woo woo nonsense.

  The night air felt great in my hair. The further we got from the downtown area, the clearer the air smelled. There was a miasma that hung around cities even if they were fairly clean. It went without question that Margrite and I lived in the less than clean areas.

  I spotted a sign and pulled the bike over.

  “Why are you stopping?” Margrite leaned around me.

  “This is it,” I gestured at the sign. “This is the limit. I’ve never lived anywhere else that I know of. My whole life has been here, a lot of it in a crappy situation, or with a bad family. Not everything was bad. There was some, okay, a lot of good.” I smiled at her. “But that’s part of the past now. I don’t know,” I looked at her, feeling stupid now. “I just felt like I needed to stop.”

  “Well, it’s fine to look back. But not for long. We have to get down to DC, and catch our flight,” she said.

  We’d booked flights for the islands out of DC. We were heading for a couple of places, in order to keep anyone from picking up our trail. We each had a number of passports, and each of those people planned a trip island hopping. This planning had taken us a while to put together, but after all this time, all that we wanted would happen.

  When we finally stopped, I hoped that we’d done enough to keep under the radar. If not, I had a plan for that, too.

  I was never coming back here.

  “You ready?” I asked her.

  “Yes. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  I smiled and got that rare smile back. Starting the bike, I faced forward, ready for the future. While this city was my home, and the place where I’d lost my mother, and presumably my father, that wasn’t my life. I couldn’t hang onto that.

  The time had come for me to take full control of my life. In spite of the tarot reader’s words, I was only in control of so much. Much of my life depended on the decisions of others. I didn’t want that anymore. I wanted full control. If things went sideways, I wanted it to be my fault, not because I had to react to someone else’s bullshit.

  I hit the gas, intending to race past the sign, a kind of fuck off gesture to all the shit in my old life. I felt Margrite hold my waist tighter as we accelerated. As we passed the sign I smiled. I’m free, I thought.

  Then the blackness hit like a baseball bat to the face, and I didn’t know anything else.

  8

  I had no idea where I was. Everything around me—there was nothing around me.

  What in the hell?

  Aodan! Are you all right?

  Great. The god damned voice apparently burst through the door.

  Who are you? I asked.

  I told you, I’m your grandfather.

  What’s your name?

  I don’t want to say it aloud, even as we talk like this.

  But you say my name.

  That cannot be helped.

  Why won’t you tell me your name?

  Because I am unsure who is listening.

  I thought that over. You mean that this is some sort of open channel?

  The voice chuckled. I think I know what you mean, and yes, I believe it could be. Stop talking and listen for a moment. Tell me what you hear.

  What the fuck, was my first thought. Then I stopped and allowed myself to listen. To open the door, the one I’d kept shut in my mind since I’d first heard the voice and see if I could hear anything else.

  I could. While he was the only one talking, I could feel others. Listening in the background. Waiting.

  What is that? I asked.

  You are feeling us, the voice said.

  Who is this us? Who are you? Why won’t you tell me what is going on?

  We are like you. Well, I am like you. You and I, and your father… the voice stopped.

  What about my dad?

  The three of us can shift. We are both dragon, and fae.

  Oh, fantastic. I have no idea where I am, what has happened—I’m supposed to be on a plane—and now you’re telling me I’m a dragon. And a… whatever else you said.

  I felt like I did when I got a headache. I just wanted to close my eyes and close out the world.

  But the noise in my head was too loud.

  What is all that noise? I yelled into the blackness in front of me.

  Aodan, close your mind!

  What?

  Close it! The voice boomed, and then it was gone.

  I tried to get a grip on my location, hell, on any location. I could see nothing. In front of me, all around me—nothing.

  I know they—whoever they are—are still there but now it’s like there are a bunch of doors between me and them.

  This keeps getting weirder and weirder, and I have no idea what I’m dealing with. For me, that’s damn well crisis level.

  The voice returns, and now, rather than fear, or panic, or concern, I hear calm confidence.

  Aodan, is that you?

  Who else would it be? What’s going on? Where are you?

  I am close by. I can help you if you will let me.

  There’s a different tone to the voice now. He doesn’t seem to have the same concerns he did just a couple of seconds ago, but he also seems to have lost his ability to be warm, or anything other than all business.

  That, I understood. That, I could deal with.

  I have no idea where I am, or what happened. Margrite and I were leaving, and then everything went black.

  The voice made a noise of impatience. The human is of no concern. What is important is that you are cared for and returned to your rightful home.

  What do you mean, she’s of no concern? Have you lost your mind?

  Do you want to learn your truth, Aodan?

  You know I do.

  Then you must put aside the human concerns, and the humans.

  I’m human!

  There is so much more, the voice said.

  There was a hint of secrets to be shared. Of promises to come. Of a better life. It was all right there, like just behind a curtain. How did he do that with a voice?

  You are so much more. The voice sounded sure of himself.

  What, humans don’t mean anything?

  Not in the scale of things. There is a reason that the Human Realm is the Realm we all hide from.

  This didn’t make any sense. None at all.

  Let us meet, Aodan, and I will explain all. You will see who you are, who you are meant to be, and where you truly belong.

>   I didn’t say anything.

  The voice came in my head again, louder this time. You will come back with me, Aodan. Share with me where you are.

  I could feel a command in the words. Why wouldn’t I do as he asked? The voice had only been good to me even if he wouldn’t tell me shit. Well, he was kind of telling me things now… what had changed?

  Aodan! Show me where you are!

  The force of the words startled me.

  I don’t know.

  What do you mean, you don’t know?

  I told you. The last thing I remember was riding my motorcycle across the city line. Then, nothing.

  Open your eyes, Aodan. Let me see what you see.

  I couldn’t find my eyes. I had to think about where they should be. Then I saw a pinpoint of light.

  You know when you see the movies, and a character gets knocked out, whatever, and the film wants to show you what it’s like to come to? That’s how this felt.

  The pinpoint grew, just a little. Then an explosion of color, light, sound and smell hit me like… well, once again, like a baseball bat. It all went from this small circle in front of me to so much around me I didn’t know where to look, or what to do.

  Let me see, the voice commanded. He sounded angry.

  I blinked, trying to orient myself to wherever I was.

  “Aodan?” Margrite was near me. “Are you awake?”

  I tried to talk, but when I opened my mouth, my voice wasn’t working. I closed my eyes again.

  Let me see!

  Shut up, I thought. I’m tired. I think I almost died. Go away.

  I envisioned kicking some douchebag out of a door and slamming it behind him. The voice faded instantly although I could tell that he was talking.

  I didn’t have the energy for this. Now that the voice wasn’t demanding shit from me, I could relax. And then I couldn’t open my eyes again. I’d just lie here and rest for a bit.

  The next time I tried to open my eyes, it wasn’t so bad.

  Margrite was leaning over me. “Are you alive?”

  She didn’t sound so good.

  “I think so. What the hell happened?”

  Margrite got up and walked around the room. We were in a room I didn’t recognize— “Where are we?” I asked.

  “I got us to a hotel. It’s sketchy, but I didn’t want to attract any more attention.” She grinned, but it wasn’t a happy grin. She was stressed. “The clerk wanted to know if I was booking for the entire night, or a certain number of hours.”

  “That was good,” I said. I had no idea whether it was good or not, but I wanted to hear the rest of this, and Margrite was visibly upset. That didn’t happen often. “Wait, what? By the hour?”

  “Never mind that. It’s not important, although we’ll think it’s funny later. When we were leaving, we were just about to go past the city limits sign. When your body moved passed it, it was like you were hit by lightning, or something.” She crossed her arms in front of her, rubbing her arms as she looked at me. “Then you fell off the bike, and I half-jumped, half-rolled off it as it fell. I grabbed you, but the bike fell on you.”

  “Oh, hell. Where?” I tried to sit up and look over my body.

  “It fell on your leg,” she pointed at my left leg, “But you won’t be able to tell now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it has already healed.”

  “What? It must not have been as bad as you thought.”

  “Oh no?” Her nostrils flared. “Let me show you, smart ass.” She stomped over to the bathroom, banging the door open. When she came out, she held my black pants, my favorite pants—and the left leg was in tatters. I could see the dark stains—whoa! Holy shit, that smelled! I covered my nose. “You smell that?” I asked.

  “No. I mean, they’re a little funky, but it’s not horrible.”

  “So you say. Those stink.” How could she not smell it? It was almost making me gag. It smelled like copper, and dead plants, and something else I couldn’t identify. I didn’t want to identify it.

  Margrite gave me an annoyed look and took the pants back into the bathroom.

  “You don’t have to save them,” I yelled.

  “I’m not going to. But I’m not going to leave them for the maid, either,” she yelled back.

  “There’s a maid here?” I looked around. A place that rented by the hour had a maid?

  “Yeah, she banged on the door yesterday, and I told her you were sleeping.”

  “Yesterday? How long have we been here? Shit, Margrite! Our flight!”

  She held up a hand. “Who are you talking to? I had your nurse call and let the airlines know that you’d come down with a wretched flu, and there was no way you could travel. Then I asked for them to please cancel the flight, but keep the funds as a credit, since we still wished to use them. I did that for each of our legs of the flight, and I was able to get all of them to cancel and hold a credit.”

  “I should let you handle this stuff more often,” I said. I couldn’t believe she’d talked all the airlines into it.

  “You should, but maybe you shouldn’t fall off the damn bike and scare me to death!” She nearly shouted at me.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what happened.”

  “Did the voice talk to you?”

  “Yeah, how did you know? Did you hear it too?”

  “No, I didn’t hear it. You were mumbling and thrashing around—”

  “Did I… did I change?” I asked. I was almost afraid to hear the answer.

  “No, but I thought you might. You opened your eyes once, and even though I was right there, it was like you didn’t see me. Your eyes were glowing, Aodan! And you were growling. We need to figure out what is going on with you, and it needs to happen now. We can’t leave here and then have you freaking out on the plane, or something! We’re lucky this happened at night, and I was close enough to this place to drag you in!”

  “Lower your voice,” I said. “The walls aren’t that thick.”

  “I’m scared,” she said bluntly, sitting on the bed across from where I was. “I didn’t know what to do, and honestly, I have no idea how to handle this. We need to get a grip on this.”

  “You should go,” I said.

  Margrite looked at me, and then made a noise—I couldn’t tell what kind of noise, but it wasn’t good. She wasn’t happy with me. She got up again, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her in something a little less than a slam. Enough of one to let me know she was pissed.

  I got it. I understood. But it was stupid for her to stay here when we had no idea what was happening, and I was hearing voices in my head. Not to mention the possibility of sprouting a tail in moments of stress. That was on top of the whole black out thing. What if that had happened when I’d been at full speed? I would have killed us both.

  I couldn’t let anything happen to her just because my life had gone apeshit and sideways all at once.

  She stormed back in, and this time, she slammed the door. I guess keeping a low profile wasn’t a concern anymore.

  “You are not dumping me off,” she said, her breath coming heavily. “I didn’t save your ass for you to go off on your own and be all noble, and stupid, and get yourself killed.”

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her this angry. “M, I don’t want you—”

  “What you want doesn’t matter anymore. I’m in this with you. We’ve always been a team. That’s not going to change now just because—”

  “I’ve got a tail?” I asked.

  She took off her shoe and threw it at me. “You don’t right now, and even with the tail, you’re still you. Just shut the hell up with this whole noble go off on your own thing!”

  I held up my hands. “Okay, okay, simmer down. I feel like I have to offer. I don’t really want to split up, either. But I would feel like an even bigger shit if I didn’t give you the chance to leave. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I…” I stopped, looking over her
head. “I don’t know that this will end well. And I’ll beat myself up forever if you get hurt.”

  “Well,” Margrite came over, and snagged her shoe off the bed, sitting on the opposite bed to put it back on. “We’ve been dealing with each other’s shit for a long time. I’m not going to let you do this alone. Don’t be stupid, Aodan.”

  Part of me was not happy that she wouldn’t take herself out of the way of danger. The other part was relieved that I wouldn’t be alone in this, whatever this was.

  “What do we do?” Margrite asked.

  I sighed. “I need to talk to the voice again.” I didn’t tell her that the voice had dismissed her and my worries over her without a second thought. There’d be time to deal with that if it came up again.

  It probably would, but this fell under the heading of I was too tired to deal with more.

  “What did it say?”

  “It, or he, because I think it’s a guy, wanted to see where I was. He said he needed to come to me that he had to see me.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  I shrugged. “Not great. I feel like something has changed. He’s not as nice.”

  “Was he really nice before?” Her eyebrows went up.

  “Yes. He said…” I hesitated.

  “What?”

  “He said he’s my grandfather,” I said. “That was before. Now, though, he’s kind of bordering on being a dick,” I admitted.

  Her eyes were wide. “Your grandfather?” She asked slowly. “Really? Do you believe that? Can you trust him?”

  “Can we trust anyone?”

  “True,” Margrite said. “Outside of each other.”

  “What do I do? He wants to show up here. I don’t have a good feeling about him anymore. I can’t get a handle on who—or what—this is! Why the hell is someone in my head?” I was so frustrated.

  She tapped her lip. “That’s weird. You didn’t feel bad about him before.”

  While I couldn’t have stopped my outburst, I’m glad she ignored my bitching.

  “Yeah, something has changed. But let’s not talk about that for a minute. We have bigger problems.”

  “Like the fact you got knocked on your ass?”

  “Yes. What happened there? You said it was like seeing me get hit by lightning? What does that even mean?”