Dragon Mark

by Kit Bladegrave

  “Just curious is all.”

  I breathed deeply through my nose and froze. What was that delicious smell? It was magnificent and tantalizing… was it his food? No, no Jimmy’s pancakes never smelled so good. Like all the holiday dinners mixed together.

  I breathed again, and he tilted his head, watching me. I stopped sniffing the air, realizing what I was doing and that I probably looked like a crazy person. “Sorry, it’s been a weird morning.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “Right, well, I just didn’t know if you needed help or something.” I watched him closely, but then my gaze shifted to the item resting against the seat beside him. It was wrapped in leather, but the light refracted off of something red and sparkling beneath it.

  My shoulders tensed and the sensation of something trying to move beneath my skin had me stepping back quickly.

  “Are you this weird around everyone you meet?” he asked annoyed.

  “Uh, no… no… what is that?” I blurted out, pointing to the thing.

  His hand automatically went to it, and he glared at me. “None of your business, little girl.”

  “Little girl?” I snapped and fiddled with the silver bangle on my wrist. “Seriously? I’m just trying to be nice, and you’re going to bite my head off?”

  “You haven’t exactly been nice.”

  “I was worried about you. You look like someone’s chasing you,” I pointed out. “All I was going to say was if you needed help, I know someone you would be safe with.”

  He glanced around as if I’d brought in a team of other people to corner him. “Who sent you?”

  “What? No one,” I muttered. “I came in to get breakfast for me and that dog, but then I was told that dog is yours so just getting food for myself.”

  “Harry, his name is Harry,” he grunted as if I offended him by not knowing the dog’s name.

  “Maybe you should get a collar for your dog,” I shot back.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’re right, totally right.”

  It took another second to take in his weird look, the long leather trench coat, and the torn-up shirt beneath, and his pants. They weren’t jeans. He was wearing knee-high leather boots, and… were those breeches?

  “Did you come from a convention?”

  “Now you’re going to insult what I’m wearing? You’re great at making new friends, aren’t you?”

  My hands curled into fists at my sides, and the strangest urge to smack him across the face hit me. I stopped myself short and backed away.

  “You know what, never mind. I didn’t want to help you or your dog anyway. Crazy, paranoid freak,” I mumbled and stalked away.

  I paid for my pancakes and grumbled as I stepped outside. I gave Harry a long scratch behind the ears and stomped down the sidewalk. I’d eat my breakfast in the small park then do my running for Mama Lucy.

  That guy, he was such an asshole. All I tried to do was help. My steps slowed, and I frowned realizing he might have been right. I had acted weirdly. I’d been sniffing the air like a dog. And that thing with him, what had it done to me? A shiver shot down my spine as flashes of my dream last night hit me again.

  Didn’t matter. I’d never see him again. I’d do my running, go home, and try to catch up on some sleep and pray that whatever strange crap was going on with me was nothing more than a fluke.

  Chapter Four

  Craig

  I left a twenty on the table, picked up the wrapped sword, and without touching anything on my plate, or waiting for change, headed out of the café. I’d pocketed a pancake for Harry at least, and he gobbled it up as soon as I offered it to him.

  “Who is she?” I whispered to him, watching the weird girl walk down the sidewalk.

  At first, I thought she was some townie who was going to hit on me. Happened before, but then she’d been sniffing the air. Sniffing it, intently, and I’d watched as her gaze zeroed in on the sword. The idea crossed my mind she was a witch of some kind, sent after me by Reginald, but she was a piss poor one if that was the case. No witch was that clumsy.

  And then I saw the bracelet on her arm.

  She was no witch, not even close. She was exactly who I needed, and she was storming off through town.

  I patted my leg and Harry fell into step beside me. I carried the sword over my shoulder, keeping my eyes trained on that head of black hair. The conversation replayed over and over in my head, and each time, I found another thing that made me curious about who she was. Her eyes were intense as she’d spoken to me, but at the same time, she seemed so unsure of herself. What was someone like her doing in this tiny town anyway? As far as I knew, there were none in these parts. They rarely frequented the human realm, not wanting to risk exposure.

  Many centuries ago it happened, and it was disastrous for their kind. They were still rebuilding, and yet one of their own was out here wandering the streets of some mountain town in Colorado.

  The runes on that bracelet were old, older than many I’d seen before on one like her. She had no guards following her that I could see. Was it possible she was really on her own? My luck might be holding out, and I picked up the pace.

  When she’d sniffed the air, I thought at first, she was being weird, but now I realized if she was what I thought she was, then the glass shard in my pocket had been what she smelled. I couldn’t lose her. She might be my only chance to track down the rest of the shards.

  The girl turned off the sidewalk, and my gut dropped thinking I lost her, but then Harry barked and took off through the small crowd, and I caught the end of his bushy tail disappearing into a small park.

  I couldn’t run and hoped he would slow her down. Warmth spread from the wound at my side, and I knew it opened up. I healed slower thanks to my human half, but usually, it didn’t take this long. And never before had I needed stitches to aid in the closing of a wound.

  Whenever I saw Reginald again, I’d have to pay him back in kind.

  Harry’s barking guided me through the tiny park where a small playground was set off to the side, and a few art pieces were displayed, popping out here and there amongst the bushes. I clutched at my side, grimacing as the pain grew and my feet staggered.

  “Hi again,” I heard the girl say, laughing at the dog. “Where’s your mean old owner, huh?”

  I tried to call out, but the words stuck in my throat. I collapsed to the ground, coughing and hacking as a chill spread through my bones. What the hell was this?

  “Hello?” the girl called out. No one else was in the park that I could hear. Harry barked and a few seconds later, I saw his furry feet before my eyes.

  “Oh God!” The girl was there, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me to my feet. “You idiot!”

  “Idiot?” I managed to rasp, trying to get to my feet with her help—and the dog’s.

  “Yes, idiot. I asked if you needed help and you chased me off by being an asshole,” she snapped.

  Her anger made me grin, and I tried to laugh, not exactly sure what was funny about this situation. I might be dying, but all I could do was laugh.

  “Come on, we’re getting you to a hospital.”

  “No,” I growled, and she stiffened, but didn’t run off. “No hospital.”

  “What’s wrong with you anyway?”

  I couldn’t find the words again and pointed to my side. She shoved away my shirt and gasped.

  “That’s a lot of blood. Ok, I’m taking you to my place. Can you walk?”

  “Where… where is your place?”

  “Not far, but there’s a woman there, she can help you.”

  A woman? I needed to know who, or what, but my mind became a muddled mess. My arm draped over her shoulders, and she started to lead me away, but the leather-wrapped sword was on the ground.

  “Wait!”

  “What?”

  I nodded to the sword on the ground. “Can’t… can’t leave it.”

  “Seriously? You could be dying, and you
’re worried about that thing?”

  “Priorities,” I mumbled, and she glared at me. I removed my arm and Harry helped me stay standing as she bent to pick it up. I was about to apologize for it being so heavy, worried she might not be able to carry it around, but she hoisted it easily into her arms, and then put my arm back around her shoulders. “Who the hell are you?”

  “That’s not very nice to ask the person helping you.”

  I winced with every step we took back down the park trail and out to the sidewalk. She held me up and carried that sword as if we weighed nothing. If I doubted what she was a few seconds ago, I didn’t any longer.

  But the question remained if she knew what she was.

  I guess I’d have no choice, but to let her take me back to this woman and hope it wasn’t a trap.

  “What is this place?” I grunted when we finally reached an huge old, mansion smack dab in the middle of town. “You live here?’

  “Yes, now I told you to stop talking and save your strength,” she scolded.

  I grinned. “I’m fine, perfectly fine.”

  She glanced worriedly at my side, and I knew that was clearly not the case. “You should’ve just let me take you a hospital,” she muttered.

  “No, no hospitals,” I growled again, but weaker, much weaker. “They don’t do well treating patients like me.”

  “Oh, you mean stubborn jackasses?”

  “You’re funny you know that?” I squinted at her as my vision blurred. “And kind of cute when you’re mad.”

  She opened her mouth to say something else, but I didn’t hear it. It was like someone put cotton in my ears and my legs gave out, too.

  I crashed to the ground, and Harry started licking my face.

  I tried to lift a hand to pet him, but it didn’t reach.

  All I could do was lay there, on a stone path, and stare up at the sky.

  Chapter Five

  Kate

  “Idiot!” I snapped again as I rushed up the front steps and into the house. “Mama Lucy!”

  “Kate, what’s the matter?” she asked, rushing out of the kitchen.

  A few of the kids followed, but one look at the panic on my face and she sent them back outside to play.

  “Kate?’

  I grabbed her hand and dragged her outside with me. “He needs your help.”

  Mama Lucy’s face darkened the second they landed on the guy. “Where did you find him? What happened?”

  “At the café,” I rasped as she ran to his side and knelt down.

  Harry promptly sat back on his butt watching contently.

  “I tried to talk to him, but he was being rude, and then he followed me, and I saw the blood, but he said no hospital.”

  “Take a breath, Kate,” Mama Lucy ordered gently. “Help me get him inside.”

  “No hospital?” I asked confused.

  “No, not for this. Come on.”

  She grabbed his feet, and I hefted him up at the shoulders. Together, we managed to get him up the few wooden steps, and inside the living room with pocket doors she slid closed.

  Then she was back at his side as he laid on the couch, peeling back his coat and lifted his shirt. The wound looked awful, not that I’d seen many wounds before in my life… or none, really.

  “Is it supposed to look like that? All weird and oozing?”

  “No. Whatever stabbed him was poisoned.”

  “Stabbed? Poisoned?” I stared intently at the guy’s face. “What’s going on? Why would someone stab him?”

  Something pawed at the door, and I rushed to open it thinking it would be one of the kids, but it was Harry, dragging that huge sword behind him by the hilt.

  I picked it up for him, and he trotted to sit by the guy’s head. I leaned the sword against the wall, more concerned with him surviving than the trinket he had with him. Who walked around with a sword anyway?

  “Kate, I need you to grab me a few things from the shop,” Mama Lucy said, poking and prodding around the wound with her fingers.

  I gagged and turned away, not wanting to see what was happening to the wound.

  “Grab a pen and paper, it’s going to be quite a few items.”

  I nodded and rushed out of the room to find a paper and pen. I peeked out back, but all the kids were still out there playing and laughing in the garden, safe and sound and not seeing that ghastly wound.

  I ran back to Mama Lucy and jotted down everything she told me.

  “What is this stuff?” I asked, staring at the list. “I’m not sure they sell this at the pharmacy.”

  “You’re not going to the pharmacy,” she informed me, her brow crinkled so deep I wondered if it would un-crinkle. “He needs different help besides the medicine of men.”

  I blinked a few times before muttering, “What? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know, but I have no time to explain right now.” She removed a gold coin from the pocket of her skirt, and my eyes went straight to it.

  The urge to snatch it out of her hands grew in me suddenly. I forced myself to back away.

  “I need you to go to the herbalist shop three blocks over, you know the one.”

  “I’ve never gone there before. You said I wasn’t allowed to,” I whispered, my still eyes transfixed by that gold coin in her hand.

  “And now I’m telling you to go there. Take this,” she said and grabbed my hand, setting the coin in my palm.

  It was heavy, not physically, but I couldn’t describe what it did to me. I rolled my shoulders and broke out in a cold sweat.

  “Kate, look at me.”

  The power in those words made my eyes whip to her, and I shook my head. “Sorry, right, the shop.”

  “Give this coin to the woman behind the counter along with the list. She’ll give you what you need. And hurry. Your friend doesn’t have much time.”

  I tucked the coin into my front pocket and nodded. “He better be nice to me after this,” I muttered and stomped for the door.

  The guy grunted in his unconscious state, but it came out more of a growl. His lips moved, and he mumbled a few words I couldn’t make out, but then Mama Lucy was shoving me towards the door.

  “Is this his dog?” she asked, nodding to Harry sitting by the couch.

  “I think so, at least he said it was. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  The wound oozed more blood as we’d stood there talking and not wanting to waste any more time, I darted out of the house, and sprinted through the streets.

  My mind raced with possibilities of what was going on, but each one was crazier than the last. The guy had been stabbed by someone and carried around a sword, had a weird dog as a companion, and growled.

  None of it made sense, but then again, nothing about these past few days made sense. The dreams had gotten worse, and the sensation that I was not alone in my own body intensified at random times throughout the day.

  I took a deep breath as I rounded the corner and took off again. A tantalizing scent made me come to a dead stop.

  The coin.

  My eyes darted to my pocket, and I placed my hand over it. I wanted the coin, wanted to hold it again and keep it… but I couldn’t.

  “What is wrong with me?” I picked up the pace and turned my thoughts back to the guy on Mama Lucy’s couch potentially going to die if I didn’t get back to them both fast enough.

  Whatever else was going on, the only thing that mattered was not letting that rude person die on the couch. I had a feeling he’d come back to haunt me one way or another and never let me forget I failed him.

  I was maybe a block away from the shop when I turned another corner and slammed right into a group of people.

  I took one of them down with me as I yelped in alarm, but somehow, he managed to twist us mid-fall, and I landed on top of his hard, muscled form.

  “Oh God! I’m so sorry,” I gasped, but the rest of the words stuck in my throat.

  He smiled, and it lit up his face, his very smooth, chiseled f
ace. Two bright blue eyes met mine, and I swore they glimmered.

  “That’s quite alright. Are you hurt?”

  “Am I hurt?” I repeated dumbly and shook my head. “No, no I’m fine. How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “I was going to land on the sidewalk, and then you moved, and I crushed you.”

  “I hardly call this crushing me, and you seem to be enjoying it since you have yet to move… though your elbow is digging into my ribcage.”

  I yanked it away and tried to get off his very comfortable, very warm chest. “Sorry! I’m so sorry.”

  He helped me, and I noticed his buddies standing close by, staring curiously at me. “It’s alright. Not every day a beautiful woman runs into me.”

  “Yeah well, I’m in a hurry and crap! I’m sorry, I have to go!”

  I took off at a run again, but a glance over my shoulder told me the guy stood there with a mix of confusion and delight on his face as he watched me go.

  Damn it! Why couldn’t I have just stayed a few seconds longer? Gotten his number maybe? But that was selfish of me. The other guy I ran into was about to die if I didn’t hurry. There was no time for getting numbers from handsome guys on the street.

  And I didn’t know either of their names.

  Fantastic.

  But that second guy, he seemed familiar. I hadn’t seen him around town before, just like the first one, but he was different.

  I wrinkled my nose as the notion that he smelled familiar passed through my mind. How could someone smell familiar? Was it his cologne maybe? But I was lying right on top of him, and I was pretty sure there was no cologne on that guy anywhere.

  He looked a little older, too. Maybe nineteen or twenty. College guy. Could’ve been in town for something I guess. I shouldn’t know who he was, but that voice in the back of my mind said I did and I should turn back to find him again.

  “No,” I told myself firmly and sprinted the rest of the way to the shop. “Have to save the idiot first.”

  Outside the shop with windows filled with herbs and oils, candles and hanging charms and ornaments, I waited a few seconds longer, to catch my breath, then sweaty and a bit out of sorts, stepped inside the one shop I’d always wanted to go into, holding my breath for what I might finally get to see.