The Dracons' Woman: Book 1 of the Soul-Linked Saga

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Lariah was relieved to note that the ground-car was slowing down in front of a long, rambling building set between two low hills and surrounded with trees. She knew they were on the ranch property because she had been looking out the window when the ground-car passed beneath the tall, arching main gate. Rather than head east toward the house, Trey had turned west and driven for quite a time. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was, but that they had arrived at their destination meant that she did not have to continue her story. Not that she had any intention of doing so anyway. It just meant she didn’t have to argue about it.

  As soon as Trey stopped the vehicle, Lariah leapt out and hurried around to the back, waiting impatiently for one of the guys to open it. The handle was far too high for her to reach, though she was considering trying to climb up the back of the vehicle during the few seconds it took for Trey to appear. Trey noted her anxiety, but made no comment. He simply opened the back gate so that Lariah could check on the sleeping dog.

  The moment the gate was opened Lariah leaned into the ground-car, placing her hands on the dog’s head for a long moment as she closed her eyes and focused. Satisfied that the animal was resting peacefully she stroked his ears as she whispered softly to it.

  She felt Garen and Val join Trey behind her without conscious thought, so it took her a moment to realize she was hearing an extra set of footsteps just before a rough, craggy voice began swearing angrily. At least, she thought it was swearing. The language was unfamiliar. The tone was not.

  Lariah straightened and turned around to see a man who looked as rough as his voice sounded. He was only a few inches taller than she was, and very thin. He had bushy white hair, a bushy white mustache, a day or two’s growth of white stubble on his cheeks, and dark blue eyes. Lariah guessed he was human, perhaps 50 years old. He looked fiercely angry as he got his first good look at the condition of the dog in the back of the ground-car.

  “Whoever did this ought to be horse-whipped,” he said in English. Lariah frowned, narrowing her eyes at the older man. She didn’t know what “horse whipped” meant, but she didn’t like the sound of it.

  “I believe one abused animal is more than enough,” she said archly. She wasn’t entirely certain she should let this man touch the dog, no matter how great a vet he might be.

  The man looked at her, his blue eyes widening with surprise. He stared at Lariah for a long, silent moment before smiling gently at her. It was an expression that Garen, Val and Trey were positive they had never seen on Doc’s face before.

  “I promise you honey, I would never hurt an animal,” Doc said, his rough voice as gentle as he could possibly make it. “Horse-whipped does not mean what it sounds like.” Doc looked back at the dog.

  “This here your dog?” he asked Lariah suddenly. Lariah’s eyebrows rose. She was sure that Garen and Val had already told Doc where the dog had come from. Therefore, he knew the dog did not belong to her. She studied the man’s profile as she considered his question. Then she got it.

  “Yes,” she replied firmly. “This is my dog.”

  Doc nodded once. “Then lets us get him fixed up properly,” he said, his eyes never leaving the dog. Even so, Lariah felt his approval and, in spite of the rough manner and looks of the man, it warmed her. Once again, she had that feeling of acceptance.

  That evening Garen, Val and Trey sat on the patio watching Lariah with her new companion. It had been an interesting day all the way around, but by far the most entertaining part of it for the three men had been the afternoon. After Doc met Lariah.

  Doc was a grouchy old human male who had worked for the Dracons for 50 years. Although the man looked 50, he was much, much older. There were many things about Doc that few knew, but that was Doc’s business. His position on the ranch was physician, plain and simple. He’d treated humans, humanoids, animals of every description, and a few things that were difficult to classify. He’d been well known and highly respected at one time. But tragedy had struck the man’s life, and it had very nearly destroyed him.

  Eventually the Dracon brothers had found him and offered him a post on their ranch. They promised him privacy, anonymity, and a place to heal both animals and people if that was what he wished. They weren’t sure he would take their offer, but after a time, he’d shown up on their doorstep. He’d introduced himself to them as “Doc” and they’d taken their cue from him. Doc he had been ever since.

  One thing everyone knew about Doc was that he never liked anyone. He was unfailingly tender and gentle with women, children, and animals while treating them, but he never responded to overtures of friendship. He wanted to heal, and be left alone.

  Until he fell head over heels for Lariah at first sight.

  As Lariah had guessed, Garen and Val had filled Doc in on the condition of the dog and what Lariah had done to save it before Doc had reached the ground-car. How much that story influenced him in her favor Garen didn’t know. But he was fairly certain it was her adamant refusal to leave the animal’s side, even when he had to do a bit of surgery on some of the older wounds that hadn’t healed correctly, that really cemented the budding friendship. Lariah had swallowed hard and stuck to her post at the dog’s head, petting and soothing him even though he remained in the deep sleep Garen and Trey had put him in. Doc was concerned that anesthesia would be too dangerous given the animal’s poor health, so they kept him in a deep, painless sleep.

  Once the broken bones had been annealed and all of the wounds treated, Lariah had insisted on cleaning the animal before he was awakened. Garen was frankly surprised to discover that the dog had a gorgeous coat of short, incredibly soft fur colored a deep, rich gold with distinctive black stripes giving him the appearance of an Earth tiger. His face was black, as were his large floppy ears and one rear paw. Garen had to admit that, once clean, he was a handsome animal.

  Doc checked the dog’s ears and teeth, trimmed his nails, gave him some vitamins and other medicines to help with his healing, and pronounced him ready to be awakened. Garen and Trey put their hands on the animal and awakened him very slowly, both ready in case the dog panicked at finding himself in such an unfamiliar situation with unfamiliar people. They needn’t have worried. The first thing he did was look into Lariah’s eyes for a long moment before sticking out an incredibly long pink tongue and licking her chin.

  “He’s very underweight,” Doc observed. “I’ll make up a formula for him so that he gets vitamins and protein in small doses at first. If we try to feed him up too fast, we could do him more harm than good. Also, his bones aren’t in good shape. He wasn’t fed properly while he was growing and it shows. If something isn’t done about it, he’s going to have some problems soon. He’s only about two now, so he’s got a good couple years in him if we leave him as he is.”

  “Is there anything you can do to correct the problem with his bones?” Lariah asked hopefully.

  Doc hesitated a moment, glanced at Garen, then back to Lariah. “Yes,’ he said slowly. “There is a compound I read about developed for this type of problem. It’s a series of injections given over several weeks. For a dog his size, probably six injections would be needed. But,” he warned, “It’s very expensive.”

  “How expensive?” Lariah asked.

  Doc thought about it a moment, then named a figure. Lariah winced, then looked down into the big brown eyes that had hardly left her face since the dog had awakened. Her chin went up and Garen hid a smile. “I have enough for that,” she said. From the way she said it, Garen suspected that she had only just enough for that.

  Doc shook his head. “Honey, that doesn’t even include the cost of transporting it here, and even going slow freight, which could take months, would almost double that figure.” Lariah’s face fell. “Oh,” she said in a small voice.

  “Don’t you worry none,” Doc said suddenly. “I’ll cover the transport myself.” Garen, Trey and Val stared at each other, and Doc, in open shock.

  Garen cleared his throat. “Doc, order whatever is ne
eded, and get it here as fast as possible. We will pay for it, and anything else you think he needs. “

  Now it was Doc’s turn to be surprised. He nodded his head and smiled. “Right away,” he said.

  Garen smiled back, then both of them turned their eyes on Lariah. “Oh, thank you all so much,” she said, tears in her eyes as she smiled at them.

  Then she wrapped her arms around the dog’s head and gave him a careful hug. “You are going to be better than new,” she whispered to him. “And you are going to be safe. Nobody will ever hurt you again,” she promised fervently. Once again Garen knew that Lariah was identifying with what the dog had suffered. It made his heart hurt to imagine her being harmed in such a way. If they weren’t able to get her to tell them what had been done to her, his imagination was going to drive him crazy.

  Doc offered to keep the dog over at the clinic with him, but Lariah pleaded with Garen to allow him in the house. Garen knew that if he refused her, she would be sleeping in the clinic. Not that he had ever intended to refuse her. He had known she would not be parted from the animal.

  Doc insisted the dog be fed before leaving the clinic, which in itself appeared to present a problem. The animal refused to eat anything Doc put in the dish under his nose, even after Doc sprinkled it with the chopped up steak he’d planned for his own dinner. The men began discussing possible ailments that would explain such an extreme lack of appetite in a nearly starved animal, when Lariah simply picked up the dish, patted the dog on his gigantic head, and set it down in front of him. He immediately dug in and ate every crumb.

  It wasn’t until the dog stood up on his own four feet for the first time that they realized just how big he was. His head was almost at Lariah’s shoulders! Garen had a moment of doubt. It would be all too easy for an animal that size to seriously harm her. But seeing the way the dog looked at Lariah, he reconsidered. It was obvious that the dog adored her. Perhaps having a gigantic dog as her constant companion was a good idea.

  Now, after the dog had met Garen, Val and Trey, and apparently accepted them as part of his pack, he was lying at Lariah’s feet, his eyes on her at all times.

  “I don’t know what your name was,” Lariah said, talking softly to the dog. “But, whatever it was, you can’t have good memories of it. I think that since you have a new home, and a new family, you should have a new name too.” She cocked her head to the side as she studied the dog, one dainty finger tapping against her chin. “I know,” she exclaimed. “We will call you Tiny.”

  Garen, Val and Trey burst out laughing, the sound startling the big dog. He jumped to his feet and placed his large body between Lariah and the men.

  “Good boy,” Garen praised him at once. The poor animal was shaking with the sudden effort, his body very weak. But his first instinct had been to protect Lariah, and that made him worth more than whatever the cost of his care could ever be.

  Lariah put her hand on the dog’s neck. “What do you think boy, do you like the name Tiny?” The dog wagged his long, whip-like tail.

  She looked at the guys over the dog’s back. “He likes it, and so do I,” she announced, her eyes sparkling with humor.

  “Well then, Tiny he is,” Val agreed, while Garen and Trey just grinned. They didn’t care what she called the dog. Anything that put that light in her eyes, they would go along with.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you, why did you not go to work for the IALEC like your sister?” Garen asked.

  “Because she is psychic and I’m not,” she replied matter-of-factly.

  Garen, Trey and Val all stared at her for a long moment. Lariah shrugged and shook her head slightly, not understanding their response at first. Then it hit her and she laughed, a low, husky sound that made Garen, Trey and Val all smile. It was the first time they had heard her unrestrained laughter. Each of them knew that it was a sound they would never want to live without again.

  “I guess I better rephrase that,” she said when she stopped laughing. “Because she is psychic and I wasn’t.” She grinned. “That better?”

  Garen grinned back at her. “Since your ability to communicate with Tiny definitely qualifies you as psychic, then yes, I would have to agree that is better.”

  Lariah stuck her tongue out at him, her eyes bright and full of humor. He just grinned wider.

  “Was that the first time anything like that happened to you?” Trey asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “Except, now that I think about it, I did have those two episodes of feeling afraid before something bad happened to me, and there was that feeling I had that I needed to come here, with you guys. I’m not sure those things qualify as psychic though.”

  Garen thought about that a moment, but he wasn’t sure either. “Why did you believe that you were not psychic?” he asked.

  “Because I was tested,” she replied. “In fact, I was tested several times.”

  “Why?” Val asked curiously.

  “There are not very many human psychics,” Lariah explained. “Those that are identified as children have a better chance of strengthening and refining their abilities than those identified as adults.” Lariah shrugged. “That’s what the scientists say anyway. Its one of the standard tests given to all 10 year old students in schools now. When Ellicia was found to have a strong ability, they tested me too, even though I was only 8, because it often runs in families. They tested me several times but I never showed the slightest bit of psychic talent.”

  “I understand the desire to identify the ability in children so they are better able to be taught how to deal with it,” Trey said. “But I do not understand why the tests are conducted in schools. Why not in a medical facility? That would make more sense to me.”

  “I suppose because the government runs the schools, and the government also likes to use psychics for different things,” Lariah replied. The military, intelligence, different branches of law enforcement such as the IALEC, things like that.”

  “When you were first tested, did you understand the reason for it?” Garen asked her.

  “Yes,” she admitted. “Our mother explained to us that the police and the military identify children with the ability, then take them out of school and train them. If they are strong enough psychics, and have a talent that is useful, they are given jobs.” Lariah paused for a moment and smiled. “I know now that there is more to it than that, but you have to remember that my mother was trying to explain something complex to a ten year old and an eight year old in a way that they could understand it.”

  “It doesn’t sound as though your mother liked the idea very much,” Val observed.

  “I don’t think she did,” she said after a moment. “She never came right out and said as much, but I always had the feeling it made her nervous.”

  “It wasn’t something that appealed to you either, was it?” Val asked, already knowing the answer from the expression of distaste on Lariah’s face.

  “Not at all,” she said. “It really scared me. I was only eight years old at the time, and I had this mental image of being forced to wear a huge helmet and walk around with a rifle bigger than I was while people shot at me. It gave me nightmares.”

  The idea of Lariah wielding a gamma weapon in battle gave Garen a bad moment as well.

  “Did your sister feel the same way?” he asked, shoving that image to the back of his mind.

  “Not hardly,” she said, smiling. “Ellicia just loved the idea of tracking down bad guys and putting them in jail.” Lariah shook her head. “I always figured she must take after our father more than me.”

  Garen, Trey and Val all looked at her expectantly. Somehow, she knew that they really wanted to know more, but didn’t want to pry. She wondered about that for a moment, but couldn’t decide if she was actually sensing their feelings, or if she was just getting to know them well enough that she understood their expressions. Either way didn’t really matter. They had shared so much of themselves with her, it was only fair she give back some. Not that she had that
much to tell.

  “My father was a police officer,” she told them. “He was killed in the line of duty when I was just a baby, so I never knew him. My mother was killed while standing in line at the bank. Some kid on drugs stole a ground-car and crashed into the building at high speed. Five people died, my Mother included.”

  Garen, Trey and Val all placed their fists to their hearts and bowed their heads. The gesture touched her as it had when they’d done it the first time. She nodded her head in acknowledgement and found that she very much liked this tradition. It was so much easier than trying to think of something to say, when there was never anything that could be said that mattered.

  “Who took care of you and your sister after your Mother passed?” Garen asked her.

  “We did,” Lariah replied. “When it happened, Ell had just turned 18 and was being paid by the Agency while she finished her training. There was an insurance stipend from our father’s death, plus insurance money when Mom died. We weren’t rich, but income was not a problem. Mom owned our home, which became ours when she died, so we just continued to live there. When I was old enough to live on my own, I stayed there and Ell moved into her own, more modern apartment.” Lariah paused for a moment and looked out into the garden, her expression sad. “I know this will sound strange, but aside from my sister, and one friend, Saige, the only thing I really miss is my home. I lived there my entire life.”

  Garen, Trey and Val looked at each other helplessly. They had no idea what to say to her, or how to ease that pain for her, so they remained silent. After a few moments, Garen decided to take the subject back onto a less emotional track.

  “I wonder if it’s possible that you subconsciously blocked your ability when you were tested in order to avoid being recruited,” he said.

  Lariah looked at him, an expression of mild surprise on her face. It took her a moment to replay what he’d said to her. “I don’t really know,” she said finally. “I guess it’s possible. But even if it’s true that I blocked it all those times I was tested as a child, why would it take so long for me to notice it? It’s been years since I was last tested, but the first time I experienced anything strange was about two months ago.”