Dragonfall

by Erik Schubach

  Tanner nodded. “We already have an APB out for him.”

  Quinn nodded in appreciation for the man's professionalism and was about to start the video again when I grabbed her hand to stop her. “Wait.”

  I asked, “Can you print this?” Tanner nodded and entered some commands and the man's face printed on a thermal printer in the cruiser. He reached in and tore it off the roll and handed it to me.

  I lifted one finger, and my fingernail extended into a dragon claw and I willed forth flames on it for a moment, heating it up. Then I started drawing on the thermal paper on the man's forehead, tracing some of the lines on the intricate tattoo there. Quinn gasped when she saw what I was bringing forward from it. One of the thrall runes that Saint George used! They were hiding it in the tattoo so nobody would see it.

  We saw the realization on Tanner's face when I finished. We all turned to the video again to look for anyone in the cafe who even remotely resembled Georgios of Lydda. Francisco had looked right. There were only three men and two women in that direction outside. None of the men looked remotely like George.

  We went through the static then to the video of the aftermath. Through the chaos of fleeing people, I hadn't noticed the first time, that one woman was still sitting outside with her back to the camera sipping her coffee like nothing had happened. Then she stood and just walked off, never turning her head toward the camera.

  Quinn rewound and played back the part where Francisco turned and said something. Now it certainly seemed like he was looking in her direction. A woman? Not Saint George? I don't know why but I relaxed some. The primal fear I had of having to face that man again faded, being replaced by the anticipation of the hunt. If this woman was involved, she was going down.

  Then Quinn and Tanner were in motion, heading toward the cafe. Tanner carrying the laptop. One of Quinn's hands snaked out to snag my arm to pull me with them. She hissed, “By my side, at all times.” I grinned at that since there was nowhere else I wanted to be, at all times. But I shot her an indignant look instead. I have an image to uphold after all. I could almost hear her chuckle through the blood-tie though her face stayed deathly serious.

  The cafe was closed after all the excitement, but there were still some workers inside cleaning up. Tanner pounded on the door a couple times and a young woman came to the door and let us in. He was turning the screen to the woman before she could speak and he asked, “Did this woman pay with a credit card?”

  The woman shrugged. “I don't know, that was Jay's table.” She looked back by the counter stools. “Hey Jay, come here a second. You remember this customer? Did she pay with a card?”

  He looked and smiled broadly. “No she paid in cash, huge tipper. Gawd she was cute!”

  I sat back while Quinn and Tanner took turns questioning the boy. He seemed to be a lovesick puppy the way he described her. But the general gist of it was that she was between nineteen and twenty-one. Cute face and “golden brown” hair with a killer smile. Great, now the police can put out an APB for every pop princess wannabe out there.

  Tanner got the day's receipts from the woman, Marjorie, so that they could contact and speak with anyone who may have seen the woman that could describe her better. The police chief shook his head and sighed and thanked Marjorie for her help and called back as we were leaving, “Jay, I need you to get to the station today to talk with a sketch artist.”

  The boy nodded and we exited the cafe. Tanner hissed, “It'll wind up looking like Katy Perry, mark my words.” Quinn snorted and I hid my smile at his warranted cynicism.

  Quinn spoke with Agent Grove, “Take three agents you trust and take Myra to a safe-house. I'll join you after I coordinate things here.”

  I hissed, “You'll be doin' no such thing Dawna! Your team can be takin' me back to the museum. There is still a dragon murderer out there and it bears a striking resemblance to what's on the scrolls. I'll do more good there than hidin' and shakin' in me knickers.”

  Quinn towered over me and glared, I glared right back. We stood there like that for at least five seconds and she blurted out angrily, “Fine! But only the museum and a safe-house!” I beamed in triumph with a scrunchy nosed grin at her. She tried really hard not to smile back.

  Dawna had asked before she led me off to the helicopters, “Why water dragons?”

  I knew what she was asking. Every single one of the murders has been water dragons. All the men of my clan are either earth or water elementals, even though my clan is the fire clan. Caragh explained that to me when I had asked. It is the primary element that a queen wilds that determine the clan. The males of the clan can only wield one element so it is a mix of them. When a queen grants a rebirth of a mortal as an elemental, it will always be the queen's element. Thus Mei being a fire elemental, but not a dragon.

  Not a single male in my clan has been a fire elemental. Just earth or water. Dawna was eluding to the fact that all five murders were water dragons. Earth Drakon outnumbered the water Drakon almost four to one. There were only about a dozen water dragons left from the ones that have gone through the awakening thus far. Quinn and I had discussed this exact subject a couple days ago.

  I shrugged and said, “I have no clue. But it seems to be following the pattern in the scrolls about how the air dragons were hunted to extinction. Maybe the fecking murderer is trying to wipe out one group of elementals and is being lazy since there are fewer water dragons?” It was all I could come up with.

  She nodded and led me away as she pointed at three men who promptly fell into a protective shell around me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Quinn doing the same, we shared more with our eyes than most could with their souls. I smiled wistfully. My life had really just began the moment that woman walked into my hospital room, it seems like a lifetime ago.

  Chapter 5 – The Dark One

  When I got back to the museum, I felt like an eejit surrounded by armed men and women. I smiled apologetically to Sefa when we went in. Their guns and other sundries setting off the metal detector. He shot me a silly wink that only he could, to put me at ease. I laid a hand on his arm as I passed by and gave it a reassuring squeeze. That man is muscular!

  Dawna hustled in front of me and positioned herself similar to the way Quinn did. Keeping herself in the proverbial line of fire.

  I shook my head as we entered the elevator. “Me lord woman. Nobody is going to be attacking me in the museum! What are they going to do, fossil me to death?”

  Dawna fought a smile and lost. Then she spoke between gritted teeth, trying to reassert herself, “I don't tell you how to do your job and you don't tell me how to do mine.”

  I shrugged and stepped out of the elevator before her saying, “Now where's the fun in that?” She rushed in front of me again, shaking her head in resignation.

  It was early afternoon and I had missed lunch but after what I saw today, I'm not hungry. I refocused on the task at hand, I only had a couple hours for research before the museum closed. I arrived at the clean room and gave James and Mei an embarrassed little wave as I badged myself in.

  As I donned my working gear and washed up, I wondered how Quinn was doing. I was missing her reassuring presence after that trap in the woods. I won't be admitting it to anyone, but it really did terrify me.

  Those trees and vines were enchanted against flame which means Quinn was right... I was probably the target the entire time and Francisco's murder was just the bait. But he had created such a ruckus and drawn attention too quickly. I wonder that if all those police officers weren't around when I was ensnared, if the killer would have shown themselves.

  Mei waited for me to come through the second doors into the positive pressure room before asking almost under her breath, “How bad?”

  I shook my head and didn't say anything lest my voice crack. I fought back another tear and she gave my arm a gentle, reassuring squeeze and nodded slightly, then we went back to working with the scroll. This is the one thing I can do, the thing that I am good at, the th
ing that makes me feel like I am contributing to the investigation of the murderer of my friends.

  I was concentrating on the section where Queen Alexandra took wing to battle in the mountains. That whole area of the scroll was heavily damaged. I was able to piece together a few Middle Irish words and a couple druid runes here and there.

  After about an hour of us all working in silence, James murmured to himself, “Hmmmm.” Then went back to inspecting the digital overlay on the scroll on the monitor in front of him that had my hand drawn copies of what my dragon sight could see. Both Mei and I stopped working and turned toward him expectantly, but he just kept working. Mei squished up her face and I had to stop myself from laughing at her frustration as James just sat there working, oblivious to us.

  She cleared her throat. “Something you want to share with the class James? Your hmmms generally mean you found something.”

  He raised his head from his workstation and looked back at us and was apparently surprised we were both looking at him. He waffled. “Oh, umm. No, it's nothing. I must have mistranslated. I'm going over my work again.”

  I squinted at him which had no effect, so I raised an eyebrow. He was about to wind up on the wrong end of my short temper if he didn't... He mocked fear at my evil eye and held up his hands in surrender as he said, “No it is just that the reference was out of its time era, so I must have misinterpreted it. See here...” He pointed at a Middle Irish passage that had two runes not usually associated together, but the second rune was upside down. I had seen that before, but I don't remember where.

  He said, “It is a reference to the Dark One, more commonly known as Morgan la Fay, but we know she lived in the late sixth century not the second century. So there has to be an alternate translation.”

  Mei was grabbing one of her books, she thumbed through it quickly then showed it to us, she was pointing at the same combination in the book. It was her tome on old Arthurian Mythology. She said, “No, you are right, see here James? That does denote Morgan. And if you flip the second rune then you get the symbol for the Light Bringer... Merlin.”

  I stared at the page of Symbologies she was holding up. Then I gasped when my wee mind caught up with my intuition and I whispered, “Me lord.”

  I dashed to my station and pulled up the two runes for the Dark One, James had pushed himself from his workstation and his chair rolled beside me as Mei walked over. Curiosity was painting their faces. I superimposed the two runes and there glaring at us was the thrall rune that Saint George used to enslave the wills of the people and creatures he drew it on. It was Morgan's name!

  I was whispering out loud, trying to reason my way through this. “Georgios of Lydda wasn't even born until over a hundred years after this scroll that mentions Morgan. He had no magic of his own, he just stole all of his power from others. He was somehow using Morgan's dark magic before we thought she lived. Lords above...” I turned to my section of the scroll with the battle in the mountains, and looked at the top of two partial runes with the rest torn off... I drew in Morgan's name, and the tops of the runes matched as the blood drained from my face. “Queen Alexandra had flown to the mountains to battle Morgan la Fay! She was the one murdering the dragons of the Air Clan?”

  We were all silent for a minute. Then James spoke to stop us from all thinking what we were thinking. “Even if that were true. This can't be Morgan here and now. We know as a fact that she died on the Isle of Avalon after an unnaturally long life. Even if her dark magic allowed her to live from the second century and lived until the seventh, she is dead and gone now.”

  I speculated out loud, “After the Fire Stone broke and ended George's immortality, he was taking Drakon hearts. What if that is how Morgan lived so long and he knew that? She had the hearts of the Air Dragon Clan back then. What if George has survived my attack and is trying again, using Morgan's magic of flesh and death, or what if another magic user has found out the same?”

  Mei was on her computer as I spoke. She said, “It looks like there were two tomes dedicated to Morgan in George's hidden library in London that the international task force had confiscated. I don't seem to have clearance to request them.”

  I snapped my eyes to her. “What the fecking hell?” I walked over and logged in using my clearance and was denied too. I growled out,“Jaysus! Now they are keeping things from us?” My dragon senses bloomed. I had to stop my anger from igniting my flames. I was already speed dialing Quinn. Before she could say hello when she answered I was blurting out, “Now the fecking government and international authorities are limiting my access to information I need? They are goin' ta get a taste of me temper if they don't stop hidin' stuff from us!”

  I heard her chuckle and I could feel a slight arousal from her across our blood-tie, I have no idea why my Irish temper gets her motor running. “Calm down there Sparky. What are you ranting about now?”

  I smiled to myself, I can never seem to get her riled up. “We got a lead here with the scrolls, but we need some information from George's library to be positive, but none of us here seem to have clearance to request any of the tomes anymore.”

  She said in a calm tone, “Oh really now? Just text me what you need and I'll get them. It seems I'm going to have a talk with the higher ups again.” I smirked at that. As impressive as my temper is, her cold manner of... shall we say, persuasion, is a lot more intimidating. I caught myself biting my lower lip in want. I wanted her when she got like that.

  I said as if I expected it, “See to it that you do or I'll have to land my fat dragon ass on top of your supervisor's car.” I grinned at her chuckle then whispered so Mei and James wouldn't hear, “I love you.” She whispered it back and James rolled his eyes, Mei's cute little Japanese American face grinning with glee. Ok, so their hearing is a little better than I thought.

  I hung up and texted the info then squinted at the geeky-duo. “Hey now, I'll be havin' none of that! Back to work you surly couple of intellectuals!”

  In a decidedly un-intimidated manner, they smiled at me and we went back to work. I smiled at myself. Much better now. It wasn't fifteen minutes later when I received an email from the taskforce informing me that the requested material would be overnighted to us. I grinned, imagining the coolly toned threats that Quinn must have used to get such quick results.

  It was just a few minutes from quitting time when our boss, Henry, came down with the latest group of interns. There were four of them this time. It seems that after the re-discovery of magic and re-emergence of mythological creatures, being a research scientist or archaeologist suddenly became sexy. We normally are lucky to get even a single intern from the colleges.

  He tapped the glass on the observation window and motioned for us to come out. I nodded and we exited the clean room and my protection team sort of surrounded me. I blushed in embarrassment then said, “What can we be doin' for you Doctor Arnette?” I felt silly being formal, but I knew he preferred that when outsiders were around.

  He grinned and then cast annoyed glances at the armed agents. “We have the latest batch of mythological studies interns fresh from the University of Denver for a rotation. I thought we'd give your team first crack at one of them.”

  I grinned at the three young blokes and a pretty betty. Henry made introductions. “These are Doctors James Reid, and Mei Kamia of our Fire Stone exhibit and research team. And this is Doctor Myra O'Connell who heads up the team and the...”

  He was interrupted by a skinny rail of a kid. Me lord, I'm callin' them kids when I'm only four or five years older than them. The bloke blurted out, “The Dragon of Denver!” He had a glint of hero worship in his eye. I'm getting tired of seeing that, I'm just Myra, a girl from Wicklow.

  The young woman backhanded his gut lightly, rolling her eyes. “Good god man, stop gawking.” I had to grin a little at her. The three blokes seemed to defer to her. Well, why wouldn't they, she was quite a looker. All shapely curves and one of those cupid's bow smiles beneath a button nose. It was obvious th
ey were all smitten. The poor geeky boys, she was far out of their league. But then I grinned at James and Mei, I guess it could happen.

  Henry started again, raising an eyebrow at the boy. “And these are Stuart, Daniel, Jackie, and John. The best and the brightest in their senior class.”

  Henry went on to tell them what we did down here in the clean room and about the exhibits we were responsible for in the museum. Stuart kept asking questions about Drakons and the international task force. Which got him reprimands from Jackie. It was all we could do to keep him on task to the topics at hand.

  I had each of them tell us a little about themselves and their area of studies and their hopes for their future careers. The beanpole, Stuart, seemed to be in mythological studies because “Its cool!” alrighty then.

  The short and heavyset John with his impeccably combed hair, parted to the side, seemed to be one of those awkward brainy types. I could Identify with that. Up until my inner Drakon spirit awoke, I was an awkward sort too.

  Jackie seemed to carry herself with much more maturity and a self-assuredness that was beyond her years. But she really knew her stuff. She was scary smart. Something about her was odd. I caught myself expanding my dragon senses for a couple seconds. Then I understood. I couldn't feel her. She was like a hole in space.

  I can always feel people around me. Maybe it is the water in their blood or something. If they have magic potential, I can generally feel and taste that magic. With her, there was nothing, I shook myself, that just didn't seem right but with all the new magic in the world she may have some unrealized magic potential hidden inside that was dampening my senses. But for a moment I thought I tasted... dragon. This made me smile at her.

  Then there was the short Daniel, I'd even say he was dainty. He had soft feminine features and dressed androgynously. He had the slightest hint of makeup on. If it weren't for his name, I would not have been able to tell if he were male or female. He even spoke in an effeminate voice. He was extremely intelligent.