After our visit Henry prompted me, “So, would your team like one of the interns for the next six weeks?”
I really liked my team how it was, James and Mei took me as I am, and never even blinked when I showed my dragon eyes or other abilities. They were my best friends. “I'll think about it.”
Henry shook his head. “I need a decision now. The exhibit staging team wants them all, but I told them you would get first crack this time. But... if you don't want to help guide and shape our youth...”
He trailed off and I snorted and squinted an eye at him. “You, Doctor Arnett, are a sneaky and manipulative man. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
He chuckled. “That's why I get paid the big bucks.”
I rolled my eyes playfully then said, “Me lord man. Fine, we'll take one of em.” I looked at them with their eager eyes. I was about to say John, but the memory of the dragon taste of Jackie caused my traitorous mouth to say, “I guess we'll be takin' Jackie.” Heavens above, I'm lettin' the remote possibility that she may have some connection to the Drakon color, my judgment. Then I reminded myself that she was acutely intelligent and well versed in the specific folklore and mythology areas we were dealing with so she was a good choice.
Henry said his goodbyes and hauled the boys off to prep crews who would work the poor blokes to the bone.
It was already past closing time for the museum by then so Mei told Jackie to be at the museum at eight AM sharp and she would get her situated with an ID badge. Before she left the girl shook each of our hands saying, “Thank you, it will be a pleasure working with you all.” I got a queasy feeling in my stomach when she shook my hand. Me lord, it must be because I haven't eaten anything all day.
I copied all the work we had done to the servers then we all left for home with my babysitters in tow. I wondered how Quinn had fared.
When I arrived home, watched the protection team take their places, my Quinn was already there with pizza. She must have read my mind. I kissed her lightly and said, “Hi love. You make any progress today?”
She gave me a scrunched up look. “Depends on what you categorize as progress.”
We started munching on the pizza. I was truly hungry. She said, “We were able to get a lip reader to look at the footage from the cafe. But they couldn't make out what Francisco had said before the video portion of the recording went to static. It was something like 'darn wa' or something like that. We're sending it to an interpreter of Trinidadian Creole since Francisco spoke that as well.”
I sat up straight at that. “'Dark One' maybe?”
She shook her head. “That was another possibility but that makes no sense either.”
I whispered, “Maybe it does.” She cocked an eyebrow and motioned for me to continue as she took a big bite from her pizza slice, strings of hot cheese drooping down her smiling lips that she pulled until they broke and cutely dabbed her lips with a napkin.
I almost giggled. Then for the millionth time I realized that the pizza must be a lot hotter than I thought if the cheese was still steaming and melting like that. It would have scalded a normal person's mouth. Quinn, Mei, and I have all sort of lost our ability to tell when something is too hot to handle since we are all fire elementals and it doesn't effect us. There doesn't seem to be a “too hot” in our vocabulary. I mean, we can feel it is warm, but how warm we can't say.
I continued. “We made a connection to the series of recent murders to the oldest scroll. It seems that a string of dragon murders were perpetrated back then by the Dark One, or Morgan la Fay. She only targeted dragons with one elemental ability by tearing out their hearts. Air elementals. We're thinkin' she used their hearts to extend her life for a few hundred years.”
Quinn almost said something, but I added in a shaky voice, “And all the recent murders are of one type as well, water dragons. This has me believing that since the other creatures involved, being of Morgan's flesh and death magic... he used her magic. I think he's back.” My breath hitched at my supposition.
She reached over and grabbed one of my hands. Her firm grip and iron eyes fed me some of her boundless strength. She was soothing me through the blood-tie. She shook her head. “We don't know that Myra. It could be anyone using her magic.”
I nodded noncommittally and said, “I know. I just... can't face him again. I hope you are right.” Then I remembered something. “We have Morgan's tomes being shipped. We'll have them tomorrow. Maybe they'll be lendin' us some insight.”
She squinted and said, “When I asked about the problem with obtaining those, I was informed that security had gone up because someone had made it past the security barriers and broke into Saint George's arcane archive in England a few weeks back. The main doors and the secret door were demolished. After an inventory, they found that only one item was taken. An amulet with a blue sapphire in it that glowed like the Fire Stone. There is no mention in George's records of its origin. But it was in the area he dedicated to Morgan la Fay's items.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “D'ya think it is related to what is goin' on over on this side of the world? It seems to be more than a wee coincidence that Morgan is tied to both.”
She shrugged and then continued our conversation, but I could feel her agreement with me through our tie. “We saw a woman who looked similar to the one at the cafe on surveillance video at the location of two other murders until the cameras went to static. But she always has her back to the cameras and we can't see her face. She may or may not be involved, but three crime scenes? I don't believe in coincidences.” I caught the double meaning in that when she said coincidence, I was right, she was thinking the same as me on the la Fay connection to the crimes here and in England.
I nodded then asked, “Any luck determining who was controlling that griffon construct?”
She shook her head again, it was getting to be a habit with her on this case. “No, as soon as we had a wiccan consultant start a divination on it and start to feel a general direction, the thing just roared and decayed into rot on the spot. The murderer must have felt what we were attempting and wasn't taking any chances.”
I sighed in exasperation as we moved to the couch. I curled into Quinn's chest and I opened my dragon senses and buried my face in her shirt and inhaled a deep breath, letting the scent of safety fill me. Then I cried for Francisco, with the woman I love holding me protectively.”
Chapter 6 – Merlin
I dreamed that night. Well, they aren't really dreams, more like psychic communes with the first Queen of the Eire dragons, Caragh. I see her as a sort of a surrogate mother for the Drakon side of me. Her magic and life spirit run through my veins and she comes to me in these visions to help me or warn me in trying times.
She walked with me along our meadow, it always felt so real. I could feel the grass between my toes, the sounds of nature and the stream gently bubbling, the smell of fresh air and flowers. We sat down on a rock by the stream and she asked, “What troubles you child?”
I explained to her what was going on. I found it frustrating having to do so, because it seemed that half the time she knew exactly what was going on, like when she gave the warning of the trap. And then at other times she seemed to not know, or pretended not to. Maybe to get me to say it out loud in case it got me thinking enough to answer my own questions. It was fecking frustrating.
As soon as I mentioned Morgan la Fay she recoiled from me and blurted out, “Stay away from her! You do not know the danger of that woman! She perverts the magics of life, changing them into something fetid. All magics come from life and light, she has twisted them against their very nature to become something dark. The magics of death and the flesh.”
“The woman died centuries ago, so don't worry about that.”
She shook her head. “No, can you not feel it in the currents of elemental magic around you? The witch has returned.”
I can tell you that there are two times in me life when I was actually frightened, even more so than I used to feel about f
lying. I'm talking about a primal fear, one that screams at you to run. One was when I had to face Saint George in that magical duel to the death last year. This was the other time. I knew by what I had discovered about the man that Morgan la Fay, the Dark One, was the only person he had ever feared. From what I gathered, he had just used the stolen immortality of the Drakon to hide from her and simply outlast her until she died. If he feared her, then the fact that she may have somehow cheated death itself, terrified me even more.
I looked at Caragh and asked, “What do I do? Is she the one killing me water dragons? How do I stop her?”
Instead of answering, she quickly rose to her feet and was vaulting into the air as she gracefully took her flaming dragon form and took to the sky, calling back to me, “I will visit you again soon, I have to check on something. I should have some answers. But now, your mate is worried about you, go to her.”
I woke up to Quinn holding me to her in bed, stroking my hair. I looked back at her and smiled. She smiled back and said, “Are you ok? I felt fear from you, was it a nightmare?”
I reached a hand up and cupped her cheek. I was again taken by her strong yet feminine features as I gave my protector a soft smile. “No love. Caragh came to visit in me sleep. She warned me that Morgan la Fay was back. It just upset me a wee bit.”
She sat up with her back to the headboard, a pillow behind her and she pulled me back to rest against her chest. I inhaled her scent deeply and let it calm the remaining fear inside. She grinned and gently tickled my sides. “Time to get up anyway. I'll try to get more information about what was taken in England. You do whatever it is you geeks do at the museum.” She shot a wink at me.
I loved her teasing, but I'd never let her know that. Instead, I shot back as I pushed away from her and out of bed. Walking naked toward the jacks with a little extra sway in my hips for her, tossing my unruly red mass of curly hair over my shoulder with a flick of my hand. “You Agent Trask are no lady.” I grinned at her cute chuckle as I shut the bathroom door.
After I got out of the shower and got ready for the day, I came out of the bathroom and Quinn was talking on the phone with a crease on her forehead. She shuffled away into the kitchen area, but I was listening in any way. I know, I know. But it is a wee bit hard not to when you have the senses of an elemental dragon ya know. It was clear as day for me even with the distance she tried to make between us.
The person on the other end of the line was tellin' her that an atmospheric disturbance was centered over Stonehenge at midnight. There were thousands of lightning strikes. Security cameras in the parking area saw a white-cloaked figure walking out of the stone circle and he seemed to disappear into an unnatural fog.
Quinn was speaking in a low dangerous tone, “Why are we just finding out about this now? Dammit, just what we need, another thing to investigate. When it rains, it pours!”
I tried to tune out the rest of her conversation as it wound down. Then I walked into the kitchen to start some coffee brewing. She smiled at me as she walked past. I called after her, “Hey, now lady, what was that call all about? I only caught the tail end of it.”
She growled cutely at me for my eavesdropping and just started talking normally as she went into the bathroom and took her shower, knowing I could hear her just fine. “It was Interpol. They were sharing information about someone using huge amounts of magic just West of London seven days ago. They didn't think it was important or worthy of informing our task force because no laws were broken except for misdemeanor trespass at Stonehenge after viewing hours. There was no damage found. Damn, I guess I can't really blame them since magic users are cropping up everywhere now that they know they are safe.”
I could hear her lathering up her hair and that made me bite my lower lip, then she continued. “But the thing that stresses me about it is that out of all the magic users we are aware of, only one was able to call down lightning. That was Blaine... Saint George. That is yet another coincidence. Everything seems to be tying back to Morgan la Fay. I have no clue what this white-cloaked individual has to do with any of this or the water dragon murders, or if it has nothing to do with it at all, but we'll need to get a team on it to see how it all fits.”
I was nodding at her logic about the possible connection. I poured a couple disposable cups of coffee as she came out, tucking in her signature professional, perfectly pressed blouse. I gave her a quick peck on the lips and handed her coffee. She pulled the plastic cover off and inhaled deeply and seemed to wake up more with a grin as she returned the lid and sipped with her eyes closed. She loved her hot caffeine.
I said, “It seems to be another oddly shaped puzzle piece. I'm hoping to finish the scroll translation today, maybe it can help shed some light on things.”
She grinned and kissed me as she walked past, grabbing her jacket and slipping her gun into her holster onto her hip. “See you tonight Myra, I have a full team on you today.”
I shook a fist indignantly at her for her thinkin' I needed babysitters. But broke and gave her a warm smile. “Now don't be repeatin' this Agent Trask, but I love you.”
She grinned as she closed the door behind her as she left saying as she entered the freight elevator, “And I love you too Doctor O'Connell.” I just hugged myself and smiled at the warm feelings she was feeding me through our connection.
I grabbed my stuff and headed down the stairs, bounding down them. I exited quickly, throwing the door open to surprise Dawna and the other agent standing outside of it. I heard their breathing and their heartbeats from the other side, and I could smell Agent Grove's lavender body wash and the other Agent's overpowering cologne. “Hi,” I said.
Dawna grinned at me. “Damn you Myra, you scared the shit out of me.”
I asked innocently, “I thought you agent types were supposed to be all steel and piss.” The smell of exhaust from passing cars was almost overwhelming.
She rolled her eyes playfully and I just started walking to Mags. I called back as they followed, “So I got me babysitters at the door now do I?”
She sounded almost apologetic. “Full protection detail after that attack in the woods. Sorry Myra.”
I shrugged as I got into Maggie, I snapped at her before I shut the door, “Well, I'll not be makin' it easy for you then. I'm goin' to the bakery before the museum.”
I heard her outside saying quietly, “Your eyes you surly Irish wench.” I giggled at that and my senses deadened. I saw her shaking her head as she got into one of the now two SUVs that were tasked to follow me around and give me no feckin' privacy. I knew she didn't like me goin' to the bakery, it was too out in the open. I didn't give a shite, I wanted to see me Ma. That and it was fun to watch Mei food-gasm over the muffins me Ma baked.
So as I pulled away from the curb, I watched as Dawna followed and the second SUV seem to disappear into the traffic. I knew they would reappear in a moment if needed. I drove in an unpredictable path to the bakery like Quinn had taught me to use whenever I had a protective detail assigned to me like this. It all seemed like a silly waste of time to me.
I pulled up to the curb in front of my Ma's bakery. I sighed in resignation at the sign for her shop, the Denver Dragon Bakery. Me Ma had no shame, usin' my fame as a marketing opportunity. The place was always busy. Standin' room only inside with people getting' their morning dragon croissants and scones, Irish Drakon soda muffins, and those damn sugar cookies all shaped like a flyin' dragon.
I grinned and rolled my eyes and got out. I noticed SUV number two across the street now as Dawna got out of her's, which was parked behind me, and she and agent number two took their places in front and behind me as I walked. I knew the tall man, but never took the time to learn his name. I just called him Mr. Stinky or Agent No-Name, from the awful cologne he wore. I'm not sure if he could actually speak, I've never heard him say a word. All agents in my detail are told not to wear perfumes or colognes because they are so overwhelming to me, but he apparently never got the memo.
I
looked at the front of the bakery, done up to resemble the little storefront me Ma had back in the tiny, in the pale, coastal town of Wicklow, Ireland. The hand painted signs in grand colors seemed to be more invitin' ta me than all the neon in the surrounding businesses.
Dawna led the way, pushing through the usual mix of Denver natives, druids, magic practitioners, and the odd satyr or two. I gave a wee smile at this. Since magic has made a resurgence and every practitioner and mythological creature came out of hiding after the demise of Saint George, Denver has become a sanctuary for any mystical being since they knew they would be under the protection of the Dragon of Denver. Ma's bakery has become a favorite hangout for those individuals.
The person leading the fight for mystical and human rights for any peaceful magic wielder or creature is me Ma. People fear her temper more than mine, as my modest temper pales to the brimstone and hellfire she can bring to bear. Don't be repeatin' this, but I am so proud of her.
As we approached the cases filled with all manner of divine pastries and breads, the woman who looks like a middle-aged version of me with a much larger chest, the O'Flanagan chest, waved us back behind the counter excitedly. She has no shame that one, as she called out loudly, “Please be excusin' me everyone. I must go in the back to speak with me daughter, the Dragon of Denver here.” There was some murmuring and a few people clapped, causing my cheeks to become as red as my hair. Ma took off her apron as she ushered us back into the back, leaving her two workers to man the bakery up front.
My eyes rolled as we walked through the swinging door past the huge mural painted on the back wall between the bakery and the kitchen. Twas me in dragon form with my wings spread wide over the Capitol dome that was destroyed when I first let my dragon out. One of my protection detail stayed at the swinging door.
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