Dragonfall

by Erik Schubach

  We were pulled from our discussion by Mei. “Come and get it.”

  We all sat at the table around the feast that Mei had prepared, she was in full-fledged hostess mode and dished everyone up. I snorted a little when she gave both Alexandra and I triple helpings. The snort turned to a giggle when Alexandra wiggled her eyebrows and tilted her head toward her plate and Mei gave her a little more. “Thou may laugh at me now, but it was not thee who has not eaten in centuries.”

  I just grinned at my fellow queen and dug into some of the best meatloaf and mashed potatoes I have ever had.

  Quinn's mobile was ringing off the hook while we ate. She turned it off. Dawna was stopping all the officials from just about every feckin agency imaginable at the door. It was like an alphabet soup. She was telling them all that we were being debriefed at the moment. This got her rewarded with a plate of meatloaf in a Tupperware container for later from Mei.

  Quinn had pulled me aside into the guest room, she saw me favoring my left side as we ate. She pulled off my shirt and winced at the bruises emerging from beneath my dragon scales as they receded. But then she grinned as she saw a scale that had been knocked off by the battle and was caught in my shirt. She immediately pocketed it for her collection of little pieces of Myra.

  I told her I was only bruised up. I didn't want to go to the fecking hospital again for my broken ribs, besides, they'd be healed in a couple more hours anyway. She helped me get cleaned up then we showed Alexandra, “Please call me Alex,” how to use the shower.

  When she came out of the bathroom dressed in some of Quinn's clothing since Mei's clothes were way too small, she said in a dreamy voice, “Trak's horn I was born it the wrong era, that hot shower corral was a slice of heaven.”

  I sighed as I looked at the front door dreading everything that I knew was about to come. But first I had two things I needed to do. “Quinn can I be talkin' with you fer a moment?” She nodded and we excused ourselves.

  We went into the guest room and I closed the door behind us. I dropped my dragon senses and sat on the bed beside her shyly, “I've been thinkin' the past few weeks.”

  She tilted her head and I continued, “Well, you know how I feel about you? I mean, you know I love you more than I love me-self.”

  She snorted an smiled warmly. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly as I blurted, “I was sorta wonderin' if you'd like to start a wee family with me as me bride Agent Quinn?”

  There was silence, I opened one eye, keeping the other one firmly closed as I cringed. Her eyes were sparkling in mirth and her smile conveyed nothing but love. She cutely kissed my nose and said, “I was wondering when you'd ask me that Doctor O'Connell.” Then tilted her head and waited until I opened my other eye and she said, “As some weird and impulsive Irish woman is so fond of saying, I'd be delira and excira, to marry you.”

  My toes curled as she kissed me so gently I felt I was floating on the clouds. Outside the door we heard a muffled, “Yay!” I snorted and Quinn chuckled.

  I stared into the eyes of the woman I loved knowing how completely I was hers then finally tore myself away. As we walked toward the door she comically said, “But I'm not going to be called Mrs. O'Connell.”

  I bumped her hip. “Oh, like I'm gonna be Mrs. Trask. I'll be havin' none of that now woman!” We shared one last smile and opened the door and Mei, Alex, and James all almost fell into the room from where they were listening in at the door.

  I shook my head and snapped in mock disapproval, “A sorry bunch, the whole lot of ya!”

  Everyone was smiles as we made our way to the couch. I said, “One last thing before we have Dawna release the barbarians at the door on us. Alex?”

  She looked at me and I smiled at her. “I want to be givin' ya half of the remainin' shards of the Fire Stone. You'll need to be buildin' yer clan back up now. I know Caragh saw you as her sister, and I hope you see me that way as well. I look forward to the day that our two clans can stand together to champion the people of our wee little planet together.” I'm pretty sure she was cryin' when she gave me a tight hug.

  I looked over to Dawna and we all steeled ourselves as I nodded once to her and she reached out to open the door.

  Epilogue

  With me wife Quinn, Mei, James, Dawna, and Steve by my side we marched down the street with determined looks on our faces. We had all been through hell and back together so we were ready for this confrontation. I pitied the eejit that stood in our way.

  We walked up to the house and just stood there waiting. Five minutes later the bamboo blinds were drawn up from the windows on the sunroom of the house, revealing five men in dark suits and a cornucopia of surveillance equipment.

  Quinn held up the search warrant and arrest warrants for the NSA agents inside to see and we just waited until they came walking out of the house. It took us three months to finally find a judge brave enough to sign the warrants. I hope his granddaughter enjoys the autograph from Firebrand, the Dragon of Denver.

  I smirked and Mei just played with a ball of fire in one hand as Quinn started telling the men that they were under arrest for illegal surveillance of US citizens on American soil. The men just lined up without fuss as Dawna and Steve cuffed them. Oh, did I mention that Dawna and Steve are datin' now?

  The men knew just as well as we did that no charges would ever stick because the NSA seems to be made of Teflon and are seemingly above the law, but now they knew that this particular op was over and any future attempts would be that much harder.

  Mei grinned smugly as Quinn read the men their rights as they were hauled away.

  I was smiling until later that night as I soared through the skies of Denver, weaving through the buildings and huffing flames of acknowledgment of the people waving up at me from down below.

  I landed on my Dragon Spire and stared at the setting sun. Then arched my head up as I spread my wings wide and I roared out my challenge to all who would do harm to those under my protection as a pyre of flame lit the heavens. I am Doctor Myra O'Connel, the Dragon of Denver!

  I flew off toward home where my mate waited. Unaware of the inhuman eyes watching me.

  Books in the Drakon series...

  Awakening

  Dragonfall

  Books in the Music of the Soul universe...

  (All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Music of the Soul

  A Deafening Whisper

  Dating Game

  Karaoke Queen

  Silent Bob

  Five Feet or Less

  Broken Song

  Syncopated Rhythm

  Progeny

  Girl Next Door

  Short Stories in the Music of the Soul universe...

  Misadventures of Victoria Davenport: Operation Matchmaker

  Books in the Valkyrie Chronicles series...

  Return of the Asgard

  Bloodlines

  Folkvangr

  Seventy Two Hours

  Books in the Fracture series...

  Divergence

  Sample Chapter of Music of the Soul: Lightning Strikes Twice

  Chapter 1 – Going Home

  I stared out over London and took a deep breath and smiled a little. It was time, I was through being a coward. I sipped my lemonade and my head swiveled when I heard my front door open.

  My best friend here in England, Candi, came walking into my penthouse condo at One Hyde Park near Knightsbridge. She called out, “Vicky? Where are you you silly bird?” I had to grin, I remember the day I met Candice, all those years ago when I had transferred from Washington State University to Oxford in my Junior year, like it was yesterday.

  Well, I didn't really have a choice as that is just how my brain works. I'm triple cursed... or blessed... with an immeasurable IQ, an eidetic memory, and a mind that can't shut off. I know how it sounds, but I'm not bragging about it... did I mention the curse part? I'd give anything not to have these “gifts” as my parents put it.

 
My mind won't stop working and I am always thinking about dozens of things at all times. I can't help it sometimes with all the noise in my head. It got so bad once when I was twelve that I had a mental breakdown. My parents had me committed to a psychiatric ward and paid for the best psychologists around.

  In the end it was my father, Frank Davenport that helped me with a breakthrough. He wondered if I could distract my always moving mind and he came up with some mental exercises for me. He calls it creating white noise. My dad is my hero. He's not a doctor or a psychiatrist, but he succeeded where they all failed. He showed me that I just have to create more white noise

  He has me concentrating on solving PI. I'm a little over seventy-two billion digits in since I started his exercises back then... 8-3-2-7-9-5-0-2-8-8 He said to do as many things like that to clear my mind of the unwanted thoughts as I could. Some of my favorite things to do are to recite random names from the phone books from around the world, never duplicating a name once, or recite facts about animals since I love animals!

  I try to concentrate on all of that white noise and not allow myself to think. It makes me a little excitable and act a bit scatterbrained, but it helps me to drown out the noise in my head I don't want to hear. It got me out of that godforsaken institute. The worst six month of my life!

  I had escaped to Oxford from Seattle because I had done a boneheaded maneuver and found myself falling in love with my two best friends there. Mia and Vee Jacobs. They were so wonderful together and the most accepting people I have ever met.

  I forced myself to be around them and their baby girl, Abbey, and never reveal my true feelings. But my heart couldn't take it when Vee's cystic fibrosis was slowly killing her and taking her from Mia and I. So I ran... like a coward. I ran to England to finish school and try to start a new life here and forget about the women I loved. It didn't work of course. It is impossible for me to forget anything.

  It took everything I had inside of me to go be with Mia and help her through the pain of Vee's death just after senior year. I had to be strong for Mia, she was broken and her pain will probably always be there. I couldn't show that half my heart had died with Vee as well. After the funeral service at their house and a few days of making sure that Mia was going to be ok, I ran again... back to England because every fiber of my being ached that I could never tell Mia how I felt about her, especially after the loss of the love of her life.

  I've never been back home since then, not even to visit my parents. They have hopped the pond to visit me a few dozen times, but I just couldn't bring myself to be in the same city as the object of my affection, I was a married woman for god's sake, it wouldn't be right, and I shouldn't be thinking of Mia in that way to begin with.

  I tried to make a life for myself here. I found someone I thought I could love. Beatrice... I mean, I did love her, but not in that soul affirming way that I should have. We were married almost sixteen years before the divorce two years ago. I knew it was coming, especially since I knew she was having an affair with her personal assistant, Todd, but I never said anything. He even knocked her up. But I feel like a terrible person because I feel like I was just using her for more white noise so I wouldn't think of Mia.

  God, I know, it sounds like I should be committed again. But that's me, Victoria Davenport, headcase. Damn, now I'm thinking about her again. 2-0-8-9-9-8 Bernard G. Linquist, Deadra V. Taylor, Jacques Vanderstien. Black-tailed prairie dogs have small, close-knit families called coteries. I took a deep breath and looked into my condo through the open glass doors on the veranda and called out, “Out here Candi.”

  I smiled as I saw her make her way through my flat and out into the crisp fall air. She has come a long way from the almost terminally shy girl who people called the 'mouse girl.' The years have been kind to her and she always looks spectacular in her smart business suits. Her and her husband, Leighton Birch, started up an accounting firm after he graduated from Oxford. She is now a sharp and insightful businesswoman with a confident air. I grinned at the thought of Leighton's receding hairline, I thought it made him look distinguished.

  I tilted my head at Candi, taking in her new blouse and earrings. “That's a cute top.” I poured a freshly squeezed lemonade from the iced pitcher on my patio table and slid it over to her. She took it and sat across from me as I just looked out over the city I have come to view as my second home.

  She smiled one of her endearing half smiles. “Thank you. I'm sure you didn't ring me just to compliment my blouse.”

  I rolled my eyes playfully at her. “No... I... I have news.”

  She cocked her head to the side, some of her frosted, strawberry blonde hair slid over her collar and hung in her face. I took a deep breath. “I... I bought an art gallery.”

  Her smile bloomed. “That's brill! You've always had an obsession for them. I don't know how many you do business consulting for and you were a curator for a time. Where is it? That cute one over by Notting Hill?”

  I cringed. This was going to be harder than I thought. I have lots of casual friends here in London. But I can count on one hand... no, one finger, my good friends that I let in on all my secrets and hopes and dreams. That's Candice. I exhaled and whispered, “It's a downtown Seattle gallery.”

  She blinked at me. It took a moment to sink in. I saw the whole gambit of emotions swirl through her eyes as they started to tear up. But the one she latched onto surprised me and made me realize how much I loved my friend.

  She covered her mouth in surprise and excitement. She squealed and hopped up and hugged me. She pushed away and held me at arm's length and whispered. “My god Vicky. You're going home!” Tears started welling up in my eyes too as we hugged again. Gawd I was going to miss Candi when I left.