Soul of the Dragon

by Natalie J. Damschroder

  Alexa felt ganged up on but also comforted. She wasn’t used to operating without backup, and their attempt to provide it made her feel stronger.

  “It’s a long, incredible story you wouldn’t believe, and I can’t afford to be put away for psychological testing right now.” She tried to rise, but Kurt gave her a shove in the chest just as the swing came up behind her, and she sat back down.

  “Try anyway,” Rock said. “If anyone will believe you, it’s us.”

  “Yeah, right, Mr. Skeptical.”

  They kept pushing, and finally Alexa took a deep breath, ready to tell them something, anything, to make them back off.

  Don’t tell them, Alexa.

  Cyrgyn’s voice whispered across her mind. She glanced up and caught a glint of gold before she lost it in the sun.

  I can trust them, she answered. Cyrgyn didn’t respond, but she could feel his trepidation even from this distance.

  She opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “I can’t. You absolutely will not believe me.”

  Rock looked sad, Kurt solemn. They watched her for several minutes, but she’d been trained by one and worked with the other. She knew the technique and refused to talk.

  Then, however, the master came out the back door.

  Marilee picked her way across the grass in her delicate sandals. She looked like she’d just arrived at a tea party instead of finished hosting a large gathering while juggling twin infants. Well, except for the small patch of spitup on her shoulder.

  “Mom’s putting the kids down for a nap,” she said, grabbing an Adirondack chair and muscling it around to face the swing. “We have plenty of time for you to tell us what’s going on.” She sat in the chair, rested her arms on the armrests, and looked expectantly at Alexa.

  Kurt frowned at his wife. “What makes you think we haven’t already been told?”

  She looked at him patiently. “Sweetie, I know you tried, but Alexa is just too tough for you.”

  “And not for you?”

  “Nope.” She grinned and looked back at Alexa. “There hasn’t been a secret she’s kept from me in the past ten years. Has there, Alexa?”

  “Sure there has.”

  “I mean before I gave birth and got distracted. And I still want to know about that guy.”

  Alexa didn’t look at her. The only secret she’d ever kept from Marilee had been Cyrgyn.

  “It’s the dragon, isn’t it? It’s time.”

  Alexa jerked her head up, shock cascading through her. Marilee’s teasing confidence had disappeared, to be replaced by compassion. “I told you I knew all your secrets.”

  “There’s no way you know this secret.” First Peter, now Marilee. Did everyone know about Cyrgyn?

  One look at Kurt and Rock told her no. Both looked exactly the way she’d anticipated they’d look when they heard her story.

  “What dragon? Like, the Chinese mob?” Kurt asked.

  Marilee pealed a laugh. “Oh, no, dear. A real dragon.”

  Rock snorted. “This ought to be good.”

  “I told you you wouldn’t—” Alexa began, then snapped her mouth shut. Damn it. Marilee always won.

  “Hon, you talk in your sleep.” She nodded at Alexa’s surprise. “I don’t think you’ve been with anyone but me who could tell you that.” Kurt raised his eyebrows and Marilee said, without looking at him, “Down boy. We were roommates, remember?”

  “Yeah, but don’t women experiment in college?”

  “You’re off the subject,” Rock told him, “and getting into deep water.”

  Alexa knew her friend was right. No man had ever stayed overnight with her. She’d locked her family out of her room after her mother’s death—she’d desperately needed that time alone—so none of them would have known if she talked in her sleep. Marilee had been her only roommate. She’d never shared a hotel room with other operatives, and the tents they’d crowded into were always in high-alert situations where she didn’t sleep deeply enough to talk unconsciously.

  Apparently, in college she had.

  “So what is it you think you know?” she asked Marilee.

  “You quoted the curse several times. I was so intrigued I wrote it down. Took several nights, and you didn’t dream about it that often, so it was pretty close to a year before I figured out what it meant.”

  Alexa hadn’t known the curse before a few weeks ago. She’d known Cyrgyn, known something was coming, but not what. Only that she had to be prepared. So how could Marilee have heard her quote it?

  She must have looked suspicious, because Marilee’s eyes widened. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “What’s the curse? Can you tell me what I said?”

  Marilee pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it. It had worn creases and yellow edges. “I kept it for some reason. Now I know why. Thinking it might be relevant, I dug it out of my jewelry box before I came out here.” She smoothed out the paper and read,

  Betrayers vile, these lovers two,

  From now beyond, let them be doomed.

  The man, forthwith, be dragon known.

  Immortal, all knowing, his power honed.

  Be aware when our souls doth burn,

  His power to use, her lover to yearn.

  Attempt, four times, to overturn

  This curse and then to love return.

  Failure, then, shall mean the end,

  Her soul to mine, his to rend.

  The words sounded foreign coming from Marilee, but they generated an answering reverberation in Alexa that she was helpless to ignore. She didn’t know she was crying until she saw the look of fear on Kurt’s face, and the one of acceptance on Rock’s.

  “That pretty much clinches it,” Rock said, handing her a handkerchief. “I have never seen Alexa cry. Not after any training sessions, not after enemy torture—”

  “I’ve never been tortured, you ninny.” She blew her nose in his handkerchief and grinned at his distaste. “Guess I’ll keep this.”

  “So tell us what it means,” Marilee urged.

  Alexa sat back and rocked the swing with one foot. “I truly don’t know how I muttered that in my sleep, since I had never heard it. In this life.” She explained the history behind the curse and a brief synopsis of events since she’d met Cyrgyn in the glade.

  Rock still looked like they were all crazy. Kurt wore confusion. Marilee refolded the note and tucked it back into her skirt pocket. “Is he real?” she asked.

  Alexa curbed the urge to look up, to see if he was still circling. He would be foolish to do so, especially when he’d said he wouldn’t risk coming here. He had nowhere to hide.

  But maybe he knew, somehow, what had happened, and couldn’t stay away. After all, they needed to overturn the curse together.

  A light went on. That had been her problem. She acted like she had to convince Tars to overturn the curse. Or trick him, or overpower him. How could she have been so self-focused? Of course it would take them both. They were both part of it. She had to get back to Cyrgyn so they could discuss a strategy for luring Tars to them, close enough that they could work together to overpower him and convince or force him to overturn the curse.

  First, however, she had to convince these three that she had it all under control. They asked questions for hours, and she told them as little as possible. Still, the only one who believed her at all was Marilee.

  “Come on, guys, you saw what happened in the church,” she scolded her husband and their friend. “The fireball.”

  “Flamethrower,” said Rock.

  “What about Alexa’s waterball, or whatever you’d call it?” She looked at Alexa expectantly.

  “I don’t know,” Alexa shrugged. “Waterball sounds too much like a game, but I don’t know what else to call it. Water energy, since that’s how it starts out.”

  “Well?”

  Kurt scratched his head. “I didn’t see where it came from,” he admitted, “and I was right across from her.”

>   “Some kind of water balloon she had in her purse,” Rock stated, “or she threw water out of the font.”

  “All the way down the aisle?”

  That came from Kurt, and Alexa couldn’t help smiling with Marilee. He was starting to argue for their side.

  Her smile disappeared. It wasn’t their side. It was her side, and she didn’t want to convert anyone. But Marilee just kept on.

  “And how did that chair fly off the ground without anyone near it?”

  Neither man answered. Finally, Kurt admitted, “I asked Ryc about that myself.”

  “And?”

  “And I don’t know. He disappeared.”

  Rock stood, then faced Alexa. “What do you want from us?”

  “Honestly?”

  They all nodded.

  “I want you all to stay here, stay safe, and stay out of it.” She stood, too, feeling too much like a woman-in-jeopardy character. “I can handle this.”

  Rock scowled. “No one handles a mission alone, Alexa. You know that’s our most important rule.”

  “I’m not working, Rock.” She squeezed her fists, then forced her limbs to relax. “I quit, remember? And I never asked for anyone’s help.”

  “You never do.” Marilee rose to hug her, and there were tears in her eyes. “You stubborn mule.”

  “I love you, too,” Alexa whispered, holding her friend tightly. “I’ve gotta go.”

  “Now? Can’t you stay the night?”

  Kurt joined her pleas, but Alexa ignored them and went inside to say goodbye to Ruth and get her things. She paused in the hall, alone for a moment, and gave in to the desire to peek at the babies.

  She eased the door open silently and looked in. They lay in separate cribs placed end to end, their little hands stuck through the bars so their fingers touched. Alexa blinked back tears. She didn’t know when or if she’d ever see them again. She blew two kisses off the ends of her fingers and shut the door again.

  “Can you give me a ride to the airport?” Rock asked her when she returned to the living room. “I’m heading for Seattle, too.”

  “I’m not going to Seattle.”

  “But you’re going to the airport?”

  “Yes,” she admitted, and ended up agreeing to take him with her. She kissed Marilee and Kurt goodbye, threatening them again. “Don’t try to follow me. Don’t have me followed. It’s not safe, and I’d die if anything happened to you because of me.”

  “Sure, sweetie,” Marilee agreed. “Just keep in touch, okay?”

  Alexa didn’t buy her act for a minute.

  “You don’t fool me, either,” she grumbled at Rock as they climbed into the sports car.

  “I’m not trying to fool you, Alexa,” he said mildly, folding his six-four frame into the little car. “You’re too savvy for that.”

  “And don’t try to flatter me.” Alexa waited until he got his seatbelt on, then pulled into traffic. “I’m immune to all your tricks.”

  He didn’t respond. Alexa glanced in the rear view mirror and didn’t like what she saw. She changed lanes and took the next left, then a right.

  “We got a tail?” Rock asked.

  “I think so.”

  “What level?”

  “Not sure yet. Sticky, but…” She swung around a circle and took a diagonal street. Georgia, she saw as the sign flashed by. Not good. She was heading into the city, and traffic and lights would slow her down and make evasion difficult. She cut right down another side street and tried to figure out the quickest way to Route 495. The car she’d spotted was still behind her, closer now. She couldn’t tell if Tars was driving it.

  She pressed harder on the gas pedal, and Rock looked over his shoulder. “Should I be doing something?”

  “No, keep it holstered. I don’t think your weapon of choice will do any good.”

  Alexa slowed at a stop sign just enough to check the cross traffic, then sped across the intersection. The car behind her did the same. She felt the sensation, much like the physical awareness of electronic signals from a television set or stereo, that signaled the growth of a fireball. She almost swerved down an alley and out of the bomb’s way, but that would leave innocents vulnerable to its devastation. She glanced in the mirror again. He hadn’t cast it, but she could see the glow getting stronger, then rising toward the vehicle’s sunroof. She needed to douse it.

  “Shit.” She tried to reach out for the energy, but she hadn’t practiced grabbing it while driving a speeding vehicle. She couldn’t focus enough to find any. And she was out of time.

  Desperate, she reached out mentally as if she sensed a coil, casting a wide imaginary net and hoping it would bring something. To her relief, she felt the familiar coolness of the energy against her hand.

  She let go of the wheel with her left hand. This wouldn’t be throwing, she realized. She’d be aiming with her mind, and pretty much had only one chance.

  She heard the hiss of the ball being released and watched in the side view mirror as it veered left. Perfect. She released the ball of energy and lifted it into the path of the fireball. Instant dousing.

  She curled her fingers around the little bit of energy she’d kept. She might need it.

  “Four-ninety-five, coming up,” Rock said. He sat relaxed, one hand loosely gripping the top of the door frame through his open window, as if they were out for a Sunday drive.

  With relief, Alexa zipped up the ramp onto the beltway that circled D.C. She had a bit more maneuverability and speed up here.

  Tars’ car followed her easily. She had to do something before he built another fireball. She lurched as the car he was driving bumped them from behind.

  “That son of a bitch,” she ground out, then looked all around to fix her position. There was a truck in the far right lane matching her speed, and a Buick from the Big-Car-Old-People-Club in the middle lane and still a bit in front. Not perfect, but good enough—no one was in the middle lane next to Tars.

  Alexa waited until the road straightened, then swerved violently into the lane to her right. She slammed on the brakes and allowed Tars to fly past. His passenger window was open, thank you very much. She hit the gas, and as she passed the BMW again, reached out her hand and let the little arrow of water energy go. It flew straight through the window, and from the yell she heard from Tars and his temporary lack of control over his car, she guessed she hit her mark.

  “Impressive,” Rock said, watching Tars pull over onto the median. “What was it?”

  “Never mind. You don’t believe in it.” Alexa calmed her breathing and released her death grip on the wheel to flex her right hand. “Those fireballs are getting tiresome,” she muttered. “Doesn’t he have anything else?”

  “Not in my experience.” Rock sounded amused.

  “Thanks. Be quiet.”

  He laughed, then asked softly. “Who is this guy, Alexa?”

  “I told you, he’s a…”

  “Magician, I know.”

  “Mage.”

  “Whatever. I didn’t mean him. I know about him. I mean the guy in the church.”

  “Which guy?”

  Rock’s sigh sounded an awful lot like Marilee’s. Alexa took the exit for Route 50. She’d drop Rock at Ronald Reagan International. She was flying out of Dulles.

  “Who is he? And why did he disappear?”

  Alexa didn’t want to answer the first one and couldn’t answer the second. Ryc was way too mysterious for her liking, especially when she had to defend her relationship with him to the “other men” in her life.

  “Are you asking as my former supervisor?”

  “I’m asking as a friend. Maybe a big brother.”

  Alexa could feel his concern and felt oddly touched. “I have a brother, Rock. You can’t help any more than he can.”

  “How do you know that?”

  She stepped hard on the brake when she realized the traffic in front of her had slowed to accident-ahead speed. She turned her head to look at Rock.

 
“One of the lessons you drilled into my head is that you never, ever underestimate your opponent. You don’t believe, Rock, and that’s a severe underestimation. You’d be more of a liability than an asset. So thank you, but no.”

  She faced front again and eased the car forward. She glanced out the corner of her eye, knowing Rock still stared at her. Tense, she rolled her shoulders.

  “It’s a damn good thing you don’t work for me anymore, Ranger. That kind of talk will get an operative demoted. Or fired.”

  Alexa rested her elbow on the windowsill and braced her forehead on her hand. Weary to the bone, she wanted only to dump the man and get home to Cyrgyn—and sleep for a week, even though it was the last thing she could do.

  “He cares about you, you know.”

  Alexa frowned from under her hand. Rock never got this personal. “What do you mean?”

  “You could see it on his face. The shock and fear when he thought he was too late. The rage when he attacked, and ran down the aisle. You’re in his heart, Lex. And I don’t think you’re gonna get out.”

  She closed her eyes and let the tears leak into her lashes. She knew Ryc cared. If things were different, she’d leap into the future with him, at the very least to explore the passion they shared, a passion she was afraid grew from something deeper. But things weren’t different.

  As much as Cyrgyn had meant to her for thirty years, he was a dragon, not a man, and try as she might she could not conjure the feelings for him she must have felt a thousand years ago.

  Rock cleared his throat but didn’t say anything, obviously uncomfortable with the results of his questioning.

  They drove another ten minutes in stop-and-go traffic, then Rock suggested she bail out and go to Dulles. “You’re leaving from there, anyway, right?” he asked.