Glug and Kiiln were ambling around the damaged foundation of what had once been a house in construction. I made a mental note to have something purchased and moved onto the property for Cleo’s mom. Without power and water, she was going to need a water tank and a solar generator, too.
Cleo would be ever so grateful. I looked forward to that.
Standing further off in a clearing among the yucca, Solstice, Cleo, and Silverwynd formed a loose triangle, each of them a point. It didn’t look like they were quite ready to cast the divination spell. Nor did the demon-sloth seem to be anywhere around, but looks can deceive.
Since my inner dragon was now my outer dragon, and he operated our transformed body without input from me, I decided to do a little magic of my own. I isolated my senses from the impulses of my dragon body, finding an inner darkness to haunt. There, my thoughts created a pool of golden light from my dragon magic. In the light, I shaped lines of shadow into a tattoo pattern I’d once worn on my human body: my bi-location spell.
Once I had the pattern, I let the golden light charge it. The pattern activated. An image of my Villager form solidified around my thoughts. Inside the new body, I drifted in my dragon’s inner darkness, a phantom.
My dragon’s thought broke over me like a dark wave. What are you doing?
I’m leaving the show up here to you, while I go down there for a ringside seat.
You can do that?
This is the first time I’ve used the spell in dragon form, but that should just make it easier.
Well, have fun.
Always.
Souls are vehicles of thought, propelled by thought. A desire for motion becomes reality. I visualized down, imagining the mild sensation of a downward drift, and I found my ghost-self separating from my dragon body, descending to the desert below. I no longer saw with eyes, not having any, but with my mind. What I focused on was clear while the peripheral world went blurry, then dark. It was like looking through a magic portal from the inside of a cave.
A shimmering gold cord of dragon magic connected us. This spell didn’t usually produce that effect, but then again, my Villager soul and dragon soul were completely separated now, a first-time event—that had to explain it.
I flipped my ghost self over, swooping headfirst toward Colt. Pulling up in front of him, I waved. I didn’t know if he could see me; Kat and Josh gave no sign they could.
Colt took a step closer to me. His gaze went in, and through me, but the skin furrowed between his eyes. His lips moved. I heard only silence, but his thoughts came through: Dad, is that you?
Yep. I’m using my bi-location spell. Cool, huh?
Isn’t that risky?
I seem to be pretty stable.
He stopped moving his lips, answering with thoughts alone. That’s not what I mean. Your dragon is out, and you are out of your dragon. What if he decides not to let you back in?
Why would he do that?
He’d be the one in charge. He could stay dragon all the time. And you can be a pain in the, uh, neck. Does he even like you?
Of course! What’s not to like?
He gave me a silent stare.
I hated to think he might have a point. I shrugged. It should be okay for now. He hasn’t prepared for our double souls’ separation any more than I have.
But both souls were still tied together. Good sign, right?
If you say so. He scooped up a mini-chunk of granite with a yellow glitter of iron pyrite in it. He turned it over in his hand as his hair whipped wildly. Hey, does the wind always blow this hard out here?
He walked up on Cleo. I drifted along, not paying much attention to where I was floating. His lips moved as he faced her. Turning to him, she answered. I didn’t know what they’d said. I could have read lips, but it seemed too much of a bother.
Silverwynd gave up her perch on Solstice Truth to ride Cleo’s shoulder. The pixie landed and hung onto strands of Cleo’s hair. Silverwynd stared straight at me and waved.
Okay, one more person present who can see me.
For that matter, the witch probably could, too, if she weren’t preoccupied rubbing a finger-length of rough quartz in her hands. The stone was milk white on one end, and clear crystal at the other. Solstice’s eyes were closed. She seemed to be chanting to her crystal, maybe giving it encouragement.
I really hope I get my money’s worth.
After a minute, I noticed that the crystal had a soft blue glow about it. Solstice opened her eyes and they matched. The witch-fire of the stone concentrated in the clear point. She aimed the stone like a gun, holding it in a two-handed grip, bracing against recoil.
A little melodramatic, don’t you think.
Colt looked at me and pursed his lips. Ssshhhh!
Well, I guess I’ve been told.
Kat and Josh wandered up to watch. Glug and Kiiln also joined the show. I think they’d already walked the perimeter of the property, looking for fresh tracks. Their lack of wariness told me they hadn’t found anything.
Maybe the demon-sloth is taking the day off.
The blue light hid the crystal’s point. A fist-sized ball detached at high speed, as Solstice’s gun actually fired. The mini-Will-of-the-Wisp ripped through the air, flying an ever-expanding spiral while Solstice stood waiting at its heart.
Wings glittering in the sun, Silverwynd gave chase, eager to see where the light went and what turned up. I felt interest as well, spinning in place to keep the curving light-ball in view. It stayed roughly five and a half feet off the ground, trailing a frizzy three-foot tail like a comet. The ball made one-and-a-half orbits only to break off and shoot out of sight down into a wash.
Driven by desire, I exploded toward the landing point. The world blurred. Gotta see this!
Silverwynd shot down into the wash, beating me there. Everyone else was left behind where I couldn’t see. I easily imagined them running hard after me.
Nothing like treasure to get the heart pounding.
A fountain of dirt exploded out of the wash. A dark, fuzzy shape loomed in the murk, rearing on hind legs, standing twenty feet high. It strongly resembled pictures I’d seen online of the South American Megatherium, which was supposed to have died off ages ago. Apparently, nobody had told the Meg-ah-fuckin’-fee-ree-um. It opened its pointy snout and screamed in rage, a sound I couldn’t hear. It waved god-awful claws in the air, as if I weren’t already impressed. Its eyes were crimson coals, promising pain and death.
And there, half-imbedded in its chest was the little blue ball of light. Solstice’s divination spell had turned up a hiding monster. The question on my mind was: Where’s its partner, the one who drives the Jeep?
Silverwynd whipped out of the dust cloud, streaking past me on the way to anywhere else. I didn’t blame the tiny pixie; this was way above her weight class. She and Solstice both needed to sit this one out. I couldn’t count on Josh immediately. He’d need a little time to shapeshift into liger form. I just hoped Cleo and Kat had enough sense to hang back as well. The first engagement was definitely a job for my dragon self.
I saw Glug and Kiiln keeping low, circling at a distance to hit it from behind with their demon magic.
Try not to get killed, boys.
Streamers of copper-red lightning jazzed past my head. The bolts hit and webbed the monster sloth, starting multiple fires in its fur. Silent to me, it screamed, spinning away, falling into the loose dirt of the wash, wallowing to extinguish the fire.
Colt came up beside me, showing me a wide grin. Did you see that?
Hard not to, I said, but it’s not dead yet. Be careful.
I noticed the silver soul-cord between me and my dragon body was very lax, a lot of it whipping intangibly about. I looked up. And there I was, a runt of a golden dragon, merely the size of a school bus, diving out of the sky with murderous intent. My dragon maw opened wide, baring white teeth in a savage display. I was probably roaring as well, but in astral form, I couldn’t hear the sound. It was interesting to wa
tch myself battle from a distance, a totally new perspective.
I am one handsome dragon.
From my open mouth, golden lightning belched forth, smashing the monster backwards, blasting the dirt at its feet, putting more dust in the air. The sloth shambled away, not at all living up to its reputation for slowness. It hauled ass as my golden dragon body pulled out of the dive, wisely returning to the sky. The dragon could have over-powered it on the ground, but those freaky sloth claws! It was going to deal out real damage before it went down. It needed to be softened up a little more first.
Behind the sloth, a thin cloud of water vapor formed. There just wasn’t a lot of free water in the air to manipulate. Glug tried hiding himself and Kiiln, getting ready to attack, but was all too obvious where they were in the hot mist. Kiiln gestured with his hands, calling on his fire magic. Twin streams of napalm sprayed out of the watery veil. The sloth moved a lot faster than seemed right to me, dancing aside, avoiding damage.
The fire clung to the ground in the wash. Two big bonfires raged. Fortunately, I didn’t think they’d spread far, not over this kind of terrain.
Colt fired off a couple more of his red-copper lightning jags. And also missed as the agile monster lurched evasively, running full out for the dirt road, using brush for cover. It really did know this area well. Colt had plenty of power, but lacked precision. He hadn’t the benefit of Julia’s many hours of plinking rats in the L.A. landfills with me.
We’ll have to work on that.
A giant white jungle cat with pale gold stripes leaped past me, flinging itself into the wash, chasing after the demon-sloth. Out of the vapor screen now, Glug and Kiiln held back from attacking since Josh was in the way.
He really wants that rug.
Kat followed, but gave Josh plenty of room.
Colt enveloped himself in a geyser of red-copper light that lasted a moment, then died. Where he’d been, another dragon stood, fanning gold wings, red stripes on his sides, gold everywhere else. He beat his wings furiously to get his heavy mass off the ground.
I mentally yelled after him: Don’t get reckless. Our numbers are working against us.
His only response was a flick of his tail.
I figured it was time for me to get into the fight as well. I willed the gold magic tie between me and my dragon to contract, reeling me into the air. My dragon body had climbed high, wanting gravity-assist in his next speed dive. I flew to intercept him, wanting back inside.
Without slowing, he flew into me. Reflexively, I braced for impact but there wasn’t one. I simply opened my eyes on the dragon’s inner darkness, haunting a back corner of his mind once more as the spell pattern I’d formed fizzled out.
Sensory input reached me through my dragon body: wind in my wings, flowing along my length, the sound of its rush, the sun-bleached colors of the desert as my eyes scanned for the demon-sloth, the taste of copper-rage on my tongue. The rage cooled as I realized the sloth was face down, flat to the ground—unnaturally so.
The liger had abandoned the monster to go running down the rutted dirt road. Ahead of him, I saw why—the Jeep I’d wondered about earlier. The monster’s partner had been here and was making an escape.
Kat knelt by the monster sloth, poking it in time-honored tradition with a stick. Colt ambled up to her, bending his long dragon’s neck for a close look over her shoulder. I gave her credit; it didn’t freak her out.
Leaving the Jeep to Josh, I landed next to Colt. I felt a wash of protectiveness from my dragon for the boy who was ours—and Selene’s.
I thought at first that the sloth had been smashed down so hard, it was embedded in the dirt. As Kat picked up the edge of its skin, this proved not to be the case. The monster had shed its skin, and everything else was gone. Josh had his rug, ready to use.
Fuckin’ weird, I thought.
Colt turned his snout toward me. Watch your language. There’s a lady present. He flashed teeth at me, a dragon’s grin.
Figuring the drama was over for now, that we needed to regroup and figure a few things out, I sent a thought to my dragon self: We’re done.
He said: That might be really true the next time you pull that bi-location spell out. I think I’ve figured out how to use it to finally get rid of you.
There was an aura of humor around the thought, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t considering the benefits of what he’d suggested. We dragons are pragmatic predators. I made a mental note not to tempt him again with a similar situation.
Colt flashed red-copper. The light dissipated, leaving him a human boy once more. Glug and Kiiln stayed close to him, protecting my heir like good little demons.
I trotted off, wagging my tail, feeling pain set in as my own change began. I sighed. No instant change for me. I went through the same hell as before, only in reverse order, going big to small, bleeding off mass as a thick, cloying fog. Wings and tail unmade themselves, an event not unlike amputation as those divested parts of me rotted and magically decomposed.
Minutes later, I lay like roadkill, exhausted, naked, hurting, with every fading pain forever etched in memory—a dragon never forgets an injury, a grudge, or a single piece of treasure he’s ever held. Tasting dust, I pushed myself off the ground, wavering on two feet. It took a moment for the two-footed posture to feel right.
With his escort, Colt walked up to me and held out my clothes. “Here. You should get dressed. There’s still a lady present.”
I didn’t argue. Should Josh get back soon, and me a naked demon lord annoying his wife, it might take a lot to persuade him not to snap my neck like a chicken on the way to Sunday dinner. My shoes went on last. I pointed down at them. “Would someone mind? I might fall over if I bend to tie them. That wouldn’t be cool.”
Glug said, “Not in my job description.”
Kiiln said, “I don’t do laces. Mine are Velcro.”
Colt sighed, knelt, and tied them for me.
I smiled. “And this is why you’re my favorite son.”
He stood up. “I’m your only son—in this aspect of time.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But you’re my firstborn.” I said it like it was really a big thing.
He flushed and smiled, looking away from me in embarrassment. Maybe he didn’t hear things like that too often.
He’s not even born yet, and I’m already failing him.
Shoving it out of my mind, I tottered over to Kat. She had the skin rolled up, ready for Josh to haul off, but I needed some answers first. Silverwynd and Solstice joined us on the road. I wondered how much of my dragon’s change the witch had seen. From the way she hid behind Kat, a lot.
I stared at Solstice with my usual lack of compassion. “I’m human now. I’m not going to bite you.”
Solstice said, “I’m not too sure. We didn’t find your magic item. It’s not my fault. I tried. It’s just not here.”
I looked at the rug. “Well, at least you turned up a consolation prize for us. Have you taken a good look at the skin? Can you tell me what we were dealing with?”
Solstice said, “You’re not going to like it.”
“I didn’t like it before,” I growled. “Spill.”
“The skin is cured. It’s been that way a long time, very old. And it smells of certain exotic herbs…” She paused for dramatic effect.
I resisted the impulse to just beat it out of her. It would look bad in front of Colt, and Kat wouldn’t let me get away with it. Probably not Cleo, either.
Solstice said, “The skin smells of dark magic. Witchcraft. I think what you fought was a skin-walker. A native American witch that can become an animal by wearing its skin. To get away, the witch left the skin, and took off with whoever was driving that jeep.”
Kat stared down the road that the Jeep—and Josh—had taken. She said, “I’m not sure I want him to catch them. Black magic can do some really awful things.”
“All magic can. That’s what it’s good for.” I stared down the road as well. “I’m not sure we�
�re going to have a choice about facing them again. We kicked ass and stole a magic skin. Bad guys never let that kinda stuff go.”
“I’m not scared,” Colt said. “Next time, I’ll win!”
We waited and Josh did eventually return, but without the bad guys.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They forced a Yugo off the road. I stopped to help the driver and passengers, to make sure no one needed an ambulance. By the time I finished, they’d gotten away.”
“Sneaky bastards, preying on your moral decency that way!” There must have been too much admiration in my voice. Kat gave me a funny look.
I said, “Next time, we will get them.”
Josh growled deep in his throat.
Kat hissed, “Oh, yessss!”
TWELVE
“Dangerous toys are essential in teaching caution.”
—Caine Deathwalker
Later that evening—after a power nap, shower, and sushi platter—I went looking for Colt. There was a showing at a nearby Casino of antique cars. I thought we’d take it in. Glug and Kiiln were off the clock. The guards outside my door proved to be female this time, looking hot in their black suits and sunglasses. The brunette smelled of gardenias and lavender. She had a thin face with smoky-garnet lipstick. I couldn’t help noticing she had her shirt opened to reveal a substantial amount of cleavage. D-cup tits on her petite frame made her seem top-heavy, not that I minded the view.
As I closed my door behind me, she held out her hand to shake. “I’m Leah, new to the Clan. It’s an honor to serve you.” She leaned in, gripping my hand like she was considering keeping it. “Whatever I can do…”
A social climber. I smiled. “I’ll let you know.”
Managing to retrieve my hand with all fingers still attached, I shifted attention to the other girl. She was ash-blonde with tanned skin, no lipstick, her shirt buttoned up tight with a mint-green tie. Her jacket bulged exceptionally, doing nothing to hide a very large gun in a shoulder holster. Compensation I think for her 29B-cup size. She inclined her head formally. “I am Jada, also new, a transfer from the Orleans Hub.” She spoke formal English like it wasn’t her native tongue, with a lingering trace of accent I couldn’t quite place.
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