by Rose O'Brien
"A worthy goal, but I know firsthand how badly things can go for peacekeepers," Alex said, sipping his coffee.
"I told you about my school, why don't you tell me about yours?" she said, changing the subject.
"Not much to tell really,” he said, looking out the window as if he was seeing something else. In profile, he was striking, with a strong jaw and brow. “I grew up in a working class neighborhood in San Antonio. After dad died, mom went back to work as a teacher. I have a little sister. We didn’t have a whole lot growing up, but we had each other.”
Alayna envied him that.
“I wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor.” A note of derision crept into his voice, like it had been a foolish idea. “The Army offered me the money to do it.”
And it had offered him the opportunity to live up to his father’s heroic legacy, she thought.
"It didn't exactly work out the way I planned," he said.
Just then, Alayna’s phone pinged softly. It was Ellie. Alayna took the call, inwardly cursing. She wanted to find out more about why he wasn’t saving lives in a hospital right now instead of chasing a killer with her.
"What's up?" She tried to keep the irritation out of her voice.
"Ran that partial plate. Got a few possible matches. One is likely, but...I'm running into a tangle of shell companies here. I don't think I'm going to have anything for you to check out tonight, Commander. You should come on back to HQ."
"Roger that, we’re heading back in.”
She was reluctant to let Alex go and leave the quiet, dark space where it was safe to say things she’d never said out loud to anyone else. But she’d just lost her excuse.
Chapter 8
Two nights later, Alex found himself riding shotgun in Alayna’s Mustang, shielding his eyes from the setting sun. He had been working nearly nonstop, only leaving HQ to sleep. They’d been driving for several minutes when he realized that they weren’t headed to the warehouse. Alayna had pulled the ‘stang on to northbound Interstate 35 and had long since missed the turnoff for HQ.
“What’s up? Where are we going?”
“I have someone I want you to meet,” she answered.
When she didn’t elaborate, he decided not to press. Alayna usually told him when he needed to know something. Besides, she was relaxed, having bled off the nervous energy she normally carried in her shoulders and hands. A smile lit her features, and the evening air was blowing through her hair as she opened up the engine. The setting sun turned her pale skin gold and he was very aware of how close she was, his blood heating despite the chill in the air.
Progress on the case had been frustratingly slow and tensions were high. It suddenly didn’t seem important to press her about where they were going.
He trusted her, he realized.
After about forty minutes, Alayna signaled and took an exit just north of Round Rock. They were in the odd empty space between Round Rock, Austin’s largest suburb, and the southern edge of Georgetown, an old historic ranching town about an hour north of the city.
They were surrounded by open fields with a smattering of red and white Hereford cows quietly grazing. She maneuvered the car through the freeway underpass and drove by the entrance to the Inner Space Caverns.
The Caverns had been discovered decades before when crews were blasting to build the interstate highway. They had stumbled on a series of caves with beautiful formations of stalactites and stalagmites formed by the dripping of mineral-rich water over several thousand years.
After the discovery of the Caverns, they had been turned into a cheesy roadside attraction where visitors could tour the caverns, pan for gold and buy overpriced rocks that had been put through a polisher.
Alayna drove past the entrance and pulled off near the gate to a private dirt road.
“The combination is 5678,” she told him.
He got the hint and hopped out to open the padlock and the gate. She drove through; he locked it behind them and got back in the Mustang, thoroughly intrigued about where they were going.
They bumped slowly along the dirt road for several minutes. Alex heard Alayna whisper for a few moments and saw the look of concentration come over her face that meant she was weaving a spell. The dust kicked up by the tires settled slowly behind them, leaving the air clear and hiding their presence from any passersby in the growing darkness.
Alayna parked the Mustang on the road, her smile growing and the fading sunlight dancing in her eyes and catching sparks in her hair. God, she was beautiful. And she was excited about something.
Alex couldn’t guess who they were there to see. The field that spread out from beside the dirt road went as far as he could see and there were no houses, trailers or other cars.
Alayna grabbed a black duffel bag from the trunk and headed toward a small grove of trees about a hundred yards away down a slight slope.
“Come on,” she said, excitement in her voice and a spring in her step.
Alex followed a few steps behind through the knee-high grass, watching her platinum curls bounce against the back of the black T-shirt she wore. This was the most carefree he'd seen her in the many days since they'd met. Sure, he'd seen glimpses of silly moments in the office, when she was teasing Burdock about being too serious or getting in a movie quote battle with Ellie. Alayna had a wicked sense of humor, and it was obvious to him that she made a conscious effort to crack a few jokes around the team to keep spirits up. But those moments were rare beams of sunlight through dark clouds.
Most of the time, her duties pressed her shoulders down and left her frowning at her laptop screen. She'd lift her hair and rub her neck and shoulders in the most sensual way. It drove Alex crazy. He wanted his hands to be the ones rubbing the tension from her shoulders, his fingers running through her hair.
Other times, she'd take her anger and frustration down to the gym and practice with the heavy bags. He'd already seen her tear one old canvas bag that had been repeatedly patched with duct tape wide open, its sand spilling onto the floor. Alayna had unhooked the chains near the top of the bag, tossed it aside and hung a fresh one.
But now, she seemed...lighter. Between her brisk steps toward the grove, Alex could almost swear he saw her skip. Maybe. Just once.
As they neared the trees, Alex could see that it was a small grove of pecan trees that circled a rough ring of stone. Not just stones, it was a cave.
It was nearly impossible to see from the surface, with only a small lip to indicate its presence. The mouth of the cave was huge and plunged straight down into the darkness. Alayna pulled a length of climbing rope from the duffel, looping it around the closest of the pecan trees. She stepped into a harness, pulling it up around her thighs and waist. She eyed Alex and tossed him a larger version. She quickly hooked up carabiners and descenders while Alex got his own harness situated.
"You know how to do a sky drop, right?" she asked.
"Yup, the Army taught me well," Alex said. He didn't say that tying off to a pecan tree would be a lot easier than the helicopter drops that he'd had to do. And this time, no one was shooting at him.
Alayna looped her arms through the duffel and wore it like a backpack. She cracked two glow sticks and dropped them down the mouth of the cavern.
"It's only about forty feet down, and it's a bare, even floor," she said before kicking off the edge and disappearing into the dark, the only sound that accompanied her was the whir of the descender.
Alex clipped in and followed her, well and truly intrigued about why she suddenly had the urge to go spelunking. He could see Alayna's silhouette against the green glow of the sticks on the floor.
As she reached the bottom, she called, "Hey, Z, it's me. I brought a friend. Don't eat him."
Alex's eyes went a little wide at that. Who could she be talking to, down here in the dark?
A deep rumbling sound, almost past the edge of his hearing, answered from the darkness to his right. A shiver went up Alex's spine. When his boots hit
the ground, he unclipped and slipped into a defensive crouch, his hand instantly going to his firearm. Alayna touched his hand in the darkness, and he could see the green glow of the sticks glimmer in her hair as she shook her head.
"He's friendly," she whispered.
She moved away from him, leaving only the ghost of her body heat in the chill of the cave. He heard her rummaging in the duffel bag, and suddenly a lantern flared to life.
The cave was a large dome, with an inky blackness off to the right that looked like an underground lake. The mouth of the cave was a gray circle above them, where the last rays of daylight shone through.
Alex's eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. In the lantern light, he could see a shimmer to his right. It could have easily been a deposit of quartz or mica that was glistening in the darkness, but there was a void. Something darker than the cave walls. And the glimmer had a...wet quality to it.
"It's been too long, Little Sparrow."
The voice that came from the darkness sounded like a combination of breaking rocks and wind whistling through cracks.
The glimmer in the corner seemed to detach itself from the cave wall and move closer to them. Alex could hear crunching footsteps moving over the limestone gravel of the cave floor. As it moved into the lantern light, Alex saw the shadow of a massive reptilian head. It was covered in black overlapping scales. Its yellow eyes had a diamond-shaped iris, like a goat's. A set of horns protruded up and back from the top of its head and thin spines and whiskers covered its face. Long, sharp teeth were visible behind its scaly lips.
The creature's muzzle was a couple of feet across and its narrow head was maybe six feet long. The thing brought its nostrils, which sat on top of its muzzle like an alligator's, close to Alex and drew a deep breath. Alex could feel the force of the sniff tug at his clothes a bit.
"Sorry I haven’t been by much, Z. I've been busy, trying to solve some murders and all," Alayna answered. "This is Alex. He's working with me."
The mass of black scales moved closer and Alex could see a long, thickly scaled neck. Its two front feet had four padded toes, like a dog or a big cat, and massive black claws that looked like they had been carved from obsidian. It leaned its head closer and sniffed again.
"He is a sapien," the thing rumbled. "But there is something different about him, something I have never smelled before."
Those yellow eyes studied Alex, the diamond iris scanning back and forth.
Alayna moved next to Alex and he could feel the heat of her body beside him.
"Alex, this is Z."
She turned up the intensity of the lantern and it cast its light much farther, much higher.
The thing before him was fully revealed. It had four legs, all with padded feet and wicked claws. The back legs were reverse articulated, like a dog's or a horse. Massive wings were folded along its back, an almost translucent gray, shot through with veins and long structural spines, like a bat. Standing on all four legs, its body was about the size of a short school bus. There was a tail coiled around its back feet, a scary spike with four bladed fins capping the tail. Its whole body was covered in tiny overlapping scales about the size of size of the nail on Alex's pinkie finger. The scales were faceted, like tiny jewels and they glittered in the light.
"Is...is that a.." Alex couldn't bring himself to say it.
"Dragon?" Alayna said. "Yes."
"That's impossible," Alex said. "They don't exist."
"Just like vampires, shape shifters, elves and gnomes?" Alayna said. "Don't believe me? Touch him. He likes to be scratched behind the horns."
Z obligingly laid his head down on the cave floor. The top of his head came up to Alex's chest. He took a deep breath and reached up to scratch the dragon. As he ran his fingernails over the leathery skin at the base of his horns, where there were no scales, the dragon began to growl in the back of his throat. Alex almost jerked his hand back before he realized the dragon was purring.
After a few seconds, the dragon lifted his head slightly and looked at Alex, then to Alayna.
"This one has no magick," he said, a note of incredulity, if that was possible, touching his gravelly voice. "He is a void. The magick slides around him."
"Yes," Alayna said, "He's a lìthseach."
"I thought they were a myth," the dragon rumbled.
"A dragon just called me a myth," Alex said in disbelief. He pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting a headache.
Z brought his face close to Alex again. Alex stiffened and held still as the dragon brushed his whiskers and leathery spines over his bare hands and arms. They tickled, and he tried not to shudder.
"There is more," the dragon growled. "There is a well within him. Great and empty. Open it and it will fill."
"What the hell does that mean?" Alex said.
"I do not know. I can only tell you what I sense within you."
Alex turned to Alayna. In the light of the lantern, her face had turned grave. When she caught him looking, she pasted a smile on and moved to the duffel bag.
"Enough of the spooky talk, Z," she said. "It's time for your treats."
She pulled out several plastic grocery sacks and opened one. With a whispered word and a slap to the bottom of the bag, she sent several sandwiches flying into the air. The dragon arched his long neck and snapped them out of the air one by one.
Alex sniffed.
"Peanut butter and jelly?"
"They're his favorite. When I was little, I used to sneak them out of the kitchens at the Academy and take them to him in the middle of the night," Alayna said, a bright smile touching her lips at the memory.
“How did the two of you meet?” God, that question sounded so weird when applied to a witch and a dragon.
“It was about a year after Dad died. My mom and siblings weren’t any help and I didn’t have any friends. I was kind of doing the reckless self-destructive thing. So, I used to sneak out of the Academy at night. The wind on the mountain peaks was the only thing that seemed to make me feel better.”
Z spoke up, “One night, a sudden spring snow storm blew in and brought this tiny creature to my cave.”
“We didn’t speak each other’s languages, at first. But I’ve always had this crazy ability to pick up other tongues. I was able to pick up Draconic in a few hours and I taught him English.”
Alayna looked at him over the top of Z’s head, her nails scratching behind his other horn.
“He was a runt and got left behind when the other dragons left this dimension. His tribe had been gone about hundred years when we ran into each other. He was starved for company, which is probably why he didn’t eat me on sight. And, honestly, I was pretty eager for a friend myself.”
She got that far away look as she remembered.
“We went on midnight flights all over the Rockies, hunting deer and moose. Eventually we didn’t even need to speak; we could communicate telepathically.”
Alex watched as she grew quiet for a moment.
"He's my familiar," she said. "We didn't know it was happening then, but we were bonding."
“Wait, what’s a familiar?”
“Most mages have them. They’re usually an animal, a magickal creature, sometimes a spirit that corresponds to their element. They let you store extra energy for spells, talk to them telepathically and some mages can even see through their familiar’s eyes.”
"I'm guessing it's pretty unusual to have a dragon as a familiar," Alex said.
"I've never heard of it happening before," she said. "The mages hunted the dragons almost to extinction for their scales and bones, which are harder than any material on Earth. Hostility ensued.”
Z’s rumbling voice interjected again, “I was left behind when I was very young and had not learned to fear mages.”
"Wait..." Alex said. He was remembering something, a dream, yeah. A little girl sitting on a green and windswept hillside, having tea with a dragon.
“I had a dream. I think it was about the two of you.
The dragon looked just like Z," Alex said. “You were having tea.”
A frown creased Alayna’s face.
"How could you know that?" Alayna asked, worry creeping into her voice.
She stood from where they had been sitting on the cold gravel, tossing sandwiches to the delighted dragon while they talked.
"I used to have tea parties for Z," she said softly. "When we were still learning each other's languages."
Alex stood, and she whirled on him.
"You picked up some of my memories somehow," she said, a note of accusation in her voice. "It must have been during the memory wipe. That shouldn't be possible!"
"Don't freak out," Alex said. Moving to her, he touched her upper arms, keeping his touch gentle.
"I'm not," she said, not moving away from him. "It's just that...I think I got some of yours too."
He looked into her eyes and took a deep breath. His hands moved to her shoulder blades, bringing her slightly closer.
"What did you see?"
"Blood," she said, her gaze becoming distant. "Sand. Pain. Death. There was shouting. You had needles and tubes, bandages and vials. I think you were healing someone."
Alex felt tightness in his chest. He wished she hadn't seen that. Most of the time, he wished he hadn't seen that either. He took a shuddering breath. The dragon's voice interrupted them.
"The hour grows late," he rumbled, rising to his full height. "I wish to stretch my wings. Does the Little Sparrow wish to stretch hers?"
He craned his long neck around over his shoulder, his eerie yellow eyes glowing in the darkness.
Alayna's distraction was instantly gone, her face coming alive.
"I'll get the gear," she said excitedly.
She pulled some leather rigging from the duffel and set about buckling a harness around Z’s broad chest and over his scaly back. The dragon lowered himself to the ground and Alayna leapt atop his back, clipping her climbing harness into the leather rigging. She motioned for Alex to follow.
She leaned down to give him a hand and he placed a foot on Z's elbow to hoist himself up behind her. He knew what was probably going to happen next as Alayna clipped his harness into the back of hers.