by Riley Storm
Pushing his foot down on the pedal, Kal sped up, eager to be reunited. It was later on a Monday, he couldn’t imagine Rocky’s being all that busy. Anne was probably bored out of her mind.
Contemplating all the naughty ways he could fix that problem, Kal made the final turn, fingers bouncing on the steering wheel in nervous excitement at seeing her again.
Up ahead he could see a bright light flickering.
Somehow he just knew. It could be any of a dozen other buildings, but Kal just knew it was Rocky’s. There was trouble. The police had been called maybe. Another fight. Maybe Mikey the Plumber had come back while he was gone, to cause some problems over his being banned from the bar or something.
All Kal knew, was that he shouldn’t have been gone so long. The big-block V-8 engine roared and his truck shot down the nearly empty road.
“Oh god,” he gasped, coming to a halt and leaping out.
The building was in flames, the tendrils flicking higher with every second. They jumped and moved fluidly, like a dance. Almost like it was alive.
Too alive…
Kal spied the two men crouching near a truck out front, one of them with his hand outstretched to the building.
They were masked, but Kal could tell what was happening. He knew dragonfire when he saw it. With a mighty roar he rushed forward, dropping his shoulder. It impacted on the truck the two were using for cover and the massive hunk of metal flew backward into both of them.
They were thrown free into the street, sprawling and laying still. Kal didn’t have any time to deal with them however, because he could hear the desperate cries from inside. Anne was still in there, and Liam too.
He had to save them!
Pulling the door open and rushing inside, Kal was immediately confronted with blistering hot dragonfire everywhere. He wasn’t getting through it. Not like this.
Closing his eyes, he called upon his dragon, awakening the other half of him. The lizard woke and slithered forth, always eager to help. Knowing that Anne and her child were in trouble coalesced its anger into freezing cold fury.
Platinum-white scales rose from beneath Kal’s skin, coating him in a protective layer. Twin horns jutted forward from his skull and his eyes took on their usual yellowish tint.
Now he stalked through the fire, spewing frost left and right, the scales protecting him from the burning even as he made a beeline for the stairs, leaving nothing but surface-scorched bar behind him.
The fire hadn’t been going long enough to do much more damage than that. Maybe he still had a chance.
Reaching the stairs, he took an extra deep breath, and frost rolled out from his mouth, billowing up the stairs, coating every surface and extinguishing the fire as it went.
Knowing that both Anne and Liam would come rushing for the stairs now, Kal quickly resumed his human form—minus the shirt, which had been torn to shreds when his wings had burst free from his back—and took the stairs two at a time.
“Are you okay?” he asked, running to the window and throwing it open. Cool night air raced inside. There wasn’t much smoke to clear out, but he knew the pair would be grateful for it anyway.
“Kal?” Anne gasped, throwing herself at him.
Kal swept her up. Even Liam came rushing in. He clung mostly to Anne, but a little to Kal as well. This wasn’t how Kal had wanted to make a breakthrough with the scared little guy, but if that was the silver lining to come from it, then so be it.
“Come on,” he said. “We need to go. Need to go downstairs and out the back.”
He didn’t want them going out the front, seeing the unconscious bodies of the other shifters. It had to be Clifford and Goldenrod back for more. Kal couldn’t fathom who else might be so desperate to hurt him they would strike at Anne. Either way, he had to protect these two until he could deal with them.
Permanently.
They rushed down the stairs, Kal scooping up Liam so they could move quick enough. Anne paused just long enough to look out the front.
“Kal!” she gasped, pointing.
He reached the bottom next, passing Liam off to Anne as he saw the figure standing at the doorway.
“Mind your business,” the masked shifter said, and flung both hands forward.
Kal’s eyes widened as twin gouts of fire raced toward them.
“Fuck.”
There was only one thing he could do. Kal would survive the flames. It would hurt, but he would live. Anne and Liam however, being human and fragile, would not. The dragonfire would sear them alive. Kal couldn’t let that happen. Unfortunately, there was only one way to stop it.
It seemed to happen in slow motion. Pivoting on his right foot, Kal turned away from the attacker. As he did, he changed.
Once more, scales rose to the surface. Horns pushed up and forward from his forehead as he began to glow platinum white, calling not only upon his dragon, but upon its heritage, the powers of his line.
Wings a brilliant arctic white sprouted from his back, shooting out around his shoulders. Kal reached forward, pulling Anne and Liam into a hug. A scaled hug. His wings snapped closed around them like a protective membrane, closing tightly into a ball.
Fire slammed into his back, staggering him even as it rushed by so fast the roar was loud enough to hurt his ears. Anne shrieked. Liam screamed.
But they lived.
Frost built across Liam’s back as he poured energy into keeping himself from being melted. Anger at the attack on this person who was so important to him built.
And built.
Kal could feel his features changing. His face was elongating, taking on a more lizardlike appearance. His dragon wanted free. It wanted revenge.
With a bellow that ripped free from his throat Kal flung his wings open. The great gust of air was worked through with frost. A wave of white washed over the bar, putting out the fire and forcing the attacker to duck out the front before he was frozen solid.
“Stay here,” Kal ordered and rushed out the front door, uncaring of who saw right now.
They had threatened her. Threatened Anne! Those idiots had nearly killed her, and Liam. A child. How dare they!
By the time Kal got outside though they were long gone. He almost pursued, but he knew that now wasn’t the time for that. He had another issue to deal with.
Clamping down on his anger, he pulled back on his dragon, returning it beneath his skin. Now he was standing in the street in his shoes and his pants. Nothing more, his skin gleaming with a cool layer of water, melted frost.
Ducking back inside, he found Anne and Liam right where he left them.
Staring at him. In terror.
Well, Anne was looking at him with terror.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Anne
It wasn’t possible.
She’d seen it, but Anne couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it. Such things didn’t exist. Maybe she was dying from smoke inhalation, passed out on the floor. That was it, that was what had happened. The smoke got to them, and they were about to die. Her imagining the fire going out, Kal coming upstairs, that was all her mind’s doing to try and ease her passage into death.
That made far more sense than what she’d just seen. Kal with scales on his body, horns jutting from his head like he was the devil. Wings the color of purest snow protecting them as a man shot fire from his hands. That was all just make believe. She was dead.
“Are you a superhero?”
She blinked as Liam tore from her grip and raced across the bar.
“Liam!” she shrieked, clutching for him, trying to hold him back, but she was too slow.
“That was so cool!” Liam exclaimed, bouncing up and down as he came to a halt several feet from Kal. “You had the armor skin—then the horns started—and you had wings—can you fly?—are you an alien?—then the fire was there and I was like we’re gonna die—can you control fire?—but then it was cold—are you Iceman?—and then he ran away—were you going to beat him up? Could you beat him up
? Who can’t you beat up? Is there a team of superheroes? Do you know Iron—?”
“Liam,” Anne snapped sharply, interrupting her son’s torrent of words. “Come here. Now.”
“Mom did you see that?” Liam said, bouncing up and down, pointing at Kal.
Anne kept her eyes firmly on her son. She couldn’t look at K—at him, right now.
“Come over here,” she said even more sternly.
Liam frowned. “What’s wrong mom? He saved us, didn’t he?”
Anne frowned. She didn’t have an answer to that question. Not one she was happy with at least. Maybe he had saved them. Saved them from what though? And who? Why? What was he?
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
She finally looked up as he spoke. “What did I just find out Kal? What was that? Who are you?”
“He’s a superhero mom, I’m telling you! He probably has a secret base around too! In a cave probably. Are you a bat? Is that why you have wings? Are you Bat—”
“Liam.”
Anne cut her son off sharply, disturbed by his sudden enthusiasm for Kal. Her son was too young, too naïve to understand what was going on, that what Kal had done wasn’t actually possible. Superheroes and the like, they didn’t actually exist. People couldn’t actually do what Kal had just done.
“I had every intention of telling you,” Kal said softly.
Anne stared at him. “Oh yeah? When were you going to drop that little bomb on me? That you can transform, and oh yeah, you have wings and horns. I’d ask if you were the devil, but you were all white and covered in…whatever.
“Scales,” Kal said calmly. “They were scales. And to answer your question, I was going to tell you when you knew me better. When I felt comfortable telling you and that you might believe me, and not think I was evil. Or be terrified of me.”
For a moment Anne glimpsed the incredibly awning pit of fear that Kal lived with, that a being possessed of whatever powers he had must deal with when living among humans. She felt a powerful wave of compassion and pain for that, for knowing that everyone would look upon him like she was now. With fear and rejection.
Then it was gone.
“You had wings!” she shrieked. “You created ice out of nowhere. That other guy shot fire from his hands. Oh god there’s more than one of you!”
“I’m still the same person you knew,” Kal said gently.
He was standing his ground, not making any attempt to come closer, which she greatly appreciated. Anne wasn’t sure she could have handled that just then. This was too much to take in.
“Mom, he’s a good guy.” Liam turned to Kal. “You’re a good guy, aren’t you?”
“I try to be Liam. Sometimes though, I make mistakes. Like not telling your mom what I am earlier.”
Liam snorted. “I would have believed you. She wouldn’t though. She’s silly.”
Kal’s face twitched, just a little. “She’s just being protective of you. Cause she loves you, and this is a big surprise for her.”
“Yeah but it’s a cool surprise!” Liam said. “So cool. Will you take me flying?”
“Maybe later,” Kal said, trying to deflect the conversation as he turned his attention back to her.
Anne flinched.
“I’m not going to apologize for saving your lives,” Kal said solemnly. “I did what I had to do.”
“Lives you put in danger in the first place!” she shouted. “They weren’t here for me. They were here for you, Kal. They tried to hurt me. They tried to hurt my son.” Her voice blazed with the same intensity as the fire.
“I know,” he growled. “And for that they’re going to pay.”
“Kal,” she said slowly, trying to get a point across to him. “Maybe I’ll believe you. Maybe in time I can accept…whatever you are. But right now, you put us in danger. You are a threat to my child’s life. I need you to go.”
“Anne,” he said, reaching out for her.
“Just go,” she repeated, her voice trembling. She lifted her jaw, trying to contain her emotions. “Please.”
The last word seemed to break Kal. He slumped forward, hanging his head.
Anne didn’t enjoy what she was doing, but she had to do what was right for her child. She couldn’t have Kal around them while he was dealing with whatever. She needed him gone.
“I’m sorry,” he said into the silence that followed. “I’ll go.”
She watched him turn for the door. He paused in the entryway. “I never meant to put you in harm’s way. Know that it wasn’t intentional.”
Then he was gone.
“Mom what are you doing?” Liam asked, shocked at her decision. “Where is he going?”
“Away, dear,” she said, clutching him to her side as she looked around the scorched bar.
“Away.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kal
Not even the sight of all his gold and jewels could stem his frustration.
“Useless!” he roared, picking up a gold bar and hurling it across his vault so hard it landed on the floor in a misshapen hunk.
The worst part of it all, was that Kal couldn’t even blame Anne for her reaction. She was right. It was his fault. All of it. He’d not considered that that lunatic Viko and his thugs would go so far as to try and kill Anne.
Not that that would be an issue any more. Kal had tracked them down after leaving Anne and Liam behind at the bar. Even though he had been sent away, he wasn’t going to leave them open to any further harm. He’d found the attackers deep in the mountains later that night.
It would be weeks before anyone would find the scattered chunks of their bodies. Kal had unleashed his full fury on both of them, freezing their bodies solid, and shattering them into pieces. He wasn’t proud of what he’d done, and it wasn’t a memory that he would enjoy living through.
But for Anne and Liam, it was a price he was willing to pay if it meant they would be safe while he was not around.
The anger he was feeling now, however, was directed at himself. After the bloody, brutal fight in the mountains, Kal had fallen back on old habits, and sought out the bottle again. He’d spent most of the day trying to drown out the images of what he’d done, but it hadn’t worked.
All he wanted, was to see Anne, to hold her in his arms and tell her that she no longer had to worry, that it was safe now. He’d taken care of the danger to her and to Liam. Like he always would.
Frost tingled the air as he fought to contain his emotions. It wasn’t easy, and the strength of his response to the threat against her life surprised even Kal. He’d known he cared about her, that she was growing more important to him by the hour, but he hadn’t known just how much.
Now he had a better idea, and he longed to be able to hold her in his arms and tell her. Kal wanted to tell her everything, show her the truths and disarm her of any worry about him.
But he couldn’t.
His anger had finally boiled over earlier, and he’d stormed out of the bar he’d taken up residence in, disgusted with himself and his actions. No more drink. He was done with it. The choice had come to him as easily as realizing that with every sip he took, he was moving farther away from Anne.
Having to choose between beer and her, that was no contest at all. He’d put his mug down, dropped some cash on the table and left without a second thought. It simply wasn’t worth it to him.
Wandering away from his treasure, which wasn’t calming him like it usually did, he flopped down on the cot he kept in the corner. Like most dragons, he had converted a section of his vault over to a living space. It was useful for when they needed to get away from everyday clan life, take a week long hibernation nap, or similar things.
For Kal it had become his home away from home when he hadn’t been sleeping out under the stars. It seemed that he was going to be here for the foreseeable future as well, now that Anne wanted nothing more to do with him.
Even thinking her name sent a stab of pain through him. Was
there a way for him to fix this? Something he could do, or something he could say, that would bring the two of them back together again? He longed to see her, to hold her. Even Liam, the little rascal. Showing the boy what he was, what he could do, perhaps that would be the way he could bond with her son, break through that barrier the young child had erected to protect himself from further hurt.
“Maybe, eventually,” he muttered, shifting onto one side at the slight pressure in his back pocket as he lay down. “What the hell is that?”
He rolled onto his side, stuffing a hand into the back pocket of his pants.
The schedules.
Kal hadn’t bothered to change his pants. He’d been a little caught up in everything going on, only bothering to grab a spare shirt from his truck after the fight in the mountains. He only done that because he knew the bars wouldn’t let him in if he was shirtless.
Now though he pulled out the pieces of paper. In everything that had happened, he’d totally forgotten about them.
Opening them up, he scanned his. It looked exactly like he remembered it. Nothing out of the ordinary. He would have noticed it the day it was sent out if something had been wrong. It listed the guards working each day for the week, on each shift. The guard captains. There was his name listed for the second shift, the mid-day shift, on the day the Gate had been breached. He was the Captain that day. It had been his job to prevent anything from escaping.
It also showed the rotations within the shift. Breaks, positions at the Gate itself, where everyone must be in dragon form, and for those up at the mouth of the mine shaft, the second line of containment.
Not that it had done much good. After sending up the warning Kal had paused to ensure that Vlad, who had been with him at the Gate itself, was okay after their scuffle. Then he’d set out in pursuit to help Gunnar and Sache stop it.
But they had not been able to do so.
He grimaced, reliving the memory.
Dropping his schedule onto his chest, Kal pulled out Gunnar’s, unfolding it.
It was another standard looking schedule.