Dragons

At home, she changed clothes, loving the feel of jeans and a t-shirt, ran through a few chores and was thinking about trying to sleep when her phone went off.

"Sama? What is it?"

"They just came in. You have about half an hour."

"On my way."

With no time to waste, she sprinted down the path and made a beeline for the commissary. The family was indeed there having a meal and with no decorum at all, Roxy skidded to the side of their table.

"Greetings, I am Roxanne Nelson, Inventory Master of this station and I realize it is rude, but I need to ask a question."

Taken aback, the father spoke, "I am Retingar, this is my mate, Ashla, and our daughter, Minara. What is the question that you would ask?"

She nodded her head to each as the introduction was given. "What is the significance of the song in the night?"

The three Drai blinked at her and the male raised his wings slightly in surprise. "Where did you hear of the song?"

"It doesn't matter. What is it?"

Minara grimaced. "The song of an ancient Drai calling to his mate. That is why we are here. There is a dragon sleeping on this world and he is about to wake. When he wakes, he will start the song and I will go to him."

"So, if you hear the song, he is calling you?" She was having trouble dodging the crux of her problem.

"That is the history. I have not heard it yet and we have been here for some weeks." Minara shrugged.

"Thank you for the answer. I am sorry to have disrupted your meal." She started to turn and leave, but then had to ask, "What if he is waking, but he is calling someone else?"

Minara blinked, so her father filled in, "Then we will simply leave. There is none who should stand between a dragon and his true mate. It would be an insult that might cost a life."

"Ah. Well. Good luck then."

She was almost to the door when Ashla called out, "How long has it been going on then?" Her tone was amused. She had heard what Roxy had not been saying.

Roxy turned her head and said over her shoulder. "A month."

"Then I would go in search of him soon, or he will come to you. If that is the situation, then the entire base may be in jeopardy. The shifters were said to be patient only to a limit before they take their mate hunt into their own hands." She was chuckling.

Roxy hazarded a quick look at the table where they sat. Retingar was shocked, Ashla amused and Minara relieved. She gave them a quick nod and left the commissary.

She sprinted to her house and closed her eyes the instant that she lay down. She was fully clothed. If she needed to follow his song to find him and shut him up, she would do it.

She desperately needed a good night's sleep.

Vran watched the various emotions flicker over Mona's face. He was sure she had no idea how much her expression gave her away. Most people didn't. Took a lot of practice to hide how one felt.

Something small and dark swooped past her and she flinched. Nala rose and gazed with interest into the darkness.

"You'll never catch a bat," Mona chided. "Not with their radar. Besides, what would you do with one if you did catch it?"

Nala slanted her the scornful glance of the born hunter.

"The thrill for all predators is in the pursuit and catch," Vran commented. "Ask any human--we're all predators."

"Men more than women," Mona said.

"Genes. Hunters and gatherers. Genes go way back. To the time of dragons."

"You mean you think that somehow our ancestors inherited a genetic memory of dinosaurs, so invented the dragon to account for it?"

"Not at all. Dragons aren't mythic dinosaurs. Nor modified ones either." He deftly inserted a charcoal-crisp hot dog into a bun. "Care for the results of today's hunt?"

Between bites, she asked, "Why do we keep talking about dragons?"

"Why are your cousins coming?"

She slanted him an impatient look. "She invited them. I'm hoping one of them can solve my great-aunt's secret. I have no idea what the solution is."

"Dragon heart is dragon stone," he said.

She stared at him. "That's the first line of the secret verse. Did Great-aunt Enid teach it to you, too?"

"You asked why we kept circling back to dragons--that's why."

"Do you mean you learned the verse from Enid? You talk around questions rather than answering them."

"I came here to protect you," he added. "If you don't like the word protection, think of me as an observer who's on your side." He slipped a roasted hot dog into a bun for himself and gestured toward an ice chest of soft drinks. "Help yourself."

Mona opened a can of orange and sat on Nala's log.

"The flicker of the flames turns you into a mystery woman," he murmured. "Your eyes hold secrets no man can fathom."

"I doubt mystery women ask for seconds on hot dogs."

He was reaching to hand her one when Nala dived into her lap, huddling against her as a soft whoosh of wings came from overhead.

"That was no bat," Mona exclaimed.

"Owl," Vran said. "A big one by the looks of him." He handed her the hot dog, scooped Nala from her lap and loped toward the cottage with the cat.

He returned without Nala, saying, "I won't let her out after dark again. Of all people, I should have remembered the night predators."

When they'd eaten all the marshmallows either could handle, he sat next to Mona on the log and asked her to sing Puff, The Magic Dragon with him.

He watched as Mona stared into the fire as they sang, seemingly half-transported into that magic kingdom by the sea. They fell silent for a time, and he found the swish of the waves on the sand lulling his apprehension.

 "Mudway-aushka," she said softly. "The Chippewa word for the sound the waves make. Do you know Longfellow's poem about the shining big sea water?'"

"As a boy I was brought up on Welsh poetry such as Peacock's." He threw his head back and intoned:

"The mountain sheep are sweeter,

But the valley sheep are fatter;

We therefore deemed it meeter

To carry off the latter."

"Obviously a raider's tale."

He didn't deny it. "Welsh tales are full of battles won and battles lost, until the time came when there were no more wins--all were losses--and so we became a reluctant part of Great Britain."

"While we here in the colonies revolted and broke away."

"You had the advantage of distance." He pivoted on the log to look at the dark lake. "And vast spaces. There's still wilderness to be found here. I love America."

Mona turned so that she, too, faced the lake. Far out over the water, a string of lights twinkled.

"A ship passing," he said.

"No, actually it's a boat. Great Lakes tradition has it only boats sail these inland seas. And I was told in town it's rare to see the big boats anymore since the mines all closed."

He glanced at the sky. The rising moon, lopsided, touched the dark water with silver and leached the color from Mona's eyes as he looked at her. "The moon is waning. In ten days we'll have moondark."

She continued to gaze into his eyes. He knew he should glance away. "They say whoever looks into a dragon's eyes becomes his slave," he warned.

"Then I'm lucky you're not a dragon."

"Are you?" He heard his voice change into a croon. Damn, he had to stop this.

He saw her attempt to speak, to look away, saw her fail. Did she want more? He sure as hell did.

Vran couldn't help himself. If only he hadn't sat next to her on this damn log, he could have kept his cool. But this close to her, his head filled with her seductive scent, he was rapidly losing his reason. He felt far more than the simple allure of an attractive woman, this was an all-out sensual raid.

David looked down at a blonde-haired woman sprawled on the ground, her face drawn in pain, her left leg caught between the teeth of a rusty trap. He dropped to his knees, grabbed the jaws of the trap with both hands, wrenched it open and off her leg. Muttering about idiot bastards who set traps and never come back to check on them, he stared at her injuries with dismay.

"Fix it," the child ordered. "I'll help."

About to say the woman needed to be taken to a doctor, prodded by something from within, David instead laid his hands over the bloody and torn flesh of her leg. The little girl's hands immediately covered his.

He felt a warmth from the child's touch, felt that warmth meeting and joining a current that passed from him into the woman's injured leg. After a time, he realized whatever he was doing was draining him, but he didn't remove his hands--not until blackness overwhelmed him, and he collapsed.

* * * *

Tima stared in disbelief from her healed leg to the naked man who lay unmoving at her feet, her blood on his hands. Where had he come from? And how could he have fixed her leg?

"We need to help him," Kam said.

Definitely. Tima rose, finding she could put weight on her left leg with no problem. She knelt beside the man and felt his neck for a pulse, relived to find a steady beat. "You stay with him while I get the canvas covering the motorboat." 

When she returned, she stretched out the canvas on the ground next to him and rolled him onto it. Once he was positioned so the canvas could be wrapped around him and fastened, Tima dragged him toward the house, Kam beside her.

"Where did you find him?"

"On the beach, like I told you after the trap bit you."

"Yes, but how did you know that?" Even as she asked the question, Tima could predict the answer.

"I saw him there in my head."

It wasn't the first time her ten-year-old sister saw like that. Remembering his nakedness, Tima asked, "Had he been swimming?"

"Don't know. I saw him fall in the lake. Last night."

"But it stormed last night, how could you see anything?"

Kam shrugged. "Just saw him fall. Don't know how he got on our beach."

Pulling the naked stranger was work, and Tima had to rest twice before she reached her farmhouse. She hauled him inside, into the small downstairs bedroom that neither she nor Kam used, opened the canvas and turned down the bed covers. She tried to figure a way to get him onto the bed, aware she could never lift him.

"I never thought the day would come when I'd be happy to see Arno," she muttered, "but if he were here we'd have no problem."

"Don't like Arno," Kam told her.

"I'm not crazy about him either, but he is strong. I suppose I could call him."

Kam frowned, shaking her head. She crouched down beside the man, staring at him, then began whispering in his ear.

"What are you telling him?" Tima asked. "He's unconscious, he won't hear you."

Kam kept on whispering, paying no heed.

He stirred, opening his eyes. With obvious effort, he got to his knees, then shakily to his feet and fell face down across the bed, once again unmoving. From there, Tima had only moderate difficulty straightening him out and covering him up.

She looked at Kam's smug smile. "Sometimes you know too much for your own good," Tima told her sister. "I hope you didn't learn any of this from your twice-great-aunt Louhi."

"She only knows bad things. I told him he had to get on the bed right next to him 'cause he was too heavy for us and we didn't want Arno to come."

Tima gave her a rueful smile before turning her attention to the man. After checking him over, being careful to keep his groin area covered, she said, "He has some cuts and some nasty bruises, but they seem to be healing. The bump on his head may be a bit of a problem, but I believe it's possible he's mainly exhausted. However he fell into the lake, it's a long swim to shore. We'll keep an eye on him, but mostly we'll just let him rest unless he gets worse."

Kam nodded. "He doesn't want a doctor to see him."

"He told you that?"

"Nope. I just know."

"Are you reading minds now? That's prying."

"I don't pry! But sometimes people throw stuff and I catch it."

"Stuff? You mean thoughts?"

"I guess. It's sort of like when we play catch with a ball."

Tima sighed, wondering if she ever would fully understand her little sister. Looking down at her left leg, she saw that, though healed, it was still bloodstained. In the bathroom, she stripped and took a shower before changing into a clean T-shirt and jeans instead of shorts, all the while trying to understand how the stranger could possibly have healed her injured leg.

The man didn't rouse for the remainder of the day. In the next few days, he came awake now and then to use the old commode she'd gotten down from the attic or to swallow the soup she fed him. Tima worried he might have a head injury, but Kam kept insisting he didn't want to see a doctor. In any case, no doctor would visit way out here. It'd be a case of bringing him into the village.

On the fifth day, Tina had just finished cooking the evening meal, when something yowled outside the back door. Kam ran to the window and peered out.

"It's a funny-looking kitty, not one from the barn, and she wants in." Without waiting for an okay, Kam hurried to the door.

Tima watched while a bedraggled Siamese cat slipped through the open door, stalked through the kitchen, then down the hall to the bedroom where the stranger slept. By the time she and Kam reached the door, the cat had jumped onto the bed and was licking the man's nose.

* * * *

David opened his eyes, focused on the cat. "Nala, what're you doing here?" The cat settled down on his chest. When he raised a hand to pet her, he noticed Tima and Kam staring at him.

"Feeling better?" Tima advanced to his bedside.

"Fair for a man who's been trampled by at least one elephant."

After a troubled night in early December, Ellis Atkins sat on the edge of his bed, brooding. He was back home in New York and should be relaxed. He had been for a time, but no more.

He ran a hand through his hair—red, like his father's. He didn't mind the color, what troubled him was what else he might have inherited from this man he had never known. He didn't carry his father's name. When his mother left his father, Ellis was only three and not even a vague impression of him remained. She'd had Ellis's last name and hers legally changed to her maiden name.

"The Askane name is cursed," she'd told him when he was old enough to ask questions about his father. "He has a dark heritage. That's all you need to know about him. Think of yourself as an Atkins."

She'd refused to tell him any more then or later, though she was open about his maternal ancestry. Her voice had been proud when she said, "The Atkins line carries dragon's blood you know." He soon discovered she didn't seem to be sure exactly what that meant.

His trip to Michigan two years ago had revealed what it meant to have dragon's blood in one's heritage. Except he was the wrong shape to ever shift into one, plus whatever made the Askane name cursed might have prevented a change anyway.

But something was definitely wrong with him. Not anything a doctor could fix. His dreams had turned dark. Threatening, with a sense of imminent doom.

He'd gotten so he hated to go to sleep. Ellis Atkins? No, he was also an Askane. After his mother died, Ellis had searched her belongings for any hint of his father's family and found nothing. He'd Googled that last name and found a tiny village up in the Adirondacks named Askaneville. He'd done nothing about it then. Now he needed to go there, needed to learn what else he may have inherited from his father. The good weather was predicted to hold for the week—no snow coming—so why not now? He rose and headed for the shower.


The village itself, he found, was little more than a ghost town. The few families still there, once they heard he wanted information about the Askanes, refused to talk to him. The last one had cursed and said, "Dead, thank the Lord, the rotten lot of them, and good riddance."

So Ellis tried the cemetery.

After much searching, he finally found the Askane vault over in an untended corner, surrounded by an iron fence. Iron letters arched over the gate spelled out We who will not be conquered, sending a chill through him.

When he tried the gate, he found it locked. As he stared at the gray granite vault inside the fence, which presumably held the remains of his father and the rest of his ancestors, the hair rose on his nape. Someone was watching him.

He glanced around. No one in sight. The watcher remained unseen, but Ellis now was sure whatever it was, wasn't outside but within the gate. And not necessarily alive and human. Worse, he had the distinct impression it wanted something from him. What?

Fearing he might hear an answer, he turned and walked rapidly away. Only pride kept him from running. He had planned to spend the night in town, but once he reached his car, he hightailed it for home. All the way back he tried to tell himself it had been imagination, no more, but failed. What he'd undergone in Michigan two years ago had shown him the inexplicable did exist. And some of it was damn dangerous. If he'd remained in that cemetery any longer he might have found out. But he knew deep down whatever the answer was, he hadn't wanted to hear it. Ever.

He reached home close to midnight and found a message on his answering machine from his cousin David Griffid. "Urgent. Call me as soon as you can."

The tension in David's voice came through clearly. So Ellis called him immediately.

"I have to take Tima downstate," David told him, "and one of us needs to be up here. I called my sister, but the message on Gwen's phone says she's on a week's vacation, so you're it. How soon can you get here?"

"Depends on how soon I can get a flight into Detroit and catch another to the Upper Peninsula," Ellis said. "What's wrong?"

"The local doc says Tima needs to be in the University Hospital in Ann Arbor if we expect to save this baby. We're catching a flight tomorrow morning and taking Kam with us. We've arranged for friends to stay at the farm and take care of the animals, but we need one of us who knows what's down in the mine to watch what's happening. Vran and Mona are back in Wales for the winter. So there's only you and Gwen."

Ellis's heart sank. "The mine? Don't tell me, the wards are failing again."

"'Fraid so. Kam sensed it first, but both Tima and I feel the seep of evil now. I've been checking Enid's house and keeping it warm so the pipes don't freeze. No problem for you to stay there. Once I know you're coming, I'll put Nala over there with enough food, water and a litter box so she'll be okay."

"That Siamese cat hates me."

"Kam says you will need her, and Kam's never wrong. Rent a snowmobile in Ojibway to get out to Enid's, we've got a lot of the white stuff."

Ellis had no choice but to agree, then make travel plans. If Gwen was temporarily unavailable, then he was the only one who understood the problem. But he'd bet she had no more idea than he of what they could do to stop the evil. Both he and Gwen had dragon blood, but she was a female so couldn't shift anymore than he could. If they were forced to face the evil in the depths of the old mine, they'd need a third from Merlin's bloodline. Where could they possibly find her? Because they needed a Keeper and Keepers were always female.

All they had up there for a third was a Siamese cat. Granted she was female, plus weird, but that wouldn't help keep the black dragon confined.


On the plane, Ellis's mind flipped back to how he'd gotten involved in the first place. A letter came from Mona Terrick, a sort-of cousin he'd met as a child, telling him she was taking care of his great-aunt Enid, who was dying and wanted all her relatives to visit as soon as possible. He soon learned David and Gwen had gotten similar letters.

Enid died before they arrived. Though they'd expected Mona to be at the house, they hadn't expected to see a stranger, Vran Pender, who'd arrived two days earlier in response to Enid's letter. The three of them hadn't been sure they could trust Vran, but it was obvious Mona did.

Ellis soon began to feel out of the loop, because David seemed to know what Vran meant by Mona being the new Keeper now that Enid was dead. At least Gwen also seemed mystified and, strangely enough, Mona herself. But then Ellis had run afoul of Louhi and, for a time, his actions were not his own.

He soon found himself locked up to keep from harming anyone.

Vran and David had switched into their dragon forms to fight for being Guardian to Mona's Keeper and David not only lost, but disappeared, So Gwen had been forced to go along to the dragon's lair in the mine to set the wards.

If only that had remained permanent,. But the evil began seeping from the mine once again. He and Gwen were left at Enid's house while Mona and David went to Wales to try to discover the origins of the Immortal Black Dragon.

Gwen, of course, still searched for her missing twin brother. But it was Ellis who discovered David was alive when he answered a call he didn't understand, but an ancestral memory did. He'd wound up in the mine with David and a woman strange to him.

After they'd once again set the wards that kept the dragon confined, he found out where David had been and met Tima Pasanen, who turned out to be another Keeper.

Tima had a young sister, Kam, who was unusual. Weird was his word for the girl. After Tima and David married, he and Gwen returned to their homes in New York. Since then he'd been so preoccupied with his own dark problem he hadn't given any thought to failing wards. Bad mistake. So here he was, his own darkness unresolved, once again girding up to face a evil monster.

Even worse, once Gwen heard about the wards failing, he knew she'd head for Enid's house. And he'd already be there. What if the darkness within him took over? Could he keep from harming her?

The shuttle pilot carefully did not touch her as he escorted her out of the small ship.

“Thank you, Nef. Where to next?”

“You are expected in medical. Please follow me.” He didn’t offer to carry her bag, so she knew immediately that the young Azon had met a reader or two before.

Medical was bustling but organized. A physician met her at the door, showed her where to stow her baggage and her clothing, then led her to a series of injections that left her dopey for the insertion into a tank to allow for the remainder of the treatment to take place. It would take weeks for her transformation to conclude and the IV of fluids to deliver their altered genetic payload.

Mayden was well aware of the reason they put her in the tank, not only was she insulated from contact, but they couldn’t hear her screaming as the pain of her organs realigning took her over. The sedatives kept flowing, but she went through a world of blackouts and agony.

Time ceased to have meaning, but the waves of pain finally receded and Mayden became aware of the steady throb of the engines as it matched her heartbeat. The visitors in front of her took on a steady wave. The doctors, medical assistants and a variety of attendants gave way to military personnel and a woman with rainbow hair who used a scanner on her from head to toe.

The woman was wearing a bodysuit with a tool belt attached and had a concerned expression on her face until the doctor spoke to her in depth. The man beside her seemed to be a male Selna, but Mayden had never seen one before.

There was another visitor in the shadows just beyond her range of vision. She could feel him more than see him, but she knew he was there. He came to visit every night when the crew was at the lightest population. A strange sort of music played in her head whenever he was near, but she was peculiarly grateful for the company.

Even when she couldn’t see him, the faint song rang through her mind, lulling her into a relaxed state as she hung in the oxygenated fluid.

Eiwyn threw the covers back. The rustle of the sheets seemed loud in the quiet of the room. Slowly, she placed her feet on the cold wooden floor and slid out of bed. Draven rolled over, his hand resting on her pillow. Heart pounding, she tiptoed her way to the door. Grabbing the knob, she thanked everything holy that she hadn't latched it when she came to bed.

Draven let out a long snore. His hand moved over her empty pillow as though searching for her. Please don't let him wake up. Eiwyn opened the door a little more than a crack and slipped through. If she woke her husband, he would see to it that she went nowhere. She couldn't let him stop her. She knew he would try. He had put his foot down and she was sneaking under it.

Barefoot, she padded her way down to the room they reserved for opening their portals. Two months ago, she'd had a vision, one she couldn't ignore. If what she had seen was true, the future of the entire universe was at stake. Now was the time to act.

Someone, somewhere, played with forces they didn't understand. One couldn't jump from dimension to dimension willy-nilly without consequences. Her people could, but they were the only exception. They didn't need the help of machines, energy or chemicals to open a dimensional rift. They merely needed the power stored within their bodies since birth. Yet, someone had started to do just that and it was ripping holes in the very fabric of the universe. She had to do something and with her sight, she may be the only person who could.

Entering the room, she closed and locked the door. The thick wood wouldn't keep Draven out, but it would slow him down just enough. Waving her arms nervously, she hummed a soft tune and the air rippled in front of her. Soon, the other side of the room blurred as the transparent rift opened before her.

A loud roar had her looking toward the door with tears in her eyes. It would be years before she would see Draven again. Yet, Eiwyn knew what she must do. It was for the good of all. The entire universe depended on her ability to escape her home and jump to the correct world. Eiwyn blew a kiss toward the door. Tears filled her eyes as she heard the pounding of her husband's feet upon the wooden floor. "I'll be back, my love…eventually."

She stepped through the rift confident that the energy would take the path of least resistance directly to the world she needed to visit. One jump, one world, a few decades and with luck, all would soon be put right.

"Fine. I have three days left here, so court if you can." She took strides toward the bone pile and kept her guard up for any of the returning ants. Topaz knelt next to the pile and flipped out a tarp from her pack. Each human bone was accounted for as she placed them carefully on the fabric.

"They were a scouting party?"

"I think so. Their actual assignment was not divulged to me." She shrugged and kept working.

He joined her in carefully separating the human from animal bones, including the locator tags. A glance at her scanner showed that all five of the people she was looking for were in this pile. It was a sad end to her fourth assignment.

"Do you enjoy your work?" He was trying to engage her in conversation, that much was obvious.

"It has its moments, but it is more of an obligation than work. We aren't given much of a choice and you know it."

"I apologize for my method of getting to know you. It was an act of impulse."

She looked at him in surprise. "Thank you for your apology. I don't think I have ever been the recipient of one before."

He cocked his head while he continued to sort bones. "The humans lack manners. They always have."

She closed her eyes for a moment and sorted through his memories of humans. Dozens of worlds flicked through his mind, including earth. He had known humans when they dressed in long robes with wide sashes and swung swords.

Kirai was much, much older than he appeared.

Topaz fished for the last few pieces of human--a handful of toe bones--and gathered the corners of the tarp together. "Well, since this world is not safe for bipedals, I think I had better be going."

"May I accompany you?"

She laughed, imagining the look on the techs faces if she brought him back with her. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

“Most witches have useful powers. They manifest useful things like money, the power to do some good in this world or even a tuna sandwich,” April said as she popped the lid back on a plastic container half-full of cedar. “Not me.” She snorted. “So far, the only thing I’ve been able to manifest is a patch of toadstools and poisoned oak.”

She glanced at the other members of her coven. All twelve of her adopted sisters looked on with understanding. If anyone could understand her predicament, it was them.

“I know exactly what you mean.” Tansy stepped forward, her scorched cape still smoldering from her last attempt to cast a spell. “What’s wrong with us?” She spread her arms out as if to encompass them all. “None of us have been able to manifest anything like Mother and Father did.” She bowed her head and lowered her voice as though what she were about to say were somehow sacrilegious. “Do you think it’s because we’re adopted and not their blood kin?”

April shook her head and crossed her arms. “Being adopted has nothing to do with it.” She made her voice sound strong and firm even though she wasn’t sure herself. “It can’t be that.” Seeing her sisters looking so dejected over their failures, she decided what her next words would be, true or not. “If being adopted made any difference, why bother to train us at all?” She shook her head. “No, we are doing something wrong. I’m sure of it.”

What that something was, was beyond her comprehension, but she would find out what it was if it was the last thing she ever did. If not for her, she would do it for her sisters and brothers, wherever her brothers were. She hadn’t seen them since the unfortunate accident that stole their parents from them. She avoided looking at Rose, the little sister responsible for that horrific event.

“Look at Iris.” She waved toward her little sister whose thick ebony hair escaped her bun with abandon. “She managed to manifest eggs this morning.”

Iris grimaced. “Yeah. Eight dozen eggs and all of them raw, broken and covering the cheese, ham and English muffins that were supposed to be Eggs Benedict. Some success story.”

“Well, you’re closer than I am.” April scowled at her sister’s lack of enthusiasm. “I tried to conjure up mushrooms to go with the omelets we made out of all those eggs and got toadstools instead.” But they knew that. They had all raided her pantry after that. Now it was as empty as her refrigerator.

April paced back and forth in front of her sisters, her wand in her hand. As she passed, each flinched as the tip of her wand pointed at them in turn. “Stop flinching or I’ll turn all of you into Goddess knows what!”

As mad as she was about their reactions and this morning’s debacle with the eggs and toadstools, she just might lose her temper and do something unforgivable—what, she had no idea. Man, it sucked not having control over her powers. Their parents had made it look so easy. April glanced around at her sisters’ dejected faces and took comfort in the fact that at least, in this, she wasn’t alone.

She wrapped the cedar shavings in the paper they used to make their smudge sticks, then lit it. Smoke rose as the comforting scent of burning cedar filled the room. It was always good to cleanse the room before and after they tried to manifest things. It not only cleansed the room of their mistakes and the inevitable negativity that followed failure, the scent helped relax and ground them.

“Since this session was an obvious bust…again, we should head home, rest and practice until next month.” She nodded when Daisy raised her hand. “Yes, Daisy?”

“Do we have to practice? Can’t we just hang up our capes and shove our wands in a box in the back of our underwear drawers and call it good?”

“Hello, lady.”

Heart in her throat, Sapphire spun around at the sound of the deep voice. She couldn’t help it. She wasn’t sure if it was the poison in her system or if she was just struck dumb by the sight of the male standing before her.

He was beautiful…and large. He stood a good six and a half feet tall, his blond hair brushing his shoulders. His black vest barley covered his wide, muscular chest and did nothing to cover the light swirls of chest hair as it swirled and dipped below the wide leather belt at his waist.

Green eyes similar in color to her sister, Emerald’s, stared down at her with the most mischievous-looking twinkle she’d ever seen. Arms as big as tree limbs crossed his chest.

As he stood examining her, she couldn’t help but notice he had markings similar to hers.

“Hello,” Sapphire replied warily. “Do you know how I can contact Galen?”

The man held his hands out to his sides and grinned. “Why would you search out another male, when you have one so handy already?” He waggled his brows. “Believe me when I say I would service you in any way you need, lady.”

“I need a healer.” Her vision blurred and she felt her body give way to a bout of the cold sweats. Swiping her arm across her brow, she began to pant. Flipping her hair back over her shoulder, she raised a hand to her wound and pointed. “I’ve been shot with an arrow tipped with poison. I must see him immediately.”

“Let me help you, lady.” The suddenly serious male stepped forward and made to take her in his arms.

Sapphire stepped back with a snarl, her scowl fierce. She may be injured, but she was still well enough to fight if this male attempted to kidnap her for his own. She would be no man’s possession. Lifting her chin, she stubbornly stared him down. “I will allow only Galen to touch me.”

Smiling, the man shook his head. “I am not certain how I have garnered such trust in one I have never met, but I thank you, lady.” He bowed with a flourish. “I am Galen, at your service. Now…will you allow me to help you before you collapse, or shall I wait until you do so?”

“No one told me you were a tease.”

Damaged by several collisions with space debris, Collector Dog 3173 limped into Earth's orbit with the transmitter considerably damaged. Those tracking it lost contact as it veered end over end, smashing down in a remote wooded area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula The collision broke it apart, burying parts of it and strewing the contents of the collection pod over the ground between the trees. The egg landed on a patch of soft moss in a small clearing near a creek. The sun's rays warmed it out of hibernation and though it was still hard, the cells inside began to multiply.

* * * *

Eleven-year-old Nahma Marten, searching for wild strawberries, had found some along the creek last year, so followed the bank, becoming more and more disappointed when she didn't find any--strawberry plants, yes, but no berries. Grandpa would remind her they were to be shared with the birds, chipmunks and rabbits, which she knew anyway, but they could have left her a few.

About to turn back, she caught a glimpse of an unusual color. Turquoise? Nothing that color grew around here. She hurried to see what it could be, but once she was staring down at the oval-shaped turquoise egg, she couldn't believe her eyes. No bird around here could possibly have laid an egg that big!

She put her berry pail on the ground, reached down and picked up the egg, cupping the turquoise find in both hands, and muttering, "You're a strange color and size for an egg, but you sure look like one. Wonder what you'll be when you hatch? Big, that's for sure."

Thrilled with her find, she laid the egg back on the moss and gathered a nearby large withering blue leaf with a soft pod attached to the stem and laid them in the bottom of the berry pail to cushion the egg. It barely fit in the pail sideways.

"Wait till I show Gina," she said. As soon as the words left her lips, she realized who she wasn't going to show it to--her grandfather. She almost never kept anything from him. He'd taken her in years ago, after her folks died in that accident. She loved him dearly, but she also knew how his mind worked.

He'd want to take the egg somewhere to be examined--and what if someone wherever he took it, decided to cut it open? It might not hatch anyway, but she wanted to give it a chance. Chicken eggs hatched if they'd been fertilized and the hen kept them warm. But no hen could ever keep this big an egg warm.

Nahma had no idea if the turquoise egg had been fertilized, but she hoped so. She'd have to keep it warm while she waited to see if it would hatch and that posed a problem. A heating pad would be too hot. Maybe a lamp. Yes! Grandpa had put his sunlamp away till next winter and it was flexible. She could fix up a nest in her room and bend the lamp down to shine on the egg, close enough to keep it warm, but not hot. In her closet, if she meant to keep it a secret.

If it did hatch, what would come out of it? She could hardly wait to find out.

Leaning forward, Tansy closed her eyes and, with an effort that looked painful, she held her wrists together, her hands arced out. Tansy’s lips moved, possibly in a silent prayer, just before she pushed a ball of concentrated energy at the driver through the thick wire divider.

The driver slumped forward, unconscious as the cab careened out of control toward the brick wall of a warehouse.

“Shit, shit, shit…” Rose closed her eyes and visualized the driver stomping on the brakes. The car skidded to a halt and the two women jumped out.

“Asshole!” Tansy ripped the driver’s door open, jammed the car into park, removed the driver’s seatbelt and dragged him from the car. “Get in,” she snarled in Rose’s direction. “We have to get out of here before someone finds us.”

Rose climbed into the vehicle more because she wanted to get away from the man who had kidnapped them than because she agreed with her sister. “Where to now?”

Tansy looked down at the gauges as she put the car in gear. “As far as three quarters of a tank of gas will take us, then we’ll catch a bus.”


Two hours and one flat tire later, they were walking. “I’m hungry.”

“Don’t whine to me about the state of your stomach, Tansy. This was your idea.”

“Yeah, but you’re older. You should have stopped me.”

Rose stopped walking to glare at her sister. “I’m older by months, Tansy, not years. That does not give me more experience. If it did, I would have known this harebrained scheme of yours would turn out badly.”

Tansy stuck her thumb out as a car approached. “I don’t care what you think about the perils of hitchhiking. I’m hitching a ride to the nearest restaurant.”

Rose shook her head and sighed. “Whatever. It’s not like you couldn’t use that weird energy thing on someone again.”

“I can’t. I can only use that about once every six hours, but that’s beside the point. I’m hungry and thirsty and my feet hurt.”

“Why do I always forget you’re the whiney sister until I go with some stupid plan of yours?” Rose shook her head. She almost laughed when the car sped past and Tansy stomped her foot like a frustrated child.

She didn’t laugh, however, when a long, sleek limo stopped and a door opened.

“Get in.”

“Uh, no thanks.” Tansy backed away.

“I thought you wanted a ride. You had your thumb out, didn’t you?” The man inside didn’t move to get out, nor did he attempt to coerce them into the vehicle any further.

“Well…yes. I did have my thumb out.”

“Then get in. I’m late for a meeting. I can’t sit here indefinitely.”

“I’m not sure about this, Tansy.” Rose grabbed her sister’s arm as she sighed and headed for the car.

Tansy turned around with a sigh. “You’re not sure about what? The man stopped because I had my thumb out.” She narrowed her eyes as if to say get in or you’re on the menu. I’m starved. “Get in. He’ll take us to town.”

“Which town would that be?” Rose asked as she climbed into the car behind her sister, the whole time telling herself you’re just too damned stupid to live, Rose. Or maybe that was Tansy. The jury was still out on that one.