Enchantment Emporium Page 32

  The ambient power, this close to a sacred site, surged up through the contact and knocked her on her ass.

  Strong hands pushed into her armpits and hauled her back up again.

  “Allie? What was it?”

  “Not what I expected.” She rubbed at a stone bruise and frowned out toward the center of the hill.

  “What did you expect?” David asked cutting both Roland and Charlie off one word into their own questions. Roland growled, low in his throat, but let it go.

  “Something that felt like a Dragon Lord.”

  That wasn’t the answer to the question David had asked, but he stayed with her. “And this didn’t?”

  Allie leaned against Roland and thought about it. “My sample for comparison is a little small; he didn’t feel like Adam, that was for sure, but he felt sort of like Adam and sort of like something else. Something I know, but…” Lower lip between her teeth, she let her voice trail off as she tried and failed to define the second power signature.

  “You said he?”

  “Male, definitely.” If there was one thing a Gale girl knew, it was how to identify male power. “Weirdly familiar but not.”

  “Patina of the UnderRealm?”

  She glanced over at Charlie. “A what?”

  Charlie shrugged. “You know what they say, there’s nothing like the UnderRealm for leaving a waxy buildup.”

  “Who says that? Don’t actually tell me,” she added quickly. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not the UnderRealm. It’s something from…”

  The middle of the hill exploded, the sound strangely muted given the violence of the emergence. A fountain of dirt rocketed into the sky surrounding a pillar of light so bright it seared afterimages on the inside of Allie’s eyes. Rather than painting the bottom of the cloud cover, like a searchlight, the pillar capped out about ten meters up.

  “Like a light saber,” Roland murmured.

  “When this is over,” Allie told him, “we’re expanding your knowledge of media into this millennium.”

  Graham had expected fire. It was how the Dragon Lords did things. It all came back to fire. A pillar of light felt wrong in subtle ways that lifted the hair on the back of his neck. Finger around the trigger, he stared through the scope and waited for the emerging form to coalesce.

  Scales would be easier.

  Skin wouldn’t stop him.

  Weird how Kalynchuk insisted on referring to it as “the creature” as if they didn’t both know it was another Dragon Lord.

  “What’s happening?” Kalynchuk sounded as close to terrified as Graham had ever heard him. “Damn it, talk to me!”

  “It’s here.”

  David raised a hand and the falling dirt and rock dropped harmlessly around them. Allie couldn’t even feel him pulling power. She’d worry about how much power he seemed to be holding another time-here and now the last thing she needed was a concussion. All right, maybe not the last thing, but close.

  Open as she was, she could feel the power coalescing in the center of the hill.

  Not quite entirely Dragon Lord. Actually, only about half Dragon Lord…

  As she realized where she’d felt the second power, she started to run. No time for explanations. No breath to spare. No option but to reach his side the moment he took physical form and pray Graham took a moment to aim.

  No question her family would follow.

  The light remained for a moment or two after gravity had taken care of the dirt, then it collapsed in on itself.

  “The instant the light vanishes, take your shot!”

  Graham’s lip curled. Usually, the boss left him alone to do his job. Trusted him to do what he needed to. The backseat driving was fucking annoying.

  The light had condensed to a pillar two meters high. Maybe a little less. It narrowed as he watched. Darkened.

  He drew in a breath. Held it.

  The light became a man. No, a boy, no more than twelve or thirteen.

  Allie dove forward while the boy was still partially light, got an arm around a narrow waist, and took the slender body to the ground with her. Rolled as fire splashed against the jumbled dirt next to her legs.

  He sneezed, clutched her shoulders, and squinted up at her from under messy bangs, looking a little shocky. His eyes were a swirling mix of color. “You’re not my dad.”

  “Graham!”

  “He’s down!” No time to wonder why he left out the pertinent details. Like the way Allie had appeared for an instant in his scope and nearly stopped his heart. “I have no shot.”

  “Then get a shot! Put the gun to his fucking head if you have to!”

  Graham had dropped out of the sling before Kalynchuk finished speaking.

  “Allie! What are you doing?”

  She rolled again. “He’s just a kid!” Standing and pulling the boy up into her arms, Allie drew charms on damp, sulfur-scented skin as she locked herself down to Roland’s anchor and reached beyond. A red Dragon Lord swooped low out of the clouds, mouth open and belching flame. Viktor, if the twelve didn’t double up on colors. Didn’t matter who he was. Allie cut out the middleman and slapped the flame back at him.

  Dragons can’t fly on their backs.

  Dragon Lords, however, were able to stop themselves from crashing by disappearing in flame.

  “Allie!”

  Right. David. She needed to let David handle the offense while she worked to protect the boy. She felt Roland’s arm go around her, felt Charlie pick up the strands of power, felt David slap another Dragon Lord out of the sky.

  If they had any of the first circle with them, they could have called up a wind strong enough to remove the cloud cover.

  There’s twelve of them! Why are we even attempting this without the aunties?

  Then Graham appeared out of the night, weapon raised and Allie remembered she had more immediate concerns.

  She locked his gaze with hers. Thought about saying, I won’t let you shoot him. Decided, all things considered, that was fairly obvious. Thought about saying, It’s time to pick a side. Remembered how badly he reacted to ultimatums. Finally let his name escape on an exhaled breath.

  Saw him lower the weapon.

  Over the thirteen or so years he’d protected the sorcerer, necessity had required Graham to do a number of things that might be considered cold. Even brutal. He did his job, and he walked away. But shooting a naked boy-even if it wasn’t a real boy-who stood blinking and trembling, all knees and elbows, wrapped in the arms of the woman he…

  … cared about, that was outside his job description.

  As of right now.

  “Graham! What the hell is going on? Is the boy dead?”

  He reached up, eyes still locked on Allie’s face, pulled the earpiece out, threw it to the ground, and crushed it under his heel.

  Allie had no time to savor the victory. She felt another rush of wings and lifted her head to snarl, “He is under my protection!”

  David pulled power through the family link; held it ready.

  A pair of Dragon Lords dove in from the west, but, impossibly, before David could react, Adam dropped from the clouds and drove them off. He was larger than his brothers, his gleaming black scales an absence of color against the sky.

  When he landed, the ground shook. He hadn’t been that large on the street. Couldn’t have been.

  When he roared, Allie felt it in blood and bone.

  “David! No!”

  She saw David’s muscles lock as he fought to ignore the challenge.

  When Adam changed, the ground smoked under his feet.

  “You’re making a mistake, Gale girl. If he lives, his mother will follow a road of blood to the MidRealm and destroy everything in her path just because she can.”

  Allie turned the boy so Adam could see the charms she’d drawn. “And if you kill him…”

  “Yes, yes,” He waved a hand. “You’ve claimed him. Are you certain you know what that means? His life, his death, are your responsibility now.
” His lips pulled back, his smile all teeth. “What did I say about you…” A nod to David, acknowledging another power. “… and yours, interfering in the business of our family? It seems,” he continued without waiting for a response, “that you may meet your big bad after all. Let us hope I can convince my brothers you’ve made a move so foolish we have no countermove unless we want to go to war with your aunties. I’m not ruling that out, by the way.”

  Above the clouds, someone shrieked a challenge.

  “If you’ll excuse me, Ryan requires my assistance. Some of my brothers are trying to curry favor by protecting the boy, and Ryan isn’t aware we’ve changed sides. Should he ask…” This Adam directed specifically to Charlie. “… I had every confidence in his ability to survive. Good luck, Gale girl. Good luck, nephew.” The boy stiffened, beginning to fight off the effect of emerging into another reality. “Let’s hope there’s enough luck to go around.” Another flash of teeth. Another tower of flame. Allie braced herself against Roland as Adam took to the sky.

  “Allie, I don’t understand.”

  She looked past the boy’s head at Graham, who’d lowered his weapon because she’d needed him to. “He’s Kalynchuk’s son.”

  “But he’s a…”

  “He’s that, too. That lot up there…” She jerked her head toward the battle raging above the clouds. “They have a sister.”

  “What are you doing answering Charlotte’s phone, Michael?”

  Michael moved the phone away from his ear. Auntie Jane achieved impressive volume when annoyed. “She left it with me.”

  “When she went where?”

  He frowned as he parsed the sentence. “I can’t tell you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” It sounded like a warning.

  He could feel himself starting to sweat. “They went to a park.”

  “They?”

  Oops. “Charlie and Allie.”

  “Charlotte and Alysha went to a park? I see.” He was horribly afraid she did. Right through the phone. “And the boys? Wherever they are, they’re not answering their phones. Now, you don’t want their mothers to worry, do you?”

  “No?”

  “Are they with Alysha?”

  Yes or no questions couldn’t be faked. “Yeah, but…”

  “So, the whole family is in a park. Has Alysha involved them in something dangerous or have they decided to take up midnight picnicking?”

  Midnight. He glanced at his watch. “It’s got to be past three AM where you are, Auntie Jane.”

  “I can tell the time, Michael.”

  “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

  “I can sleep when I’m dead.” Or when everyone else is, was pretty strongly implied. “Answer the question.”

  “Uh… they’re just observing.” He motioned Joe closer. The leprechaun shook his head and backed up a couple of steps.

  “The Dragon Lords?”

  She knew about the Dragon Lords. That made things a little simpler. “Yeah, the Dragon Lords.”

  “And what are they observing the Dragon Lords doing?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She could, apparently, hear the truth in that. “I see,” she sniffed after a moment. “Does this have anything to do with my sister?”

  “With Gran? I don’t think so. Do you think so?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” Auntie Jane muttered. “Oh, and your young man misses you a great deal.”

  “Brian? Why were you talking to Brian?”

  “He has your phone.You should call him.”

  “Not going to happen, Auntie Jane.”

  “I’ve thought you were a number of things over the years, Michael, but I never thought you were a coward. Do not prove me wrong.”

  He listened to the dial tone for a moment, then closed the phone. “Auntie Jane,” he said to Joe.

  “I figured. Don’t take this the wrong way, but the whole lying to relatives thing? You really suck at it.”

  “We have to get him to the apartment!” Allie wrapped her jacket around the boy’s shoulders. “Do you have a name?”

  “Yeah, I have a name!” he declared, yanking the jacket close.

  “And it is?”

  “Why should I tell you?” The full upper lip curled. “You are not my father!”

  The special round safe in his pocket, Graham slapped in a magazine of full metal jackets and almost said, “Your father sent me to kill you,” but he didn’t know for certain, not one hundred percent for certain, that Kalynchuk knew the creature emerging, the boy, was his son. For the sake of the years they’d spent together, he had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “Your father couldn’t make it,” Allie told him. “We’re here in his place.”

  “He sent you?”

  “He sent me,” Graham growled.

  The boy studied Graham for a moment, eyes hazel now although other colors slipped in and out. “I can smell him on you.”

  “Then you know I’m telling the truth.”

  “Why didn’t he come himself?” Graham glanced up at the sky and the boy laughed. “Oh, yeah. Them. They would devour him if they could. My name is Jack. My mother says it is a name for heroes.”

  Jack and the Beanstalk.

  Jack the Giant Killer.

  Little Jack Horner.

  Jack O’Neill.

  Captain Jack Sparrow.

  Captain Jack Harkness.

  Those were all the Jacks Allie could recall off the top of her head, but in her own defense she was a little distracted by the blue Dragon Lord falling from the sky, trailing flame from great gashes in its scales. It hit the ground with less impact than the wind accompanying it, ignited, disappeared.

  Half a dozen trees turned into torches.

  Allie threw power at David. The fires went out.

  They almost missed the second Dragon Lord, scales a rich chocolate brown, diving toward them from the south, and the third, a much darker green than Ryan, dropping in from almost directly above.

  Graham snapped his weapon up and squeezed off a shot. It hit the brown Dragon Lord in the meaty part of the muscle where the left wing joined the body. Spraying blood, he screamed and wheeled off. David filled a green wing with wind, pinwheeling the sinuous body down toward the ground. The Dragon Lord changed just before impact, ran half a dozen steps as a heavyset man with dark tattoos, changed again, and disappeared into the clouds.

  “We need to talk about this somewhere else!” Graham yelled, scanning the sky.

  David ground an ember out under his heel. “He’s right.”

  “Didn’t I say we had to get Jack to the apartment?” Allie rolled her eyes. “Maybe if we started moving!”

  “I want to go to my father!”

  “First, let’s not get killed by your uncles.”

  Jack thought about that for a moment, then nodded.

  Graham caught up to the rental car as they turned onto 9th Ave S.W. heading east. As they passed 6th Street, as he passed 6th Street, as he drove right on by without even considering turning toward the office and Stanley Kalynchuk, he realized that this finalized the choice he’d made when he let Jack live. He touched the shape of the special bullet in his vest pocket.

  His blood to make it fly true and Kalynchuk’s to make the kill.

  Did Kalynchuk know?

  He’d made enemies in the UnderRealm; Graham had already dealt with a few. He might have only sensed the power coming, known it was an enemy but not which enemy.

  Until the arrival of the Dragon Lords.

  Unless he’d thought it was the mother emerging and not the child.

  Not hard to believe the mother’d be pissed. Given Jack’s apparent age and the fact he’d fired that first shot to save Kalynchuk’s life almost exactly thirteen years ago and knew the sorcerer hadn’t been to the UnderRealm since, Kalynchuk had knocked up a Dragon Lord and walked away, leaving a big scaly, flying, fire-breathing single mom behind.

  A trickle of sweat rolled down Graham’s ba
ck at the thought. The Dragon Lords were not Human. Didn’t matter what they sometimes looked like. They were…

  Well, they weren’t. That was the point.

  For Kalynchuk to actually…

  He might have been forced. Taken without his consent. Not ever known there’d been a child.

  But blood magic wouldn’t kill without a blood connection.

  Would it?

  Had he known?

  “Put a gun to his fucking head if you have to.” First time he’d ever used a pronoun. And Graham hadn’t told him what, exactly had emerged.

  “Is the boy dead?”

  The boy. Not the enemy. Or the creature.

  There didn’t seem to be much doubt left to give him.

  When David turned down into the alley behind the store, Graham followed. Seemed like a way to show commitment. Plenty of room in the garage for the car; room enough for him to pull up tight against the building and still leave space for the garbage truck to pass. He took his weapon with him-he didn’t know if Kalynchuk could show his displeasure by de-hexing the locks from a distance, but that wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

  The garage door slid closed behind him. He supposed it was a good sign it hadn’t slid closed in his face.

  Things had changed during the trip.

  Jack now wore jeans and a black T-shirt under Allie’s jacket-or a jacket that bore some resemblance to Allie’s. The jeans had that baggy-ass thing going and both his boots trailed their laces. Roland was missing his shirt, Charlie was barefoot.

  “Jack realized he should have more clothes, so he made some out of the available fabric,” Allie told him as Jack wandered off to explore the garage.

  “Made some?”

  “Yeah. Dragon Lord levels of power applied to sorcery which I’m not sure he should even be able to do at his age. And I don’t think the car rental place is going to be happy.”

  Graham glanced into the car. Most of the fabric had been removed from the back of the front seat. There were also gouges in the fabric of the roof, deep enough he could see the gleam of metal. As he straightened, he glanced over at David and saw a rack of antlers that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the wall of an old Scottish castle flickering in and out of sight. “Those are… I mean, they’re…”