For the Memory of Dragons (3 page)

Okay, well that explained why he didn’t have
clothing. He must have been in dragon form.
Oh that’s nice!
He remembered he was a dragon, but he still had no clue what his
name was. The little voice in the back of his head that he
recognized as his dragon part snickered at him. He felt the bright
flash of scales slither across the back of his mind, reminding him
that he had something important to do, but the pain in his head
kept him from coming up with what. Lifting a hand, Alex pressed his
fingers into his temple, trying to get the pounding to subside.

“I don’t want to impose on you further, but
do you have anything for pain? I think I might have hit my
head.”

“Sure,” Terra answered.

Is that
amusement
in her voice, or
something else? Does she know something I don’t?
Before he
could work out what to say, she called to him from the kitchen.

“Anything in particular?”

He didn’t care what she gave him, just as
long as it made his head stop pounding. Alex shook his head no and
instantly regretted it. He leaned it on the back of the couch,
hoping the extra support would help. It felt like someone had tried
to get into it with a sledgehammer.

“Here.” Terra held out her hand towards
him.

Alex sat back up and took what she offered.
“Thank you.” He looked at the two mismatched pills and the can of
coke.
What in the world?

He glanced up at her, confused.

“Aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine,”
Terra explained. “The two meds work differently, and the caffeine
will help them along. The sugar in there might do you some good,
too.”

Whatever. As long as they worked.

Popping the pills in his mouth, he washed
them down with the coke, then pressed the cold can to the sore spot
on his forehead.
God, that felt good!
Closing his eyes, he
listened as Terra found a seat on the loveseat next to the
couch.

“So, how do you feel?”

That’s a stupid question.
He’d just
told her that his head ached.

“I hurt.”

He took one more drink of the coke before
resting it on the couch and leaning his head back again.

“I don’t doubt it a bit,” Terra said. “You
did manage to dig a massive furrow in the cornfield.”

Rolling his head over, Alex cracked an eye
to look at her. She was smiling at him, but it wasn’t an amused
smile. It was more sympathetic.

“You were either moving fast or came down
hard.”

He closed his eye and rolled his head back
into its place. “Both, if I had to guess by the way I feel.”

Oh yes, hard and fast. What in the hell
could take a dragon out of the sky?
A quick flash of memory
skimmed through his mind—blue sky and a flash of light.
Had
there been a lighting strike? That could potentially drop a
dragon.
He tried to get the memory to come back, but it just
made his head hurt worse.
Great.

“Is there anything I can do for you? Someone
I should call?”

Bells and whistles went off in his brain as
his dragon growled. There was something he was forgetting. Well, he
couldn’t remember a lot of things, but there was something really,
really important that he needed to remember. And it had to do with
contacting—or not contacting—someone.

Unable to figure it out, he shook his head
slightly. “No. I just need to rest for a bit.”

Yes, a nice nap should help greatly!
Leaning his head over on the couch, he let go. The tingle of magic
raced across his body as his dragon half took over. A few hours in
his lesser form should go a long way to making him feel better. And
maybe being closer to his instincts would let him remember the
things he’d forgotten. Like his name.

***

Terra gasped as a shimmer of magic swept
across the man’s body, reducing him to a miniature dragon. She had
seen him shift from his large size to human, but she didn’t know he
could shift to a smaller size.
Amazing!

The small dragon wiggled around on the couch
until his head was tucked into the corner under the pillows. He
pulled his wings in alongside his body and relaxed.

Terra studied him for a moment, fascinated.
He’s adorable in this form.
With a body the size of a small
Labrador, she could almost imagine him as a dog. But his neck and
tail were both much longer. Small versions of the back-sloping
horns he’d had in the large size poked out from under the pillows,
and his tail curled down to the floor. His scales were the same
amazing blue. Standing up from her seat, Terra picked up the
blanket and spread it over him.

“Rest as long as you need to.” She patted
him on the back.

He snorted into the pillow and let out a
sound that was something like a purr.

Oh, how cute!
Smiling, Terra picked
up his can of pop and took it back into the kitchen. Last thing she
needed was for him to knock it over accidentally, and it wasn’t
like he would be able to pick it up and drink it in this form.
Maybe she should pour it in a bowl for him?
Nah.
She placed
the open can in the fridge and went back to the stove. Hopefully,
she hadn’t burnt dinner too badly.

Another pounding on the front door pulled
Terra away from the kitchen.
If that asshole is back, he is
going to get what for!

She grabbed her baseball bat from the broom
cabinet before heading out. The weight felt good in her hands.
Glancing at the couch, she found that her dragon man had moved and
was now curled up completely under the blanket. Just a large lump
under the comforter.
So cute.

Turning her mind back to the knocking, she
jerked open the door, ready to knock someone’s head in. Two men
dressed in suits stood on her porch.

“Hello,” she said, dropping the bat down to
her side. Their suits told her they were here on some kind of
business. They didn’t look like cops.

Maybe they’re Mormons.

One of the men glanced at the bat before
looking back at her face. “Good evening. Sorry for disturbing you.
I’m Parker, and this is my partner, Brett. We’re here with the
FBI.” He flashed some kind of badge but didn’t leave it out long
enough for Terra to read it.

Terra eyed the man. His white shirt shone
brightly next to his dark skin. He seemed the FBI type, but his
partner… well, that was another question altogether. The man’s suit
was nice, but he needed a shave. Badly. He was rather pale, and his
short, brown hair stuck out in odd angles.

“FBI?” Something didn’t sit right with
her.

“Yes, ma’am,” Parker answered. He tugged on
his jacket like that could make him more presentable. “We’re
looking for a suspect and wanted to know if you’ve seen anything
strange today.” He glanced down at the bat again.

“A suspect?” she asked. These two didn’t
have the right feel for FBI. Hit men, maybe.

“A dragon, to be precise,” Parker clarified.
“Have you seen anything like that today?”

A shiver raced through Terra, warning her of
danger. These men were looking for the dragon on her couch. But
turning him over didn’t seem right.

“Well, to be honest, there have been several
strange men in the area today.”

The men perked up as if they had hit the
jackpot. “Did you see someone? Can you tell me where they
went?”

These men were way too excited about finding
the dragon. Making a snap decision, Terra nodded.

“Oh yes! Something came down in the
cornfield out behind my house.” She batted her eyes at them and
tried to play the innocent girl. “But I was too scared to go out
and look.”

“Can you show us?” Parker asked.

“Oh no. I didn’t go out there. But if you
want to go have a look, it was straight out behind the house.”
Terra laid the sweet-and-innocent routine on a little thick, hoping
they would believe she was the helpless girl she was pretending to
be. It all depended on how softhearted they were. Terra didn’t
think it would work for long, but it might get them to go out and
check the back field. Sure, they would find the hole. With the
darkness growing, they would probably fall in the sucker—hopefully
breaking something.

Parker turned to Brett. “Go look.”

Brett gave Parker a funny look and nodded.
“Right.”

Terra did not like the sarcastic way Brett
drew out that word.

“Is it possible to come in and look around?”
Parker asked. “I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

More warnings screamed in Terra’s head.
These men were up to no good. It was time to get her dragon and get
the hell out of there.

She smiled at them warmly. “That’s so nice
of you. Give me a moment to put Cookie in his kennel. He doesn’t
like visitors.”

“Cookie?” Parker asked.

“My dog.” Terra grinned and shut the door on
the man.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Grabbing her purse, she slung the thing over
her shoulder. She needed to get out of there fast. Pulling the
satchel out from under the couch, she slipped that on, too. It
might be important to her dragon. She figured Parker would give her
about two minutes before he started knocking again. Now came the
hard part.

Wrapping her arms around the dragon, she
scooped him up, blanket and all. He let out a squeak as she
disturbed him, thrashing about in her hold.

“Settle down, Cookie.” She spoke in a loud
voice. “You don’t want to scare the visitors.”

The blanket froze.

“Good boy.”

She glanced back at the windows next to the
door. Her momma had always taught her to keep those curtains drawn,
but with the fading light outside, there was a chance Parker might
be able to seen in. The lump in the blanket softened.
Great!
Now she could carry him without him fighting. Apparently, dragons
did understand human speech. She had been worried for a moment.

“That’s a good boy!” She ruffled the bundle
in case the man was watching.

The bundle growled at her.

She smiled at the rumbling mass. Popping the
bundle on the bottom, she gathered up the blanket and wrapped it
around him more. “That’s no way to behave, Cookie.”

Now, it was time to get out of here. Walking
to the kitchen, she heard Brett on the back porch.
Checking the
cornfield, indeed!
Thankfully, she had locked the door. She
flicked off the stove as she passed. It wouldn’t do to escape and
then let her house burn down.

“Come on, Cookie, let’s get you settled.”
She opened the door to the cellar. “In you get.”

Walking in, she closed the door behind her.
The men wouldn’t wait much longer before breaking in. She snapped
the deadbolt into place with her key. The only way they would get
through that was either with the key—one of twenty in her junk
drawer—or by breaking the door in. And that was a pretty stout
door.

Hurrying down the steps, she moved by memory
through the dark.
Thirteen steps down. Boxes at the bottom.
Right. Ten paces to the wall. Left.
The sound of her back door
being forced open drove her steps faster.
Fifteen paces to the
storm shelter.
She caught the bottom of the shelf built into
the door with her foot and swung the thing open. Slipping into the
dark corridor just as the men started beating on the basement door,
Terra pulled the door back into place behind her. It was damn dark
in there and hard to tell if the shelf was seated right, but by the
time the men got the door open and found her exit, she would be
long gone.

Now came the fun part—making her way down
the less-familiar corridor. She used to play down here as a kid,
but that had been a long time ago.

The bundle in her arms wiggled.

“Be still,” she whispered to the dragon.

He immediately stopped moving.

Hurrying down the path by memory, she
stumbled on the bottom step of the exit stairs.
Shit.
The
path wasn’t as long as she remembered it being. Cuddling the dragon
to her, she raced up the steps and stopped at the wooden hatch
covering her exit.

“Just stay still,” she warned the
dragon.

It rumbled in response.

Taking that as an “okay,” Terra set him on
the top step and carefully released the latch. She pushed the hatch
up and stopped when the rusty hinge started to squeak loudly. She
peeked out through the narrow slit, praying the noise hadn’t drawn
the men’s attention. Both of the men were in her kitchen, ramming
their shoulders into her basement door.
Suckers!

Grabbing the dragon back up, she shoved her
shoulder into the trap door. It screeched open with a sound like a
tortured cat and fell to the floor with a loud bang. The racket
would definitely draw their attention, giving her mere seconds to
get to her car before the men saw her. But it was better than being
caught. Sprinting to the driveway, she yanked open the driver’s
door and tossed the blanket-wrapped dragon inside the car. She
threw herself into the driver’s seat behind him.

Yelling came from her back porch as she
jammed the key into the slot and fired the car up. A gunshot
sounded as she threw it into gear.

Holy shit! These guys aren’t messing about.
Who the hell is this dragon?

Slamming the gas pedal to the floor, she
tore off through the grass towards the road. She didn’t have time
to spare a glance at the bundle of dragon as she dodged around
trees and aimed for the ditch. Peeking up into her mirror, she saw
that the men had jumped into their SUV and were gaining on her.
Perfect!

Terra squeezed through the gap in the trees
and over the ditch with the precision of a brain surgeon. Yanking
the wheel to the right, she tuned sharply. The tires grabbed the
pavement and slung them into a new direction. The bundle of dragon
slid across the seat into her hip. It chirped loudly in protest.
Poor dragon.
She patted it before looking back up at the
mirror. The SUV was just getting to the crossing. Her heart skipped
when the SUV bounded oddly across the gap.
Yes!