Dragon Dreams

by Chris A. Jackson

  The lab timer went off.

  Aleksi started, and her pick moved against the tooth like a tiny lever. Something cracked and the crescent of white fell free of the ash cast, glittering golden dust drifting down from the hollow it had occupied.

  "Shit!" She reached to catch the falling tooth without thinking.

  As her hand closed, the needle tip pierced her latex glove and her palm. A gasp of surprise escaped her lips, and she stared for a moment at the bloody white tooth protruding from her hand.

  "Well, fuck." The world turned gray at the edges and closed in around her. As she fell into darkness, all she could think was that she had contaminated the sample.

  You look like crap."

  Aleksi blinked at Julie as she doffed her coat and put her bag down. "Thanks." She thought about returning the complement, but it would have been a lie. Julie was dressed in a short black skirt with leggings, and a green sweater that hugged her like a coat of paint, her hair an intricate chaos of curls. "You going out?"

  "Hel-lo. Just got in. It's past midnight, Lex." Julie looked at her like she was stupid. "You okay?"

  "Midnight? Yeah, I just…" She looked at her hand, trying to remember something. Her palm itched. "Just tired."

  "No kidding." Julie turned to her room, unbuckling her belt and unzipping her skirt on the way. "Did you at least eat dinner this time?"

  "Dinner? Um, no. I had a big lunch." Aleksi headed for the kitchen, thinking only of coffee, though her stomach rumbled at the mention of food. She had work to do on the journal. She started fumbling with the coffee maker but couldn't seem to remember how to work it.

  "You are not making coffee!" Julie stalked into the kitchen wearing a pink terry robe and fuzzy slippers, with striped socks.

  "I've got work to do." Aleksi fumbled with the coffee filters, trying to separate just one from the pile. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn't manage it.

  "You're working too hard, Lex. You're dead on your feet." Julie took the coffee filters from her and put them away. "You need food and sleep, or you're not going to be worth a damn tomorrow. Come on, let me make you something. What would you like?"

  "I'll…uh. I'll make a grilled cheese." Aleksi opened the fridge. "I've got to work on the journal and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day." She couldn't remember why tomorrow was important, but she knew it would be. Cheese, bread, butter, pastrami and a jar of green olives landed on the counter. She reached for a knife.

  "Oh no, not the way you're shaking. You'd cut your hand off. Here!"

  Aleksi sighed and backed away from the counter as Julie took the knife from her hand. She scratched her itchy palm and shivered. "No male company tonight? Where'd you go?"

  "Movie and dinner at Brad's apartment."

  "Who's Brad? I thought you were dating Vic."

  "I am, but he's out of town until Sunday. Brad's just a friend." Julie gave a little shrug that said that Brad was the kind of friend she shared a bed with occasionally, and started preparing the sandwich, piling on meat, thick slices of cheese, and sliced olives. "You can't expect me to spend the last few days before the semester cooped up in my apartment."

  "Why not?" Aleksi poured herself a glass of water and drained it, surprised that she was so thirsty. She rubbed her palm on her jeans. "That's what I'm doing."

  "Because unlike you, all work no play makes Julie a cranky bitch." She buttered the bread and dropped the sandwich in the hot skillet. "You should take some downtime, Lex. You've been busting ass non-stop. You're gonna crash if you don't."

  "I'm fine, Julie." She poured herself another glass of water and drank half. "I'm pacing myself."

  "Pacing yourself into a coma." Julie flipped the sandwich as the cheese started to melt. "You're going straight to bed after you eat this…thing, young lady. Roommate's orders."

  "Yes, Mom." Aleksi put everything back in the fridge in exchange for a jar of dill pickles and filled her glass with milk. She didn't remember drinking the rest of her water, but the cold glass felt good in her hand. She heard a hiss from the pan; the cheese had melted just enough to run. The smell was heavenly, and Julie slipped it onto a plate. A pickle and a tall glass of milk and she had dinner for one.

  "That's disgusting." Julie wrinkled her nose at the plate. "That's basically a fat sandwich. I don't know how you stay so thin."

  "Twelve-hour days digging for fossils." She took her dinner to the front room. "Thanks, Julie."

  "Just get some sleep, okay?" Julie folded her arms and looked worried. "No more work tonight."

  "No work, I promise." Iggy rattled his cage, and she leaned over to open the door and haul him out. "I'll just have dinner with my boyfriend here and hit the sack." She rubbed his chin and fed him a tiny bit of melted cheese. He gobbled it down and bobbed his head.

  "A lizard is not a boyfriend." Julie made a face. "I'm not even sure it's a pet. Can't you get a cat or something cuddly?"

  "Iggy's cuddly." Aleksi took a bite of her sandwich and fed him another bit of cheese.

  "In a scaly, slimy, cold-blooded kind of way."

  "He is not slimy." Aleksi folded her legs and let Iggy find a comfortable spot while she ate.

  "Just don't let him loose again." Julie turned and retreated to her room, closing the door behind her.

  Aleksi finished the sandwich, feeding Iggy bits of cheese until the plate was clean. She leaned back, letting Iggy lay on top of her, warm and contented. She didn't intend to fall asleep there, but the next thing she knew, she was dreaming…

  She's walking through the apartment, the air cool on naked skin. Iggy sits on the back of the couch, and she wonders how he got out. She picks him up. He's warm. She kisses him and puts him down in his favorite spot on the window sill, but the light is moonlight, and he glows. She walks to Julie's door and reaches for the handle, but stops as she sees the blood on her hand. Oh yes…she was bitten by…something. She touches the handle of Julie's door and it turns easily. The moonlight streams in, illuminating Julie's form on the bed, her hair a tousled mess, the curve of her body clear beneath the blanket, like a fossil wrapped in plaster. She draws the blanket back, curious why Julie doesn't wake. She leans down, inhaling the scent, listening to the beating heart, the rush of blood, and knows what she has to do. Daughter… She spreads her jaws and sinks her long, recurved teeth into Julie's flesh.

  11

  Aleksi!"

  "Wha—!" She bolted upright, the taste of blood still in her mouth, eyes wide with panic. Light streamed in the window and Iggy lashed his tail with displeasure at her sudden movement; he'd been asleep on her chest.

  "Aleksi, it's morning. You fell asleep on the couch."

  "Damn!" She grabbed Iggy before he could bolt and blinked at the sunlight streaming in. "What time is it?"

  "A little after eight." Julie looked worried. "You look worse than you did last night."

  "I feel worse," she admitted, her voice hoarse and her head aching. She sat up and put Iggy in his cage for the day, a process that he did not appreciate. "Tell me there's coffee."

  "I'll make you some if you tell me you'll take the morning off and get some more sleep." Julie folded her arms.

  "No can do. I've got work to do, and I'm behind." She struggled to her feet and wobbled a little. The floor didn't want to stay level. "I'm going to jump in the shower. Could you please put some coffee on?"

  "Fine, but don't slip and break your neck!" Julie turned to the kitchen, her fuzzy pink slippers swishing along the rug. "If I have to call the paramedics to come haul your naked ass out of the bathtub, I'll take pictures and post them on Facebook!"

  Aleksi muttered something caustic and wobbled her way to the bathroom. One glance in the mirror and she knew Julie wasn't joking; she looked even worse than she felt, which was saying something. Her face was pale, her eyes red rimmed and dark circled. She stripped and stepped into the shower, scrubbing the lingering plaster dust out of her hair and trying to wake up.

  For some reason she couldn't seem to get t
he water hot enough, and by the time she felt clean, it was running out. She stepped out of the tub shivering and toweled dry. The floor seemed slightly more stable as she padded to her room in the towel and donned clean clothes. The glorious aroma of fresh coffee pervaded the apartment when she emerged, dressed and feeling almost human.

  "You are my savior, Julie." She entered the kitchen and took the huge cup of steaming brew from her roommate's hands. The scalding cup felt good against her palms. She inhaled the aroma and took a cautious sip.

  "You still look like death warmed over." Julie poured her own cup. "You want some toast or something?"

  "Mmmm, I don't know. I'm hungry, but…" she opened the fridge and frowned. She really didn't have time to cook anything, and toast sounded terrible. She peeled a couple of slices of pastrami out of the package and wolfed them down. Wonderful… She grabbed two more slices. "I'll pick up a bagel or something on the way in."

  "Promise me you'll eat something. You look like you're coming down with the flu, and I so don't need a sick roommate, three days before the semester begins." Julie sipped her own coffee and glared.

  "Your concern is touching." Aleksi finished the meat and rushed through her coffee, enduring more glares from Julie. "You're just worried that you'll catch it."

  "Damn right I am." Julie retreated to her room.

  Aleksi finished her coffee and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and blow-dry her wet hair. Blinking at her reflection, she remembered the dream. She looked down at her hand. There wasn't a mark on it. In her dream, it had been bleeding, but that was ridiculous. She still had no recollection of leaving the lab or her walk home. Working late to expose the tooth and setting a timer for nine PM were clear, but nothing after that.

  So where did three hours vanish to?

  "Maybe I am working too hard." She bundled up in coat, scarf, gloves, and hat, grabbed her bag, filled her travel cup, and headed out into the blustery Cambridge winter.

  Looking around the lab felt like looking into a mirror and not seeing a reflection. Everything was perfectly orderly, all her tools put away, the sample with its exposed section right there. The tooth that she remembered working so hard to expose the previous evening lay on the table in a small Ziplock bag. It even looked like the floor had been cleaned of plaster dust.

  And Aleksi had no memory of any of it.

  She donned her gear and went to the table. The tooth was bigger than she'd thought it would be, as long as her finger from needle tip to the fractured root. There was even a little tag in the bag labeled with a designation number in her hand writing, but she had no memory of writing it.

  "I am definitely losing it." She lifted the bag to examine the piece of her vanished memory.

  The entire base of the tooth was splintered. If heat did that, there would be little chance of finding DNA. Bob's going to be disappointed. The tip looked like a dagger, the back edge sharp like a male macaque's canine. Her palm itched, and she put the bag down to rub her gloved hands together.

  "Well, it's not like there's not more work to do." She booted up her computer and put it in its protective plastic bag.

  She checked the digital camera, viewed the last few pictures, and remembered taking them. She took more photos, of both the tooth and the recess where it had resided, holding up a small plastic ruler for scale. She then explored the recess with a blunt probe, holding a small plastic weighing boat beneath it. A few fragments of the shattered tooth clattered into it, accompanied by a good bit of strange, almost iridescent residue. She took it over to the dissecting scope for a look.

  The tooth fragments, if that was what they were, showed no signs of any residual tissue, and the dusty residue looked more like flakes of some mineral than any kind of bone or soft tissue. She put the boat's contents into a small baggie with a label, sealed it, took more pictures, and got back to work. There were four more tooth remnants of reasonable size according to the CT scan, and with any luck she could have them exposed by lunch.

  Any luck?" Hutch peered through the gap in the plastic barrier, trying to keep the plaster dust from the rest of the lab. He lifted the brown paper bag. "I brought lunch."

  Aleksi looked up from her work and blinked at him, chalky dust caked around her goggles. Her hair looked wet and matted with dust. "Some, but not promising." She put down the Dremel, and he saw that her hands were shaking. "I extracted the tooth that was already exposed last night, and the entire base is splintered. I've exposed two more, but I didn't want to extract them until you had a look."

  More nervousness, or fatigue? he wondered. "You okay, Aleksi?" He put the bag down and donned a mask and gloves. "You look pale."

  "Oh, I'm fine." She clenched her hands, a nervous gesture he'd noticed before. "I think I might be fighting a bug. Nothing serious."

  "Well, you've been working awfully hard." He came in and picked up the baggie with the tooth. "Don't forget that you've got classes next week. You should probably knock off and get some rest." He peered at the tooth and took it over to the dissecting scope. "This does look like a big primate. I'd say macaque."

  She wiped her brow and blinked. "Yeah, that's what I thought, but Kamchatka's way out of their home range. What do you think about the broken end?"

  "Probably heat fracturing. The tooth root and the surrounding bone marrow may have vaporized with the heat of the pyroclastic ash. If that's the case, all the soft tissues would have vaporized. It's a wonder there's anything left at all." He turned the scope's light off and put the bagged tooth back on the table. "Bob's not going to get any DNA."

  "I know." Aleksi pulled the paper gown off and pitched it in the trash, then vacuumed the dust from her jeans and boots. When she stood up after, she wobbled and steadied herself on the edge of the table.

  "Aleksi? You sure you're okay?" He stepped closer. The plaster dust around her goggles and in her hair was caked because she was sweating.

  "Yeah" She took a step back. "Just a little dizzy. Stood up too quick."

  "You look pale and you're sweating." He reached up to put a gloved hand on her brow, but she pulled away. "Aleksi, hold still. I just want to see if you're running a fever."

  "I…um…okay."

  He pressed his palm to her forehead. "You're burning up. Come on."

  She followed him out and they doffed their masks and gloves. He peered at her face and shook his head. "I can't tell if that's plaster dust or if you're really that pale. Come over here and wash up."

  "I'm fine, really." She went to the lab sink to washing her hands and face, and she didn't wobble, so maybe she was telling him the truth. His hands might have been cold from outside. She dried with paper towels and turned back to him.

  "You're still pale." He looked at her closely and frowned. Her eyes were bloodshot. "You look fevered."

  "I'm just a little tired. Need a break."

  "Well, I brought you something to eat, but I don't think you should go outside. You'll get chilled. How about the steps?"

  "Sounds good. Did you bring coffee?"

  "Of course!"

  They left the lab and sat on the steps to the first floor. He handed her a paper cup and watched her gulp the steaming coffee. Two wraps came out of the bag, his vegie, hers chicken with lettuce, beans, sprouts and avocado. She looked at it dubiously and tried a bite, then chased it with more coffee. Hutch ate his own, trying not to stare at her as she ate. She got about halfway through the wrap and put it aside.

  "Thought you were hungry."

  She looked at him, then stared at her hands clutching her coffee. "I was…I just…maybe I'm getting a cold or something. It just doesn't taste good." She drank more coffee.

  "Tell you what." He finished the last of his own wrap and crumpled the paper. "I'll help you extract the teeth you've got exposed, and we'll let Bob see what he can get out of them. We should give him some of the ash as well, and some of that debris from inside, for analysis. Then you go home and get some sleep. The morphology can wait."

  "But I'v
e got so much—"

  "No buts, Aleksi. If you get home and can't sleep, you can work on the journal, but I'm not about to have you work yourself into the hospital just to finish this project."

  "All right." She looked down, obviously upset but unable or unwilling to argue with him.

  I almost wish she would.

  "Come on. Finish your coffee, and we'll get to work. You'll have to watch me, though. Been a while since I used a Dremel."

  "Okay." She gulped coffee but wouldn't look at him.

  Working together, they had the other two teeth removed in less than an hour. The second canine was more intact than the previous, and a bicuspid was fractured down the middle. The canine might yield some genetic data, so Hutch took it with him, promising to deliver it to the molecular biology lab.

  "Let me drive you home, Aleksi. I'd rather you didn't walk in this cold, not if you're fighting the flu."

  "Oh, I can…" She looked at him and froze, then looked away. She looked scared. "Okay."

  "I'm parked in the Oxford garage." He reached for his coat, wondering why she would be scared. "We don't even need to go outside. Come on."

  Aleksi followed him upstairs, wondering if she was making a mistake. She felt terrible, knew that walking home would be stupid, but dreaded getting into a car with him. Persephone's blunt question came back to her. Would he come on to her? Was this a trap? She clenched her hands in her pockets.

  Her knees trembled from the climb. Thankfully, his car was on the same level as the walkover. She got in the passenger side and let the soft leather seat envelop her. Her eyes closed just as second, and a tiny snippet dream of eating a thick, rare steak flashed through her mind. She jerked awake with her mouth watering.

  "You okay?" he asked as they pulled out onto the snowy street.

  "Yeah, just a little drowsy. You didn't buy me decaf, did you?"

  "I wouldn't dare."

  He drove to her apartment in silence, which was fine with her. The heated seat radiated soothing warmth into her. She closed her eyes again and breathed in the scent of the car, leather, his aftershave, and a little hint of something else. Flying low over trees, the scent of danger…