Dragon Gate

by Gary Jonas

  “Do my sons need to escort you down here to face me?” Thomas asked. Kent, Mark, and Nathan began descending the stairs toward him.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Graham said. He moved down the steps; nodded to Francis, Henry, and Robert; and took up a position facing Thomas.

  “I’m glad you came to your senses. Kneel.”

  Graham shook his head. “I have a better idea.”

  “Do the honorable thing, Graham. Don’t taint your family name any further.”

  “Lucas is the one who wronged you, Thomas. To a lesser extent, my father too. However, Rayna and I were children. We had no say. You already killed my parents. There’s no reason to kill me or Rayna. I can tell you where to find Lucas.”

  “We know where Lucas is living,” Thomas said. “You’ve lived in this decadent world so long, you’ve forgotten your place. Kneel.”

  “What if I give you Jonathan Shade? He killed three of your sons.”

  “We’ll deal with him when the opportunity arises. Now are you going to kneel, or are you going to dishonor your family?”

  The Marshalls closed in on him but didn’t touch him. They blocked his escape but tried to allow him to hold his honor.

  “You can’t fight history, Graham. Your fate was decided when Lucas murdered Vanessa and when Stephen stole and killed my inheritance.”

  “How is it right that I should pay the price for what others have done? I had nothing to do with your wife’s death, and I certainly had nothing to do with the theft of your dragon. My father felt horrible about how things went down. Vanessa wasn’t supposed to be there. Lucas didn’t mean to kill her. He was just trying to keep her quiet.”

  “You weren’t there,” Thomas said.

  “But I’ve heard the story my entire life.”

  “That changes nothing. My wife is dead, my dragon is dead, and now that I’ve found you, I can bring honor to my house by seeing to it that your family line ends with you. Kneel!”

  Graham hesitated but as the Marshall brothers started to reach for him, he dropped to his knees.

  “That’s better. Bow your head. This will be over quickly.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Graham said.

  “Yes, you do. That’s why you came back here. You knew we’d be waiting. You knew it would shame your father for you to keep hiding like a child behind a woman’s skirt.”

  “I suspected you’d be here, but I didn’t come here to die.”

  Thomas shook his head. “Have you no shred of honor?”

  “What if I told you your dragon is alive and well?”

  “The dragon couldn’t pass through the gate. It was disintegrated.”

  “I lied. Clara is alive, Thomas. Wizards from this world used their magic to protect her as she passed through the gate to this world. Let me live, and I’ll take you to her.”

  “Your parents would have told me if she’d lived. They were her caretakers.”

  “I’m telling the truth. I say again, grant me my life, and I’ll return her to you.”

  Thomas scratched his chin. His sons grew restless, but they knew their place and remained silent. “She’s truly alive?”

  “As you said, she was our responsibility. My family has cared for her all these years. You were going to slay her. My father couldn’t live with that.”

  “Is that what he told you?” Thomas shook his head. “You’ve grown up on lies, boy. Vanessa and I were going to move the dragon to a new castle nearer the kingdom. Stephen and Lucas were going to stay behind. They begged and pleaded with me to allow them to come along to care for the dragon, but there was a better family waiting for her to prepare her for mating. Your family discarded honor by stealing her. The only way you can regain honor for your family name is to bow your head and give your life.”

  “I think I’d prefer life to honor,” Graham said. “Spare my life, and Clara is yours.”

  “The dragon is mine. Bow your head or do my sons need to do it for you?”

  Graham took a deep breath. He realized his entire life had led him to this moment. And now it was over. His future drained away in his mind until it extended mere moments into the future. He would never see Rayna again. He would never work with the other doctors to perfect Didracomine. He would never see another sunrise. He could face death begging, or he could be strong and accept it. Ultimately, to honor his father, he bowed his head.

  “Peter? Would you do the honors?” Thomas said.

  Peter was the same age as Graham. They had played together as children. Graham fought back tears and willed his heart to slow down. He forced his fear away and stared at the floor.

  He watched Peter’s boots as Peter walked by and took up his position. Graham listened to the whisper of steel on leather as Peter drew his sword.

  He took one last breath, let go of his regrets, and was dead before his head hit the floor.

  JONATHAN SHADE

  My phone woke me up. I sat up and pulled the phone from my pocket. The display just showed a 720 number, so it was a local number, probably a cell, but the caller wasn’t in my contact list. I hit answer.

  “Shade Investigations,” I said around a yawn.

  “Mr. Shade, this is Detective Kramer. Where are you right now?”

  “I’m in Denver. Tech Center. Why?”

  “Is Rayna Noble with you?”

  I rubbed sleep from my eyes. “Yes, she is. Why are you calling?”

  “I’m calling about Graham Noble.”

  “He’s at a hotel. If you have a valid reason to talk to him, I can get him on the line for you.”

  “Um, no, he’s at his house. I’m looking at him right now.”

  “He was supposed to stay at the hotel. Put him on the line.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Mr. Shade. Let me rephrase. I’m looking at his head. His body is three feet away.”

  The grogginess vanished in a flash. I got out of bed and padded to the door opposite the room where Kelly was recovering. I stepped into the hall so I wouldn’t wake Rayna and Brand.

  “Are you still there?” she asked.

  I eased the door closed behind myself. “Uh, yeah, I’m here. When did this happen?”

  “I don’t have an official time of death yet. Coroner estimates six or eight hours based on the state of the body and the consistency of the blood on the floor.”

  I lowered my phone to check the time: 9:57. “You’re telling me he was decapitated like his parents?”

  “That’s right. And I think you know who did it.”

  “I do.”

  “Care to share that information.”

  “A man named Thomas Marshall, but he’s not from Colorado, and I don’t have an address for him. He and his sons are trying to kill my clients. Well, client now.”

  “Clearly they hired the wrong people. Why didn’t you give me this information yesterday? You said, and I quote, ‘It’s been quiet.’ No mention of Thomas Marshall.”

  “I apologize for that, Detective. At the time, I didn’t have Mr. Marshall’s name. That came to light last night.”

  “I don’t believe you. Care to tell me why you allowed Dr. Noble to return to his home? It was still a crime scene. He wasn’t supposed to be here, but we can tell there have been quite a few people in the house since we taped it off. We found a massive puddle of blood upstairs too.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Such as?”

  “Other bodies? If you found a massive puddle of blood, I would expect at least one more body.”

  “We searched the rest of the house. There was a head in the sink in the master bath. There were bloodstains in the closet next to an open panic room in the master bedroom. The door to that panic room looked like someone rammed a Mack truck into it over and over again. Do you know anything about that?”

  “I’m afraid not,” I said.

  “And the lies just keep on coming. We found a bunch of nine-millimeter shells in the master bedroom too. If we can pull any prints from them,
do you have any idea who they might belong to?”

  The odds of getting prints were slim. The climate in Colorado is too dry, but she knew that, so I just said, “No clue.” Ballistics would give me away, but she’d need a court order to test my gun.

  “I suppose I’m done asking you questions you won’t answer.”

  “You know I didn’t kill Graham or you’d have someone here to arrest me.”

  “For all you know, we’re tracing this call and we’ll show up to arrest you momentarily.”

  “Should I wait under the cell tower?”

  “I’ve decided that I don’t like you, Mr. Shade. But you’re right. I don’t think you killed Dr. Noble.”

  “Good. Do you need me to head back to Boulder to give you a statement?”

  “That can wait. I’ll be here at the house most of the day. What I’d like you to do is come clean and tell me everything you can about this Thomas Marshall gentleman.”

  I considered it for a moment. If the Marshalls returned with more destroyers, Detective Kramer and the other law enforcement agents would not be prepared for them. It was better to fill her in on some of it because I didn’t want anyone else to die.

  “Late fifties,” I said, “Caucasian, silver hair worn long. Has, at last count, eight sons with him, ages ranging from around eighteen to thirty-five. All with long hair. Black, brown. When I last saw them, they were wearing period costumes as if they’d come from the Renaissance Festival down in Larkspur.”

  “That only runs in the summer.”

  “I said like that, not that they were actually from there. I don’t know where they’re from. I do know that they want to kill Rayna and that Lucas Noble is also on their list.”

  “I met him. He didn’t mention anything about Thomas Marshall either.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. He’s a strange one, very private.”

  “Well, that’s true. He barely spoke to us. If you’d told me all this yesterday, Graham Noble might very well be alive right now. We could have provided police protection.”

  “No offense, Detective Kramer, but if you’d provided police protection to Graham, you’d be bagging and tagging the bodies of those officers along with Graham right now. I’ll warn you that the Marshalls are medieval weapons experts. They’re archers and swordsmen in particular. Don’t underestimate them. They’re killers.”

  “And you’ve finally told me something useful.”

  “Be careful, Detective. I’ll be back in Boulder as soon as I can, and I’ll see if I can stop them.”

  “If you find them, you call the police. Let us handle it. Do not take the law into your own hands.”

  “Don’t worry. My first priority is to keep Rayna safe. I’ll call you if I think of anything else. Cool?”

  “We’ll have more questions, but we can go over that later. I trust you’ll inform Ms. Noble about her brother?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll handle it.” I hung up before she could say anything more. I leaned against the wall and thought about Rayna, who was still sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her to give her more bad news. She needed the rest.

  I walked down the hall to the other entrance to Kelly’s room. Ophelia saw me come in. She shook her head. I glanced at Kelly, who remained in her coma. Esther moved over to me.

  “No change,” Esther said.

  I nodded.

  “Something else bothering you?” she asked.

  Again, I nodded. “Graham is dead.”

  “How? I thought he was at the hotel.”

  “Evidently he took it upon himself to go home, and the Marshall Clan killed him. Has Mike been back?”

  “No.”

  “Stay with Kelly. I’ll be back in a few.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m not leaving. I just need to talk to Mike.”

  “Okay.”

  I stepped back into the hall and went down to Mike’s office. He wasn’t there. It was just after ten in the morning, so he probably wouldn’t be back for a few more hours. I called him, left a message for him to call me back, and waited for my phone to ring.

  He called me two minutes later. “Any change with Ms. Chan?”

  “No,” I said. “Did your team get out to the Nobles’ house to retrieve the bodies of the destroyers?”

  “Not yet. I was going to send them first thing this morning.”

  “The bodies are gone. And Graham is dead.”

  “So the Marshalls took the bodies?”

  “Evidently.”

  “Damn, I wanted to see them.”

  “Yeah, I wish you’d have sent a team last night.”

  “You’re implying that Graham would still be alive.”

  “Oh, I’m flat out saying it.”

  “Allow me to be blunt, Mr. Shade. Graham was your responsibility, not mine. Clear?”

  I hung up.

  How had everything spun so far out of control? I backed into the wall then let myself slide down to a seated position. I sat there for a long time.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  JONATHAN SHADE

  Brand sat at Kelly’s bedside, holding her hand. Esther stood behind the bed, and I sat in a chair opposite Brand. Kelly hadn’t moved a muscle. Ophelia and the other healers weren’t in the room, and Rayna was still sleeping next door.

  “How you holding up, Brand?” I asked.

  “Better than Graham.” I had filled him in.

  “I’m going to head back to Boulder once Rayna is up and informed.”

  “I’ll be ready,” Brand said.

  “You need to stay here with Kelly.”

  “Esther can stay here. You can’t face those guys alone.”

  “You aren’t a Sekutar anymore.”

  “You aren’t a Sekutar either,” he said. “Don’t forget, I am an expert with more weapons than you can name.”

  “You aren’t used to pain. You might freeze the first time you get hit. It’s a natural reaction.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you, Shade. I’m going with you. End of discussion.”

  “End of what discussion?” Rayna asked as she entered the room.

  Shit. I wasn’t ready to talk to her about Graham. Oh well, no time like the present. “Rayna, we need to talk.”

  My tone of voice set her back. “What’s happened? Is Kelly . . . ?”

  “We don’t know about Kelly yet. No change there. It’s about your brother. Let’s go in the other room.”

  I led her back to the room with the beds and had her sit down. I tried to be gentle as I spoke, ready to break the news as easily as I could. I knew the tears would flow, and I knew she’d need time to process it.

  Instead, she simply looked at me as I told her. She didn’t break down and cry. Her face remained impassive as if she’d expected it.

  “He thought he could break with tradition,” Rayna said at last. “He was wrong. It was too ingrained.”

  “You’re taking this well.”

  “Death is simply the end of life, Jonathan. Once my parents were killed, I knew we were next. I’ve been preparing myself for this from the moment I learned about my father. This means I’m next.”

  “No. I won’t let that happen.”

  “You did what you could. I’ve had a few extra days of life thanks to you. But now I’m going to ask you to step away. My life was forfeit the moment we stepped through the gate. There’s no reason for you or anyone else to die.”

  “I’m going to take the battle to the Marshalls.”

  She shook her head. “You’re still on that kick? That’s suicide. You can’t do it alone, and Brand hasn’t recovered from giving away everything he was to try and save Kelly. He’s a regular man now. Less than that at the moment because he gave more of his life energy than was safe.”

  “He thinks he’s fine.”

  “Look into his eyes. When he turned to look at me a few minutes ago, his eyes were dead. He just wants to go out fighting. Die as a warrior. What he needs to do is stay h
ere so he can be with Kelly when she wakes up.”

  “If she wakes up.”

  “He’s probably afraid she won’t wake up. He’s also probably afraid that she won’t want to be with him now that he’s not a Sekutar. I read people very well, Jonathan. I know you’d do whatever you can to kill the Marshalls and to protect me, but I don’t want you to do that. I don’t want you to die too. You are a complex but simple man. Almost a contradiction. I can see a good man inside you, but you’ve suffered so much, you’ve built armor around you that no one can pierce.”

  “Wow, I wanted to talk to you to let you know about your brother, and now instead of grieving, you’re thinking of others, and you’re psychoanalyzing me.”

  She forced a smile. “It beats crying.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “Can we please not talk about death right now? I don’t want you going down that path.”

  “That’s what lies on the road ahead, but it’s for the Marshall Clan, not me.”

  “You can choose a different road.”

  “So now you want to die?”

  “No. I want to live.”

  “Then let me do this.”

  She gave me a half smile. “Listen to me. Last night, I was afraid to die, but there’s a huge difference between having destroyers wanting to rip you apart and kneeling down to allow someone to cut off your head. It’s partly a choice.”

  “It’s a bad choice.”

  “It’s not a choice for today, though. Today I’d like to celebrate life. Would you help me with that?”

  I wasn’t sure if she was saying she wanted to make love with me or if she had something else in mind like a great meal at her favorite restaurant or a walk through nature. Regardless, I couldn’t understand how she could go there in the first place. My best friend in the world was lying in a coma in the next room. I didn’t know if she’d recover. Her lover was in a bad place psychologically too, and he’d proven himself loyal to her and to me. He was a friend. I knew Esther was scared, and I didn’t know what to say to her.