Dragon Dilemma

by Mell Eight

  Mercury called on his magic and felt Dane doing the same at his side. The transportation spell pulled him away from the forest, the trees vanishing from around him. Mercury's spell wasn't as smooth as Dane's. The transition from forest to the windows of the upstairs sitting room was slower and he felt a little stretched until the spell was complete. When his chilled and damp feet were firmly placed on carpet, Mercury let out a loud roar. His dragon's voice echoed through the halls of the house and out onto the snowy lawn.

  It took a few seconds for his voice to fade away and then he heard silence. The only time the house was this quiet was when everyone was asleep. Even when the kits were playing outside, their voices and explosions still penetrated the walls. This quiet was unnatural and it made Mercury's heart feel like it was lodged in his throat.

  Then he heard the relieving sound of a door slamming open and two sets of feet pounding towards him. Chrome and 'Ron appeared from the direction of Mercury and Dane's bedroom.

  "Dane's office let us hide there," 'Ron gasped as she dove forward to slam into Mercury's middle with a hug. "She couldn't get to us there, but she grabbed Alloy!" The wards around Dane's private office were so strong that Mercury couldn't breach them with his strongest spells. Only Lumie could go in there without Dane's express permission, but apparently Dane had set the wards to let the kits inside in case of an emergency. "Copper and Zinc went after her."

  "Which way did Jessica go?" Mercury asked. He was still being held tightly by 'Ron and was gripping one of Chrome's hands so it wasn't easy to move, but he got all three of them heading back to Dane's office.

  "Jessica?" 'Ron asked, sounding confused. "Grandma grabbed Alloy and tried to grab Lumie, but we all ran so she only got Alloy."

  "Grandmother Kendra?" Mercury asked sharply, unsure if he were hearing her correctly.

  'Ron frowned, but nodded. Chrome growled. "Her voice didn't sound right. She didn't talk weird like usual."

  Was she possessed? Had Jessica done something to her? Mercury let out his own growl.

  "Stay here where it's safe," Mercury said as he gently pushed 'Ron and Chrome back through the wards and into Dane's office. "I'll see what's up with Grandma."

  If Dane's mother couldn't walk right through Dane's wards as she had done when she arrived at Dane's house on Saturday morning, then there was something seriously wrong with her.

  Mercury hurried back down the hallway and into the sitting room. There were windows on both sides of the space, letting Mercury see into the front and back yard. Flashes of fire from Copper were visible on the driveway in the front of the house, so Mercury hurried down the stairs and out the front door.

  The driveway still had a coating of snow on it from last night's bad weather. The gray sky overhead told Mercury that more snow was imminent, but he had more important things to focus on. There were patches of ice where Copper's fire had melted the snow and it was quickly refreezing. Mercury slid a few times before he snarled and shifted into his dragon form so his claws could give him some traction on the ice. It was a long walk to where Dane had set the wards, but on four paws Mercury reached the end quickly.

  Kendra was slumped on the ground at Jessica's feet. Mercury couldn't tell whether she was unconscious or dead. Jessica was holding Alloy by his ankle. Alloy's eyes were open, but he wasn't blinking. He wasn't moving at all, but the stench of tainted magic was strong around Jessica. Alloy had hopefully only been placed under a stasis spell of some sort. Copper and Zinc were both in their dragon forms. They were still adolescents and therefore smaller than Mercury, but their respective bright red and white scaled forms with the spikes growing in along their backs were a threatening enough sight.

  Jessica held Alloy in the air as Mercury approached. "I can kill him before you even try to attack me," she yelled. Her voice was high and shrill as if she were running on panic alone. Mercury doubted she had any idea what a dragon could do if attacked before today, but now that Copper and Zinc had shown her she was regretting her actions.

  Mercury shifted back to human form. "You can't escape the wards," Mercury called. "Let Alloy go." He was trying to sound calm to keep Jessica from hurting his kit. His voice was authoritative, yet he kept it soft to avoid startling her. If Mercury allowed himself to start yelling, he wouldn't stop; fear for Alloy would overtake his rationality and he would start begging for her to put him down.

  Alloy was his baby, the lone kit who would still peacefully curl up with him on the couch. He was their anomaly and loved all the more for his quirks. Copper, who had taken to raising Alloy since he hatched, must be frantic, but he and Zinc had stepped back to let Mercury take point. If Copper could stay calm, Mercury could too no matter how hard his heart was pounding in fear or his gut clenched in worry.

  Dane wasn't visible on the other side of the wards, but Mercury hadn't expected him to be. There were two men standing there. They had their hands pressed against the ward and were trying to force their tainted magic to break through and allow Jessica to get out. The wards were invisible to the naked eye, but were revealed by touch and magical sight. The men apparently had to be in physical contact with the wards to be able to discern them. Dane was no doubt ready to take both men out, but wasn't willing to commit until after Mercury had gotten Alloy to safety.

  "I think you're going to let me go to ensure I don't kill him right now!" Jessica threatened. Her free hand pointed at Alloy as if a spell was on the tips of her fingers ready to kill Alloy if Mercury didn't comply.

  "The wards weren't built in a day. It'll take me a few minutes to get you through them," Mercury cautioned, trying to stall for time while hoping that she made a mistake. His hands were up in the air in front of his face to show he was unarmed as he stepped towards her. His fingertips were tingling with the magic he was holding back; it was as riled as his emotions and it was taking far too much of his concentration to hold it steady too.

  "Stay where you are!" Jessica snapped. She jerked her arm back, and Alloy flopped bonelessly in the air. Her free hand waved and the stench of tainted magic increased. Alloy's body writhed like a fish caught on a hook even though he was unconscious. Copper moaned softly behind Mercury as Mercury froze in place, his hands still in the air.

  "Fine, fine," Mercury breathed, not moving any part of his body. "Let me see what I can do about the wards." He very slowly stepped back and then to the side, edging around the far side of Kendra's crumpled form on the snowy ground until he reached the boundary. Mercury could step through it easily, but he couldn't key it to allow someone else entrance. He could physically carry someone through the wards, but besides the fact that Jessica wasn't about to let him get close enough for that, he was still stalling for as much time as he could.

  The stolen magic Jessica and her two cohorts were using was finite, and the leader of the scientists, whoever he or she was, didn't bother to inform the peons of that fact. Over and over, Dane and Mercury had fought battles where waiting for the enemy to exhaust themselves was the key to victory. Dane had become proficient at emptying the enemy's magical reserves and at stopping the death spell hidden at the end of it to silence anyone who was captured. And yet, Jessica was a territory leader. She wasn't a scientist and was completely unlike anyone they had fought before.

  "How did you win your territory?" Mercury asked. He was curious and wanted answers, of course, but he hoped that distracting her would give him enough time to form a complicated knock-out spell. Nickel would have killed her by now and Dane, with his superior magic, would have already incapacitated her. Mercury wanted to capture her for questioning. He was a federal officer; he preferred capture and interrogation to killing, although as a dragon he understood the necessity of destroying the enemy.

  Jessica frowned at him. "Focus on getting the wards down," she hissed.

  "I need to know something more about you in order to weave you into the ward," Mercury lied.

  She looked skeptical, but she answered anyway. "I'm a witch, one of the strongest in North Americ
a." Her boast made Mercury want to scoff in disbelief, but he held himself in check. If she had actually been a strong witch, she would have been a territory leader years ago without the need to supplement her powers with tainted magic. Mercury let her keep talking without voicing his skepticism. "I killed the stupid mouse in charge of the central territory and have been getting stronger ever since. Does that help your spell?" She sounded as suspicious of Mercury's request as he was of her actual abilities as a witch. Still, he nodded to uphold the facade.

  He almost had enough power gathered and formed to take her out. He had his fists clenched at his sides to keep the power surging on his fingertips from escaping prematurely. Most battles he fought in were a litany of spell after spell as he fought and defended himself. Those snap spells were weaker than what he was looking to cast now, and he was better at those, but he could do this too. Mercury just needed a few more seconds to get the spell formed correctly.

  A few more seconds.

  Lumie appeared behind Jessica in his dragon form. He was easily half the size of Copper, but just as red. The spikes on his back were still nubs just starting to grow in, but his wings were large enough to carry him in flight. He couldn't actually fly yet and he wouldn't for at least four more years, but they were an impressive sight flared behind him as he dove forward and bit down hard on the arm still holding Alloy aloft.

  Jessica screamed and Alloy went flying as she jerked her arm out of Lumie's mouth. There was blood everywhere, running down her arm in rivulets and dripping from Lumie's sharp teeth. Lumie turned and ran towards Alloy's crumpled body. Jessica screamed again, but this time there were garbled words mixed up in her pain as she cast a spell.

  Mercury threw out his hands and his magic flew free. His incapacitation spell wasn't quite formed and it unraveled as the magic traveled from him to the space between Jessica and Alloy and Lumie. Mercury wanted a shield between his kits and Jessica's spell, but there was too much magic and too much of it had already been formed. Something was going to go wrong with it, Mercury could tell even as the spell was leaving his hands.

  "Get down!" he yelled.

  Copper and Zinc ran backwards, not taking their eyes off of Jessica even as they obeyed him. Lumie crouched over Alloy, ducked his head, and braced himself.

  Mercury tried to send more magic towards his kits to protect them, but he had put everything he had into that incapacitation spell. There wasn't anything left in his reserves to cast now.

  The two spells collided in mid-air with an earth shaking boom and a bright flash of white light. The concussive force of it made Mercury stagger back a few feet. His ears were ringing and he was seeing spots. Copper and Zinc were fine, far enough away to have been unaffected. Lumie was still crouched protectively over Alloy, as untouched by the violence of the two spells as he was by any magic. Jessica was staggering back to her feet, her bleeding arm held tight to her body. More words Mercury didn't understand were falling from her lips as she built another spell.

  He didn't have enough magic left to combat her, but that didn't stop him as he shifted back into dragon form and charged. Jessica didn't notice him. Neither did Kendra.

  Kendra pushed her body upwards in an awkward one-armed pushup. She flung her free arm towards Jessica and yelled something as incomprehensible to Mercury as what Jessica was saying.

  Mercury heard a strange crunching sound through his ringing ears as both Jessica and Kendra fell silent at the same moment. It was a sound like one of his kits stepping on a full bag of chips, crushing every morsel inside into a powder. Jessica's body jerked, then dropped to the ground bonelessly. Blood was dripping out of her nose, eyes, mouth, and ears.

  Kendra's smile was full of cold satisfaction as she let her body relax back down on the ground.

  The instant Jessica's body hit the ground, Mercury also saw Dane dash out of the woods. He got a hand clamped on each of the two men on the other side of the wards. Their bodies twitched for a few long seconds like Dane was pumping electricity through them as he yanked their stolen magic out of their bodies, and when they fainted or died—Mercury couldn't tell which—Dane let their bodies drop to the ground. He stepped through the wards, hurried around what was left of Jessica, and crouched at Lumie and Alloy's side. Mercury was only a beat behind him.

  Lumie stepped back from Alloy looking pleased with himself. He damned well should be, Mercury knew, and would be getting extra candy for saving Alloy's life after Mercury finished scolding him for getting involved with the fight when he wasn't trained for it.

  "It's just a sleeping spell," Dane sighed in relief. Mercury echoed him a moment later when Alloy yawned and opened his eyes. He looked around the driveway, saw the bodies and everyone who was standing over him looking worried, and yawned again.

  "I guess I missed the fun," he grumbled. He got to his feet slowly, a little too shakily for Mercury's peace of mind, and threw himself into Mercury's arms. Alloy's body was shaking, though, as if his nonchalance was faked. Mercury held him close, cuddling his baby kit.

  Dane moved away now that the most important concern was taken care of. "Mother, you didn't have to kill her," Dane admonished as he bent down at Kendra's side.

  "Oh yes I did," she replied. She sounded winded and there was a waver in her voice that spoke of age and exhaustion. "She was a hodgepodge of different magics. That's how she overpowered me. Her own witches' power, the power she stole from dragons, and a dark magic steeped in blood and selfishness. I had to kill her. If she had a chance to share her dark knowledge with anyone, we would end up with another witch burning. I couldn't allow that to happen."

  Justifications aside, they now had a dead and bloody body, two bodies that Mercury wasn't sure were dead or not, a bunch of traumatized kits, and the territory to Dane's west was now leaderless.

  "I'll call Valerie and see if she can set up a task force to go have a look at Jessica's home. If we can get there before whoever gave Jessica the tainted dragon magic does, we might be able to get some good information." Mercury stood with Alloy still cuddled in his arms and waved to the rest of the kits to head to the house. Dane and Kendra had caused the bodies—they could deal with them. Besides, Kendra needed a moment to collect herself after fighting off whatever spell Jessica had used on her and subsequently casting a killing spell of that caliber. She didn't need an audience of curious kits trying—and failing, because his kits were better at getting in the way than helping—to get her back on her feet.

  Valerie could handle the logistics. They were work partners, field agents for the Federal Bureau of Supernatural Investigations, and Valerie didn't have much of a social life. She was gruff, stubborn, and so prickly that most people couldn't get along with her. She wasn't nearly as crazy as his kits, so Mercury enjoyed working with her. They had been partners for a year, the longest Valerie had ever stayed with one partner. She would honestly be happy to go into work on a Sunday morning to handle the massive operation Mercury was about to dump on her. She wouldn't even be upset that he couldn't join her until later. Valerie had babysat for the kits a few times and understood completely where Mercury's priorities were. They were perfect working partners.

  He walked into the house with his kits, calling loudly so 'Ron and Chrome knew it was safe to come out, and went to find his cell phone.

  Even with seven kits trying their hardest, his weekend couldn't get any stranger at this point. Mercury couldn't help smiling as 'Ron and Chrome galloped down the stairs. Yes, it was over for the moment. Once he called Valerie to get the ball rolling, they might finally be able to find a lead that would help them destroy the enemy once and for all.

  EPILOGUE

  It took three hours for the kits to start calming down. 'Ron and Chrome spent the time running around the house, working off their nervous energy. They weren't ever going to be fighters, but that didn't mean they enjoyed having to hide like scared rabbits. Dane hadn't heard any crashes or the bang of bodies bouncing off the walls in at least ten minutes, so he felt it was
safe to assume 'Ron and Chrome were finally settled down somewhere. Although having assumptions when it came to the kits was stupid. Dane knew that; oh boy, did he know that. Sometimes silence could be just as ominous.

  Zinc and Copper were outside somewhere. Dane hadn't bothered to check on them, but he had a sinking feeling they were trying to emulate Nickel by walking around the perimeter inside his wards. It was a waste of their time, since Dane had already ensured that his wards were still sound, but Dane wasn't about to stop them. As long as he didn't see any trees catching on fire or getting blown down, he was happy to leave them be. Mercury had checked that they were bundled up properly for the weather before he let them go. That was enough for Dane.

  Lumie was off being Lumie. He had bitten Jessica, gotten her blood all over him, and then wandered off again. Mercury had tried to find him, yelling about Lumie brushing his teeth to get the blood off, but Lumie had vanished completely as only Lumie could. Dane knew Lumie spent a lot more time in the dragon village Dane was helping to build than he or Mercury actually realized; Dane wouldn't be surprised if that was where Lumie had run off to.

  Which left only Alloy on Dane's mental checklist. Nickel was still with William, but Dane had called William as soon as he had finished dealing with the bodies and William had promised to have Nickel back home around lunch time. That was any minute now, Dane knew without having to go find a clock to confirm. His stomach was growling, which meant the kits would start swarming the kitchen soon. Dane was only waiting for his wards to ping to tell him Nickel was back before he started figuring out what to make. Mac and cheese would probably be best. Given the day they were having so far, the comfort food could only help.