Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “I know.” Autumn winced, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe that I’m here doing this, but I have no idea what else to do. I think the police would laugh me out of the precinct, and to be honest with you, I’m not positive that I’m not just a crazy person. I work twelve-to-fourteen hour shifts on a regular basis. At least four days a week, but more if I can because money is always tight. On top of that, I have two little girls who need their mom around—like a lot. It’s been stressful since their dad died, and maybe I’m just completely cracked up. I must be. Seriously, I really must be.”

  “Try me.”

  Autumn blew out a breath and jumped right in. “I was out for a run in the woods by my house the other night, and I felt like something was chasing me. I was running as fast as I could. I probably set a personal best without even knowing it. Anyway, I came into this clearing all of a sudden, and there was a bonfire. Not like a cookout, cozy campfire—a huge bonfire. And all around it, there were hooded people in robes, chanting. And then people started coming out of the forest on either side of me, and they joined the people who were already there.” Her words cut off abruptly, and she glanced at him as though she was afraid to fully look at him. “Do you think I’m crazy yet?”

  “No.”

  “No?” She seemed surprised. “That’s it? Just no?”

  Eamon smiled slightly. “It’s not the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. You’d be surprised what people do in the woods.”

  “Oh.” Autumn seemed utterly taken aback by his lack of reaction, and for a moment she sat there in uncharacteristic silence, as though trying to figure out how to tell him the rest when he wasn’t upset by the first part. “Well…it scared me. A lot.”

  “I can imagine.”

  She nodded. “I turned around and started to run back the way that I’d come, but an older man in a robe came after me. He was running behind me the whole way home, I swear, until I came to the edge of the woods. I really believe that the only reason he didn’t attack me is that I was faster than him.” A shiver passed through her as she remembered the feeling she got that night. “When I emerged from the woods, he didn’t keep following me, but then I crossed the main road and went through my neighborhood to my house, and I know he was still watching me. I got this…feeling.”

  Eamon finished his piece of pizza and wiped his fingers on a napkin, taking the few seconds to think before he responded. “All right,” he finally said. “A weird experience to have. But nothing happened to you, right?”

  “Not at first,” she said, reaching for her purse and setting it on her lap. “I went in that night, talked to Tamara, my neighbor, and things seemed more normal. I went to bed, and when I woke up the next morning, I was sure that I had completely overreacted and there was a simple explanation. Exhaustion and the environment had just made it into this strange, scary moment. For the whole day, I kept thinking back and laughing to myself at what a crazy person I’d been. I didn’t have to go into work until seven that night, so I spent time with my kids, cleaned the house, did laundry—normal things. I went in to work, worked an overnight shift, got home at seven in the morning, got the kids off to their day camp, and came back home to sleep. When I woke up, I checked the mail.” She widened her eyes, as though there was something significant about that statement.

  Eamon waited for a moment, then prompted her. “The mail?”

  “Inside, there was a note.” She opened her purse and pulled out an envelope that she handed over to him, almost dropping it in his hand, as though it was diseased.

  Opening the envelope, he carefully pulled out the piece of paper inside, unfolded it, and scanned its contents.

  What you saw was none of your business. But now you’re our business. We know you have two daughters. If you want them to keep being safe and happy, you need to return to the circle. Tonight.

  Eamon read the words several times, then set the note aside, his lips pursed together. “A threat to your kids.”

  “Yes,” Autumn said, now deadly serious herself. “It terrified me. I went and picked up my girls from their camp immediately, and Tamara and I took them to my parents’ house, two hours away. I wasn’t taking any risks with my children.”

  “Wise,” Eamon agreed. “Please say you did not go back to the woods.”

  “Of course not,” Autumn agreed, reaching for a napkin as she finished her own slice of pizza. “I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I was scared and angry—I get such little time with my kids anyway and I hated them being so far away. But I have to keep my job, and I had to be at work early the next morning. I didn’t sleep a wink, and then at four in the morning, I left for the hospital. I stayed there until the afternoon, and when I came back to the house, there was another note.”

  She handed that one to him as well, fishing it from her purse, and Eamon read it with trepidation.

  You’ve made a terrible mistake. There’s no turning back now.

  “That’s all it said!” Autumn threw her hands up in the air. “What am I supposed to do with that information? No turning back from what? What did I see? I don’t even know what I saw, so how am I dangerous to them? Were they naked under those robes? Is this a sex thing? Because honestly, if groups of people want to have naked sex in the woods after dark, I really don’t have an opinion on that sort of thing. I don’t want to do it, but live and let live, you know? I mean, maybe they don’t have a fantasy of having sex on the beach, like I do. But if they find out that I would like to have sex on the beach, am I going to threaten to murder their children?”

  Eamon was once again lost in her torrent of words that led down one rabbit hole and out the other. He swallowed hard, attempting to avoid picturing her having sex on the beach. “No,” he said, again choosing to answer her most immediate question. “I don’t think you would.”

  “Of course not!”

  “What happened next?” Eamon asked, bypassing what had just come out of her mouth. “Did you stay in the house that night?”

  “That was yesterday,” Autumn told him. “I got off of work at four, stopped by the house and found the note, then immediately drove to my parents’ house. But I had been planning to do that anyway, because I have the next two days off of work, and there was no way I wasn’t going to spend it with the girls. But then this morning, I drove back here, because when I was doing research last night about private investigation agencies, this one seemed like the best option.”

  Eamon nodded. “And your girls? Are they here too?”

  “They’re with Tamara, out at the mall, shopping.” Autumn bit her thumbnail nervously. “That’s safe, right? I mean, they don’t let naked hooded people into malls.”

  He didn’t point out that the person might not be wearing a hooded robe when entering the mall. Nor did he question her assumption that everyone had been naked under the robes. “I’m sure they’re safe there, in public, with a trusted guardian.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” she asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. “I’m on my own. I’m basically treading water here. Now this? I didn’t ask for this. I don’t even know what this is. This doesn’t happen to nice, normal people—it only happens in movies. I still think that I might just be crazy and that maybe if I ignore it, it’ll go away. But I can’t risk my kids like that.”

  Eamon pursed his lips, watching her as she spoke. He didn’t have answers for her yet, and her distress was oddly moving. When she gave him a chance to speak, he kept it very simple. “Don’t worry. I’m going to help you.”

  Chapter Four

  Autumn

  The man sitting across the desk from her wasn’t much of a talker—that was crystal clear to Autumn from the get-go. Pale, white-blond hair, and blue-eyed, he was like every Hollywood version of an evil vampire or Swedish villain. He accentuated that image with his all-black clothing, the fitted black T-shirt hugging his muscled chest, and the black denim of his jeans hugging his hips and backside. He was absolutely stunning, even if not classically handsome. His f
ace was just a touch too angular, with cheekbones that could cut through ice, a sharp jaw, a strong nose, and eyebrows that were far more expressive than any of the words he’d said. The overall package was hard to look away from, and she had to work hard to keep from staring at him the whole time they talked.

  She’d already burst in on his lunch to tell him a story laced with insanity, so there was no need to add to her embarrassment by openly gaping at him.

  Autumn couldn’t believe that he was reacting so calmly to the events she had described, certain that any reasonable person would immediately have become concerned about her mental well-being. He didn’t seem to question that at all, or the veracity of her story. It immediately endeared him to her, and she decided that, while he might look intimidating, he clearly must be a teddy bear inside.

  “How exactly are you going to help me?” she asked, after giving him a moment to expound upon his promise. He didn’t seem like someone who did much expounding. Unlike her. “I mean, what can you do?”

  “Go there,” he said, lifting a shoulder. “To the clearing you saw.”

  Her eyes widened. “Go there? Oh no. I think that’s a bad idea. I mean, look what happened last time I went there. No, I don’t think that going back there is a good idea. They seem to have eyes everywhere, and I just …” She shook her head, not finishing her thought as she blew out a breath. Autumn considered herself to be the kind of woman who could take on any ask, no matter how hard it was. Lose her husband and raise two girls on her own as an ER nurse with no family nearby? Yeah, she could handle that. She didn’t always like it, but she had it under control and the stress, long hours, and exhaustion only occasionally got the better of her. But this—this was a different ballgame. This wasn’t part of a world she understood, and when she couldn’t wrap her head around the task, then she was up a creek.

  “You don’t have to go,” Eamon clarified. “You just tell me how to find it. I’ll scope it out.”

  “Oh.” That was a bit different, though Autumn still didn’t like the idea of sending him into a dangerous situation he wasn’t familiar with. Still, if she was hiring him to help her, that was his job, presumably. And it was a far better option than her going again, risking getting further entangled in whatever it was that was happening out there, and potentially provoking these people—whoever they were—to target her children. “And you won’t say you’re with me?”

  Eamon chuckled slightly. “I don’t think they’ll be there.”

  “Oh,” Autumn said again, biting her lip. She rolled her eyes at herself. “Sure. Daylight and all. But they could still be watching. They seem to see everything.”

  “I’ll risk it,” he told her, standing up from his desk, gathering the pizza box that was now half empty, and sliding it into the mini fridge that was over by his office window. Every movement was so graceful that, with his back turned, Autumn let herself stare at him. He was fluid, like water moving through the air. But there was power in him, too, radiating from his pores.

  He turned and caught her staring at him, and Autumn flushed, standing up quickly and smoothing her hands down her shirt to wipe away the sweat. “Um, there’s one more thing,” she said quickly. “I’m not sure what your rates are for these kinds of investigations, but like I told you before, I’m on a limited salary, and I’m hoping that you have some sort of payment plan option. Just so you know, I have very good credit. I’m never late on my bills and I don’t spend more than I can afford—or more than I have to. I’m very good at paying back what I owe. It’s just that I have limited upfront money.”

  She tried to speak with as much dignity as possible, holding her head up high and keeping her shoulders straight. She wasn’t embarrassed to be poor. She worked hard and supported her kids and she was on her own. The fact that they were as well off as they were, was, in her opinion, a credit to her work ethic—and to Tamara for being such a savior, of course. She didn’t love having to have this discussion with a man who looked like he couldn’t fathom such pedestrian things as budgets, but she wasn’t ashamed of it.

  “Consider the fee waived.”

  Autumn’s eyebrows shot up, and she held up a hand, immediately backtracking. “Wait a minute. That’s not what I was asking for. I’m not saying I can’t pay—I just can’t pay upfront. If we can just come up with a payment plan, I’ll be more than glad to pay in full.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Eamon started to shut down his computer, but Autumn was unsettled, not at all happy with what she was sure was meant to be a generous gesture but was instead making her feel about two feet tall.

  “Really, Mr.—” Stopping short, she realized that he had never told her his name, and she had never asked. “Wait a minute, what’s your name? I’m hiring you and sending you out on this this mission, and I don’t even know that.”

  “Eamon Cleary,” he said, looking up from his computer and into her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Autumn.”

  “Eamon,” she said, nodding and clearing her throat. “Nice to meet you too. But I really can’t accept charity. Please just let me know if I can talk to your office manager about setting up some sort of repayment plan. It would be much appreciated.”

  To her surprise, he just chuckled again and shook his head. “Stubborn. Payment isn’t made until the case is completed. Worry about it then.”

  He was grabbing a backpack and making like he was about to leave the office, so Autumn quickly gathered her own things, not wanting to be left behind. She still wanted to argue with him, but she supposed that they would have time to go back and forth about the payment issue. As far as she could tell, she’d made herself very clear that she would pay, so there was nothing more she could do at the moment.

  When she looked up from putting the letters she had showed him back in her bag, he was gone and the office door was open, with her standing there alone.

  “Wait!” she called, hurrying down the hall after him. “Where are you going?”

  “To the clearing.”

  “But you don’t know where it is!”

  He looked at her as though he wondered about the things that came out of her mouth sometimes. How ironic that this was his reaction to the normal things she said, while his reaction to her tales of hooded, chanting men didn’t seem to faze him at all. “You’re going to tell me.”

  Autumn didn’t take the time to explain that if he wanted her to give him directions to the place, he had to wait for her to go with him. She just waved a hand and followed him to his car, stepping back as he opened the passenger seat door for her.

  “I don’t see your car here,” he observed, explaining why they were taking his.

  “No, Tamara dropped me off. She’s at the mall, just five minutes down the road.” Autumn bit her lip. “Listen, I know this seems like a strange request, but if we’re going to be working together, do you think that you could meet my kids first? Before I show you how to go to the clearing?”

  He cocked his head, a dubious expression on his face. “Why?”

  “Because I like to be very upfront with them,” she said. “Not that I’m going to tell them about what I saw in the clearing—that would just scare them. They think they got a special treat to go to Papa and Nonna’s house, and that’s all they know. But they might interact with you over the next little while, and you might even have to stop by the house at some point. I’d rather just introduce you as one of Mommy’s friends who’s helping her with a research project in the neighborhood. I like to study the histories of local communities, so they won’t think that’s anything strange.”

  Eamon pursed his lips, running his fingers through the long shock of blond hair falling over his forehead. “Uh…”

  “Also, my oldest, Anna,” Autumn continued. “She’s very nervous that I might start to date, and she’s suspicious of any man that’s hanging around, worrying that he might be a secret boyfriend or something.” She laughed slightly, waving a hand to dismiss the possibility. “Obviously that would never be the case, but
if there’s ever a man at the house, I always make sure she knows exactly who he is and what our relationship is.” Scrunching her nose, she spoke apologetically. “Sorry. Mom stuff.”

  Eamon didn’t reply for a moment, but then nodded. “Okay.” He shut her door and rounded to the driver’s side, got in, and turned on the car. “The mall then?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” Autumn pulled out her phone as he began to drive, texting Tamara to usher the kids close to one of the main entrances and let her know where they were. Then she glanced over at the man beside her, noting that he was perfectly content to drive with her in silence. She decided that her gut feeling had been right. Mysterious and aloof on the outside, but a teddy bear on the inside. She was sure of it.

  Chapter Five

  Eamon

  Children were not Eamon’s forte.

  They talked a lot, had a lot of energy, expressed their emotions vividly, and could swing dramatically from one mood to another.

  Frankly, they terrified him a bit. It was a hard enough task for him to keep up with the conversations and emotions of adults, whose awareness of peer pressure, commitment to dignity, presumed maturity, and adherence to cultural norms somewhat moderated their behaviors. Children suffered from no such restraints, and he knew them to be perfectly capable of jumping into a stranger’s arm and beginning to explain their newfound desperate love for a meaningless object. Just as easily, they could be moody, angry, and even cry hysterically.

  It was a situation he had never had the opportunity to become familiar with, given that the Dragon Clan didn’t deal with siblings. Though nobody quite knew why, Dragon Clan couples were never capable of producing more than one child, which was why it was so important for every person to be dedicated to producing that one heir to the Dragon Clan destiny. Some had speculated that it was because transitioning was so taxing to the body and producing a Dragon Clan baby was such a complex process—all women characteristically had complicated pregnancies that were unexplainable by doctors—that one was all a woman’s body could handle. Other said that it was because reproduction was never supposed to be part of the original curse and the modifications to that curse were limited in nature.