Dragon Down

by Casey Knight

  Traygen is my husband and a changeling, specifically, a dragon. He can change forms between his human self and his dragon form. I am the wizard in charge of keeping L.A. free from all forms of supernatural terrors. I have a team that helps me with the arduous task of policing L.A. Traygen and Tokem have been with me from the start with The World Council of Wizards. Tokem is a Tykili, an air spirit, who stands all of six inches tall. Our newest member is Corbin. He is the prince of a black court vampire family. I saved his life when he was left to die for being gay. For his part, he helped me find and rescue Traygen and during the search he saved my life numerous times. Corbin now lives in L.A. and is adjusting well to his new life. As the wizard responsible for the Los Angeles basin I am responsible for keeping an eye on a wide array of magical creatures including wizards, vampires, fae, demons, and werewolves to name a few. Because when these creatures mingle with the millions of citizens of L.A., it can get scary and deadly. People die, which isn't okay with me.

  The team and I have all been on leave from our responsibilities keeping L.A. safe for Traygen’s and my wedding. We get our assignments from Jason who is my mentor and boss with the World Council of Wizards. He has just sent word for me to gather my team. This could only mean one thing the honeymoon was over. We had an assignment. I went to my office where I have a marble sculpture of the Dragon's Eye that is identical to my pendant. It stands roughly two feet high and it symbolizes the balance of love, power, and wisdom. It is also my conduit for calling forth my reinforcements. I put in a call to everyone put Traygen. He was showering and would join us shortly.

  I placed both hands on top of the pyramid and said, “Tokem Flint Runner and Corbin Drake Aran.” I stepped back and waited. Fios doesn’t have anything on my pyramid. A universe-wide summons with no dropped calls or data charges. Several minutes later I heard a static pop, followed by the sound of a small pair of wings, and Tokem flapped into view. Tokem is the teams spy in the sky. He is in charge of surveillance and security. Jason provided me with Tokem's full name, which is how we met. The use of his full name binds him to me and he's provided me with invaluable service ever since. Several minutes later and another pop announced Corbin’s arrival.

  “Lauren, it is so good to see you. How was the honeymoon?”

  “Yeah, we want details.” Tokem quipped.

  “Not a chance. But, it is good to see you both.” Traygen shook hands with Corbin and bumped fists with Tokem.

  “Does anyone know why Jason has called this meeting?”

  “Tokem, he didn’t say but he should be here any minute.”

  Right on cue Jason popped into the room.

  “Glad to see you two made it back from your honeymoon. Corbin, Tokem it is good to see you both. I’ll get right to it. As you know every fifty years the paranormal community holds the Supernatural Games. Security at the games is rotated for every Jubilee. It is the World Council’s turn to supply the security for these games.”

  “Who is hosting?”

  “Lauren, good question because we will need to work closely with the hosts. The fae are hosting. The games will be at Tri Na nOg and King Melwas of Summerland is hosting.”

  “Lauren, you dodged one there. Queen Mab still has a price on your head,” Tokem chuckled.

  “Is there any one you haven’t annoyed?” Corbin asked.

  “Corbin, I think that’s unlikely. Now if I can have your attention, we need to get focused on the task at hand. First off there will be delegates from five races of supernaturals competing. The sups represented will be the elves, fae, lycan, vampires and witches/wizards. It makes the most sense for us to protect the course design team. Lauren you have the best chance of shielding them from anyone trying to steal the course plans.”

  “Jason you know we will do our best.”

  “Thank you. The rest of the team will begin to defend the design team in Tri Na nOg. It is as you all know a parallel universe. Tri Na nOga is an island paradise inhabited by supernatural beings. It is a place where life is eternal and can only be accessed by magic. The games are timed to allow admission during the thinning of the veil. Meaning, entry is not the issue rather who enters is. We will need to assure the safety of all participants, which if recent history is any indication is never assured. I don’t need to remind any of you of the assignation attempt on Queen Aeval.”

  “Jason, how big a security force are we sending?”

  “Lauren, we will have eight teams. There will be a contingent assigned to each group of sups, one for event coverage, one assigned to keeping the entry ports secure and your team will secure the course design team. I think we have more than enough people to do this right. I am asking each team to go over the list of their respective assignments and schedules. Then prepare a plan to keep them safe. I’ll expect your plan in forty-eight hours. So if there are no more questions you have work to do. Your information packets have been sent to your computers. Good luck.”

  With a pop Jason was gone and we began our prep. After looking over the underground cities blue print the team decided the design team was in a defensible compound. The fae city is in a parallel universe and designed to mirror the city layout of the mythical city of Tri Na nOg. The cities eastern border was the Irish Sea and the remaining three sides formed a semi-circle. There was a large park along the western border and the city was bisected by a series of harbors. The royal palace was located at The Four-Courts in the middle of the city. It was surrounded on two sides by water. The Four-Courts is where we intended to house the design team. We worked independently until dinner and then I ordered take-out. Once the food arrived we piled our plates high and started our discussions.

  “Lauren, how would you steal the designs? For my money they will use magic of some sort because electronics won’t work in the fae realm.” Traygen stated as he sat down beside me.

  I finished chewing before I answered. “If it were me I would try to put a spell on one of the designers which is why we need to keep their identities secret. Still, we need to assume that someone will leak the information. With that as a given, I would try to place a bubble or shield over them so they couldn’t be hacked.”

  “Yeah, but if anyone can lip read they might still be compromised. I think we need to put them in a sealed chamber and keep them there. We can test everything going in and out of the sealed room.” Tokem added.

  “Tokem has a point, but what about their families? Are we going to detain anyone they have contact with? If we do then that will draw attention to them. I think we need a decoy, a fake team we keep under the same level of security in another part of town. And let’s not rule out the fae. We will need to have Tokem go over every inch of the palace. We can’t have the fae selling secrets to the highest bidders.” Traygen offered.

  “Traygen and Tokem I think you two need to be in charge of securing two separate sites. Corbin, I want you to find out everything you can on the design team and their families. I will start working on spells for invisibility, concealment, and whatever else we will need to protect the design team. I suggest we meet back here in twenty-four hours with a blue print we can all discuss.”

  “I think we are forgetting an important point.”

  “Corbin, go ahead. What have we missed?”

  “We are planning on protecting the team and their families but what about the actual sites of competition. If there are leaks, then each of the sites may be infiltrated, bugged or whatever else might give them an advantage. I think we need to know where they’re planning the events.”

  “You make a very good point. As to how many, there are always four competitions based on the original Olympics, which had four events. I’ll contact Jason and see if he can find out from the fae what areas we will be defending”.

  I gave Traygen a hug and proceeded to my office. There are four different types of wizards. I'm an adept. I use thaumaturgy and theurgy. Thaumaturgy is the use of magic which in my case means harnessing the natural elements. I can use wind, lightening and pretty
much any other element. Unfortunately, I’m not comfortable with fire. Theurgy is much different. It uses divine intervention or spirits to intervene to save humans. My office is lined floor to ceiling with books, vials, plants, rocks… in short all the accoutrements a wizard needs to create. Most of my power stems from my ability to redirect or capture the natural energies of the universe. On a good day I can channel the forces of the universe through my Dragon's Eye pendant, my platinum Uroborus bracelet, and my staff. Now I had to consult my many books and files. Unfortunately, my books are not indexed, a librarian I'm not. It took me awhile to find what I was looking for. I found it in the Black Pullet Grimoirie. The book catalogs all the spirits, the spirits powers, incantations, spells, and talismans.

  I was looking for cloaking and concealing spells. When I found what I was looking for I started assembling all the necessary ingredients. I spread a ring of salt around my work table. No need to take a chance that some bad ass malcontent demon would crash my cook-off. I was fortunate to have everything I needed to make enough vials of concealing spells to hide half the eastern U.S. By the time I had enough charms and spells to handle the herculean task, I was exhausted and I broke my circle and headed for bed. Traygen was already snoring softly in our bed. I took off my clothes and slid in next to him and fell instantly asleep.

  I slept until well past noon and when I got up Traygen was already gone. I took a long hot shower and then went in search of something to eat. I was famished. When I got to the kitchen the gang was already present.

  “It is about time you joined us,” teased Tokem.

  Traygen came over and handed me a steaming cup of coffee.

  “Thank you love.”

  “Do you want eggs and toast?”

  Before I could eat my breakfast a small pop announced a visitor.

  “Good you are all here. Lauren, I ran your request for the site locals by King Melwas. He sent over the designer’s plans. I sent them to you all. But, they are using four portable universes and they’re the only ones with the coordinates. Look them over and if you need me to get any more information let me know. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  With that Jason was gone and we all turned our attention to the information he’d sent us. From what I could tell they had created four portable universes. These were areas where their wizards had created an entire small universe or setting within the empty space surrounding our world. This had its good and bad points as far as I could see. The biggest plus was the universes were easier to protect because unless someone had the exact coordinates they were impossible to find. The bad part was I didn’t think we could keep those coordinates a secret. I didn’t care what they said those coordinates could be stolen, hacked, or bought. By the time I finished eating everyone seemed to have read the information.

  “Thoughts on the mini universes,” I asked.

  “Lauren, I don’t like it. I can’t see how they can keep those coordinates a secret. We all know the biggest competition at these games is to see who can cheat and take home the prize with the least amount of effort.”

  Tokem had made a good point and as I looked around the room the others seemed to agree. The question was what we could do to stop the theft of the coordinates. I was lost in thought when Traygen spoke up.

  “Can we move the portable universes around? I mean in theory they are portable. This way the thieves couldn’t be sure if they had the right coordinates or not. Lauren, what do you think?”

  “I think you might be on to something. I don’t have enough power to move them. But, the council of wizards could keep them moving. They could assign a group of wizards to keep them moving, so no one would know exactly where they were at any given time. I’ll contact Jason and see what he thinks.”

  I left and went to my office to touch base with Jason. I needed to summon him which meant I needed my Dragons Eye sculpture. It didn’t take long before a loud pop announced his arrival. I went out to stand with the others and Jason was already there. We shared our concerns and what we had in mind. He thought it over and told us he was sure they had enough wizards to keep the portable universes moving. Then he was off as fast as he had come.

  “Does anyone else have concerns about our mini universes?”

  Corbin had been quiet through most of our discussions. And he looked like he was lost in thought.

  “Corbin, is something troubling you?”

  “I was wondering how we were planning to secure our mobile universes. Once they are finished designing them we will need to secure them. We may move them but, if they’ve been bugged or compromised in any way they can still be infiltrated.”

  He had a point. Tokem and Traygen could go over them thoroughly before we moved them. Yet, if they missed anything the fox would definitely be in the hen house. We had four portable universes and only five on our team. We were going to need an additional crew. I wanted to put no fewer than two people within each universe. And it could not be our team. We would be protecting the design team during the games.

  “I’ll ask Jason for an additional team so we can place two of our best people inside each universe. Tokem and Traygen you two will need to sweep the portable universes before we seal them and put our teams in place.”

  “No worries Lauren. Traygen and I will get anything left inside. You can count on it. Those PU’s will be safe with us.”

  “P.U.’s?”

  “Yes, portable universes.”

  We all groaned and I think Corbin threw something at him.

  “Easy does it bat boy.”

  “If you two are finished we have work to do. You will need to coordinate your sweeps with the teams we’re leaving to guard the P.U.’s. Traygen, you can work it out with Jason.”

  “Will do. Do we know when the design team will have the portables ready for inspection? This will likely take us a while, so the sooner they are ready the better.”

  “I’ll find out but, my guess is in the next forty-eight hours. The opening ceremonies are less than a week away. While you two workout your security issues Corbin and I will finish the background checks on the design team. Then we’ll look into the security at the Four-Courts. We will meet back here at nine PM when Jason will review our plans.”

  Corbin and I spent the next couple of hours reviewing and flagging any person on the design team or their families with anything sketchy in their files. There were three men and a woman on the design team. They were all married and a few had children. All told there were an additional ten people. It broke down to four spouses and six children. There were two people whose files caught my attention. One of the women on the design team had lost a parent to a rogue vampire. The other was the wife of one of the designers. She was heavily in debt. It seems she liked to shop. Definitely, a woman I could relate to. We decided we would interview all the designers and the shopaholic wife. We went to the Four-Courts and told the design team what we were doing and set up an interview schedule.

  “Lauren, how do you want to do this?”

  “I think we should ask them all the same questions. When they talk and believe me they will, nothing will seem out of the ordinary. You read the files more thoroughly than I did. Why don’t you ask the questions and I’ll watch for any unusual responses.”

  “I can do that. I thought I would ask how they were chosen for the design team and what their responsibilities were on the team. I’ll follow-up by asking if they had any negative experiences with any of the sups competing. With the family members, I’ll change the first question and ask what they think about their family member designing the course.”

  “Good. I’m going to spell the room so it will tell me if anyone is lying. It should prove helpful especially with the designer and the shopaholic wife.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “Yes, who do we have first?”

  “The lead designer is first. Her name is Tenos.”

  We interviewed all fourteen in two and a half hours. Corbin was skimming his notes and I was reviewing my spell. I
was checking to see who if anyone set it off. I found four times when it got hit. Our shopaholic was nervous about her debt which in my opinion was normal. The designer who had lost a family member to a vampire definitely didn’t like vampires but, she also didn’t respond differently to Corbin than she did to me. I was pretty sure vengeance wasn’t an issue for her. The other two hits came from the design team. One of them was hiding something about a sup and the other wasn’t truthful about why he was on the team. These two would bear watching.

  Corbin and I compared notes and he had picked up on our two design team members because their responses didn’t line-up with their files. Everyone else’s answers lined up pretty closely with what we’d found in their personnel files. It didn’t give us much to go on but, I thought that was a good thing. It looked like the fae had assembled a pretty good team. We thanked the design team and their families. We assured them we would return tomorrow to brief them on our security plans. Finally, we transported back to my house to rejoin Traygen and Tokem. When we got there they were wrapping up their security plans.

  Traygen ordered pizza and we’d just finished our dinner when Jason popped in. We filled him in on our plans. He asked a few questions and then he gave us the green light. Our orders were to report to Tri Na nOg tomorrow morning. Corbin and I shared our concerns with the others about our interviews and our worry about two of the fae. For their part they told us how they would be searching each portable universe and how they were going to transfer security to our other team. Satisfied, we all turned in early. We would have an early start tomorrow.