by Rain Oxford
“Huh. No basements? That’s odd.” A frantic knock disturbed the thoughtful silence. “I got it,” Dylan said and walked out.
Mordon followed him into the living room. Mordon sensed that it was Stacy before Dylan opened the door, but he couldn’t understand why she smelled so upset. She was crying. “Please tell me Drake stayed the night here,” she said as soon as Dylan opened the door.
“No, he wasn’t here. What happened? Did he say he was going somewhere?”
“No, he went to bed last night. This morning, he was gone. I tried to call his friends, but the phones are out. Home lines and cellular towers both. I couldn’t even call the police. John is asking other neighbors if they’ve seen him.”
“I’ll drive you to the sheriff’s place, because you’re in no condition to drive. Mordon, take the boys around to their friends’ houses and see if he went to them.” Dylan went into his room to change before Mordon could respond. Mordon quickly grabbed a shirt. By the time he returned to the living room, Dylan and Stacy were gone.
Two minutes later, Mordon, Ron, and Hail were getting in the family’s second car; a black Dodge Charger. They went to the twins’ house first. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, they realized something was wrong. The front door was open and the grass in the front lawn was charred and dried.
“Stay in the car,” Mordon said as he got out. He knocked on the open door and entered. Ronda Ballard was on the couch with her face in her hands while Steven paced in front of her. “What happened? Are the twins okay?”
“They’re missing,” Steven said.
“So is Drake.” Mordon could believe the kids on the north end of town ran away, but not Drake and not the twins. “I know you’re confused and scared, but ask around the neighborhood and see if you can find any more information. Find out if any more kids are missing. Get everyone who is missing children to meet in the police station and bring pictures.” Mordon got back in the car. “Taper and Tatum are missing, too.”
Mordon drove to Luca’s house and knew when he saw the crowd of terrified parents in the middle of the street that this neighborhood had been attacked as well. He stopped just long enough to tell the parents to get pictures of their children and go to the police station. Ten minutes later, they were pulling up to Logan’s house. The door was locked, but nobody answered when Mordon knocked, so he was about to bust the window when Ron lifted the welcome mat and revealed a spare key. A thorough search of the house turned up no one, no sign of attack, and no unusual scent.
Mordon could smell intentions, and although it wasn’t as potent when someone left, they still left behind a trace of their emotions. He scented nothing unusual, not even fear. This doesn’t make any sense.
He must have left of his own will. My senses are never wrong, Rojan said.
“Hey,” Ron said, poking Mordon’s arm and then pointing to a surveillance camera mounted in the living room corner.
“Dylan, get to Logan’s place. We have video cameras,” Mordon said in Dylan’s mind.
* * *
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Devon said. He was sitting in the police station with Hon, Debbie, and Evan. Other parents were flooding the station with claims that their children vanished in the night. The doors and windows were all still locked, nothing was broken, and none of the children had a reason to leave.
Debbie held Evan tighter with every person that entered the station, as if she was afraid they would take her child in lieu of their own. One man seemed to be the only one keeping order and he wasn’t a member of the police. Judging by the way the lights flickered when the man passed them, Devon would bet the slightly older man was one of the most powerful wizards he ever met.
He had brown hair and green eyes, like Devon, but he was thinner. Although there was quite a lot of youthfulness to him, the man was all business at this moment. Devon heard several people call the man a doctor. Not just a doctor; but Doctor as if that was his name, as if he was the only doctor in town.
The man paused, listening to something no one else could hear, and nodded. Just as he was about to leave, Hon spotted him. “Doctor!”
The man turned, surprised. “Hon. Is Alyssa missing, too?”
“No, we’re here because Debbie and her son were attacked by something in the closet.”
“I’m sorry, but attacks are a little low priority right now. A lot of children went missing yesterday. I might have a lead, though. If it’s connected with these attacks— if I find out anything— I swear I’ll let you all know.”
“You have a lead? A witness?” Devon asked, approaching them.
The man looked at Devon. “You’re the P.I. Hon called?” Devon nodded. “Okay. Maybe you can help. I might have something on video. You know anything about computers?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, because I can’t get near them.”
* * *
Dylan wasn’t used to involving people outside his family, but this affected the entire town. Children were taken. “Please tell me you have some knowledge of the supernatural,” he said as he drove twenty miles an hour over the speed limit.
“I attend the top university for paranormals in the United States.”
Dylan scoffed. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.” He wasn’t actually surprised; he could tell Devon had a fair amount of power. He didn’t think Devon was more than in his late twenties, but the younger wizard had the ambiguous quality that made his age very difficult to determine. Devon had an authoritative, hardened aura, as if he lived a lot darker a life than others his age had. Dylan really wanted to scan Devon with his magic, but it wasn’t the time or place.
“I’m Dylan Yatunus, by the way.”
“Devon Sanders. How are you a doctor if you have so much trouble with electronics?”
“I’m very careful and the hospital refuses to let me quit.”
“They know about you?”
“As of very recently. We had a run in with some demons and the town realized everyone’s dark secrets weren’t really a big deal here.”
“Demons? Like from Dothra?”
“What’s Dothra?”
“Another world. I know that sounds crazy, but---”
“Hey, there’s nothing crazy about other worlds; I’m a Guardian from Duran.”
“What’s a Guardian and where’s Duran? And how do you know about the tower?”
“Tower? I don’t know anything about a tower.”
Dylan was extremely confused by the strange man. He had to forcefully suppress his natural reaction to someone who wasn’t making sense, which was to be sarcastic and try to confuse them worse. He pulled up to Logan’s house.
“We’re here. We’ll have to talk about the other stuff when we find the kids.”
* * *
Devon followed Dylan into the house, wondering if he just met the person who could answer all his questions or someone crazier than Professor Langril. Inside, he was a little taken aback by the place. It was cozy in that it was dim with rich colors, but the daisy yellow walls and rose-patterned couches were too loud. A medium-sized plastic tree was decorated and lit up in front of an old-fashioned television set.
There were two adolescent boys and a man in the room that made Devon’s instincts fire up. They weren’t warning him that he was about to be slaughtered, but he was definitely in dangerous company. He could sense an extremely powerful presence in the man.
“Devon, these are my boys, Ron and Hell,” Dylan said.
“Hail,” the older child corrected. Devon took in the almost unnaturally glossy, deep red hair and striking purple eyes and got the impression that Dylan’s nickname for the child was spot on. The younger boy was a poster child for innocence. If someone put him in a commercial for world hunger or orphanages, every child on Earth would be adopted and cared for in five minutes.
“And this is my brother, Mordon.”
Devon caught the subtle sniffing and realized that Mordon was some kind of shifter. There was
a strange balance of ruggedness and elegance to Mordon, which reminded Devon of a wolf raised in a castle. Mordon nodded to Dylan, obviously indicative that Devon “checked out.”
“The camera was motion activated and the feed was to the cloud with a wired failsafe in case the wifi was lost. I can access the videos from a computer in the bedroom,” Ron said, walking out of the room.
Everyone followed him into a bedroom. It had the same horrible wallpaper, but the unmade bed had simple blue blankets and there wasn’t much else except for a computer on a writing desk. Dylan stayed in the doorway. “This is about as close as I should get,” he said.
Ron fiddled with some folders on the computer before opening one. He skipped through the video that played, closed it, and opened another file. The camera was aimed at the Christmas tree, but the television screen in the corner of the image was the only movement. Devon’s instincts fired up. “Stop there,” he said before Ron could skip ahead. “This was last night?” Ron nodded. “There are tons of presents under the tree.”
“So?” Hail asked.
“So, there aren’t any now. Someone took all of his presents.”
In the video, the television switched off and three of the presents suddenly popped open. “What the hell?” Devon remarked. Out of the boxes came a creepy monkey, something that looked like a gremlin, and a robot. With determination, the trio went into the bedroom and returned a few minutes later, dragging an unconscious teenager. They then proceeded to drag him over to one of the open boxes and start stuffing him into it. Despite the small size of the box, they managed to contort him so that he fit inside it. Once he was fully inside the box, the three creatures returned to their boxes, including the monkey who joined the boy in the small box. By what could only have been magic, the lids of the boxes lifted off the floor and resealed the boxes. Finally, every single present began to crumple in on itself, getting smaller and smaller until they all vanished with flashes of light.
Devon, Dylan, Mordon, and the boys were silent with shock. “Son of a biscuit,” Ron said after about ten minutes. “Whose nightmare is this? I want out.”
“So that’s what happened to our all of our friends?” Hail asked. “Why weren’t we taken?”
“You have wards over your room,” Mordon said. “So there were monsters in the presents?”
“I think the presents came alive,” Dylan said.
“That shit doesn’t happen in real life,” Devon argued.
“Presents have gone missing for a week now, but children only started disappearing two days ago,” Mordon said.
“Hon’s house still has their presents. Alyssa could be next,” Devon said. “We need to find out if everyone whose children were taken is also missing presents. If so, we need to warn everyone who still has presents.”
“I think everyone is pretty much on high alert already,” Dylan said.
“A lot of the families that came in today because their children were missing reported a theft of their gifts days ago,” Mordon interrupted. Everyone looked at him.
“Okay, so if this is really some freaky demonic toys, then why would they disappear without the child, only to come back and take them?” Dylan asked.
“Please don’t call them demonic toys,” Devon said. “That’s a little too…”
“A little too ‘evil clowns ate my baby’?” Dylan offered.
“Yes. Something like that. Let’s go back to the station and ask some more specific questions.”
* * *
They got in the cars and made it to the center of the town before a mob of people blocked the road. Mordon got out of the Charger behind Dylan’s Jaguar and pushed his way past everyone to see what was going on. In the middle of the crowd was Taylor. “What’s going on?” he asked. Although Taylor was older than Mordon, Rojan was over three thousand, so he naturally took charge when Taylor was around.
“We want our kids back!” one of the women in the crowd yelled.
“Taylor is doing what he can to find the one responsible. You want to put him in his own cell? Who will arrest the perpetrator then?”
“He’s not doing anything!” a man yelled and chucked a rock at Taylor. He missed by less than an inch.
Although Mordon sensed that Dylan was about to do something, it wasn’t Dylan’s presence that Mordon felt trying to invade his mind. The urge to hold completely still came over him, but Rojan broke the hold easily. The crowd seemed to take a collective step back, leaving enough space for Mordon to see Dylan and Devon standing in front Dylan’s car.
“Everyone, go home and wait patiently for information,” Devon said calmly. Not a word was spoken by any civilian. Even the demons in the crowed obeyed. In moments, Mordon, Dylan, Devon, and the boys were alone.
“What was that?” Dylan asked as Devon rubbed his temple.
“Probably more than I should have handled.” As if the pain transferred from his head to his chest, Devon sagged against the hood of the car and held his hand over his chest. After a few seconds, he pulled a potion bottle out of his leather jacket and drank the contents.
“What’s that?” Hail asked.
“Nothing to worry about. I knew they would fight back, but I didn’t know they were all so powerful.”
Ron took Devon’s hand, startling the wizard. A second later, Ron let go. “You have a lot of power,” he said.
Just to be sure, Mordon inhaled deeply. Once again, he got a clear scent of the man. Devon was powerful, but he was also self-destructive in how he took his responsibility to heart. There was shame in him and he held a grudge. There was another, lighter level to him, but it was tentative, as if he was still learning to let go of things.
He was very different from Dylan, who was extremely laid back until someone needed his help. Dylan and Devon were both natural-born heroes, but Dylan would rather come up with a plan to solve everyone’s problems and Devon wanted the bad guys defeated. That wasn’t to say Devon was violent; he could be violent, but he generally preferred to be peaceful.
Rojan growled in Mordon’s mind.
What’s wrong?
He is reading you as you are him, the dragon said.
“Now isn’t the time for this,” Mordon said aloud. “We’ll split up and question everyone. Devon, you go to the station and wait for people to come to you.”
“Why?”
“For one thing, you’re obviously injured.” Even though I can’t smell it. That was weird. His dragon senses should have been able to detect an injury or illness.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“For another, you just sent our sheriff home to wait for information.”
“Right. I’ll go to the station then.”
Chapter 4
Devon was halfway to the station when his instincts made him stop and head in the opposite direction. Then, after a few minutes, the intuition faded away. He looked around for a moment. The town was empty as everyone hid at home, except for one young couple who stepped out of a toy shop. Why is the toy shop open when there are kids missing?
Devon crossed the street and entered the small shop. A bell tolled above the door. Devon looked around. Something bugged him about the cramped space, and it wasn’t claustrophobia.
Then again… Devon thought as he came face to face with the creepiest doll he had ever seen. It was one of those tall, one-of-a-kind types. Its hair was far too yellow and its face was too colorfully painted. It was propped on a tall stool that put it at eye level with Devon, which was probably so little kids couldn’t get it down and break it. What kid would want that?
An old man ambled out of the back. He was a decent looking person, but Devon figured the man probably wasn’t aware of what was really going on in town. “How can I help you?” the man asked.
“Some Christmas presents went missing from houses around here. Have you had any complaints?”
“Like electronics and stuff?”
“No. Presents like dolls, toy monkeys, and robots.”
“Goodness! W
ho would steal from children?” the man leaned against the counter. “I haven’t heard anything about these toys being stolen, but you should talk to my brother. He owns this place; I’m just manning it when he runs out for errands. Sylvester should be back in a few minutes if you want to wait.”
“Yes, I think I should. I’ll just glance around if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind at all! All of our toys are handmade and come with gift boxes.” Devon stared at the doll again. “Isn’t that one a beauty? Too bad not enough children know how to take care of dolls like this. It was returned this morning.”
“Returned?”
“Yes. We have a very strict return policy; if you don’t love it, bring it back. We aren’t satisfied until the child is happy.”
Devon realized what bugged him so much about the shop being so full. It was days from Christmas and while many of the toys were creepy, they were very high quality. “I guess it’s been a slow year for sales?”
“Not at all!”
“How many did you have to begin with, then, if you sold so many and you still have enough to stuff your shop full?” It shouldn’t have been so full.
“Oh, Sylvester does most of the work.”
Devon was about to move on when he noticed a smudge of something on the doll’s arm. Instinctively, he reached for it and pulled the doll down. A sharp irritation started in his head, an urge so strong he couldn’t stand it, but he didn’t know what it was for. He pulled the ring out of the pouch hanging at the nape of his neck and slipped it on. What made him do it? Instinct.
And he regretted instantly. An innocent, blond-haired, brown eyed girl screamed as she woke to find her doll reaching for her. He saw this vision from the doll’s eyes and felt the creature’s mind. Well, it wasn’t so much a mind as a purpose. It needed life, and it was going to take that life from the little girl.
The doll put one hand on the girl’s mouth and clinched the other one in her hair. Devon could feel the doll drawing energy from the girl and within seconds, she passed out. The doll then dragged the girl off the bed and into the living room.
