by Lee Roland
“So, where do you fit in?” Maeve asked Flor.
“Fit in? I don’t know. I don’t think I fit anywhere.” She kissed Raymond on the forehead. “I was born and raised in Phoenix. My parents were witches, but except for Immal, we didn’t know any other witches. Immal said we were the last of our family, our people. My mother and father died in an accident when I was twelve. They’d arranged for Immal to have custody of me if anything happened to them. She trained me, taught me magic. But…she was so complicated, there was so much to her, so much more I’ll never understand. She wasn’t like you saw her while she raised me. She didn’t start to physically deteriorate until last year.”
Flor stared away into the distance. Then she turned back and smiled. “Last week, Immal told me to pack my belongings and be ready to leave. She sent me to find you and told me to follow you and follow my heart. She promised she’d see me again. I swear, that’s all I know concerning this…journey.”
“You accept that? No questions? Just take your life and go forth with the first witch you find at a stinking truck stop?” Maeve had to laugh at that kind of naïve nature.
“Yes, Maeve. I’ve always obeyed Immal.”
“Tana’s going to love you. She may try for adoption, since her granddaughter is such a failure.”
“How can you have such a low opinion of yourself?”
“I practice.”
****
“Why is it taking so long?”
Alex flinched. “Commander?” Sweat formed on his skin despite the cool night, and his skin itched under his black fatigue uniform. He’d been concentrating on the San Medio Star Motel’s flashing sign to keep from thinking anything else. He and the Commander sat in the Jeep while Taggart and his buddy Howell went inside to bribe the motel clerk. Howell wasn’t too bad, just stupid. He made a first-class follower, though, and Taggart was leading him straight to hell. Taggert was a survivor of the trio whose attack brought Alex into the Commander’s purview. Taggert didn’t like losing out on a chance to hurt someone. Alex hoped the motel clerk understood the danger and didn’t deny him information.
“This is taking too long.” The Commander’s voice carried a sharp edge, his words like rocks thrown at the windshield.
“Yes, sir. Should I—”
“No.”
Would their chase end tonight? It had begun a month ago in Little Rock. The Commander had shown him a photo of a young woman with astonishing red-gold hair. He sent Alex to the truckers, to ask about her. “Try to look like a guy chasing a runaway girlfriend,” he had said.
The truckers didn’t buy any of Alex’s stories. Those she rode with constantly hindered them with misinformation. For some strange reason, they protected her. No amount of money offered worked. Their eyes would narrow, fists clench, and a couple of times he had to run. He’d known then that should she be in the trucker’s company when they caught her, the Commander would have to fight to get her away. Injury, death, total disaster.
Five days ago, the search had changed. No more haunting the truck stops. The Commander directed them from one truck stop to the next with no apparent guide, at least none Alex could see. They’d almost caught her last night. The pursuit ended when they topped a hill and the vehicle had disappeared.
Alex found the nerve to ask. “What did she do? Rob a bank?”
The Commander shrugged. “Not your business.”
Not his business? Then why did it keep tearing at him, shredded his guts like eagle’s claws ripping a rabbit apart? And the Commander? This most lethal man fascinated Alex. He wanted to remain at the Commander’s side, but how many appalling actions upon innocents could he tolerate? He’d been offered no assurance that those he pursued were anything but innocent. He knew his companions like Taggert were vile criminals. He knew there were acts he wouldn’t allow to go unchallenged. He’d be true to his grandfather’s ways.
Inevitably, Alex would have to face the Commander in a hopeless battle. If it came to it, he would earn death with honor. If he didn’t fight, his ancestor’s ghosts would return from the land of the dead and haunt him in this life and the next.
The Commander handed Alex a small cell phone like device. “Walk around the other side of that building. Push the red button three times if you see her go that way.”
Alex accepted it. He stared at it and felt a pressure building in his chest. Was the Commander sending him away to keep him from the inevitable confrontation? He drew a deep breath and focused on what he had to do. A game, the Commander called it. If he moved fast enough, maybe he could change the rules.
The Commander grabbed his arm and squeezed hard. The sharp immediate pain, fingers bruising to the bone, froze Alex in place. “Be careful when you choose sides, Hania. Heroes don’t always win.”
Again, the man had pinned Alex’s emotions down and forced him to examine his own motives. For Alex it changed nothing. He’d act as honor required.
The Commander released him.
Taggart and Howell came running from the motel office.
“Room 164,” Taggert said. His face screwed up in rage. “Fucking clerk held out for—”
Alex couldn’t see the expression on the Commander’s face, but it silenced Taggert.
“Go,” the Commander ordered Alex.
Alex climbed out and headed for the other side of the motel. The moment he was out of sight he ran. Where was room 164?
Chapter Four
At ten o’clock, an uneasy feeling seeped into Maeve. She went to the bathroom and washed her face, but the feeling remained, like an itch she couldn’t scratch. When she came back out, she grabbed the empty ice bucket and went outside. Maybe a little fresh air would ease the irritation.
Maeve left Harriet and Raymond arguing over the television. Harriet made the most fuss, flapping around and demanding a cartoon channel. Animated antics fascinated the little harpy. Tana had paid an exorbitant sum to have cable run through the mountains to Elder as soon as it became available, but Maeve was bored within days. Raymond never understood the concept or meaning, but the screen never lost its charm for Harriet.
The motel’s parking lot had filled since they arrived. Maeve insisted that Flor park the SUV on the building’s far side, a fair walk from the room. The motel, like thousands of others, had two stories and open hallways on the outside. Halfway to the motel office, a passageway opened to a room with the ice and soft drink machines. The sign on the door proclaimed, out of order, please go to office for ice. Oh well, she wanted to walk didn’t she?
****
Alex eased around the building. He’d stepped off the sidewalk and onto the grass to muffle the sound of his passage, and peered down the long open walkway. The anemic overhead lights were dim yellow here and twenty feet apart. The motel, expansive as it was, stood almost empty on this night, as if many travelers instinctively drove on to find a safer sanctuary.
A peculiar silence had fallen, and even the nearby interstate’s hiss and roar seemed muted. He became hyper-aware of his surroundings. Birds shifting in the trees where they roosted, seeking safety in the night, the scampering of small creatures in the bushes, and the sound of soft footsteps coming toward him.
Alex saw the girl the Commander sought come toward him. As she approached, he stepped in front of her. She stopped short, four feet from him.
The photo the Commander hadn’t shown that proud, straight body. Her startling amber eyes almost glowed in the soft light. Sincere eyes, the kind that rarely lied.
“You need to leave here fast” he said softly. Alex glanced over his shoulder. No, they couldn’t see, but if one of them came around the building…
“Who are you?” she asked. She seemed wary, but not frightened. Her arms hung loose at her sides.
He shook his head. “I’m Alex. Please go. Hurry.”
“Thank you, Alex. I’m Maeve.” She held out her hand. Almost instinctively, he grasped it in his own. A bewildering rush of emotion stunned him. It ambushed him and held him in a vehe
ment grip. She had the most interesting scent, wild as the wind blowing across the arid desert he loved. This girl, this woman, was special in a way he’d never known before. Powerful, free…the Commander would meet his match in her.
He released her hand.
“I’ll see you again.” He made the statement with absolute certainty, though he couldn’t say why. The words had bubbled up unbidden.
She studied him with those golden eyes, and her mouth formed a half smile. Then she hurried away.
The desire to run after her, to go with her, help her, grew strong. It tore at him. He hesitated. Another part of his mind screamed no, to go back to the Commander. That’s where he needed to be—had to be.
****
Raymond opened the door the moment Maeve’s hand touched the knob. Flor had her suitcase and the backpacks ready to go.
“You felt them too?” Maeve asked her.
Flor nodded. “Right after you left.”
Maeve shouldered her backpack, thankful for the intuitive magic that warned them. The only driveway out of the motel led past the office. If the same three vehicles that had chased them in the desert were here now, there were too many men. They would have to make a run for it as the stranger, Alex, had urged her to do. “Raymond, there’s a patch of woods at the end of the building. When we get there, you go change shape and create a diversion. No humans can see you, so it should be easy.”
“A diversion?” Raymond frowned. He seemed puzzled.
“Make some big noise. They’re parked up front. Don’t get too close to them, though. We don’t know what weapons they have. Watch for us and once you see us get away, you follow. Can you find—”
“I can find you.” Now he looked insulted.
“Okay, okay.” Maeve patted his arm. All she needed was a pouting dragon.
Maeve opened the door a little and scanned as much as she could in the dim hallway lights. She couldn’t see the office from there, but shapes moved at the end of the parking lot. “It’s clear. I’m going to try the amnesia spell.”
“No, no, no.” Harriet flew to her shoulder. “No magic. ’Member last time. No!”
“Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Was too! No magic!”
She sighed. Harriet was right. The last time she worked the amnesia spell, everyone within a square mile, magical and human, couldn’t remember their own names for two days—even Tana. Tana remembered whose fault it was, though.
“Let’s go,” Maeve said.
Flor came out last. She murmured a few words under her breath, then carefully closed the door. She smiled at Maeve. “I left them a surprise,” she said as they hurried down the hallway.
At the end of the building, Raymond ran for the woods and the sound of dragon wings whispered from above when they reached the SUV.
As she opened the SUV door and climbed in, Maeve realized she had forgotten two things. She didn’t tell Raymond to take his clothes off before he changed shape, and she hadn’t asked him for his specific diversion plans. He’d flown across the country to find her, but he had limited knowledge of the world outside Elder. Dragons being dragons, his idea of a diversion might be excessive. At least he was too young to breathe fire like the older dragons. Raymond’s youth and lack of knowledge of the world outside Elder could be disaster.
They sat waiting for the diversion to begin. Flor drew a deep breath, leaned forward a little, and closed her eyes. A voice, far from human, shrieked as if the devil had ripped a thousand damned souls out of hell and chained them to a motel parking lot in San Medio, New Mexico. No ordinary human would hear it, but the scream raced across the spectrum of magic, then faded into silence.
Flor grinned and started the engine. “Okay. Fewer of them will be chasing us. I don’t like people shooting at me. Or my friends.”
The sudden squeal of torn metal and breaking glass told Maeve she definitely should have discussed Raymond’s plans. As the clamor increased, Flor backed out and headed toward the exit. When they neared the front of the motel, Maeve groaned. Raymond was filling the swimming pool with cars. He’d just dropped a pickup truck.
Someone without witch-sight would only see vehicles become airborne and then drop. A tornado, that’s what it was. They’d call it a tornado. Maeve could probably persuade Tana to send the motel owners money. At least no one followed them as they pulled onto the highway.
****
The scream staggered Alex. He slapped his hands over his ears and realized it came not from sound waves in the air but was tearing through his mind. Another facet of the world opened to him when he received the so-called vaccination that allowed him to see mythical creatures. It abruptly ceased.
He raced back toward the front of the motel. That’s when he saw the dragon. Silver scales flashed in the surrounding lights. How long? Seventy, eighty feet? It soared toward them, a hundred feet off the ground, carrying a mini-van in its claws. Incredibly, it slowed, hovered, and dropped the van into the pool where a car and pick up truck already bobbed and floated. The two vehicles filled it completely. The dragon dipped a wing and flew back toward the end of the parking lot.
The Commander quickly and quite calmly grabbed a gun case from the Jeep, popped it open, and removed a massive rifle with a long thick barrel. He opened it like a shotgun and slid in a long tube.
The dragon dropped down at the end of the parking lot and snatched up a car. With heavy beats of its wings, it circled and gained height. The trees under it whipped around with the down-draft. The dragon rose higher and swept over the asphalt toward them.
The Commander stalked toward the swimming pool filled with vehicles. Alex had no doubt whatever was in the gun would kill the dragon. A need suddenly rose in him, a need deep and primitive as the will to survive. He had to save the dragon. It was as if the magnificent deadly creature’s life somehow tied to his own.
Alex sprinted toward the Commander. He wouldn’t make it in time.
The dragon soared toward them.
The Commander raised the rifle. The dragon slowed, hovered over the swimming pool. He pulled the trigger. The shot cracked, loud, sharp—and the ammunition struck true.
The dragon convulsed—and dropped the car.
It hit the others and teetered at the top of the pile. The Commander’s attention still focused on the dragon, he calmly reloaded the gun.
Alex couldn’t stop the first shot but…
The top car tilted more—then rolled. Straight toward the Commander.
Alex ran, pushed on, forced his legs…faster. He hit the Commander hard. Ah, like hitting a tree—but it shoved him at least four feet. And knocked the rifle from his hands. They both went down. The car finished its roll—inches from Alex and the man whose life he had saved. The Commander scrambled to his feet and stared after the dragon as it flew away.
Alex hurt. He hurt where he hit the Commander’s iron body and where he hit the pavement. He’d been running full speed when he struck an almost immovable object. He forced himself to sit up, but his elbow wasn’t working right. The Commander stared at him—and the car body resting less than two feet away. He said nothing, but Alex could almost feel his gaze like a hot desert wind in his face. The Commander’s eyes narrowed, held questions.
Blood trickled down Alex’s forehead. He blinked as it slid into one eye, burned like acid, and ran down his cheek. He must have struck his head, too.
The other men arrived, and people rushed out of the motel rooms—now that a relative silence had fallen.
“Get those guns put away,” the Commander snarled at his troops. They whirled and hurried for the van, weapons hugged close to their bodies to make them less noticeable.
The Commander knelt by Alex. His fingers brushed Alex’s forehead, moving strands of hair back. For one moment, he almost smiled. Almost became an ordinary man. Almost. He drew his hand back.
“Hania?”
“I’m okay,” Alex lied.
The men came running back, and the Commander ordered
them to load up. Two of them lifted Alex and helped him stand. They were not gentle. Alex clamped his teeth together and kept quiet. Show no weakness, not in front of them—or the Commander.
****
The deserted road ended at an open field outside of town. No one challenged or followed them as they left San Medio. They parked as the eastern sky slowly transformed to pale pink in the rising sun. Shadows appeared then faded as the light grew.
“Don’t go too far,” Maeve told Harriet when she demanded to be let out. She flew to the SUV’s hood.
“Is Harriet really afraid Raymond will eat her?” Flor asked.
“Yes and no. A harpy’s mind is strange. Long time ago, we were playing hide and seek and Raymond persuaded Harriet to hide in his mouth. For some reason, he decided not to let her out for a while. After all, he knew he wasn’t going to eat her. He assumed she’d know that, too. Birds don’t care for close places, and she went a little crazy. ‘Eat me’ is the only way she can describe it, and she uses the words when she’s stressed.”
“He loves her—and you,” Flor said.
“And I love them. Sometimes I wonder if…” Maeve sighed. “If this and if that. Can’t go back, can we?”
“I wouldn’t want to.” Flor reached over and squeezed her hand.
The little witch had slipped into Maeve’s life like a drop of perfumed oil.
“Something’s wrong,” Maeve said. They climbed out and listened for the sound of dragon wings in the cool pre-dawn air. Where was Raymond?
Harriet paced on the hood, her small talons clicking a staccato pattern on the metal. “Better go find him,” she said. She launched herself skyward.
Maeve and Flor didn’t try to stop her.
The sun peeked above the horizon by the time Harriet returned. She landed on the hood and skidded off the other side. Maeve ran around to pick her up from the pavement.
“Come…hurt…come!” Harriet screeched.
“Slow down and tell me where he is.” Maeve held the harpy to quiet her hysterical flapping. Harriet chattered but couldn’t grasp the idea that the landscape appeared different from the air. Finally, they let her loose. Maeve started the car and followed her erratic flight back to San Medio.
