Autumn Calling

by T. Lynne Tolles

  “Son of a…”

  “I’m sorry. I know you blame me for this, but if I don’t meet them they said they’d kill him.”

  “Where do they have him.”

  “At their mansion, I assume. That’s where they want me to go.”

  “I’ll be right over.”

  “NO. They’ll kill him. Please. Nick. You can’t. I have to do this.”

  “They’ll kill you both.”

  “I don’t think so, but I’m not chancing his life on it. I’ll go. But if you don’t hear back from me, let the Midnights know, will you?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think you should go alone.”

  “It’s the only way. Just promise me you won’t come. They said if anyone else showed up they’d kill him and I don’t want you to have that on your conscience. Promise me.”

  “Fine, but if I don’t hear from you by say ten o’clock, I’m calling in the cavalry.”

  “I guess that will have to do.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Thanks,” Summer said and hung up the phone to ready herself.

  The last thing Summer wanted to do was deal with Juliette again. Should she call Marcus? She didn’t feel right about that. Yes, he was her father, but in her mind, he wasn’t her go to person when she needed help or advice. No. They weren’t in THAT place yet, maybe one day soon, but not now.

  She tried to prepare herself mentally and then headed out. Sully came prancing up to her as she was swinging her leg over to straddle the bike. “No, sweetie. You can’t come. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  The hellhound looked at her sideways with his sad droopy eyes and then slipped his head under her hand for a pet. She gave him a good ear rub and then opened the gate which Sully darted through.

  “Seriously, Sully, you can’t come. Now go back in there,” she directed him. He sat down and stared at her.

  “I don’t have time for this, Sully. Go back into the yard. Go.”

  He considered her demand as more of a suggestion, but apparently deciphered her tone to mean business. He slowly got up and meandered into the yard, turned around and watched her close the gate between them. Though putting him in the yard really served no purpose as he could easily leap the fence and had done so many, many times on his little adventures around town.

  As she rode through the town in the dark, passing houses with warm golden light filling their windows from within, she thought of Juliette and how she had tried to kill her last time she saw her. This time though, she wouldn’t be disguising herself and Summer could be more prepared if she attacked. If she attacked—more like when she attacks, Summer thought, but IF she survived, maybe this entrance to the house could be used to her advantage. Not that Juliette would let her out of her sight, but she might get a better idea of the layout of the house including dogs, or henchmen hanging around.

  She looked over her shoulder when she thought she heard something following her. She didn’t see anything so she continued on.

  When she arrived at the mansion she remembered the last time she was here. Completely innocent of who lived in this giant estate, she’d come to help a client with her injured cat. A client who turned out to be her sister. My how things had changed in just a short time. She’d almost been killed then, too, by Juliette. “You’d think I’d learn to avoid this woman,” Summer said under her breath as she leaned the bike against the tree where she had left it once before. Again she heard something—clicking and jingling, like tags on a dog collar and nails on the pavement. That’s when she saw the behemoth hellhound with glowing eyes, one red and one yellow, cantering down the street in her direction.

  “Dang it, Sully. I told you to stay home,” she said in a loud whisper. “Go home,” she said angrily. Instead the hound sauntered up to her side and sat on his haunches huffing and puffing with his tongue hanging out on one side. She pointed the way they’d come and said it again. “Go home, Sully. It’s not safe for you here.”

  Defiant as usual, he cocked his head licked her hand and sat there.

  “Fine. Then stay here.” She pointed to where he was already sitting and he laid down looking up at her and crossing his front paws daintily. “Ugh. You’re killing me, dog,” she said under her breath, then turned and headed up the walk to the front door and knocked, checking her watch for the time and turning back to make sure Sully could not be seen from where she stood.

  * * *

  A wraith of a woman with dark sullen features opened the door. “Good, you’re on time. I have high regard for punctuality in a person. So many your age, have little concern for it and in doing so disrespect those who have a busy schedule,” she said graciously welcoming her into the foyer.

  Summer followed her lead and only nodded at her comment.

  “Quiet thing, aren’t you, unlike your sister. That girl never shuts up,” Juliette continued leading Summer through one beautifully decorated room after another. The Macabres obviously liked living in luxury and seemed to prefer French country decor adorned with finely carved furniture covered in opulent fabrics and pristine chandeliers of the finest crystal.

  Juliette waited at the fourth doorway they passed through, opening the door with a key only when Summer came near. She waved her through and followed behind her, relocking the door when she closed it. Through the door was a long stairway downwards with minimal lighting and steep steps.

  They came to another door in which Juliette stepped in front of her and unlocked it with her ring of numerous keys. Again she waved Summer through. This room was huge, round and anything but extravagant with its bare brick walls, nary a window in sight. The ceiling raised several stories and the only light within was a naked bulb on an old lamp without a shade. There was movement though, in this space—something large. A rattle of chains made her turn her head toward a wall behind her where she saw a haggard Jackson bound by his arms in a giant T.

  “Jackson,” Summer exclaimed. “Are you all right?” He nodded.

  “He’s fine. A little tired and sore, I imagine, but fine,” Juliette relayed.

  “Let him go,” Summer said. “You’ve got what you wanted, now let him go. He’s got nothing to do with any of this madness.”

  “Maybe not, but he has been a wealth of information on this,” Juliette waved her hand and spun a bit directing Summer’s attention at what lurked in the shadows at the far end of the room.

  Chains rattled in the darkness and something moved swing around to reveal large glowing eyes of yellow peering out of the blackness. Something else moved and rush of air rustled passed her when she could just barely make out the outline of enormous wings refolding on themselves after what she assumed was a bit of a stretch to ease being cramped up in a room unable to fly or walk around due to the chains that bound her talons. Summer could just barely make out a glint of red iridescent color from the murky confines of the shadows.

  “The dragon.”

  “You don’t seem at all surprised to see such a magnificent creature,” Juliette said with disappointment.

  “I’m not. I knew you had a dragon locked up here.”

  “Well, kudos for you,” Juliette said a little miffed.

  Redirecting her attention back to Jackson, Summer said, “You said you’d let him go if I came. I’m here, now let him go.”

  “Technically that’s not what I said. I said I wouldn’t kill him if you came and I won’t unless he annoys me or we need to feed the dragon at some point.”

  “But—”

  “Sorry,” she said without conviction, “It’s not my fault you assumed that would be the outcome of our meeting.” She made a gesture with her hands and Summer was pushed back against the wall and the manacles came alive clamping around her wrists and locking themselves. Summer tugged and strained against them but they did not budge.

  Juliette nonchalantly made her way to the door unlocking it and said looking around the room, “If we get anymore guests, we’re going to have to expand this room.” Apparently Juliette thought
her comment was hilarious as she left the room laughing heartily at the statement. They heard her laughing as she locked them in the room with the dragon.

  Chapter 25

  “Swell. Lot of good I did,” Summer said leaning back on the wall, arms outstretched and slightly dangling.

  “You couldn’t have know what she would do,” Jackson said sounding exhausted.

  “When was the last time you fed?” she asked looking at his more than usual pale vampire complexion.

  “It’s been a while, though I don’t think I’m in that boat alone,” he said directing his eyes to the darkness and the dragon beyond.

  She heard a scratching from high above. She squinted to search the blackness and there was a window, yet small, and two glowing eyes looked upon them—one red and one yellow.

  Jackson and Summer said in stereo, “Sully.”

  “Well, I guess it was a good thing he followed me, huh?” she said with a strained smile. Jackson nodded in agreement. “Sully, go get Marcus and Autumn. Go. Now. Bring them here.”

  The glowing eyes bobbed up and down in what she assumed was Sully nodding and then they disappeared.

  “You’re requesting help from more Macabres?” Jackson said with surprise.

  “A lot has changed since you’ve been gone.”

  “Apparently.”

  She craned her neck to read her watch and said, “Nick will be calling in the cavalry here very soon. He’s supposed to contact Aunt Myrtle, Hunter, and Morti if I don’t contact him by ten and it’s ten minutes to.”

  “Nick. Always saving my butt.”

  “He’s a good guy underneath his broodiness. His heart is in the right place, besides his pushing me away from the two people he loves—you and Tori.”

  “Tori?”

  “Yeah. After her accident, I was banished from contacting her.”

  “He can…overreact at times.”

  “It was for the best. It’s kept her out of danger for the most part.”

  “How did she feel about that.”

  “At first, she didn’t know. Now, I don’t think Nick will be living it down anytime soon.”

  “I’ll bet not.”

  “So, have you tried to speak with the dragon?”

  “Uh….No. I don’t speak dragon.”

  “Just because she’s in dragon form doesn’t mean she can’t understand what we’re saying. If she’s like Hunter, she understands everything. And you call yourself a scholar?”

  “Actually I don’t, but I get your point.”

  Summer directed her conversation to the dragon in the darkness.

  “Ms. Dragon? I’m sorry I don’t know your name or I’d address you properly. If you haven’t surmised on your own, help is on the way. There are many people very excited to make your acquaintance. Oh, and so you know. We think we’ve located your egg.”

  That got her attention. Before there was no movement in the blackness until the word ‘egg’ was mentioned. The long slender neck bent around and yellow glowing eyes looked at her.

  “It’s true. We don’t know its exact location but it is in this house and we know what room it’s in. We’ve been planning your break out for some time now, though I imagine with my disappearance they’ll engage sooner than we had planned.”

  The dragon moved towards her, intrigued by her words and as it did her head came more into the light taking Jackson and Summer’s breath away. Her size alone was more than they had expected, but the scales were a magnificent color of dark cherry red that looked almost black.

  To think of animals such as this existing once in large numbers, filling the skies, must have been magnificent and frightening to say the least. Summer didn’t expect the dragon to speak to her in her present form, she may not be able to verbalize.

  “Just know this, we are doing everything we can to get you and your egg to safety. I expect you have little trust for humans after this bondage, but I swear on my life, it’s true. We are working with another dragon to make it happen.”

  The dragon cocked her head to one side, much like Sully did when Summer spoke to him.

  “It’s true, ma’am, Ms…Uh. I’ve been working with him for several months when we caught wind of your existence. He’s very eager to meet you. I suppose it’s been killing him to find you were her, so close, all along and he hadn’t been able to see you,” Jackson added.

  The dragon drew nearer showing more of her immenseness, sniffing the air and directing her glare at Jackson.

  “He is, but he has been here.”

  Jackson and the dragon both whipped their heads around to Summer.

  “Really. The little window above? Morti brought him here a while back and I expect he’s been here when he could to catch a glance of you.”

  The dragon looked up at the window and actually looked out of it. She obviously hadn’t known or noticed Morti’s or Hunter’s visits.

  “How could Morti come her without being noticed?” Jackson asked.

  “I told you, a lot has changed while you’ve been traipsing across the Pacific. He’s found a way around his cat form and has been spying for some time. He’s the one who brought our attentions to the dragon’s capture.”

  “And how could you know about the egg?” Jackson asked.

  “Hunter recognized the signs of her nesting.”

  “Oh, right.”

  The dragon fell back a few steps directing her glances between her dungeon mates and the window that now intrigued her. She seemed to understand all that Summer had said, which meant they had not caused her to go crazy as Hunter first suspected. That was a good thing because when it came to escaping, it was better knowing they could direct her to safety or ask her help in defending them.

  * * *

  Nick and Tori raced to the Midnight mansion and made it in record time. Nick pounded at the door and when no one answered immediately Tori joined in on beating the ancient piece of wood covered in cracked chipping paint. It caused an avalanche of dried white paint to fall on the threshold like dirty snow.

  The door opened and Nick nearly mowed down Myrtle when he stepped in and closed the door behind him.

  “Summer’s in trouble,” Tori and Nick said in stereo.

  “What? Slow down, you two.”

  “Ms. Midnight, we need to get to the Macabre estate right away,” Tori said.

  “It’s ten past ten and I haven’t heard a word from her. She knew I’d come looking for her and contact you if she didn’t communicate otherwise,” Nick blurted.

  “Summer was to meet Juliette,” Tori said.

  “Why?”

  “They have Jackson,” Nick said.

  “Jackson? How?”

  “That’s not the point, they told her if she didn’t show or she brought someone with her, they’d kill Jackson,” Nick divulged.

  “So she told Nick where she was going and if she didn’t contact him, he was to let you know where she was,” Tori explained as Morti sauntered into the room rubbing his furry face on the doorjamb.

  “Oh, dear. Morti, Summer’s in trouble. Better get Hunter and quickly,” Myrtle said.

  He turned and ran off from the direction he had come when the doorbell rang.

  “My, it has gotten suddenly busy, hasn’t it,” Myrtle said heading to the door.

  A familiar scratching at the wood of the door gave Myrtle a sudden pause. She opened the door and found Sully joined by Marcus and Autumn.

  “This evening gets more and more interesting with every door opening,” Myrtle said unsure what else to say.

  “Myrtle, I’m sorry for this intrusion, but this, this, hellhound forced us to come here,” Marcus said with confusion.

  “It’s Summer’s, isn’t it,” Autumn said admiring Sully.

  “Yes, it is. And if he is here with you, then my other visitors are right in thinking Summer is in grave danger.”

  “Danger?” Marcus exclaimed.

  “Come. Since you’re here, we might as well talk, as you don’t plan on killing
us,” Myrtle said.

  Marcus was stunned and simply shook his head no. “Good. We all seem to be here for the same reason—Summer’s in trouble.”

  * * *

  Myrtle escorted Marcus and Autumn into the parlor where Nick and Tori were fretting. She started introductions as Morti returned with Hunter.

  “Victoria, Nick this is Autumn and Marcus Macabre, Summer’s…”

  “What is a Macabre doing in MY house,” Morti exclaimed which stopped Myrtle and got a raised eyebrow and an angry glare.

  “YOUR house? You’re not exactly MAN of the house, Mortimer, being a feline and all. This is MY house and I’ll invite who I want into it anytime I feel like it.” She re-directed her attention back to Nick and Tori.

  “As I was saying, Autumn and Marcus are Summer’s sister and father,” which got a look of surprise from both Nick and Tori. “Marcus, Autumn, Victoria is Summer’s friend and Nick is her boyfriend. Victoria just opened that lovely little herb shop down on Main.”

  “Oh, yes. I’ve been meaning to go into your shop. I’ve heard great things about it,” Autumn said offering her hand to shake Nick and Tori’s. Marcus nodded and offered a shake to them too.

  Morti pouted in the corner tsk’ing this and mumbling his discontent at the pleasantries being passed around.

  “And this here is Hunter Pitman an old friend of the family,” Myrtle said.

  They all nodded to the niceties of the introductions.

  “Marcus, you already know my brother Mortimer, the cantankerous old goat that he is.”

  “Yes,” was all Marcus said glancing at Morti. “However, I must agree with Mortimer, though the introductions are lovely we’re here for a much more important reason.”

  Morti noted his name and hmph’d at Marcus’s mention of him.

  “That’s right,” Nick interjected. “We’re here because I believe Juliette has my friend Jackson and has now nabbed Summer.”

  “And what makes you say that, Nick…” Marcus said pausing for Nick to inform him of his last name.

  “Pierce.”

  “Mr. Pierce.”

  Nick relayed the conversation he’d had with Summer and briefly described to Myrtle.