My gut clenched at what was to come next.
Beep-bop.
Back in the shop, the rest of the guys were eager to see exactly what had happened. Apart from Frankie. He was strolling around the shop, sniffing everything, his hands in his pockets, his hair neatly slicked back again after looking a bit dishevelled before.
Penny and Sparks just looked at me. Penny made a retching noise and put her finger under her nose like I’d trodden in something nasty on the sidewalk, and I probably had. I didn’t want to think about it. Sparks lost interest quickly and went back to doing something on her phone, both thumbs working away like crazy. Nova was keeping watch on the street and looking nervous.
“What happened, Katie?” Penny asked, sounding nasal with her fingers under her nose. She looked at the splatter on the front of my shirt. Again, I couldn’t let my mind go there. “You look gross by the way.”
“Thanks, Penny. I appreciate it.”
“Well?” Nova said, not turning away from the window. “How’d the test run go?”
“It didn’t work quite as well as expected,” I said, looking down at myself after Penny’s reaction. I looked like someone had thrown ground beef at me and some of it had stuck while most of it had just left faint pinkish spots.
“What came through? It looked a mess,” Frankie asked, sniffing a bottle of something.
I swallowed hard. “It was . . . It was people.” I said it quickly in the hope it would slip by unnoticed.
“How many people? Where from?”
“Two, and I don’t know, but Lynnette’s going to fix it. She has a helper who’s an expert at making these rips. She’s gone to get him.”
“Why didn’t she use him before?” Sparks said without lifting her head.
I shrugged. “I think she might have been either showing off or she might have wanted everything we find on the other side for herself. Probably both.”
“You’re not going through with it now are you, Katie?” Nova said, finally looking back into the shop. I couldn’t see much of him to give a reassuring smile because a rack of junk was in the way.
“We have no choice. It’s either get through, get dragon blood and survive, or we submit to having an implant. That’s something I’ll never do.”
Around the room, noises of agreement suggested that everyone else agreed.
“Nova? You still onboard with this?”
There was a moment or two of silence.
“I guess. I just don’t like you putting yourself in danger. Especially with the wicked witch here. She doesn’t seem exactly stable, and seriously, who dresses goth at her age?”
“I guess it’s part of the experience of coming to the shop. Anyway,” I lowered my voice, “I’m not going in until one of them tests the next rip.”
I could just make out the top of Nova’s head on the other side of the rack. It looked like he was shaking it, but without seeing his face, it was hard to be sure what that meant.
The sound of a door banging from behind the counter where Lynnette had disappeared to when we came back in grabbed my attention. She reappeared through the door and stepped out beyond the counter.
“Katie. Everyone. This is Derek.” She held out a slim hand to the open door. “Come, Derek,” she said back through the doorframe.
I felt a slight shiver at what kind of weird being from the magical world might be about to emerge. I expected dry-ice smoke to start billowing up, hissing demons with red eyes, rabid shapeshifters, a booming wizard with a pointy hat—all of them came to mind—but instead of any of those, something far different emerged.
The most meek, awkward-looking guy I’d ever seen.
A full-on, honest-to-goodness, stereotypical nerd.
His hair was the burnished-orange color of a pumpkin and stuck up in every possible direction. He wore a pair of slightly grubby brown chinos with some highly suspicious stains on them. He had on a checked, button-up shirt with short sleeves, worn open to reveal a tank top in every conceivable color with a couple of extras thrown in for luck and a few more definitely questionable stains. The whole look was finished off with the most garish pair of sneakers I’d ever seen—decorated with eye-bleeding swirls of neon colors. I couldn’t see a brand, but I was pretty sure none of the main sneaker companies would ever admit they made them. Whoever approved them must either have been blind or was maybe on something, because they were truly hideous.
He was the brother somebody’s parents kept locked in the attic. The one that nobody in the family was allowed to talk about.
He was as pale as a freshly bleached sheet. I found myself hoping he was taking vitamin D supplements. I even wondered for a moment if he was a vampire, but already sensed that he was human.
He stepped slowly out from the doorway and sidled half-behind Lynnette.
“Hi,” he said and waved his right hand slightly, still hiding behind Lynnette. “I’m Derek.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
I took a step toward him, holding out my hand and smiling for all I was worth. I was determined not to judge Derek’s skills by his appearance or awkwardness. Lynnette said he could safely open a rip. It didn’t really matter whether he knew how to work a clothes washer or preferred hideous color combinations.
He hid completely behind Lynnette and made a squeaking noise when he saw me coming.
Lynnette held a hand up palm first, so I stopped. “No touching.” She did the hand explosion thing again. “And try not to make him jump. Oh, and like I said, no loud noises. He’s very sensitive, aren’t you, Derek?” Lynnette turned and spoke to him in a baby voice. Then she patted his cheek.
“Okay,” I whispered. “No touching, no loud noises, no scares. I get it. Now, Derek, I’m Katie, and I need you to open a rip to a place where there are dragons. Do you think you can do that for me?” I sounded like my mom talking to me when I was a toddler.
He poked his head out from behind Lynnette, nodded, and then disappeared again.
“Could you do that now? It’s kinda urgent.”
I could hear the others gathering behind me, muttering.
“Are those other people your friends?” Derek’s voice came from behind Lynnette.
“They are, yes, there’s—” I started
“Will they be my friends too?” Derek interrupted me.
I didn’t bother looking back. I was pretty sure they would all have said no. “Of course they will be.”
“I like the one with the glasses best. What’s her name?”
I turned to look at Sparks. Frankie nudged her slightly with a wide grin on his face. “You have a boyfriend, Sparks.”
Sparks, to her credit, refrained from punching Frankie. She did flip him the bird, which I thought was kind of restrained. I nodded at her to speak.
“I’m Sparks,” she said.
“I’m Derek. I’m shy.”
“Yeah, me too, Derek. I get that.”
“Ask him about the rip, Sparks,” I said quietly.
She gave me a why-me kind of shrug.
I gave her a suck-it-up flick of the head and frowned.
“So, you think you can do this rip, Derek?”
Derek stepped out from behind Lynnette—mostly. He was still behind her shoulder, her all black and his cacophony of colors made a contrast that was giving me a headache. Well, that was what I put it down to, anyway.
“I can. You want to see?”
“Yes, please,” I said. Derek frowned at me and kept his eyes on Sparks.
I elbowed her.
“Yes, please, Derek. Do we need to go outside?”
Derek nodded.
Beep-bop.
Out on the street a couple of crows were hopping around the roof of the building opposite, casting greedy eyes down on the gruesome evidence of what had happened with the first rip. Our sudden presence on the street seemed to be keeping the cackling birds back, but they continued to jump around, seeming to be trying to pluck up the courage to fly down to street level for a feast.
>
I glanced around, wary of possible onlookers, but the street was quiet.
Derek was squinting in the bright sunshine. Lynnette was being quiet and enigmatic as Derek stood beside her. I was squinting at Derek. That tank top? Man, it was bright. I’d dragged Sparks out to keep Derek happy. It was under protest.
“Ready?” Derek said.
“Sure.” I took a step back up against the wall of the shop. I grabbed Sparks with one hand, and the drainpipe with another. Just in case.
Derek grinned, showing a mouthful of wonky teeth. He held out a hand and slowly started to make a stirring motion in front of himself. Nothing seemed to be happening. Then he started to mutter under his breath, and he closed his eyes, all the while keeping up with the stirring. When he stopped muttering, it looked like a small, horizontal whirlwind had started, and we were looking down into the top of it. The air on the opposite side of the street was swirling around, picking up all manner of trash. Lynnette joined in, chanting under her breath but making no gestures. Derek seemed to be in charge this time, though I was sure Lynnette never would have expressed the situation as such.
After a few seconds, Derek stopped stirring and flicked one hand with a final mutter. The mess inside the whirlwind cleared until it was like looking through a window. Not like the first one. I let go of Sparks and the drainpipe and started to walk over to the disturbance. The rip was smaller than Lynnette’s effort, and the whirlwind Derek had created was perfectly round.
“Is it safe?” I asked Derek. He nodded. He seemed to be a bit out of it.
“Can I get back once I go in?”
“Oh, yes,” Derek said.
“Great. Can I go through, now?” I was feeling weirdly excited. This could be the answer to all our needs for dragon blood.
“Oh, yes, just walk into it.” Casting magic seemed to have made him a bit less shy.
I stepped closer, my hair starting to blow around as I approached the vortex. I grabbed my hair, twisted it, and put it in a ponytail with one of the ties I always had around my wrist for occasions like this—leaping into the unknown.
Looking through, I could see a lush green landscape dotted with trees. Flowers and shrubs were neatly contained around the sides of the green areas, and not far away, I could see people walking. It looked perfect and peaceful. I didn’t see any dragons, though.
I turned to Lynnette and Derek. “You’re sure this is the right dimension? The one with the dragons?”
They both nodded. Okay, then.
Just as I was about to step in, somebody appeared at the other end. Boy, he looked angry. I stopped where I was. I could see the guy’s mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He stepped back, waved his arm a bit, and then his face changed. He went from anger to scared in a matter of seconds. He put out his arms as though he was pushing back against something, and I could see the strain in his face. Then, quite suddenly, he flipped, and all I could see were the bottoms of his shoes heading straight at my head. I could also feel the wind from the rip picking up power.
I dived off to one side, not wanting to get smashed in the face.
I sat, nursing a slightly sore ass as a blast of wind shot out of the rip, knocking Lynnette, Derek, and Sparks clean off their feet and finally delivering a completely whole man onto the street, at which point the rip stopped blowing and rapidly spiraled in on itself, shrinking and then disappearing as if it had never been there.
The man who had so ignominiously arrived groaned, which seemed a good sign. He hadn’t exploded into a bloody mist, and he was still breathing. Luckier than those other two. He hadn’t stood up yet, but I stopped breathing when I saw the markings on his bare arms and the skin of his neck above the collar of his shirt. I knew those markings. They were the same distinct ones that had been on the dead dragon whose blood had sustained us for so long. Those patterns had covered the dragon’s wings, neck, and tail.
I stared in shock for a few long moments as my brain chugged to fit the pieces together. Then it hit me. The dragons weren’t just dragons. They were shifters, similar to the ones who lived in our dimension.
I was gazing upon a dragon shifter as he was in human form, but most definitely a dragon. A living dragon. Full of blood. Blood that would enable us to avoid the implant and the suppression and control that came with it.
I involuntarily licked my lips at the thought. I could feel my mouth watering as I watched him testing his body out, I assumed checking for broken bones.
Lynnette, Derek, and Sparks were all standing back up and looked okay, if a bit roughed up. Once Sparks straightened her glasses, she gawked at the man who was just starting to get himself back together and had risen to his knees. She saw the markings, too.
When I looked back at the man, he had finally made it to his feet.
I offered him an apologetic, hesitant smile. “Hi. Are you okay?”
He looked at me with thunderous eyes and then pointed at me. “You,” he bellowed, fury fueling his oddly-accented words, “What have you done?”
Shoot. This wasn’t starting off as well as I’d hoped.
Chapter Eight
Jevyn
Boise, Idaho, Earth
AS SOON AS I got over the initial shock of traveling through the dimensions in a rift I didn’t create, I managed to get myself to my feet. While I was coming through, I’d hung on tight to my clothes as the force that sucked me through had threatened to leave me naked. I really didn’t want to arrive in a strange place like that. It was bad enough being somewhere other than Dracos when I didn’t mean to be there, but nude too? Pass, thanks.
The auburn-haired young woman I’d seen through the rift was off to my left. The woman I’d seen previously, the one who was all in black, with black hair. I wasn’t quite sure why she looked so annoyed. I was annoyed, but then I had a right to be. She was standing outside an oddly constructed building of small rectangular rust-colored stones. Several faces were pressed against the huge glass window, rubbing away condensation from where they had breathed on the inside of it.
The black-clad woman had two people standing on either side of her, both open-mouthed, both ill-dressed, both wearing some kind of mounted lenses in front of their eyes. The man’s clothes were . . . well . . . an assault on the eyes, and the girl’s outfit wasn’t much better. I wondered, very briefly, if they were mated and had agreed to dress in a similar fashion as a show of unity.
I turned back to the young woman on my left. My innate senses told me she was the ringleader of this bunch of misfits. I’d automatically responded to her in her own language, but I was too shocked and angry to think much about it beyond that.
I pointed at her. “You, answer me! What have you done?” I was utterly pissed off by this stage and on the verge of anger-shifting to my dragon form. “And why are you grinning at me like some kind of simpleton?”
That wiped the smile off her face. It was replaced by what looked suspiciously like anger, although I had no idea what she thought she had to be angry about.
“I was trying to be welcoming, if you’d stop hollering for a second.”
I squinted at her incredulously. Me? Arrogant?
“I’m angry, you idiot. Do you realize what you’re doing opening up rifts in the veil like you are? What happened to the two people you brought over earlier?” I started to look around a little then, and finally I noticed the mashed remains on the ground. “Is that them?” I asked quietly.
The woman’s eyes went somber. “Yes,” she whispered.
“They came through like that?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You did that.” I pointed at the mess. It was everywhere.
“Well, actually, I didn’t. Look, I don’t mean to be weird or anything, but can we go stand on the sidewalk? If we stay out here on the road, we’re likely to get run over, and I’d really like to avoid any more tragedies today, as I’m sure you would, too.”
She spoke rather rapidly, and I had to listen very carefully to wh
at she was saying. I’d understood everything so far, but when I thought about what was being said, I realized that although I had a fluent grasp of hundreds of languages from my experiences as a traveler, it had been a long time since I’d heard an Earth language.
Wait a minute. Earth?
“Is this Earth?” I followed the girl onto the sidewalk.
“Yes, why?”
I swore under my breath. I took a step back away from the people who were standing there and then jumped quickly back onto the sidewalk away from them as a large hulking metal thing with somebody inside drove past, making a heck of noise. A truck. I dragged the word up from my memory.
“What’s the problem with Earth?” asked the strange-looking female with the plastic . . . spectacles, yes, that was what they were. She had something in her hand that she was finding it difficult to look up from.
“My people are not supposed to come here. You have a virus here that we cannot allow to come to our world.”
“Where are you from? Is this an invasion?” asked the one with the spectacles.
“I’m on my own,” I said. “You could hardly classify this as an invasion.”
All four of them nodded sagely before me. I felt around in my pocket with one hand and put my other hand over my nose and mouth. I was hoping to find something to cover my nose and mouth but came up with nothing.
“Come inside the shop,” the black-haired woman said. “We don’t want to attract any more attention than we have already.
The others all seemed keen to follow her, especially the odd-looking man who shot inside before anyone else. I wanted nothing to do with the people of Earth, but I did want answers for the dragons who’d died and for the safety of Dracos. I waited for them all to go in, completely unsure whether I could trust these people. Their careless actions had already cost lives. I just hoped I wasn’t walking into a situation that would cost me mine.
Chapter Nine
Katie
Lynnette’s shop
Boise, Idaho, Earth
Chasing Legends Page 6
