Firestorm Forever: A Dragonfire Novel (27 page)

Drake supposed that Veronica was the reason he alone had been returned to these times and felt frustration again that their destiny should be so challenged.

“They call it football there,” Dashiell contributed. “That’s what my dad says.”

“Mr. Patterson coaches
our
soccer team,” Timothy confided.

“I see. Do you both play, then?”

The boys nodded enthusiastically. “Dad says we might make the play-offs this year.”

“Those guys you were with when I met you,” Timothy said. “Were they the players you coached?”

“Indeed.”

“Are you going back to Europe then?” Dashiell asked, to Timothy’s obvious consternation.

Drake shook his head. “They have all ceased to play the sport,” he said, keeping matters simple. “In fact, I have not coached a team in a while.”

“Then you should help coach ours,” Dashiell said. “Mr. Quigley had to quit coaching because he started to work afternoon shifts, and Dad was saying the other night that he could use some help.”

“Indeed.” Drake nodded, liking the sound of this very much. “Then I shall speak to your father and ask if my aid would be welcome in this matter.”

The way that Timothy looked up at him, his eyes shining, told Drake that he had made exactly the right choice.

He would need an apartment, a place where he could begin to make a home to welcome his mate and her son. Drake felt a new surge of optimism, for he believed that the future promised by the firestorm might fall within reach, after all.

* * *

It was late in England when Melissa Smith’s cell phone rang.

Or it was early, depending how she looked at it. The bedroom was dark, Rafferty was gone, and the bed was chilly. The phone rang again and she remembered that it was in her purse, which she’d left in the foyer. She got out of bed quickly, intending to run, but Rafferty walked into the bedroom with her purse.

“I knew you’d want to get it,” he said and she dug into the bag.

She answered on the fourth ring, which wasn’t all bad considering that it was 3:30 in the morning. “Hello?”

“Are you seeing this?” Doug, her producer, demanded. His voice was hoarse, as if he’d been awakened from sleep, too. There was an edge of excitement to his voice, a sign that an interesting story was breaking.

Rafferty must have heard that, because he took the stairs three at a time to hurry down to the office and boot up his computer. Melissa recognized Maeve O’Neil’s voice from the broadcast Doug was watching and cringed inwardly.

What had that witch dug up on the
Pyr
this time?

An older woman was talking by the time Melissa got to Rafferty’s office. She looked as if she were on Skype. “They were right there, right in front of us, Maeve,” she said, talking as if the reporter was her oldest friend. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Arthur and I always thought it would be wonderful to visit Easter Island and see its marvels, but we never imagined we’d see dragons hatching!”

“What?” Rafferty murmured, his eyes glittering as he leaned closer.

“It must have been terrifying for you,” Maeve said in her smooth Irish accent. “It’s just another sign of the gross indifference these creatures show to humans, the rightful residents of this planet…”

Melissa stood behind Rafferty, her phone forgotten in her hand, and wanted to injure the journalist who’d apparently made it her mission to turn public opinion against the
Pyr
. She could hear the same broadcast coming through the phone, because Doug was watching it, too.

The woman kept talking, but her pictures really did say it all.

“I know exactly what you mean, Maeve. They couldn’t have cared less about us.”

“Tell me exactly what happened, Peg,” Maeve purred. “You’re doing such a wonderful job.”

Peg preened. “Arthur didn’t even want to go and see
Ahu Te Pito Kura
, but I thought we should see the largest statue, even if it hasn’t been restored, and while we were there, we could see the navel of the world,
Te Pito o te Henua
. We had to get up terribly early and the light was odd, with the blood moon, but the guide thought the photographs would be good…”

The photographs, in fact, were creepy. They were displayed in succession on the screen, the woman reduced to a voice-over. The first shots were clearly taken from a truck and must have been taken as it was moving because some of them were blurred.

Still there was no mistaking the dragons taking flight.

They were
Pyr
. Their figures were silhouetted against the strangely lit sky and became clearer as the eclipse passed. Once the moon was shining white again, it was evident that the dragons in question were red and gold.

In fact, they were just about indistinguishable from each other. It was hard to get a good count of them from the photographs, each of which showed one or two.

Melissa and Rafferty exchanged a glance, and she worried about the import of his consternation. What did he know that she didn’t?

“Dragons, Maeve!” the woman said. “Real live
dragons
! Who would have believed it? And not just one, but many of them, one after the other. They were red and gold, we could see that when the moonlight returned to normal, and they flew straight up.” She cleared her throat. “And then they just disappeared, as if they’d never been there at all. They were snatched up by that gold dragon.”

“Do you think it was the one from Seattle?” Maeve asked. “The one who infected thousands of innocent people and launched a new plague?”

Melissa caught her breath. There was a blurred shot of the gold dragon, and it sure looked like Jorge. He breathed fire back at a group of watching tourists, who fled from him. Several fell, not as steady on their feet as they had been in their younger days.

Rafferty frowned.

“That would make sense,” the woman said, her voice rising. “And these ones sure didn’t care what happened to us! Our driver nearly went into the ditch in his shock, and one of the people already there broke a leg trying to run away. Roger’s angina began to act up, especially once the dragons began to disappear.” She huffed. “But we went on to find out where they were coming from and we found
this
!”

Her tone was triumphant as the next series of photographs were displayed.

“A dragon nest!” Maeve breathed. “Why, Peg, I believe you’re the first to ever photograph one!”

Melissa had seen pictures of the round stone referred to as the navel of the world on the north side of Easter Island and had always wished there hadn’t been four smaller stones added around it. It made the stone, which was supposed to have mystical powers and was magnetic, look like a table in the middle of a patio set.

The mystical stone was centered in a round platform beside the ocean, with a low fitted stone wall around it. Nearby was one of the large funerary platforms known as
ahu
, though the statue that had once stood upon it was toppled.

In the moonlight, the stone looked a bit like a huge egg.

Albeit one that was cracked open, with four cracked stones around it.

Eggs in a nest.

“There must have been five broken eggs,” the eyewitness continued. “We tried to fit the shells back together to be sure, but they were heavy and hard to move. Arthur said we should leave them alone, but they were disintegrating right before our eyes!”

It was true. Melissa could see the big egg shards crumbling as the group of older tourists examined them, and the dust itself seemed to disappear when it touched the earth. By the time the sun came up, the tourists were standing in that circular platform with dust gathering around their shoes.

“I knew I couldn’t get a satellite connection, not from there, but I took all the pictures I could, before they disappeared from sight. I filled the memory card on my cell phone, and Arthur practically filled the one on the digital camera. I knew that we could send them once we were back on the mainland.”

“I’m so glad you contacted me, Peg McKay, to share your experience,” Maeve said. “Even though it’s terrifying to see five more dragons appear in the world overnight, as hungry, violent, and rapacious as their fellows. How many more will infest the world?”

Peg grimaced. “Do you think that gold one from Seattle was their parent?” she asked with obvious distaste and Rafferty inhaled sharply.

“It’s clear that there are more dragon shifters breeding,” Maeve said. “All around us. Will they outnumber us all? Will they spread more disease and kill more people?” The image changed to Maeve, comfortable in a studio somewhere and as beautifully dressed as she always was. She looked into the camera, appearing utterly trustworthy and concerned. “We are under assault, my friends and neighbors, under attack by an alien species, who intend to make their world their own. They mean to exterminate us, and we can’t just stand by and watch. Please protect yourself and your families…”

Rafferty turned off the sound with a savagery.

“I need to interview this Peg McKay,” Melissa said into her cell phone. “I want to interview all of them, preferably before anyone else does.”

“Maeve probably tried to convince her to sign an exclusive,” Doug said.

“Then one of the others in her group. There’s more to this story than Maeve is telling and our audience deserves to know.”

“Exactly,” Doug said. “This tour group has gone back to Santiago, which is where they submitted these images. Luck is with us: we’ve got a crew there doing a follow-up story on the last earthquake. I’ve asked them to try to talk to the McKays and convince them to give you an interview. Your series on the
Pyr
might help close the deal.”

“I hope so,” Melissa said. “In the meantime, I’m on my way.”

“Do whatever you need to,” her producer said, his code for sparing no expense. “We need you there as quickly as possible.”

Melissa ended the connection to find Rafferty watching the sequence of images again, with the sound turned off. “Are they
Pyr
?” she asked and he shrugged.

“They can’t be true
Pyr
, not hatching from eggs.” His disgust at the notion was clear.

“Then what are they?”

“I don’t know.” He sighed. “They look exactly like a dead
Slayer
named Boris Vassily.”

“Back from the dead?”

Rafferty shook his head. “Not by any means I know. This is new.”

“Are they dragon shifters at all?”

Melissa won a skeptical glance for that question, which she supposed she deserved. Rafferty arched a brow. “Don’t tell me that you believe in dragons who aren’t shape shifters? They’re a myth, Melissa.”

“Then?”

Rafferty frowned. “I fear they are
Slayers
, but this hatching isn’t right.” His voice dropped. “What has Jorge learned?”

“Will you come with me?”

“Not just yet.” Rafferty spoke slowly and she knew he was weighing his options and his responsibilities. “Whatever they are, they aren’t there anymore. I’ll take Isabelle to Chicago, so she can stay with Erik in case I do need to be with you. She’ll be safer there with the other children.” He nodded once and caught her hand in his. “I think that’s the best choice for the moment.”

“What else?” Melissa whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s something else bothering you about this. Tell me.”

Rafferty sighed. He replayed the video, freezing it where the dragons had suddenly disappeared. They hadn’t faded from view, Melissa realized belatedly. They had vanished.

She caught her breath. “Spontaneously manifesting elsewhere,” she murmured and Rafferty nodded.

“Which makes them not just
Slayers
, but
Slayers
who have drunk the Elixir and have no scent.” He sighed and spun in his chair before getting to his feet with purpose. “That explains why we knew nothing about them. Erik wouldn’t even have sensed them in advance. The question is how many of them are there in total.”

“And where did they go?” Melissa asked.

“Oh, I think I know where they went,” Rafferty said. He indicated the stairs. “I’ll find us flights. Go and pack.”

Melissa didn’t move. “Where did they go? What do you know?”

“Two ruby and brass
Slayers
attacked Erik’s lair after the eclipse, and three targeted Drake and his mate, just after his firestorm was satisfied.”

“The eclipse sparked his firestorm,” Melissa guessed and Rafferty nodded. Then she had a feeling why he hadn’t told her about this. “What happened to her? What did they do with Drake’s mate?” When he hesitated, she heard her voice rise. “Rafferty! You have to tell me!”

By way of answer, he started another video, one she hadn’t seen. It showed a dragonfight, with Jorge and the red and gold Slayers. “Is that Drake?” she asked, then gasped as the dark dragon was wounded and the woman snatched up by Jorge.

Before he disappeared.

Melissa swallowed hard. “Is there more?” she asked, fearing the answer.

Rafferty came and stood before her, the weight of his hands landing on her shoulders. “She is gone, without a trace.” He held her gaze. “I would prefer that you come to Chicago with us.”