Page 1 of Dyson (Walsh’s Lair #3)
The Gathering Storm
~~The Pe ace of being without war~~
~~Evenness of mind, temper, and composure~~
~~Create by imagination, invention, and design~~
Storm walked around the little store listening to the gossip about one of the biggest disasters ever recorded—at least how these people were now witnessing it. She shook her head in amazement. How could humans be so insensitive? Not to mention stupid. That was one of the million and one reasons that she didn’t hang out with humans for too long. They not only were, for the most part, clueless, but they seemed to have rose-colored glasses on all the time. The rumor mill was running full blast, it seemed today.
“They say that thousands of those bastards are dead. The whole place just split the roads and ate’em right up. Can’t you just imagine what they were thinking when they were being swallowed up like that? I can’t, I tell you what.” The man behind the counter had himself a great audience, and he was taking full advantage of it today.
“Heard tell that them there houses just toppled over like the kid’s blocks. Smashing people while they slept in their beds.” The man speaking shook his head. “Mercy sakes alive. It sure did a nasty bit of business over there on that street.”
“God is taking some sort of vengeance on them there foreigners. Sure as I’m a ‘sitting here, it’s God doing them people in.” She actually had to physically close her own mouth when the person made that statement. “They should have stayed in their own place now here were we people are.” Storm wondered if one of the people standing at the counter knew that they were all foreigners to this land.
She also wondered what they’d say about her and her sister if they knew what they really were made her smile. She wasn’t going to speculate on it too much, but they’d have plenty to say. There was no doubt about that. They couldn’t have gotten more foreigners than they were.
Storm and her twin sister, Ember, were time adjusters for the world. They, like a great many other beings, moved throughout time and made slight adjustments in the fabric of reality when and where it was needed, smoothing out the lines so that it looked untouched, perfect. They’d been doing it longer than any of the beings in this room had been alive. And they would continue to do so long after they were nothing more than dust in their graves. Humans and shifters alike had no idea how many times they’d been recused from their own stupidity.
To do their jobs, they would travel back and forth, sliding into whatever persona was needed to blend into the world they were in. It took great strength and lots of practice to even attempt what they did for the world. Sometimes, they were the only ones standing between the extinction of mankind and the world being populated at any given time. Storm caught a reflection of her face as she walked around the little odds and ends store.
Tall, at just over six feet, Storm was well-proportioned and athletic. Of course, no one would see that under her long dress and equally long sleeves. Her long dark hair, when not pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head as it was now, hung nearly to her waist in springy corkscrew ringlets. Her wings, too, pressed tightly against her back and legs only gave a small hint of what she really was.
Her skin, like her sisters, was alabaster and smooth as velvet. The only mark that marred their skin was the tattoo of their kind. It was a dragon that wore the wings that curled around their back and clawed hands, seemingly holding onto their shoulders while the tail trailed down their ribs and wrapped around their legs. Storms on her left leg, Embers to her right.
When their wings were spread and covering their arms from shoulders to their wrists, it would be, she supposed, frightening to anyone who would see her without any knowledge of what she was. Smiling at the men when they tipped their hats at her, she put her purchases on the counter and waited her turn to be waited on.
At the moment, Storm was in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-three in the body of a school teacher about to start “schooling” the area children in their reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was the closest body that fit her size when she popped into the time zone. The teacher would have no memories of her being Storm for a bit. There would be a slight accident, a small tumble that would alter her memories. Not that she’d remember Storm and what she had done, but the teacher would recover easily and never be the wiser of what she’d done for her world.
This time, working in this area, it had been a small fix. A mountain had come down on a family that was digging for clay and killed the youngest child. Storm had been tasked to save the child. Her future and that of a great many generations beyond her hadn’t been born if she’d been killed. Saving the family, simply making them later than they had planned to the mountain side, had done the trick. The mom, always so organized, would forget to bring the cold water she’d stored in the creek that ran by their home to keep it nice and chilled for them all. Storm loved it when it was something like this had been.
There were times when whole realities had to be altered. Generations needed to be moved ahead to save someone. Sometimes, it was to save a being or one of the descendants of a human who was needed in the future. Other times, it was to erase a horrific time in the lives of humans—mostly, it was natural disasters where many deaths occurred. Humans, for the most part, would change up their entire lives, nothing to do with the ones that had been killed because they were witnesses to something so horrific that they had seen. It was all in the timing, she knew.
Other times it was the consequences of the disaster that were too large and affected too many things when they rippled down through the ages and had to be removed. Something as simple as a house being crushed with their things inside. It could have been the witnessing of a family pet being killed. Any and all things that would alter everything, and it was up to them to repair the damage that had been done.
As Time Displacement Officers, they were there to ensure that the shifts were smooth no overlapping lines after the time frame was removed or fixed. Storm would watch an event, something that she’d fixed a thousand times to make sure that things were normal. However, gifted humans or small children saw the flaws. It was easily explained as déjà vu. Or a dream, too. Small children would complain to their mothers or fathers about how they’d done this before, only to be told that they were wrong. Poor little tykes. She would believe her children, should she ever find one, she knew that.
Storm was also there to capture another of their kind and bring him to justice. It was he who had moved the family to the mountain for the one to be killed. And he would have profited off of the disaster had she not been there when it unfolded. That neither was something that they could let happen. Everything you did, even from pulling a leaf off of a tree, would affect generations of families, she’d come to learn. And that was the very thing that the other being was doing.
His name was Grail. He had been altering reality to suit his own personal gain and to profit for a while now, but no one could catch him. She was determined to find and make him pay before he could cause any more trouble. Altering a timeline too often would lead to sloppy work and time twitches that people would notice. And that was something that she was afraid of more than anything that she’d encountered in the human world. Too many glitches would wake the residents of the world to question what was going on, and it would—nearly all the time make them question their sanity.
Profit and notoriety from their jobs, both of which were laws that carried the sentence of death if broken, was what he had been doing today. Storm shuddered at the thought of the death he would endure when they took him back to Chilast, their magical realm. Death would not come easily or quickly for one like Grail. He had to know that. So why was he doing this when he knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught?
They didn’t have the people to chase after him and keep the world and its people safe. As it was now, they were stretched to the limit. Working from sun up to sun down and all the between time too, it had been so long since she’d had a day off that she wanted to just lie down, pull some leaves over her, and get to sleep for about a thousand years.
Storm’s twin sister, Ember, had gone to Tokyo to study and gather names of their kind for the continuation of their race. So far, all she’d been able to find was the list of dead. All of the dragons that had come after her and a few others who had been killed were on that list. That wasn’t doing any of them a bit of good, and they all knew it. They were aging out, the lot of them and there wasn’t anything that they could do about it.
It didn’t bother their kind when they would wind time backward. It was the moving of time forward that would harm them. Time, it would add, even if it was only a click of a second to their age. And having to look at something over and over, forward and back, it might well add as many as ten minutes onto their long lives. After a while and all those adding up, a dragon would age quicker, worn down by time and effort, because without rest and some time off, they’d just fade away like all the other creatures in the world.
Storm had been sent to the Americas for her assignment to find and collect Grail before he could act on his plan. If they didn’t find him, and soon, all the work they’d kept up with would be useless. They’d all be dead, and there wasn’t anything that could be done about it after that.
But she had a feeling this time was different. They knew his plan, what he had needed and who to make himself in a new body to get away. It was what they had needed, what they were counting on to bring him to heel and to make all their lives safer without him in their worlds.
There was supposed to be a natural disaster, a large-scale shift in the earth’s interior make up that would cause the entire state of California to drift into the deep ocean and sink, killing all the inhabitants there. There were people there that he needed to complete the next phase of his power play against his own kind. She had been sent there to make sure that it didn’t happen and to bring Grail to the Laws of the Realm.
Those people, men, and women alike, were the pioneers of the future that Grail was manipulating. Their collective knowledge would be passed down to their children and then on to the next generation. They were brilliant and would revolutionize the world with Grail’s backing and help. And not in a good way that would only benefit themselves and no one else.
They, like Grail, were evil and only thought to gain untold riches and wealth from sources within the different timelines that he was supposed to care for. From future records, the Time Displacement Office – the TDO and the Elders of their kind, knew that he had taken this opportunity to steal them away along with all their equipment. In the aftermath of the devastating slide, everyone would assume they had been killed as well. After decades of exhaustive tracing and retracing the lines of time back, the TDO knew this was where he made his first move to bring his plan to fruition.
But the quake, the distraction as it was never to happen. At least not where it had happened in the history they had studied. It had happened the day before in Tokyo, where Ember was studying and gathering information. She worried for her, and when she couldn’t contact her, she just knew the worse had happened.
Storm had been trying to contact her sister for hours without luck. They were both immortals and could shift and fly away if danger was imminent, but with the suddenness of the quake in Tokyo and the horrific scale on which it had occurred, Storm feared her sister needed her and needed her now.
Storm felt the first touches of Ember as she exited the store. The feelings got stronger the more Storm concentrated on her sister’s touch to her mind. It was all she could do to keep an eye out as to where she was going and thinking about her sister at the same time.
“Are you all right? I’ve been trying to reach you for hours. What’s happened?” Storm said as soon as the link was snapped into place between them. Ember told her that she was fine, never better. “I’ve been so worried about you that I can barely breathe.”
“There are signs of him here. I have contacted several of our kind in the area, and they say that he stayed with them for one night two days ago. I can smell him and his poison here deep within the belly of the mountains where the records are kept.” Storm smiled at her greeting. Ember was never one to mince words when it came to their jobs.
“Did he hurt any of them? Ask them for their help?” It would be just like him to murder them all just to throw them off his scent. But, at least for now, he only killed when he could gain from it.
“No. He spoke to no one but the people who were kind enough to allow him to rest at their dwellings. They say that he had a satchel with him, but he didn’t seem to want to let anyone know what was in it. The Elders found a small thread, or we may not have known that he was even here. He’s either getting better at hiding from us, or we’re getting worse at our job, Storm.”
“It’s the same story here. He spent a night with the others here and then left. No one mentioned a satchel, though. He moved the place and altered the fabric where he had been. Ember, he didn’t take the people he had before. Somehow, he has modified the events of that night yet again.” Storm was suddenly terrified, and she was sure things were going to get worse before they caught up with him. “What do you suppose was in the sachet? I mean, is it important you think?”
“Moran, the one who was closest to him when he was here, said that it had photos in it. Some of them were old tin types, others digital, and one hologram. He thought they looked like me, but the eyes were the wrong color. I’m assuming that it must have been of you. Also, from what I could gather, there were images of the people in California. There…there was a picture of a man, as well. One that we’ve not encountered in all our searches as yet.”
“Photos? Maybe he’s using outside help trying to find these people. Makes sense that he would have pictures. He’d have to show them who to look for, right? No, he didn’t take anyone as far as I can tell. It’s…he’s changed everything again.”
There was a long pause, through their connection; Storm could feel her sister’s tension.
“What is it? Something has happened. Tell me.”
“The Elders, they called to me two days ago. They needed an extraction. I…they had me take a human away from a deadly shooting. I’ve no details yet, but he is to be guarded at all costs. I have him deep within the mountains with us. He is curious but not frightened. I think that is why there was a shift in the location of where the quake happened. I think we missed this man somehow, and we angered Grail by taking him. He was in one of the photos in Grail’s collection. Storm, this man, he was to die.”
“Who is he? Had he been taken by Grail before? Is he one of Grail’s minions?” She was more worried for her sister’s safety than ever before.
“No. He isn’t like that. His mind and body are pure. His spirit is clear. The shooting I took him from killed the others like him – men who uphold the law. I barely made it to him before the killings began in a house in New York. My wings were damaged slightly; I’ve been in a healing sleep until now.” Still, Storm could feel her hesitation.
“Tell me the rest, Ember.” She could have looked, she supposed, but in her current state, she knew that she’d hurt her sister. And she didn’t want to do that. Hurting her would hurt her as well. “Ember?”
“I’ve been…the others here, we’ve…I’ve formed a bond with one. I’ve found my mate, Storm. After all this time, I’ve found my mate, and I’m afraid. Not of him, no, but what this is going to mean for the two of us. They will curtail my work soon.”
Storm felt her heart stutter to a stop. Her mate, Ember, had found her mate. Storm moved to the outer wall of the store and leaned heavily against it. This would change everything. Ember could no longer help her with their job. As soon as Storm thought it, she felt horrible. Ember had found her mate. She should be rejoicing.
“Storm, please don’t be mad. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” She had hurt her anyway. The tone of Ember’s voice told her that.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m happy for you. It’s just a surprise, that’s all. I wish you nothing but happiness and good fortune. I love you.” Storm, stronger now because she had heard from Ember and knew that her sister was going to be all right, continued. “I’m going to contact the Elders and see what they want me to do now. You’ll be all right for now? You’re making sure that you’re all safe while you work?”
“Yes, I am fine. Thank you, Sister. I will be waiting for you in our cave. You let me know when you will be arriving, and I’ll be watching the sky for you.”
Storm hoped it would be that easy, but knowing the Elders as she did, she doubted it very much. They would want something from her, and she’d do it because Storm was loyal to a fault.
~~Devotion to the continued existence of life~~
~~Devotion to the supreme good~~
~~Pure condition of body and mind~~
It was against the Laws of the Realm to appear before the Elders in any other form than the one that you had been born to. She didn’t mind that so much as she loved being a dragon whenever she could. As soon as Storm arrived at the castle, she reached out to touch the magistrate to set up a meeting with the Elders and the Queen. She was both surprised and terrified that they had readily agreed to see her as soon as she had eaten and shifted.
Food was brought to her, and she enjoyed a large meal. As soon as she had finished, she knew that she needed to complete her mission and get back to her sister. Moving to the outdoor paddock just outside her suite of rooms, Storm began her shift.
She loved to be a human. Storm loved the soft textures of their skin, the feel of the hair upon the body. She also loved the way the fingers bent and was able to grasp things within them. The light feelings of simply walking would make her giddy with anticipation of stepping into the grass or sand with her bare feet. But to be her true self, there was nothing better.
Storm was a dragon, an Enneahedral Dragon—also known as a Ninefold Dragon. She was as rare as any being could be. Storm was the ninth daughter of nine daughters for nine generations. When she had been hatched, she had inherited all the elementals of the earth and the nine directives as well. Her powers were nine times that of her sister Ember—even though she’d only been seconds behind her in coming out of her shell and abilities that went beyond any other dragons.
With being the ninth in so many lines, Storm was to be Queen of their kind as soon as she found a mate worthy of her and her love. But she was in no hurry to find either. She was too busy to care for a lover and didn’t want one slowing her down either.
As soon as she stepped into the magical arena, she let her body respond to the pull of her Dragon. First her body elongated, her spine curving and pulling, stretching to accommodate the large bulk of her form. Then her feet, dainty and small as a human, they too stretched and great claws formed at the toes. The wings at her back began pulling away from her body and forming into a great expanse, wide and full. Flapping them once, she felt the blood surge through them, and then she pulled them tight against her body. Her face molded and formed into a massive head, teeth a foot in length and sharp as the talons at her feet filled her mouth full and lethal. The human skin along her arms became scales of great strength, able to protect her from any weapon, small or large. Her scales shimmered in the moonlight, catching and reflecting the gold and silver that blazed within each protective shell. By the time the shift was complete, Storm was a massive twenty-five feet tall, seventy feet wide with her wingspan, and weighed several tons of pure muscle and bone. She moved to the large door that went directly into the throne room and bowed before the other dragons gathered there, careful of every step that she took.
“Mistress Storm, thank you for coming to see us so quickly. We have much to discuss.” Storm dipped her head to hide her confusion. They had expected her?
“You must go to China. We need for you to bring back the man Alexander Walsh. It is imperative that he survives. He is vital to the future of our race, to all of us.”
“Pardon me, Sire, but my sister, Ember, she is—” Storm started to tell them what she was sure that they already knew but they cut her off.
“Ember is going to have a hatchling soon. She must stay hidden. If Grail finds her, he will destroy her and the babe. No, it is you who needs to go and bring him back to us. May we count on you to serve us well, Mistress Storm?”
“Of course.” Storm bowed before them and took a step back to leave the room. She was stopped by a slight cough from behind her.
“My lords, have you yet told the Mistress what is expected of her?” Storm startled. The being was small but in no means diminished in her stature. Standing before her was the strongest being any had ever known. Her mother, Queen of the Enneahedral Dragon clan, had swept into the room, her strength preceding her. “I will take it upon myself to do that now. You’re dismissed.” The people in the room disappeared at her command.
“Mother, you look well.” Storm never knew how to speak to her mother, Morning. She had always intimidated her. Now was no different. Her beauty was one of the reasons, the other was that her mother wasn’t really the affection sort of person. But then, neither was she.
“You look beautiful, child. I would like for you to shift and meet me in my private chamber. I should like to speak to you about this mission.” Nodding once, her mother smiled. “We’ll have a luncheon, you and I. And tea. I should like to speak to you about your other adventures, too, if you would allow it.”
Immediately, Storm’s body started its shift to human form. Within seconds, she was dressed similarly to her mother in a long silk robe with their crest blazing over their hearts. Storm nearly stepped back from her as Morning was standing very close. Surprisingly, Morning reached out and hugged her close to her.
The tightness of the hug had tears fill her eyes. It had been forever since her mother had hugged her, much less had hugged her first. Wrapping her arms around her mother, she heard her soft sob, and when she pulled away, her mother turned her back to her and started talking. As if nothing had happened.
“This man, Alex, you will bring him back to us safe. It’s important.” They were seated in the large room that her mother used when she came to the castle’s offices. “I know that your sister is there, but she is breeding now. Thank the gods, and it’s important to all of us that she be able to deliver her hatchling safely.” Her mom sat down so Storm did the same in an equally ornate chair.
It was not a question, but Storm answered her anyway. “Yes. You can trust me to keep him safe.”
“It’s not his safety that I worry about. It’s yours.” Morning shifted on her seat. Her unease was evident on her face and posture. “Alex is your mate. It is determined by the Elders that he will father the next line. His bloodline is strong and pure. He will provide you with love and companionship for the rest of your life and on into the next. You and he and the family you breed will be the ones to destroy evil. “
Storm looked sharply at her mother. No. No, this could not be happening. She did not want a mate chosen for her. She stood and began pacing the room.
“You’re angry. I don’t blame you, I would be—”
“Pardon me, but you don’t know me well enough to judge my anger. I will bring this man to you, but no one is choosing my mate.” She turned on her mother, not sure that this was a smart move on her part, but she was pissed. “Was Ember’s mate chosen for her as well? I’m sure that she’ll be thrilled to know that her life has been arranged for her.”
“No, her finding her mate was a surprise to us all. But this man, Alex, has been chosen as your mate since before he was born. And you will not use that tone with me, young lady. I am still your mother.” Storm took a deep breath and then sat down when her mother asked her to.
“I miss said what he was to you, Storm. No one chose him for you. It was written in the tomes of the future. You will mate with him and bring children into this world that will be needed. When I said chosen, I meant that it has been written.”
She stalked out of the room and into the courtyard again. This time, she shifted as she ran, her body forming and shaping as she went. By the time she had gone a hundred yards, she was launching herself into the sky and soaring across the night.
~~Enjoy great happiness~~
~~Maintain a fond hope for all kind~~
~~Uphold the reparation of magical energy requirements~~
Storm shifted to a human as she touched the ground. Her body threw off its form as if it were a heavy coat she no longer needed. She had landed close to the mouth of the cave where the man Alex was waiting.
Storm had contacted Ember when she left the Realm late last night. Telling her the events that had happened at the castle but she left out the part of “the man” being her mate. She did not plan on taking him as her mate, so she felt no reason to relay the news. Storm had also asked Ember to have the man waiting for her at the mouth of the cave. Storm did not want to take the time to go down and get him. The sooner she took him to the Elders and finished this assignment, the happier she would be.
“You’re to come with me. I’m to take you to the Chilast,” she said when she saw who she assumed was Alexander. She put out her hand to have him come with her.
“I don’t think so. Not until someone explains to me what is going on. One minute, I’m on a domestic violence call. The next, I’m being wrapped in wings and brought here. Wings—I’ve seen some weird shit as a cop, but wings are something I’ve never encountered before.” Alex sat hard onto the stone next to the wall. He looked stubborn and formidable. She was annoyed but impressed, too.
He was a very handsome man and taller than her by a good half a foot. His hair was dark, as dark as Storm’s, but where hers was curly, his was straight and hung just past his shoulders. The shirt he had on had been torn, so she had a delicious view of his hard abs and harder chest. It looked smooth, and her fingers itched to touch, not just his chest but his entire body. Storm decided that she did not like him and would not be his mate, no matter what anyone said about it.
“I don’t have time to explain, so get ready to go.” She could feel the attraction to him and she hated him all the more for it.
Before he could say anything else, the earth shook beneath them. Alex fell to the cave floor, and Storm was thrown to the wall, striking her head hard. While she fought the blackness trying to consume her, she threw a protective shell around Alex.
“Well, hello, Storm. You have something that belongs to me. I want him. Now!” Grail moved into the mouth opening of the cave, and Storm felt his power surge against the spell she had wrapped around Alex. It wouldn’t work, of course; she was much stronger than him but it would weaken her more in protecting the human.
Grail had been a gray Dragon in color when Storm had first met him, his color bleeding into his human form, giving his eyes and hair the same rich colors. Now, he was black as pitch. His eyes, once a soft, rich, pewter color, were now black with his dark magic and evil. He was tall, as were all their kind, but he was also heavy. His lack of physical activity did not keep him in the shape he should have been. Though his face, dusky in pallor, was gaunt and shallow. She wondered how he could fly, much less take flight.
“You can’t have him. I’m to take him back to the realm.” She opened her magic and pushed hard back.
Grail raised his hands, and power appeared in the form of a ball of electricity. The longer he held it, the bigger it grew. If he hit the protection, he would destroy it. Storm needed to get them to safety now.
Storm moved in a flash to stand in front of her assignment; she shifted partway, and her wings fluttered out from her back. She flapped them once and their powerful movement moved air strongly around the forest and knocked Grail to the ground as he stood in his fragile human form. Turning to Alex, she grabbed him up and ran to the lighted opening just beyond Grail. As she passed him, she felt a searing pain in her back but did not slow her pace. By the time she was in the open light, she was a full dragon, Alex tucked tightly in her talons. She soared high in the air just as Grail screamed at her to come back.
As a dragon, she could see all the areas where it would be safe for them to land. Her vision was perfect, and she could see the heat from any humans or animals below them, not wanting to land where anything could find them. Storm knew she was losing blood, but until she landed and got the man to safety, there was little to nothing she could do. She was getting weaker and knew that she would need to land soon or risk falling and crushing the man she was sent to protect.
Opening her mind, she hoped to be able to speak to the man. It was the way of their kind to be able to talk to their mates when there had been no bond at all between them. Unlike most species, she could have spoken to Alex since his birth had she known about him being what he was to her.
“Are you hurt? I should have asked sooner, but I wanted to get you out of harm’s way.”
“No. I’m fine. Your claws are digging into me, but I fear that if you lessen your grip, I feel I’ll fall to the earth—unless that is your plan? Tell me, Storm, do you plan to play toss the man into the air and see if you can catch him before he plummets to the earth. If so, could we not play today? I have a very busy schedule tomorrow, and if I’m crushed…well, it could put a crimp in things. No, I think a little pinching is preferable to death. I can smell your blood. How hurt are you?” She told him that she was, but she would heal when they landed. “If there is anything I can do to help you, please let me know. I’m pretty handy to have around.”
She smiled at his sense of humor. Storm had not expected that. He was being very calm for a man who was being flown well above the clouds by a huge blue dragon.
“I must land soon to sleep and heal. I know of a place where you’ll be safe until I can do both. No one will bother you there.” She told him with as much reassurance as she could. Weakness was pulling hard at her, and she did not think she could go much longer.
“So you plan to leave me? I hope you don’t expect me to sit around quietly waiting for your return. I may not know what is going on or why that other…what was he anyway?”
“He’s a dragon like me. And you will stay where I tell you. You are to live at all costs. I don’t have time to placate your feelings, human. I can easily say that you were eaten by Grail as not. Now be quiet.” Storm began her descent.
Pain racked her body, and she knew that the landing was going to be hard. Seconds before she hit the earth, she dropped Alex and tumbled over him, careful not to land on him. As much as he irritated her, she did not want to kill him.
Her body shifted as soon as she stopped rolling, shifting to the last shape she had taken, hiding her true identity from anyone who would come upon her injured body. It was there to provide their kind with surreptitiousness.
Storm sat up just long enough to ensure that Alex was all right, her body and mind already pulling her to sleep. The area where she had taken them was hers; it was safe and hidden well from everyone, including any of her kind. She saw Alex stand and stride toward her just as blackness pulled her under.
~*~