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Tuesday, April 28, 2167

The Fringe

Dragon Heights, Wyoming

The darkness deepenedbut before the night finished falling, I limped to where the red and blue lights of cop cars strobed through the trees. Dragons swooped, and several breathed fire at the silvery forms they chased. I could only assume my mother numbered among the dragons breathing lethal flame overhead.

A dark, taloned hand closed over my head, the sharp tips piercing the ground around me. I gasped from fright, stumbled, and bumped into the scaly palm of an ancient dragon. My calf picked that moment to give out, and I landed on the ground in a heap. Something about my perspective changed, my vision sharpening and expanding to take in more of the shadowy figure caging me.

I recognized the low, throaty chuckle. I meant to open my mouth to berate my father for scaring at least a decade off me, but rather than a curse-punctuated rant, I squeaked and squealed. The loss of speech stunned me, but the fact I had a long snout, which protruded into my field of vision far more than my human nose had, confirmed one thing: my mother had been right.

Perhaps I had maintained my courage in the sights of a crazed woman, but my father had scared me straight into sprouting scales.

“Be still, little hatchling,” my father rumbled, and he lifted his paw. With a careful application of claw tips, he peeled away the shredded ruins of my shirt, which hadn’t survived my transformation. “They will pay for what they have done.” After plucking away more ruined fabric, he located my derringer, lifting it up. “John?”

A yellow dragon, not quite a match for my father in size, ambled through the trees. Long horns curved back along his scaled skull, and a membrane divided by pointed spines formed a crest between his mobile ears, which pricked forward much like a horse’s. “Perhaps I should bring the other hatchling over, then you can watch them both. Mine’s fussing.”

My father chuckled, low and deep. He lowered his head and bumped me with the top of his nose, working his way under my chin, lifting my head. “Her clothes reek of blood and some chemical.”

Erik’s father drew closer, and I held my ground, although I needed to fight the urge to back away and hide under my father’s belly. “I recognize it. It’s a sedative strong enough to knock the sense and will out of human women. It’s been long enough only some remnants would remain. It also serves as a painkiller. Did you find her shifted?”

“I startled her into it, but she had wandered right by me without noticing. I thought it fair play to remind her to pay more attention. However, the volume of blood on her clothes is concerning.”

“I’ll call in for the hospital to be ready in case she needs a transfusion. Let me fetch my hatchling, then you can keep them both contained while the women bring those mercury bastards down. They won’t take long about it once I tell them your hatchling is in your capable claws.” With a swipe of his paw, Erik’s father gathered up my shredded clothing and bounded off, his wings tucked close to his back. My father nudged at me until I shuffled away from him. I meant to give him a few feet of space, but I tripped, went down with a squeal, and sprawled. As words evaded me, I made whining noises while staring up at him.

With zero regard for my inability to make my legs do what I wanted, he shoved his nose under my belly and pushed me out of the way before settling on the ground. Once he positioned me within his front paws, he went to work cleaning off my scales with his tongue.

I voiced my complaints with a whine, which did nothing to deter my father.

“Oh, stop your complaining. Erik sprouted scales when he learned you’d been kidnapped. Let’s just say he was ready to start beating mercury dragons for their involvement. Fortunately for the mercury dragons, newly shifted hatchlings are like toddlers. He got distracted with trying to walk without falling over, and at that point, your mother and I had dispatched several mercury dragons, leaving him no one to attempt to fell. He is much too small to succeed at such things. Given an hour, you’ll be waddling around and looking for trouble to get into. Given a few days, you’ll figure out how to talk. Like you, he’s a tiny hatchling. Expect him to get cuddly once he figures out who you are. The yellows need a lot of attention.”

The old yellow dragon returned, and he carried a hatchling in his mouth with a long tail, gangly legs, and stubby wings. Erik squealed protests and batted ineffectively at his father’s tooth-filled maw. Rather than lower his son to the ground, he spit, dumping Erik nearby. My father huffed, stretched out his neck, and pulled Erik close. “Keep her warm, little hatchling. You have more than a few hours on her, so she hasn’t figured out how to use her legs yet.”

Erik squealed and bounded over, moving more like a ferret than a dignified dragon. He collided with me, draped his neck over mine, and brought his head around to nuzzle at my chin. He pressed close while I struggled to make use of my legs and stand my ground. Within a few moments, between his enthusiasm and my inability to make sense of my new form, we became a tangled mess of legs and stubby wings.

Making low purring sounds, Erik settled beside me, and he wound his tail around mine.

My father nudged us both with his nose, and then he licked our muzzles. “I will keep an eye on them, John. As we do not need to peel information out of those mercury dragons, you can help bring them down.”

Erik’s father grunted, eased away, and lunged skyward, his wings tearing through a few of the looming branches overhead, showering us with twigs, leaves, and a few larger chunks of wood. My father pulled a wing forward to deflect debris, snorting his disgust. “How clumsy.”

Erik lifted his head and whistled at my father.

“Yes, she was hurt, but she should be fine. I’ll give her an hour or two to get used to her new form, then I’ll help her shift back to human so we can get a better look at her injuries. With luck, she’ll heal a little from changing shapes.” My father eyed us before turning his attention skyward. “Kinsley, Garnet and Tourmaline are fine. Chester and several of Erik’s sisters are watching them, as they were banned from participating in the hunt. They’re too young. Hatchlings can’t fly, and the recently fledged are rather useless at it. This lot picked the wrong families to target. While some of them are old enough to have increased mass, none of them can breathe their element. I’d say they’ve committed suicide, but your mother is in the mood to take prisoners. Singed and barely breathing prisoners, but prisoners all the same. Immediate incineration lacks satisfaction for her.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that my mother might want to draw out toying with her prey. However, after having seen the nightmare lurking within the mansion basement, I held no sympathy for them.

Justice would be brutal, and it wouldn’t be swift. While normally a fan of mercy, granting mercy to the merciless lacked appeal this time.

As neither Erik nor my father would be permitting me to wander off, I decided there was only one thing to do. A nap would improve my evening, and with a little luck, I’d miss the worst of the drama.

* * *

Wednesday, April 29, 2167

The Sapphire Ward

Dragon Heights, Wyoming

I neededto stop waking up in unexpected and unknown locations. That I’d returned to my human form counted as a good thing; I liked being able to talk. However, I disliked being in a hospital room. It reminded me of the mercury lab although the hospital boasted an assortment of equipment, an IV stand, and a rather bemused Erik, who sat beside me.

I meant to ask him where we were, but a long yawn emerged instead.

He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Outside of my family and yours, nobody knows we have changed our status. After you passed out, your dad handled getting you shifted back to human, and he lost his temper when he saw the injuries. I got under foot, so my mother hauled me off by my tail and made me shift back to human, too.”

His conspiratorial whisper amused me. “And Garnet and Tourmaline?”

“Your mom has them. They visited during regular hours, and my status as a cop is why I’m still in the room. I abused my badge. I threatened to have a temper tantrum, and my dad opted to look the other way if I could convince the nurses to let me stay. Visiting hours are soon. It’s six in the morning, and they don’t let most people in until eight.”

“Did you destroy your clothes, too?”

“I sure did. Mom flew to my place and got clothes, and your mom handled bringing you some. Anyway, you got hit with a nasty sedative along with suffering from blood loss, which is why you passed out. You got an adrenaline hit to escape, but once that wore off, you took a nap. You got treated by a pair of purples. Those shoddy stitches were removed. Apparently, the purples are terrified of my mom more than your mom, so you’ll be escaping without scars, although the odds of scarring were pretty low to begin with. Fortunately, you didn’t need a transfusion, but you’ll need to take it easy for a few days.” Erik’s smuggest expression made an appearance. “I’ll be helping you with that.”

When presented with a self-satisfied Erik confident in getting what he wanted, I had a choice to make. I could either go with his flow or put up a fight, exhaust myself, and end up giving the man what he wanted in the first place.

Any other time, I would have put up the fight to enjoy his reactions. However, his commentary about his mother overrode my urge to be difficult.

They were scared of his mom? I struggled to think of a single reason why anyone would be afraid of his mom.

Angels had nothing on the woman from what I’d seen at his family’s dinner.

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out a single reason for their fear. Finally, at a complete loss, I asked, “They’re scared of your mom?”

“I was with my mother when we received word you’d been kidnapped. I’d just gotten off work, and I was gassing up the Bentley so I could take you on a drive in her. Mom saved my gas, thankfully, but I got so agitated I popped a full set of scales and dropped the can. Mom called Dad, and once Dad arrived to keep an eye on me, she went to find your parents, who were chasing a flock of mercury dragons across Dragon Heights. Your kidnapper had gotten away long enough to dump you somewhere, but my mom got a hold of him when he came back to join the fight. He was the sole casualty. She tore him apart in the air, threw body parts halfway across Death Mile, and was crimson by the time she got back on the ground. She used what was left of his carcass as a landing pad.”

I grimaced at the mental thought of it raining organs, blood, scales, and bone. “And she didn’t get arrested for murder?”

“In Dragon Heights, any dragon who kidnaps someone off the streets and inflicts injury may be dispatched as the family members of the victim see fit. My mom declared that you’re going to be her baby daughter-in-law in front of a black dragon, who verified she spoke the truth. There’s a ton of evidence of guilt; the gun shop has exterior cameras and caught the whole thing on tape. My brothers got the warrant to search the nearby mercury properties, and you’re going to get your first official contract with the police force to help investigate the victims.”

Well, at least the bodies had been found. However, I hadn’t thought I’d been involved with the case beyond being a victim and a witness to the carnage. “That breaks every personal involvement rule I can think of, Erik.”

“There’s nobody in law enforcement who isn’t somehow involved with this case here. Hell, this case involves dragons, period. Every clan somehow deals with the mercury dragons—or they are involved with the victims. The black dragons have offered to handle truth verifications. Dad’s already confirmed there’s no way we can do this case without personal involvement, so we’re going to deal with the personal involvement to the best of our ability. There are so many bodies and information to go through in that place we need all the help we can get—and it gives you a good source of income for at least a few months while you work on testing in.” Erik raised a brow at me and waited.

Knowing him, he challenged me to put up a fuss about having meaningful work I could do in my sleep. “I’ll get to work with the financials?”

“That’s what the Fringe’s chief wants; Dad had your work history pulled out of Miami, redacted your name and identifying information, and suggested he contract you in despite your personal involvement. You live and breathe this sort of thing, and Dragon Heights just doesn’t have the resources to take on such a complicated case without outside help. As you had nothing to do with the victims, as far as we can tell, your motivation to be involved doesn’t cross over with the job you need to do. They’ll keep you out of everything involving your kidnapping, but helping to figure out who the victims are so they can get justice? That’s safe enough for you to work on.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“We both had to be registered as hatchlings, and the hospital did a blood draw to confirm your draconic heritage. You’ve been deemed an accidental pilgrimage, and your parents are taking the blame. Your mother has been preening over it. She’s covering her preening through being disgustingly haughty over the whole thing. Of course you became a dragon, Kinsley. Only a dragon is worthy of having a carbunclo and a true creation. It’s not her fault that nobody else recognized your magnificence. I give it a day or two before people realize that you’re a chip off your father’s block—a prettier, leaner chip.”

“What color did I end up being?”

Erik’s smile was full of secrets. “I’m not going to tell you.”

“Why not? Erik!”

“I want to see your reaction when you discover your color on your own.”

Erik loved his games, and I couldn’t find any fault with the one he wanted to play. While curious, I would survive until I figured out how to shift forms on my own and could make use of a mirror. “All right. I recognize when you aren’t going to cooperate with me. I don’t suppose someone told you when I can escape this joint?”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to go through some tests later to make certain the drugs have cleared your system. After that, they’ll probably set you loose. Neither of your wounds were deep, but the one on your side bled a lot. When you are set free, I’ll be taking you home with me.”

I raised a brow. “I’m going to ruin your reputation.”

“Oh, yes. Being enamored with a strong, independent woman who rescued herself from a kidnapping as soon as able is going to do my reputation such harm. I will never recover. I’m a yellow, Kinsley. Yellows don’t know when to quit.”

That much I could believe. “It’s your fault if you end up eating a bunch of bad fast food.”

“That is a risk I’m willing to accept. Speaking of which, how does bad fast food sound on the way home?”

“Only if they serve some form of potato. I have a carbunclo to feed. And so help me, if those mercury dragons have harmed a single tuft of her fur, I will paint this entire city with their blood.”

“Spoken like a true dragon.”