Hidden Dragons (24 page)

After a hesitation, it dipped its muzzle into the blood . . . and nearly fell in as it overbalanced. Shocked by this, it scrambled back sneezing. The gold dragon ran to it worriedly. The greenish dragon licked its red snout. This was a better surprise. Rick smiled as it creeled out the reptilian version of
yummy!
Within seconds, all the hatchlings were bellied over the plastic container slurping their breakfast.

“They’re pigs!” Cass exclaimed, a hint of pride in her tone.

They were. They ate the entire serving he’d supplied, nosed at the bowl for more, then curled up together to sleep off their gorging. They didn’t seem to mind that blood had spattered them all over.

“Well, that went all right,” he said, belated realizing he and Cass were holding hands. “Maybe later we’ll try some mashed liver.”

“Yum,” Cass said, pulling a face at him.

When she laid her head on his shoulder, the feeling that washed through him was singular. He couldn’t recall ever being so right with the world and his place in it.

~

The mashed liver wasn’t a go until the third day. By then, the dragons were as long as Rick’s hands—not including their whippy tails. Because they’d grown so much, Cass had been obliged to remove their protective cage. Free to roam, they darted around the cave too quickly for the cat to catch. They did seem to like playing chase with her, deliberately pausing close enough to be pounced on until Poly was lured in.

The intelligence this suggested impressed Rick. If they could outsmart the cat already, how smart were they going to get?

True to legend, they were hoarders. He caught the green dragon trying to steal a can opener heavier than it was, probably because it was shiny. The gold one amassed a stash of pyrite pebbles gathered from the lakeshore. The red one learned to breathe fire first, nearly setting Poly’s tail on fire in the process.

“No,” Cass scolded, immediately grabbing it by the scruff. “No burning up the cat.”

The little dragon let out a piteous wail, dangling dolefully from Cass’s hold. Cass petted it soothingly. “Yes, I love you,” she assured it. “And, yes, you’re clever to learn that trick, but not everyone is fireproof like you.”

As if it were ashamed, the red dragon hid its head underneath its tail.

Cass kissed it and set it down, where it ran off happily enough to rejoin its siblings.

“They’re smart,” Rick said, coming to her side.

“Very,” she agreed.

The dragons had found an old rabbit bone and were now playing three-way tug of war with it. Cass watched them indulgently. She glowed, he decided, her fae beauty taking on a Madonna-esque loveliness. She seemed to have forgotten her initial nervousness about taking care of them. Ironically, her lack of concern spurred Rick’s anxiety. Their exotic brood was growing fast, but maybe not fast enough. Whoever was searching for them wouldn’t have given up.

“They need names,” Cass said.

Rick had a feeling they needed way more than that.

~

Cass was basking. She’d wrapped herself in one of the bedrolls and rested her back on a tree trunk. Though the lakeside was nippy, sunbeams angled through the tall forest. The dragons—her dragons—were safe and accounted for. Rick had identified the boys from the girls. Verdi, as she was calling the green dragon, was perched on her right shoulder. He was the most vocal of her babies and the most operatic in temperament. Belly plump from breakfast, his warm weight leaned against her ear while his tail curled behind her neck for balance. Auric and Scarlet, the second boy and the only girl, watched their reflections shimmer from the lake’s edge. Poly the cat had claimed Cass’s lap, not about to give up her seniority.

Cass stroked her furry head and shoulders, so relaxed she almost could have been asleep.

She was semi-aware that her unwavering tranquility wasn’t normal. No one felt this wonderful morning, noon, and night—even with a lover as amazing as Rick around. For once in her life, she experienced no particular need to do anything.

She simply wanted to be with her babies.

As if they sensed her thinking about them, Scarlet and Auric glanced back at her. Their red mouths gaped in what she’d come to think of as dragon smiles. Their silvery eyes seemed to radiate love to her. When they looked at her like that, she could believe she was the best mother in the world, and they were the best babies. Her dragons might squabble and play-fight, but they were never mean—not even to Poly, who they teased quite a lot. The cat forgave them their antics, letting them snuggle up with her for naps. This wasn’t simply because the baby dragons were extra warm. The older cat seemed to have appointed herself their honorary aunt.

“Nice Poly,” Cass murmured, scratching her purring throat beneath her collar.

A high-pitched cheep drew her attention to Auric. The gold dragon had been acting interested in swimming, but each time he dipped his toes in the water, its autumn chill discouraged him.

“All right,” Cass surrendered, setting Poly on the ground so she could rise. Verdi clung to her hair with both paws. He jumped down to join his siblings as soon as she knelt on the pebbly bank. All three dragons looked up at her, a rapt and curious audience.

Cass noticed with a start that they were half as big as the cat now. She’d lost track of time. Was it really just a week since they’d been born?

“If I do this,” she said, “you have to promise you stinky little piggies will take a bath.”

Verdi chittered at her and bobbed his head. Whatever he was expressing sounded affirmative.

Cass smiled, closed her eyes, and held her palms a few inches above the surface of the water. Wherever in the world she went, the earth possessed the same resonance. If she matched her frequency to it, energy would naturally flow to her. When she lived Outside, this had been a challenge. Here, magic was easier to channel than anywhere in the Pocket. Cass drew it up from the planet’s seemingly endless reservoir. Letting her fae half stretch without worrying was nice. Her body hummed as the current entered her. Before the sensation could grow uncomfortable, she sent it into the lake with a whispered direction.

She knew she’d been successful when she saw wisps of steam rising.

Auric dipped his paw in the water and made a happy sound. Never shy, Scarlet slipped into the heated wavelets before he could. Auric had to flounder after her in a hurry or lose his bragging rights. Not to be outdone, Verdi jumped so far from the bank that he went under. He rose spluttering and flapping his wings, a game his siblings couldn’t resist joining. As they churned up the surface, Scarlet snorted tiny fireballs at everyone, a trick her brothers couldn’t yet imitate. This led to squawking, splashing chases to the edge of the area Cass had warmed up.

“Looks fun,” Rick said, coming up behind her. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

She rose, their arms winding naturally around each other’s waists. “I only heated this corner. I couldn’t do the whole lake.”

Rick kissed her hair and hugged her, watching the dragons play. He’d been patrolling the woods. His relaxed body language told her he’d found nothing alarming. He let out a contented sigh. “Too bad we can’t stay here forever.”

His words surprised her. Cass felt this way herself but didn’t expect him to. She studied his handsome face, which was unusually calm. He’d said he loved her, but wasn’t he itching to get back to work? She couldn’t remember the last time he’d fidgeted over his cell phone, wondering if he should call his pack. A week was a long time to be out of touch. Didn’t he long to put some plan into action to defeat their enemies?

She guessed he didn’t. When he felt her gaze on him, he simply looked at her and smiled.

Verdi burst out of the water, half hopping and half flying with his wings flapping crazily. None of the dragons had flown for real, but she could tell they were getting close. Verdi landed at Rick’s feet and chattered a loud greeting.

Rick squatted in front of him and laughed.

“Hey, Verdi,” he said, giving his scaly head a knuckle rub. “I saw how good you were at swimming.”

The others crowded up to get their share of Rick’s attention. Knowing what they liked, he stroked Auric’s wings and scritched Scarlet along the sides of her sharp dorsal spikes. As always, Cass loved seeing the affection between them. Different from always was the cold shadow that brushed her awareness.

Her dragons were small and cute, but they also were magical—maybe more magical than she or Rick had any defense against. Were they responsible for her surge of maternal bliss? And if they were, had the effect spread to Rick? Could they be drawing him and her closer to increase their chances of survival? Babies did do better with two parents.

Understanding the possibility but not liking it, she shivered and bit her thumb.

~

“Where are my clean socks?” Rick asked. “I spread them on the boulder by the fire to dry.”

Cass was washing up after dinner, part magically and part with warmed up water from the lake. Rick had caught and roasted a young wild pig—an event that stirred considerable excitement. Evidently, dragons were mad for pork. They’d eaten so much their smooth scaly stomachs bulged. Only Auric wasn’t sleeping off the feast. Rick held him in the crook of his right forearm, where the dragon was engaged in one of his favorite activities: trying to pull apart Rick’s shiny electrum gauntlet. Thus far he hadn’t succeeded, but he didn’t tire of gnawing it with his new teeth or poking at its plates with his claws.

Socks
, Cass reminded herself, distracted from Rick’s question by her affection for their gold dragon boy.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking around the firelit cave that had become their home. “Maybe—”

Her gaze fell on Verdi. He’d been sleeping in a pile on the bedroll with Scarlet and Poly but lifted his head when he heard voices. He froze in a manner that struck her as suspicious. Mouth agape, he widened his eyes as if trying to look innocent.

“Ah,” she said. “Try the stash the dragons stuck in their tunnel. They might have decided they wanted something that smelled like you.”

Rick shifted Auric to his shoulder and went to check. “I washed those socks,” he objected. “They’re not smelly.”

The dragons’ tunnel was one of two craggy slits in the cave’s back wall, about five feet off the ground. The hole was large enough for the youngsters but not people. Muttering about little hoarders, Rick reached in his left arm.

“The flashlight!” he exclaimed, coming out with it. He stuck in his arm again. “And here’s the rest of the chocolate bar. They didn’t eat it. They must have been attracted to the foil. Don’t ask me how they unzipped the duffel.” Auric chittered in protest as Rick removed more items. “Rocks. Rabbit bones. Hm. This might have been a bird they or Poly caught. And my socks!”

He brought them out triumphantly. Something fell out as he slapped off the fresh dirt they’d collected. The object was small and shiny. It clinked to the floor and bounced.

“That’s Poly’s collar bell.” Cass strode over to retrieve it. Auric tried to get there first, but Rick had a good hold on him.

“You little thieves,” she said, closing her hand around it. Auric flapped his wings and cheeped grumpily.

“They
could
keep the bell,” Rick said, petting him. “We’re not squeamish like your gran. If Poly wants to hunt birds out here, they don’t necessarily need to hear her coming.”

Cass supposed this was true. She began to uncurl her fingers but realized her palm was tingling.

She looked at Auric. His now eight-inch tail lashed back and forth on Rick’s chest, expressing his disapproval over them confiscating the brood’s treasures. She read no other motivation behind his silver eyes, but—really—how would she know what he was thinking?

“What?” Rick asked, seeing something in her face.

“There’s a spell on this bell,” she said.

He laughed at her rhyme, then stopped. Cass wasn’t trying to be funny. “They couldn’t have put it there, could they?”

By
they
, he meant the dragons. “I don’t think so. I think . . .” She paused to consider. “I think the spell has been there all along. I think I’m noticing it now because I’m more open to magic here.”

“Is it another spy spell?” Rick was whispering. “Like the fake Maycee portrait those goblins were trying to hang?”

Him mentioning this event reminded her how long it had been since either of them had thought about anything unpleasant. They’d been here . . . could it be ten days now? They’d been living in a dream, a dream spun—deliberately or not—by three young magical creatures.

Not sure how to handle the knowledge, Cass cupped both hands around the enchanted bell. Ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach, she blew out her breath and told herself to relax. As she did, an image came to her of her father’s final visit to the penthouse, of him petting Poly into a feline stupor. Hadn’t she noticed the bell soon after? Her father had led a dangerous pursuit away from them, risking his immortal life to do so. Would he truly leave himself with no means of checking in on the parties he was trying to protect?

“I think it is a surveillance device,” she said. “But I don’t think it was planted by the bad faeries.”

“Your dad,” Rick deduced, still speaking in an undertone.

Cass’s hand tightened on the bell. “I can track him. If he laid this enchantment, I can discover where he is.”

“Should we?” Rick asked. Auric was rubbing his head against Rick’s temple, as if the dragon were seeking comfort or trying to give it. Cass wished she could see the gesture as one of mere sweetness.

“Rick,” she said. “You’re a cop. Don’t you think it’s strange you’re considering
not
following this lead?”

“Uh.” He looked at Auric, and at the bell, and then his gaze returned to her. “Oh boy,” he murmured, and she knew he’d understood.

He didn’t object when she coaxed Auric off his shoulder to perch on her forearm. Stashing the bell in her pocket, she carried him to the bedroll where the others were sleeping. She tucked him among them.

“Stay,” she said, petting his golden head until his eyes closed. She repeated the order to Verdi. A few more strokes closed his eyes as well.