Chapter 10

Character appearing in this chapter:

Christian Pennson

Young, rash Ley Line Wizard, 5’-9’’ tall, 170 pounds, 25 years old, light brown hair, dark eyes

I had just turned to the four men there, when there was a huge flash of Magic as something appeared inside my wards. It startled Al and me as well as the four men. What had appeared was a huge black dog. It looked like a Rottweiler on steroids but was uglier. It stood at least four feet tall at the shoulders, had a rather blunt flat face and large jaws lined with long wicked looking teeth. Its fur was a little kinky, but it laid flat on its massive, muscular body. It growled at me in a deep voice.

Immediately, I snatched Mandara from Its scabbard. No words needed to be spoken, as It shot me up to forty-feet-tall in my Dragon form. Al had also changed into his Cougar form.

“It’s a Hellhound,” he shouted to me but was careful to stay behind me. However, it was immediately apparent that forty-feet-tall was too large to effectively fight the Hellhound, and I shrank down to twenty-five-feet-tall. Mandara still had an eight foot blade length at this height.

While I was changing sizes, the Hellhound lost no time and charged toward me. It had appeared near the spot where I had been standing before moving forward to address the Witches. Otherwise, it would have appeared quite close to me. Maybe even close enough to have been able to reach me before I could change into my Dragon form.

It charged in, but became very wary when Mandara reached out for it. It snarled at the Sword before breathing fire at me. Fortunately, Dragons are fireproof, and Mandara simply rose above the flames. This close, I could detect the smell of brimstone coming from the creature.

Since its flames hadn’t affected me, it started circling me, looking for an opening. I, in turn, moved to keep Mandara in front of it. It was very quick and could move faster than I could. In the meantime, Al was trying to stay behind me and out of the way of my tail.

It changed directions several times while I tried to follow it. It kept gaining on me, but I still managed to keep Mandara close enough to it, that it didn’t dare get any closer. It tried fire and flames again while switching directions, but that didn’t work either. This continued for a short time with no better results.

I had by now recognized a pattern to its movements. It then made a quick move to the left, expecting me to follow. Instead, I remained where I was, while it snapped back to the right expecting me to have already begun to move. It then rushed in and was met by Mandara, which eagerly leaped forward to pierce its body and drain its Spirit, life, and all of its Magic. Shortly there was nothing left but a black lifeless puddle of goo on the grass.

I leaned forward slightly to see it better and breathed Dragon Fire on it to totally burn it away. I now turned back to consider the four men. While they had been frozen in place, they had seen what had occurred. They were now staring at me in shock and horror. I looked at them and smiled.

“I’m going to cancel the freeze spell on you. If any of you so much as twitch, I’ll turn you into a human torch. If you fail to answer my questions truthfully, I’ll send my kitty to play with you,” I told them, as Al moved forward in his Cougar form. They all blanched as I removed the freeze spell.

“Who sent you here?” I demanded in my loud Dragon voice, as smoke drifted from my nostrils.

“It ... it was Chris Pennson, the Wizard,” answered the one in the front ... obviously the leader.

“What are these ... things?” I demanded. Even though my voice didn’t have the power out here that it had in the stone halls of the Demons, it still shook them.

“They are RPGs – rocket propelled grenades. They are used to stop tanks,” he answered after a time in a more sure voice.

“Drop all of your weapons on the ground and leave them there,” I told them next.

“And all of your money,” Al added from beside me.

“Yes, ALL of your money. You must have been paid handsomely to do this,” I agreed. A number of weapons fell to the ground in addition to the rocket launchers and their rockets. There was also a lot of cash that was dropped.

“When I release you, I would advise you to move away from Atlanta. I’m sure your employer will be extremely disappointed when he learns of your failure,” I told them and smiled ... at least as much as a Dragon can.

“Get out of here and don’t ever let me see any of you again,” I told them, and they all ran off as fast as they could. Mandara didn’t seem disappointed.

“They wouldn’t have been very tasty,” It told me mentally. “That Hellhound, on the other hand, was a five-course meal,” It bragged, as I returned it to Its scabbard. The elevator ride down was fairly slow this time. Al had also returned to his normal house cat form.

“Thanks for the reminder about the money, Al,” I told him, as I lowered the property ward and moved forward to start collecting the money. There was enough of it that I needed something to put it all in. Al dragged over a canvas bag that the rockets had been in. It was a bit over-sized, but available, and I stuffed the money in it. It could be counted later where there was more light.

“What are you going to do with the rest?” Al asked when I had picked up all of the money.

“I could incinerate them, and that was my first thought, but it would cause a large explosion, which we don’t need. Next, I considered moving them to one of the small lakes near here, but some of the weapons are too large for that. There is the big lake up north of here and it’s deep enough, but I haven’t been there in a long time. Perhaps, the Timeless Zone would be best until we can visit the big lake,” I told Al before casting the spell to send all of the weapons to the Timeless Zone for safe keeping.

Following that, we returned to my property, and I restored the property wards that I had lowered before we returned to the house. It was late already, and the clouds had returned as we moved back to the house.

“It’s time for bed,” I told Al, once in the kitchen with all of the wards checked. The Books had also returned, I noticed in passing.

“You aren’t going to count the money first?” Al asked.

“Do you think it will run away?” I asked. “It will still be here in the morning,” I assured him.

“I need to eat again. Being a Cougar takes a lot of energy,” he told me, returning to his normal self. This also reminded me that I was hungry too. We had some quick-to-make things in the cupboard, and I made a big pot of them. It was a rice and seasoning mix. I added some frozen vegetables and some canned chicken plus the juice from the can, some chopped onion, and other seasoning in addition to the remainder of the required water. It was soon ready, and I was surprised that Al and I ate the entire pot full in no time.

I slept very well that night with no thoughts of Kennith. I had already decided that I would deal with the two Wizards who had sent those people here tomorrow. I would also need to learn who sent the Hellhound. It had to be someone seriously powerful, as those creatures were worse than the Druj and the Major Demons. It seemed that my enemies were sending more and more powerful opponents against me, but they hadn’t revealed themselves yet. Since all of this had been decided while we ate, my sleep was uninterrupted that night.

Awakening well rested in the morning, I soon moved downstairs to make breakfast for Al and me. I had some research to do this morning, but after we had counted the money. I was sure that would be the first thing on Al’s mind after eating. In fact, it was, and we soon had the bag empty on the kitchen floor. I began by collecting the large bills into stacks of five hundred dollars before combining them into larger stacks. There was something over six thousand dollars in large bills plus a number of smaller denomination bills for another two hundred and twenty dollars.

“Well, this should keep us for a time,” I told Al on finishing and putting the money away.

“Yes, if we live that long. You need to finish those books so you can defend us against the other and older Dragons. I did some thinking last night while you were asleep. The only thing I could think of that was powerful enough to do what has occurred lately is a Dragon or Dragons. We don’t know how many of them there still are,” Al told me in a slightly panicked voice.

“Why would they do that?” I asked. “Aren’t they trying to create female Dragons? Isn’t that what the breeding program that the Guardian told me about is for?” I asked.

“What breeding program?” Al asked, and I needed to explain what the Guardian had told me a couple of nights ago.

“That’s interesting, but maybe not all of the remaining Dragons are in agreement with the program,” Al told me before going over to one of his favorite spots for his morning nap.

I still had research to do on Samuel Barrett and Chris Pennson. It required a good bit of time on the computer that day doing research on them and some of the other major Ley Line users in this area and across the country. Later there was more studying on Book 5 that I needed to do.

While Maddy was doing her research, Samuel Barrett was arriving at David De Tocqueville’s apartment. He was more than a little upset.

“David, I need your help. I’ve made a major mistake,” he told him on being admitted.

“What kind of mistake? What would get you so upset?” David asked on seeing how agitated he was.

“I was tired of all of the problems that we have had because of that Kavanagh Witch. She seemed to be the root of all of our recent problems. While she was gone, I had several meetings with a powerful local Witch Coven. They were also upset with her behavior. For a substantial payment, they agreed to break through her wards and rid us of her presence.

“While I was negotiating with them, a friend made me aware that Chris Pennson, that brash young Wizard, was also working on a plan to crash her wards so he could eliminate her. I met with him the other day and we combined forces. His people would fire powerful explosive rockets at the wards while the Witch Coven weakened them. His people would also cover the Witches when they went in to eliminate her. That way neither of us would be involved in the actual operation.

“Last night, they went out there to eliminate her. I didn’t hear from the Witches until this morning, although they were supposed to call me when they had finished. They called me from somewhere in North Carolina, and told me that they quit, and I could keep the money. Pennson hasn’t heard from his men yet,” Barrett finished.

“He probably won’t ever hear from them,” David told him before turning angry at his own inability to do anything against her.

“You idiot, she is a Dragon. A forty-foot-tall or so Dragon,” he lashed out at Barrett. “If the Witches are still alive, they are very fortunate. I had a high-tech camera system watching her property while she was gone. With it, I got video of her returning as a Dragon.

“The next day, I went out there to blackmail her with it. She turned the tables on me by changing into a forty-foot-tall Dragon with a Magic Sword. I did some research on the Sword later. It’s called ‘the Spirit Eater’. She threatened to turn it loose after me, if I didn’t do what she wanted, which is to spy on our meetings and report what is said and done during them.

“I still needed to know what had happened in the Demon-lands and tried to summon a Demon with no luck,” I told him.

“No one has had any luck summoning Demons since she returned,” Barrett told me in agreement.

“I too did something very foolish then,” David admitted. “I summoned a Major Demon.”

“And you called me a fool?” Barrett demanded in an angry voice.

“I actually got one to answer my summons. He was very upset, but told me what had happened while she was there. He even called me a fool for wanting one of them to keep watch on her. It seems that she killed a Druj, three Black Magic Witches, and one of the gang bosses while there to retrieve her Familiar. She also used Power Words and breathed Dragon Fire. Her Sword, the Spirit Eater, did some of the killing. We have a real problem on our hands,” I finished in a dejected voice.

“When were you going to tell the rest of us that she is a Dragon?” Barrett demanded in an upset voice.

“When I thought it necessary,” David told him in an outraged voice. “I had already suggested that she was one, but I had no proof until she returned. Now if I say anything, that damned Sword will come after me. It’s a Magic Sword and the references that I could find on it said that it could indeed track down one it was sent to kill,” David told him in a scared voice. Barrett just shuddered on hearing that.