Chapter 7

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Felipe

Romero’s chief lieutenant, 5’-8’’ tall, 156 pounds, 34 years old, black hair, brown eyes

Rosetta

Rafael and Romero’s sister, head of the Tampa area Cartel, Black Magic Witch, 5’-6’’ tall, 138 pounds, 36C-25-36, about 40 years old, long black hair, brown eyes

Miami wasn’t quite as quiet as the police believed. True many, even most, of the gangsters, crooks and hoodlums had gone into hiding because of the twin’s actions against the Drug Cartel and the sex slavers, but there were still a number of those connected to the Cartel who were not in hiding. One of those was a man named Felipe. He had been Romero’s chief lieutenant, but actually worked for the brothers’ sister, Rosetta.

He had spent the day following the fires stealthily checking the areas affected by them, especially the hotel and the building where the brothers had their apartments and where many of their men stayed. Lastly, there was the club where they had obtained many of their females. The club was the least approachable because of the major fires surrounding it.

He checked the apartment building first, but there was little to see as the Dragon Fire had consumed everything that would burn in addition to affecting things not usually burnable like concrete, steel, and brick. Other things that hadn’t burned had melted, like glass and some steel. There were some badly burned bones that remained, but no whole skeletons or even bodies. The building was also dangerous as its very structure had been weakened by the fire and the water used to extinguish it.

The hotel was just as big a disaster, as the Dragon Fire had done the same kinds of damage there as it had to the apartment building. There was nothing left of the drugs, money, or other things that had been kept in the rear of the first or ground floor of the building. There were only a few bones of Romero left. They crumbled to dust when he tried to collect them, just as Rafael’s had. The hotel’s structure was also in very bad shape, as the upper floors had collapsed during the fire. It and the apartment building would eventually need to be torn down for new construction.

The club was a burned out and gutted wreck. He was unable to access it until after dark that day because the fires that had burned in the surrounding buildings hadn’t been totally put out until late that morning. Those around the other buildings had been put out much earlier. There were only a few badly burned bones left there also. He didn’t bother to try to collect them, as he had no idea who they belonged to, and they would have crumbled also. He did know that the Cartel had lost a lot of their people in the Miami area the previous night.

The following day, he took one of their hidden getaway cars and headed for Tampa / St. Pete to report to Rosetta. It was not something that he looked forward to, but it was necessary. He feared that the fiery sister would curse him if he failed to report, but she would also be exceedingly upset by what he told her. It was a no-win situation for him, or anyone that he sent.

Arriving on the outskirts of Tampa later that day where the Cartel’s headquarters were located, he parked the car, but waited to gather his courage before facing the sister. He knew that she was a harsh, cruel person with little mercy for anyone, and she was fond of casting Black Magic spells on those who upset her. Of course, she could cast a Black Magic spell on him even if he didn’t upset her. He was sure that she would be very upset by what he had to report.

Leaving the vehicle, he approached the front of the Hacienda and was admitted by those on guard there as they recognized him. He waited in the hall until he was announced and then entered the Tampa Boss’s office. Rosetta was standing by the desk in there. She frowned on seeing him.

The Boss of the South Florida Cartel was a short woman of about 5’-6’’ tall, weighing 138 pounds with a 36C-25-36 figure and olive skin. Her long black hair was down on either side of her face and her brown eyes were full of anger. She was wearing a long black dress with red trim that nearly reached the floor and had short sleeves. At 40 years of age, she was still a very handsome woman. She didn’t appear to be happy at all though.

“Why have you taken so long to arrive?” she demanded in a stormy voice.

“I needed to check all of the damage. The fires were very fierce. They even burned the brick and concrete of the buildings. The apartment building and the hotel will have to be torn down. The club is a total loss along with a number of the buildings around it,” Felipe told her in a subservient voice.

“And my brothers?” she demanded in an angry voice.

“Dead, both of them,” he replied in fear.

“Dead! Where were those guarding them and the other men?” she demanded in an even angrier voice.

“Those at the apartments are all dead. Those of us at the hotel were unable to move to help Romero. The Dragons were huge and used Magic to keep us from moving,” he told her in fear to a shocked look from her.

“Dragons! WHAT Dragons?” she roared at him.

“There were two of them. They were huge, touching the ceiling beams of the back room. They used Magic; Dragon Magic and Dragon Fire. None of us could move until they released us, but Romero was already dead by then,” he told her in a fearful voice.

“Where are the bodies of my brothers?” she demanded in a rage.

“Gone. The fire, it burned everything. There are no bodies of any of those killed,” he told her.

“What of their remains? The skeletons? Where are they?” she demanded even angrier.

“Gone, Senora. The fire, it burned everything, even the bones of the dead. There were a few of the large bones left, but on trying to pick them up, they all crumbled into dust. The only thing that I found still partly intact was Hugo’s machete. It was burned and partly melted from the heat of the fire. I found it lying on the floor amid the ashes,” he told her.

“And the drugs and the money?” she demanded with little hope.

“Burned up, except for what the Dragons gave the putas before sending them away,” he told her.

“WHO WERE THESE DRAGONS?” she demanded in a bellow.

“I don’t know, but they changed into beautiful women for a short time, before changing back into terrible Dragons again,” he told her.

“There are no Dragons, not here,” she told him in a certain voice. “We must determine who those women were. They must be Witches. Witches who only appeared to be Dragons. I will have my revenge on them. No one can be allowed to do things like this to us. We must destroy not only them but their entire families. When I find those Witches, they will be sorry for messing with us,” Rosetta told him, before turning her anger on him.

“Get out ... get out and find out who those Witches are,” she demanded and kicked him. Felipe quickly left to find a safer place to spend the night, before returning to Miami to find those responsible. However, he didn’t think they were Witches, as his boss thought.

It was three days later when the sniper attack occurred, and Rosetta got to see real Dragons for the first time. She was shocked by what she saw on the news.

Because we had started later than we had intended, and Doreen had driven slower than she usually does, we arrived home rather late that day. I had also done some of the driving, but again slower than I normally do, after recovering from my encounter with Steve. It had left me confused and less than aware of my surroundings, so a part of the blame is mine also.

On reaching home, I drove through the wards around our property and right up to the house. Doreen had been awake for the last hour or so.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m worn out,” I told her.

“Yes, it’s a long wearying drive,” she agreed, before we exited the car, and I cast a ward around it. We didn’t even bother with unloading any of our things.

“A good hot shower, and I’m for the bed,” I told her once we were in the house.

“What about Bee and Bess?” she asked.

“They’re asleep by now. We’ll get them in the morning. You know that we will have to report to Mother in the morning,” I reminded her. Doreen sighed.

“Yes, she will want to know everything that we did down there,” she said in a tired voice “But you’re right, we are too tired to do that now,” she added.

“Yes, a shower and then to bed,” I said. We both slept very well that night.

In the morning, we were up at a reasonable hour and made breakfast before dressing to visit our parents. Bee and Bess, our Familiars, were waiting for us just inside the wards around our mother’s property.

“You should have taken us along,” Bee chided me as soon as we had joined them.

“You wouldn’t have liked all of the sand. Besides, we were busy in our Dragon form a lot of the time,” I told her.

“Did you meet any cute male cats?” Bess asked Doreen.

“No, we didn’t see any cats, but we did meet a lot of rats,” Doreen told her Familiar. “Two legged rats,” she added.

“There were some cute guys,” I told our Familiars, as we walked toward Mother’s house. The front door opened for us automatically as we approached it. Mother was waiting for us in the large parlor.

“What in the world did you girls do down there?” she asked after giving each of us a hug.

“We rescued Aleshia and removed a number of drug cartel members and their leaders,” I told her.

“And that required all of those fires? We saw the videos on the news. You must have used Dragon Fire, the way those buildings burned,” she continued.

“Yes, we did most of that in our Dragon forms,” Doreen told her.

“And the sniper?” she asked next.

“We were just helping the police. That guy had a bunker set up in that hotel room and supplies for a month or more, at least. He was a real bad guy,” I told her.

“And just what did you do between those two escapades?” she inquired with raised eyebrows.

“Doreen met a guy the first day we were there. She really likes him. He introduced me to another guy. We went to the beach some and toured the various attractions outside of the city,” I told her Doreen, however, couldn’t keep quiet.

“Dallas met a guy too, but it was yesterday morning. While just shaking hands with him, they nearly drained the Lines,” Doreen told her mother with a giggle.

“Really, Dallas!” Mother said with a smile.

“He’s kind of a nice guy, but I don’t know him very well. We only spent a few minutes together in the lobby of our building,” I told Mother.

“All of the managers quickly joined us in the lobby. They thought that we were having sex,” Doreen told Mother with another giggle.

“It sounds like you have a serious relationship there, Dallas,” Mother told me.

“I hardly know him. We only shook hands. His name is Steve Rust,” I told her, before remembering something. “He did kiss me before we left,” I added with a blush.

“We would like to get both of them moved to positions up here to work at Dragon Security, if we can find a couple of guys who would like to move to Miami to take their places,” Doreen told Mom. Mom just smiled.

“Your father and I will check to see if any of our employees are interested in moving to sunny south Florida. You girls will NOT go to our building and ask any of our employees about moving. You would have much too strong an effect on them. In any event, it will require several weeks if we do have anyone who would like to switch locations,” she informed us.