Chapter 12

The following characters appear in this chapter:

Muchalinda

Nicolae’s Dragon name, he is a Brown Dragon but became a Dragon in Ireland

Omkaresh

Sara’s Dragon name, she is a Gold Dragon

The following characters return from previous stories:

Adalinda

Dallas’s Dragon name, she is a light blue Dragon

Amekinda

Doreen’s Dragon name, she is also a light blue Dragon

Bheithir

Steve’s Dragon name, he is a Dark Blue Dragon

Thevetat

Keith’s Dragon name, he is a Light Red Dragon

While the Kavanaghs’ meeting with Nick and Sara was underway, those from the CIA in the house down the street were tearing their hair out, at least figuratively, and cursing their equipment.

“The damned cameras are out again,” Harris shouted to Joe when all of the cameras and their mikes ceased to function. Of course, they hadn’t seen those from Dragon Security arrive, as they had parked out of sight of their cameras, and they were all carrying their disks.

“What the hell is wrong with the equipment? It never acted like this before. Damned cheap shit,” Joe muttered in agitation on seeing the monitors displaying nothing but static patterns.

“Get a drone out and see if it can learn anything. Those bastards don’t look like they are going for a run today. Not as late as it is already,” he finished.

“Mike had a problem with the cameras last night. The same problem that we are having from what he told me,” Harris informed him.

“Did it clear up?” Joe asked.

“He said that after an hour or more it was a lot better, but apparently the problem is back,” Harris told him before going to launch a drone. The drone had the same problem until they took it so high that even though the camera worked, details of what it saw were so small as to be useless.

“A fine kettle of fish,” Joe said as he prepared to send another flash message to Langley.

Just past noontime the next day, Agent Ray arrived again. He did not bring good news.

“Start shutting down. Pack everything. I’ll take the remaining information disks and reports back to Langley with me. You have four hours to clean this place out and leave. Here are your new orders,” he told them and handed them to Joe, who was senior.

“What about the cameras and other things?” Mike asked.

“They will be written off. There is no way to retrieve them without being seen. An additional van will be here shortly to transport the equipment. Move it,” he ordered the four of them.

They began shutting down the equipment and packing it away. They also packed their own gear. By just after four o’clock that afternoon everything was loaded including the men, and they pulled out leaving the house empty and unlocked.

Fifteen minutes after they left, two men in camouflage clothing entered the house and set up some portable equipment to monitor the camera and mike feeds. They had the same problem the others had. There was nothing but static patterns on their equipment. They were just as unhappy as the CIA’s people had been.

Nicolae has the Narrative

A few minutes after the Kavanaghs had departed, Sara had some questions for me. She seemed a bit upset.

“Are you sure that you can trust those people? You were very forthcoming with them and told them things that you hadn’t even shared with me yet. Are you sure who they were?” she demanded.

“Sweetie, I’ve been a Dragon for a long, long time now and know not to trust anyone I’m not sure of. I’ve also lived here for a long time. It’s not far to Atlanta from here. In the past, I spent a considerable amount of time there checking on who the Dragons in Atlanta were, and what they were doing. I have seen them in photographs and in videos, and am very aware of how they look and operate. Also, couldn’t you feel the power those two women, the Queen’s Daughters, carry and know how to use?” I asked her.

“I could feel a lot of power from all four of them, yes,” she answered. “I thought that all Dragons possessed that much power,” she added.

“Some do, especially the Old Ones. Also those close to the Queen have more power than most. I’ve heard some of the Old Dragons that I have talked to mention the Queens of Old, but thought them to be more of a legend than to actually exist,” I told her.

“Who are these Queens of Old? They mentioned them and now you have brought them up,” Sara asked.

“They were the Queens who Ruled the Dragons all of the way back to and possibly even before the founding of the Nests,” I told her.

“But that could be as far back as sixteen thousand years ago or more,” she protested. “How could anything live that long?” she added.

“You have come to the heart of the Legend. They are not alive. They are the collective Spirits of the Old Queens. They are kept together as one Magical entity. They have all of the wisdom of their Reigns, so they can advise the current Queen. There are apparently two of them, as there are two Nests, each of which had its own line of Queens,” I told her.

“That is very hard to believe,” she told me and paused. “Do you believe it?” she asked after a few seconds.

“I believe that it is quite possible. The Queens were and are very powerful. Previously, they ruled over thousands of Dragons each, both males and Females. It would require someone with very powerful Magic and the skills of a great Diplomat to control that many Dragons who were scattered across the world, especially over thousands of years,” I told her, but this wasn’t getting us anywhere presently.

“There are things that need to be done before we leave. You can help me with some of them later today and tomorrow. Right now, I need to return a number of things to the cave in Fork Mountain and to retrieve some other things,” I told her. “Why don’t you study for now while I do that, and you can help me later with the things here,” I told her.

“I’ll need the fourth book. I finished the third book yesterday,” she told me. I retrieved the fourth book and replaced the third book with the others. I also removed from the safe what I was returning to the cave and sent it in boxes to the Timeless Zone. Things would be easier to move that way.

Once Sara was busy studying, I transferred to the marker that I had left on top of Fork Mountain. This left a huge Magic signature at the house, but that would just have to be the way it was for now.

After spending several hours rearranging things at the cave and preparing what I would be returning home with, I returned to the top of Fork Mountain after reinforcing the opening ward on the cave so that it would open for no one but me. After checking that no signs of our presence remained on top of the mountain, I transferred back to my house appearing in the living room and startling Sara, who was studying there.

We spent some time then preparing to close down the house for our absence. It was for me a familiar routine, and I had followed it many times over the years. Following dinner, we worked a bit more before retiring for the night. In the morning, we rose late and didn’t go for our usual exercise period or to the dojo. All of that would have to wait. We had finished all that we could do by mid-afternoon.

That was when the spell that I had cast around the rental house that the CIA was using alerted me that all of them had left the house at the same time. This had never happened before. A short time later it alerted me again when others had moved in.

“This is not good,” I told Sara after explaining about the spell.

“What do you think happened that they would all leave and others arrive?” she asked.

“Knowing how the CIA works, they pull their operatives out before the ‘merde hits the ventelatur’, when they can. Others arriving so soon after they left is not good either. All of this would signal to me that we can expect some serious trouble shortly. Let’s check that everything is finished but some food for tonight and maybe in the morning. Then, I’m going to load all of the books in the special safe that I brought back from the cave. If necessary, I can send it to the Timeless Zone immediately to keep it secure,” I told her.

Sara made dinner for us and prepared something for breakfast tomorrow, while I stored the books and a few other things in the special enchanted safe. It would respond only to my Magic, and it was proof against the Magic of others in addition to explosives, welding torches, or other similar things. After wrapping it in a ward, I sent it to the Timeless Zone along with other things.

I also called to me from the Timeless Zone the weapons that I had brought back from the cave. There were a couple of pistols and their ammunition. After loading all of the magazines for the pistols, I sent the remaining ammunition back to the Timeless Zone for safe keeping. I also called my Wakizashi to me from the Timeless Zone, checked its edge, and went over it with a sharpening stone to be sure the edge was in perfect condition. I would leave the Katana in there for now. If we needed to fight as Humans, I wanted to be ready. We would have our wards around us then. They would be better than armor and wouldn’t have any weight to slow us down.

Following an early dinner, we cleaned everything up including ourselves and went to bed for the night, but only to sleep close together. I had also checked the Spherical Defensive Ward to ensure that it was at full strength.

We were shocked awake a number of hours later by a very loud

BOOM

which reverberated through the entire house. However, there was only the sound of the explosion, as loud as it was, but no pressure wave from it, nor any collapse of the building’s structure around us or on us as would happen if the cause of the explosion had actually hit the house.

I immediately sat up and looked around having been in similar circumstances many times before. Sara screamed in shock and fright at being awakened like this.

“Easy sweetie,” I told her as I got up and moved over to the window to look out into the night. I didn’t want her to panic and do something to call attention to where we were. Not more than fifteen seconds after the first explosion, it was followed by two more as I was moving.

Boom Boom

which were smaller and less loud explosions. They were also followed by the sound of automatic weapons firing. We were definitely under attack, but so far nothing was getting through my wards or the Defensive Shell that Doreen had taught me to cast.

Outside, I could see the flashes as a number of men fired at the wards around the house and property. There had to be at least twenty-four of them from the number that I could see out my bedroom window, and presuming that they would be attacking from at least three sides.

Retrieving my phone, I called the number that Dallas had given me. The phone was answered after several rings by a cranky voice.

“What?” it demanded.

“We are under attack. There appear to be about twenty-four of them presently. There have already been three explosions, and they are continuing to fire at the house,” I told her, as it was Dallas.

“Are the two of you okay?” she asked.

“We’re fine. The wards are holding, but I’m not inclined to allow the CIA to get away with this,” I told her.

“Hold on for a few minutes. We’ll be there, and then we can attack them from the air as well as the ground,” she told me.

“Alright, but Sara will need to remain out of the fight. She has only spent a few minutes in her Dragon form, and now is not the time for her to learn how to be a Dragon and what to do in a fight,” I told her.

“Alright, she can at least watch what we do. We’ll be there as soon as we can transfer near there and then transform into our Dragons. We’ll hit them from the air first and follow up on the ground if needed,” she told me. There was another Boom from the back of the house before she disconnected. I raised my estimate of how many were attacking us from this to thirty-two plus, before I turned back to Sara who was looking at me wild eyed. I smiled at her.

“We are being attacked by at least a platoon of mercenaries who I am sure were hired by the CIA to remove me as I have become an inconvenience to them, plus they probably think that I might be going to work for someone else,” I told her.

“And you think that this is funny?” she demanded in a harsh voice, no doubt referring to my smile I was sure.

“Funny ... no. Deadly serious ... yes. They will be even more upset when they learn that I am a Dragon, and that you are also. However, it may convince them that I am too dangerous for them to fuck with me,” I told her before explaining what we were going to do.

“The Kavanaghs will be here shortly. We are going down stairs and then outside to await them. I will change both of us into our Dragon forms. You will remain inside the wards to observe while I go out to deal with those attacking us on the ground. The Kavanaghs will be attacking them from the air. We will need to leave at least one of them alive to explain what happened to them. The police will undoubtedly arrive after everything is over. Do you understand what is going to happen, and why you are to remain inside the wards?” I asked her, as she was staring at me with a blank look.

“You can’t do that!” she said in shock. “You’ll be killed.”

“I certainly can do that. I have done it many times. I’ll have my wards around me. You will have them also, but you don’t know what to do yet,” I told her to a sullen look from her.

“Let’s move now. The Kavanaghs will be here soon, and we need to be ready,” I told her.

“What about clothes?” she asked as we only had on our sleeping clothes.

“Dragons don’t wear clothes, and we don’t have time to change,” I told her before pulling her up from the bed, and we moved down the stairs to the first floor. There were a couple of more

Boom ... booms

before we reached the first floor and the weapons firing continued.

Outside, we stayed in the shadows of the house while I transformed both of us into our Dragon forms at about twenty feet tall. This was short enough that we weren’t taller than the house. I also cast my strongest wards around both of us.

We knew when the Kavanaghs had arrived by the appearance of flashes of Magic from the sky to the ground all around us. I had detected their approach even in the dark. Four forty foot tall Dragons with one hundred foot plus wingspans are hard to miss, as they black out the stars in flight. They also rained down Magic Fire on those attacking us, scattering them like ants.