Dragonfall Read online

  Drakon: Dragonfall

  By Erik Schubach

  Copyright © 2014 by Erik Schubach

  Self publishing

  P.O. Box 523

  Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

  Cover Photo © 2014 Mat-Hayward/DVARG / ShutterStock.com license

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-9911072-7-8

  Chapter 1 – Griffon

  I charged across the ridge with the reassuring presence of my mate and protector at my side with her granite fists aflame. We were gaining on the griffon, I lashed at it relentlessly with pyres of flames from my outstretched hand and a barrage of dirt and rock I willed into its path.

  It would have been so much easier to just destroy the abomination, I could feel the rotting and decayed magic that had been twisted from its intended purpose to animate the beast. It wasn't a real griffon, but a sick and twisted being called from the underworld to masquerade as one. All of my dragon instincts were screaming at me to just transform and destroy it to set the magics free of their suffering. But as Quinn keeps reminding me, we need this one alive so we can try to discover who is controlling it.

  The creature reached the cliff and dove off, its wings billowing as it let out a roar. My temper flared and I yelled, “Oh no you don't you feckin' gobshite! I'm a queen dragon!” Without hesitation, I dove off the cliff as Quinn did right behind me.

  Gods above I loved the feeling of freefall now! It seems like a lifetime ago that heights and flying paralyzed me with fear. Now I live for it since I can fly on my own. I threw my arms wide and my flaming wings exploded from me as I let my immense dragon of flame out to play. My wings caught the wind and I felt a light impact on my back as Quinn settled between my shoulders.

  I lifted my head and roared in challenge as we gained on the slower abomination trying to evade me in the air, the force of my dragon voice shaking the ground and carrying down to the city of Denver below. I shot a pyre of flame shooting up into the heavens.

  I almost moaned in pleasure as Quinn started stroking the sides of my dragon form neck. “Easy there firecracker. Remember, we need this one alive.” I could feel her teasing me through our blood-tie, our soul bond. I swear this woman tries to stoke my hair-trigger temper on purpose. It does things to her that are most arousing through our link. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

  I flapped my wings in three mighty strokes and gained altitude. I snickered when Quinn muttered, “Oh shit.” She quickly wrapped her arms around my flaming dragon neck as I tucked my wings neatly onto my back and dove in a spinning dive directly at the griffon. I may have done this part on purpose so she would hug me like this, but I'm not going to be admitting it, ya know.

  I got a quick chastising feeling from her but rolled my eyes as I suddenly spread my wings just as I reached my target, and I soared in the wind again as my talons of flame grasped the roaring griffon. I craned my huge head back to give Quinn, a self-satisfied smile.

  She was laughing and shaking her head at my display. Lords above but she was a wondrous sight riding my shoulders with a hand on my neck. She stood to let the air flow through her hair. The griffon kept struggling and making a ruckus. I released one talon then smacked it upside the head, rendering it unconscious. Sometimes I wonder how much I have changed since I had discovered I was Drakon. I was almost afraid to admit just how exhilarating I found the hunt now, and the flow of elemental magic through my body.

  I looked around for a clearing in the dense forests of the Rocky Mountains. I would usually extinguish the flames that formed the specter of a dragon around me as I landed so I wouldn't need much room, but we had cargo to restrain this time. Quinn chuckled on my back. “Way to go Einstein, where are you going to land your fat dragon ass?”

  I chortled with flames licking from my mouth as I did so. Sometimes she was just too fecking funny. I could put us in a clearing, or on a ridge or peak, but then we'd have to carry the beast out on foot. I gruffed in frustration. Trying to reign in my quick temper. We'd have to land in Steamboat Springs or down in Denver. The state is starting to get annoyed with me landing on the highways, freeways, and parking lots. Not only do I tie up traffic but I damage their precious roadways and asphalt.

  I turned us in a swooping glide to spiral down to Denver. They had a few areas reinforced for my dragon form. Quinn let out a whoop as the wind whipped past us, it was as exhilarating for her as it was me. I wonder how much of that is my emotions bleeding through the blood-tie and how much is hers. It is hard to tell anymore, we are like two parts of a whole now. I'll be tellin' ya right now, God I love that woman!

  We got down to the city to land in the specially fortified courtyard behind police headquarters. It had high concrete walls and human snipers with high-power rifles and shoulder-fired missiles all along the high surrounding walls. They built this area especially for when Quinn and I bring in the more dangerous magical beings like this griffon. Plus the meter thick reinforced concrete helicopter landing pad slash dragon landing pad is ideal for me.

  I had to grin at the dragon silhouette that some humorous officer with nothing better to do had painted in the center of the pad with invisible UV glowing graffiti spray paint. It showed up as blazing orange in my Drakon vision that could see into the UV spectrum.

  As I passed over the wall just barely above the guards, I quickly barrel-rolled before Quinn could read my intentions and she spilled off my back and fell thirty feet down to the concrete below. She hissed and flicked her arms and legs and they were immediately covered in granite. She deftly landed in a skidding three-point stance then started laughing boisterously as she ground to a halt with the sound of granite dragging on the concrete while I landed on the pad with the griffon.

  She walked over to me and rubbed me lovingly between my dragon eyes as I nuzzled her with my snout. I dissolved my dragon form and showed my smirking human form to her as the spotlights from the walls snapped on to illuminate the landing pad and the unconscious griffon. I was silently thankful that I had finally figured out how not to burn away my clothing when I let my dragon out. My clothing bill was getting astronomical and I was sometimes left in embarrassing situations walking around naked in Denver. Then I said in my Irish brogue, “Me ass isn't fat Agent Trask!” She knew I wasn't amused when I called her by the name she wanted me to call her when we first met, which I never did unless I was chastising her.

  She chuckled and just pulled me into a kiss, then she said, “You and your Irish temper. Were you issued that with your red hair 'lass'?” She said lass mocking my accent.

  I squinted my eyes and shook a fist playfully at her as armed men came streaming out of the station and into the courtyard. We ignored the men as we bantered back and forth while we absently flipped the griffon on its side.

  Sergeant Amanda Johnson was beside us snickering at our back and forth barbs and just absently handed us braided steel restraints as we hogtied the beast and lashed its wings down. The tall blonde police detective in her smart business suit cleared her throat and raised one eyebrow at us.

  I blushed profusely and
said, “Oh. I'll be begging your pardon Mandy.”

  She chuckled, rolling her eyes at us as she asked, “What do we have here?”

  Then Quinn went into professional agent mode. I just bit my lower lip in want as she said, “Accomplice in the water dragon murder of Oscar Westminster. This thing was the lookout that hospitalized two police officers and a forest ranger yesterday.”

  Some of the men around us were glaring at the beast and I saw a couple kick it. Amanda asked, “Is it sentient? Does it know its rights?” The police don't take kindly to anything that harms one of their own.

  Quinn was already shaking her head. “No. It is a magical construct of flesh and death like the last one. It isn't real.”

  One man growled. “Real enough to hurt our men! Oh... and one of our dragons.”

  My tall protector shook her head, I loved when her usually immaculate and professional hair was all wind tussled as it was just then with her flying goggles on top of her head. She straightened her professional blouse and leather flying jacket as she clarified, “I just mean it doesn't have its own consciousness or sense of identity. For lack of a better term, it is a zombie.”

  Amanda nodded understanding but still asked, “Are you sure? What if it is a thrall? They have been starting to pop up again.”

  I answered this time. “No, I can taste the fetid and twisted magic in the beastie. Besides, it has no rune mark on its forehead. We need to find out who is controllin' it.”

  Sergeant Johnson snapped at the men, “You heard our dragon. Get this piece of shit into holding. Don't worry about being gentle, it has no rights.”

  Humans can be so vindictive at times. Feck, there I go again, saying, “humans” I'm still human myself ya know. At least I think I am.

  Quinn and I looked at each other as eight men roughly dragged the griffon across the ground. She smiled at me and cocked an eyebrow. I understood what she was saying. We can read each others basic thoughts. I agreed with her, it was getting late and we should get some sleep before we try to figure out where that thing came from. Well, she was mostly thinking about sleep.

  I smiled amorously at her then said offhandedly over to Amanda, “Hey Mandy, d'ya think you could be givin' us a ride home? Me car is up near Steamboat.”

  Quinn added, “We'll investigate this in the morning.”

  Our friend laughed at us. “I don't need any stinking blood-tie to know what you two are thinking. Yeah, I'll give you a ride home. Just give me a minute to finish up some paperwork.”

  Then Quinn looked at me and tilted her head at me and whispered, “Your eyes love.” Oh! I concentrated and my enhanced sight faded. Oh yeah, I forgot it was dark outside. It felt like half my senses were blunted when I was human like this, like I could barely experience the world, but dragon eyes on a wee Irish lass disconcerts people for some reason. The only bonus was that I didn't have to smell everything, humans, no matter how many times they wash, still reek. Except Quinn, I swear her pheromones were designed specifically to target me. Her musk drives me crazy just having her near.

  We all shared a chuckle and we followed her into the station. My flesh warmed and tingled where Quinn had grabbed my hand and laced our fingers, walking slightly in front of me. I smiled. My Quinn, always my protector.

  Chapter 2 – Another Murder

  In the morning, I stretched in bed like a cat. I felt like purring after the things Quinn had done to me last night. I had felt her smile before I turned to look into her eyes. She reached out with one hand and brushed my unruly mass of red hair, that was gifted to me by me Ma, out of my eyes. She had a look of wonder on her face then she gave me a tender kiss and hopped out of bed.

  She grinned at me as she made a dash toward the bathroom before I could focus through the fog of pleasure her kiss left me in. I shouted, “Hey now, that's cheating you unruly woman!”

  She chuckled through the door. “You have to be at the museum in an hour to go over those new scrolls. Maybe something there can shed some light into what has been happening the past few weeks. I'll get to the police station and get with a wiccan diviner to see if we can't suss out the origin of that griffon and who is controlling it.”

  I nodded to myself. Then grinned. We had learned that it was best if we showered separately, if not, we always wound up an hour or so late to where we needed to be. We don't know if our amped up sex drives are a byproduct of the blood-tie or if we just turned each other on that much.

  There were worse things than to be mated to a tall sexy FBI agent for all of time. You won't be catching me complainin' ya know. She called through the door, “God woman! Stop broadcasting, I don't need to go investigate while I'm aroused!”

  I grinned an evil grin toward the door. “I'll be doin' no such thing Agent Trask!” Her chuckling was music to my ears.

  I looked at my left arm where the griffon had raked its claws across it last night. All the gold tipped red dragon scales had faded and it looked like skin again. That's one of my body's defensive reactions to prevent physical damage. I grew the dragon scales that Quinn found so sexy. They were extremely tough and sharp. Nothing short of high-caliber bullets or diamond drill bits could even damage them. Quinn had a small box of them that she collected every time something actually hit me hard enough to tear one from me. She called them her “Little bits of Myra."

  She would occasionally lend a few out to James and Mei to examine. Doctors James Reid and Mei Kamia were on my research team at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and my two very best friends, and a couple themselves.

  Not many outside of the four of us, oh and me Ma and Da, know that I had somehow accidentally caused Mei to go through the “rebirth” as an elemental. She could control fire as I can to a much lesser extent, and only fire, where I could control all elements except air.

  Quinn has the ability to call forth all the elements that I can, but only to form shields and armor around herself. A result of our accidental blood-tie. We found out later that a blood-tie is the Drakon equivalent of mating for life and sharing our basic thoughts, emotions, and power. At first we were afraid that it was making us feel things we normally wouldn't until Caragh, the long dead previous queen of the Eire Drakon, had explained to me in a dream that the blood-tie would only be successful if two hearts felt the same thing.

  Caragh can communicate with me in my dreams from beyond the grave because it is her magic flowing through my veins that made me the new incarnation of the Queen of the Dragons.

  Quinn came out of the bathroom in the nude causing me to growl in want. I giggled when I noticed a flickering, and willed the flames around my body out. She grabbed some panties and a bra then her suit and disappeared back into the bathroom with a flirty wink to me. I couldn't stop from staring at her well muscled feminine curves and the seductive sway of her hips.

  I called out, “You, Quinn Trask are a mean woman.” She chuckled. “Payback.”

  Then a minute later she came out looking every inch, Special Agent Quinn Trask from the FBI and NSA's International Arcane Taskforce. Not a hair was out of place as she put on her signature sunglasses. The only thing not agency issued was the leather flying jacket draped over her arm.

  Before I could comment, her phone chirped and she answered on the first ring with a commanding tone, “Trask.” She listened then nodded and said, “Thank you.” Then she hung up. Her professional demeanor melted away and she smiled softly at me and said, “They brought Maggie in from Steamboat Springs, she's downstairs.”

  She stepped up to me and gave me a whisper soft kiss and said, “Be careful love. Someone out there is gunning for dragons. I have a car on you at all times. Just call if you need me.” My quick temper flared a bit that she felt the need to coddle me. I knew she meant to call over our link.

  Besides the aggravation, I can't tell you the warm feelings I got from her concern. I let my dragon senses expand and then inhaled deeply, a feeling of safety and protection flowed over me at her scent. I loved how it could do that. I have
associated her scent with security since the day we met.

  I smiled at her. “I can take care of me self. Now shoo woman. Find the killer.” I was pushing her toward the door to her protests. She was chuckling and I could feel her put on her professional attitude as she stepped out. I rolled my eyes at our antics then looked up at the huge skylight in our loft apartment on the second floor of this converted warehouse building. I longed for that sky I could see above.

  I hopped into the shower and got myself ready for the day. I looked for my purse. Oh, I left it in my car last night when we went after the griffon. I started to open the door and remembered, and let my dragon senses fade back to my blunted human senses. I could almost hear Quinn in my head saying, “Your eyes.”

  I made my way past the freight elevator and down the stairs and outside. There in front was Maggie. I grinned at me old reliable Prius. Mags and I had had many an adventure, first coming to Denver and discovering I was Drakon, then the past year of research, investigation and peacekeeping whenever the authorities need the Denver Dragon to pacify some supernaturals.

  I opened the door and slid in, my purse was between the seats. I patted her dashboard. “It's just you an' me again, Mags. Let's get to work.” I pulled away from the curb and sensed as much as I saw in my rear view mirror, a large black SUV half a block away pull out behind me. I chuckled, there was one thing the FBI wasn't, and that was subtle.

  It still made me mad that Quinn thought I needed to be protected all the time. I mean Jaysus, I was a fekin' queen dragon! I drove around the block once, just to annoy the agents following me then headed off to the Museum. My phone buzzed and I accepted the call over the Bluetooth speakerphone. I said innocently, “Hello?”

  I smiled at the person who responded, I didn't know she was on my babysitting detail. Special Agent Dawna Grove's voice was full of mirth. “Very funny Myra. Don't draw attention to yourself like that. Quinn would have my ass.” She had been on a few of the peacekeeping assignments we have been on with the international task-force the past few months. I was starting to see her as a friend.