Authors: Gail Faulkner
WickedBeast (29 page)
Allowing the dragon to see them, Cord asked
conversationally, “Why the racket?”
“Pain,” screamed the dragon. “Why torture me? Kill me, I beg
you!”
“Torturing you? You deserve it but no one is torturing you,”
Cord responded, puzzled at the dragon who continued to writhe and howl as if
they were removing his organs while he still lived.
Minuet started to tremble, her emotions clear to them as she
empathized with the dragon.
“No, baby, don’t connect with him.” Kelly dropped to her
knees and turned her from the castle, trying desperately to distract Minuet’s
soft heart from the hideous scene.
Suddenly there was silence. Not even the night animals made
a sound. They all looked at the glowing pink castle. Kelly and Cord could hear
the dragon breathing in deep gasps. He was lying facedown on the castle floor,
unmoving. In human form, he was filthy and disheveled. His clothes were old to
the point of rags that appeared draped over a boney frame.
He was the first one to speak. “What the hell did you do?”
Cord looked down at Minuet and Kelly. “What did we do to
him?” he asked Minuet.
“Him fixed.” Minuet smiled at Kelly then Cord. “No more
crying.”
“Minuet, what did you do?” Cord asked. “You’re not in
trouble, but it is very important. Tell us exactly what you did to him.”
The man figure in the castle slowly stood up. “What is she?”
he demanded.
“We hurts him berry much. I change his,” Minuet paused and
looked her mother pronouncing the big word slowly, “orraahs.”
“Oh.” Kelly smiled reassuringly at Minuet. “You made him
shine?”
“No, silly,” Minuet laughed. “Shiny must come from him
heart. Can’t gives it. I jus helps him know he wish it. Our shiny hurtted him
until he wished it.”
“What is she talking about? What the hell are you all?” the
dragon snarled, but his gaze was focused on Minuet.
“You distract her from explaining and she might think you
look better as a pink pony,” Cord stated in with a smile. “It should be clear
she’s capable, or do you need another demonstration to keep quiet?”
“Sweetie, how did you help him wish it?” Kelly asked.
“Helping anyone in pain is good. How we do it matters a lot. That’s all we are
trying to understand.”
Minuet frowned slightly in her “thinking hard” face. “I look
in him like I look in animal. I look for the happy. Him only has a little
wishing for the happy. I make it bigger than the wishing for the mad. Now him
like Cord.”
“Like me? What does he have that’s like me?” Cord asked.
“Him want his family. It was in him, I jus help him wish it
most. Now he no mad all a time. Him sad but be happy when him finds family.”
Cord laughed softly and bent to kiss the top of Minuet’s
head. “What a brilliant little miracle you are. That was a very good idea,
sweetie.”
“Now that you’re all proud of the little creature, perhaps
you could explain?” the dragon in the castle asked coldly.
Looking at him, it was evident Minuet’s changes were having
a profound effect. He stood in clean clothes, though still slender, he was no
longer a starved skeleton.
Cord turned to the male and regarded him, scanning him
ruthlessly as he did so. The male stood completely still, not resisting the
scan in any way. What Cord found was something he recognized and yet was a bit
speechless at the simplicity of the change that could be so complete.
Minuet had altered the dragon but not like one would expect.
She’d gone seeking in his soul and found a spark of goodness. A tiny kernel of
caring. Using what was already within, she’d changed the balance of a few
chemicals. Her ability to know which ones to use was the magic. It was that
part of her nature that set her so far apart from the rest of them.
She had taken nothing from the dragon, given him nothing
new. Her touch on his soul was profound and so light it was barely there.
“There is good news and bad news.” Cord stepped up to the
imprisoned male. “Good news is I’m not going to kill you. Bad news is you are
in love.” Cord chuckled. “You have no idea what to do with it but there it is.
Finding the woman who makes you whole will be a challenge. Convincing her to
love you even more…ah, interesting.”
The male scowled. “Dragon’s don’t love. Not part of our
nature.”
“Yeah, that was before, this is now,” Cord stated. “The thing
I want you to grasp clearly is I know who you are.” Cord’s form shimmered and
changed. In his natural state he stood fifteen feet tall, the white glow off
his form almost blinding as he continued to explain the dragon’s new situation.
“I can track you at will. Are we clear on that?”
The captured dragon looked up at Cord then at Kelly and
smiled. It wasn’t so much a friendly smile as a knowing one. “Seriously?” he
said softly. “She gives you that much?”
“Try to focus, buddy,” Cord snapped. “I don’t have time to
babysit you, but one day you’re going to want some advice and I’m the only guy
you know who can give it to you. Don’t disappoint me.”
Cord changed back to his human form. “Minuet, your new
friend can be let out of his castle.”
“Him doesn’t has a name,” she stated as the Barbie castle
dissipated into the marsh mist.
“He’ll get one on his own. We have to go do something about
his former followers though.”
“Hey, wait a second…” echoed after them as they moved away
from the dragon standing in knee-deep swamp.
“He’ll be fine,” Cord assured Kelly as she worriedly glanced
back at the tall man they’d just abandoned. “Minuet’s answer to his pain didn’t
exactly strip him of his ability to defend himself.”
“I know. It’s just he’s so clueless right now,” Kelly said.
“Small price to pay for all this,” Cord growled as they
entered the old sugar warehouse again.
The crowd had disintegrated into a jeering, churning mass as
the man onstage failed to deliver even one of his promised stunts. The woman
tied to a pole was too terrified to even weep. The air stank of mounting
violence as the crowd lost all respect and consequently all fear of the man who
had made himself their grand wizard.
The one thing this human had taught the people he called
disciples was violence. He had ruled by fear and pain, exactly what the dragon
controlling him needed. Now the crowd was calling for his subjugation to them.
Cord turned Kelly and Minuet from the scene, taking his
family outside. In the distance, sirens were screaming their way to the remote
structure, but there was no possibility they’d arrive before there was blood on
the floor.
“Cord,” Kelly said softly.
That was all it took. He knew what she wanted. Her
compassionate nature required they stop violence before it began. If it were up
to him, they would leave this place and let the wizard experience his reward.
But that was not the world Kelly and Minuet lived in. It was not the world he’d
allow anywhere near them, so it was his responsibility to ensure…something.
Returning to the warehouse, he materialized onstage beside
the wizard, all fifteen feet of him in blazing white. White wings for good
measure. Abruptly there was utter silence. The crowd drew its own conclusions
and eyes darted to the wizard and back to the glowing being.
Right, they would think that. Cord scowled at the crowd.
Looking down at the wizard, he spat on the man’s head. The wizard fell to his
knees in terror.
Cord allowed a flame to light on the tip of his finger as he
pointed at the kneeling, crying wizard. “You are a liar,” he stated in a
booming whisper. “And a thief. You have broken every Commandment and defiled
every life you touch.” Looking up at the crowd, Cord breathed in and allowed
himself to expand. The humans stumbled back as far as they were able.
“Do you follow this idiot pissing himself before you?” he
demanded.
No response, but all eyes looked at the puddle around the
wizard’s knees. He was probably not the only guy in here that terrified, yet
that act of cowardice before them sealed their opinion of him.
“Then go.” The sirens could be heard by the humans now. They
left in silence, melting into the everglades amazingly fast. Cord shifted to
his human form and strode to the woman onstage.
“The police will find you here in a second. You must press
kidnapping charges. Do not admit to seeing anything supernatural, his story
will convict him. All will be well with you now,” he promised.
She nodded and he shimmered out of human view as the police
burst in the door.
The fact that the local cops had raced here with sirens
blazing told Cord that at least some of them knew exactly what was going on in
the warehouse. They expected to find it empty. The tied woman onstage and
wizard still kneeling in his own piss were a surprise. One they could not
ignore as State troopers noiselessly arrived on scene.
Time to go.
Back on the yacht, they silently cruised out into the open
ocean. The air dragon and Wind Witch had no need of the motor attached to the
old-world sailing yacht. Nor did they need the crew that usually came with a
vessel this size.
Cord was seated on a deck lounger with Kelly in his arms.
Minuet slept soundly in her cabin below as they left the Florida coast.
Cord kissed Kelly’s forehead and asked, “Where would you
like to go?”
“Thought we were headed south to help Legion and Molly,” she
murmured, far too content to lift her head.
“No need. Minuet just showed us what to do with an awakening
dragon,” he stated. “It was a risk to expose them to Minuet in the first place.
I showed Molly and Legion what she did. Molly can do it easily. Well, not
exactly like Minuet did, but very close. Molly is also able to see if there is
no spark of compassion in a dragon and take the correct action. Teaching Minuet
to be an executioner is not something I could permit.
“We still have to come up with a fix for the hole in the
ozone but the danger isn’t as critical as it was. There is a new problem
though. Might be quite a few males looking for their mates soon. I’m guessing
they will each need a witch.”
Kelly lifted her head to turn and look at Cord in alarm.
“Dragons looking for witches? Don’t you think we’ll have some trouble with
that? I mean, it just seems dangerous.”
Cord grinned at his Wind Witch and kissed those worried
lips. He’d meant to kiss her briefly but should have known better. Much later
his answer to her question was whispered in her ear. “It will be incredibly
dangerous, for the dragons.”
About the Author
Hello everyone. If you’re reading this, I hope it means
you’ve enjoyed reading one of my books. If you have some other opinion of them,
feel free to lie to me anyway. I hereby absolve you from all possible guilt and
consequences for flagrant, adjective-saturated lying to the author.
I’m a chronic fantasizer. Every good romance novel ended too
soon. After a while, I started making up stories when I had a few minutes to
while away. So now, instead of sitting around with a blank look on my face,
I’ve taken to writing them down.
Because of my father’s job, we moved every three years in my
early life. My first memories are of Bermuda, and then we were in several
African countries. It was a wonderful childhood. I gained a rich cultural
background in the world community, but never learned to spell. As an adult, I
avoided writing at all costs, embarrassed over my limitations.
But the writer will not stay silent forever. She broke out,
and insisted on learning the mystical world of grammar and spelling. Haven’t
mastered all of it yet, but they let me write for you anyway. Bless every
editor on the planet. They give dreamers a place to send fantasies and save us
the embarrassment of owning our shortcomings.
Gail welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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