Crimson Christmas (3 page)

They all split up to find presents for each other.
Ron picked the creepiest doll for Tatum, knowing it would fit in with her
collection, and asked her if it had any bad vibes. “No, it’s very happy.” Hail
and Ron picked out a train building-model for Luca, a paint set for Logan, a
metal train for Drake, and a remote-controlled car for Taper.

By the time they made it home, the sky was dark with
angry clouds and they were all freezing. Ron and Hail were the last to get
home, since they wanted to make sure their friends were safe. Once in their
room, Ron stripped and took a shower. He wanted a bath, but he didn’t want to
take forever because he knew Hail would want one as well. When he returned to
their room with a fluffy, warm towel he laughed at the wet pile on the ground.
Hail went to take his shower and Ron decided to dig their jackets out of the
mound before they ended up in the laundry. Shaking Hail’s jacket to get rid of
the water, he heard a soft thump and looked down.

There was a tiny red box, only about an inch wide,
long, and deep. He picked it up, realizing it was covered in tape.
It must
be from the toy shop. It must have stuck to Hail’s jacket when he brushed up
against it.
He set it on Hail’s desk since it was too late and too cold to
return it. They could take it back in the morning.

*          *          *

It was a slow day at work for Dylan, which was the
best kind of day, but was also unusual since there were still people putting up
Christmas decorations. Then again, news reports were saying the weather was
going to turn sour, so Dylan hoped people were just being wise and not doing
anything reckless.

When Dylan arrived home, Edward and the boys were
playing cards at the kitchen table and Mordon was reading on the couch. He
grabbed a mug of coffee and enjoyed the scent of highly seasoned meat. “What’s
for dinner?” he asked.

“Pot roast, veggies, and potatoes,” Ron answered.
“Mom is getting more veggies.”

Hail made a goofy face.

Dylan loved the hustle and bustle of a house full of
his family. He always felt at home with them whether they were here or on Duran.
“So what did you two get up to?”

The boys glanced at each other and shrugged. “We went
spent our allowances on presents for you all. Did anything interesting happen
at work?”

“Not today. Yesterday, my last patient was attacked
by a chimney monster, though.”

Ron rolled his eyes, but Hail looked concerned.

“Are you talking about Alyssa Cofer,” Mordon asked.
Dylan nodded. “Hon Cofer hired someone to come down and check things out. He’s
a private investigator, which Taylor told me was like a freelance cop. Hon’s
daughter was apparently attacked by something in the chimney, and she wasn’t
the only one. Everyone on their block reported attacks over the last few days
from the attic, chimney, or closet.”

“Okay, that’s pretty weird.”

*          *          *

“I don’t see anything weird,” Devon said, shining his
penlight over every inch of brick inside the chimney. After his client was
pulled over by the town sheriff for going the speed limit on slightly slick
roads, Devon was ready to be done with the case and the town.

He sat up, maneuvering himself carefully so he didn’t
hit his head on the brick of the fireplace. Malla handed him a mug of coffee,
which he thanked her for. The weather was nothing compared to some of the hard
winters he had experienced, but his instincts were keeping him on edge.

Since Alyssa was completely healed from her ordeal
and whatever had been in the chimney was gone, Devon didn’t think he was going
to learn anything else for the night. “I’m going to find a motel and come back
in the morning. There is a motel here, right?”

“Yep. Down on Fourth Street. I can drive you there,
but the sheriff might arrest me for having two people in my car at a time or
for a turn light flashing half a second faster than the state average. Do you
think there’s a real case here then, or just some animal?”

“I’m definitely concerned with the claw marks,
because an animal with claws that far apart should be too big to fit in the
chimney. I’m really hoping it’s just some huge, mutated, fearless raccoon.”

“Really? That’s the best case scenario?” Malla asked.
“Can you help us?”

“Yeah. Whatever it turns out to be, I can probably
help you. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“I really appreciate it,” Hon said. Just as they
reached the door, a hard knock came. Hon answered the door. “Debbie? What
happened?”

A middle-aged, ginger-haired woman stood crying in
the doorway with a cut on her forehead and a sleeping four-year-old in her
arms. “I need to use your phone. The cell towers are down.”

Devon checked his cell phone to see that she was
correct; he had no service. Hon took her arm and pulled her in, then shut the
door behind her. “Of course you can use it, but tell us what happened. Do you
need me to drive you to the hospital?”

“No, I’m not… it doesn’t hurt.” Malla, who had grabbed
a first aid kit when she saw Debbie, guided her to the couch and started
cleaning the cut. “A few days ago, Evan ran to my room crying that something
tried to crawl out of his closet to get to him. I told the sheriff, but he just
said Evan was dreaming because he couldn’t get a scent.”

“A scent?” Devon asked.

“The sheriff is a dragon,” Hon explained. “Debbie,
this is Devon Sanders, a wizard. Devon, this is Debbie Nevada, a vampire.” Sure
enough, her cut was healed by the time Malla had finished washing it.

“Nice to meet you,” she said automatically. “Tonight,
Evan wouldn’t go to bed, so I checked his closet to reassure him. Something
attacked me.”

“Your son sleeps at night?” Devon asked. Hon and
Debbie stared at him. “Sorry, I know a lot of vampires, but I guess I don’t
know everything about them.”

“My husband and Evan are human. I adopted Evan when
he was two.” She laid him down on the couch as soon as Malla got up. “Which is
good because you can’t thrall vampire children.” She had made him sleep so he
wouldn’t be afraid.

“How many others have been attacked?” Devon asked
when Debbie went to make a call.

Hon shook his head. “We should go down to the police
department tomorrow and ask. One problem with this town is that you don’t have
a lot of options. The sheriff pretty much elected himself and appointed his
pack members as his officers, and they enforce the law as they see fit. They’re
not crooks, but they’re dragons, so they had different values.”

“Hon,” Debbie called softly, returning to the living
room, “The phone lines are down, too.”

*          *          *

Sarah Parris woke to a gentle hand on her shoulder.
She opened her eyes and smiled up at her husband. “Put him in his crib and come
to bed,” Erik said. She nodded and stood carefully, trying desperately not to
jostle her newborn. Jamie was only a week old and Sarah hated to put him down.
He was so damned tiny. She laid him gently in the crib, caressed his cheek, and
let Erik pull her away.

“We should move the crib into our room until he can
sleep through the night.”

Erik ignored her and patted their German Shepard’s
head. “See, Frankie will keep watch.” He shut the glass French doors, locking
the dog in with the baby. Frankie dutifully settled down next to the crib.

After a quick shower, Sarah joined her husband in
bed. When she tried to reach for her book, Erik caught her hand and started
kissing her neck. “Not a chance,” she said, laughing.

“You just lay there then and don’t mind me. Read your
book while I---” he was cut off as Frankie started barking. Sarah jumped up to
go to him, but Erik pulled her back onto the bed. “It’s nothing. He’s barking
at the leaves hitting the window.”

Sarah hesitated; Frankie always barked when the wind
caused the tree limbs to brush against the window.

“Shut up, Frankie!” Erik yelled.

The dog didn’t stop barking, though. After a few
seconds, they heard glass breaking over the baby monitor. Sarah bound from the
bed, but Erik got tangled in the sheets and hit the floor. Sarah screamed when
she pulled against the handle and the door wouldn’t open.

“Move,” Erik growled, his words nearly
unintelligible. Sarah backed away when Erik started to shift into his grizzly
bear form. The sheets shredded as the man’s body grew massive. He slammed his
half human, half bear fist into the door and broke it to pieces before he was
even steady enough to stand. Sarah ran down the hallway and threw open the
doors of the nursery. Dodging glass and toys, she made it to the crib and
picked up the crying baby.

Sarah cried with relief. “He’s fine,” she said as her
husband entered the room on all fours. He was enormous, but she knew she never
had to worry about him hurting her.

Erik, not satisfied, sniffed at the broken glass.
Only then did Sarah realize the glass was from the door. She flipped on the
lamp next to the crib and emitted a strangled, terrified, desperate gasp. The
dog was dead at her feet and soaked with blood.

December 24, Thursday

Mordon woke to the boys arguing loudly in the
kitchen.
Of all the ways to be awoken
. He didn’t finish the thought. He
dreamt of Sydney all night, every night. He wanted it to end so badly, yet he
couldn’t bear the thought.
I wasn’t with her long enough to miss her this
badly
.

Your soul knew her better than you think
. The
response in his head was from the ancient dragon, Rojan, and he couldn’t have
been happier to hear it.

You’re back
!

I never left
.

The dragon’s life mate, Arazel, was killed right
before he gave his life to save Mordon. Mordon’s mother died in childbirth from
an illness. The last thing she did was a spell to give Mordon what power she
could in order to save him. It wouldn’t have worked on its own, but when mixed
with very strong dragon’s blood, it bonded them so that they could both live.

What they were not prepared for was Arazel being
reborn as an Earth dragon named Sydney. As soon as Mordon met her, he felt the
same bond as Rojan had. Unfortunately, they were torn apart once again by a
powerful, ancient demon.

I tried to sleep through the mourning period, but
I have come to realize that is impossible, and more importantly, that you are
suffering just as much.

I have all your memories of Arazel.

And I have already suffered the loss, whereas you
have not, so I should be helping you through this. Now, I believe the first
step in getting through this is quieting those children.

“I’m not telling them!” Ron yelled. “Why do I always
have to give the bad news?!”

Mordon entered the kitchen wearing only his jeans and
hoping Ron wasn’t in too foul a mood to cook breakfast. He really was the only
one in the pack who could cook.

“Because they never get upset with you and you can
make cookies,” Hail said.

“What’s going on?” Mordon asked.

“All the presents we got yesterday disappeared,” Hail
said.

“Huh?”

“We bought everyone presents yesterday.” Hail spoke
exaggeratingly slow and simple. “They all came with decorative boxes. All the
presents and boxes disappeared.”

“But there are protective wards in your room. Nobody
could have broken into your room, and if someone wanted to, it wouldn’t be for
toys.”

“They were in the living room,” Ron said as he set a
plate piled high with pancakes in the center of the table. He smacked Hail’s
hand when Hail tried to grab them. “Those are Dad’s. Yours are still in the
pan.”

“But Dad never eats that much.”

“He will if I cry, and he hasn’t been eating enough.”

Rojan laughed, but neither he nor Mordon were going
to interfere. They both agreed that Dylan was letting work get in the way of
his health. Ron set a plate with toast, eggs, and bacon in front of Mordon, who
put it together in a breakfast sandwich.

As he ate, he checked his phone and thought it was
odd that he didn’t have a message from Taylor. He usually had a “come in” or
“you’re not needed today” message, but there was nothing. He pushed the fourth
button and waited for it to say it was calling Taylor. He hated his phone even
more when it said, “no service.” “These things never make any sense. What does
this mean?” he asked, showing it to Ron and Hail.

They both shrugged. “You know Earth as much as we
do,” Ron said.

“You were born on Earth,” Mordon reminded Hail.

“Yes, but Vivian said I couldn’t have a phone until I
was two and I wasn’t around then,” Hail said sarcastically. “Oh, and Granddad
went back to Duran for another case.”

I also sense that Divina is away
, Rojan said.

At least Dylan will be allowed out of bed today
.
The young Guardian always planned big for the days he had off and ended up
spending most of them alone with his wife. How they only had two kids no one
would ever know.

Dylan entered then with boxers and a white t-shirt.
“Morning, family minus the wife and father.”

“Morning, Dad minus the suit and tie,” Hail said.

“Daddy, something happened to all our gifts and Hail
refuses to be the one to tell our friends,” Ron said.

“They never get angry with you and you can make
cookies, so you should be the one to tell them,” Dylan said.

When Ron set a plate of bacon and mug of coffee in
front of Dylan and pushed the pancakes to within reach, he paused and waited
for his father to look at him so he could pout properly. Dylan adjusted himself
in his seat, folded his arms on the table, and gave Ron an even greater pout.
It only took a couple of seconds before Ron took a step back and covered his
eyes.

“Stop that! That’s not fair!” Ron whined.

“Life’s not fair, angel. But, I’ll tell you what. You
tell your friends. I will tell Mordon and your mother.”

“And Edward?” the ten-year-old asked tentatively.

Dylan scoffed. “Not a bleedin’ chance. What happened
to them anyway? Nobody could have broken in and we don’t have a fireplace for
the chimney monster to get in. Was a window open or anything?”

“No.”

“Huh. I hope the chimney monster didn’t find another
way to get in, like a closet or something.”

Mordon sighed. “First of all, I told you yesterday
there were reports of attacks from closets and attics as well as chimneys.
Second, we’re not calling it the chimney monster.”

“Huh. No basements? That’s odd.” A frantic knock
disturbed the thoughtful silence. “I got it,” Dylan said and walked out.

Mordon followed him into the living room. Mordon
sensed that it was Stacy before Dylan opened the door, but he couldn’t
understand why she smelled so upset. She was crying. “Please tell me Drake
stayed the night here,” she said as soon as Dylan opened the door.

“No, he wasn’t here. What happened? Did he say he was
going somewhere?”

“No, he went to bed last night. This morning, he was
gone. I tried to call his friends, but the phones are out. Home lines and
cellular towers both. I couldn’t even call the police. John is asking other
neighbors if they’ve seen him.”

“I’ll drive you to the sheriff’s place, because
you’re in no condition to drive. Mordon, take the boys around to their friends’
houses and see if he went to them.” Dylan went into his room to change before
Mordon could respond. Mordon quickly grabbed a shirt. By the time he returned
to the living room, Dylan and Stacy were gone.

Two minutes later, Mordon, Ron, and Hail were getting
in the family’s second car; a black Dodge Charger. They went to the twins’
house first. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, they realized something
was wrong. The front door was open and the grass in the front lawn was charred
and dried.

“Stay in the car,” Mordon said as he got out. He
knocked on the open door and entered. Ronda Ballard was on the couch with her
face in her hands while Steven paced in front of her. “What happened? Are the
twins okay?”

“They’re missing,” Steven said.

“So is Drake.” Mordon could believe the kids on the
north end of town ran away, but not Drake and not the twins. “I know you’re
confused and scared, but ask around the neighborhood and see if you can find
any more information. Find out if any more kids are missing. Get everyone who
is missing children to meet in the police station and bring pictures.” Mordon
got back in the car. “Taper and Tatum are missing, too.”

Mordon drove to Luca’s house and knew when he saw the
crowd of terrified parents in the middle of the street that this neighborhood
had been attacked as well. He stopped just long enough to tell the parents to
get pictures of their children and go to the police station. Ten minutes later,
they were pulling up to Logan’s house. The door was locked, but nobody answered
when Mordon knocked, so he was about to bust the window when Ron lifted the
welcome mat and revealed a spare key. A thorough search of the house turned up
no one, no sign of attack, and no unusual scent.

Mordon could smell intentions, and although it wasn’t
as potent when someone left, they still left behind a trace of their emotions.
He scented nothing unusual, not even fear.
This doesn’t make any sense
.

He must have left of his own will. My senses are
never wrong
, Rojan said.

“Hey,” Ron said, poking Mordon’s arm and then
pointing to a surveillance camera mounted in the living room corner.

“
Dylan, get to Logan’s place. We have video
cameras,
” Mordon said in Dylan’s mind.

*          *          *

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Devon said. He was
sitting in the police station with Hon, Debbie, and Evan. Other parents were
flooding the station with claims that their children vanished in the night. The
doors and windows were all still locked, nothing was broken, and none of the
children had a reason to leave.

Debbie held Evan tighter with every person that
entered the station, as if she was afraid they would take her child in lieu of
their own. One man seemed to be the only one keeping order and he wasn’t a
member of the police. Judging by the way the lights flickered when the man
passed them, Devon would bet the slightly older man was one of the most
powerful wizards he ever met.

He had brown hair and green eyes, like Devon, but he
was thinner. Although there was quite a lot of youthfulness to him, the man was
all business at this moment. Devon heard several people call the man a doctor.
Not just
a
doctor; but Doctor as if that was his name, as if he was the
only doctor in town.

The man paused, listening to something no one else
could hear, and nodded. Just as he was about to leave, Hon spotted him.
“Doctor!”

The man turned, surprised. “Hon. Is Alyssa missing,
too?”

“No, we’re here because Debbie and her son were
attacked by something in the closet.”

“I’m sorry, but attacks are a little low priority
right now. A lot of children went missing yesterday. I might have a lead,
though. If it’s connected with these attacks— if I find out anything— I swear
I’ll let you all know.”

“You have a lead? A witness?” Devon asked,
approaching them.

The man looked at Devon. “You’re the P.I. Hon
called?” Devon nodded. “Okay. Maybe you can help. I might have something on
video. You know anything about computers?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, because I can’t get near them.”

*          *          *

Dylan wasn’t used to involving people outside his
family, but this affected the entire town.
Children
were taken. “Please
tell me you have some knowledge of the supernatural,” he said as he drove
twenty miles an hour over the speed limit.

“I attend the top university for paranormals in the
United States.”

Dylan scoffed. “I didn’t even know there was such a
thing.” He wasn’t actually surprised; he could tell Devon had a fair amount of
power. He didn’t think Devon was more than in his late twenties, but the
younger wizard had the ambiguous quality that made his age very difficult to
determine. Devon had an authoritative, hardened aura, as if he lived a lot
darker a life than others his age had. Dylan really wanted to scan Devon with
his magic, but it wasn’t the time or place.

“I’m Dylan Yatunus, by the way.”

“Devon Sanders. How are you a doctor if you have so
much trouble with electronics?”

“I’m very careful and the hospital refuses to let me
quit.”

“They know about you?”

“As of very recently. We had a run in with some
demons and the town realized everyone’s dark secrets weren’t really a big deal
here.”

“Demons? Like from Dothra?”

“What’s Dothra?”

“Another world. I know that sounds crazy, but---”

“Hey, there’s nothing crazy about other worlds; I’m a
Guardian from Duran.”

“What’s a Guardian and where’s Duran? And how do you
know about the tower?”

“Tower? I don’t know anything about a tower.”

Dylan was extremely confused by the strange man. He
had to forcefully suppress his natural reaction to someone who wasn’t making
sense, which was to be sarcastic and try to confuse them worse. He pulled up to
Logan’s house.

“We’re here. We’ll have to talk about the other stuff
when we find the kids.”

*          *          *

Devon followed Dylan into the house, wondering if he
just met the person who could answer all his questions or someone crazier than
Professor Langril. Inside, he was a little taken aback by the place. It was
cozy in that it was dim with rich colors, but the daisy yellow walls and
rose-patterned couches were too loud. A medium-sized plastic tree was decorated
and lit up in front of an old-fashioned television set.

There were two adolescent boys and a man in the room
that made Devon’s instincts fire up. They weren’t warning him that he was about
to be slaughtered, but he was definitely in dangerous company. He could sense
an extremely powerful presence in the man.

“Devon, these are my boys, Ron and Hell,” Dylan said.

“Hail,” the older child corrected. Devon took in the almost
unnaturally glossy, deep red hair and striking purple eyes and got the
impression that Dylan’s nickname for the child was spot on. The younger boy was
a poster child for innocence. If someone put him in a commercial for world
hunger or orphanages, every child on Earth would be adopted and cared for in
five minutes.

“And this is my brother, Mordon.”

Devon caught the subtle sniffing and realized that
Mordon was some kind of shifter. There was a strange balance of ruggedness and
elegance to Mordon, which reminded Devon of a wolf raised in a castle. Mordon
nodded to Dylan, obviously indicative that Devon “checked out.”