Elam (3 page)

Several dozen plates had been found in the kitchen area, saved from the fall off the walls by the stone shelves that held them. The large ovens were in good condition, but they weren’t sure if they were going to replace them with modern things or not. A table, long and made of wood long since gone from this area, had been found almost in perfect shape but for the legs. It had been pulled from the rubble and put with the other items they were going to repair or simply clean up.

Caroline had been able to gather them seedlings of trees that were long gone. They’d been planted by Essie, and were now sturdy trees that they were going to use when they made the items found of the same wood. There were other woods, too, that she’d brought to them…tall trees they’d become, to shade the castle in the summer and shelter it in the colder months. And with Essie’s gifts—powers, he supposed they were now—they were growing saplings of their seedlings alongside the castle keep.

Anything made of cloth had been ruined long ago. They had bits and pieces of some of the tapestries that were still colorful, but full of holes. Someone had mentioned trying to find someone to repair them, and one of them had begun the task of looking for someone reliable. A few bits of a blanket and mattress were there as well, their use apparent when found on a bed that had long since been turned to rot.

Pottery vases—some broken, some in good condition—had been set aside. The pieces were going to be turned into something else rather than just wasted and thrown away. And no matter the shape they were in, they were put aside reverently and kept safe for use later.

Essie had suggested that they frame what cloth they found, and that they set up their own displays of things, like vases and carved stone, to show their children and their children too. Lindsey thought that they should mark where it had been found, along with what they thought it might have been used for. The women thought that the stone shelves along the wall to the main hall would do nicely for the things that they wanted to keep and treasure.

“He’s here.” Elam didn’t bother standing when Jamie’s secretary came in with a pitcher of water and made the announcement. This was not going to go well if the man didn’t sign off on the paperwork. His attorney asked to speak to Elam’s, and that was when he stood up.

“You signing today?” The man, Donald Proctor, looked at his attorney but didn’t answer. “I asked you a question. Are you signing off on this today? I’m sick and tired of making this trip only to be told that you’d been hung up or that something came around. You’re here; are you signing off on this now?”

“There are some...issues with Mr. Proctor and his family and business. Some unexpected problems. We wanted to see about cancelling the contract now and having the check returned, with a fee to you for your trouble. We will, of course, pay any legal fees you’ve incurred as well. I’m sure you understand. Things happen.” Elam was shaking his head even before the man finished. “Sir, there isn’t any way for him to complete this sale. Perhaps at a later day, but—”

“The sale is complete but for him getting his name on the paperwork. The money I have currently in my account says so.” Proctor asked him when he’d deposited it, sounding upset. “I didn’t deposit it, I cashed it out. I did it this morning after waiting the ten days that you asked me to do. I had the bank take the money right out of the account immediately so that I could have the cash in hand. I had a feeling this was going to be a problem. And if you read the fine print on the pre-agreement contact that you did sign, it says that you would pay me the rest of the money in thirty days. If not, then you are going to be in for a huge letdown. You now have...twenty-one days to come up with the rest of the money, or I own you.”

“You bastard.” Mr. Proctor lunged at him, and Elam waited for the hit. As soon as the fist, a soft one he noticed, hit his jaw, Elam let it take him to the floor.

No, he wasn’t hurt, and the punch did nothing more than bloody his lower lip, but it was all he needed. He looked over at his attorney while still in a prone position. He smiled at her when she asked him what he wanted her to do now.

“Would you please file the paperwork needed to own Mr. Proctor?” Elam’s attorney, Jamie Truman, smiled as she pulled out her cell and started making calls. Elam looked at the two men, Proctor and his attorney. “You have just made the biggest mistake of your life.”

“Now see here. Tempers are high and there wasn’t any reason for you to provoke me.” Jamie laughed as she pulled the phone from her ear and looked at him with a grin. “You have her stop this right now. There isn’t any reason for it. I’ve been under a great deal of stress of late.”

“How much?” Instead of answering her he looked at Proctor. Elam stood up and Proctor backed from him. Jamie asked him again how much he wanted.

“You sign the paperwork now and pay me what you owe me and I won’t take everything you own. Including the house on the lake that you bought for your mistress three months ago. Nor will I go to the papers about your three children that I’m pretty sure your new wife doesn’t know about. I’m a man on edge too, and believe me, you do not want to see me have a bad day.”

In the end Proctor signed the paperwork, and Jamie had a courier go to Proctor’s bank and withdraw the balance of the sale in the form of a cashier’s check and bring it to Elam. He said nothing as he gathered his coat and briefcase. It was done, and that was all he really cared about right now.

“You’re a right prime prick, you know that, right?” Elam smiled and opened the door for Jamie when she was ready to go as well. Proctor said nothing more, and they made their way to the elevator.

“Remind me to never do business with you on a personal level. You are ruthless. You should be an attorney. I don’t think you’d ever lose a case.” He’d been one, he told Jamie, long ago. “Yeah, right. What are you, thirty? Less I’m betting.”

“Much older than I look, I’m afraid.” When she laughed again, he waited for the doors to open before he continued. “Thank you for today. If you ever need anything from me, just let me know. I’m done with corporate bullshit.”

Handing her an envelope, he made his way to the front doors. He was ready to go home. And he really hoped that his brother was too. But before he could make good on his escape, Jamie stopped him before he was able to hail a cab.

“You can’t do this.” He said that he could and he did. “But my fee is...well hell, Elam, my fee is about one percent of this. This is all the money that Proctor just paid you. And the check is made out to...how the fuck did you do this? And why would you? Why would you have the bank make me the one to get this money?”

“You want to start your own firm, right?” She nodded but told him that wasn’t in the cards for her. “It is now. You cannot only afford a sitter for your daughter while you work, but you can pay off the student loans you have, buy a reliable car, and get yourself started on the dream I know you’ve had for a long time. You did right by me, and I want to do the same for you.”

“But this is over three million dollars. That’s a lot of ‘right’ if you ask me.” The cab pulled up in front of him and she stopped him again before he could get it in and make his escape. “I’ll never forget this, Elam. Never. You’ve given me...you’ve given my family a great gift in this.”

“Don’t become jaded. And please, continue to be the person and the lawyer that you are. One who tries her cases with her heart, not her wallet.” She nodded and he kissed her on the forehead. “Now. If you need me, you know how to get in touch with me. I want you to have a great life.”

“I will. Now. Thank you again. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to repay you for this.” He said that he didn’t want her to and slipped into the cab. “Elam, would you really have taken him for everything he had? Proctor, would you have had me go through with what you wanted me to do had he not signed the paperwork?”

“And then some.”

The cab slid into traffic and he leaned back on the seat. Casdon told him he was a sap and Elam told him to fuck off.

Asher was finished up as well. So instead of waiting until the next morning to drive back home, the two of them decided that they’d go now, pick up the things they needed on the way, and sleep in their own beds tonight.

“I talked to Essie earlier. She said a woman wants to talk to me.” Elam asked Asher about what. “Don’t know. She’s not human, a witch Lindsey said, but that’s about all they know. Apparently she can communicate with Lindsey without any contact. Essie thinks she might be working for us in a way to keep the dragons safe from some hunter that’s been out there. I think she might know who he is.”

“You think she’s in trouble, this witch?” Asher shrugged and told him he guessed he’d find out. “I don’t envy you having a mate and all this responsibility. I like my life just the way it is. Now that this business is done, I’m ready to get on to more important matters. Like where to put my big screen television in my new home.”

Elam hadn’t been sure that he wanted his own home. But he knew that things were getting tight in the house. Not that he’d been asked to move out…on the contrary, they’d told him it was his home too. And it wasn’t as if he had moved far away. He was less than a hundred yards from the main house and his brother’s new home. But with the new babies coming—both Lindsey and Essie were breeding—he and Casdon wanted some space to call their own. He supposed it was time to leave the nest, as it were.

We’re going to be single for a very long time, you and I.
He had been single for a long time, he told Casdon.
Yes, we both have, but the thing is, now we can have chickens over whenever we want.

Chicks, and I don’t think Dad will approve of us having our own little dragon fuck fest. No matter how old we are. He is still Dad.
Casdon told him he didn’t have to know.
Right. Dad knows everything.

His dad gave the best hugs, and Elam found that he needed one of those as well right now. He really hated the city and all the things that went with it. He didn’t mind the town, the one that was pretty close to where they lived, but the city and all the noise and smells? Elam was a man who liked his peace and quiet.

Chapter 2

Ariannona sat on the earth and watched the birds at play. It was quiet here, if one could discount the four billion bugs making noises, the birds’ endless chatter, and every living thing going about their business. Smiling, she thought about the pair of lion cubs she’d seen yesterday and her conversation with them. They’d told her about the house, and the men and women who worked on it. Also the bodies that were being pulled from the mother earth.

They’ve been digging there for three months now, and it seems there is no end to it all
. Ariannona said that she’d seen it.
I will be glad for it when they’re done. The lake fingers run by that land, and the water there is the cleanest in all of the valley. And the sweetest too.

There had been police and other personnel at one end of the king’s property. She knew that the man there had murdered and that he’d buried the dead on his land. He’d also used the caves, something that had bothered her a great deal more than him killing anyone. The caves had been her home for the better part of the last two thousand or so years. Whoever had found out and set things to right, she was happy for it. The lion asked her if she had any more information on the goings on.

“They’ll be gone soon. The land has nothing more to give them.”

The last body would be found soon. They were close now and she’d used a little of her magic to guide them closer to it. It wasn’t cheating, as she had been told she could not do, nor could she interfere with the way things were set in motion. But since they were close to the last body, it didn’t count as her making them do something that they weren’t already doing anyway. Ariannona had learned that she really couldn’t cheat the hard way.

Ariannona had just left the castle after seeing the king and queen when she’d come upon Helena the black. At that moment she knew that the queen had been right…her death would have happened then had she not been warned to tread carefully. The witch had never cared for her, and Ariannona had disliked her as well. But this time she saw Helena trying to whip up some of the men in the village into a fight and had moved in to calm things. The fight, as it turned out, had netted her a stay in shackles, and the three men were dead anyway.

The worst part about being in the shackles, a way to subdue women like her, a witch, was that she had to endure having no time out of doors. Where anyone could come by and beat her for no other reason than she was there and unable to get up to fight back, as well as throw their rubbish on her. Fourteen days after she was released, a short sentence by most standards then, she went to find the people who had hurt her. Ariannona mourned the death of her king and queen, but others, mostly the ones that were easily manipulated, were ready to do more harm and damage to anyone that would cross their paths.

Not only could she not find them, but she was pretty sure that they’d ended up on the bad end of some powerful magic. Namely Helena the black. She found out later that they’d been used for her coven, and Ariannona had left the area for a few years.

A breaking sound behind her had her pulling the darkness that was forever part of the woods, no matter the time of day, around her.

“I know that you’re here.” Ariannona said nothing as the person moved nearer to where she was lying. “I have a question for you. You said you knew what I was about. I want you to tell me if I really did kill that dragon.”

“Why?” Her voice was all around him. She’d pitched it so that the man would have no idea where it had come from. “You think to make a profit off his death? I assure you that you have not read your lore about them well if you think you can pick over his carcass.”

“He’s dead then.” The man did a little dance and asked her again where he was. “I killed him. It’s only right that his body become mine. And I know my lore, as you call it, better than anyone. I have all the rights to whatever magic I can get.”

“His is no more.” He asked her what that meant. “Simply that. There is no body for you to sell off in bits and pieces. There is no rich dragon blood for you to drink. And the magic that he had, since he did not die close to you, went to someone else. I would imagine the female with him at the time.”

“Well that’s not fair.” Ariannona laughed. “Stop laughing at me. I know my rights from the death of a dragon. I have given him the killing blow, and by the rights and laws of his kind, he is mine to do with as I please.”

“You really are quite stupid, aren’t you?” He sputtered again. “How did you know that I was here? You are a mere human. You have no magic. What did you do to find me?”

She watched him carefully, and when he glanced up into the tree beyond him, she looked too. It was hard to find at first, but once she did, she was pissed about it. He’d set up cameras to find her. And dragons, she thought. Now she understood why he’d been able to track the large beasts.

“I’m stealthy.” She would imagine that he might think he was. But he was a blundering fool as he moved through the woods. “Where are you? I don’t like not being able to see you. Come out of hiding and let’s talk, you and I. I’m lonely for someone to talk to.”

“That is really too bad on your part. I’ve no wish to have any sort of conversation with you. I think you a fool and believe that you should leave soon, before you are killed.” Using her magic, a power that was given to her by the king and queen that fateful day, she found nine cameras around the general area where she was, as well as a dozen or so back at his campsite, ready to be hung.

Blowing them up sounded like a great idea, but she paused. He’d only replace them. Instead, she figured out how they worked and looped the serene quietness of the woods so that to him, it would look like nothing was ever in his camera’s eye. Before she pulled back from her work, she remembered that they would be running all the time and added a little dark time to the loop.

“Mistress?” Ariannona looked at Izic when he landed in front of her. “He has returned to the magical place.”

The brownie, the smallest of the magical creatures that had been around as long as dragons, had been with her for so long. Someday she would have to remember hard when he’d come to be with her. Izic had no one but her, and she the same with him. They helped each other. She kept him alive with her magic and he informed her when she needed information about something. Plus, he was her only friend and the only person, human or otherwise, she trusted without question.

“I have to get this human out of the way so that I can move.” He nodded and grinned at her. “You know that we cannot harm him. His path is set, whatever that might be.”

“He is a dragon slayer. A monster to my kind and others.” She told Izic that she was sorry about that, but he knew the rules. “I know them as well as you, mistress, but it does not mean that I like them.”

“Me either. Most of the time.” He nodded and told her that he would help her. “Just don’t hurt him. You can...what are you going to do?”

“He is very tired.” Ariannona smiled. It was a great plan, but she cautioned Izic that the sleep was not to be permanent. “Nay, mistress, only for a few moments, time for you to escape from the ground.”

As soon as the man simply dropped to the ground she looked at Izic, who said he was sorry. “You most certainly are not. I’m not mad, but what would we have done had you harmed him when he fell? Perhaps he might have hit his head too hard and not been the same. Not that he doesn’t deserve it. But we cannot interfere. The king made that perfectly clear.”

“We have only given him a short rest, so that he might be better equipped at whatever course he is set out to do.” She wasn’t sure that wasn’t the same thing as interfering, but stood up and moved out of the area. Ariannona told Izic about the cameras as she made her way to the magical property.

“You have learned a great deal, mistress, by working with your computer.” She told him it was easy once you figured out a few things. “I have no such thing to help me. I’m much too small to even carry such an item. And I would be worn to nothing, hopping from one key to the next to say anything on the screen.”

She stopped walking and turned to look at him. When he winked at her, she laughed. The things he said to make her feel better about her day. As they continued on their way, she asked him about the man, the slayer.

“He has a small home, though larger than even yours when you are here. And it can be conveyed from one point to another by simply starting it up with that smelling machine in the front of it. He can make it bigger or smaller too, by simply pushing a button and waiting.” She told him what it was. “Camper. You should perhaps find you one of those. It would be nicer than sleeping upon the ground. I myself would find it most nice when it is raining or very chilly.”

“You wouldn’t like it any better than I would. First of all, it’s all closed up. There are windows on them, but it’s not nearly as lovely as the fresh outdoors. And there is no view. Who would want to sleep where you couldn’t see the stars at night or the feel the sun coming up over the mountain?” He said that he would surely miss that part. “Me too. And we have the sense to get in out of the rain, do we not? I think we’d not like where we had it parked and be moving it around all the time.”

“Yes, we do have a great deal of freedom that I don’t believe he has.” He flew to her shoulder and landed there, holding onto her hair as she moved. “He has books and drawings. None of them look like any of the dragons that are on the king’s land. Recently he has more equipment in the small hut...camper. I have seen such things when you go into town, but his are shinier. I think he tracks the dragons by their cold.”

“Cold?” He said that was what he noticed. The temperatures of the settings were very low. “He thinks that dragons are cold then. That’s the dumbest thing...does he not realize that they have the breath of the hottest places of the land? That they can boil him alive with only a small breath?”

“He is most stupid.” Ariannona didn’t think that was right either. The man had killed poor Dawod. “I have other creatures watching out for him as well. Bear, he is most happy with his assignment to chase the slayer when he gets close to the castle ruins.”

Bear was her friend as well. She’d saved him once from another hunter when he came upon the big bear while he’d been fishing. Every day for a month after that, Bear would bring her fish. She finally told him she was but one person, and a dozen or so fish daily was too much. Now he only brought her one when she asked. It had worked out well for them both.

The big house came into view and Ariannona noticed that a third and fourth house had been added surrounding the property. She wondered which son, if it was one of them, had the magic that could do such a thing, and realized that it mattered little. She had a favor to complete for the king and queen, and then she was finished.

“I shall miss you, Izic.” He told her that he would make sure that her body was properly cared for. “Thank you. I must say, I’m looking forward to getting this finished in a great way, but will be saddened that I will leave this earth. I have so enjoyed it for the most part. But the queen, she promised me that I would see her again, and that will be lovely. She was a good woman.”

“And the king a good man.” Ariannona nodded. “You are not sure yet, are you, if I will join you?”

“Nay, I don’t think so. She said that I would be rewarded when I completed this task, and that I would someday see the king and queen for my efforts.” It had been worded strangely, she would admit that. “I have set you free, you know…you are welcome to go and have many children of your own.”

“I should like that, I think. Perhaps I will name one for you.” Izic flew off then, something startling him, she knew. Before she could turn to find out what was coming upon them, she felt the claw at her throat and the dragon’s breath on her cheek.

~~~

Casdon had been moving over the tree tops for over an hour when he spotted the woman. She wasn’t hard to spot really, dressed as she was, her hair as white as the snow on the mountain tops this time of year. When he saw her so close to the edge of their land, he knew that he had to keep her away. There had been too much shit going on of late for him to take any kind of chance. Casdon licked a path along her neck to her shoulder, and nearly let her go when she moaned.

What are you doing here?
He knew that she could understand him. Casdon could taste her magic and knew her to be very powerful.
I asked you a question, and I know you can answer me this way.

“I came with a message.” He didn’t let her go, but felt drawn to bring her body closer to his. As his dragon, he knew that he had to be careful not to harm her, but the need to feel her pressed closer to him made him shift. “You’re one of the dragon hatchlings.”

“I am. And you are?” She didn’t answer him. Running his hand down her body, telling himself he was looking for weapons, he felt her full breast in his hand, her nipple hardening in his palm. He nipped gently at her throat and was rewarded with another moan. “I want to taste your flesh.”

Turning her around, he lifted her body up and took her mouth. It was warm, sweet, and her tongue danced along his as he deepened the kiss. Moving to a tree, he pressed her body to it as he lifted her dress, and feeling her warm muscled thigh in his hand nearly made him whimper.

“Hurry.” He wasn’t sure he’d heard her say that or if he’d only been telling himself to hurry when she pulled at his shirt. As her mouth moved down his chest to his own nipple, he pulled at her blousy top until it was nothing more than shreds. As soon as she bit down on his hard nipple, he tore the rest of her clothing off.