For the Memory of Dragons (4 page)

The guys made the turn, and both of the
left-side tires blew from where the metal edging of the culvert had
cut into them. Terra danced in her seat. There were many times
she’d hit that pipe wrong and cut a tire. And making that sharp
turn onto the blacktop—perfect recipe for disaster! Too bad they
didn’t roll the car when the tires blew.

Now all she had to do was find an
out-of-the-way spot to lie low; maybe then she could get some
answers from her mystery man. She knew just the place, and there
were farm tools to use for torture if need be
. Oh yeah!

***

Damn it, woman!

Alex wiggled around in the comforter, trying
to find a way out. That crazy woman had snatched him up, wrapped
him in a blanket, and now expected him to be still. And where did
she come off calling him Cookie? Now they were God knows where,
doing God knows what, at God knows what speed. When he got out of
this blanket, he was going to give her a piece of his mind!

Light leaked in around the edges of his
prison, and he poked his head towards it.
Finally! Air!

“Crazy woman!” he chirped in dragon.

She reached her hand down and patted his
back. “It’s okay, Cookie.”

Cookie!

“My name is not
Cookie!
” he snarled
at her.

She looked down at him, shocked. “Someone
woke up grumpy.”

“Of course I’m grumpy. You would be, too, if
someone wrapped you in a blanket and tossed you around.” He growled
and chirped complaints at her.

Struggling, he finally extracted himself
from the blanket.
That thing was hot!
He kicked it to the
floor, disgusted.

She let out a loud huff. “See if I save your
ass again. I could have let those men have you.”

Alex stopped and looked at her. “Men?” he
chirped. “What men?” When Terra didn’t answer him, he put his front
foot on her leg. “What men?” He pushed down, trying to get her to
answer.

“Hey!” Terra yanked his foot off her leg.
“Those things are sharp.”

“
What men?
” His wings ruffled in
agitation.
Damn it, this was important.

Terra glanced at him before turning her
attention back to the road.

“
What men!
” he barked.
Can’t this
woman answer a simple question?

She glared at him. “Go ahead and keep
yelling at me.” She turned her attention back to the road. “It
won’t do you any good. I don’t understand ‘squeak squeak squeakity
squeak’.”

Aarrrgggg! Of all the crazy, irritating
women!

He paced in the car, aggravated. Couldn’t
she see this was important? If she wanted yelling, he would give
her yelling! Closing his eyes, he turned his mind towards human and
let go. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he took a deep breath and
tried again. Still, he remained a dragon.

Crap! Of all the times to get stuck in
dragon form, why now?

He circled on the seat, irritated. A hand
came down on his back, knocking him off balance.

“Sit!” Terra barked and forced him down on
the seat. “You’re going to make me wreck.”

Growling, he settled on the seat.
Fine!
He would sit. He wiggled around, stretching out on the
seat. It was really too small for him, so he squirmed closer to her
and laid his head in her lap.
Oh, yes.
That gave him the
space he needed.

Closing his eyes, he turned his mind to the
problem at hand. Why couldn’t he shift? Memories filtered in. Other
times he had gotten stuck in dragon form, so this problem wasn’t
anything new. He worked on those memories and came up with an
answer he could use—his dragon half had gotten stubborn and taken
over. He wasn’t listening to it properly, or he was missing
something important. Yeah, he was missing something important right
now—his memory!
Fine.
If his dragon wanted to speak, he
would listen.

Drawing in a deep breath, Alex relaxed.
First, he had to deal with the irritation. A few quick breathing
exercises calmed his heart and eased the anger away. Relaxing more,
he let go of all thought and reveled in being a dragon. His senses
sharpened, and he took note of the things around him. The gentle
rocking of the car. The hum of road noise. The rub of the steering
wheel against one of his horns. He rolled his head away from the
wheel so Terra could drive without that interference. The movement
pressed his head into her body. She was warm and soft. And smelled
nice. Like woman and flowers.

He slowly became aware of soft fingers
gliding back and forth over his scales. She was petting him.
Usually that irritated him, but this felt nice. His dragon was
content with her touch. Now that was odd—usually his dragon was
cranky. He stopped and thought about that.
So his dragon
did
remember.
Turning to that piece of him, he asked the
question he needed to know.
Who am I?

A torrent of memories flooded him, all from
the viewpoint of a dragon. The feel of air over scales. The taste
of smoke and flame. The sting of another dragon’s claws as they
were wrapped together in passion. He lingered on that memory for a
moment and was able to remember the girl. She was a passing fancy
that his dragon had tolerated. Going on, more images flooded his
brain. Training. Lots and lots of training. The bite of claws. The
sting of flames. His buddies congratulating him when he made his
goal. He had earned the right to wear that tattoo on his shoulder.
The one human memory he recalled was the sting of the needle as it
embedded the ink into his skin. Everything came to him in flashes
of sensation, but no sound. It gave him a sense of what he was—he
was an Elite—but he still had no idea
who
he was.

The soft scratching of Terra’s nails over
his scales stopped as she turned the car in somewhere and shut it
off. They had arrived at wherever they were going.

Good. It was high time they both got some
answers.

Safe.
Terra turned off the car and
looked down at the dragon in her lap. At least he wasn’t growling
and chirping at her anymore.
Damn, was he grumpy.
She rested
her hand back down on him. He was also warm and smooth. Something
she could really get used to. Terra shook her head, driving the
silly thought out. He may look like a pet, but he was really a man.
Something she should remember.

She patted him gently on the shoulder. “Wake
up.”

The dragon cracked his eye and looked up at
her.

Wow!
His eyes were gorgeous.

“I think it’s time we talked.” Terra patted
him again.

He lifted his head up and chirped at
her.

Terra just shook her head. “We’re going to
have to work on your communication skills, buddy.”

The dragon snickered and nodded his
head.

“Can you change back?” Terra looked at him,
calculating how big he would be in human form. He might fit, lying
in the seat like that. It would be entertaining to see him try. A
chirp interrupted her musing.

Turning around, the dragon caught hold of
the door with his teeth and tried to pull it open.
So
cute!

“Here.” Terra leaned over him and yanked on
the handle. The door popped open.

The dragon gave her another chirp and hopped
out onto the floor of the barn.

Grabbing her door, she pushed it open and
looked around the barn. This was the perfect place to talk with
him. A twinkling of glass shone in the corner—the only evidence
that this barn had surveillance in it.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

Terra turned around and saw that her dragon
had turned back into a man. “As well you should be.” She slammed
the door and started around the car. “I just saved your ass back
there, buddy. You should be at least a little grateful.”

She stopped as soon as she got around the
front of the car. He was standing there, buck naked. Again.

“Don’t you have any sense of decency?” She
stormed over and pushed past him. “Geez.” Pulling her quilt out of
the car, she thrust it at him. “Cover that thing up. A girl can
only take so much.” Turning her head away from him, she tried to
find something interesting to look at on the floor.

Snickering, he reached for the blanket. One
hand took the blanket, while the other caught Terra’s wrist.

Terra’s eyes shot up to meet his.

“Thank you.”

The warmth in his voice sent a shiver down
her spine. The blanket slipped from her fingers as he dropped it
and reached up to cup her cheek.

“For everything.”

What was that?
Terra glance away as
heat crawled up her skin. “You’re welcome.” It was unnerving how
his voice made her insides flutter. Pulling away from him, she shut
the car door.

Snickering again, he picked up the blanket
and wrapped it around his shoulders so it hung down around him. “Is
this better?”

Terra glanced back. “Yes.” It was almost a
shame to have him cover up, but she really needed to talk to him
without the distraction. She turned around and leaned on the side
of the car. “I should let you know that this barn belongs to a
friend of the family. He’s a bit of a conspiracy nut, so we’re
under surveillance.”

The dragon man nodded.

“So,” Terra eyed him, “who are you?”

He let out a long sigh and turned to lean
against the car beside her. “I don’t know.” He shook his head
slowly.

Great. He still doesn’t remember.

“Why were those men after you?”

Again, he shook his head slowly. His
shoulders dropped into a depressed slouch.

“Then can you tell me what you know about
this?” Terra pulled the file out of his bag and handed it to
him.

The man took it and looked at it. Shock hit
his face.
Oh, this triggered some memories!

***

I know this woman!

The thought echoed around Alex’s brain as he
stared at the first profile in the folder. His knees weakened as he
slid down the side of the car and sat on the floor, reading the
file. He had memories of visits to her. He would bring her flowers;
she would serve him tea. Everything was bright and sharp, but there
was no sound.
Why don’t any of my memories have sound?

Flipping the page, he saw another person he
knew. A man. This one collected models of classic cars. The next
page contained another person he knew. All of the pages held faces
of people he knew.

“I know these people.” Alex said softly as
he flipped back to the first page and reread what was there. The
account of the woman’s last sighting made his heart hurt. “I wrote
this.” He pointed to the paragraph at the bottom.

“So who are they?” Terra asked as she looked
down at him.

“Friends,” he answered.

No, that wasn’t right.

“People I visited.”

That was better.
They were friends,
but he did something for them more than just as a friend.
But
what?
Now that was the question. Alex looked over the file
again. All of the people were listed as missing, presumed dead.
Each had an account of their last-known sighting. All but one.

Something important ate at the corner of his
mind, but the more he chased after the thought, the more skittish
it became. Giving up for now, he looked at the pages one more time
before closing the file. The pages triggered some memories, but not
the ones he needed.

“I don’t know,” he admitted and handed the
folder back to Terra.

“Then what about this?” She shifted the bag
to show him the symbol on the flap. “You have the same mark on your
shoulder.”

He raised his hand and rubbed his fingers
over the mark. “It’s special.” He knew he had earned the right to
wear it, but he couldn’t remember what it stood for. “I don’t
know,” he admitted again.

“There are other things in the bag.” She
pulled it off and handed it down to him. “I’m sorry, but I looked
through it while you were sleeping.”

Alex nodded and took the satchel. Crossing
his legs, he leaned forwards and dumped the stuff out.
Damn.
There was nothing in there. He shifted through the trash, trying to
make sense of it. Gum, matches, a necklace, and a few crumpled
dollars. Nothing to help him remember.

The sting of magic bit his fingers when he
picked up the necklace. “Shit,” he cursed and dropped the thing.
“What the hell is that?” Picking up the pack of gum, he used it to
poke at the charm. It felt… evil.

Terra squatted next to him and picked up the
necklace. “Some sort of charm.”

He stared at her, surprised. That thing had
stung him when he’d touched it.
How can she hold it like
that?

“That doesn’t hurt?” he asked,
bewildered.

Terra looked at the charm. “No.” She flipped
it over to look at the back. “It tingles a little, but it doesn’t
hurt.” She held it out to him.

“Uh uh.” Alex held out the bag so Terra
could drop the necklace in. “I ain’t touching that thing
again.”

She gave him an odd look. “It
is
yours, right?”

“I guess so.” He looked at the charm. “This
is my bag, right?” The bag had a familiar feel to it, but he had no
way to be sure.

“I found it with you, so it must be.” She
dropped the necklace into the bottom of the bag.

Alex looked at the small piece of silver.
“Then it must be mine.” He took the file from her and tucked it
back in the bag, too. Next, he looked at the gum and box of
matches. They were both unopened. He dropped the gum in the bag.
The box of matches intrigued him. It had the name of a pub on
it—The Dragon’s Flight. “Do you know this place?” He held the box
out for Terra to see.

“No.” Terra took the matches and flipped
them over. “But there’s an address on them. I’m sure we could find
it.”