Chapter Four

The, that, that thing just kept staring at me with unblinking eyes. ‘Aurora? Can’t you hear me?’ That voice was in my head, somehow. Panic tried to stop my heart, but I forced myself to move to the computer room. I needed my gun, I needed to burn everything, whatever this was… “Friday, where’s this goddamn intruder?”

“There isn’t one.”

Oh goddamnit, they’d even gotten into my system. Friday was impenetrable! I knelt and spun the safe lock — 14-3-18 — and I heard footsteps pounding through the living room. I grabbed my pistol and whirled, safety off and fully prepared to pull the trigger. Movement flickered in the doorway, and I tensed. “Rory?!” Kal exclaimed, and while I couldn’t stop myself from pulling the trigger, I could change where the bullet went. “What the hell?” he shouted as I shot the wall directly above his shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” I didn’t lower my gun.

“I heard a scream,” he replied, hands in the air, “and when I came up here, your door was open… I saw your entire place was trashed, and I got worried.” He lowered his arms. “Why do you have a gun? You could have killed me!”

I bit the inside of my cheek before lowering it. “Because I thought you were someone else.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Who else could I be? Are you in some sort of trouble?”

That thing padded into the doorway at Kal’s feet. Now I could see that it had wings — thin, papery things with bright veins laced through it — and it still stared at me with those eyes. Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. It was smart, and it wasn’t anything that was supposed to exist in New York. How the hell had it gotten into my apartment, anyway?! My eyes went to the wires still hanging from its mouth.

Wait.

I glared at the thing. “Did you destroy my apartment?” I growled.

‘I was hungry.’

Kal looked at me incredulously. “I walked you home,” he snapped. “Are you really going to accuse me of wrecking your apartment?”

I stared at the thing. How was it in my mind?! ‘We’re bonded, Aurora.’

I put my hands to my ears. “Get out of my head!”

It looked up at me. ‘I can’t.’

“Rory?…” Kal took a step toward me, but his feet found that thing before he made any progress toward me. “Oh well hello little guy,” he murmured and knelt down, running a gentle finger along its spine. “Aren’t you a beauty?”

I stared at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

‘Paying his respects to a dragon like he should.’

“Dragon?!” I shrieked. “That, that can’t be. You aren’t real.”

‘Tell him I’m a girl, won’t you?’

“I’d agree with you…only it’s right in front of me,” Kal commented with a soft chuckle, and then he turned to me with a curious gaze. “Did he bond with you?”

I felt something push in my mind, and I could help but correct him: “She.”

He chuckled. “That’s a yes, then.”

“What does that even mean?”

“When she’s old enough, you’ll get to be her Rider. The both of you will be connected to one another in a more powerful way than anyone else will ever be able to comprehend.”

My eyes narrowed. “You say that like it’s fact.”

He shrugged. “It is.”

“How do you know?”

Kal offered me a smile, then. “The world is a much bigger place than you ever knew, Rory.”

“You’re sounding suspiciously like those characters in Mara’s books.”

“She must have been onto something, then."

“I think you owe me an explanation, then.” Missy trotted over to Kal and rubbed against the Dragon he was still scratching, and she continued purring. I held my hand out, wanting something to pay attention to that wasn’t my bubbling insides, but Missy just looked at me for a moment before continuing to pay attention to the Dragon.

He smiled slightly. “Well, what exactly do you want an explanation on?”

“Everything.”

“We don’t exactly have time for that.”

‘We’re bonded. What else do you need to know?’

I glared at the Dragon. “I wasn’t asking you.”

Kal offered me a smile, but I just turned my glare on him, and he sighed. “Have you ever seen the show Supernatural?”

“Dean and Sam Winchester?”

He nodded. “The world…is kinda like that, I guess? Intelligent life that isn’t humanity exists. Creatures who live and breathe magic walk among us, and they have for a very long time, Rory.”

“But why —“

“Why haven’t they shown themselves?” He chuckled. “Don’t you remember the Salem Witch Trials? There are much more of you in this realm than we are, and frankly, no one is rather keen on coming on over here.”

I frowned. “From where?”

He sighed again. “The Shadowrealm.”

“The what?”

“It’s…another dimension. One that houses basically all that is.”

I took a long breath. I was dreaming. That was it… But, if I wasn’t, well… I pointed at the Dragon he was still petting. “Then are there a bunch of those that exist?”

He shook his head. “Actually…no. Have you received any strange packages recently? Touched any strange rocks?”

“She got a package from her mother today,” Friday volunteered. “And when she touched the rock in the necklace, she just kinda froze, and —“

“Thank you, Friday. I can speak for myself, thanks.”

“What rock?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. This was what was left from my mom… I didn’t want to… But apparently Mom had somehow volunteered me for a crazy trip. “It was inside a locket she’d sent me in that box…” I sighed. “When I touched it, I went all cold and I felt like I was being shocked or something. I couldn’t move, and I felt…something.” I looked at the Dragon. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

She nodded. ‘I thought that was obvious.’

“You’re too young to have the sarcasm, you scrawny lizard.”

She stuck a forked tongue out at me. ‘I learned from you.’

He chuckled. “Sounds you guys are going to get along just great.”

I rolled my eyes. “So what does all of this dragon business actually mean?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly, I know about as much as you do.”

I glared at him. “Evidently not.”

“There hasn’t been a Rider in a very long time, Rory. We’ve stopped studying that sort of thing.”

“Studying?”

“There’s a…school. A few of them, actually, scattered throughout the world.” He sighed. “They’re probably going to come looking for you soon.”

I frowned. “I’m not going to some stupid school. I’ve got things to do, Kal. If you seriously think that I’m going to subject myself to being looked down upon or having people preach —“

He shook his head. “You might not have a choice, Rory.”

My eyes narrowed. “Let them try to force me. It won’t end well for them.”

He sighed. “Anyway, you should probably just get some sleep.” He looked back down at the Dragon. “We can talk more once this has had a chance to settle in.”

I stared at him. “Do you really think I’m going to be able to go to sleep with all of this mess?”

He chuckled and gave the Dragon another scratch. “You’ll see to it, won’t you?”

She purred in response.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded

“You should try to relax more,” is all Kal said in reply, and he straightened. “I’ll even help you clean everything up tomorrow morning.”

When he left, I was left staring at the Dragon, and I suppressed a scream. What the hell was Kal doing, just leaving me with everything as it was right now? Like, seriously?

“According to history, Dragons don’t exist,” Charlie commented. “The case you’re making for you being smarter than me is starting to fall apart.”

I took a long breath. “How’d you get access to the net?”

‘I helped him.’

“I’m getting you a cage.”

She stumbled a few steps forward, her silver eyes seeming to get bigger in their pleading. ‘That is certainly not necessary, Aurora. It is not my fault you saw fit to keep your perfectly capable companion constrained.’

“Friday, what else did this little demon do?”

‘Excuse me? How dare you compare me to those things.’ She continued forward and lashed a clawed foot at my leg. I sucked in a sharp breath as the points dug in, and it was with the utmost patience that I pulled her foot away. I tried not to think about how her comment implied demons were real.

“It ate all of the prototypes you were no longer using. She at least had the thought to insure she didn’t eat anything you were actually using.”

I decided not to ask how she had communicated with my computers. “No, but she saw fit to destroy everything else in my home.”

‘I was hungry.’

“You ate a rather large amount of nonfood material.”

‘What is your point? I can convert most anything into energy for consumption. Can you not?’

I frowned. “No. I most certainly can’t.”

‘Then you have an alarming shortage of food within your home, Aurora. You ought to fix that.’

“I don’t need you to lecture me on my eating habits,” I sighed.

I wandered to my room and put my pistol on the nightstand. “Friday, can you make sure the front door is shut and locked please?”

“Of course.” I heard a click out in the living room. “It is as you wished.”

I sat down on the bed and kicked off my shoes, and I started peeling off my clothes. I couldn’t do anything about the windows at this point, but maybe that was a good thing. That Dragon might just…wander out while I slept? Suddenly, I couldn’t stop myself from yawning, and I barely managed to convince myself to go over to the dresser and fish out my pajamas. As I curled up on my bed, the Dragon half hopped, half flew up onto my bed and nudged my shoulder.

‘May I join you?’ She looked at me with those bright eyes, and I sighed.

“Would you actually go if I told you to?”

‘Probably not.’

I chuckled and shifted so I laid on my back like I did for Missy, and the Dragon hobbled to lay on my chest. I hesitated before running a hand along her spine like Kal had. An unbidden smile spread across my lips as she started humming. She was warm and…soft. I’d expected the scales to be cold for some reason…

“What’s your name?”

‘I don’t have one.’

“You seem to have an answer for everything else.”

‘I have all of that from you, Aurora. This is something else you must give me.’

I blinked. “You do realize that I have no idea what Dragons are normally named.”

‘Neither do I. Does that matter?’

I sighed and settled into thought. This was what my mother had left for me; I guess I hadn’t been a bad daughter after all… Though it did raise questions: just who was my mother? I shook my head; that didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was my mother. She was the woman who picked me up when I fell, no matter how I screamed at her for it afterwards. She was the woman who held me at night while I cried; she was the woman who protected me against John when he came after us with a bat after one of those drunk nights he had at least once a year. She was the one who kept Lane and I healthy, always going into the backyard and coming out with some herb or another for our ailments.

“How does Juniper sound?”

She started humming. ‘Sounds just fine to me, Aurora.’

I smiled and let my eyes slide shut. “Then, goodnight, Juniper.”