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- Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
The complete Dragon Sin box set featuring all five ebooks!
Caitlin Miller has an extraordinary adventure ahead of her. Fate drops her child self in a world of magic where she meets Asher, a young boy with a big heart. She's torn away at the height of terror, but returns a decade later where she's reunited with the handsome Asher. Sparks and magic fly as together they try to make sense of life, and love.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Dragon Sin Box Set
Dragon Shifter Romance
Mac Flynn
Copyright © 2021 by M. Flynn
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Perchance to Dream
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Vanity Affair
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Through the Looking Pool
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Call of the Wind
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Portrait of a Goddess
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Continue the adventure
Other series by M. Flynn
1
I smelled the stench of fish. Fish and stale salt water.
My eight year-old self tried to make sense of what I smelled. The last thing I remembered was cowering beneath the covers of my bed. Another roar of thunder rattled the thin windows. I gave a yelp and tried to bury myself into the mattress.
The bedroom door opened and a sliver of light stretched across the floor and to my bed. I peeked out from beneath the covers and saw a dark figure standing in the doorway. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky outside my window and with a scream I ducked back under the sheets.
A laugh broke the tension and footsteps padded across the floor. Someone grabbed the sheet and lifted one corner to peek at me. “Kit Cat, what are you doing?”
My eyes widened. “Mom!” I lunged at her and wrapped my arms around her waist.
She was still laughing when she pulled me away and sat down beside me. “What’s wrong, Kit Cat?”
I wiped a few loose tears and sniffled. “The storm is scaring me.”
She tapped my nose with her finger. “You’re not going to let a few flashes of light keep you from having sweet dreams, are you?”
I hung my head and fidgeted with my fingers. “But it’s scary. . .”
My mom smiled and wrapped her warm arms around me. She lifted me up and put me at the head of the bed where she drew the blankets over my shoulders. “My silly little girl. You can be as afraid as you want, but-” She sat beside me and brushed her hands through my hair. “-what’s important is you don’t let it control you.”
“But how do I do that?” I asked her through the deep drowsiness that her hands instilled within me.
“That’s something you have to learn, my little Kit Cat,” she whispered.
I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The thunderous booms outside faded into the background as the world slipped away. The last I remember was my mother’s voice whispering from the darkness.
“Be brave, Caitlin. Nothing can stop the bold.”
Those words echoed in my mind as I drifted into sleep. I floated on a warm cloud of comfort left by my mother’s warm arms, but the sensation slowly faded away. I waited for the dreams to come to me, but this time I went to the dream, and the first thing I noticed were those horrible smells of the sea.
“Don’t swing that thing everywhere, Porky!” a young boy hissed. “You’ll catch the sheets on fire!”
My heart quickened. I didn’t recognize that voice. A rough canvas sheet rubbed against my cheek. I forced my eyes open and beheld a soft light that was blocked by a thick sheet. The stench came from the canvas. A rough surface lay beneath me. Puddles of stinky water soaked my pajamas.
The cold chill of the water frightened me more than anything. No dream I’d ever had had felt so real.
“I’m not trying to!” a sullen voice answered.
Thunder echoed across the sky hidden by the canvas. My first thought was to panic and scream.
Be brave, Caitlin.
Mom. Wherever I was I needed to get out of here and back to my warm room. I swallowed my scream and wiggled to the end of the sheet where I peeked out. The dark clouds obscured the night sky, but a faint glow from an oil lamp illuminated four figures who huddled around the light. They sat on the long seats of a small boat while I lay concealed at the bow. Their ruddy, smooth faces told me they were all young men in their younger teens.
Two of the young boys were seated in the center seat and each held an oar that cut through the choppy waters. Our destination was obscured by a soft fog, though a few strikes of lightning danced across the sky some distance from where we rowed.
“It wasn’t easy taking this thing from my uncle. . .” the pudgiest of the four whined as he cast a harsh look at one of his companions who manned one of the two oars. “It would have been easier if Asher had helped me get under the fence.”
Asher turned out to be the smallest and youngest of the bunch. He had dirty-blond hair that fell to his shoulders in uneven cuts and his face was cleaner than those of his companion, though he wore the same rags as the others. He shrank beneath the unwanted attention. “I was busy.”
“Busy with what?” one of the boys, the tallest and handsomest of the bunch who manned the other oar, snapped at him. He had soft blond hair and striking blue eyes. “We waited an hour for you to come.”
“He’s been busy playing doctor,” the fourth lad, the palest of the bunch, spoke up. He had a head of shocking red hair that contrasted sharply with his white skin.
The blond-haired boy sat up and frowned at Asher. “Didn’t we tell you that it might give you a dragon’s paw? Or maybe some of its blood? You could use that to cure a hundred people!”
Asher nodded. “Yeah, but Doc needed help. A guy came in with a broken arm and I had to-”
“You’re too soft, Asher,” the pudgy fellow scolded him. “Doc’s always running you over.”
The tallest boy grinned and paused in his rowing long enough to poke his pudgy’s friend’s stomach. “It’d have to be a big carriage to run you over, Porky.”
Porky scooted out of reach and glared at his companion. “I told you not to do that, Leon!”
“Don’t be such a dead rat,” Leon returned as he rowed a little harder. “Maybe this magic will give you that fit body you always wanted.”
The thin, pale boy let out a shaky cough that rattled his whole thin frame. He covered his mouth and I saw specks of thick, yellowish spittle fly into his palm. After a few moments he managed to get a hold of himself long enough to look over his hand at Leon. “How long until we get there?”
“Not too long, Davy,” Leon promised.
Davy coughed a couple more times and dropped his hand to his side as though he’d lost the strength to keep it up. He turned to Asher. “You got any of that medicine from Doc?”
Asher scooted close to him and reached into his thin jacket. He drew out a thin vial with pale liquid. “Here it is.”
Davy took the vial and downed the whole contents. He wrinkled his nose as he handed the empty vial back to Asher. “That’s nasty. Can’t he make it taste sweeter?”
“He said it wouldn’t work so well if he did,” Asher told him as he pocketed the glass. A worried expression crossed his face as he studied Davy’s pale features. “You don’t look like the last stuff I gave you worked.”
Davy shook his head. “Not as good as it did before.”
“That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?” Leon spoke up as he nodded at a dark outline on the black horizon. “To get Davy cured and get the rest of us what we want.”
“And I want to be in shape,” Porky added.
Leon grinned at Asher. “Maybe your wanting to fix people up will help Davy.”
“What about you, Leon?” Davy asked him. “What’d you want again?”
Leon shrugged. “Maybe some adventures. The ones that’ll get the attention of all the girls.”
One of my legs had fallen asleep under me. I shifted, and the movement didn’t go unnoticed.
“Holy shit!” Davy yelped as he leapt to the center of the boat and spun around to face my hiding spot. He pointed a quivering finger at me. “It moved!”
I dared not even breath as the boys stiffened. Asher and Leon had stopped rowing, and Asher eased himself onto his feet. He crawled across the narrow floor of the small boat and reached out a trembling hand. In one quick movement he threw off the canvas.
At the same moment a crack of lightning lit up the sky followed quickly by a clap of thunder. The boys gave off four high-pitched screams that would have made a concert soprano jealous. I took one look at their terrified faces and burst out into laughter.
My mirth subdued their fright, and Porky, hidden behind the others, dared peek around the others and glare at me. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here, pipsqueak?”
Even a young child of eight had her pride. I stood up and put my hands on my hips as I scowled right back at him. “I’m Caitlin Athalea Miller and I am not a pipsqueak.”
“Then don’t look so small,” Leon teased as he leaned over the oar in his lap. His bemused eyes held a hint of curiosity, and more than a little suspicion. “But how’d you get on without us seeing you? I checked this whole boat before we set off.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I was in bed and then I was here.”
Asher knelt in front of me and gave me a soft smile. Despite the darkness, his beautiful blue eyes glistened in the weak light of the lamp and made a tiny butterfly flutter in my small chest. “Maybe you sleep-walked onto the boat?”
“I said I checked the boat before we pushed off,” Leon reminded him as he studied me with a sharp, suspicious look. “She shouldn’t be here.”
“Well, she’s here now,” Asher quipped as he drew off his patched coat and draped it over my shoulders. “And we should go back.”
Leon frowned. “Why?”
“What if it’s dangerous?” Asher pointed out as he nodded at some invisible place ahead of us.
Leon leaned over his oar and grinned at me. “You’re not afraid, are you, little girl?”
I shook my head. “No. Mom says that I need to be brave because nothing can stop the bold.”
Leon laughed before he gestured to me. “See? She’s fine with looking for the buried treasure.”
“But nobody else has found it after all these years,” Asher argued.
Leon reached into his ragged jacket and drew out a weathered piece of folded paper. “That’s because they didn’t have this map I found in those old crab traps. Without this they couldn’t have found a rock on Fortuna Island.”
“But it’s all rocks,” Porky spoke up.
Leon rolled his eyes as he tucked the paper back into his coat. “I know that. I’m just saying they couldn’t have found the right rock to look under.”
“And what if we get trapped under this rock?” Asher countered.
Leon frowned at him. “Are you getting cold feet now? I thought you wanted to be the greatest doctor in the world.”
“I do, but-”
“But nothing,” Leon snapped as he positioned his oar to continue rowing. “If we go back we’re leaving both of you on shore. So are you coming or going?”
For a moment Asher looked between my shivering little form and his three stern-faced friends. His shoulders fell and he nodded. “All right, but we need to be more careful now.”
Leon grinned. “What could happen to us on a deserted island?”
It turned out to be quite a lot, and not so deserted.
2
“Are you going to grab an oar or are we just going to float here forever?” Leon asked Asher as he jerked a thumb at the empty seat beside him.
“Porky can row,” Asher suggested as he moved the tarp to the furthest point on the bow. “I’ll sit here with Caitlin.”
Porky wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want to row. Besides, I’m holding the lantern.”
Asher shot him a hard look. “Do you want to babysit her?” Asher countered.
The face of the hefty young man scrunched up into a similar look as his nickname. “No way. Girls don’t like me.”
Leon snatched the lamp from Porky and shoved it into the pale hands of Davy. “Just sit down and help me row.”
Porky reluctantly obliged and we continued on our way, though with noticeably less speed and definitely more wheezing from one of the rowers. The choppy seas rocked the boat to and fro with a violence that failed to capsize, but threw my little against my companion’s side. Asher wrapped his arm around me and held me tight against the cruel waves. I looked up and he smiled at me. An unfamiliar heat warmed my cheeks and I looked down at my lap.
“Are you warm enough?” he whispered to me. I could only nod and fidget my fingers in my lap.
In a few minutes there came a shout from Davy who pointed at the seas ahead of us. “Look!”
We all looked and I glimpsed a terrifying sight etched by a sudden strike of lightning. A large island loomed ahead of us. Its craggy shores rose up from the choppy waters like dark sentinels that protected the shadow that rose up from the peak.
It was a castle of some great age. Its walls had been battered for centuries by the harsh winds and cold spray that now clawed at us. Crumbling towers speared the sky like blunt swords and the thick walls, quarried from the stone of the dark island, wore a weathered look that menaced all who saw them with a promise of dark secrets and even darker horrors.
A shiver I couldn’t explain ran down my spine and I found myself sinking into the large coat of my protector. The stormy skies above us crackled with electricity, and lightning pierced the sky followed quickly by its thunderous sibling. The brief light illuminated the tense faces around me as the cold wind cut through their thin, ragged clothing. The boys rowed the boat to a small opening in the rocks where the remains of a dock sat. The bits of sharp upright posts were more a danger than a safe port.
Leon directed the boat close to one of the dagger-like posts and wrapped the rope around the rotting wood. He leapt out and into the waist-deep water, jostling the boat. Asher clasped me tighter to himself as Leon pulled the boat up to the rocky short and beached the rear of the vessel on the rough shore. Heedless of the water that made his pants cling to his legs, he grinned from ear to ear.
“Come on, all! The treasure’s just a short walk now!” He turned away and sprang up the path like a goat.
“Wait for us, Leon!” Porky cried out as he rolled over the side and stumbled after their leader.
“Can’t you go a little slower?” Davy whined as he, too, clambered over the side and after the pair.
Asher longingly watched his friends scurry up the path, but he continued to sit beside me. “We can go, too,” I assured him.
He looked down and searched my face. “You’re sure you want to go?” I smiled and nodded.
Asher grasped one of my hands in his and helped me to my feet. “Come on,” he whispered as he led me to the rear and lifted me over the side.
The rocks were rough on my bare feet, but I tried not to show my discomfort as Asher climbed out after me. He took my hand and we followed his companions up a path that had once been covered in gravel, but was now packed sand and stone.
The rocky shores proved a tall order for my short legs, and only a few feet from the boat I stumbled. The fall wouldn’t have been so bad, but the hard stop on the sharp rocks would have proven painful to my barely covered knees.
Asher’s strong arms caught me and righted me. I clung to his shirt like a drowning sailor and I couldn’t stop my body from trembling. Tears sprang into my eyes as Asher knelt down so we were face-to-face and smiled at me.
“There’s no need to worry. You’re in my care, and I won’t let anything happen to you. Now-” He wiped away my tears with his thumb and his gentle eyes. “Let’s get those away, alright?”
“Are you going to babysit her at the boat or are you coming?” Leon shouted his their position fifty feet up the path.
“We’re coming!” Asher called back before he returned his attention to me. “Hold tight.”
I didn’t have time to ask why before he swung me into his arms and pressed me close against his warm chest. He trudged up the steep incline, but a bitterly cold wind from the sea bid us farewell. As close as I was to Asher, I couldn’t miss that his body shivered like a leaf against the wind.
“Don’t you want your coat?” I asked him.
He smiled and shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse.”
My curious nature piped up. “What kind of worse?”
His smile faltered a little. “Snow on a cold winter’s day, or the blazing heat during the summer when there’s no shade.”
“Why didn’t you get into the shade?” I wondered.
“I was being taken to market to be sold,” he told me.
I blinked at him. “Sold? But you aren’t a toy.”
He turned his face away and his expression saddened. “Some people thought so. . .”
“Come on!” Porky yelled ahead of us between his wheezes. “We’re. . .we’re almost. . .almost there!”
‘There’ was the imposing castle. At a closer view, the walls showed their wear with pock marks and chink that had rotted away. Some of the stones themselves had cracked under the strain of their duty. The entrance was an arch of the same stone, and some of those rocks had collapsed. They created a pile that partially blocked the gate, but from my vantage point in Asher’s arms I could see the barren dirt that occupied the courtyard.
We rejoined Asher’s friends at the pile of boulders, and Leon led the way over the rocks. Asher, however, hesitated. “Guys?” They paused halfway over the top and looked back. He nodded at the courtyard. “There’s no weeds.”
Davy looked over the courtyard before he returned his attention to Asher and shrugged. “So what?”
Asher looked to our left and right where the weeds pressed against the walls like invaders. “There’s weeds out here. Why aren’t there any in there?”
“Maybe the ground is bad,” Leon suggested as he continued the climb. “Come on. Are we going to let some stupid dirt stop us when we’re so close?”
Asher pursed his lips before he looked down at me. “Are you okay coming with us?”
I swept my eyes over the area with its deep shadows and chilled wind, and shrank closer to him. “I don’t want to be left here. . .”
He smiled. “I won’t leave you. Let’s go together.”
He took the small hill step-by-step, each foot carefully placed to prevent his needing his arms that held me. By the time we reached the top his friends stood in the center of the courtyard. Leon held the map in his hands and, with the use of Porky’s lantern, was studying the worn paper.
“It should be somewhere in the keep,” Leon mused as he examined the part of the courtyard at his back. He nodded at a rotten wooden door that hung limply on the top hinge twenty feet on the left from the main archway. “There. That should get us there.”
At that moment a sharp, cold breeze blew across the courtyard. The wind flitted around the small group as Asher and I reached the bottom of the rock pile. We were only brushed, but the chill sank into my bones and made me shiver again.
“This really isn’t a good idea,” Asher insisted.
Porky glared at him. “Then stay here. Nobody’s making you come.”
Asher pursed his lips, but said nothing more. He followed the others as Leon led them over to the door. Leon pushed one palm against the wood. The door crumbled beneath his light touch and shattered into dust once it hit the ground.
He scuttled back to avoid the dirty fog and crashed into his friends. They held him up and he sheepishly looked over his shoulder at them. “Kind of dusty, isn’t it?”
Davy’s face was paler than before when he nodded. “Yeah, and a little spooky.”
Leon’s eyebrows crashed down and he spun around to face us. “Are you all getting cold feet? We’re this close to getting what we always dreamed of and you guys are letting some dust and wind scare you.”
Porky nodded at him. “You’re shaking, too.”
Leon hid his unsteady hands behind his back and frowned. “It’s just cold here, that’s all. Let’s get inside.”
Leon marched forward and the rest of us followed, but there were dark shadows of doubt that lingered on the faces of the others. The door led into a narrow hall that was without adornments beyond the simple candlestick holders that hung from the bare stone walls. Doorways filled with darkness lined both sides of the dark passage. A few loose leaves dotted the floor, but otherwise the hall was without cobwebs or other adornments of neglect besides dust.
Davy shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. “I think it’s colder in here.”
“Where are we going?” Porky wondered as he held tight to our single light source. Even my young self noticed that he spoke in a voice hardly above a whisper.
Leon paused and squinted at the map. “There’s supposed to be something-” He froze and his eyes widened. “There!”
Leon leapt forward and grasped one of the candlestick holders. He thrust downward and the candlestick followed like a lever. There was a click from behind the wall and part of the stones swung inward to reveal a hidden passage between two of the doorways.
A wide grin stretched across Leon’s face and his eyes twinkled with glee as he looked at each of his friends. “Well? What did I tell you?”
Porky leaned toward the hidden passage and held the lantern high above his head. He revealed a short, narrow hall that dropped out of view down a stairway. “This looks like it goes down into some sort of basement.”
“That’s just as good a place to hide the wishing vase as the attic,” Leon pointed out as he snatched the lantern and headed into the passage. “Now come on!”
The others looked at each other before they headed one-by-one into the darkness. Leon was fast, almost too fast, and the darkness crept up behind us, threatening to pounce. We reached the top of the stairs and saw Leon vanish around the corner of a landing.
“Wait up!” Davy yelped, and Porky and he clattered down the stairs like a pair of frightened ducks.
“They’re silly,” I spoke up.
“They’re just a little scared,” Asher mused as he readjusted my weight and strode after them.
I looked around at the growing darkness and shrank closer against him. “So am I. . .”
“We’ll be out of here soon,” he promised as we reached the landing and watched his friends disappear around another corner. “We just need to get that vase and then we can leave.”
“Is it a pretty vase?” I asked my new companions.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, but it’s supposed to grant wishes.”
My eyes widened. “Maybe it can take me home?”
Asher laughed and readjusted his hold on me. “No, big wishes. Besides, I’ll take you home after we’re done.”
“There it is!” came a shout from Davy.
3
Asher stiffened for a moment before he shot down the stairs. The next flight stopped at another short hall, and at the end of the hall was a thick, heavy door made of some black metal. The long handle had been carved into the shape of some ghoulish fiend, and red rubies set into its eye sockets glowed faintly in the light that came through the open portal.
The other three stood inside the room and surrounded a short pedestal. Leon held the lantern aloft and revealed a small vase hardly larger than my small hands. The outside of the vase had been painted a shimmering black like polished onyx that matched the door. The shape was traditional, with a fat belly that curved inward to a smaller mouth. The lip of the mouth, however, was decorated with a vine design that ran around the whole of the circle. Delicate leaves ran along the vine and draped down to cover half of the full body.
“So this is the Vase of Pleasure,” Leon mused as he reached out and grasped the ring of the mouth. He yelped and drew his hand back before he glared at the vase. “There’s thorns in there!”
Asher set me down in the doorway and leaned down where he squeezed my hands. “You stay here, okay?” I nodded, and he gave me a smile and a wink before he hurried over to Leon. “Let me see,” he pleaded as he took his friend’s hand.
“I’ve waited long enough!” Davy shouted as he grabbed the vase in both hands. “I want my wish! I want to be healthy like everyone else!”
“Me first!” Porky insisted as he grasped the container and tugged it away from his friend.
Leon broke from Asher’s attentions and hurried over to them. He snatched the vase from Porky and glared at the pair. “Easy there! You two idiots are gonna break it!”
“You just want your wish first!” Porky accused him before he lunged at his friend.
“Guys, knock it off!” Asher insisted as he, too, joined the fray.
The four of them each took a hold of the vase and a bright light burst outward from the hard shell. The force of the blast blew them apart and they crashed into opposite corners of the room. Asher landed close beside me and slid into the wall close to the door. I, too, was thrown back by the blast into the door and my finger was cut deep by one of the sharp splinters.
I struggled to stand on my short, shaky legs. “Asher!” I yelled as stumbled over to my protector and fell to my knees. I grabbed his shoulders and gave him a couple of hard shakes. “Wake up! Please wake up!”
He let out a groan before he raised himself onto his arms. His face was scuffed and smudged with dust and his own sweat. “I’m. . .I’m fine,” he assured me.
The others struggled to their feet and Leon was the last of them. His whole body shook as he raised one hand to his face. The shards of the vase had pierced his fingers and stuck out at bloody angles from his flesh. His wide eyes and gaping mouth told the story of his horror.
“It’s. . .it’s broken,” he whispered.
Porky’s eyebrows crashed down and he shot a glare at each of his companions. “You guys broke it!”
Davy frowned back at him. “It was your fat fingers that broke it!”
“This isn’t helping anything, guys,” Asher spoke up as he tried to stand, but he winced and grasped his hands. Like Leon, shards of the vase were embedded in them. He stumbled over to his shocked friend and grasped his shoulders. “We. . .we should get out of-”
A sharp, chilling wind came out of nowhere and swept around the room in a fast, tight circle that blew me against the hard wall. Davy was thrown to the ground and Porky stumbled back into the wall. Asher held tight to Leon, but the wind blew them apart. Leon was pushed to the far end of the room near the stones, and a horrible squelching noise came from behind him.
My little heart stood still as a dark portal oozed out of the stones and formed into a rough circle. Leon had half turned around when tendrils shot out and wrapped around his arms. They dragged him backward toward the abyss as he tried to dig his heels into the smooth stone floor.
“Leon!” Asher yelled as he lunged forward and grabbed his friend’s hands. He pulled back, but hardly slowed Leon’s unwilling journey into the darkness. Asher looked over his shoulder at the others. “Help me!” Porky and Davy stared with wide eyes, frozen to their spots in fear and confusion.
More tendrils shot out and wrapped around Leon’s legs. “Asher!” he screamed as they dragged him faster into the portal. His legs disappeared first followed by his lower body.
Asher held tight to Leon’s arms, but he couldn’t stop the persistent pull of those horrible arms. Leon stretched his neck to keep his face from sinking into the abyss, but that, too, vanished into the darkness. The last I saw of him were his terrified eyes as they looked into Asher’s.
“No!” Asher screamed as his own arms disappeared into the muck.
A sudden blast blew him back and he slid across the floor to the center of the room. He sat up in time to watch the portal shrink into a ball that floated out of the wall and hovered over him. A soft, feminine voice echoed around the room.
“The sacrifice has been given. The gifts will now be wrought.”
“S-sacrifice!” Porky yelped as he flattened himself against the wall. “Nobody said anything about a sacrifice!”
The orb pulsed for a moment before it exploded outward as a wall of thin darkness. The shadows swept over the entirety of the room and settled on me like a cold blanket and I heard Porky scream in fright.
Asher flung his hands up to protect him and the moment the darkness touched him a terrible cry broke from his lips. As the shadow sank into stone and flesh he held out his hands. They shook so violently that I could hear the bones rattle. Asher screamed as his fingers mutated into long claws and scales burst out of the flesh of his palms.
“I-I’m getting out of here!” Porky screamed as he tried to make for the door.
He had to pass Davy, and a horrible scream arose from his sickly friend. He clutched his stomach and stumbled against the wall behind him. His pale face grew paler and his ears stretched into points. He fell to his knees and threw his head back in a terrible howl of pain, and in so doing he revealed long, sharp fangs that stretched over his red lips. As his cries fell away he collapsed onto his side and lay still.
Porky stumbled back and shook his head. His bulge quivered like jello and his eyes were wild with fright. “W-what’s happening to everyone? What the hell is going on? What’s-ah!” Porky gave a cry and clutched his own stomach. “Asher!” he yelped as he struggled to move one foot in front of the other. He stretched out one hand and my eyes widened as I beheld his nails grow into long claws. “W-what’s happening to me? Why’s it hurt so much?”
Asher and I could only look on in horror as Porky let out a terrible screech and clutched his head between his hands. Feathers exploded from the flesh of his face and his nose and mouth protruded into a hardened beak. His clothes burst open and wings stretched out behind him. A stringy lion’s tail shot out from his torn pants and his shoes tore apart to reveal clawed feet.
“Asher! Davy!” Porky screamed in a voice that ended in a guttural screech like the bird that he now resembled.
Davy shifted and struggled to climb onto his arms. He lifted his head and revealed a pair of glowing red eyes. His jaw dropped open at the sight of the huge monster that stood in the middle of the small room. “W-what happened? Where’s Porky?”
“That is Porky,” Asher replied as he struggled to his feet. His misshapen hands were tucked underneath his arms and his face was contorted with pain. “We have to figure out a way to save him-”
“Hell no!” Davy yelped as he raised himself to his feet using the wall and stumbled toward the door. “I’m getting out of here!”
His journey to the door involved passing me, and as he did so he paused and those hideous eyes fell on me. I shrank back away from the hungry look in those terrible orbs. His lips curled back in a feral smile that revealed his long, white fangs. He leaned down and reached out with his thin, bony fingers to grab my throat.
A terrible roar from the transformed Porky gave him pause, and then it gave him a headache as a claw came out and swiped him on the side of the head. Davy was thrown through the open door and into the night. I heard his body hit the floor, and then a few moments later the pounding of feet against stone as he fled.
A low growl made me return my attention to the beast. Its golden eyes had zeroed in on me. I gasped and flattened myself against the cold stones. My whole body quivered as it stalked toward me, its fangs bared and drool dripping out of the sides of its mouth.
“Porky!” Asher yelled as he lunged between us and stretched out his arms on either side of him. “Whatever the shadows have done, this isn’t you! You can fight it!”
Porky let out a roar and lunged at Asher. Asher threw up his hands and the creature crashed into them. At the first touch a bright green glow burst out of Asher’s palms and wrapped around Porky’s expanded body. The creature let loose a terrible cry of pain and stumbled backward a few steps. The light constricted tighter around his form and at every point of contact his fur and feathers shriveled and shrank back into his body.
“No!” Asher yelled as he waved his hands, but the glow didn’t dissipate. “Stop it! Shut off!”
The light tightened its grip on Porky’s body and he shriveled into a half naked form of his old self, but with shriveled feathers sticking out at odd angles and his face still twisted with half a beak and half lips. He opened his mouth in a terrible wail that echoed off the walls.
I clapped my hands over my ears and shut my eyes. When I dared open them a moment later I saw Asher drop to his knees as the last of the green light vanished. Porky was nowhere to be seen.
Asher slammed his hands on the ground and the green glow faded. Tears dropped from his eyes as a sob escaped his throat. “Why? Why did all this happen? What did we do wrong?”
My tiny heart ached to comfort the sorrowful young man. I pressed my palm against the wall and eased myself to my feet. At the first step toward him, however, a terrible boom shook the walls. I yelped as I was knocked hard against the wall. My head hit the stones hard and I blacked out.
The next thing I knew a soft hand shook my shoulder. “Cait? Cait, wake up, sweety.” My eyes flew open and I shot up so quickly I nearly knocked my head against my mom’s nose. She jerked back and another flash of lightning illuminated her worried face. “Are you okay, sweety? It sounded like you were having a nightmare.”
I whipped my head left and right to discover that I was back in my room. The storm still raged outside, but the intervals between thunder and lightning were farther apart.
“Where is he?” I asked her.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and shook her head. “Where is who, Cait?”
I grabbed her hand and tears welled up in my eyes. “Asher! We have to find Asher!”
“Honey, you don’t know anyone by that name,” she reminded me.
“But he was there! And Porky, and Davy, and-” My mom burst out laughing. I frowned at her. “What’s so funny?”
“You sound like the end of an old movie, that’s all,” she told me as she drew me into her arms. “And I think like Dorothy, you were just having a very real dream.”
I blinked up at her. “But it was so real.”
“Sometimes dreams are like that,” she pointed out as she rocked me in her arms. The slow motion and her words were soothing to my frayed nerves. “And soon enough you won’t even remember what happened.”
As I drifted off into sleep I made a promise to myself: I would never forget that dream and those four strange boys.
It was a good thing I didn’t.
4
“Miss Miller!”
I started awake and whipped my head up. A skinny woman with a surprisingly imposing stance stood over me. Her spectacles were halfway down her sharp nose and her clawed hands were on her hips.
I sat in my small cubicle, a tree among a forest of other square boxes on the thirteenth floor of my dead-end job. A steady murmur of voices could be heard over the tops of the walls as my coworkers went about their work.
I sheepishly smiled up at her. “Yes, Miss Hawthorne?”
She stabbed a pointed finger at the phone on my desk. A red light blinked ominously at me. “You have a call. Stop daydreaming and answer it.”
I nodded and pressed the button on the side of my headset. “Home Decor Limited, how can I help you?”
“Yes, I need help installing my new shower rod,” an elderly voice answered from the other line.
My eyes flickered up to my unwelcome visitor. Miss Hawthorne continued to glare at me for a few seconds before she marched off, giving me some much-needed breathing room.
“Miss, could you not breathe into the phone?” my caller requested.
“Oh, sorry about that,” I apologized as I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands in my lap. “Now what seems to be the problem?”
“It’s this dang shower curtain. The damn thing won’t shove onto the circles!”
A flicker of light out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. A long row of windows looked out on the expansive city in which I lived, and what little sky I could see between the skyscrapers was clouded over. A far-off rumble warned of a storm. It threatened to be a storm as wild as that one strange night.
“Miss? Miss, are you still there?”
I shook myself and sat up. “Yes, sir. Sorry about that. Have you tried setting the rod over the top of the circles? There’s an opening at the top of them where you can drop the rod.”
There was silence on the other end and I swear I heard a forehead being slapped. “God damn son of a-” Click.
I had to stifle a laugh as I muted my headset. Another satisfied customer who had realized the error of their ways.
“That sounds like one of those Lost Glasses calls,” a voice spoke up, and a young woman the same age as my twenty-three years appeared in the doorway of my prison. She leaned against one wall with the skill of a pro who knew how flimsy those walls were and folded her arms over her chest. “What was it this time? The toaster wasn’t pressed down?”
“A curtain rod,” I told her as I leaned back in my chair.
She laughed. “That’s a new one. I’ll have to make out a better bingo card for next month.”
I grinned. “How is the Harriet Baldwin Bingo Bonanza going?”
Harriet shrugged. “Not too bad. I’ve expanded to the floors above and below us, and soon I plan on taking over the world.”
“Ambitious.”
“It’ll give me a nice hobby.” A low rumble echoed through the floor and made both of us look at the darkening windows. Harriet wrinkled her nose. “Looks we’re in for a real storm. My grandma would call it a Dark Walk.”
Something in that name piqued my interest. “Why’s that?”
She shrugged. “No idea. She’s the sort who listened to all the old folks when she was young, so she knows a lot about that kind of-”
“Miss Baldwin, what are you doing?” The crone had returned, and with her eyebrows knitted so tightly together that she had developed a uni-brow.
My friend spun around and gave our supervisor a big grin. “I was just asking Cait the time, Miss Hawthorne.”
Hawthorne’s eyes narrowed. “You have your own computer for that, Miss Baldwin.”
“I know, but I wanted to check it with mine and make sure my countdown was right.”
Hawthorne arched a sharp eyebrow. “What countdown?”
My friend looked at her watch. “Five, four, three, two, one!”
A mechanical chime beeped out of all our computers, and the red lights on all the phones went dark as all callers on the line were routed to the apology machine. Closing time.
My companion grinned at Hawthorne. “That countdown.”
Hawthorne’s cheeks reddened and she balled her shaking hands into fists. She held her tongue, however, as the throngs that were our coworkers eagerly raced from their cubicles. Our supervisor spun on her sharp heels and hurried away, eager, no doubt, to scream her anger into one of the many garbage cans positioned around the floor.
Harriet wiped her brow. “That was a close one. Now then-” She turned to me. “Ready for a fun night-” The lights above us flickered and the rumble grew into a loud growl. Harriet’s face drooped. “Oh, come on! On a Friday night?”
“Always on a Friday night,” I teased as I stood and looped my purse over my shoulder. “And that flicker tells me I should go home.”
“Everything tells you you should go home early on a Friday night,” Harriet scolded me as we joined the throngs of workers and went down in a crowded elevator. “Don’t you want to go out partying?”
“You could go with my crowd!” a short, lecherously-grinning man beside me invited.
Harriet leaned forward and glared at him. “Not on your life, Lloyd.”
He shrugged as the doors opened for the ground floor. “Suit yourself.”
We stepped out and walked toward the one of many doors that led out into the dark world. “So not a good time with old Lloyd?” I guessed.
She wrinkled her nose. “No. I went out on one of those and my hands were sore for a week from slapping those guys around.”
“A little too eager?” I guessed.
“A little too everything except gentlemanly,” she retorted.
We stepped out into the late evening and I tilted my head to look up at the black clouds. A spark of lightning shot across the sky overhead, followed shortly by a rumble of thunder. “I should get home.”
Harriet’s face fell. “Come on, Cait. Just a few bars and maybe a hotel lounge and then. . .”
The rest of her words were drowned out by a small voice. “Momma? Momma!”
I leaned this way and that searching for the tiny call and found a six year old standing in the middle of all the suited office workers. His cheeks were stained with tears and his brown eyes were wide with fright and confusion. One of the workers brushed too close to him and knocked him to the side.
I pushed through the crowd and knelt on one knee in front of him where I gave the sniffling boy a smile. “Hello there. Are you lost?”
He wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded. “I-I can’t find my mom. There were so many people and I couldn’t hold on to her hand, and now-” A sob escaped his lips.
I set my hands on his shaking shoulders and looked into his glistening eyes. “We’ll find your mom together, okay?”
He sniffled, but gave a nod. I looked around at all the gray and blue suits, but there was no sign of a mother among the stiff women who gave us only a passing glance, if that. Traffic zoomed by at the speed of light and the clouds overhead rumbled ominously.
I took the boy’s hand and stood as tall as I could without losing his little hold. No wonder he’d lost his mother. “Let’s get against that building and you can get on my shoulders to look for your mom, okay? It’ll be like having a piggy back ride, and playing hide-and-seek.”
He perked up at the mention of the games, and we hurried through the foot traffic to the wall. I knelt down and he hopped onto my back. A quick stretch and the little boy could see above all but the tallest of our fellow travelers. He scanned the area for a moment and his face brightened.
The little boy grabbed a hearty lock of my hair and gave a tug as he pointed to our right. “There she is! There’s my mom!”
I craned my neck and caught a glimpse of white among that sea of dull colors. “Hold on!” I shouted as I adjusted his weight.
We dove into the stream of life where a single misstep could mean a quick fall under a dozen pairs of feet. I wiggled and scooted my way between the traffic and soon we arrived at a woman about my age. Worry had aged her by ten years, but those fell away when she spotted us.
“Willy!” she shouted as she reached for him. I turned and she took him in her arms where mother and son snuggled. “Oh Willy! I was so worried!”
“It’s all right, Mom, I didn’t cry a bit,” he assured her as he looked over at me. “This nice lady helped me, too.”
She beamed at me with tears in her eyes. “Oh, how can I ever repay you?”
I shook my head. “Don’t mention it. Now you two should get along before it starts to rain.”
More thank-yous were exchanged before mother and son disappeared into the vast sea of people. I was still looking at where they went when a hand clapped me on the shoulder. I turned to find it belonged to Harriet who was all smiles.
“You know, Cait, you shouldn’t have gone into customer service. You should’ve gone into sainthood.”
I shrugged. “I just like to help people, that’s all.” A teardrop hit me on the nose, a friendly warning of unfriendly weather.
“Well, let me help you, then,” Harriet insisted as she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the curb. She put two fingers between her lips and blew a loud, sharp whistle that made everyone around her, including me, cringe. It did the trick, though, and a taxi drove up to the curb. Harriet opened the door and pulled me toward it. “Get in.”
“But I don’t want to go clubbing tonight,” I insisted.
Harriet slammed the door behind me, leaving herself out on the street. “You’re not, and you’re not going to walk the eight blocks to your house getting drenched, either. A good turn deserves another.” She leaned in the front passenger window and handed the driver a wad of cash. “Take her to the eight hundred block.” The man tipped his hat and pulled us away from the curb. Harriet waved to me with a bright smile on her face.
My heart lifted as I sat back in my seat, grateful to be out of the rain that started to come down with the seriousness of a rough storm. It was going to be a rough night. Little was I to know how rough.
5
By the time we reached my apartment building the wind had picked up. The gale threw the rain against the windows and soaked me the minute I stepped out of the cab. The moment I slammed the door shut the cab sped away, hungry for more passengers. I scurried up the stoop of my ancient apartment building and my wet fingers fumbled with my keys.
Lightning exploded across the sky followed closely by its loud brother. For a moment everything was illuminated as though God had turned on a night light.
Caitlin.
My heart stilled and I spun around. I could see no one, and the light faded into shadows. My heart, however, didn’t fade but quickened its pace.
“Was that-?” I whispered to myself.
I shook my head. It couldn’t have been. That was all an old dream.
I found my key and let myself in. The apartment had a rickety old elevator, but out of concern for a mechanical mishap I took the stairs to my second-floor apartment. The walls had once been papered in a flowered pattern, but time and a few episodes with a leaky ceiling had led to fading and some stains that resembled Rorschach blots. The floor was in dire need of sanding and sealing, but some well-placed rugs hid the worst spots. I plopped my purse on the table beside the door just as another flash of lightning illuminated the outside.
“Dark Walk. . .” I whispered, remembering the name that Harriet’s grandmother had used for such a storm.
I walked over to the window and threw open the worn curtains. Another building stood across a narrow alley, but I could see a sliver of sky above its rooftop. The clouds were as black as pitch and rumbled like a hungry lion.
“Or a griffin. . .” I murmured.
I shook myself from my fancy. That had just been a very vivid dream, that’s all.
“I need some food,” I suggested in my usual habit of talking to myself in my domain.
A quick meal and a short movie, and I was ready for a long sleep. The morrow would be Saturday morning, but I planned to skip that and go straight to the afternoon. Since the night was chilly from the rain, I slipped into a heavy shirt and sweat pants, and jumped into my worn but comfortable bed. Another flash of lightning followed by a boom of thunder like a cannon shook the panes of the window close beside where I lay.
Caitlin.
I shot up and swept my eyes over the room. There were no unfamiliar shadows in the corners, but I fumbled for my lamp and switched it on, anyway. The light illuminated nothing out of the ordinary.
“J-just your imagination,” I scolded myself as I lay back down, though I was careful to throw the covers over my head.
Twice? my inner voice pointed out.
“Shut up,” I snapped as I shut my eyes. “We’re trying to sleep here.” After a few minutes my nerves calmed and, with the backdrop of that terrible storm raging around me, I slipped into a peaceful sleep.
The shatter of glass awoke me followed quickly by a roar of thunder. I shot up in bed, my first thought being that my window had been broken by those hoodlums again. My head cracked against a hard, sharp piece of wood.
“Ouch!” I snapped as I jerked back and clutched my head. I felt something sticky and pulled my hand back to see blood coating my fingers. My blood. “What the-”
My cursing was interrupted when I looked around. I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, much less my own bedroom. A dingy alley was my new premises, complete with oozing trash, puddles of unknown depth, and the aroma that only a back alley could give off. Overhead, however, was the same stormy sky that crackled with energy.
Speaking of cracked, I had cracked my head against a stack of wooden crates that stood beside me while another flanked my other side, shielding me from view, but also blocking my view. I tried to ignore the warm stickiness on my forehead as I leaned forward and looked both ways. To my left the alley extended to nearly out of sight. To my right and a short distance away was the mouth of the stench fest. Pale, weak streetlights illuminated a hard-packed dirt road with sidewalks made of stone and mortar. People walked to and fro dressed in a style reminiscent of the turn of the nineteenth century. Carriages and automobiles wove in and out of each other, ignorant of the rules of the road and instead following the Law of Chaos.
“What have we got here?”
I whipped my head to my left where two thin men loomed over me. They wore soiled clothes made more of patches than solid material, and their faces were grimy. One had their sleeve pulled up and I could see tiny dots on their skin where a needle had been inserted. The lecherous grins on their faces told me all I needed to know.
I dashed to my right, but the leader grabbed my arm and dragged me back into my little nook. “Where ya going?” he cooed as he shoved his face into mine. His teeth were yellowed and his breath wreaked of booze and tobacco.
“Help!” I screamed at those dark figures that passed by, but my cry was drowned out by the booming thunder.
“Just hold still and this’ll be over with soon, ya bitch!” my other attacker snapped as I was pulled down to the filthy ground.
The dank water soaked into my white pajama shirt and pants. I struggled against their pull, but even their scrawny arms were stronger than I and soon one of them sat on top of me. He slapped my with the back of his hand and I saw stars as I felt his filthy hands fumble for the neck of my shirt to tear it open.
Please I whispered in my mind as the blood from my injury clouded one eye. Please someone help me.
“You gentlemen appear to be lost.”
My attackers paused and whipped their heads up to look into the depths of the alley that had spawned them. A sharp crack of lightning followed by the boom of thunder illuminated the darkness and revealed a figure that stood twenty feet from us. The person was of average height and wore a cloak about their shoulders.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” the rough man who stood over me snapped.
The dark figure inclined their head. “My apologies. I surmised that since you hand no business here that you were lost.”
The other man’s lecherous grin reappeared and his eyes flickered back to me. “Oh, we’ve got business here, all right.”
“And it doesn’t concern you,” his companion growled.
“Quite the contrary,” the dark figure argued as they strode toward us.
“I said get back, you dumb fuck!” the standing stalker ordered him as he drew out a small pistol.
The figure shot forward and something silver glistened in the darkness. In a second the barrel of the pistol slid off and clattered onto the hard cobblestones.
The man stumbled back and gaped at his broken toy. “What the-”
He didn’t have time to show off more of his limited vocabulary before the figure punched him on the side of the face. The man dropped to the ground and didn’t stir.
His friend, however, pushed off me and took a swing at the stranger. The figure stepped out of the line of attack and cracked the butt of a large knife against the back of the man’s skull. My second assailant dropped to the ground atop his friend and, other than a slight groan from both of them, they didn’t speak nor move.
With their fall so, too, did my adrenaline. The strain of this strange new place, the oozing wound on my forehead, and the attack were all too much and the world around me began to spin.
The blurry figure knelt in front of me and stretched out their hand to me, and I found myself looking into a pair of familiar blue eyes with that same dazzling smile. “I’ve got you.”
“Asher?” I whispered.
The figure started back, but I didn’t get to see any other reaction before I fainted dead away.
6
A sharp pain brought me back around. A hiss escaped my lips and I forced my eyes open. My vision was blurry for a moment, but I could make out the familiar shadowy person who had saved me from my would-be rapists. They stepped back into the shadows as my vision cleared.
