Ember
"Rose, get everyone to my office at once! We've got job to do. And contact the facility. Tell them to expect the eggs theft attempt." I rattled into my phone not minding how early it was. The facility was guarded by Gilas and armed security staff. This was our chance to fix the disaster, that was our recent attack on the Order of St George.
I jumped out of bed and seriously considered just heading to my office in my pajamas, but then decided against it and went to the bathroom. Somehow catering to my body's needs required extra focus from me and I took it upon myself to care better for it.
An hour later I sat in my office with the sun rising behind my back as I lay a strategy for the trap with my special team consisting of humans, Rose and one other Monitor dragon.
"Looks like they're still laying low in Vegas. No check-out, and we've seen them crossing from one room to another from time to time. Cobalt is with them no trace of Stealth. " The Monitor dragon, a juvenile called Alba reported.
"Good, we have time get ready for them. I don't want any failure again. I want all the soldiers of St George dead." I said and suppressed scorching pain rising in my chest. Garret was too dangerous for us. I have lived without him before and I will learn to live without him again.
"Send a message to the leader of the facility and ask her to get ready for an attack.
If any rogues come by, let them in but don't let them leave again. The Order of St George will almost certainly be helping them. And don't spring the trap too soon. Get me Adam Roth..."
"Mr Roth is not available." Rose said through intercom.
"Where is he?" I asked impatiently.
"This is yet to be established. He's apparently been on some mysterious errand since shortly after the failed attack..."
"That's fine Rose, we shall manage without him. Make the leader of the facility report to me, I want to be sure she understands the plan."
Nettle
"Hi guys." Autumn looked startled but tried to smile, when me and Kain entered a small lobby aka hall of one of the many hatchling training facilities.
Usually there only were up to two hatchlings in such place, ten or so years apart, so that the older one could facilitate the younger one's learning without them growing too close.
"Hello darling, you look lovely." Kain said embracing her. It was something he started after he has found together with Molly. Touching, hugging, shaking hands and kissing.
"Where are the others?" I asked.
"Opal is watching the eggs, the others are sleeping. There's not much to do here..." Autumn said and my heart clenched with compassion for them, locked in here without proper activities, this was a breeding facility all over again. I felt anger boil inside me and I considered shifting and killing a couple of armed humans watching the doors. They let us in after establishing who we were, but they were a reminder that this place was indeed a prison.
"Where can we hang out?" I said not feeling like standing in the hall with armed dudes behind my back.
"There's a living room..." Autumn halted looking at the guards, but as they didn't react, she led us out of the building through the doors on the opposite side, to a pretty inner garden with a well watered lawn and palm trees providing shade. There was a small swimming pool closer to the corner.
Over our head though, there was a net of steel stretched from edges of roofs of the outer building, it covered entire courtyard.
From here numerous doors led into another building which seemed to be inside of the main building. Suddenly I was nervous. What if we could find the way out of the maze of buildings, courtyards and such all designed to keep hatchlings from getting away?
Autumn led us down a paved path and into a spacious room with full height windows to the inner garden. There was a plasma, a sofa and two armchairs in one half and a kitchenette in the other.
"We all live here." She said pointing to two doors leading further in. "We share bedrooms, but it's cozier than being alone."
There were cameras here but Kain's expression grew pained, at all the things she clearly has not been telling us. They were afraid.
"Want something to drink?" Autumn said standing in the middle of the room and looking lost. We haven't been close in any way her tending to her egg most of the time before she came here. So I understood that our presence here was... strange at best.
"Tea, please." Kain said and sat down on the sofa spreading his long arms wide on the top on the back pillows and inviting me to join him with a long gaze.
We needed to talk to all of the dragonells, but maybe starting with Autumn was for the best.
I sat beside Kain and requested some water.
Autumn stood by the kettle, her auburn hair falling down to her waist. She wore a tight white strapless top and cream colored sweatpants. And she looked amazing with small freckles covering her pale skin, reddish brows and lashes framing her bright blue eyes. Something about being a dragon made us look stunning no matter the circumstances.
Autumn placed a cup and a glass of water on the small table in front of us and sat down in the chair.
"You must be wondering why we are here." Kain said smiling casually and I projected my own message into her mind "We are getting you out. Riley and Mist are on their way for the eggs, we must get ready to leave..."
Autumn stiffened visibly.
"How..." She said.
"You just say what you want to say loud inside your head, Kain can hear you too." I said.
"Can you hear my thoughts?!" Autumn's mental voice was incredulous and slightly angry.
"No. It's communication, I only hear what you project out, you're good at it." I answered relieved and proceeded to explain her about the strange dragon, the magic we've learned, situation with Ember attacking the Order of St George and how we were going to get them out.
Autumn wasn't reluctant to trust the order, like Kain. It was the soldiers who had busted her out for the first time.
We pretended to sip our drinks and Kain ask a question every now and then.
"Is there somewhere we can try to shift and glitch?" I asked.
"No. Not without raising suspicion." Was Autumn's mental answer and then she added aloud.
"I'll wake up the others I think. They'd hate to miss your visit." She rose, knocked on one of the doors and entered after hearing a muffled answer from the inside.
All the eggs have been laid, which made it all a bit easier, as dragonells could shift into human form. But it also meant, that we had to steal and transport the eggs...
Soon we were joined by Vivian a hatchling with raven black hair and brown eyes with very long lashes and Pearl a juvenile dragonell whose human form was clearly Thai inspired.
Pearl sat beside Kain and the other two sat in the armchairs.
"So what is this about?" Pearl said eying Kain with her dark almond formed eyes, her lips pouted slightly in an unimpressed expression.
"We've met this very old creature, like a dragon but different too. And he taught us that we have magic, actual magic that can do things beyond shifting or breathing fire. We can make ourselves invisible to people who don't have magic. And we can... teleport when in dragon form." I said quickly.
"I would say that you lie if you wasn't using this magic right now..." Pearl looked thoughtful.
"We will teach you and then we all grab the eggs and glitch to another continent." Kain said.
"You expect us to learn this how fast exactly?" Vivian asked wide-eyed.
"If you can't we will take you. Don't fret we have plan B." I said smiling encouragingly.
"But you could help. Like tell us how best to get to the eggs..." Kain said.
"The eggs are further inside the building. One of us is always watching them, to ensure that. The security allows that, but there's always a Gila bodyguard there too." Autumn said matter of factly.
"We knew that." I assured them as Kain's expression seemed vacant he probably listened to something Riley was telling him through the wire he was wearing.
Vivian and Pearl talked about whether to fill the awkward stillness.
"Are you on dracto?" I asked.
Autumn shook her head.
"Then let's get to it..." I said and got interrupted by Kain.
"How about you show us the eggs first?" He said.
Of course! If they had free access to them then it would be great to check out, see if we've got all the important details down.
We went through a long hall to a long desk where three humans resided behind their computer screens. They looked alarmed when we approached them. Autumn addressed one of them a plain man in white shirt.
"Dr Miles, Nettle and Kain came to visit, they would like to see the eggs if it's not a problem..."
Another man younger than the doctor rose with a frown.
"Certainly not! No strangers with the eggs Autumn, what are you thinking about?" He started but got interrupted by Dr Miles.
"And what are you thinking about Stephen? It's their eggs, of course they may show them to their guests!" He said and apparently his word could override the other man's because he remained silent and just watched us angrily.
"I'm authorizing this right now, go ahead." Dr Miles said.
Autumn led us through a swing doors beside to desk to another short hall ending with a sturdy metal door, where she stopped and knocked.
An armed human in full body armor opened the doors and stepped back letting us into... another cozy sitting area, with a TV white leather sofa and a couple of white leather armchairs.
Opal was lounging on the sofa watching "Legally blonde" another dragon sat in the armchair, he stood up seeing us.
"Kain." He said narrowing his green eyes.
"Hi Seth. So this is your job now." Said Kain without question in his tone.
"Yes it is rogue. And what are you doing here?" Seth answered calmly.
"Visiting friends." Kain answered sweetly.
Human guard looked nervous, we were now six dragons against him and Seth.
Opal stood up and approached us.
"Is it ten already?" She yawned.
"No, Kain and Nettle came to see the eggs." Autumn explained pointing to the area that roomed a small kitchenette in another living complex, but in here was cleared of furniture and instead a metal case of the size of a large dinner table filled it. We came closer to surround it and through the glass lid I could see four gleaming eggs each lying on a huge cushion. We looked at the eggs seemingly mesmerized as I quickly let Opal on everything that we have established so far. We have decided that I'll do this as the others had less routine and we couldn't risk Seth hearing us talk...
"How does he know who you are?" Autumn asked Kain quietly.
"It's my job to know." Seth answered from where he stayed by the entrance.
"He was my sparring partner during my Gila training." Kain said.
While pretending to admire the eggs, we wondered how we were going to open the case to get them out. The lid was framed in steel and locked with three serious looking locks on our side. There didn't seem to be any electronic involved, that Madison could try to hack, just gleaming steely hardware with a goddamn keyhole...
The doors opened and an adult dragon charged in. He was tall, bald and black his eyes gleamed in his face as he addressed Seth.
"Take five I'm taking over here, take Mike with you."
Seth looked like he was going to protest but thought better of it, he nodded and left with human guard on his heels.
The adult approached our group in three quick steps and looked at Kain, who cowered slightly.
"Hi Mace." He said and I stared. So this was chief of Gilas.
"Whatever you're planning the time is up." He said without preamble. My stomach dropped, Talon was awaiting us. I remembered Mist's story about how they were intercepted within the mining facility and how they would have failed if not for help from Dante...
"We are not pl..." Kain started.
"I've just overheard the leader of this facility being summoned to talk with the CEO. She talked about impending attempt of egg theft by combined forces of rogues and soldiers of St George. Can you hear me Cobalt? You've sent these kids into a deathtrap and it's absolutely last minute to extract. I'll be summoned within minutes and this entire facility will be under total lock down." He said not looking at us.
Kain listened for a while before he said slowly.
"So how do you suggest this is going to go down Mace?"
"I assume you have some extraction plan, execute it now!" Mace said and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. He opened two of the locks on the "incubator".
I was shocked, was he helping us? Or was it his own agenda? These eggs must have been worth fortune to Talon, if Mace seized them...
"The third key only the CEO has, so I suggest your hacker blinds the camera and one of you kids shifts and pries it open." He said.
Kain listened intently before he said.
"So that you can take them?"
"There's no time for this Kain. I am helping you, so stop obstructing before I get caught. We are in the middle of this facility, how you were going to get out I wonder."
"Okay, who is doing it?" Kain said after another moment that must have been filled with frantic communication with Riley outside.
"I'll do this." Opal said and we barely managed to get out of the way before she shifted into pale blue dragon the size of an elephant and hooked large white talon of her front leg to the last lock.
The entire steel case made a violent start, when she pulled. The lock held though and only the hinge was slightly bent.
"Shit!" Mace said.
"What about the glass?" I asked.
"It could damage the eggs." Autumn warned as Opal worked on the hinge.
"We don't have time for that." Mace hissed.
Just then Mist landed in the middle of our little group with Riley wearing several empty backpacks sitting astride her. He jumped off and headed to the hinge.
"Everyone seek cover!" Riley said as Mist ushered us into the hall outside and he placed a small device on the hinge and dove behind the sofa.
A loud BOOM shook the doors as soon as Mist closed it behind us and alarmed cries sounded from the direction of the swing doors. We quickly entered the room and locked the doors behind us. The hinge was loose. The glass wasn't even cracked. Riley and Mace lifted the heavy lid to reveal that it was almost a foot thick. So were the steel walls of the case, the lock hinges were the only real weakness of the incubator. There was pounding on the doors now and it wouldn't take long before it would be in pieces.
Riley handed the backpacks to dragonells and they each took one egg and shouldered their backpacks as Mace took a couple of syringes from Riley.
"Dracto and midazolam" Riley informed him and quickly stepped away out of Mace's reach and shifted.
"This shit." Mace grimaced as he sat down on the floor and stuck himself with the first syringe and then the second.
There was not enough room for us even though the place was quite spacious. Anyways I shifted and so did Kain. Dragonells mounted us without protest even though they looked very scared.
Mace's head hung just as the doors burst open.
"Nettle, Kain go!" Riley shouted as he turned to blow fire at security guards about to enter the room.
I spread my wings as much as possible in the cramped space and leaped into the wall...
The space and time shifted around me as I spread my wings fully hearing Vivian's cry of surprise.
Glitching didn't feel like movement, it was more like browsing in a very thick book with multidimensional pages within pages. Kain's presence touched mine.
"Come." He said and I angled towards him.
We emerged over London, and circled to land on a grass in Hyde Park. Right in front of Wes and Molly, who sat on a blanket beside an old tree.
Vivian and Autumn jumped off as Kain shifted and embraced Molly, who stood by Wes side with a couple of bags of clothes as far as I could see. But dragonells have not shifted, so no need for that. As Kain's broad shoulders almost entirely obscured Molly from our sight Wes turned to Autumn.
"I have rented you a house near Shepherd's Bush. Four single young women can attract unwanted attention in that quarter, but I didn't have much time or money..."
Riley and Mist joined us then and Opal and Pearl jumped off as soon as they touched the ground.
Wes stared at Riley with wistful expression as he folded his wings halfway.
"Take them to the safe house Wes, we must head back to help the soldiers." Riley said.
"Or we could just walk away now. We've got what we wanted. Why risk being killed helping fucking St George?" Kain challenged.
"Kain!" Riley growled his golden eyes gleaming dangerously. "I have no time for that pup! Don't cross me. I gave my word. My friend is out there."
And he spread his wings and leaped disappearing.
Mist followed him sending Kain a pointed look.
I hesitated. Kain cupped Molly's face in both his hands and pressed their foreheads together.
"Don't linger here, I don't want any of the soldiers of St George to see you. They are murderers all of them, pledged to kill any human allied with dragons! Hurry!"
"Be careful." Molly said her voice shaking.
I watched them fascinated, what was that? I suddenly wished that I've told Chris everything, so he would be here looking at me like this, compelling me to return safely, weaving threads of longing and need tethering me to him.
"You coming?" I started when Kain turned to me.
I nodded and shifted. The leap back was tricky, we didn't want to end up in the room we've left.