CH39
Kate was back in control as the dragon inside was now contrite and passive. It allowed her to turn back into a human, even if that did leave her naked just standing there. She turned to look at Rick. 'Help me?' She was afraid and ashamed to be a dragon. Had her father done something like this? He was, after all, a true evil Black Dragon which was a part of her family tree. 'Always!' he replied and ran back up the ramp which made Kate's heart fall into her stomach. Even the man she loved was on the run from her. Only to watch him come back out carrying some coveralls that Serena had worn when she was fixing the engine earlier. He walked over to Kate, helped her into them, and then wrapped his arms around her giving her a much needed hug. She was never happier with Rick's ability to help her using a simple hug. It allowed her to bury her head in his chest and let her fear of herself melt away.
"We should get Hunt inside before anyone from the community comes up here to find out what happened," Serena said and got Joanne to start helping her drag Hunt into his own house. Rick hoped his quick hug was enough and left her to help them drag his body. She soon showed up to help with Alexis trailing behind, silently watching. Inside they found the fireplace damaged where Martha had hit it; she was lying unconscious next to it. They left an unconscious Hunt in the middle of the living room.
"So, a dragon?" Serena was willing to talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Kate simply latched onto Rick and silently asked for another hug and got it. Before she could say anything to Serena, Alexis was standing next to her tugging on her coveralls. Kate left the comfort of Rick's hug, kneeled down, and tentatively wrapped her arms around Alexis who remained silent.
"I only found out recently. My father was a black dragon; he was killed not too long ago. I'm the last of my kind," Kate answered Serena while talking into Alexis's hair. "I'm still learning to adapt to what I am. I've never been a dragon until ," she told them. Even Kate had lost track of time. In a way it felt like hours when it had actually been a number of weeks.
"And I thought a Kodiak Bear was powerful," Joanne whispered. It allowed Serena some time to think about what Kate must be going through, the kind of power she is capable of.
"We're going to go get Dahl and bring him in here. Maybe we can get something out of him while we wait for Hunt and his wife to regain consciousness," Serena told them and left with Joanne.
They were both soon back and dropped Dahl into a chair who spent his time looking at Kate. "What kind of monster are you?" he questioned, getting the butt end of Serena's rifle across his face opening up his cheek that started bleeding profusely. Alexis left Kate and walked up close to Dahl. "MY MOMMY ISN'T A MONSTER!" And she promptly changed into a bear, shredding her clothes, then bit his thigh. Not as badly as the other two men earlier, since then her life was on the line. Still Dahl screamed in pain.
"ALEXIS!" Kate was up and grabbed hold of her, pulling her back before Rick could even think to move. "Alexis, sweetie change back. Please, sweetie, change back. You don't need to defend me," Kate pleaded with her and soon had a naked little girl in her arms. "Thank you Alexis, but please don't do that again," she told her while holding her tight. "We need clothes for her babe," she pointed out. "And a first aid kit for Dahl." Serena added.
"The largest first aid kit is in the kitchen pantry. I should know, it was used on me often enough. Hopefully it's been replenished," Rick stated but made no move to go get it. What he had gone through while living here was breaking Kate's heart all over again. "I'll see if I can find something for Alexis to wear," he said then headed for the stairs and the master bedroom upstairs or maybe even his old room.
Joanne, in the meantime, headed for what she hoped was the kitchen to search for the first aid kit. While she was gone Dahl was rolling around on the sofa getting blood everywhere as he cried from the pain of his wound. "That little monster bit me!" he yelled, outraged that anything like that could happen to him. Serena simply reached down and dug her fingers into his open wound causing the blood flow to increase, not to mention the volume of Dahl's screams.
"You're not a monster Alexis. You're my brave little bear and I love you." Kate kissed her head and kept her arms around her. "I'm a brave bear," Alexis half stated and half questioned. "Yes, you are and your father and I are proud of you." Kate kept her hold on her.
Joanne returned first and gave the first aid kit to Serena who handed her weapon over to Joanne. "First we're going to have a little talk, then we'll look into not letting you bleed to death," Serena told him. "Fuck off monster lover." Dahl was still defiant. She plunged her fingers into his open wound yet again as she gripped his leg, causing him to scream in pain yet again. "Wrong answer," she informed him.
"Love, you want to go look in the kitchen for any cleaning chemicals, especially if it has ammonia listed in the ingredients," Serena asked her and Joanne walked back to the kitchen. Rick and Joanne returned at almost the same time. He helped Alexis into some very oversized clothes while Joanne handed a spray bottle to Serena. "I found something with which to polish stainless steel," Joanne told her.
"Now Mr. Dahl, I have questions and you are going to provide answers," Serena informed him. "I want my lawyer." Dahl spoke through his gritted teeth due to the pain in his leg. "That will not be happening Mr. Dahl. I'm not associated with any law enforcement agency. Now I'm going to explain how this will work using easy words so your simple mind can understand. I ask a question and you answer. You don't answer or I don't like your answer because I think you're lying and you are going to know pain like you have never felt before," she told him, and squirted the bottle to test that it had something in it.
Joanne left Serena to her work and checked on Hunt. "I think his back's broken and he likely has a concussion," she commented since the back of his head was still bleeding. From there she moved over to Martha. Just as she reached her Dahl screamed in severe pain.
Kate meanwhile stood up and took Alexis and Rick with her into the kitchen. "Serena's torturing him babe," she pointed out, not liking this turn of events. She was still technically a deputy for Weston County. "Babe?" She looked into his eyes and what she saw there she didn't like. "What's wrong? Please talk to me." Kate held onto Alexis with one hand while she used her other hand to stroke Rick's face. "Babe?" She finally saw some life in his eyes. "I don't like being in this house." His mind was presently replaying the whippings and beatings his father had subjected him to in this very room.
"Oh Rick." Kate let go of Alexis's hand and wrapped her arms around him. She began looking around 'til she found a door leading outside from the kitchen. She took hold of Alexis again and guided both of them outside onto the massive back deck hoping that would help. It didn't hurt that she couldn't hear Dahl screaming. Minutes later Rick was starting to look better. "I hate this house." He looked around and really noticed that they were outside. "Feeling better?" Kate asked, worried about him."Yeah, it's just hard to be here. It was never home," he told her. She nodded understanding why he would feel that way. She put Alexis in his arms. "Stay out here with Alexis," Kate told him and went back inside.
Kate made it back into the living room to find Martha had moved and was lying next to her husband with Joanne just a little ways away holding her weapon on both of them. Serena finished working on Dahl's leg and stood up. She walked over to Kate. "I'm aware you are not fond of our techniques, however if you had seen what we have you would be less critical," she offered as a reason for what she did. "Torture is wrong no matter what they have done. We have to be better than them." Kate could see the irony in her statement given what she had done earlier.
"Watch a biological agent specifically meant to kill a certain type of shifter so that they can kill all of them off without having to shoot them. Watch a clone roll around in complete agony with nasty pus-filled boils appearing all over his body and watch them burst killing him slowly and painfully and tell me what I did was so wrong. Dahl is still at least alive," Serena said, sweeping her hand in his direction. "Paladin is attempting genocide and all I'm trying to do is put a stop to it. All shifter clans I know of live with humans both in peace and in fear that they will be found out and treated as monsters."
"As bad as Paladin is, just what do you think the governments of this planet including our own would do if they found out about us? Lock us up? Run tests to find out what makes us so different? Relocate all of us into armed camps like the government did to the Japanese Americans?"
"I'm trying to prevent the genocide of all of us. What do you think will happen to you once word gets out that you are a dragon? A real, live honest-to-god dragon right out of our fantasy books and movies. Hell, Kate. Countries would likely start a war to get their hands on you. I can appreciate your moral standing, I really can. I just can't afford it if I'm going to win. So if I have to bend the rules a little to save my friends, which includes you now, I will. And I pray that God doesn't cast me out because of what I'm willing to do. Plus I have Joanne to keep me grounded if I go too far."
"Just be thankful that I limit it to an occasional Christian Dahl who almost had his hands on that little girl you love so much." Serena tried to explain what she did and what she was willing to do.
"I wish there was a different, better way," Kate sighed as she relented, understanding what they were up against. "You find a different better way let me know and I'll be happy to use it. For now I'm fighting a war, one I intend to win. How is Rick?" Serena abruptly changed the subject. "Hurting, this house is full of bad memories," Kate told her. Serena nodded. "His father and to a lesser degree his mother. Well, that's one thing we're going to correct before Joanne and I leave. Hunt has just fallen from the ranks of Alpha male who does what he wants with no repercussions for his actions. God is about to fall," Serena informed her as a groan got their attention.
"Jackson! Oh, love." Martha buried her face in his fur. 'Tell me how you feel,' she asked him and felt the business end of Serena's weapon against the back of her neck. "No telepathic communication Martha or I'll be forced to render you unconscious again," Serena warned her. "How dare you!" Martha was not happy, she was the alpha female around here! "I'm the female that's in charge around here now and you and your husband have just reached the end of your dictatorship. Tomorrow there will be a temporary leader of this community until one is elected by the community," Serena informed her.
"You have no right. You're not even a shifter. I can smell your human stench rolling off of you," Martha countered. "And yet I have command and the blessing of all the other shifter clans save yours. I don't want to take it from you, but you and your husband have misused the power you have been given. Your own sheriff over there was just days from ratting you out to Paladin. A force that even you couldn't handle was just days from coming here to eradicate you and your community. Because of your husband, you would have fought and lost all alone and no one would shed a tear. But that changes as of today. You and your husband can either accept demotion within your clan or accept being exiled far away from here. However if you stay you will accept the new leadership because if you don't I will end you." Serena gave Martha her only two options along with a threat.
"You can't afford to have us talk so you will leave us alone, or we talk about your dragon." Martha played her last card. "Death it is then," Serena simply stated and chambered a round in her weapon and put a round into Hunt's knee, shattering his kneecap and then placed it on full auto and pulled the trigger.
"NO!" Kate screamed and watched Serena blast rounds into the hardwood floors surrounding both Hunt and Martha until her clip was empty. She quickly ejected it, slapped in a new one, and chambered a round.
"Joanne?" Serena called out to her. "I'll make the call and have everything ready when we arrive." Joanne knew just what Serena was thinking, they had been together for a while now.
Serena stepped away and let Martha hold onto her husband who, as long as he stayed a bear, would slowly recover from the injuries he had suffered battling against Kate's dragon. "Watch these two," Serena told Kate. She gave Kate her weapon and she and Joanne hauled Dahl back out to their plane and strapped him into place. They picked up the drug kit and went back inside the house.
"You think you have won my son but you are wrong." Martha tried to get into Kate's head since her own head was pounding from a concussion. She also had three broken ribs and four that had micro fractures.
"We love each other and we are bonded life mates so there's nothing you two can do or say that will change that," Kate informed her which appeared to have caught Martha by surprise. "And the bastard calls you mother." Martha tried again. "If you two want to leave here alive you will leave Alexis out of this. We both love Alexis with all of our hearts, something you have proven incapable of understanding. You are no mother and he is no father. He is a tyrant and you are a willing participant. Rick is a wonderful man despite your actions and he's going to live a long and wonderful life."
"All you know are beatings and how to try and degrade your own son, trying to make him into a monster just like your husband," Kate countered. "My husband…" Kate interrupts her. "Is a vicious, soulless bastard, who has no understanding of what love truly is and how powerful it can be. So tell me Martha, when Rick was born, what did you feel when you were handed that little bundle? Love or pure hatred?" Kate questioned her and got no answer.
"Go get Rick and help us move them into the plane, please," Serena asked her and soon the four of them were hauling Martha into the plane and securing her in place. "This isn't going to hold them," Rick pointed out, and watched Serena inject something into his mother. "It will now. Don't worry they'll both live, I have no real intention of killing them," Serena assured both of them and they went back to get Hunt and do the same.
"You two going to be alright up here alone?" Serena asked them. "My father likely has one or more cars in the garage that would fit him, we can use one to get home with," Rick told her. "What are you going to do with them?" Kate inquired. "They are being exiled while Dahl is coming home with me until he tells us absolutely everything he knows. I want that lead on what's left of Paladin. I'm hoping it will lead me to what they have planned next at the very least," Serena answered her question being intentionally vague.
"I'll be back, I need to help the community decide on a new leader. This one will not be like your father. We're going to open the books and find out what Hunt has done with all the money this community has and is making." Serena was betting she would need Sarah's help with that one.
"Rick," Serena paused and sighed heavily. "I'm so sorry it has taken me this long to help you with your father. My only excuse is that I was spending all of my time helping my friends get two of our own back and combat Paladin where and when I could. I am sorry." She apologized for her absence since she was the leader for everyone except the Kodiak Bears.
"It's not your fault. My father is who he is." Rick shrugged his shoulders glad that he would be getting away from this place soon. Serena moved in closer. "You have a good life now and someone who loves you, don't screw it up." And Serena and Joanne headed for the cockpit and raised the ramp.
Rick, Kate and Alexis were standing at the front door watching Serena take off straight up and then away over the trees. "Did she tell you where she was taking them?" Kate asked him. He shook his head. "Not sure I want to know, either." However he was a little conflicted. They were, after all, his parents even if they were incredibly abusive while he was growing up. At least they weren't dead.
"We need to find those car keys if we want to get home." He wanted out of this house. "See if they're already in the ignition or hanging in the garage, I'm going to check the master bedroom." Rick glanced up the stairs. "We'll be gone soon babe." Kate kissed his cheek, took Alexis's hand, and then went to where she thought the door to the garage should be.
Rick felt the draft from one side of the house and moved over to look at where the large dining room that could easily seat 16 people had been. It was almost gone thanks to Kate. He knew there used to be some really expensive place settings and servingware as well as .925 sterling silverware in that room. 'Remind me to never piss off Kate,' he thought. 'That would be a good plan, babe,' she responded which had him chuckling. "I really need to be more careful what I think." This time he talked to himself.
He came back downstairs smiling and dangled a set of keys in front of Kate who snatched them out of his hand. "I'm driving." And walked back to the garage so they could get out of there. However she came to an unexpected halt. "Do you know where your father keeps the books? He was in charge of everything, right?" she asked him. Rick walked back over towards the front door but stopped just a little before it and pressed a hidden panel that allowed him to push away a tile to display a recessed floor safe. "I don't know the entire combination. I tried to learn it but I never really got to see all of it," he admitted.
Kate knew she was no safe cracker and stood no chance of opening it. Still… She handed the keys back to Rick. "Go get the car and take Alexis with you. Pull away from the garage, go down the drive some distance from here, and wait for me," she told him. "What are you going to do?" he asked curiously. If she knew how to break into safes that was news to him. Suddenly he smiled. "A CIA safe cracker who is also a spy," Rick whispered to himself. "What did you say?" she questioned. "Nothing, come on pumpkin, let's go home." He took her hand and headed for the garage.
Kate, however, started taking off her coveralls and walked outside with them, then tossed them behind her as far as possible and stood there. 'We do things my way this time, no more killing,' she informed her dragon before changing her form. 'One dragon grenade coming up,' she told her dragon and felt Rick drive past her and stopped a good distance away waiting for her. The blast wouldn't reach them since it would have to go through her first. She bent her head down, thought of spitting, and out came a gem that blew up on impact. 'It worked!' The blast had blown away some of the wall surrounding the front doorway as well as the doorway itself, allowing her to bend over and reach inside to the floor safe. Using her claws she lifted away the pieces of the shattered safe door and tossed them into the room. "JACKPOT!" Kate was smiling widely. She changed back into a human and carefully stepped inside trying to avoid hot pieces of the safe since she had no shoes.
Kate gingerly pulled out 5 ledgers, ran for the car, and threw them into the back seat with Alexis. "Be right back." She hurried inside and avoiding the still hot edges of the safe's opening, picked up a bundle of cash in her arms. She walked back to the car, dumped the cash in and then went back again. The safe looked empty but she decided to carefully run a hand around the interior trying to keep from being burned, just to make certain it was empty. It was a good thing she did, too. She found a flat, black portfolio wedged in the bottom and pulled it out. She put her coveralls back on and ran for the passenger seat. "We can go now," she told him. They had no trouble leaving the area and getting back out onto US85. They headed for her home and her mother.