Dragonslayer - Chapter One

“Hold on, hold on,” I took my foot off the gas, letting the Jeep slow as we cruised up an incline. A wave of dizziness hit me and I fumbled for the brake, missing twice as a hot icepick of agony stabbed my right eye and I went blind there. With the left eye, all I could see was the vague outline of dark trees on both sides of the road, it felt like the tires on the right side were thumping off the paved surface. Desperate, my feet searched for the brake pedal and one of them found the target. Pulling the wheel to the left toward what I hoped was the centerline of the road, I gritted my teeth as the pain in my head became overwhelming. With neither of my eyes working at that point, I slammed the shifter into Park by feel. For a second, the shifter resisted, the Jeep might have still been creeping slowly along the road. Then the transmission engaged in Park mode, and I took my feet off the brake, trying to find the door handle. It was easier to reach out the window for the handle there, press the large button with a thumb and wrench it open. Rolling out of the seat, I fell ungracefully to my knees, bashing my forehead on the inside of the door that was swinging back to close. The pressure in my head and the nausea were so bad, bashing my head was barely noticeable. What I did notice, as I tried to crawl away on hands and knees, was a dog jumping out of the car and landing on my back.

“Oof,” the breath was knocked out of me, I fell on my right side, and he licked my face.

“Are you OK?”

“N-no. Duke, I can’t even see OK from here.”

“If you give me a hint which direction, maybe I can smell it for you.”

“W-what?”

“That was a joke.”

A dog making a joke should have been a big deal, at the moment I couldn’t focus on anything other than the stabbing pain in my head. “Stand back,” I got back on my knees. “I’m gonna ralph, it, oohuuuuuh.” You know how, right after you barf, you feel better for a short time? Yeah, that didn’t happen. It made me feel cold, and so dizzy that I flopped on my back. Patting my chest, I fumbled for the amulet. “Azib?” I called for the genie. “Azib? Your Eminence?”

No answer. The amulet felt cold, and of course I couldn’t see if there was any green glow coming from the thing.

“Azibera-whatever?” At the moment, I couldn’t remember his full name. “Come on, talk to me. Please?”

No answer. Maybe my overuse of magic to force the portal shut had harmed him. He had spoken once after the portal disappeared, but when I had asked him about the thing I’d seen in the sky, he hadn’t responded. Damn it. A freakin’ dragon was loose in our world, law enforcement was coming to investigate the firefight at the mound, there might be more Order bad guys hunting for me, my backup team were all injured, and now I was totally blind from my chaotic overuse of powerful magic. Something had to change.

“Duke?” I let go of the useless amulet. “Duke, are you there?”

“I’m always here,” he nuzzled my left ear. “You can’t see me?”

“I can’t see anything.”

“Ruh roh,” he gasped, and I had to laugh. Hearing an actual dog say that was freakin’ hilarious.

“Can you see, or hear,” I added because he is a dog, “any cars coming?” We were on a two lane country road, it was the middle of the night, and the area was mostly gently rolling farmland. There likely wasn’t a lot of traffic on that road even during morning rush hour, and we hadn’t passed any cars that were going toward the portal site, but even a single vehicle on that road would be a big problem for us.’

He sniffed the air loudly. “Nope. I hear something, but it’s not close, and it’s going away from us.”

“You are sure about that?”

“You remember that I have a dog’s hearing, right?”

“Good point. Can you get the phone from the car?”

“Shouldn’t you get back in the car?”

“Good idea, except I can’t do that right now. The phone?”

The Jeep’s springs made a creaking sound as he hopped in, then back out. A phone dropped into my right hand. Great. It was covered with dog slobber. And I was still blind. Wiping the phone on my shirt, I wondered how the hell I could call anyone, without being able to see the icons. At least I could feel which side of the cheap burner phone was the front, the back had a curved plastic surface. Scraping a fingernail on the front glass, I located the speaker on top, and got the phone oriented properly. “Which direction is the Jeep? The car?”

“Behind you,” he gently tugged on my jacket sleeve, without me needing to ask for help.  Damn. Dogs are the best. Reaching out, I found the front tire, and sat back against it. “Duke, I need you to look at this phone,” it was resting on my lap, face up. “There should be, uh, ten circles. You see them? Three rows of three circles, and one circle at the bottom?”

“Uh huh,” he said, as I imagined him tilting his head one way, then the other. “I see it. Uh, I can’t read, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You should teach me to read,” his tail thumped on the road.

“Uh, maybe later, OK?” A dog who could talk and open doors was enough trouble. “Look, follow my finger, please.” Mike had told me the unlock code was a simple ‘1-6-9-7’, which is convenient except when you can’t see anything. “I need my finger to touch the top circle on the left, then the circle in the middle row on the right,” I closed my eyes to concentrate, walking him through the process. It took three explanations before he understood. Then I had to fumble through touching the proper sequence seven times before I heard a ‘click’ sound. “Duke, did the picture change? It is not just circles?”

“Uh, yeah. It is lots of squares now.”

“Yes,” I pumped a fist. “Thank you! You are a good dog.”

“Do I get a treat?”

“Let me make a call first, OK?” Mike’s hurried ten second explanation of using the phone stated I shouldn’t use the regular call icon at the bottom more than once, and I had already used it to warn him of more Order vehicles driving toward the mound site. The top right icon, that looked like a solitaire game, was a secure calling app. Picturing the screen in my mind, I tapped diagonally down from the top right corner until I heard another ‘click’. “Zulu Echo Romeo Oscar One Four Niner,” I said as clearly as I could. “Call Mike.”

It was a miracle. Mike answered after a heart-stopping delay. His voice was strained, he must have been in considerable pain from taking rounds to his chest under the ballistic armor plates. “Matt,” he remembered to use my cover name, even over what was supposed to be a securely encrypted call. “Status?”

Wow, the guy was all business. “The portal is closed.”

“Outstanding,” he paused to cough. “Meet us at-”

“There’s a complication. I need you to come get me.”

A pause, then, “The Jeep broke down?”

“No, I did. I’m blind.”

“Wait, you are blind?” There was excited chatter in the background.

“I’m hoping it’s temporary. It took a lot of magic to close that portal, now I have something like a migraine headache. I got the Jeep stopped but it’s blocking the road. You need to come get me.”

“Ah,” he grunted. “We can’t. Not right now. We’re in one of the Order’s trucks, but we need to ditch it. They have a tracking device hidden somewhere and it’s active now. We’re jamming it the best we can, I- I left that equipment in the Jeep. My fault. We need to ditch this truck and get alternate transport.”

Meaning, they had to steal a car. I had no problem with that. “Understood. ETA?”

“Half an hour, at least. Macarius is driving, and-”

“Macarius is driving?” Holy sh- How bad was their situation that they had a knight from the fourth freakin’ century driving the truck? Gisele was a better driver, but she had a busted ankle so I guess Macarius was their best option. Damn, they were in trouble. “Sorry,” I said, figuring I had to trust that Mike and Isabel knew what they were doing. “Can you-”

“Errr, Kaz?” Duke growled. “I see blue lights.”

“Shit.” The notion that dogs are completely colorblind isn’t true, they can see most colors except red and green. Kind of like people who have colorblindness. So, when he said he could see blue lights, I trusted him. “Where are the lights? Mike, hold a minute?”

“There,” the dog said, being super helpful.

“I can’t see. In front or behind the car?”

“In front. Hmm, I can hear it now. It’s, not getting closer.”

There was no point asking if he was sure about that, he didn’t need to remind me that a dog has much better hearing than I did. “Are the lights getting brighter?”

“No. What I’m seeing is the lights reflected off the clouds.”

“We’re monitoring police channels,” Mike coughed again. “There are state troopers and sheriffs in the area, and they’re calling in a helicopter. So far, they are all directed toward the mound site.”

“I fired my gun at the portal,” I warned. “Not at the portal itself, you know? That’s got to attract attention.”

“All the cops are being directed to the mound site. Matt, you need to get off the road.”

“Yeah, I know that,” I snapped at him, the stabbing pain in my head sapping any patience I had remaining. “Should I leave the Jeep here?”

“Don’t do that! It has our gear, and it’s covered in our DNA. Yours too.”

“Mike, I am open to suggestions. I can’t see anything,” I told him, as I realized that wasn’t quite true. My eyes could see areas of dark gray fuzziness in the blackness around me. That was an improvement.

“Is there some wizard thing you can do?” When I didn’t respond, he sighed. “That was a stupid thing to say. Matt, I don’t know what to tell you. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“You know my location?”

“Just the general area. I’ll call you when we get close, you can give us directions.”

“How? Mike, I am literally blind here.”

“We’ll figure something out. You managed to use the phone to call me.”

“I did. OK, I’ll wait here.”

Ending the call, I held onto the Jeep’s fender to stand up, grateful the dizziness had settled down. Yes, my vision was improving, it was no longer uniformly dark in every direction. My guess is I had driven no more than a quarter mile from the portal site. That was way too close. Even if law enforcement was focused on buzzing around the mound site like angry hornets. There could be a local concerned citizen, a busybody, or someone looking to be a hero,  checking out the gunshots from where I’d fired my gun at the portal. For certain, I needed to get the Jeep off the road. Where? On the way to the portal, we had passed a convenience store perhaps another half mile away, the type of local place that has only two gas pumps, and closes before midnight. If I could get there, I could park the Jeep and wait for rescue.

How the hell could I do that?

“Duke, buddy, can you do something for me? It’s important.”

“I haven’t gotten a treat for the last thing I did.”

“There will be plenty of treats, I promise.”

“Ooh, what kind of treats?”

“Later, OK? I really need your help, please.”

“What can I do?”

“Get in the car, and sit on the passenger seat. I can drive, but you have to be my eyes, OK? Tell me to turn right or left, to stay on the road.”

“Hmm. That sounds dangerous. You should teach me how to drive.”

“Yeah, that is not happening. Listen, I’m serious. If someone sees us like this, I could be taken away.”

“Taken away where?” He whimpered.

“Away. We would never see each other again.”

“I will do whatever I have to. No one is taking you away. You’re my person,” he insisted with a whine.

“OK, get in.”

“I am in,” I heard him moving around on the seat. “Do you need help getting in?”

“I’m good,” I felt my way around the door, climbed into the seat, and closed the door. Feeling for the light switch, I turned the headlights off. Dogs could see better in the dark than humans can, and I didn’t want to attract extra attention by using lights. If another car came along, I would turn the lights on, but unless a helicopter was using infrared, it wouldn’t see me with the lights off. My bet was any helicopter would take a while, probably over an hour, to reach the site. Just waking up a pilot and getting the aircraft prepped for flight would take longer than the half hour Mike estimated to come get me. A helo would probably begin a search at the mound site anyway, it would take a while for the search to expand to my location. I hoped. What I was more concerned about were police roadblocks, and what helped me there was the limited law enforcement manpower in the area. The county sheriff and state police had to be focused on the crime scene first, right? It would take them a while to figure out what the hell happened there. It would be great if the cops assumed it was a gang-related shootout over drugs, but the tactical gear the bad guys were wearing wasn’t typical fashion for meth dealers.

Whatever.

All I knew was that sitting in the middle of the road wasn’t good for me.

Turning the key that was still in the ignition, the engine started right up. Before starting to drive, I had to check on something. “Duke, those blue lights. You still see them?”

He didn’t answer right away, I took that as a sign he was being serious about the situation. “Barely. I think they’re going away from us.”

“Good. What I want is to keep in the middle of the road, got it? I will be driving slowly. You tell me to steer left,” I pointed toward my door. “Or right,” I pointed to the passenger door. “You understand?”

“I think so.”

“Good. If I’m about to drive off the road, tell me to stop.”’

There was the sound of his tail thumping on the seat. “This will be fun!”

“Focus, please.” Yanking the transmission selector all the way past Drive into low gear, I hovered my left foot over the brake pedal. In low gear, I hopefully wouldn’t need to hit the brakes, since the red glow of those lights would illuminate our position, and hurt Duke’s night vision.

We actually did fine. At first. The Jeep was going maybe five, ten miles an hour, with the engine whining in low gear. My hands wanted to have a crushing death grip on the wheel but I forced myself to hold on with only my fingertips, feeling for every ripple in the road surface through the Jeep’s tires. Then I heard the gravel on the side of the road, as the left front tire went off the road and I heard the tire crunching from my window. Jerking the wheel to the right, I scolded the dog. “Duke! We almost ran off the road.”

“Sorry. It’s dark, and I’m not used to doing this. The clouds covered the moon.”

“Should I turn the lights on?”

“No, I’ll do better. Uh, the road turns to your side up ahead. Is it OK if I stick my head out the window?”

“Will that help you see better?”

“It will be more fun,” he insisted.

“Then, no. Please focus.”

We made the left turn successfully, still creeping along, and I relaxed just a bit. Until-

“Left! Left left left-”

Wrenching the wheel, I tapped the brakes just as the front tire ran off the road, and the Jeep lurched downward in that direction. The left front tire was sliding into a ditch and I stood on the brakes, the Jeep lurching to a stop. “Duke, what the hell?”

“Sorry. I saw a squirrel.”

“A squ- Oh my G-”

“Oooh, no, maybe it’s a raccoon! I think. Definitely a rodent. I’ll go check.”

“No,” I exploded at him, my headache stabbing into my brain. “You stupid-”

Too late. The Jeep rocked as the dog leapt out the window, and calling him was no use. Damn it, what the hell was I thinking, asking a dog to guide me? “Duke?” I called out softly, squeezing my eyes tightly shut against the pain. Louder, I demanded, “Get back here, you stupid mutt.”

Maybe that was not the best way to encourage him to obey. “Duke? I’m sorry. I have treats. Please come back.”

Shutting off the engine, I could hear rustling in the underbrush as something crashed through the shrubs that lined the ditch. “Duke, you come back here right-”

Uh oh.

Frantic barking followed by abrupt silence.

I knew that sound.

And the smell. I knew that smell.

“Oh, I can’t believe you-”

There was more crashing in the underbrush next to my door, and the smell became overpowering, accompanied by a choking sound.

“Duke, are you all right?”

“What do you think? I am not all right.”

“Why did you-”

“This is all your fault,” he choked.

“Me? What did I-”

“Mister Skunk did not want to be my friend.”

“You are kidding-” I groaned. “All I said is maybe you should-”

“You told me maybe Mister Skunk would be my friend. That’s the last time I listen to you about anything.”

“Listen, I’m sorry,” I tried to salvage what I could from the situation. “Can you see, or did you get blasted in the face?”

“No, it did not get me in the face. I wouldn’t fall for that trick again, I’m not stupid, you know.”

“That’s, uh, great,” I bit my lip so I didn’t say what was in my head. “We still need to get out of here.”

“Good idea. Lights came on in that house. I think the people there are really mad.”

“What house?” My hands tensed on the wheel. Vaguely, I could see a lighter gray area in front of me.

“The house just behind the trees.”

“We need to get out of here.”

“Can you get this stink out of my fur?”

“Yes, but not now.”

“When?”

“Later.”

“I smell bad now,” he declared with inescapable logic.

“Please,” I reached over, fumbled for the door handle, and got the passenger door open. “Get in.”

He jumped in, and I had the delightful experience of reaching across him to yank the door closed. The skunk had blasted him on his right side, so although the stench in the car was awful, I didn’t get any of the oil on myself directly. Hopefully.

“Let’s try this again, OK?”

Backing up, I was actually kind of pleased to see my vision filled with a soft gray glow, as the backup lights reflected off trees on the other side of the road. “Is the car pointed straight along the road?”

“Yes. Oh, it stinks in here. I should get out.”

“Do not do that! Stay in the car, please.”

“It stinks in here,” he insisted. “My nose is very sensitive, you know.”

Putting the Jeep in low gear, I let my foot off the brake and we crept along again.

“Wait, stop,” he said with a low menacing growl.

“What is it?”

“Another rodent. They are everywhere tonight. I need to-”

Tapping the brakes, and reaching over to grab hold of his collar, I turned to look at him, though I couldn’t see anything. “Duke, I really, really need you to not be a dog for a while, OK?”

“What does that mean?”

“If your instincts tell you to do something, don’t do it.”

“Do you follow your instincts?”

“Not all the time. You have to use judgment to-”

“Why are my instincts wrong? Is it because I’m a dog? That is a hurtful thing to say.”

“Oh for- Listen, do your instincts help us drive this car?”

“Um, no,” he admitted.

“All I’m saying is, we need to,” I had to pause to catch my breath, the smell was making my eyes water. That actually helped my vision somehow. “Get down the road a ways, then we can pull over and stop. That’s it. We wait. For Gisele and Macarius.”

“Will they get the stink out of my fur?”

“Yes. Just, not right away.”

“Will they have treats?”

“Uh, sure.”

“You don’t sound like you know.”

“There will be plenty of treats. Please, just guide me for a while longer. We’re looking for a store on your side of the road.”

“How will I know which place is the store?”

That was a good question. “There is a statue of a bear on the road in front of the store.” That detail I remembered, because I didn’t think of Ohio as being heavily populated by bears. “A bear looks like a big dog, OK?”

By the time we reached the store, I could see well enough to guide the Jeep into the parking lot on my own, using the vague glow of the floodlight on the front of the building. In case the store had a security camera, I parked in the far end of the lot, figuring any camera would only cover the front door. The thick front tires still bumped over a curb I didn’t see, it’s a good thing I wasn’t driving a regular type of vehicle. Turning the Jeep off, I got out and told Duke to follow me, we walked around the back of the store. From my memory, the place had only one level, not an apartment above where the owner lived. It was a small, local place, likely not opening until seven in the morning. We had just settled down to wait when Duke snorted. “Someone’s coming. I see blue lights again.”

He was right. Even I saw the blue lights, though to me they were just a blur as the cruiser roared by in the opposite direction. Thankfully, the car didn’t slow as it passed us. It helped that before I backed the Jeep out of the abandoned home site where we found the portal, I had smeared mud on the four bullet holes that peppered the passenger side rear door. Mud on a Jeep would not attract the attention of law enforcement, but bullet holes certainly would. The Jeep’s grill had a shallow dent where it had struck a bad guy, but that dent wouldn’t be noticeable at night. The blue light dimmed as sound of the cruiser faded away.

“That was close,” I shuddered.

“Yup,” Duke stood and shook, his collar jingling.

“Where are you going?”

“There’s a trash can over there, it might have something I can eat.”

“Do not mess with that trash can!”

“Why not? I’m hungry.”

“How can you eat, when you smell like that?”

“I’ll power through. It’s a dog thing.”

“It must be. Just stay here, please.”

Too late. The dog was a vague darker moving object in the darkness, I reached for his tail and missed. Before I could call him, there was a Yip of pain. “What happened? Duke, are you OK?”

He licked my face. “I stepped on something. Help me.”

“Sure, Buddy. Where is it?”

“My paw,” he whimpered.

“Yeah, I, figured that. Can you show-”

He laid a paw in my open palm.

“OK, I’m going to feel around with my fingertips, I can’t see anything.” He yelped when I felt something hard in one of the paw pads. “Sorry, Buddy. That feels like,” my index finger traced the object. “A staple.”

“Who leaves a staple lying on the ground?” He was indignant.

“It was close to a trash can.”

“That is just irresponsible. Anyone could have stepped on it!”

That would have been a bad time to remind him that people wear shoes, so I said nothing about that. “I’m going to pull it out now,” I got a fingernail under the staple. “This is gonna hurt for a second. Are you ready?”

“Wait, I- Ow!” he jerked the paw away but I hung onto it.

“Stop moving.”

“You tricked me.”

“It had to be done. Hold still, you’re probably bleeding. Do not set your paw on the ground, it could get infected.”

He whimpered and leaned against me, while I dug out of a pocket the little plastic first aid kit from the RV. We hadn’t needed it, as Isabel used a much better kit from the Jeep. In the dark, and being half blinded, I had to feel for the tube of antibiotic ointment. “Keep your paw off the ground for a while, OK?”

“I will.” He flopped across my lap, laying his head on my chest. That close, the skunk smell was even worse. “Thank you.”

“It’s what you do, when you’re in a pack,” I told him what I thought he wanted to hear. “You feel better now?”

“I’m still hungry,” he lifted his head to look in the direction of the trash can.

 “Look,” I reached into a pocket. Since I started living with a dog, my pockets always contained plastic poop bags, and some sort of treats, usually biscuits. “Here,” my hand held a gravy-basted biscuit. “Try this.”

He crunched it, swallowing as fast as he could as usual. “Hmm.”

“You like it?”

“It tastes like skunk,” he stuck out his tongue.

“Sorry about that,” I told him, though it was a hundred percent his own fault.

“You got another one?”

“You said it tasted like skunk, and you want more?”

“I’m a dog.” My vision was improving, because I could vaguely see him staring at me. “We’re not picky whiners like humans are.”

“Hey, have another, if you can stand it.”

He ate another, but didn’t want a third one.

“Uh, you’re not hungry?”

“I am hungry, but I don’t want to ever hate the taste of those biscuits. I can wait, I guess. Ah,” he groaned, settling down on the ground. “I have regrets.”

“That you didn’t learn a lesson from the first time you messed with a skunk?”

“No,” he stared at me, I got the impression he couldn’t believe how dumb humans could be. “I regret that I still don’t know what a skunk tastes like.”

I resolved to get up and try driving again. My vision had improved to being able to see the outline of a blob, where the Jeep was parked at the far end of the parking lot in front of the store. That was with my left eye, my right only perceived light and dark gray. Driving at that point would not be the smartest idea, it might also be my best option. Holding the phone right in front of my face, I could see the time if I stared at it long enough. Forty minutes had passed since the call with Mike. There was no point to me calling again, he would contact me when he could, and back when he gave me the phone he told me not to use it often, in case the bad guys were tracing cellphone signals. A lot of things could have gone wrong to delay them. Mike was injured and likely in shock. Isabel had gotten shot in the leg, I didn’t know how badly but she had bled through her makeshift bandage. Gisele had a sprained or possibly broken ankle. Macarius’s right wrist was broken, somehow he was managing to drive, according to Mike. The Egyptian knight could have driven them off the road, or they could have been stopped by a police roadblock, or the bad guys followed the truck and set up an ambush. It could be something simple, like not being able to find another vehicle they could steal at that late hour. Regardless of the reason, Mike hadn’t called, and remaining close to the portal site was a bad idea. If the vehicle I had seen driving past was a county sheriff, the deputy probably knew the area well and would know the parking lot of that store should be empty at that late hour. After patrolling where my gunshots might have been reported and not finding anything, a sheriff might come back to investigate the Jeep. “Duke,” I patted his head and stood up. “Let’s go.”

He yawned and shook when he stood up. “Are we getting something to eat?”

“Uh, not yet.”

“Are you cleaning the stink off my fur?”

“Not right now. We need to move from this place, the police might come back. That was the blue lights we saw.”

“Oh. Whew, I think this smell has gotten worse.”

It had gotten worse, and I was breathing through my mouth so I didn’t inhale the awful stuff. It made my mouth tingle, and I was resigned to throwing away my leather jacket and buying new clothes. The Jeep was a rental, I knew that from a sticker on the rear bumper. No way could Mike and Isabel return it, so it was probably best to burn the thing and pay the insurance deductible. Whatever. We could worry about that later.

Driving slowly, with the headlights on, I was able to stay on the road, with Duke warning me of turns in advance. About a mile down the road we came to a crossroads and I turned west, toward where I hoped Mike was coming from.

A minute later, the phone in my pocket vibrated. The first time, I fumbled with the icons and ended the call. Mike called back. “Matt, where are you?”

“On the road.”

“You’re able to drive?”

“Sort of. I am going twenty miles an hour, but I’m a couple miles away from the portal site. A police car drove past while I was parked, haven’t seen any cars on the road since then. Mike, I shouldn’t be driving, if I get pulled over I’m in big trouble.”

A pause, while I could hear him talking with someone. “Find someplace to pull over, and I’ll walk you through sharing your location. We’ll come get you and I’ll drive the Jeep.”

“About that. There’s a complication.”

I heard him sigh before he responded. “You crashed it?”

“No, but Duke got into an argument with a skunk.”

“He what?”

“The interior stinks, no way to get it cleaned.”

“Why did he- I don’t care,” he sighed. There was some talking in the background, a woman’s voice, then, “Find a place to pull over and we will, do, something.”

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived in what looked like a church van.

It was a church van.

“You stole from a church?” I couldn’t believe it, and I had stolen a lot of vehicles.

“We didn’t have a lot of options on short notice,” Mike grimaced as he carefully got out of the van, pressing a hand to his ribcage.

Macarius waved at me from the driver seat. “Kazimir, you are not well?” His voice was strained.

“Never better. How are you?”

“I am,” he bit his lip. “Powering through.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around tonight.”

“Ohhhhh,” Mike backed away from the Jeep. “You weren’t kidding. How did the dog get attacked by a skunk?”

“It was his fault,” Duke insisted. “Kaz said I should try to make friends with Mister Skunk.” Mike and Isabel had briefly been introduced to the talking dog back at the mound site, the agents seemed to have processed the concept since then.

“Listen, it’s a long story, can we just go, please?” I pressed fingers to my temples. “The headache is making me nauseous.”

“If you have to puke,” Mike pointed at the Jeep’s passenger seat. “Do it in there. I won’t even notice the smell.”

“What’s the plan?”

“We were getting the hell away from here,” Mike shook his head slowly. “Now we can’t do anything until we get you and your dog cleaned up. I’ll need to ditch the Jeep, burn it, and report it stolen.”

“Sorry about the skunk,” I patted Duke’s head, and opened my door to get out.

“Ah,” Mike gave a weary shrug. “We couldn’t return it with bullet holes anyway. Once we get you cleaned up, you can borrow some of my clothes,” he sniffed and pointed to the back of the Jeep. “Unless they also smell like skunk. We have a jet, we will fly out of here and get medical treatment for-”

“You guys can leave,” I shook my head which was a bad idea, as it made the pain in my head even worse. “I need to stay here.”

“You need to get away from here now. This whole area will be saturated with law enforcement. And the Order will certainly send more operatives, it’s too dangerous for-”

“I can’t leave here, not yet. There’s a complication.”

“Another complication?” His mouth dropped open. “Is this always going to be a thing with you?”

“Uh, yeah, probably. Listen, I got the portal closed, but something came through.”

“A monster,” Duke shuddered, his lips quivering. “Two monsters. One had a hairy, scaly arm with big claws.”

“We killed those. Killed one of them, a sort of big salamander. The thing that tried to reach through the portal never made it through, before I sealed it off.”

Mike sighed. “Do we need to clean up the site?”

“Nah, everything that came though dissolved into dust when it died.” He didn’t look surprised when I told him that. “Someone would need to know what they’re looking for. It’s an abandoned construction site, I doubt if anyone has been there for months. Leave it alone and no one will notice.”

“Then what’s the problem?” He looked both ways along the road, checking for traffic.

“Something else came through from the Nether, before I got there. At least one. I only got a glimpse of it in the sky. Looked like a,” I was embarrassed to say it aloud. “A dragon.”

“A dragon? Like, a dragon?” Isabel gasped from the passenger seat of the van. “Mike, we have to call this in.”

“I know.”

“Wolfe is right, we can’t leave the area.”

“I know,” Mike held up a hand, irritated. And in pain, gritting his teeth. “Kazimir-”

“Call me Kaz, please,” I said, because right then I was focused on what was truly important.

He ignored me. “Do you know how to track a dragon?”

With a shrug, I told him, “Unless it involves using a bag of Purina Dragon Chow as bait, I have no idea.”

He cursed under his breath. “Right. We clean up this,” he wrinkled his nose. “Mess, first. Isabel, we need to call in a team doctor.”

“Annie won’t like that,” she said.

“There is nothing about tonight she will enjoy hearing, we’ll deal with it.”

“Hey!” Duke pawed at Mike’s leg. “I’m hungry.”

Mike sighed. “Annie is just gonnalovehearing we now have a talkingdogwith us.”