Chapter One #3
Traveling north and away from the heavy traffic of the Interstate, Sophie became aware of an odd, reddish glow that seemed to linger in the air. Her first thought was fire, or perhaps a crash at the DFW airport, but the brilliance seemed to be hovering high above her rather than along the ground.
Still pondering, she turned down a side street and parked the truck in front of a modest brick house that had been converted into the veterinary clinic.
It sat on a full acre of land with a fenced, grassy yard for shelter animals to walk in.
Sophie took a moment to appreciate the relative peace and quiet in this older neighborhood.
She let a large SUV drive past and then opened the truck door and stepped down.
The odd light was much brighter here and she thought she heard something, as well. A whirring sound and something that sounded like a horse snorting, but Augustin, her Andalusian, was securely in his stall in the small stable. She looked up and squinted.
An oblong bright-red object was descending from the sky, an eerie trail of luminous sparkles of yellow, orange and red blazing behind it.
Could it be fuselage from a plane? The airport wasn’t far away.
The thing seemed to be heading toward her, though, and now it was beginning to take on a dragon’s shape!
Sophie almost laughed at herself. The picture of Saint George slaying the dragon must be lingering in her head.
As a child, she had loved fanciful stories about them, but they didn’t exist except in myths and legends.
The smile slipped from her face, though, as the thing came swooping down, belching fire that scorched her neatly mowed grass. The stench of the smoke assailed her. Sophie jumped behind her truck. Was it going to land? My God! What was happening?
It slowed its descent and hovered in the air about forty feet over her head.
Sophie blinked. OMG! OMG! It was a dragon.
For a moment, the world reeled about her as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
This was totally illogical, but she could see now that its scales were ruby-red and gold-tipped, almost as though the thing had been sprayed with lacquer.
The beating of the leathery wings slowed as the dragon twisted his neck, angling his head to stare at her with cobalt-blue eyes, as if to get a better look at her.
Her. Dear Lord! Did she look like dinner?
She wondered if she should just stand still and pray it would move on like most wild animals would do or if she should crawl under the truck.
But the size of the dragon—its wing-span must be at least fifty feet and its length thirty—meant it was a powerful animal.
The claws looked strong enough to pick up the truck and toss it.
She tried not to panic. There must be some realistic explanation.
Dragons did not exist. Why did she think one had just landed in front of her?
Was she hallucinating? She hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since lunch.
The evening had been stressful. Maybe she should go inside and take a short nap—
Before she could decide what to do, though, the dragon snorted again, sending a flame to sear more of the earth, but somehow missing her truck. Then he flapped his great wings and rose to disappear into the night sky almost as fast as a shooting star.
****
Down the street, sitting in his dark SUV, Adam Baylor watched the scene unfold and smiled.
It had been worth doing the stakeout at the Smith mansion earlier himself rather than trust his minions who had bungled the job with the Spear.
Of course, each of them had personally paid, screaming in pain and begging for his slow torture to end.
Yes, that was at least satisfying—and quite just, in return for their failure to meet his demands.
He had recognized the McCain warlock earlier and decided not to put a tail on him just yet.
Morgan, the little whore he used, was part of a witch’s coven that McCain belonged to.
He wouldn’t be hard to find. And Baylor owed him punishment.
The man had interfered and saved the life of the little witch, Sara Kincaid, and cost Baylor an easy swipe at getting the Spear.
McCain would die for that. Slowly.
But the woman shielding herself behind her truck was interesting.
He had wondered when she left the mansion if she knew anything about the ancient relics that both he and the warlock were hunting.
She wouldn’t have any reason to, since the panel on the side of her truck advertised her veterinary services, but Baylor believed in being thorough, so he had followed her. And a good thing he had.
Someone had released the red dragon.
He never would have thought those pious priestesses of Avalon would have risked it.
So many centuries ago, when Baylor had compelled Vortigern to invite the Saxons into Britain on the pretense of helping protect them from invading Picts and Scottis—and what wonderful, bloody, destructive wars that had caused!
—the red dragon had risen to defend his land.
But the Saxon brothers, Hengist and Horsa, had summoned the white dragon of the North, and more chaos had ensued, much to his delight.
Baylor had learned a valuable lesson from that. Dragon temperament could not be trusted and barely controlled. He had carried a few scars for nearly a hundred years as proof—which made it all the more intriguing why Avalon would choose to release the beast.
The dragon’s element was fire, which confirmed his suspicion that the next relic to be found would be the Sword of Fire, Excalibur.
Baylor had managed to confiscate a copy of the original manuscript by killing the old professor who had interpreted it.
He’d made a calculated guess at the order the relics would be revealed: Spear, Sword, Platter and Chalice, for they correlated to the ancient yearly Celtic festivals beginning with Beltane.
Unfortunately, the manuscript had only given clues to find the Spear.
For the dragon to have singled this woman out, she had to be important. Baylor would infiltrate her office and keep tabs on her.
But right now, he had work to do to put everything in place. Baylor heard sirens approaching. Some concerned citizen probably had called in to report the sighting. He eased the car into gear and turned the corner just as the first squad car approached.
Awakening the white dragon was next on his list.