Asher: Dragon's Savior (2 page)

“Do not tell others where you have been. The castle will be…people will wonder why you have survived when others have not.” Jacob agreed, as did Sally. Elbert also told them that should they need anything, anything at all, he would provide it for them. That from now on, they were to try their best to keep to themselves in order to protect the children. All of them.

~~Thirteen months, thirteen days, thirteen hours, and thirteen minutes

after the hour the castle fell~~

The house was filled with the cries of the first born of Jacob and Sally. Asher Anthony Benson came into the world screaming his head off and letting the world know that he had arrived. Elbert took the small bundle from Jacob, who had acted as mid-wife for his own wife, and laid him to rest on Sally’s chest.

“He is hungry, I think.” Sally pulled him to her breast, and Elbert helped with the clean up as she fed her son. Elbert had never been as proud of anything in his life as to see his first grandchild come into the world.

As Sally lay resting, he picked up young Asher and took him to the porch of the home. Jacob joined him a minute later and the two of them sat on the rockers resting. Sally had had a good labor, short and, with her magic, not too terribly painful. But she needed her rest now and they were glad to give it to her. Elbert looked at Jacob as he handed him his son.

“He will come here soon.” Jacob nodded but looked unsure. “The hatchling will not harm Asher, but make him stronger. You know this, correct?”

“I do. But I still worry. The notes that he gave us are very vague as to how they are to be united. It only says they will be as one.” Jacob looked at him, then at his child again before continuing. “Will he be a dragon, Elbert?”

“I honestly do not know for sure. What they have done, the king and queen, is something that even I have never heard of. For all we know, he may care for the child himself and never need your assistance again.” Jacob looked shocked, and Elbert laughed. He so loved teasing this gentle giant. “Nay, they will both need you. But until he arrives, we will have to wait and see. The next child will be easier, I think. We will know.”

Nothing happened the first night, nor the second or third. The baby, young Asher, began to cry more. Nothing would satisfy him. No milk from his mother or a cow would fill his belly. He would kick the blankets off his body no matter how tightly he was bound in them. And he would not allow anyone to hold him for more than a minute or two without screaming again. They all worried for the child.

On the sixth morning, Elbert got up to start his day and knew that something was wrong. There was silence from the babe’s room, and the household was warm, too warm for the winter they were coming into. He was just entering the baby’s room, shared by his parents, when he heard Sally scream. Elbert knew that the child had died.

He didn’t approach the bed that held Asher. Elbert stood back, not wanting to see the vibrant child lying so still in death that he knew had come to him. His heart broke as he heard Sally sobbing and Jacob standing as still as death himself as they stared into the crib. A crib he’d made for the babe himself.

“I shall take him yonder. I am so sorry.” Sally turned to him; he could see her tear-streaked face as she put out her hand to him. “Nay. Not yet. My heart…I cannot look upon him just yet.”

“He lives.” Elbert thought he’d misheard her and asked her to repeat it. “Asher is fine. The dragon has come to him. Come see them.”

Elbert walked to the bed slowly, his heart not believing that what his daughter said was true. He was set to bury his first and only grandchild, and she was telling him a falsehood. But when he came to the bed and looked down, he had to blink away the tears several times that clouded what he saw there.

The baby was sleeping soundly, his little arm wrapped around the dragon lying upon his chest. They were of the same size, the two of them, one nearly human child and one fully dragon. Elbert put his hand out to touch them, to assure himself that they were alive, when the dragon lifted his head and hissed at him.

“The book…remember what the book said?” He glanced at Jacob, who had lowered his voice more than likely so as not to wake Asher. “We have to let him have a bit of our blood so that he will know who we are to him.”

Sally pulled a small blade from her pocket, the one she used to cut herbs, and sliced it across her finger. Droplets of blood fell from the wound and into the mouth of the tiny dragon. When he nodded at her, she reached in and ran her fingers over the baby and the dragon as well.

“He is warmer than Asher. I wonder that he’d burn him.” Jacob cut his finger and let the dragon taste of him as well as Sally continued. “Do you think Asher suffered because his dragon wasn’t here?”

Elbert cut his finger then and let the dragon taste of him. But instead of nodding to him, the dragon came up off the baby and landed on his shoulder. He nipped gently at his ear before going back to the bed with Asher.

“What do you suppose he did that for?” Elbert tried not to sound so upset, but the others laughed and he smiled. “He bit me. Do you think because of what I am?”

“No. I think he bit you because you thought him dead.” Elbert nodded at Sally at her explanation. “We should leave them now so that they may rest. I think that our lives will be much quieter now that they are together.”

Elbert didn’t know why, but he thought that this was just the beginning and that their lives would never be quiet again. He hoped he was wrong, but he had a profound feeling that he was right.

Chapter 1

Asher sat behind his desk and tossed the ball he had in his hand to the window again. He was bored, and he needed something to do or he was going to go out and cause some trouble. Asher heard his brother come into his office just as the ball sailed over his head. Smiling, Asher turned to him and leaned back in his chair.

“You do know that the janitor said he would quit if you kept messing with his windows like that.” Asher nodded at Jed. “I see. You either don’t care if he quits or know that he won’t. Which is it?”

“He loves me. So he’ll put up with my mess because of that.” Jed only snorted as he gave him back the stress ball. “What’s going on? Anything I can get into with you?”

“No. I’m going out and I wanted to let you know. The building on Twenty-second is coming down next week and they’ve run into problems.” Asher stood up when he did, and Jed put out his hand. “I’d rather you didn’t come with me. You tend to stir the pot when you’re on a site.”

“I most certainly do stir the pot, and you know how much fun we have when I do that.” Jed only shook his head but didn’t tell him not to come with him as he made his way to the door. “Who else is going on this adventure with us?”

Asher was the oldest of all the men in his family, with the exception of Elbert, who he was pretty sure was older than dirt. But all kidding aside, when you were as old as they were, all of them, things needed to be stirred up once in a while just so they could get into trouble. And Asher, like his counterpart, loved a bit of trouble once in a while.

His dragon stirred along his skin when they got out into the sunlight. Kiaran was as much a part of him as his skin, and just as important. Asher decided that as soon as he got home tonight, the two of them would play.

The drive over to the building he’d purchased a month ago was made with Jed telling him what the problem was. There were squatters in the building. Not necessarily homeless people—though there were one or two of them in there as well—but people who had not found other homes when they should have.

“How many do we have to displace?” Asher hated to do this, but the building needed to come down now so that they could build the condos that were slated to go in next month. It was not like the building was safe. Most of the plumbing was in bad shape. The wiring was as old as the building, which had been built around the turn of the century, as well as the windows had been broken out on the lower levels long before he’d bought the thing.

“Four, not counting the two homeless people, who are being taken to the housing development on Tenth. They just needed help.” Asher nodded. By help, Elam, his brother, meant that they didn’t trust that they were being put there free of charge. “I took them there myself and showed them around, and explained that Simeon and Gideon are our brothers and will make sure they’re given enough used furniture to start out with, and jobs. The man starts tomorrow at his place, and the woman…well, she’s almost too sick to work, but Gideon found her something she can work on at her new home.”

“Three of the four are being moved as we speak, but the last one is being difficult.” Jed sighed heavily as he continued. “She has a job, means to move herself, but she feels that once she’s put in the other house that we’ll jack up her rent, double her trash pickup, and she swears that we’re going to have all sorts of drug lords move in just to make sure they are never able to sit outside in their yards. She’s something else.”

Asher had run into this sort of thing before. All of them had, he supposed. Once, about fifty years ago, the six of them had moved into a downtrodden neighborhood to bring it back up to code, and there were several families living in the same house. It had been a chore to make them understand that they really did want to help them, and then more work than any of them imagined just getting them to separate into the homes. There had been nearly twenty-five of them living in a two bedroom flat at that time.

Asher didn’t enter the building when they got there. His brother Jed had been working with the families since this began, and it was always best not to introduce a new player when there was trouble brewing. Instead, he leaned back against the limo and let the sun beat down on his face.

I would love to fly.
He smiled at Kiaran when he whispered in his mind.
To have the wind blow over my wings, the sun warm my skin. Let the others take care of this and let’s go—
.

Asher sat up and looked around when he stopped speaking suddenly. Kieran was tense, and moved over his body to get a better view. When he pulled from his hand just a little, Asher sat very still while they both scanned the area.

There is a being here that does not belong. Go into the building.
Asher stood up and moved toward where his brothers were. But before he was able to take more than a dozen steps, Kieran lifted from his body and stood in front of him.

Asher didn’t move. Not that he’d be able to with the dragon standing in front of him, but Asher knew not to get in his way should there be a fight. He looked around, seeing nothing, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t something there. Kieran rarely showed himself for no reason.

The creature finally appeared, and Asher stared at him. If anyone would have asked him, he would have said that all the trolls were dead. The plague had taken most of them long ago, and the few that had been left had been hunted and murdered. Even some of the very old ones, ones older than Asher himself, had been killed while they slept in their beds. It had been a horrific loss to all beings, but they’d been ill-mannered, bad tempered things from the day they’d been born.

“He wishes a word with you.” Asher moved to stand beside his dragon, but didn’t take his eyes off the troll. “He claims that there is a prize in the building that he wishes to capture. He thinks that he is deserving of the witch because—and these are his words—he is deserving because he is better looking than you.”

The thing in front of him was at least eight feet tall; his face and hands looked like someone had superglued stones and other things that were floating in a creek onto his flesh. His chest, bare of all clothing, was mossy…not the nice, soft green kind, but the moldy type that usually stank as well. Asher wondered if the man would be able to stand on a scale. He had to weigh at least a ton.

“Ask him if he wants to fight for the witch, or will he simply understand that he’s not leaving here with her.” Kiaran nodded and repeated what he asked to the troll.

No human could see the troll; or if they did, all they saw was a large man that had on ill-fitting clothing, and they knew that he smelled bad. Asher had the ability to see what his true form was because of his bond with Kiaran. Other supernaturals could see the troll as well, but few of them would mess with him. Asher and Kiaran had fought his kind before.

“He said that he is claiming her.” Asher asked him what that meant. “I think he means to use her as his concubine.”

Asher didn’t want any trouble. Not now. But if need be, he’d kill the troll in order to save the woman. It was their duty to save all mankind, sometimes even from themselves. As he pondered what he should do, the troll took a step toward the building and Asher turned to see what had his attention. Jed and Elam were coming out with four people.

Asher reached into the earth and asked for help. They were more than willing to help him, they told him, and that the troll had trodden on them enough. The ground shifted under the troll’s feet, knocking him off balance. Not to the ground, but enough that Kiaran could move toward the troll. Before he was standing upright again, Kiaran had cleared the distance between him and the troll, and was flying just above the ground in front of him. Asher moved toward Jed and the others to keep them out of harm’s way when and if anything happened.

Asher, because of his connection to the dragon, knew when he was going to attack. Leaping the last few feet toward the humans, he knocked them to the ground just as heat scorched his back. Jed cried out, but Asher wasn’t worried about him as he knew his own dragon would protect him; and if he were to be hurt, he’d heal him as well. Elam helped Asher cover the humans to protect them from harm. It was over in a matter of seconds.

Jed helped him up when the people beneath him began to struggle. His back was on fire, but as soon as Kiaran came to him, he knew that he’d be healed. Keeping his back to the people he had saved, he made sure that Elam was all right too. The spitfire, the one that Asher was sure that they were having the problems with, started poking him in the chest with her finger, yelling at him as soon as she was on her feet.

“You should be whipped for knocking me on my ass. What sort of company do you run that it’s okay for men to go around hitting old women to the ground? You’re all a bunch of sorry assed morons.” Asher looked at Jed and he nodded. “What do you have to say for yourself? Hmm? You like tossing women out on their asses, then knocking them down in the street when they don’t want to go? What would your mother think? Or were you born under a rock?”

“My mother would be appalled.” Asher tried to dust off the woman’s apron, but she smacked him away. “But she’d be more upset with me had I let the building come down around your ears. We told you that the building had to be destroyed, yet you wouldn’t leave when you were told to.”

“I’m not going to listen to someone that still has a cat lick the fuzz off his face.” Asher could have been her great-great-great-grandfather, he thought, but he said nothing as she continued. “In my day we let people die where they wanted. Not tell them they’re going in some fancy hotel only to find out that they’ve been put into one of them assisted living pieces of shit. Have you seen the news about them places? They take your pension, then leave you on the sidewalk to die.”

“I doubt very much anyone would take a damned thing from you unless you let them.” She stood staring at him, then looked in the direction of where the troll had been. “Did you see him too? Did you know why he was here?”

Asher waited for her to deny it, or at the very least for her to ask him what the hell he was talking about. Instead she looked back at him and nodded. There was a look of fear there, and something more. Asher put his arm around her shoulder and led her to the waiting car.

“He’s been stalking me for years. I was…I was able to get away from him for a bit and a day, but he found me a couple of weeks ago. I was afraid to leave the building. He’d get me for sure then. The stupid thing just wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m really glad that you and the others…well, I thank you.” Asher helped her into the car and called to Kiaran. As soon as their bodies connected again, Asher felt the burn in his back begin to heal. “You’re one of them cops, aren’t you? Those kind that come in when you have problems that the humans can’t deal with?”

“We help when we can.” She nodded and looked up at him from the car seat. “You’ll be safe there. I promise you. And there are protections in place that will keep others like him from getting to you.”

“I have my own spells to work with, thanks. But I appreciate you helping me out.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Just so you know, I have an idea of what you are. But this place you think you’re taking me, does it really have two bedrooms in it? I’ve been wanting to start me a…a craft room. Also…I’m thinking I need a new look. I don’t want to attract the wrong kind of element to me. What do you think?”

“Yes. To both your questions. And I’ve always been a firm believer that you are in charge of your own self. If you want to be different, then by all means, go for it.” She nodded and told him she might do just that. “All right. You do that and tomorrow I’ll have someone come by and make sure that everything is all right in the apartment. I can’t give you any money, but I can give you a fresh start.”

“I got me some money.” She pulled her skirt up and showed him the money pouches tied to her leg. “You just help with the craft room and stuff and I’ll be not bothering you again. Provided that you don’t need me some time in the future, which I’m thinking you will.”

“Everything I told you is true. And as for needing you, I’m sure you need to keep yourself safe more than you need to help me out. I think I have it under control.”

He watched the car move out of the area and turned to his brother. Jed was looking decidedly poleaxed but said very little. The rest of the people were helped into a waiting van and taken to the houses set up for them across town. As soon as everyone was gone, Asher walked over to where the troll had been killed.

“He was going to take the female.” Asher nodded at Elam. Casdon and Zak, dragons to Elam and Jed, respectively, were hovering around the scene burning off the residue of the troll. “Do you think she’s going to be any trouble? The woman I mean. Do you think she’ll be giving us any more trouble at the houses?”

“No. She said she’d been terrified to come out of the building for a few weeks now. She could see that he wanted her. I don’t know why she came out with you guys today, unless it was because we were here and there was safety in numbers.” Jed shook his head and Asher frowned. “Did she say something to you?”

“Yeah, she said that you were here.” Asher asked Jed what the hell that meant. “Don’t know, but when we were telling her that she needed to leave, she was standing at the window. Then she asked who you were. I told her my brother and she asked me if you were the oldest. As soon as I told her you were, she was ready to go right away.”

Elam didn’t know either but confirmed that she was ready and willing after that. “Jabbered on and on about the second bedroom at the new house, but nothing more about you. And she never mentioned the troll. When we came out of the building, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”