I Am Lightning (Laurel Defense Series)

I AM LIGHTNING

Laurel Defense Series

Book One

MELANIE MIRO

Copyright © 201
2 Melanie M. Cortes

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1480290938

ISBN-13:
1480290939

Cover design by Krystle Perillo

FOR:

Bobby, Sophie, Alex, Annie, Mike, and Mike Jr.

With all my love

CHAPTER ONE

I was hiding behind a rock. 
A big rock.  Huge.  It covered me and my partner, Mark.  Somehow this was not how I had envisioned my third assignment with the defense.  I was thinking along the lines of busting a bad guy.  At least the folks from Creature Control were there, even farther away from the creature than us.  Now THEY were a bunch of scaredy-cats.  Not me.  Not me and my partner Mark, hiding behind the rock.

We heard the creature wail and spit from the mouth of its home, a cavern close to the small town of Luray, in the state of Virginia.  Thankfully the creature had chosen a cavern that was not open to tourists.  That would have been disastrous.  It had eaten a cow, though.  That was good enough for Creature Control to want to relocate it to a safer spot.

“What is it called again?” I asked Mark for the umpteenth time.  I couldn’t spell the thing’s name, let alone say it.

“It’s a
cuélebre, a snake dragon,” he answered for the umpteenth time, and then we were showered with some more spit.  It sounds gross, but it was mostly painful.  As soon as the snake dragon’s spit hit the air, it turned into rock.  A myriad of pebbles landed over our heads.  “Ifan will want us to collect as many of these as we can,” Mark said, pocketing a few of the smaller spit-rocks.

“Why in the world would Ifan want spit?” I asked, peering over the rock a bit to look at the dragon.  It started to retreat back into the cave.  Ifan was the captain on the force.  He was also a wizard.  Apparently he needed dragon spit.

“They have healing powers,” Mark answered, handing me a piece of spit.  I dropped it back on the ground, berating myself because I had actually opened my hand to receive the thing.  “I’m going to lure it out and bind it.  You’re going to shock it so that CC can come and remove it.  Are you ready?” Mark asked.

I felt my eyes widen.  All throughout my two years of training we had never done a scenario that involved a dragon of any kind, let alone a snake dragon hiding in a cavern.  My mouth went dry.  I couldn’t screw this up because Mark depended on me.  He was going to bind the dragon with vines, since he could manipulate anything related to the earth, from dirt to flora.  I would have to stun the creature without killing it, but at the same time I couldn’t go too soft on it, or it would kill both of us.  I swallowed, but my mouth was still dry.

“Come on, Abby!  You can do this.  You were built for this,” Mark said, shaking me from my inaction.  He didn’t mean that I was built physically for fighting dragons.  I’m only five foot three and a hundred and fifteen pounds.  He was referring to the fact that I am a lightning sprite.  I am literally built to shock.

“Can’t they sedate the dragon?” I asked, giving it one last shot before I had to do my job.

“The CC says that the dragon is too old and its scales are too thick.  They can’t get a needle to penetrate the scales to sedate it.  You’ll have to stun it and then they’ll inject the sedative into its tongue,” Mark explained.  He unfolded his wings waiting for me to do the same.  Mark’s wings were brown, like the earth.  He is an earth sprite and my second cousin.  The only thing we shared was the fact that we are both sprites and that he’d gotten me the job with the Laurel Defense. 

I took a deep breath, then another, reminding myself that this is what I’d always wanted to do; this had been my career of choice.  The Laurel Defense responded to calls for help from the supernatural community in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.  The people from Virginia had been the ones to call in this particular dragon.  It was too close to the Shenandoah National Park, an area heavy with tourists, especially now in the fall when people came to admire the changing foliage.

“I’m ready,” I said, unfolding my own white-as-snow wings.  Many thought I looked like a fairy, even though fairies don’t have wings at all.  I blame popular culture for that misguided concept.

“Let’s go, Super
Ab!” Mark said, and took to the sky.  I flew in the opposite direction.  Mark would be in front of the dragon, and I would be behind it to give it a good jolt of electricity.

Mark lured the dragon out of its cave by dangling a piece of vine he’d conjured.  The dragon was acting like a cat mesmerized by a piece of string.  It came out slowly, each step thundering on the earth below us.  It made a couple of mewling sounds, and
even swatted at the vine in front of it.  With his free hand, Mark made another vine appear, this time it was wrapping itself around and around the beast.  The dragon didn’t notice, so mesmerized it was by the vine still dangling in front of it.

When Mark pulled to tighten the vine around the dragon’s body, it roared and spit in protest, sending shards of rock flying in the air.  That was my cue to start zapping.  I gathered energy from inside me, letting it fill my hands with enough power.  The blue licks of electricity ran between my fingers, coursing faster as I gathered more and more energy.  The jolt would not be as powerful as lightning, but it would be close.  It would definitely be more than static electricity.  Once I thought I had the right amount of energy gathered in both my hands, I sent it toward the dragon, a loud booming sound hitting my ears almost immediately.  The dragon fell, but it was still moving.

Suddenly I noticed that when it fell, it took Mark with him.  Mark had been taken by surprise and had landed on the ground, still attached to the dragon by a vine around his arm.  The dragon rolled and Mark was yanked yet again.  Quick as a wink I took out my favorite Natchez Bowie knife from its sheath at my thigh, and flew like the wind to help Mark.  The dragon was still rolling around, and almost took me out with the vine still attached to Mark.  I overshot my landing on purpose to escape the vine.  I could see Mark was struggling, so I ran and flew upside down at the last moment, cutting through the vine at the same time that I stayed clear of it.  I grabbed the end still connected to Mark and pulled us up.

With one last gathering of energy, this time using only one hand, I jolted the creature and made sure it wasn’t going to move.  A stream of CC people
came running in as I set Mark on the ground and helped him cut through the vines around him.  He was really tangled.

“Next time tether the vines to the rock,
cuz,” I said, trying to fit my knife between his skin and the vine, being careful not to cut him.  Mark wasn’t amused by my statement.  He rolled his eyes and said a quick, “yeah, yeah, yeah,” under his breath.  It hurt his ego to be saved by a girl.

“Defense!” the head CC guy called to us.  Mark and I both turned to see what was up.  “There’s something here you should see,” he pointed at the entrance to the cave.

I knew my eyes were not yet used to nighttime ops, so I could have sworn I was seeing things.  Like a ghost, a tender nymph came out of the cavern, dressed in gossamer and crying in a melodious voice.

“Aw, nuts!”
I said, trying to keep my language clean.  Nymphs were the most delicate of all species.  One wrong word and they’d go off the deep end.  She was already not doing all that great.

I put my knife away quickly, let down my long wavy red hair, and kept my wings unfolded.  I wanted to appear as non-threatening as possible, even though my black leather getup from neck to toe was nothing if not forbidding.  I approached the nymph slowly, smiling and putting out only good thoughts.

“Hi, are you all right?” I asked and stayed well away from her personal space.

“The
cuélebre stole me.  I don’t know where I am,” she hiccupped and looked up.  She was the cutest thing.  She looked like a five year old child, with long white hair past her waist and large blue eyes.  Her whole being emanated a sort of light.

“I can help you get home.  My name is Abigail and I’m with the Laurel Defense.  Do you know where you belong?” I asked and crouched down in front of her, making the leather of my suit creak a little.

“I’m from the Shenandoah River, next to the barn,” she said.  NOW we had a problem.  The Shenandoah River is many miles long, and how many barns had been built alongside it?  I shuddered to think of the total count.

“Her family is looking for her,” Mark intervened, fidgeting with his
freakin’ iPhone.  Show off.  Only operatives that had been with the defense longer than five years could get an iPhone paid by the force.  The rest of us peons?  We got partnered with someone who had an iPhone.  “My name is Mark,” he said to the nymph, crouching down.  “What’s yours?”

The nymph looked at me, then at Mark, then at me again, trying to decide whether she should say her name.  Finally she made up her mind that we weren’t going to hurt her.  “My name is
Neriss.”

“All right,
Neriss.  Mark knows where you belong.  Your family has been looking for you.  We can take you to them or you can wait here until we bring them to you,” I offered both choices, hoping she was only the scared kind of child, not the stubborn kind.

She decided to come with us, and Mark used his GPS to find exactly where the river nymph’s family lived.  We all flew together to deliver
Neriss safely to her family.

After making the necessary phone call to headquarters and letting them know we had actually solved two cases, we used our medallions to get us back to Laurel.  Ifan was nothing if not frugal.  It was cheaper to make us medallions that could be used to get back to Laurel than paying for a fleet of vehicles
plus the gasoline.  The medallion was nifty, but once the magic was used we had to wait half an hour to use it again.

Our headquarters were huge, and were hidden in a rural part of West Laurel in Maryland.  We were transported to the parking lot and walked the few steps to the main building.  Immediately the receptionist for the night, Jacinda, announced that there were goodies in the break room.  Mark and I exchanged a glance and raced each other, giggling like little kids.

“NO RUNNING!” Ifan roared when he saw us barreling towards him.  We stopped dead in our tracks and stood stock still.

Ifan smiled beatifically.  He was only a little taller than me, with a bald head and a neat trimmed white beard.  He always dressed in a suit, and expected us to dress in suits as well whenever the occasion called for it.  He led by example.  As a boss, he was one of the best, but his dark brown eyes missed nothing.  “I understand you have earned a run through the halls tonight, but could you please spare the rest of us.  Besides, I would like you both to meet Robert Ackermann, my apprentice and newest member of the defense,” he said, his brown eyes sparkling with thinly veiled pride.

Mark and I switched our gazes.  The man next to him was well over a foot taller than Ifan.  He wore his dark brown short hair in a shaggy kind of way, and he looked like he had about ten days’ worth of facial hair.  Even scruffy he was handsome in the extreme, and I immediately pegged his species as vampire.  I had a knack for it that others lacked.  Something about him made my insides warm up and I felt like preening.  Maybe it was the way he was staring at me with his sapphire blue eyes and open curiosity.  I kept my expression in check and kept it professional.  After all, we were colleagues.

“I’ve never met a lightning sprite before,” Robert Ackermann said, extending his hand.  I’d never shaken a vampire’s hand since I’d never been introduced to one, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I took it quickly.  His touch was cool and his skin was soft, but his handshake was strong.  I like strong handshakes.

“I’m Abigail Parker.  Everyone calls me Abby,” I said and I knew I was about to flush.  Great!  Let’s show the sexy vampire what a complete little girl I am.  After all, I was the youngest rookie ever hired by the defense at twenty-three years old.  Mark had vouched for me.  Being a lightning sprite also made me a desirable member of the force.  I gave Robert a little taste of what I could do and he withdrew his hand quickly.  He didn’t take his eyes off me until he absolutely had to.  It was very flattering.

Mark was polite, for a change, and introduced himself as he shook Robert’s hand.  “I’m Mark Findley,” he said, letting his voice drop an octave.  I swear men are like peacocks.  I wished they would just lower their pants already to see who had the largest cojones.

“Mark, Abby, my pleasure,” Robert said after shaking our hands.  He shot me a strange smile, one that I wished not to decipher but that made my insides turn all mushy.  Not good!  Fraternizing was discouraged in the force.

“Go eat, you two,” Ifan said.  He’d noticed Robert’s smile too.  “I want those reports on my desk before you leave for the night.”

Mark and I groaned and shuffled our sorry selves to the break room.  Somebody had brought donuts, cookies and a cake, plus actual dinner, but Mark and I weren’t the kind to eat “healthy” by human standards.  We needed the extra calories to maintain our main core of energy.  It was what made us sprites.

Back at our desks, Mark had me look over his wings.  He didn’t trust anybody to touch them except me, not even a healer.  I didn’t trust anybody with mine either, except him.  Mark and I had grown up together, so we’d been watching over each other for a long time.  I was supposed to be his mate, but who would want to mate with a sibling?  That’s how Mark and I saw each other.

“I think one of the dragon spit shards damaged it,” Mark explained, unfolding a delicate brown wing.  His were bigger than mine.  They are like bat wings, made of flesh instead of feathers, and not gossamer like the nymph’s.  They actually did look like pop culture’s idea of fairy wings in their shape, which is why I got confused with a fairy all the time.