TWENTY-FIVE
Morgan sat in the playroom downstairs with Lexi and Avery. Jae and Avery just arrived from being out of town on business. Their mates sat with them, except Clacher who flew up to Ker’s cabin to check on the new mates.
The fact the brothers couldn’t telepathically reach him bothered them all. Morgan was sure it was something innocent like they were going at it like bunnies and just didn’t answer their phones. Or in Ker’s case, didn’t answer his…head? She had no idea how telepathy worked.
In the meantime, they all sat staring at the little light green dragon playing with the other kids. Nana stood off to the side watching, but at least, she didn’t have her mouth gaping like the others with Morgan.
“He’s so adorable, I want to scoop him up and smoosh him into me,” Avery commented. “I mean, look at his tiny hands and toes. His little nose is so cute.”
“Yes,” Morgan said, “he’s cute, but this dragon form isn’t as easy as you’d think. There are problems you’d never think of.”
“Like what?” Avery asked.
“For starters, like eating with no lips,” Morgan replied. “Everything just falls out of his mouth when he chews on it. And I can’t spoon feed him because there are no lips to drag the food off the spoon.”
Avery gaped anew. “Oh my god. I never thought of that.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Morgan said. “And try taking him to the bathroom. Dragon butt and toilet bowl don’t go together.” Morgan let out a sigh. “But Nana can get him to change forms and then we’ll be back to normal.”
She looked at Nana’s serious face. She didn’t look happy. Morgan added, “Hopefully.”
The rest of the children and her little dragon seemed to be getting along with each other. The other kids were treating Noah as if he wasn’t in a different form. Morgan wondered if they knew it was Noah or a new playmate that looked like a giant toy dinosaur.
Lexi’s oldest was not much younger than her son. Callie would be the next in line to shift. Noah stood next to her in the play kitchen the uncles had built.
“I wander if the other kids would be afraid of Noah if he got mad,” Lexi said. As if on cue, Callie hollered at Noah and swatted at his paw. The boy let out a precious high-pitched rawr. Then Callie batted him on the head with a wooden spoon and that ended that. Noah moved on to safer pastures.
“Okay,” Nana said, “I’ve seen enough, dragon boy.” She scooped him up and planted kisses on his face as he wiggled in her arms and snorted—Morgan figured that was dragon laughter.
Nana carried the boy away from the others and sat on a bean bag. She placed Noah on the floor in front of her. Morgan watched as the elder whispered to her son. Was this where she got him to shift into his human form? She hoped so. Nana was going to have to explain to her what to do in case something happened and Nana wasn’t around for the next child. Someone had to be able to reach them other than the ancient know-it-all.
Morgan now understood why the first shift could be deadly for the youngsters. Everything about them was different than how people operated. Not only eating and drinking, but simple things like going down stairs. Dragon legs, short ones, anyway, didn’t do that—they had to crawl down backward. They couldn’t sit in a chair because of their tail. And going to the bathroom in the bathroom—don’t even go there. That was a disaster.
For several minutes, Nana spoke quietly with Noah. He shook his head a few times and nodded. Morgan wondered what the woman was telling him. She elbowed Tor. “What’s she saying?”
“She’s trying to get his animal to retreat and let the human form come back. But it doesn’t seem to be working,” he answered.
“What!” Morgan’s reaction was louder than she intended and everyone, including the children, turned to look at her. “Sorry,” she said and shrunk down where they all sat in the adult seating area observing.
Morgan leaned against Tor. “Why isn’t it working? Isn’t this normal for you?”
“It is,” Tor replied, “but at the beginning, the dragon may not want to give control to the human side. It can be very stubborn.”
“Huh,” Morgan replied, “just like his father.” At that second, Tor and Jae froze, their eyes glazing over. The women recognized this right away as the brothers communicating via their familial link. Seconds later, both Tor and Jae were on their feet.
“What?” Morgan asked. “Was that Clacher or Ker? What did they say?”
Tor rubbed a hand down his face. “That was Clacher. He’s at Ker’s cabin.”
“And,” Lexi pried.
Jae continued. “The front door was kicked in and there were no sign of Ker or Tiana.”
“Plus,” Tor said, “he found human blood and the scent of black dragons all over the place.”
Nana joined them. “Tell Clacher to quickly look around the area then get back here. If the blacks have Ker and Tiana, we need a plan to get them back. Do we know the location of their hideout?”
“Sayeh’s?” Tor confirmed. “No. Same as they don’t know where this castle is.”
“Or you hope, anyway,” Nana replied. Tor grimaced at her. The thought of Sayeh knowing the whereabouts of their home scared the hell out of Morgan. If that group knew their location, they were sitting ducks, or dragons. The children would be in danger.
“Nana, why hasn’t Noah changed back?” Morgan asked. She heard the fear in her own voice.
“It’s nothing to concern yourself with, dear,” the elder said. “Some children are more stubborn than others. You should’ve seen the boys’ great-great-uncle Norman. The boy nearly died from dehydration before the dragon relented.”
Fear tore through Morgan. Tor wrapped his body around hers. He whispered into her ear, “I’m sure Noah will be fine. His dragon is just having too much fun playing. He’ll come about soon.”
Morgan squeezed her arms around her mate. She couldn’t speak around the terror lodged in her throat. She didn’t know what she would do if they lost their little boy. No. Hell no. She’d find a way to communicate with him and tell that stubborn dragon to give her little human son control or he was going to be in deep trouble.
Nana sat in the recliner against the wall. “We need to figure out where Ker and Tiana are and what to do if Sayeh has them.”
“How can we even find them if we don’t know where their compound is?” Lexi asked. “They could be anywhere.”
Nana looked to the men. “You boys ever done triangulation?”
Tor glanced at Jae. “I don’t think so.” Jae shook his head in agreement. “What’s that?”
Nana sat back and sighed. Morgan noticed for the first time how old the woman looked. Lines had creased her forehead and smile lines crinkled the sides of her eyes and deeply around her mouth. But Morgan had to admit for being over two thousand years old, she looked great.
“Not only can you boys talk to each other in your heads, you can locate each other,” Nana told them.
Tor and Jae shared a look. Where they talking, or telepathizing? Morgan wondered. Tor turned back to his grandmother. “Yeah. We did something similar when Jae’s plane went down in the mountains. We came together and somehow found him.”
“Yeah,” Jae said, “You never did explain how you found me.”
Tor shrugged. “We don’t know how we did it.”
“Now you do,” Nana replied. “We have to wait for Clacher to get back. Morgan,” Nana turned to her, “we need maps of North America and any state maps or area aerials. Anything that has land mass.”
“Got it,” she said. Lexi and Avery followed her upstairs to begin the hunt.
Not long after, they returned with encyclopedias, computer print outs, and paper maps from a SUV glove box. Clacher had also arrived. Nana had the women spread out what they had, centering the map of the United States in the middle of the downstairs coffee table.
“Gather around,” Nana called. “You boys need to be touching, connected physically. I don’t care if you hold hands or touch feet. Whatever. Girls, stand behind your mate and put your hands on their shoulders. You are going to send them energy to boost their power.”
“How do we do that?” Avery asked.
“Hmm.” Nana thought on that. “Try imagining zapping your mate with a laser beam. That beam is made of energy from inside you. Picture it going from your head to his.”
“Can it be a death ray?” Lexi asked with a giggle.
“Oh, I like that idea.” Avery laughed with her.
Nana clapped her hands. “Okay. Death rays are approved. Now let’s get started.” Nana checked to make sure the boys were in direct contact. “All right, boys, do what I say and this’ll work.
“Project your mind straight up into the sky from where you sit.” She paused to looked around, seeing the guys’ closed eyes. “Now pretend a three-corner net is stretched between all of you, each of you holding a corner. When you have a solid grip, move backward, stretching the net, making it bigger and bigger.
“Focus on Ker while you’re moving. When the net covers him, we’ll know.”
Morgan wanted to ask how they’d know, but didn’t want to break concentrations. Nana put her hand on Tor and Clacher’s joined hands and closed her eyes.
“Ker, my boy,” Nana said, “where are you? Let your dragon reach out to us.”
Morgan met the wide eyes of the other mate’s behind their brother. Their worried expression matched hers. Would this work?
A sense of energy suddenly filled Morgan. All the others felt it also, if their body movements were any indication.
“There he is,” Nana whispered, “the little scoundrel. Keep a tight hold on the net, boys. I’ll try to pinpoint the source. Hold on, son. We’re coming.”