The Hunt for Freedom

Chapter Fifty Three

    They took off with bombs exploding all around them. Blinding streams of blue, flashing lights of red, and once an explosion of diamonds that glittered and flittered down to the sea. The fireworks display was breathtaking to behold and a fitting send off to the little girl they had all come to love.

Maggie was pretty sure she never wanted to be this close to a firework again.

Dakari thought of Lainey, and knew her bracelet would be glowing red. She wouldn't know what that meant yet, but he had charmed her memory enough to enable small bits of him to filter in as the years went by. For now, he would be happy that she would sleep without nightmares. It was the least he could do.

As the helicopter banked left they rose above the fireworks and soon were on their way into the night sky. A clear night, they encountered no turbulence and the impatience to get home rose. They had to fuel twice, and lost time at each stop. The fog was as thick as gravy on the last leg of their journey and hours were spent sleeping where they sat on the tarmac, waiting for it to lift.

At last they hovered over the landing pad near their home. Setting down without a hiccup, they quickly cleaned the inside as the pilot went through the post-trip. Using the little hangar they rented to store the helicopter, they showered and freshened up. No one wanted to arrive home with the three day stench they were sporting.

"Do you think you are restored enough to shift yet?" Maggie asked. "You're getting kind of heavy." Maggie pantomimed an achy back.

Penny smirked, and the soldiers guffawed. Dakari knew Maggie would understand his need to come home on his own feet, and not as an invalid. He knew her teasing was a way of making this happen. His sister was a genius. If he could shift, they could teach him the rest.

He was excited to be going home, but terribly nervous also. He was not a fan of the attention he knew he was about to receive. He was less of a fan of being locked up in a cage. The least he could do was to not come home looking helpless.

In the privacy of the hangar, Dakari tried. Nothing happened for a minute, then he began to feel the pain of muscles stretching, bones shifting. He stood before them as a tiger, his nose high in the air.

"If that isn't the most arrogant smile a tiger ever had,". Penny teased. "But you're a biggum. I might need to take the others home and come back for you later in the day."

Maggie laughed, beaming at her brother. Her heart felt so full to have him back. "Oh, by the way, I have a mate now," she said quickly, trying to sneak it past him. She shifted quickly to avoid the flush creeping up her neck.

He arched his back as if to roar, tilted his head as he remembered his surroundings and let the roar escape in a whisper. If a jaguar could laugh, Maggie was. She lowered her head and nuzzled his neck.

"Are we ready then? I let Katalea know we would be home this morning, but not at what time. Let's go surprise her." With that she shifted, and vanished them all.

The two soldiers opened the hangar door, wide enough for everyone to squeeze through. Locking it up tight, they joined the group. With everyone outside, they shifted and got in their practiced flight formation. They lifted off together but were awkward with the new addition. Flying was new to Dakari, and he wasn't quite sure where he fit in. They stayed low for a bit, and made a few laps around the private airport. When he had his "air legs" ready, they made a beeline toward home.

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Katalea was up in her room, snoozing in the morning sun while Dalya was trying to conquer breakfast. She had slept very little lately and when she did, the dreams always came.

In dreams, she could feel him looking for her, pushing hard to invade her mind. She would block him, but he was always right there, just on the other side of sleep. She could feel his rage, feel his jealousy. It seemed to consume him. For the past few nights she would wake up more tired than when she laid down, and remember none of the dreams that had her so uneasy. She knew she needed an uninterrupted, deep sleep if she were going to be up to the grueling pace of the training yard and this added to her anxiety. She considered going to the clinic for a sleeping aid, but was fearful word would leak and some might think she was weakened.

She had decided after the euphoric meeting that morning at the dock to take matters into her own hands. Telling no one, lest they try to talk her out of it, she went in search of the dragons. She concentrated on the details she had learned from Maggie, through Dakari, about them. The alpha, Essam, seemed to be a bit of a voyeur, but that left him open to be watched too. As she snuggled down into her blankets, she pushed hard at him.

She found herself in a dream-like state. She knew her body was asleep but her mind was roaming a long hallway that led to a cavernous room. It was cold here and in her sleep she pulled the covers up higher.

Quietly entering the large expanse, she saw rows and rows of computer screens, all monitored by a person busy clicking away on the keyboard. There must have been at least fifty of them. From her angle she could see the backs of their heads, and they all appeared to have the same haircut. Sandy brown, somewhat bushy, all at exactly the same length. Strange.

"Maybe the dragons have a dress code" she thought, but remembering the few that had chased her in Utah she dismissed the idea.

They didn't seem to sense her presence and she crept closer to get a look at what they were working on. Each screen had a different view, but all were video-feeds of populated areas. She recognized theme parks in California, large malls in the Midwest, and to her dismay, many airports around the world.

The screen she was watching now had it's camera triangulated in a mall based on the tiny shops a lone female was walking past. The keyboard operator watched the feed for a minute, and Katalea saw what he was looking at. No one else entered into the camera's range for a good five seconds. She was completely alone. As Katalea watched in horror, he picked up a second device and typed in her coordinates The hacker, for what better name was there, she thought, kept typing and was able to keep the cameras focused on her. He went back and forth between the two devices for a moment then just stopped. Suddenly on the screen, she could see one of the weredragons from Utah, engaging the young lady in conversation.

Confused, she turned to look at the face of the hacker. She looked down the bank of computers and her eyes widened in shock. In her bed at home, she twisted and turned, nearly waking herself up screaming, but she fought to stay in the dream. The face of every hacker was an exact replica of all the others.

"What in the holy hell is going on here?" She thought. Before she could dream up explanations, she was ripped into a different room. She could feel his presence now. Dark, evil, enormous, she could feel his intensity throughout her body.

The room where he stood looked like stone and Katalea guessed it to be the inside of a cave. From what she had seen so far, it looked like she was in the dragon's lair where they had been keeping Dakari.

More than forty muscle-bound men were intently listening to the ragings of their leader.

"They got him back! How could they snatch him up from under our noses?" On and on he raged, throwing things into walls, knocking over chairs. A small child tiptoed in the room carrying a large tray of food and was slapped in the head for her trouble.

No one spoke, no one reacted. Katalea saw his maniacal behavior mirrored on their faces. They were not afraid of him, they were absorbing his evil.

"I can't take this indecision anymore. We ride at nightfall."

Katalea forced herself to wake. What had she just witnessed? No time to process it now, she thought. She tore the covers away and ran to the training yard.

The yard was full. Training was back in full session. Youngsters with Tahtib sticks, veterans practicing hand to hand combat. She could see Mr. Toma instructing basic conjuring skills. All action stopped as she frantically ran in.

"They're coming."