Kelly Drake and the Tears of the Dragons

Chapter One - Birthright

"How could this happen?" asked Kim Jae-hee, the grocer at 25th and Fordham. "I never imagined he would go in such an inelegant way. Found in the loo, curled up like an infant. And all because he couldn't handle a little cigarette smoke."

"Hush, man," said Robert. "Master Michael can hear you, you know? Do you have to gossip at a time like this?"

"An' I suppose ye don' gossip, Bubbee," Minerva cut in. She was the frizzled cook at Fischer Hall. "Ye drivin' Sir William an' Miss Amanda and li'l Mike every day. I seen ye, heard ye braggin' about Fischers tales when ye'r at the tavern."

"Do you think it's in bad taste if I ask Miss Amanda for my compensation?" asked Kiefer. He had been mowing the family's lawn for weeks before the incident, but had been the Fischers' gardener for nearly ten years.

Amanda could hear them. Despite the strong wind and the distant rumbling of thunder, she could hear even the slightest whisper of every person that joined them as she and Michael returned William's mortal remains to the earth from whence he came.

She met William when she was eighteen, a researcher at the Miami Post, one of many companies under the control of Stephanie Anderson Fischer. He was eight years older, had a distinct British accent, and saddled with the responsibility of running their other business concerns in Europe. Inexplicably, Amanda was attracted to him from the moment he acknowledged her presence in his mother's office. In a dizzying turn of events, she had moved in with him, gotten pregnant and became a mother before she even turned twenty. Now he's gone, leaving behind a mere shell, a mortal vessel that will likewise be relegated to nothingness. Only Michael remains. And the lies.

There was plenty of good in their past, despite everything they went through as a couple. Some bad memories, however, lingered in her mind, eating away her joy like a festering wound. The day after Michael was born, Stephanie visited her, holding the infant before Amanda could even touch him. In her semi-conscious state, Amanda heard her mentor say, "Such a lovely boy! Our problem is solved, William." Some days after leaving the lying-in hospital, Amanda learned – from Stephanie herself – that William was married to a woman named Scarlett Reid, who was living in Glasgow, the same city where the Fischers' ancestral home had stood for centuries. Suddenly, the frequent Scottish "business trips" of the man Amanda loved made sense.

"We're no longer together," William had told her. "I broke up with her when we started seeing each other." A lie. "The only reason I kept returning to Scotland was to attend to family business." Another lie. "My affection is only for you and Michael." More lies!

But if these untruths changed how she felt for William, one fact altered her life forever. It was a stormy night, thunder and lightning were making Michael irritable, which added to their heated argument over William's latest caper. At some point, she threatened to leave him.

"You can't," William had said. "Michael is promised."

She had no idea what he meant until he told her a secret that should have been revealed the day they met – that he, as well as she and Scarlett, possessed "abilities" that were incomprehensible to ordinary human beings. "Like magic?" she asked incredulously. William merely nodded. That was the end of the lies and the beginning of a reality that was shoved into her and her son's life.

Amanda's reminiscing was broken by the eerie presence of a man who had sidled up beside her. They stood motionless behind Michael, who was looking at the fresh mound with a blank stare.

"We should go now, Ms. Amanda," said Henry, the local milkman who made it a point to be dressed in his Sunday best on any given day. "It's going to rain soon, and you might catch a draft."