Chapter 4

Elizabeth:

As we pulled up behind the police station to hide our bikes, I noticed that Nicole was jumpy. Which is strange, since she, like Nigel, usually never lets on that she is frightened by anything. Is that what Nigel was worried about this afternoon?

We quickly got rid of our excess baggage (my hoodie, sweatpants, and gloves, as well as Nigel's backpack), and moved deeper into the woods.

Nigel volunteered to be the hunter, so Nicole and I quickly slipped off into the woods, and found some places that would be good for looking out, while still giving good cover.

I wonder why Nicole is so jumpy... Hey, maybe that's why Nigel made sure that I would be with her! That way I could figure out what's wrong. He must think it's a girl thing... I doubt it though, she would have said something to me before this. We're tight.

"Something wrong, Nicole?" I asked. "No, I'm..." she trailed off; then sighed "Yes, something happened to me, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, and the only one who knows anything about it left and said that she might be gone for a very long time, but that she would be back."

"Wow", I responded, not knowing what else to say. "What happened?" "She said not to tell anyone. She said that everything is repeatable, and the wrong people might figure out how it happened and do it again, only to their benefit."

"Who's this 'she' that told you this?"

"I don't know her name, just that she couldn't be more than 15 or 16 years old, had hair that made freshly fallen snow look grey, and eyes that made the ocean look like waste" "Wow, if she's that... umm,"

"Gorgeous is the word you’re looking for Liz"

"gorgeous, she shouldn't be too hard to find."

"You'd think so, but she went around the corner, and then she was gone. I have no idea how she did it, or where she went, but she vanished."

"Weird"

"Yeah, just don't tell Nigel, I don't want him to start feeling sorry for me, or thing that I'm not as good a person or something like that."

"You know..." came a voice from the other side of the bush we had been hiding behind "talking is one of the ways to get your selves found the quickest."

We both almost screamed when we heard this voice, but when we looked up, we saw Nigel approaching on the other side of the bush, looking at us like we had shaved our heads.

"Whew, for a second there I thought you were a slayer" I joked.

"Yeah, you can't go sneaking up on a girl like that!" Nicole added.

"Uh, isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing?" Nigel queried

"Oh, right" she replied, looking for a place to hit her head that it wouldn't cause permanent damage.

"Let’s try this again. This time, please save the girl chat for times when we aren't trying to be sneaky."

"Right" we replied.

And with that, we quickly made a fake path towards the east, hoping Nigel would think that we went there so that he wouldn't be able to swing from tree to tree above us, and then went up to the bike path so that we wouldn't leave footprints.

"You know," I whispered to Nicole "I don't know what happened, and I'm not going to press, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here.

"Thanks," she replied "I'm not ready to talk yet, but when I do, you'll be the first I talk to."

"Sure thing" I replied "but we probably need to be quiet now so Nigel doesn't catch us again.

"Right" she whispered back, and slipped just far enough back so that one of us would be able to get away if Nigel found the other.

"Well, she seems to be doing ok, all things consid--"

ZING! ZING!

Two shots ripped through the air from Nicole's direction, and a cell phone beeped in a very strange pattern.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

8:

*beep, beeep, beep. beep, beeep, beep. beep, beeep, beep.*

"Daphne, is this the correct signal code?" I asked, wondering if she had studied them like she was supposed to.

"Sound's right, it's our undercover agent's keying, lemme check the code book"

"You don't have them memorized?" I replied. Even though I already knew the answer.

"Do you?" she replied with a surprisingly harsh tone.

"As a matter of fact, I did." I replied in a fairly harsh tone, "But we just changed the codes before you joined, and I have been otherwise preoccupied with other assignments and have not had the time to learn the new codes yet"

"Yes, I know" she replied, obviously sorry that she had spoken to me in such a way "Ok, here it is. Yes, that's the correct code, she says she has engaged the mongrels"

"Let's get the move on then," I replied, knowing that she would understand from my tone that our agent would have to be disciplined when we got back "we've got to get there to back her up. What belt you on now?"

I just tested into my Green belt yesterday" she said with a smile.

"Good you might need that Jujitsu here."

Chapter 3

Daphne:

I watched as the demon witch and her brother rode away with a poor diluted soul. I'll have to be sure to enlighten and/or rescue her from those lizards, when I'm done with them.

I slipped over to the door, and withdrew my handheld EMP generator. The small Anti-electric field would cancel out the door's electromagnet.

Easier than pie

I climbed the stairs, knowing that there would be cameras in the elevator car.

Upon reaching their apartment, I pulled out my lock pick set. It was a standard lock. They must think they've lost us.

The chain lock didn't stop me either, I just put my robotic probe into the room and shut the door. I then used the camera on the probe to guide the robotic arm and remove the chain from its place in the lock.

Once I got inside, I promptly got to work, first going to their closets to ensure that this was the correct room. I’d hate to find out I’d gone and hurt a normal, innocent family. Yup, a few pairs of pants with a large hole just above the seat, and a few feminine shirts, with nicks, snags, and tares in them.

This is the place

I quickly looked around for the boy’s journal. Surly he’s gotten another one by now, and there’s so much I need to know.

There it is, under his pillow!

I quickly pulled out my personal miniature digital camera and took pictures of the pages. Hope master ‘Eight’ doesn’t find out, I’d like to be able to read these without having to take notes about their personalities.

Just as I finished taking the last of my photos, I heard the familiar sound of ‘eight’s’ car pulling into the parking lot.

Panicking, I quickly replaced the journal and began to scour the room for clues to their location. Hope master doesn't realize I wasn't working.

Just as he entered the room, I found a note to the demon witch from her mongrel brother.

"Master, look at this!" I said as he entered the room. "The boy seems to have told his sister that they are going to practice tonight, perhaps we should wait another day, as they will be most attentive tonight."

"Good call," he responded, "and that's probably what we will do, since they know that we have been chasing them, but if this was the first time we had encountered them, we could go out there and trick them into coming right to us."

"Hmm," I said as I mulled over what he had said "I see, that way we would not have to worry about tracking them, or fighting them when they were ready for us."

"Exactly" he replied, "but back to the real world now: we will wait another day, meanwhile, please put their apartment back together, and then we can leave, alert our contacts to stay clear of the area, and plan our battle strategy"

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Nicole:

"Are they there?" I thought as I rode just behind the Gladstones.

I reached back to feel the corner of my backpack. Yup, they're there. Boy the Gladstones are in for a big surprise.

Just then my cell phone buzzed. Who would be texting me at this hour? I'll have to check when we get to the park...

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

8:

"I cannot reach our plant in their building, I hope she is not taking the initiative..."

"Unfortunately, master, she is likely to do so."

Chapter 2

Nigel Gladstone:

I slowed my breathing

Ok, stop, don’t let her hear you.

Do you hear her?

No.

Ok then, carefully get moving, you’ve got to surprise her.

I heel-toed through the woods, knowing that there was thick cover on every side that I could hide in, should the need arise.

"Snap!" a dry branch broke at my feet, I quickly hid. Would she spot me?

She looked directly at my hiding place, a medium sized tree. Did she see me?

No, she looked, then walked away.

As I quietly approached where I knew she would be shortly, I slowed and quieted my breathing; there was no way I was going to make her job any easier.

I can see her now, but she doesn’t seem to see me, yet.

As she approached, I stiffened, she was talking to someone, I couldn’t see who or where they were, though.

As she got closer I realized that she was not speaking to someone who was present. Strange, she doesn’t seem to have a phone either.

What’s she saying?

"Focus, what can I hear? I hear the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, I hear kids riding bikes at the jumps behind me, and cars to my left, I hear water running to my right, I hear... footsteps!"

"Got ya!" I exclaimed, as I leaped out from behind the tree "You're getting better though, I actually had to work to keep from being heard" I always like teasing my sister.

"That makes me feel soooo much better" she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Well if you are going to be able to tell where a slayer is you'll need all the practice you can get. You also need to stop talking to yourself" I reminded her.

"I know, I know. Well, are we done?" she pleaded.

"For now, but I want to come back out here tonight, after dark so we can practice using our" I spoke through my teeth "Ragon-day Raits-tay."

"I suppose" she conceded.

Then I had an idea "Hey, maybe we can invite Nicole to come with us?"

Nicole is our neighbor, we're good friends, and although she doesn't have any dragon blood, she knows about our traits.

"Sure," she responded, trying to suppress a grin "that way you'll be distracted and I'll actually have a chance to beat you this time."

I tried not to blush while holding back a grin of my own "Hey, do you really want to make your job harder?"

"Like you could!" she said, not even trying to hide her smile.

"Confidence is a must" I responded somberly, "but arrogance will make it child’s play for a slayer to capture you. Never forget that."

"I won't," she responded, no longer smiling, "you can count on that."

I began to smirk "Good... 'cause I'm gonna beat you back to the bikes!"

I said running past her. "You’re on!" she responded, taking off after me.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Nicole:

"Ding dong!"

I opened the door; it was Nigel and Elizabeth Gladstone, my neighbors from across the hall.

"Hey, guys come on in" I always have time for the Gladstones. Not only is Nigel a good looking guy, but I'm one of the few people they have told about their secret.

"My folks are out getting groceries, what's up?"

"Nigel and I were going to go over to Robinson park to practice using our... you know what's later tonight" said Elizabeth. "and Nigel was wondering if you would like to join us."

I snuck a glance at Nigel, his cheeks showed only the slightest hint of a blush. Perhaps his light skin, in combination with the fact that his cheeks were already pink from the chilly autumn air was helping him there. "Sure, I'd love to come. What time?"

"One AM" Nigel responded absent mindedly "and we should be back by four at the latest."

"Ok, and you guys'll help me out like we usually do?" I asked glancing between Nigel's backpack, and Liz's gloves.

"Yup!" Elizabeth replied. "Ok then" I replied "I'll see you guys at one!"

"See ya' then" Nigel said as he was leaving.

Funny, Nigel was very quiet while he was here, even more than he usually is around me. I wonder if he knows?

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Elizabeth Gladstone:

"Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beeeee---"

I slapped the snooze button.

What time is it?

I looked at the clock.

Twelve Fifty-five??? What idiot set the alarm for—

I mentally slapped myself. Duh, we're going to practice using our traits tonight.

Nigel knocked on the door "Are you up?" he asked

"Yup," I replied, "just gimme one minute to get dressed and I'll be out."

I quickly, well as quickly as a girl with scales can, slipped into my "combat uniform" as I like to call it. Black shorts, a dark grey tank-top, and a black T-shirt, then I grabbed a reversible zippered sweater (black on the outside, charcoal-grey on the inside), my black sneakers, black sweatpants, and a black knit hat, and tossed them into Nigel's backpack that was hanging on the doorknob.

"I'm ready!" I whisper/shouted to Nigel

"Don't forget to turn off your alarm!" he whisper/shouted back

I mentally slapped myself again. Why do I always forget that?

I walked over to my bed, turned off the alarm, and then returned to the living room

Without turning around; Nigel again, proved that he knew me, and my habits.

"Did you grab your gloves?"

I bounded back into my room, grabbed my gloves, stopped to smack my head against my bed (where it wouldn't hurt as much), and ran out to the window where Nigel stood.

"Ready Bro?" I asked, sliding my stuff into his backpack.

"Let's go" he replied, swinging his tail back and forth.

I climbed out of the window, backpack over my shoulders, and began to 'scale' the outside wall of the apartment building (using my scales to grip the wall more easily). Then I leaned over the wall, and watched as Nigel climbed up the side of the building, using his tail, in tandem with his arms and legs, to grab ledge after ledge and swinging back and forth like a professional gymnast. He leaped over the side, and landed softly on his feet.

"You coming?" he asked

I shook myself, he always looks so cool climbing up a wall, and I often forget what I'm doing.

"Coming!" I replied

We quietly jogged over to the other side of the building, and began to climb/'scale' down the wall. I stopped at Nicole's window, Nigel never even slowed, he just kept going.

Weird, he usually wants to see Nicole as much as possible, he must be really distracted.

I tapped her window, and she apeared a moment later.

"Let's go" I prompted her

She tossed a rope out of her window and quickly climbed down the rope. After she reached the ground, I coiled the rope, and placed it in her room, and then began to descend to where Nigel was waiting with our bikes.

"You ladies ready" he asked "or do you need a minute?"

"I'm good." I said, glancing at Nicole

"Me too" she replied with a smile

After Nigel put on his backpack, and I put on my sweats, hat, gloves, and tennies; we climbed onto our bikes for the silent one mile ride to Robinson Park.

Chapter 1

Daphne: As long as I can remember, I have hated and feared snakes. And, come to think of it, just about all snaky, scaly things, including lizards, salamanders, alligators, and crocodiles. Basically all reptilian like creatures. But a few years ago, I was informed that my worst fears had come true. A nightmare come to life: some reptiles have “changed in size”, as my teacher says it. Going from normal, everyday reptiles, to reptiles the size of a man!!! And of course, as is true of all nightmares, they are threatening life as we know it.

It was shortly after my parent’s death on the SS Admiral Nakhimov that the man I would come to call master approached me with information that I “had a right to know”. He then proceeded to show me photos of men wearing “down with skin, let scales rule” shirts. In these photos these men were shown kidnapping the captain, and ordering the first mate to not change course, smiling as the two ships crashed together, and even diving in and holding people under water to make them drown.

I was infuriated. Why in the world would these people want to kill so many? Why my parents? They had never done anything to hurt these people. It was then that he broke the news to me. Those ‘men’ were reptiles who had been transformed into humans, and they want to destroy all human life.

When I heard this I almost ran into the streets like a one of those loony self-proclaimed ‘prophets’. I would have gone out saying “The end is near! Watch out for the reptiles that have grown to the size of men!” and I told him we should do just that. But before I could put actions to my words, he said “Hold on one moment, while your intentions are good, you won’t be able to handle this threat like that. Most people will not believe that these reptiles have changed.”

It was then I learned that the reason most people have never heard of this problem, and would never believe us if we told them, is that most if not all of them are in hiding, for fear of being killed. So I joined him on his holy quest, (his term, not mine) our purpose is simple, we will find and eliminate every one of these cursed beasts.

Then he told me of a circle of knights who have dedicated their lives to ridding the world of these reptiles, and keeping the world safe. It was such an honor, to be taken into the same room as these descendants of some of the greatest knights of all history (though why they called him number 8 I shall never know). Then they took me by surprise by inviting me into their company, and giving me the mark of a true knight.

I had taken care of a few different cells of these cursed reptiles and the humans who tried to protect them since that time, thus my master decided that I was ready for “a cell where perverse humans have born children to these demons.” He then informed me of the responsibilities of this type of mission. “This means that you will have not only have to keep the local police in the dark, but you will also will have to evade, and eliminate an eighteen year old boy who has a tail, and a thirteen year old girl with scales.”

Everything was going extremely well, almost as perfect as my first assignment, but then the kids figured out that I had been sowing seeds of discord between them with phony telephone calls, emails, and notes. And now they have gone off into a mountain range somewhere, but neither my master nor I had any idea where, nor seemed to be able to track them.

When I was searching for clues as to where they would go, I stumbled across a diary of the boy’s and began to read it. At first to see if I could divine where the kids had gone, but when I got to the part where their ‘grandma’ told them the story about how their parents were murdered, I nearly dropped the book. Their parents had been my first assignment!!!

I continued reading, no longer searching for clues, but now living the adventure from the other side, and I soon discovered that they had not only been my first assignment, but that they were also the parents of the only boy who was ever nice to me. Of course he had moved away mere months after I met him, but I would never forget his name.

Henry Gladstone was one of the more popular kids in school, everyone wanted to be his friend. But whenever someone would make fun of my clothes, or how I could speak in so many different voices, he would come over, sit next to me, and comfort me. “What a relief” I had said. “I’m so glad he was killed by a different band of dragon hunters, and not mine.” (for by now I had learned that these reptiles were not lizards or salamanders, but dragons).

The moment the word’s escaped my mouth, I regretted them. What? How dare I be relieved?!?!? He was dead, and he had never done anything to deserve it. “Maybe”, I thought to myself. “Maybe dragons are evil, but that doesn’t mean that their kids are. It isn’t their fault that their parents are evil perverts.” But of course I couldn't mention any of this to my teacher. He would have had a fit if he discovered that I thought that the offspring shouldn’t be eliminated too. “Then again,” I reasoned. “if these kids weren’t evil, then that means that the parents couldn’t be evil, after all the good book says: ‘a good tree can only bear good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit’.” No, I had seen these people up close, they hated us. And wasn’t the Devil a dragon too?

Maybe Henry was a child from another marriage. Yes, that had to be it; Henry was this Margaret Galdstone’s child from another marriage. Not the child of one of these lizards.

Suddenly, my master had walked in the room. “What’s that?” he had demanded. “A diary of one of those demented mongrels” I replied. “I wanted to see if it mentioned any secret hiding places.” He smiled “That’s good thinking, it’s always a good idea to look through the musings of your enemy. But now is not the time, we need to look for clues as to where they have gone, and while that book will probably hold the best, we can look at it while we travel. We only have a short time before the cops show up, and we can’t have them taking any evidence, reading that book will be a waste of time at the moment, understand?” “Yes, of course,” I had responded. “that makes complete sense. I don’t know what I was thinking, I'm sorry.” “Don’t worry,” had been his reply “it took me years to learn all the tricks of the trade. But do you remember rule number 2?” “Never apologize, it’s a sign of weakness” we had both said in unison.

That was six months ago, now we are hot on their trail, they had traveled to the USA, and had just about gone everywhere. From Alaska, to Arizona, to Montana, to West Virginia, and finally we had tracked them to an apartment building in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A place where they will be able to neither run nor hide.

Prologue

Circa AD 490: The woman in a black dress bent forward and stroked Sir Devin's rugged chin, her eyes flaming red. "Are we agreed then?" she asked. "Your perfect allegiance to me in exchange for immortality?”

"Without question, m'lady." The villainous knight, sitting straight on a low footstool, picked up a black helmet from his lap and tucked it under his mail-clad arm. "Although the king has outlawed dragon hunting, I trust that you will prepare the way."

The woman leaned back in her thrown-like chair and replied "I will prepare the way."

Five years later, Merlin, prophet of the Lord God almighty, called the last twelve dragons who had remained faithful to the Lord to the top of a mountain, and worked a miracle. He transformed those present into humans in an attempt to save them from Sir Devin's blood-lust. But they were betrayed by one of their own number, as Gartrad, one of the twelve, doubted, and left before he transformed. He was then forced by Sir Devin and his squire Palin, to tell them what happened at the summit. So Devin and Palin remained on the hunt, searching for the other eleven dragons-turned-human. However, this tale is not about those dragons.

Just under 1500 years later, Sir Devin and his squire Palin had succeeded in slaying almost all of the eleven dragons that had been transformed, but while two evaded him, he requested the help of various members of a secret society called "the New Table" These followers of Morgan (the woman in the black dress) began assisting Devin in a search of a different kind. They were to search for the progeny of some of these former dragons, and their human mates. But this would be no easy task, as the prodigy retained some traits from their dragon parent. Traits like wings, fire breath, scales, or a tail would make them easy to find, but hard to take out. While other traits like danger sensing, immense strength, or extreme intelligence, would make them difficult to track, yet easy to eliminate should they find them. This tail is of two of these...