Page 12 of Klaus

5

Klaus

Damn.”

It was all I could think to say, stupid as I knew it sounded. I reminded myself of a yokel who’d never seen the big city and was catching his first glimpse of it, mouth agape, eyes wide and shining, almost unable to walk for fear my legs would give out on me.

I had never seen anything like it. Saighead Uaine. Green Arrow. I could see why it had earned its name. The mountain’s peak had been carved into the shape of an arrowhead by eons of gusty winds, and on it grew the greenest moss I’d ever seen. It looked like an emerald, standing out against a heartbreakingly blue sky.

So, there were other types of beauty in the world. Beauty which had nothing to do with white sand beaches and palm trees. I realized had seen so little of what was beautiful.

Snickers came from the dragons walking past me—not nasty, by any means. They found it amusing that I was so taken aback by what they’d always known. Perhaps the real transfixing majesty of the mountain and surrounding land had worn off over time. I knew how old they were, how long they’d called the caves beneath the mountain their home.

“The air is so clean,” I mused as I continued up the stony path.

“Aye.” Owen fell into step beside me. “A bit thinner, of course, the higher one goes. But clean and fresh. Och, I’ve missed it so.”

Interesting how the way they spoke had become familiar to me, almost unnoticeable.

They had all missed their land. I’d heard of nothing but their enthusiasm and deep, abiding love for their home since we’d left the jet behind in Edinburgh. SUVs had been waiting for us at the hangar—another of Mary’s bits of genius, her ability to plan every mission down to the last detail—and we’d split up into groups and bundled in, everyone chattering away about how they couldn’t wait to arrive.

Everyone but her.

She was far ahead of me, having taken another car. Was it just my imagination, or was she deliberately avoiding me after our last conversation?

I had pushed too hard, gone too far, said something I shouldn’t have. What was I thinking, staring at her as I had been? No wonder she’d frozen me out for the rest of the flight.

It didn’t matter. I didn’t know her, she didn’t know me. She wasn’t special, and I wasn’t there to make friends. With any luck, security around the caves would tighten up sufficiently in a short amount of time, and I’d be able to move on. Surely, Mary had better things for me to do than babysitting a group of dragon shifters.

A group of five tall stones stood in a circle, roughly a hundred yards from the mouth of the cave. “What are they for?” I asked. “Surely, they aren’t a natural occurrence.”

“Depends on what you mean by natural,” Owen chuckled. “The Ancient Ones placed them there before any of us came into being. Used them for rituals, ceremonies and the like.”

“I take it you don’t use them now.”

“Nay, but I don’t think any of us practices the old ways anymore. Once or twice, perhaps, back in the old times. No longer. The modern world eventually caught up with us.”

“I see.” Or, more to the point, I would see once we reached the inside of the cave.

I noticed something, the closer I drew to the entrance, hesitation. For all their excitement and longing to be home, none of them seemed to be in much of a hurry to actually step foot inside the cave.

Mary hadn’t told me many specifics of what happened here, nor had any of the rest of them. They were stoic. They kept their feelings and thoughts to themselves, aside from frivolities and lightweight things which bore little real purpose. Everything else stayed inside.

Something told me none of them was in a hurry to remember what had taken place. In fact, several of the women looked rather red-eyed as they gazed about.

“I wonder what they did with the blood,” one of them murmured to another as I passed.

They’d cleaned it, of course. The monsters who had kidnapped them weren’t the sort who left anything to chance, especially the evidence of their crime.

“From what I’ve heard, the interior of the cave has been completely cleaned,” I explained to Owen and anyone in earshot. “Miles and Gate were here, remember. They explored in search of what happened to your clan.”

“Everything’s fine,” Alan announced, coming out with a smile on his face. He’d gone ahead of the others, naturally, ever the leader.

Ainsley was beside him, looking self-assured. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and looked to her brother as he instructed everyone on how to proceed.

“Klaus, of course, will be helping us work out the technological kinks in our security system. We’re leaving nothing to chance after this. Otherwise, be careful when you choose to come out and hunt or simply shift for the sake of shifting. Be aware of what—or who—is around you.”

“Do you think there’s still a threat here?” Tamhas asked.

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