The Dragon Queen

Contagion Book Four.

The Dragon Queen.

By John R A Smith

Introduction.

This story is taken in part from the Contagion books and is an off shoot from that original story. Peter had found an unknown fossilised sample, while searching the sunken caverns off the coast of Weymouth in Dorset England, as he already had hundreds of similar and more identifiable specimens to deal with, so he had boxed the item and then had it filed away for another day.

After his unexpected death, his wife had taken over the family business, and in time the sample had become lost within one of the many warehouses; and only to be later re-discovered, and then presented to Elaine as a gift, in remembrance of her father.

On examination of the sample, Elaine discovered it to be encased within an unusual segment of conjoined crystallised rock, and on further examination, she also discovered what appeared to be amber, which was cocooned inside, and protected from the outside world.

Under an electron microscope, Elaine could see an unknown life sample, encased within the amber, and in extracting a DNA sample, to her utter amazement, she discovered that it was an entirely unknown strand of DNA, which also was sadly now in part, damaged, assumedly from the length of time, in which it had been stored, and encased in heated volcanic mud.

Elaine had passed the sample to one of her researchers, who was working with a bio genetic section, of salamander DNA, and trying to separate the segment, responsible for re-growing limbs. By splicing this bio-genetic material, she grafted in onto the damaged DNA, which they now identified as XDNA, as it was made from an entirely different compound, based on a synthetic sugar solution, which was in an amino acid compound.

To everyone’s amazement, they realized it was growing, and making copies of itself, this was an unexpected result, and the team decided to isolate it, and give it time under 24-hour video surveillance, so that they could document its growth.

On the twenty seventh day, the team came to view the sample, only to discover it had vanished, and no amount of searching, could discover where it had gone. After reviewing the video, the sample was seen to start to admit a blue light, within five hours the light appeared to vibrate, like that seen in a heat haze, and then the sample simply vanished.

Five years later, during a visit to the Portland laboratory, Elaine felt a presence within her room, and then before her eyes, a creature appeared in part human form, and spoke to her. She introduced herself as a Fire-Drake, a mystical creature as recorded in the tales of old; and who had magical abilities.

The Fire-Drake proceeded to explain to Elaine, what had happened, and that in its natural time line, it had lived off the land, and during one of its stages of metamorphic growth, an adult fire-Drake, had taken its life form, and encased it within its own natural amber like fluid, which it had excreted to protect itself, and then enclosed it within a crystallised rock; this was done for further protection, as they were trying to move the Fire-Drakes nursery, because of local volcanic activity.

Sadly they were caught within a mud slide, and those who were unable to escape were destroyed, and it had become entombed for millions of years, only to be discovered by Peter her father, and later brought back to life by one of the bio-genetic human technicians, who had spliced a human come salamander DNA sample, onto the damaged strand of XDNA.

Incredibly it was the Salamanders DNA, which had enabled the XDNA strand to regrow, and repair the damage, enabling it to restart its metamorphosis. After twenty-seven days, it was developed enough to open a portal in time and space, and place itself there for its own safety, and grow into adulthood.

Unknown to Elaine, it was the Fire-Drake, that appeared on the day the Portland Institute, had been attacked by the Undraus Cooperation, and had transported an entire section, with buildings, equipment, and technicians, into an alternative dimension.

In doing so, the Fire-Drake had saved their lives from a violent death, along with years of research and equipment. It was from here, that this time line grew, separate to that of the one where Elaine and the others remained, and enabling in time, for the Fire-Drake to rescue as many encapsulated creatures of her kind, as could be found, and using the very same technology, which enabled it to regrow.

They were able to restart a long-lost line of life forms, all born with their own natural Inherent memories from those who had come before them, and also with the very memories of the human technician, which in itself had gained its inherent memories from Peter.

These actions led to the present time, where this story begins; and also enabled Elaine in the previous time line, to discover and use the XDNA, to rebuild identical clones, including her body and that of her family, and to reconstruct the human race; enabling it start over with a new beginning.

But the Aliens become aware of their dimension and world and set out to invade, divide and conquer.

In a quiet deserted alley, strewn with rubbish and burnt out cars, lay a lone figure of a child, huddled into a foetal position. His life was tethering on an edge, and blood had congealed around his injured body; as rats and other vermin, investigated a possible free meal.

As the sun was setting the child felt what he thought to be a gentle soft hand, lightly touch his face, and brushing away his hair, and he could not remember how he had come to be there, and had wondered why no one else had come to his rescue. As from where he was positioned, he lay no more than thirty feet, from the entrance of an alley, and although he could not see from his injured and swollen eyes, he could hear that people were passing, and that the road was heavy with traffic.

As he lay desperately trying to breathe, his injured and broken ribs, made it difficult to get air into his lungs, suddenly there was a blinding flash, of what he thought was a blue light, and then a loud crack, like an explosion.

Unknown to him, a spell bound ward had previously been placed at the entrance to the alley, preventing humans from entering, and seeing what lay before their eyes, the explosive noise had just broken that spell. Moments later the police had received an emergency call, stating a lady was passing the alley, and had seen a child laying in a pool of blood, and injured; in minutes the paramedics and police were at his side, and from the child’s identification, it was soon discovered, that he was Joshua’ Alexander Nicholis Cavendish, and the grandson of Lady Cavendish, formally known as Princess Tatian, and they were from the direct blood descendants, to the Tsar Alexander, whose family had been so brutally murdered.

History had recorded, that all family members had been captured and executed, what was not commonly known, or widely recognized, was that the Tsar, had been warned, and had sacrificed his own life, to keep the deception open, and had switched identities, with loving loyal servants, who had freely volunteered, to give their lives, so his beloved children could survive.

Two of his daughters had managed to escape, and were safely across the border, and hiding in Romania, when the assassins had struck, and from there they were smuggled across Europe, and eventually took up residence in Iceland. It was not until decades later, that they revealed their true blood line, and although they no longer held any official position, in the now ill-fated Royal family, they had taken on the name of Cavendish, and rebuilt their lives, with one of the sisters having married a merchant banker, and were none the less recognized, and honoured for their ancient ancestral families blood line.

Later Lady Cavendish had met a member of the British Royal family, and within five years they had married, taking on the title of Lady Tatian Cavendish. Now her much loved grandson, lay injured and fighting for his very life, while various authorities tried to understand, how the child had ended up in a side alley in Queens New York, when only hours earlier, he had been put to bed by the families nanny, in Wentworth England.

From a distant roof top sat Anastasia, a Fire-Drake, her magical eyes enabled her to view her ward Joshua’ Alexander Nicholis, as he was been cared for by various confused doctors.

“I do not care what your instruments are telling you, I assure you the child is alive and breathing.” Lady Olga, the child’s Godmother, paused to steady her temper, and to prevent herself from throttling the Danish doctor before her.

“Look use your eyes, it is obvious to anyone here, that we can all see the child breathing, and as for the blood results, they must have been contaminated, and are you saying in front of these witnesses that my grandson, a member of the British Royal family, is not human.”

Her hesitation was timed just enough, to give those present, time to take in what was happening, and then Lady Olga, continued a barrage of words against the confused doctor.

“This hospital shall be hearing from our family solicitors, never before have I been so insulted, and humiliated, by such utter incompetents.”

The poor doctor did not know what to do, or say, and it was evident to him, and all of those present in the room, that the child was alive, and breathing, yet the machine attached to monitor his vital signs, was showing only a flat line. Yet when connected to another person, it registered as working correctly.

Lady Olga was simply causing confusion, and playing for time, until the families own medical team arrived, and to take charge of the situation, never before in the duty doctor’s entire life, had he been so pleased, as to sign off his responsibility, from this case.

As the child was transported away from the hospital, lady Olga lifted her grandsons’ hand and gently kissed it,

“Joshua’ Alexander my boy, when you recover, you have some serious explaining to do, I don’t know how you came to be here, but I have a feeling we are soon to learn why, and as to what it was that brought you here.” She quietly told him.

A gentle mist appeared alongside Lady Olga, and a soft scaled hand reached out from the mist and stroked the child’s face. Lady Olga smiled, “It’s all right Anastasia, you are safe in here, your ward is secure now, and I suspect it’s thanks to you that he was found and is still alive.”

As the Fire-Drake materialized in a much smaller form, she looked into her old friends’ eyes,

“Mother, I tried to warn him, and to keep him safe, but he got it into his mind to come and visit you, ignoring the warnings of others.”

The Fire-Drake paused as her ward Joshua’ Alexander recognized her voice and tried to open his eyes.

Lady Olga lifted a hand, and gently moved it across the child’s face, in seconds he calmed and went back to sleep. The Fire-Drake smiled,

“If only all magic was as simple as casting sleep upon the child,” they both understood the bond of love that held them firmly together.

“He had been warned that the Russian church, was trying to kill out his bloodline, but like all such children at the age of eleven, and they thought they know everything, and that they are impregnable to danger and death.”

Mother Olga laughed, “I know my friend, I remember the child’s mother, she was much the same, and no matter how many protective spells, wards or bindings I placed upon her, she somehow always found a way around them, and in truth it was a miracle she herself is alive today.”

“Talking of Lady Cavendish, how is it that you think she will react, knowing now that her son is in the USA, and that he was attacked by the ministry?” enquired the Drake.

“Oh, that crazy organisation cannot do up their own shoelaces without first obtaining permission in writing. Anyway, are you sure it was them who attacked you and not someone else?” replied Olga.

Anastasia, paused only for a few seconds, reflecting back in her mind, as to the events which had led to them been in the ambulance together. As she looked back in her mind, she remembered the events as they had happened, and started to relay the information to mother Olga.

“It started three weeks ago, Joshua’ Alexander had made friends with Charli Andrews, a young lady whose parents, had not long moved into the area, she lives only three houses down. They met one day when Lady Cavendish was at Windsor Park watching a polo match. Joshua’ Alexander had been looking after some of the family dogs, when one of them somehow got loose, and ran to a horse box only some yards away. Well on retrieving the dog, he met Charli, and from there they started talking, and before any of us knew what was happening, they had become the best of friends.”

Lady Olga smiled, at the memory of her own childhood,

“It turns out Charli is from a branch of Celtic nymphs; whose family bloodline go further back than even your own bloodline. Like all nymphs, she is human in appearance and her family are not true pure bloods, which possibly explains why they managed to so successfully integrate into human society.” She explained.

Lady Olga studied the mind mist, which showed in HD quality, detailed pictorial descriptions of the events, as the Fire-Drake continued telling its story.

“In time Joshua’ Alexander was visiting Charli almost daily, although they were not at the same school, the holiday break was only three days away, and they had planned to use the summer holiday to explore new areas. Charli’s mother had remarried some years earlier, and her true father was usually away on business, and I feel he was trying to rebuild his life, yet still keep his daughter centred in his focus; I could feel a real bond of love there, and in Charli’s eyes, I could sense as well as see, that her heart was missing her true blood father. Alex who became her step father is a human, and I witnessed on several occasions stress between the family, while on the surface all appeared well, and Charli and her mother were doing all they could to hold the family together, I have a feeling it was Alex, who for whatever reason, was possibly finding it difficult to adjust, to having a family who were not strictly human.”

The Fire-Drake paused reflecting on events now past, and then continued talking. “Whatever the reason, on the surface he appeared to accept Joshua’ Alexander, as one of Charli’s new friends, that was until one day he oversaw Charli and Joshua, flying a kite together, Joshua’ Alexander lifted his hand, and the kite floated into the sky, a simple enough spell, and one which most children master at a very young age. They were having so much fun together, and I honestly thought Joshua had found himself a good friend. However, I fear Alex must have become scared, or had other ideas, as he called Charli over, and told her she had other duties to attend. Charli protested and insisted she did not, and that her mother had said it was OK, for her to be with her friend Joshua.”

The Fire-Drake paused only some seconds. “Her father showed a change of mood, and instantly Charli became a different person, and said bye to Joshua, and she went to her home, Alex walked inside without talking to Joshua, and closed the door. He was completely unaware that I even existed and did not know I had witnessed the event. I saw Charli a few hours later, and she had a mark on her face, as if someone had hit her, and I could sense that the child had been crying”.

Lady Olga reached across and wiped away Joshua’s hair from his eyes, as she did so the ambulance came to a stop. “We are here” said Lady Olga, “You had better disguise yourself, in case we are over seen by visitors”.

The Fire-Drake vanished from sight, just as the rear door to the ambulance was opened. The paramedics were themselves magical creatures, and worked directly for the family.

Cavendish Hall, was a huge old family residence, set deep into the private grounds of the family estate, and land was at a premium, with famous film stars and multi billionaires who fought for smaller properties, which due to the shortage of land, and the neighbours nearby.

However, Cavendish Hall sat on a prime location with seven thousand acres of undisturbed land surrounding it. Although it was an old building, it had been fully modernised inside, and held a wealth of digitised surveillance and communication equipment. Lady Olga owned Cavendish Hall; it had originally belonged to her grandfather, and had been passed down the family bloodline. She renamed the home, after her daughter’s marriage, and had set up her business from within.

Before then, Lady Olga had owned an entire block of residential homes, and buildings in central New York. However, she had become unhappy with the crime in the area, and moved her business away from New York, to the main land, and decided it would be better and safer, to run the business from one of her many home’s, and where she knew she could control, and keep the family secrets safe.

Her grandfather had been a merchant banker, and Lady Olga had taken over the family business, after her father retired, and had passed the families affairs into her hands.

Her own personal interest was in the stock market, and by using her magical abilities, it was a relatively simple matter, of ensuring she invested wisely, having the occasional misfortune, to divert suspicion, as to why her company was doing so well.

Joshua’ Alexander was taken directly to the medical ward, and once there, he was met by the family’s personal physicians, Genet Armstrong and Graham Hall. Both were of a magical bloodline, and were skilled in their respective research and practice.

After examining Joshua, it was established that his ribs were badly broken, his left leg had five bad fractures, and two bones completely severed. His right arm was dislocated, and his left arm had been shattered. Mercifully his head was undamaged, although his spine was broken in three places, and he had lost a lot of blood.

“It is a miracle that he is alive” said Genet Armstrong, those injuries would have killed an ordinary human child,”

She paused while looking at Lady Olga,

“Do we know just what happened.”

Lady Olga bit her lower lip; this was something she unconsciously did when under stress.

“No, I have been talking with the child’s friend, but have not yet discovered what it was that happened”

As she was speaking, Joshua opened his eyes, “Granny is that you,”?

“Yes child, now you rest and get well quickly, and do as the doctors tell you, then we can talk some more.”

Joshua was trying to get his mind together, he knew that he was badly injured, and the pain was almost unbearable, yet he knew also that he had something important to tell his grandmother.

“Please Granny, I was trying to warn you, its Alex he is trying to…, to”

but he faded back to sleep, the medication given to him to stop the pain, had dulled his senses, and put him back into a deep sleep.

“I am sorry Lady Olga, I had no idea that he would awake, and try to talk with you, we administered morphine, to help him deal with the pain, he is unlikely to awake now for many hours, and even then, he will have undergone surgery, so there is no telling when you can next talk to him.” Informed the doctor.

“That’s alright Genet you did what you thought was best for my grandson, and he is in the families care now, and I can easily be reached, let me know the instant he awakes, and also keep me updated as to your progress.” Replied Lady Olga.

“Yes, Lady Olga,” At that the doctor carried on looking after Joshua, and Lady Olga made her way to her private study.

The Fire-Drake did not immediately re-appear, as she had stayed by Joshua’ Alexander’s side, to ensure that he was in safe hands, only when she felt sure that the child was safe, and that no further harm would become him, did she leave his side, and make her way to Lady Olga.

In a busy disorganized office in central London, Alex sat at his desk; he looked up at the person who had disturbed his concentration.

“What do you want, I told you not to disturb me unless you have something positive to tell me.”

The small figure ignored the comments and poured himself a mug of coffee from the office’s coffee machine.

“Don’t you ever wash these mugs, this one is filthy”,

Alex snorted in disgust, he had no time for such trivialities, he only wanted results, and was prepared to pay anything to get his way.

“I am not paying you to sit here and drink my coffee,” he was rudely interrupted, “No you darn well are not paying me anything, need I remind you, I work for the Dragon King, and not you. It is he that gives me orders, and I in turn carry them out, and if for some reason something prevents that, then there are hundreds of others, just waiting to take my place.”

Alex was raged by the insolent reply, and tried to interrupt, but to no avail. “Now you just listen,”

“No, you darn well shut that face of yours up.”

The intruder stood and withdrew a gun, “Now I have a message to deliver to you, and if you so much as interrupt me even once, I shall put a bullet into you, do you understand?”

Alex sat back down in fear and nodded his head in agreement, fear had gripped his heart and he was now unsure just what he had got himself into. “The Dragon King is displeased with you, it appears you omitted to inform him, that he was dealing with magical creatures, that is something which he takes a very dim view of, as you have not only caused an unwanted situation, by your very actions, you have placed him into danger, should it ever be discovered who was behind the attack on that child.”

Alex realized he had made a stupid mistake, and one that was going to cost him dearly.

“I did not realize it made any difference, Ahh,”

He screamed as a bullet shattered his right knee,

“I told you to not interrupt me, and I also warned you what would happen if you did, so you brought that upon yourself is that clear?”

Alex screamed in pain, as his secretary came running in, she was shot twice in the head, and fell dead instantly.

“Now look at what you made me go and do, now that is going to cost you, we don’t kill anyone for free.”

Fear gripped Alex, he did not know what to do or say, he was in a state of shock,

“Now I have been instructed to inform you that the cost of your stupid mistake will be your life.”

At that the intruder shot Alex between the eyes, and then wiped the gun clean, and walked over to Alex and placed the gun into his hand, and then walked out leaving two dead bodies behind him.

Unknown to him, Alex was not dead, as the intruder had shot a magical illusion, also Alex had installed secret surveillance cameras and the whole incident had been recorded and automatically sent to an email address, for safe keeping. The organisation running the surveillance business received an incoming mail from one of their new clients. On opening the file they immediately informed the police.

“Do you know if there are any further copies of this, or is this the only record that you have,” asked a detective Sullivan, from the London Metropolitan Police. “I am unsure, as the client has the ability of sending as many copies of this file to whosoever he so desires.” Came the reply.

That was not an answer the detective had wanted to hear,

“Would it be possible to trace who else received copies,”

“Yes but I would have to have access to his computer, and the master set up file, only he has the password for that, as it is a privacy matter, and a built in security measure, to prevent hackers from accessing the file, and diverting the email from reaching its intended goal.”

Unknown to them there in fact had been two further copies sent, one to Alex private office in his home, and another to a private detective who Alex had commissioned to investigate the Cavendish family. Unknown to Alex the private detective was herself from a magical family, and had already informed others of Alex’s intentions and actions. When she had received the email, she had instantly made a copy and had the copy sent to the Cavendish Foundation, and another to her own family solicitors.

Experience told her that she was herself now in danger and that it was highly possible that certain factions would be looking for her. Quickly she closed up shop and moved her location, it was not a difficult thing to do as for the active cases she was working on, she passed those over to another agency connected to her family and made herself literally vanish.

The Dragon King had a reputation, and it was known that he hated loose ends as he called such situations and took active measures to ensure such ends were in his words “Disposed of, or tidied up,” he hated an unclean office so to speak.

Had detective Sullivan had the opportunity, he would have ended the problem there and then, and reported back to those above his office, to inform the Dragon King that the problem had been resolved. As it was, now he knew that he could not afford to take such action, and that he would have to involve others in tracking down any such copies, of the security video.

Alex knew now that he had over stepped the line and got himself into something which was going to drag him further and further down, and in time and unless he was incredibly fortunate and careful; that it would soon cost possibly him his life.

After performing a spell, an unidentifiable human type body appeared on his office carpet, it had what looked like bullet holes in its head, but the face looked as if it had been soaked in a bath of acid. Within two days, the thug who had entered Alex’s office was found dead in a waste disposal unit. His body had been partly fed into a tree cutting unit and the lower two thirds of his body were no more than liquid mulch.

It was assumed he had been fed into the machine while alive and that the only reason it failed to totally destroy him was because the machine blew a fuse, or because it was wanted for him to be identified.

In fact his death was a warning to other employees, a message to warn them not to fail and to ensure nothing could be traced back to their boss or his organisation. Such a warning certainly reminded those in the kings employment not to fail, and was more than an incentive to ensure they did not overlook such things as video surveillance in the future.

Lady Cavendish had seen the file sent to her by one of her cousins and had taken steps to ensure she was safe, she had the family solicitors inform the police of the file and simply claimed it had been sent to a member of her staff, the computer it had arrived on, had been intercepted by the family solicitors, and all confidential information removed before the police had a chance to look at it for further investigations; also the hard drive had been spell bound to destroy itself the moment the police tried to access any additional information.

The security company who Alex had sent the original file to, had employees working, who were themselves of a magical nature, and they realized the importance of their greater family uniting, for their own protection.

In addition the Dragon king knew of the danger that he was now in, had he of been aware that it was the Cavendish family that one of his operatives had accepted a contract on, then he would of forbid any such involvement, as it was the damage was done, and no matter what he did to protect himself he knew in time he was going to receive a visit from an unwanted inhuman creature.

Before he had taken control of the organization, one of his associates had intentionally killed a family living in East London, which in itself was something accepted as normal among the human population, however unknown to the Dragon king at that time, his associate had known that this particular family had strange abilities, and that they had intervened when one of their siblings had become hooked on drugs.

He had wanted to send a message to their families in the area that if you mess with him then this is what would happen. Heroin was a huge business and he had become amazingly wealthy and powerful from his drug empire, yet that failed to protect him.

One evening he was holding a party in his heavily fortified home, he had armed employees at every entrance and exit and additional staff for his personal protection. His associate had invited the Dragon King and he was present at the time of his death.

Before his eyes, each armed individual who was carrying any kind of weapon was killed, no matter what they did, no one could harm the intruder, and bullets appeared to pass right through her. No one knew who she was or how she even arrived; she was small, and almost looking like a school girl, and in no way threatening or of concern, especially to such hardened armed thugs.

The Dragon king could not understand how she was killing the others, but each person who tried to attack her, had their chest explode outwards, like a bomb exploding from inside their ribcage. Those who dropped their weapons and offered no resistance were not killed in such a fashion, yet even then each one of them fell dead where they laid.

By the time the intruder reached his associate, the Dragon king was grateful that he had not been carrying a weapon of any kind. The intruder smiled at him and spoke in a gentle soft childlike voice.

“You have been chosen to be witness to what has happened here, this man had members of our family killed as an example of his power, so I have been sent to show an example of how stupid that was, and to give a demonstration of true power, and not the illusion you humans hide behind, simply because you have guns or explosives; I am but the youngest and most inexperienced of our warriors, I am not even worthy to be called an apprentice yet.”

Her words although spoken softly, carried immense power, and he understood immediately that he was dealing with an alternative life form. “This human declared war upon us, I am here now to accept, and to show how foolish and incapable your race is, in ever winning such a war, and yes you may kill the odd family members, who are untrained in combat, and who are not expecting such action against them, but never again, will such action go unpunished or unchallenged.”

Even while talking, bullets were been fired directly at the child, yet each bullet simply travelled through her, and appeared to vanish. When she removed her eyes from the Dragon King, she raised a hand, and his associate levitated from the floor and appeared to be unable to move a single mussel.

Before his eyes, the body started breaking apart like an exploded diagram, and then fitting back together, each time there was a scream of agony, and blood would spray before the body resealed itself. This happened seven times; on the eighth time, the agony was such that he at first thought his associate to have died, as he lay limp, and appeared to not even be breathing.

Suddenly there was a deafening scream as his body appeared to turn inside out, the various witnesses who had been unarmed, were frozen in fear, and unable to offer any form of help to the dying man.

Then in a blinding flash of blue light, the child appeared to turn into a dragon and then vanished. Such was the shock that no one had heard the police arrive, and had it not have been for the internal video surveillance, their testimonies would never have been believed.

Such was the shock at the sight of the multitude of dead bodies; even seasoned police officers were finding it difficult to hold down their previous meals.

Anastasia looked at Lady Olga and could see she was listening with interest, she was just about to restart talking when the Phone rang. “Hello,” Lady Olga had picked up the phone within her private study, she knew instantly that it was important as very few people had access to her personal number; as most general calls were intercepted by the staff, only very select family members and those deemed important enough were ever given access to this number.

“Lady Olga, I have the answer to that question you ask me,” he paused to get his thoughts together, as he knew what he was about to tell Lady Olga was going to cause considerable waves.

“We had the spell that was placed to the entrance analysed, and yes you were right.” Again he paused; he knew that this was not going to be easy to tell her.

“Tilbethan’s signature was found within the warding spell placed at the entrance to the alley; it had been hidden and made to look like a Nymph spell, but using the equipment you loaned me, stripped away everything leaving only the basic foundation signature.”

The caller had not known such equipment even existed, and he knew better than to tell anyone else regardless of whom they were, and nor at that to allow the equipment into another person’s hands.

Lady Olga lifted her right finger and spoke some words away from the mouth piece of the phone, so the caller could not hear her words, before he realized what was happening, her equipment dematerialised from before him, and within seconds sat on a table in Lady Olga’s room.

“Excellent work Donald, I knew that I could trust you, do not take any form of action on this information, do you understand?”

Donald breathed in sharply, he had not expected the equipment to simply vanish like that, even though he was from within the families group of members, he was only what was known as a stage six regarding his magical ability. Not that such a level failed to carry any real power, far from it, the creature sent to deal with the Dragon Kings associates was herself a level four, two full levels below that of Donald’s abilities.

It simply was a matter of scale, Lady Olga was basically sitting upon the clouds surrounding Jupiter, if there were any such clouds, while Donald had only reached the tip of Mount Everest; such was the gap in their knowledge and abilities.

Donald ground his teeth in frustration; he had wanted to be involved in bringing down whosoever it was that had attacked Joshua’ Alexander. Lady Olga could sense his anger,

“Donald the work that you did was excellent and the service you have provided, and loyalty shown to our family, will not be over looked, however I repeat, do not.”

She paused to allow her words to take effect,

“I mean it Donald, do not take any further action, simply put this information to the side of your mind, I have no need to tell you to keep it confidential, and do not involve anyone else, not even Lady Cavendish; do I make myself clear?”

He knew instantly by the tonal reflection been used in her voice that she meant every word, what he had not realized was within the words were sub harmonic spells used by Lady Olga to dull selected areas of his brain; no permanent harm was been done, and it was reversible. It was simply Lady Olga’s way in ensuring that Donald carried out her wishes to the word. She knew “Tilbethan’s power far outstretched that of Donald’s, and he was far too valuable to her to allow him to face such danger.

As Lady Olga put the Phone back in its cradle, she looked at Anastasia,

“I take it you heard every word that was spoken?”

She already knew Anastasias abilities, and that she could have heard a pin drop over five hundred yards away, had she so desired and placed in mind into such concentration. Anastasia blinked as she moved her head downwards, indicating yes to Lady Olga’s question.

“Why would Tilbethan do such a thing, she knows what will happen if her involvement was revealed. Yes she might well be powerful and possibly thought she had the skill to mask out her actions, but that still does not explain why she would attack a family member, let alone anyone on Joshua’ Alexander’s level of importance.”

Lady Olga sat quietly thinking for some seconds before she answered Anastasia.

“I understand the equipment used is not widely known, and I can only assume she honestly thought her skill was such that she could lead the investigation towards the Nymphs, none the less something does not add up here.”

She reached over and lifted the equipment which she had retrieved from Donald and opened its case so she could study the findings in more detail. After several minutes she breathed in sharply.

“No, this is wrong, Donald was correct in his reading of the equipment, however what he did not know is hidden under that base signature is a synthetic marker, and it’s not natural to the magical world.”

Anastasia looked on in interest, as Lady Olga explained her findings. “Beneath that foundation marker is something that I have never seen before, and the equipment informs me that it carries human DNA and not XDNA which is found in all magical creatures.”

Looking over to Anastasia she waited so that her friend could take in the full implications of her words.

“A human has found a method of duplicating very basic spells, by using a synthetic marker; however what they did not realize or understand was anyone of level nineteen would have picked up on this and seen through the subterfuge and illusion.”

Anastasia’s eyes had turned fiery red like deep rich rubies; her anger was direct at whosoever had taken this action.

“It either means that Tilbethan is somehow voluntarily involved, or a human has somehow acquired her base line signature, and the only way that could have happened is if it was freely given or forcefully extracted.”

Lady Olga reached over and picked up her Phone, after tapping in an extension number she waited until it was answered.

“Yes, Lady Olga,” the person had not needed to say anything further, he already knew that his caller ID informed him who wanted to talk with him. “Erik, we possibly have a very serious problem which requires our immediate attention, I cannot emphasise how important this is.” Informed Lady Olga.

“You have my full attention,” came the reply.

Lady Olga proceeded to tell her family attorney what had happened, he was on an exclusive retainer and undertook only family business, giving priority to the likes of Lady Olga.

“I need you to locate Tilbethan and do so without drawing attention or alerting her that she is been investigated, however, I have a fear, that we may discover that she is missing.”

Erik had worked for Lady Olga on many such important cases and used his considerable magical abilities in reaching his goal, he knew instantly after hearing Lady Olga’s words that Tilbethan was in serious trouble. He also knew her family well and had watched Tilbethan grow, she was a formidable creature and loyal to the family. However, he also knew that her father had recently placed himself into serious debt, and that there were some very unsavoury characters, who were waiting on the side lines to take advantage.

Lady Olga reached out to Anastasia and took hold of her hands.

“It is evident that we are facing a crisis which has the potential to expose the magical community and start something which could leave many injured or dead.”

Anastasia’s eyes had turned an emerald green, her anger had subsided and she was grateful, that she had been in Lady Olga’s company, as she was fully aware, that had there been someone close by, who had inflicted this pain upon Joshua’ Alexander; she may well have later regretted her actions.

“Anastasia, please can you continue telling me what happened to Joshua?” asked Lady Olga.

She smiled and exhaled a small puff of blue smoke,

“I would say that Alex was beating his daughter, and although I have no direct proof, it is possible that his wife is also suffering.”

Lady Olga moved in her chair to find a more comfortable position.

“Alex is not what he appears to be, I genuinely had thought he was human, however something is telling me that is an illusion, and that he is a magical creature whose abilities outreach that of Charli’s and that of her mother; as I cannot see for one moment the family allowing this to continue, unless he is holding something over them, which is preventing them from involving others.”

Within the magical community the family is sacred and all such creatures regardless of their level, age or magical abilities; have a responsibility of looking out for each other. Violence of any kind, is something forbidden, as when you have such power, then there is no need to inflict pain of any kind, be it physical, emotional or mental.

“I had some friends look into his past, the results were strange and somewhat confusing, although on his tax forms, he declared that he was born in Ascot in Berkshire England, and that his date of birth was 11th May, yet on looking through all births at Royal Ascot, there is no record of him, also his bank statements show his deposits far outstretch his declared income.” Continued Anastasia.

Anastasia could see that she had Lady Olga’s interest,

“A friend working with the Thames Valley C I D, told me that they are working with Interpol and other agencies and are investigating him, apparently they already have a file over three inches thick, just in the local C I D offices and that does not include any of the other agencies.”

Anastasia paused from talking, but Lady Olga interrupted her.

“Enough, if you feel that he is in some way connected then have him brought to one of the U Ks family’s warehouses, if he is as involved as it appears, then we need to deal with it. There are already far too many humans involved, we need to find a way of diverting their attention so we can extract him.”

Lady Olga reached over and lifted a deep red hard covered file from her desk, on opening it she browsed through some of the pages until she found what she was looking for.

“Peter John Nathaniel, he is based in Windsor and responsible for those guarding the magical staff working for the Royal Family. We need to instruct him to organise the extraction and over see that all goes according to plan, we cannot afford any stupid mistakes, and then drawing even more attention to us.”

“Peter is an excellent choice, I imagine Lady Cavendish will be seeking his involvement in sorting out this mess anyway, so we might as well instruct him now and start the investigation as quickly as possible.”

Lady Olga agreed with Anastasia’s words, within three hours Peter had received his orders and had implemented a team to divert attention away from Alex while team B intercepted him and rendered him incapable of performing any kind of magic.

There problem was it was an unknown variable, as no one appeared to know, just who he really was, or at that, at what level of magic could he use against them. Lady Olga had informed Peter of everything that had happened, as intelligence was the key to this operations success. Peter realized that something had either taken Joshua’ Alexander from his Royal home in Wentworth, and if so they had avoided, and or, over ridden the magical protection wards, that were constantly in place.

Or more likely that Joshua’ Alexander had been intercepted while in the care of Anastasia, and that thought truly could have scared him. Anastasia is a formidable creature, who held a level of power close to his own, and to his knowledge and according to her age; she was at a level exceeding the reach of most of the magic creatures, with the exception of Lady Olga and a few other senior family members.

“Juliet, could I impose upon you for some family support,”

Juliet was Peters sister, he never had liked approaching his grandfather, he was a kind enough person, it was just he had a strange gift which the Dragon Queen had given him, when he had rendered her assistance, which had almost cost him his life.

Nicholas Alexander McKay, had the uncanny ability of reading peoples thoughts, and he knew a good five seconds in advance, exactly what was going to happen or be said. It was something that Peter and other family members found most embarrassing, as during their younger years they could not keep anything secret from their grandfather; and he enjoyed exposing and teasing them, especially when dates with the opposite sex were involved.

In addition he was one of the very few people, who came anywhere close to Lady Olga’s ability, as such he was a formidable opponent, and Peter knew for certain that whatever Alex was, that Nicholas would be able to deal with him.