City Tracking

I chased her out the back door through the kitchen. I probably knocked over a few things and still by the time I got out there and looked down the alley she was gone. Fuck and she had a kid. I couldn’t just take her out. I wasn’t going to leave a kid motherless. It had done me so much good.

Simon was at one end of the alley and Walker the other. “Where did she go?” Walker asked.

I sighed and let my senses go. “I assume she went up.”

“You mean she flew?” Simon asked.

“She’s a dragon. Dragon’s do that.” I pressed my hands to my ears and waited until the world calmed down a bit. My ears and eyes unused to the complete sensation of sounds it took a moment to adjust.

Simon looked at me and frowned, “I think he’s having a brain aneurysm.”

Walker laughed silently and put his finger to his lips. “Shhhh.” He mouthed.

Without their talking, I could smell her scent. I’d caught a good whiff of it when she’d sat down next to me. I walked a few feet one direction then turned the other and tried to find her direction. I found her scent she had indeed gone up, but I didn’t think it was from flying. I pointed to the fire escape, “She went up that way.”

Simon and Walker both started speaking at the same time. “You follow her up we’ll see if we can get into the building,” Walker said after the both had stopped trying to say the same thing.

“I guess I’ll go up.”

Walker grinned, “You do like to jump.”

I sighed and nodded. I had liked to jump, now not so much, but this wasn’t jumping, this was climbing a rickety fire escape and a fear of heights. Just fucking great.

I went up the fire escape and followed her scent. It didn’t lead to the roof which I thought odd. It opened straight into a child’s bedroom. I climbed in after her and wondered how Walker and Simon were going to give me back up if they didn’t know which floor. I wasn’t overly surprised to find the child’s things, though he slept on a mattress on the floor and there was a stuffed snoopy lying discarded haphazardly amongst a bunch of toy cars of every shape and size.

I could smell her everywhere, but also the child and her mate – a human. The kid was a half dragon. I was surprised he was still alive.

For some reason I didn’t think she’d come this way, nothing smelled recent. But I didn’t have time to turn around before a man was pointing a gun at me with a baby boy on his hip. Not a baby probably a toddler around three. His skin as dark as his mothers, with orange eyes and golden hair just like his mother. “What do you want?” He asked still pointing the gun at me.

“I just want to talk to her.” I said.

“She’s not here. She said if one of your Feras came looking for her I should shoot first, but you don’t have any weapons.”

“I don’t have any weapons.” I agreed. “I just want to talk.”

“No Feras wants to talk. All you do is kill.” He took a few steps forward and I took the same number backwards until I was backed against the opened window. “Why are you here?”

I shrugged, “You and your wife robbed a bank.”

“You aren’t a cop.”

I nodded. “I’m not, I’m Venatori. I need to take you in. I’d rather do it without incident but I will hurt you if I have to.” He set his son down behind his leg and the toddler scurried off to his toys and stuffed dog that were piled together oblivious to the things that were going on around him. The man’s hand tightened on the gun and he pointed it again at me. Like he would have missed before. It was doubtful. But while he talked I wove air around his arms and his legs and then I pulled tight and he dropped the gun and fell to his back on the bedroom floor with an whelp and a grunt. His son started crying. “Look, I’m sorry. I want to talk to her. But either way you are all going in. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Where is she?”

His eyes were wide and I could smell the fear on him, it overrode everything. His boy ran to him and curled up against him. I knelt down to his level and smiled. “I won’t hurt you. I won’t hurt your daddy either. But I need to talk to your mommy, do you know where she is?”

The toddler blinked at me with reptilian eyes and the pointed up. “On the roof?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded. “Alright, you stay here with your daddy. I’ll be back with your mommy and we’ll all go for a little walk alright?”

He nodded and I gave him a friendly smile. “My name is Nox. I’ll be back.” I pulled the gun towards me and picked it up by the barrel. I had no need of it but I wasn’t going to leave it for the child to use accidentally or on purpose for that matter.

I crawled back out the window and the toddler ran after me. I leaned down and patted him on the head. “I’ll be back. I promise.” His nose went up in the air like he was sniffing the air and he smiled with a nod. I reassured him, “I’ll be back.”