Dragon Song Read online

  DRAGON SONG

  By

  DENNA HOLM

  Cover design by

  Carly McCracken

  Published by

  Crimson Cloak Publishing

  © Denna Holm 2019 All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of Fiction. Names, characters, events or locations are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This book is licensed for private, individual entertainment only. The book contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into an information retrieval system or transmitted in any form by ANY means (electrical, mechanical, photographic, audio recording or otherwise) for any reason (excepting the uses permitted by the licensee by copyright law under terms of fair use) without the specific written permission of the author.

  www.crimsoncloakpublishing.com

  ~o~

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY DENNA HOLM

  LIBRARIES INFORMATION

  CHAPTER 1

  “I’m going out for a hike,” Faith Wilson said to her mother, unable to keep the snark out of her tone. She would probably pay for that one when her dad got home. “I might be gone a while, so don’t worry.” Frustrated, Faith pulled her long auburn hair into a high ponytail. She could tuck the tail down her shirt if she ended up going through any heavy brush. She needed some space away from her parents, away from everyone. Nobody had asked her opinion when they forced this move on her. No, they’d just sprung it on her at the end of the school year. Faith had barely been given time to say goodbye to all her friends.

  And she was furious.

  “Stay on the trail until you get to know the area better,” her mom called from the living room of their rustic, ranch-style home. Her mom—still a beautiful woman with short, strawberry-blonde hair framed around a heart-shaped face and wide green eyes—peeked her head around the corner. “Make sure you take your GPS unit, and you better take the can of bear spray too. Your dad said he spotted a black bear when he went out to scout the area before we bought this place. There’s probably cougars around too.”

  “Wonderful,” Faith murmured, snagging a can of bear spray off the counter and attaching it to her belt. She stuffed a handful of Power Bars in her backpack along with two large bottles of water. Her hiking pack already carried most things a person might need if they got into trouble out in the wild: a small first aid kit, space blankets, matches, rope, etcetera. Not that she’d probably need anything today. Faith didn’t plan to go off the trail, not by herself, but her parents were hiking enthusiasts and had taught her to always be prepared. Better safe than sorry, they always said.

  “Why don’t you take Axel with you today, sweetheart,” her mom said, stepping into the kitchen with a worried expression. “He could use the run.” Axel was her dad’s German shepherd.

  Faith snorted. “Yeah, if he’ll come with me.” Normally the dog was attached to her dad’s hip. The stupid beast didn’t really care about any of the rest of the family.

  “He’ll be fine. Your dad’s gone for the day.” Her mom rolled her lower lip behind her teeth a moment. “I don’t suppose your brother could go with you?”

  “No, I wanna be alone.” The last thing she needed was to have to listen to her little brother chatter the whole way. Mark hadn’t been any happier than Faith about the move, but it didn’t mean she wanted to listen to him gripe about it.

  “Okay, sweetheart, I understand. You be careful. If you follow that wide path behind the house, you’ll find a creek and a nice little waterfall. It’s beautiful there. Your dad said there might even be some brook trout we can fish for.”

  “Yeah, okay, thanks. I’ll check it out.”

  “You got water and Power Bars? You want me to make you a sandwich?”

  Faith rolled her eyes. “Yes, on the water and Power Bars. No, I don’t need a sandwich. I’m gonna go now.” She slipped on her jacket, since the mornings were still cool around here, a few piles of snow still on the ground, then slipped her arms through the straps of her backpack. Faith had grown up in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. For reasons still unknown to her, her parents had suddenly decided to move east to some dumb Podunk town outside of Burns. Nobody, absolutely nobody, lived anywhere near them. Her parents would need to get a second car so Faith could drive her and Mark to school in the fall. What a joke.

  “Don’t forget Axel. He’s in his kennel out in the barn.”

  Faith shook her head, fighting not to let the screen door slam shut. She just wanted to scream over the injustice of it all. Her parents didn’t understand anything. Who in their right minds would move their kid right before she started her sophomore year of high school? Only selfish parents who didn’t care that their only daughter’s social life would be totally ruined, that’s who. She wondered if they even had a girls’ basketball or volleyball team in Burns. Faith snorted. “Be a miracle if they even have a freaking school.”

  Axel stood as she walked in the barn, wagging his bushy tail from inside the kennel. No surprise when she opened the door that the dog ran straight for the house to check for her dad. Faith looked around the barn while she waited for him to return. The only good thing to come of this move was her parents had promised to get her and Mark each a horse. Supposedly there were good trails to ride on around here, at least in the summer. Snow could be a problem in the winter.

  “Perfect,” she grumbled, thinking about wading through two feet of snow. On the plus side, maybe the roads would be closed and she wouldn’t have to drive them to school.

  The four-stall barn was going to take a little work before it would be safe for horses, and they’d need to fence the field off to the left of the house. Faith glanced inside one of the stalls, sighing at the musty smell of old straw and urine. The filthy, uneven ground would need leveled and some rubber pads brought in to put pine shaving on for bedding. It would smell better then, hopefully.

  Axel slunk back to the barn a few minutes later, tail dragging, ears drooped, obviously depressed about not finding her dad. Faith shook her head at him, bending down to scratch the dog behind the ears before she walked out of the barn. “You ain’t the only one depressed around here, boy. Better get used to it.”

  She walked over behind the house, easily finding the deer trail her mom had spoken of. The deer obviously liked to come into the open field to graze at night. They had blacktail and whitetail deer over west of the Cascade Mountains. Her dad told Faith they mostly had mule deer on this side. Whatever their species, the deer probably wouldn’t be happy when they fenced off their field for the horses. Too bad. Everyone, and everything, would have to suffer over this move.

  Faith took a moment to study the rugged land, different from what she was used to. They still had pine trees, but they weren’t packed quite so close together, at least not in this area. She’d seen some parts where the lodge pole was so tight a person couldn’t squeeze through even if they’d wanted. What Faith loved here that they didn’t have west were the Ponderosa pines. Tall and straight, they had orange scaled bark split with big plates, like puzzle pieces. They smelled good, kind of like vanilla or butterscotch. The brush was different on this side too. Where you ran into a lot of blackberries over west, you mostly found manzanita and buck brush here.


  She started walking, deciding to take a left fork whenever she came to a break in the trail. Though she had a GPS unit, and always carried extra batteries, with a saved waypoint showing the way home, Faith liked to practice trying to find her own way. What happened if the GPS unit stopped working? Her parents had drilled into her head to always pay attention to her position.

  Two hours later, Faith stopped to catch her breath, her legs burning from the steep climb. Maybe she should have gone right instead of left at the fork. Even Axel, who’d started out scouting ahead, chasing chipmunks and pine squirrels, had slowed down, his tongue almost dragging the ground as he walked beside her. She stopped and dropped her backpack to the ground and shimmied out of her coat, tying it around her waist.

  “Need a drink?” she asked the dog, taking out a collapsible bowl and pouring a little water into it. Faith sipped at the bottle as she studied the land, her anger and irritation having faded some after the long hike. It really was beautiful here, but it would be even better if she could share it with her friends. Not very likely their parents would drive them clear to Burns very often.

  “Shoulda wore my shorts,” she said to Axel, the dog cocking his head in a way only German shepherds could do, as though really listening to her. “These jeans are getting hot.” She peeled off her oversized sweatshirt, having worn a red tank top beneath it.

  “Done?” she said, picking up his water bowl and dumping the little that was left. “Better keep going. I think we’re almost to the top. I bet we’ll be able to see our house from up here.” Probably see the whole dang valley. It had been a lot steeper and farther than she’d imagined when starting out this morning.

  A half hour later, they stepped out into the open on top of the ridge. No tall trees here, and only sparse brush. She should be able to see for miles. There’d been no sign of a creek or falls, so Faith had to assume she’d gone the wrong way. No biggie. She’d take the right fork next time or come up with her parents. Might be awhile before she forgave them for disrupting her life, though.

  “Come on, Axel, we’ll go over and rest on the other side there. Got some rocks we can sit on.” Not that the dog cared.

  Sighing, she slipped out of her backpack and dropped it to the ground, then sat on a large boulder, one she could hang her feet and legs over the ledge. After giving Axel another bowl of water, she pulled out a Power Bar and started to rip it open, half wishing she’d taken her mom up on that sandwich. It would have tasted good right about now.

  Just as she took a bite, Axel sat up and looked over the side of the steep bank, growling, the hair along the ridge of his back standing up. Faith shivered, the tiny hairs on her neck also standing up. She automatically reached for the can of bear spray on her hip, coming to her feet. Axel had crouched down, his head lowered, lips pulled back from sharp fangs.

  Goosebumps breaking out, Faith looked over the ledge, trying to see what he’d spotted. It could have been a bear or cougar, though she more imagined it was probably a deer or raccoon.

  At first, she didn’t see anything and assumed what it’d been had already slipped away. But then she narrowed her eyes, looking closer. “What the heck?” Faith kneeled on the rock and reached for her backpack, pulling out a small pair of binoculars. She stood, putting them to her eyes. “Oh, my God, Axel. It’s a person. Oh, crap, I think they’re dead?”

  CHAPTER 2

  Faith scanned down his body, trying to look for signs of life. He looked young, not much older than her, though she wouldn’t be able to tell for sure until she got closer. What she found odd, and a little unnerving, if she were honest, was that he was completely naked, his back pressed up against a bank of rock. One leg was bent at an odd angle, and she suspected it was broken. The arm he had resting over his forehead didn’t look right either. “Good grief, I hope someone didn’t just dump him over the bank, Axel.” Faith had never been so glad she’d listened to her mom and brought the dog. Whoever had hurt this boy could still be around.

  She took a moment to scan the area for signs of life before making up her mind to get down there and see if she could help him. Faith tried not to dwell on the fact that he might really be dead. She’d never seen a real dead body before. “But why would someone bring him all the way up here to dump his body,” she murmured to herself. “Doesn’t make sense.” Maybe he fell over the bank while hiking.

  Faith sighed. “Yeah, right, while naked?”

  Axel looked up at her. He’d finally stopped growling and the hair along the ridge of his back laid down. Good thing too, because he’d been freaking her out.

  After tightening the coat around her waist, Faith grabbed her backpack, sliding her arms into the straps. She wasn’t sure what she could do about broken bones, but she could try to clean the smaller cuts all over his body. If he’s even alive, she reminded herself.

  Blowing out a noisy breath, she studied the terrain, trying to find the easiest path down. It didn’t look like there was one. Not even the deer wanted to tackle this crap. Faith sat back on her butt and slid, aiming for a scraggly pine to grab to slow her down. It wasn’t going to do either one of them any good if she ended up with a broken leg too. Even Axel was struggling.

  Thankfully, only the first quarter of the way was too steep to walk. She breathed a sigh of relief when she could finally stand again. It took her less than ten minutes to reach the boy.

  Axel didn’t want anything to do with him, which again unnerved Faith a bit. He kept his distance, releasing the occasional deep growl, the hackles once again raised along his back. What did he see that she couldn’t?

  Faith kept her distance for a moment, studying the boy. He looked in even worse shape up close, his bronze skin covered in cuts and bruises, his right leg definitely broken. The wrist resting across his forehead was also broken. He looked about fourteen years old, a little older than Mark, his lean body not yet filled out, though Faith could see muscle definition. He was in good shape … except for the injuries.

  As she stepped cautiously closer, Faith tried to keep her sight off his penis and balls. She’d never seen a naked guy in person before and couldn’t help but feel curious. Cringing inside, she reached out to touch his calf, finding his skin warm. Inching closer, she pressed her fingers to the wrist of his uninjured hand, relieved to find a faint pulse.

  Faith lifted his wounded arm from his forehead, her stomach twisting in sympathy when he groaned. “What the hell?” she whispered, looking closer. It looked like two little nubs were sprouting from the outside edges of his forehead. “Weird.” Well, she’d have to take a closer look at those later. Right now, she needed to see if he’d wake up, maybe get some water inside him, then try to find out where his parents were. She wondered how long he’d been trapped here.

  “Hey,” she said, giving him a light shake. “Can you open your eyes?”

  Nothing. Perfect.

  Faith sat, tugging her backpack into her lap. She unzipped it and pulled out a bottle of water and a washcloth, pouring a little water onto the cloth and using it to wash some of the dirt from his face. The little nobs on his forehead were firm beneath her fingers.

  Axel refused to come any closer, whining as he lay in the rocky dirt about twenty feet away.

  Feeling like a pervert when her gaze kept dropping to his exposed crotch, Faith jerked off her coat and covered his hips. Thinking he might need more, she pulled out one of the silver space blankets and laid it gently over the top of him.

  He moaned again and started to move, his mouth opening.

  “Oh, shit, dude, you got fangs.” Faith bit at her lower lip, fighting not to scoot back. Maybe it was nothing. He might just be one of those freaks who liked to alter their body. Made sense with the horn nubs. But did this make him dangerous? Faith had a cell phone in her pack, but she knew there wouldn’t be any service up here. She’d only brought it to take a few pictures to post on Facebook and Instagram. “Not like you can chase me with a broken leg, I guess.” She should be safe enough.

&nbs
p; Faith pressed the lip of her bottle against his lips and lifted it, offering him some water. He groaned and leaned toward it, choking some as he tried to swallow. “Shoot,” Faith said, as most of it ran off onto the ground. She shifted to her knees and tried to cup the back of his head, helping him lift so he wouldn’t choke.

  After several swallows, he collapsed back. She could see his eyes moving beneath dark lashes, as though he was fighting to open them.

  Faith reached for his good hand, a little startled by the sharp black nails, giving a light squeeze. How did I miss those when I felt for a pulse? “Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

  She felt a light squeeze.

  “You’ve been hurt pretty bad, a broken leg and wrist for sure. You might have some internal damage too. Do you know if your parents are up here?”

  He groaned, giving a harder squeeze.

  “Shoot, I don’t know what that means. Squeeze once for yes, twice for no. Are your parents here?”

  He squeezed twice.

  “Did someone hurt you?”

  Two squeezes.

  “So you fell?”

  One squeeze.

  Well, that was good. At least she didn’t need to worry about some maniac killer jumping out from nowhere. But how did he get here, and where were his clothes? Faith’s parents had bought a house about ten miles out of town. They didn’t have any close neighbors, at least none that she knew of. Didn’t mean there weren’t known hiking trails out here.

  “Can you try to sit up?” she asked. “It’ll be easier to drink the water. I think you might be dehydrated. I have a Power Bar too, if you think you can eat. Once I get you fixed up as best I can, I’ll go for help.”

  He squeezed her hand twice, hard.

  “Ouch! You don’t want help?” she asked, incredulous.

  Two squeezes.

  She shook her head, frowning. “Why?” Shoot, he couldn’t answer yet. Okay, he must have a reason. They would need to discuss it later. “Do you want to try to sit up?” Or maybe she shouldn’t move him. His back might be broken. “Does your back hurt?”