The Circle of Stars Read online

  I was off the stool in a flash and was stood facing the bar with my hands raised even before I recognised what was going on. Jim, to his credit, just looked at me, unfazed by my sudden movement, and raised his eyebrows, silently restating the question.

  I shook myself back to sense and took a breath, lowering my arms from a position of threat.

  “Sorry mate, I’m fine. Don’t know ‘em. Must be tired or something.” It was all I could come up with. Jim just nodded once and left my drink on the bar, scooping up the note I’d left ready. Looks like I needed more time in the shower to clear my head. Returning with the change, Jim spoke as if nothing had happened.

  “It would have been good if you had known them, they’ve been drinking fast since they got here and they’re beginning to cause a bit of a disturbance.”

  I didn’t need to turn to look. Now I was looking for it, I could feel a sharp edged anger coming from the pair behind me. Nudges and stabs of the pointed emotion were being prodded into my back and I could feel the two distinct patterns which were engaged in the ever growing argument.

  “Wonder what happened?” mused Jim as he did his best to keep an eye on them without looking like he was.

  I took a drink and tried to consider the detail of what was going on. Both were angry but both were equally forceful on the point. Either they both cheated or this was something else.

  “Probably some big deal or something,” I mumbled by way of response but it was at that second that one of the emotional waves flared brightly, engulfing the power of the other, and I knew that whatever was taking place, it was about to get physical in the worst possible way.

  I was away from the bar and heading in the direction of the altercation on instinct, doing my best to understand the details of what I was diving into.

  The guy was still seated but he was looking intently at his phone, all thought of anything in the real world lost, but his female drinking partner was on her feet next to him and was in the process of swinging an empty wine bottle at his head. By the look on her face, she wasn’t looking to do anything less than crack his skull in.

  Through a combination of the booze and the focus of her anger, she wasn’t aware of anything which was going on around her so it must have come as something of a surprise when I tackled her away from her target and sent her sprawling across the carpeted floor of the bar to end in a crumpled heap at the feet of another patron. At least she’d dropped the bottle.

  I took two steady, stalking steps towards the woman as I watched for any kind of movement. All the time that I‘d spent fighting within the Circle had quickly shown that I needed to be wary of an enemy, even when they looked to have been totally incapacitated. She hadn’t moved but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to strike back in some underhand and violent way.

  The guy who she’d landed next to was now scrabbling to his feet, doing his level best to get away from her. His eyes were fixed on me as I approached and I could see that he recognised the danger she represented. The shouting had taken a second but was now roaring around the bar and I was dimly aware of all of the swirling emotions being broadcast. And at the centre, a bright scarlet hatred.

  I swung round on animal instinct and thrust out my left arm, taking hold of what I knew was heading towards me and closed my hand tight. The guy who was, moments ago, about to become a victim of a violent attack at the hands of the woman I’d saved him from, was now swinging a weapon of his own and was aiming it at me. I’d caught him by the throat as he’d lunged forward at me and was suspending him a little off the ground as he struggled for breath.

  Turning his head slowly from side to side, making it clear that he’d just made a very bad choice, I tried to consider what he’d been thinking attacking me in that way. I growled at him at the thought of my help being so quickly thrown back in my face and even without the blatant proof before my eyes, I could feel that the anger was evaporating to be replaced with a gasping terror. His face was turning purple as I gripped tighter and the strength he was working at loosening my grip was growing weaker with each attempt he made.

  The crack to the head broke my concentration on my would-be attacker.

  The splintered remains of the pool cue that had just been used against me flew across the room, knocking a few half empty glasses from their table as it went and I knew instantly that the woman had done exactly what I’d been wary of.

  Not wanting to leave myself open to another sneak attack if I let the man go, I instead launched him back across the open space of the bar to land on one of the sofas at the back of the room. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to fight, not kill him. I hoped the sofa broke his fall.

  Whipping back round, I readied myself for the woman to be setting herself for another strike so began balling my fists ready for combat. And stopped.

  The woman was still lying motionless on the floor but now there was someone with white hair knelt down beside her. Neither of them had attacked me so who?

  The smash to my jaw shook my focus. Then another. And another. Each pulverizing blow was accompanied by a flash of blue light making it even harder for me to orient myself. Swinging out now on instinct, I could feel that I was being picked off and I just couldn’t see what was going on. I was in danger. Whatever was attacking me was doing too well and that could mean that I was losing. I’d tried to help someone and yet again, I was being attacked and vilified because of it.

  And as fast as the attack had begun, it stopped.

  There wasn’t another shot to my face and for that tiny second, confusion was all I could feel. I reverted back to as much instinct as I could and slammed out one fist as hard as I could in the direction I hoped the attacker was before opening my eyes on the fight.

  Mark, my giant general within The Circle, stood before me, his hands wreathed in blue flame and gripping tightly to my arm.

  My confusion tripped me up.

  I just stopped and stared at him not understanding what he was doing here but also what he’d been doing attacking me.

  Frowning, all I was able to muster was a slightly garbled “Mark?”

  “And I, my Lord,” came another familiarity as Mike stood from his position next to the fallen woman.

  What?

  “I’d wanted to speak with you at the earliest convenience but it would appear that time may have just passed us all by,” and he gestured towards Mark who was still struggling to hold back the force of my intended blow.

  The realisation of my attack on my friend was a shuddering force which was by far the worst slap to the face I’d received, although I didn’t think Mark would like that idea too much. I withdrew my arm and shook myself away from the seething rage inside. A couple of deep breaths and I could feel the roaring monster slowly being beaten down as I put it back into its cage deep down inside me. My mind cleared some and I was able to pick out more emotions around me.

  Fear.

  That’s what everyone was feeling towards me. Fear. Not gratitude for the act of protecting the guy who was going to have his head caved in, but fear. Everyone in the bar was terrified of me to the point of being frozen to inaction in terror. More ice poured on my inner fire.

  Looking down at Mark as he stood to attention before me, it was clear that I’d been at the centre of, what can only have looked like, a bar brawl where I just went off the deep end and attacked two people.

  Wait. I was looking down at Mark? He was seven feet tall.

  The realisation must have been on my face because Mike answered my unspoken question.

  “I suspect that we need to leave my Lord. It’s unlikely that everyone here was quite expecting what you’ve just done.”

  We all headed for the door and I had already returned to my normal size when I passed through, reversing the opening stages of my Dragon transformation which had been taking place by instinct. I was ushered into a nearby car with the others and Mark quickly pulled us away from the bar and out into traffic. I didn’t care where we were going but suspected
it wasn’t going to be back to my flat. The sensation coming from the two men with me suggested they were taking me back to the estate in Wales.

  “I’m sorry guys,” was all I could think to say. Outside, the sirens of the Police coming in response to the violent bar fight converged on the Red Dragon as we departed and the reality of what had just happened was growing heavier.

  Mike didn’t turn as he addressed me from the passenger seat.

  “We really need to talk but we’ll have to wait for your head to clear first.”

  2

  The journey unfolded in a relative haze as Mark drove us out of the city and into the rolling countryside. I didn’t recognise anything as we travelled but I just trusted that I was in good hands. The events in the bar had shaken me the more I thought about the details of what I’d been doing. What the hell had I been about to do?

  I tried for information from Mike and Mark but they wouldn’t run through anything with me beyond the fact that they needed to talk to me and run through some concerns. They were being as reassuring as they could be but that didn’t seem to take any of the edge off what was going on in my stomach.

  I’d been about to rip those people apart. I’d dived to the aid of the man in question but I’d gone in with the mentality of a Circle Guardian rather than another patron in a bar. I’d slammed into her with the maximum force because she was going to hurt that man. I’d identified her as being a threat and had just reacted on instinct to subdue her and had done much the same when the man had then come at me.

  Sticking to the back roads and staying as far away from the beaten track as was possible, Mark navigated a very slow return to Wales, finally returning us to the mansion in the not quite so early hours of the following morning. I woke up from a sleep I hadn’t noticed I was having as the light from the great door of the mansion bathed the car in a hard white glow.

  Mike turned and fixed me with a serious expression.

  “My Lord, when we get out of the car I need you to move quickly and don’t stop to interact with anyone as you go. I need you to head directly through the house to the infirmary and wait in room three for Mark and I to join you.”

  His voice was still calm but it wasn’t as calm as it had been earlier on.

  “What am I ….” I started to ask a question but he cut me off with more authority than I was used to seeing from him, at least in my direction. It just shocked me silent so I nodded my ascent and climbed out of the car.

  The walk through the house was hurried but happily there wasn’t any kind of interaction for me to deal with, all of the staff either being in bed or recognising that they’d probably do well to stay clear of their master. Through doors and down stairs I paced until I entered the infirmary. The small staff who were on hand all glanced up from whatever they’d been doing and all looked as if they’d been confronted by a great horror. All of the colour seemed to drain from the different faces before me and I swear I heard a barely covered intake of breath at my appearance.

  I mumbled my greeting and headed directly for the room I’d been sent to, my head low so as not to risk meeting the stare of anyone directly. People had always been on edge around me, it had always just been that point where I’d been the new master of the estate and such was everyone’s new boss but this felt so much more.

  Shutting the door behind me, I stood alone in the darkened room and just breathed, my eyes only barely open. On the other side of the door, I could have sworn I heard the sound of someone being sick.

  What was happening?

  The minutes passed by and I did my best to keep calm against the rising emotion in me, which in itself was something I’d been getting quite used to as I fought down my inner Dragon but this time it wasn’t fiery anger that was twisting my stomach, it was fear.

  When the door finally opened and Mike and Mark strode in, I sprang from my perch on the edge of the bed and stood before them, doing my best to not look lost.

  “What’s up guys? There’s clearly something serious going on or you wouldn’t have brought me back here quite so quickly.”

  Mark closed the door and stood with his back to it, his arms folded over his enormous chest, and said nothing. Mike stepped forward to sit on the bed and beckoned for me to re-take my seat next to him.

  “There was a reason we came to find you but that’s been added to in the last twenty four hours.” He spoke quickly but was still calm.

  “The two of us coming to find you in London can be looked upon as being something of,” he looked around the room as if searching for the runaway word. “An intervention,” he finished.

  “What? Who thinks I needed an intervention?” The fear I’d been grappling with was swept aside by the roar of heated anger and yet again I was back to hold anger in check.

  Mike just looked at me with a very knowing expression on his face.

  “I’m sorry my Lord, did I just make you angry?” That relaxed tone of his was still there but he’d slipped just a little further away from me on the bed.

  “Enough with the trick questions. Why do you feel the need to intervene? I’m not an alcoholic or a drug addict so who thought it would be a good idea to do this?” The muscles in my shoulders were balling up and I could feel a headache already threatening to break out. I needed some sleep.

  “Again, you’ve asked about who rather than why. Interesting.” Mike stroked his chin as he looked at me. I knew that he was trying to help in some as yet unseen way but I really wasn’t in the mood.

  “Please just get to the point. I’m sure we could all do with some rest.”

  With that, Mark leaned away from his post at the door and lowered his eye line to the same level as mine before adding, “My Lord. This is my ‘No’ face.” He straightened back up but didn’t let his eyes leave mine. I watched him return upright and didn’t feel as if I was any closer to actually learning anything.

  Mike started again.

  “I wanted to speak with you and make sure you were alright after the last skirmish we were involved in. I needed to make sure that you weren’t,” he paused mid-sentence again, “suffering.”

  “Suffering? I’m fine. No pain or trauma to speak of at all, so what was it you thought you saw in me when we were in the USA?” Information gathering.

  “It wasn’t specifically the fight, although that is a part of the issue. Now I’m not saying any of this is coming from The Mage but….”

  “WHAT?” The Mage was sending my Head of House on errands to find me and stage an ‘intervention’ because of something I did on the last mission? And they thought that it was important that Mark be there as an element of control should I go off the deep end. I looked back and forth between them and the soundlessness of the infirmary stretched out in all directions. Maybe that was why I’d been brought here to have the conversation? I couldn’t just turn into a Dragon here, I was underground so would probably kill myself in the process if I tried.

  “My Lord?” Mike enquired conversationally though he must have been feeling more than a little fear at the situation he was now in.

  I did my best to control my breathing and, by extension, myself, in the same way I did when I was driving. This was just a misunderstanding and my getting angry with my friends wasn’t going to help.

  Keeping myself under control as much as I could, I tried again.

  “Just start from the beginning and go from there. What’s the problem?”

  “It’s been becoming more and more clear to everyone who has had any kind of dealings with you that your behaviour has been changing.” Mike’s tone was steady.

  “There’s always been an understanding that you are one of the Fire Drakes within The Circle so a level of expectation for the more explosive aspects of your character has always been in place.”

  I huffed dismissively, I couldn’t help it.

  “But,” Mike re-started. “That part of you has been thrust much further to the fore since you left the mansion to live back in your previous abode.”
r />   He paused to let that part of what he had to say sink in. It felt a little melodramatic to me.

  “Now in the context of The Circle and the war we’re all waging against The Hive and their kind, that level of ‘enthusiasm’ has been both hugely effective but also hugely welcome.” I huffed again, recognising the first layer of the crap sandwich.

  “But,” Mike re-started again. “It has been noticed that that mentality has been taken away from the battlefield and is showing itself outside. Even before the fight in your favourite drinking establishment, you seem to have more readily embraced the trappings and advantage of your position as Master of this estate.”

  My snarky response died on my lips. I didn’t think that there had been anything that I was doing that was anything out of the ordinary but the way I’d felt during the situation in the bar was a little concerning. I’d felt the beast inside me coming to the surface far too easily and I had been looking at everything as being part of a fight.

  Mike went on.

  “My Lord. The efforts of The Circle are such that we can’t afford to risk the outside human world discovering conclusive proof that everything we are exists. We’ve all had it explained to us more than once through our lives that we have to stay hidden, to stay safe.”

  I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Andrea in the bar after my first experience in The Circle, and how I’d made waves at almost every media outlet going when I’d fought another giant creature over the heads of everyone watching an international rugby match in Cardiff. I’d been responsible for a great deal of hurried denials and whispered planning to cover up for what I’d done and pretty soon, the world had been quickly convinced that it had been an elaborate publicity stunt in celebration of the sport. After all, everyone knows that Dragons aren’t real. The fact that it had been a Red and a White Dragon appearing over the Wales versus England game probably helped sell it.

  I still missed Andrea.

  “Fine. I need to make sure that I keep a hold on my fighting spirit when I’m in public, but there hasn’t been anything else that anyone could be worried by.” I was sure.