• It started out like any other day. I awoke to Seth pounding on my door.
    “Hey! Al! C’mon out, Joe’s making waffles again.” He called through the door, his bass voice rumbling through. I didn’t want to move- my dream still had me spellbound by the feeling of importance of it; and yet, I could barely remember it. It was incredibly frustrating. All I could remember was the flash of a blade three times, blinding light, then endless darkness.
    “You coming or not?” He bellowed through my door. I growled into my pillow.
    “Yeah- I’m coming!” I shouted back. The hardwood floor was cold from the autumn morning. I really didn’t want to get out of bed. Knowing Seth, though, he’d just barge in the next time, threatening to drag me out by my ankles. I’d still like to see him try. Not that he wasn’t able to- a nothing-but-muscle guy like him would normally have no problem dragging a nineteen-year-old girl out of bed- normally. I opened my curtains, and saw that the usually white skies were blue. It looked strange this time of year- so out of place. I pulled on a pair of pants and a hoodie and headed downstairs. The aromatic scent of sausage, eggs, and waffles wafted to me, and my stomach rumbled in response. Joe always made the best waffles.
    “Well good morning, my guilty pleasure.” Lance grinned at me, his long canines somehow gleaming in the fluorescent light of the kitchen. Damn vampire. I still can’t figure out how he’s able to walk in the daylight, but here he is- awake and moving. I rolled my eyes at him.
    “Please. It is too early to be calling me your weird little pet names. At least wait until I’ve eaten so I actually have something to puke up when you call me things like ‘crazy angel’ or ‘my lovely little demon’. That way I’m not just dry-heaving.” I grabbed a plate and scooped some eggs onto my plate, letting the spatula bounce back into the skillet with a clatter. Joe looked up at me from his waffle iron as I speared a few sausages onto my plate.
    “I am controlling the iron beast!” he exclaimed to me jokingly, gesturing to the small pile of ruined waffles, and the larger stack of his golden-brown achievements. “So how’d you sleep? Same dream?” I nodded. “Ah, well- you’ll figure it out sooner or later. It could just be your mind’s way of working out an issue, y’know, and not just some annoyance.” He grinned at me.
    “Yeah, well, it’s still annoying.” I smiled ruefully back. He dropped a couple of his freshly-made waffles onto my plate, and I joined Seth and Lance at the table. Seth looked to be on his second plate, while Lance was staring into his glass, running his thumbs along the rim and playing with the crimson drops that lingered there. He glanced up as I sat, and returned to his staring.
    “There are usually important reasons behind repetitive dreams. Usually they’re some kind of premonition.” He said sagely. I ignored him and looked out the large set of bay windows at the morning sky, brushing my short purple hair out of my eyes. I still couldn’t believe it was so blue - I caught myself letting my waffles get cold, and finished my breakfast.
    “So what are we doing today? What assignment do we have?” Seth asked, getting right down to business. He always did that. He was a man on a mission- only, no one but him knew what the mission was. I could never figure out what was going on behind those sapphire-blue eyes of his. Joe sighed.
    “There’s a gang in the lower city that’s been causing some trouble for the local businesses. We’re to prevent them from causing any further harm to the civilians.” He looked tired. At twenty-seven, Joe really wasn’t old, but being a part of the Tinctures took a lot out of anyone. Seth, Lance and I were his third team- the other two teams had either been killed in action or had disbanded because of political reasons. It’s hard to say what it is that makes Joe keep going. All of us are single, so he doesn’t have a family, and after to years in this line of work, we’re all well off enough to not have to worry much about money. It’s nice feeling- not having to worry about finances. But Joe isn’t like that; he once said to me “I will give all that I’ve got to see the commonwealth in bloom.” It was the single most cryptic thing I’ve ever heard from him.
    “Let’s go then. The sooner we get them out of the way, the sooner we can go about our own business, right?” Lance flashed his fangs again. I swear he does it just to try to mess with me. “Let’s get going.” Joe gave his own version of a rueful smile to him.
    “Not quite that simple- we’ve got to try to talk them out of it first.” Lance and I groaned in unison, and Seth’s face darkened. Joe folded his arms. The effect would be comical on any other person, but not him. Even wearing his once-white-now-pink-due-to-a-red-shirt-in-the-wash apron, he looked intimidating. His five-foot eleven-inch frame had no fat on it, just thick, corded, hard-earned muscle. Even in a fair fight, Joe was truly a force to be reckoned with.
    “I don’t like it either, seeing as the last time we tried to subdue an unruly gang, it turned into a riot. Seth, you and Lance will be back-up, while Al and I try to talk them down.” I made a sound of indignation. I wasn’t good at negotiating, and would rather fight and be over with it. “Calm down- you won’t have to say a word.” He winked at me, and Lance laughed knowingly.
    “That’s even worse! I’m not gonna ‘stand there and look pretty’ for a bunch of lowlifes!” I growled, folding my arms in defiance.
    “But you’re so good at it!” Lance laughed, gesturing at me. “You even look cute when you pout, dragon-girl.” He chortled again, and even the stoic Seth smiled.
    “Not you, too!” I rounded on him. “I’m just as good as you in a fight- better than Lance.” I turned back to Joe, glowering. “There’s no way I’m doing this.”
    Two-and-a-half hours later, I found myself standing at Joe’s side in a chop-shop, half-listening to him try to negotiate with the leader of the one gang that looked like they were trying to be in a Clint Eastwood movie. I tried not to look like I was sulking, but the fact that I was getting a lot of the guys’ attention instead of Joe made it hard not to let my temper rise.
    “So, you see, you can’t just go around demanding protection taxes from people. It’s not your right. You’re terrorizing these citizens, not protecting them” he argued. The gang leader just glowered at Joe. It was a lot like the look I’d given him earlier. At this point, I’m guessing that Joe’s gotten that glare from a lot of people over the years. The gang leader stared at Joe a moment longer before he spat at his feet.
    “Your kind is not welcome here- get out, you-” he spat out a string of obscenities. “And take your little slut with you.” I didn’t realize it, but I’d lunged at that b*****d, fists up and ready. Joe held me back, a calm look on his face.
    “This is your last warning. I’ll have to use force if you won’t comply. This is our truth.” His words sounded calm to the untrained ear, but I heard the irritation and anger in his voice. Things were about to get really ugly if this guy didn’t cooperate. The man had the audacity to spit again- this time it nearly hit me. Now, if I had been just a normal girl, with a normal life, I wouldn’t be here. And if Joe had been normal, he’d probably have a family by now. But we’re not normal. I’m a Draconian- part human, part dragon- and Joe’s what they call an Esperling. They’re kind of like demi-gods, at least, from my experience they are. Joe’s the strongest person I know, and that’s without him using any of his really bad-a** abilities. I’ve seen him blow a semi-truck in two, and he wasn’t even mad. It’s scary stuff.
    “I’m gonna tear you apart, you waste of flesh!” I roared at the leader. The other gang members had picked up weapons by this point, but I didn’t care. He insulted me and Joe. It wouldn’t be so bad if it had just been me- but he’d pushed too far. No one insults my teammates. No one.
    “Welcome home!” Joe bellowed. The gang looked around, startled and expecting something to happen, but when nothing did after a long moment, they laughed at him.
    “There’s no one to help you now!” One of the members crowed, causing a few hoots of laughter to spread once more. “Vernal’s king here- when we get through with you there won’t be nothin’ left!”
    “Hmm... if ‘nothing won’t be left’, that makes him King Nothing?” Joe asked in an amused voice, and then grinned. Stupid goons- they thought that Joe’s shout was to call in Seth and Lance, but it was really just a preparatory command for them to get into their places for the ambush. ‘King Nothing’ was the real go word.
    I lunged for one of the thugs when there was a sharp pain in the back of my head. I whirled to face my attacker, but no one was there. It came again, and again I turned, and again there was nothing. The thug I’d been lunging for was looking at me like I was crazy, on some sort of lunacy fringe or something. He gave a pathetic battle cry and earned himself a foot in the gut for his trouble. The man dropped like a sack of bricks while one of his buddies charged me from the left. A roundhouse kick out him out of commission, then the pain came once more. It was more intense than before, and it seemed to be a headache. I must have cried out, because Lance looked at me over the back of the guy he’d just snuffed.
    “I’m fine.” I called back to him, rubbing my head. It was the weirdest headache ever; and that’s the last thing I remembered before it all went to hell. Somehow, at the same time that I turned to rejoin the fight, one of the thugs had gunned the throttle on his bike. The idiot had a gas leak because he refused to get the old machine fixed, and that triggered a small explosion. That was good, at first. It took out a good chunk of their forces. It turned sour when one of the mufflers from the chop-shop’s scrap pile became a flying fireball- headed right for me. I didn’t even feel it hit me- I just remember the frantic darkness that engulfed me before it calmed into a supermassive black hole of silence and sightlessness. I don’t remember waking up.