From This Day Forward (12 page)

Chapter Eleven: Passing Ships

The next day April still wasn’t taking Noah’s calls. Shit. Was it any wonder? She thought he’d cheated on her with another woman. He’d spent the night in his SUV, keeping watch over her and the girls.

He left a
nother message. “April. It’s me. I’m on my way to pick up the girls at the academy. There’s been a development. You’re in danger. I need to talk to you. Please call me.” Noah threw his cell on the passenger seat of his SUV, disgusted with himself.

He’d never intended to hurt his wife. Never.

The thought hadn’t even entered his mind. Not one second. It had never even been a blip on his radar. A mission was a mission. Period. He executed tasks. He completed orders. He brought bad guys to justice. End of story.

Only
, in this case, the bad guy had walked away from that cave in the Hajar mountains, before David or his team could get to her. The Fox had vanished.

Now
the consortium had bigger worries. The hoard thief was on the loose again. He had no doubt she’d find her way here to hurt his family. He’d wounded her pride by shunning her advances. And she’d promised she’d get him back before the new moon.

He slammed his palm agains
t the steering wheel in frustration. He needed to protect his family. How could he do that when April wouldn’t even stay in the same room with him? God damn it. He’d take control of the situation by collecting the girls first, by making sure they were safe. Then he’d show up on April’s doorstep, whether she liked it or not.

Noah drove up to the
locked gates of Derkesthai Academy. The huge wrought-iron gate stood with brick reinforced walls on either side and a glass guard house on the other side of the closed gate.

He pushed the intercom button. A man with a narrow, alert face appeared
on the display next to the button. “Noah Easton to pick up Samantha, Caeden, and Abigail Easton.”

“
Hold please, Captain, while we confirm your identity. Please look into the display for the iris scan,” the guard said. Obviously they’d been briefed. Good. They knew who he was. The academy seemed to have a secure facility with state-of-the-art technology. He breathed a little easier knowing his girls had nothing to fear while they remained on campus.

A minute later, the guard came back.
“You’re good to go, Captain Easton. Grayson Cooper will meet you at the administrative office building entrance.”

“
Thank you.” The gates opened and Noah drove through, following the clearly marked signs to the administrative offices. The roads were newly paved and the lawns well-manicured. Green rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see. His SUV climbed the oak-lined road to a huge building at the crest of the hill. Impressive. The compound winged out on both sides from a huge Victorian house at its center.

Noah pulled into the designated parking area and got out of his
vehicle. He tucked his keys in his pocket and followed the sidewalk to the main house. He liked what he saw.

He paused
and laughed to himself as he came to the large fountain in front. What had looked like a normal ornate fountain, turned out to be a stone dragon standing on its hind legs, wings fully extended. Holes in the nostrils and mouth allowed for running water in more seasonable weather.

Certainly any visitors to the academy had to know what they were getting into before coming on the grounds. He had no doubt candidates were well-screened. Only those with magickal blood or ties were allowed. Mundane and magickal didn’t intermingle. Much.
Until they did. And then magickals only revealed themselves as such on an as-needed basis. They were rather secretive about their existence and powers. Had to be in a world where mundanes looked for any reason to ostracize and alienate even their own who looked or acted a little different from the norm.

Full mundanes were the most skeptical
and the hardest to convince of the magickal. Dragons? Mages? Sorceresses? For most mundanes, the magickal didn’t exist. Hell, most of them didn’t even believe in a supernatural realm at all these days.

He liked that Derkesthai was so open about its heritage.
It didn’t look like they shied away from the truth.

Noah
walked the pathway to the front porch of the house. Ornate, colorful, and in good taste, the huge Victorian crouched on the crest of a sprawling hill that also contained what looked like at least five huge outbuildings, gardens, and a smaller cottage of some sort. The colors of the outbuildings complemented the main house. Earth tones. Olive green, red so deep it almost bordered on brown, midnight blue, and a yellow accent paint. Only the homestead was painted in an off-white color with the earth tones as accents on the trim and intricate gingerbread cutouts of the house.

Noah opened the front door and found himself standing in the reception area. No one sat behind the desk. The phone rang.

A man stepped out of a an office.

“
Noah Easton?” the man asked, extending his hand. “I’m Grayson Cooper. Nice to meet you. April’s told us a lot about you.”

He cringed. Hopefully nothing recently.
“Nice property you have here.”

“
Thanks. It’s been about a year since we finished renovations. The farmstead was in good shape. We’ve only had to modify the interior of the buildings to meet our needs for the academy. Would you like a tour before you collect the girls?”

Noah shrugged.
“Sure.”

“
I sent my wife, Cate, to gather them for you. They should be here in ten minutes or so.”

“
Show me around. I’d love to see what you offer here. I was excited when April told me about the academy. I’ve been looking for something like your school for years. Nothing else exists.”

“
No. Not in North America. England is the closest. And there are only five schools like it in the world. Derkesthai is unique in that we train not only hatchlings who have newly turned, but we also take older trainees.”

Noah paused.
“Are there many?”

“
More than you think.” Grayson walked through a side door leading outside. “It never used to happen. But there are more and more people coming out of the woodwork who are changing later in life. I was one of them. I turned well past the accepted age—I didn’t think I would ever turn. Caused quite a few problems for me and my wife when I did turn.”

“
I bet it did.” Noah followed Grayson down a path to an outbuilding that sat to the left of the main house. The sign tagged the huge building as the pool-gymnasium. “If you weren’t trained in the normal way, it must have been difficult managing the shift.”

“
It was. I almost killed Cate. I couldn’t control the dragon. While I’d attended the academy in England, all my knowledge was theoretical. I never practiced any of the magick. Thought it had bypassed me for some reason.”

“
So there’s some kind of mutation that’s occurring? People turning later?”

“
Yes. Seems to be what’s happening. We now have adults on campus. Never thought we’d see the day when we were able to train newly turned dragon mages who’d passed majority. We’ve got men and women in their twenties and thirties coming in. As well as children.”

“
That must be difficult to manage?”

“
No, it’s been easier than you’d think. My wife is a master at academic administration and management and we’ve designed the campus to facilitate both adults and children.” Grayson pointed to a long, low building to the left of where they stood. “Those old stables now house the newly turned adult dragons. We have five adult dragon mages in residence. They live in the lofts above the stables. Housing for the younger students who board—ages five to eighteen are sub-divided by age and gender in the dorms over there.” He pointed to a large square building directly across the driveway across the grounds.

The campus seemed to be laid out in a semi-circle with the main house at the back center. The stables housing the adult dragons sat at the bottom left while the dorms for the younger students sat at the right corner of the bottom.
A quarter of a mile separated the two facilities.

Noah
followed Grayson into the building. His first impressions of the place? Spacious. Light. The high, open beam rafters above and lots and lots of windows surrounding the enclosed pool gave the area a vast, soaring feel. “Nice facility.”

“
This is the pool. We schedule regular time here for all magickals to learn their water skills. Both dragon mage and water benders. The ceilings are high enough that most mature dragons can fly in here. Everyone has a chance to explore how their magickal skill set manifests in the water.”

Noah could see where any magickal would benefit using this pool. Next, they pushed through double doors to leave the pool area. They walked down a hallway, then entered the gymnasium. Again the open floor plan allowed for a lot of flexibility in the space. To the mundane eye, it would look like a normal gym. Kind of.
They’d have a hard time pinpointing the purpose of the hanging target banners that hung from the rafters in the far corner of the huge space.

“
Flying obstacle course?”

“
You got it.” Grayson slapped him on the back. “This gym is used by turned dragons and dragon mages in human form, so it needs to be outfitted for both. Other magickals attending the academy are welcome to use it to strengthen their innate skills and develop new ones. Therefore you see normal gym equipment to the left. Treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines. Weights. Punching bags. A gymnastics floor. A fighting ring.

Noah noticed the fighting ring was on a scale that could be used by sparring humans or dragons. The floors looked reinforced to withstand the weight of a full-grown dragon and the beating it would take from wings and talons.
“Looks like you thought of everything.”

“
We try. However, we have a hell of a time maintaining skilled trainers.” Grayson stopped and studied Noah. “Any chance you’d consider mustering out? Leave Uncle Sam and join us?”

Noah had never considered a life beyond the military. The idea startled him. But not in a bad way.
“I hadn’t thought of it. Maybe some day.”

“
Okay. Well, keep us in mind. We’d love to have someone with your skills and training working with our adults and kids here. They’d benefit from your experience and knowledge.”

“
I’ll think about it.” Noah would do more than think about it, he’d actually consider it. And that surprised the hell out of him. He’d never considered a career outside the Army. Special Ops had been his life for so long, he didn’t know if he could survive anywhere else. But if he was going to find happy anywhere outside the military, Derkesthai Academy might be the place.

They toured t
he building behind the administrative offices, which housed the library, cafeteria, and labs. The building to the right of the library annex held the classrooms. Elaborate gardens bordered the academic building and sprawled the whole way to a Herb Cottage, which then circled around to the younger student dorms.

“
So tell me what kind of security you have here. The state park borders the backside of your property. How do you keep the campus protected?”

“
State-of-the-art border patrol. Laser motion detectors. Electronic fences. We’ve got six-foot thick brick fences as an inner circle perimeter, then the electronic fences three feet outside of the brick. Live guards sit in guard houses much like the one at the gate every fifty-feet along the brick fence. One on each of the four corners and three on the north and south perimeters, which are the longest. One on each of the east and west walls. Two guards walk the perimeter between the brick and electronic fences on a continuous rotation. There’s camera surveillance as well. A security command center exists in the attic of the main house. A guard monitors the cameras twenty-four-seven-three-hundred-and-sixty-five in four-hour shifts to keep them fresh.”

“
Certainly sounds secure.”

“
Yes. I think we’re prepared for anything.” Grayson extended his hand. “Let’s see about your daughters now.”

Noah followed him back to the main house. They entered the front door by way of the wrap-around porch. The reception desk was still empty.
“Hmmm. I thought Cate would be back by now.” Grayson tapped his watch. “Let me give her a call.” He pulled out his cell and tapped the screen of the smart phone.

“
Cate? Where are you?” He listened.

Feet pounded the porch. Grayson turned toward the sound.
“Must be her now.” He smiled at Noah.

The door flung open, hitting the
cast-iron door stop. A pretty redhead flew into the room, her face flushed, her eyes flashing.

“
Cate? What’s wrong?”

“
Grayson.” She held up a hand to try to catch her breath. “It’s the girls. They were in class twenty minutes ago when I called the teacher. By the time I’d gotten to Samantha’s classroom to pick her up, she was gone. I thought maybe she went to pick up her sisters. So I visited Caeden’s classroom. Again, she was gone. The teacher said her sister came for her. I thought, okay, they’ll be at Abigail’s class. No. The oldest gathered the other two and now they’re all gone.”