Dragon Mirror- Ties Between the Veil
Chapter Fifteen: A Text, An Alert, And an Arrest

Tito turned her phone on while she smoked and checked her messages. She closed her eyes in annoyance and took another drag. Fuck.

-You at Michelle's house?

-Your GPS says you in WEST VIRGINIA?!

-Pick up your phone

-Where are you?

-TANYA, if you don’t answer your phone you will LOSE IT

-Im putting out an amber alert

She was in some seriously deep shit. She had forgotten about the family locator on her phone. She had been responding to her mom's texts quickly, up until her little astral trip. She messaged that she was fine and would be home tomorrow.

She turned the phone off and pocketed it. She needed to get back home and calm her mom’s tits.

Turning to go back into the fast food joint felt like she was fighting a current. She just did not want to go in and face all the weird fucking shit. Holding the door handle, Tito just stood, breathing rapidly. She was staring at the men inside when Zhao looked up at her.

Processing the wave of emotions she felt as he made eye contact with her was not an option, so she pushed in and flopped down in a seat.

“We have to get back home. You have a more efficient way of contact than talking into my fucking brain?” Zhao looked at her curiously, and she scowled back at him.

Kiishthwa pulled an old beat up flip phone, and she couldn’t keep herself from scoffing.

“One step up from a Nokia brick, ey?”

The older man grinned, waving the phone. “Shut up and give me the digits.”

“You seem to be very modern for someone claiming to be over four hundred years old.” Zhao remarked as Tito snatched the phone to put in her number.

His grin faded slightly. And he said softly, “You have to be flexible, or the passing of time will break you.” Zhao looked down at his hands, unable to respond to the sincerity in Kiishthwa’s voice.

“After my family died, I realized my immortality, or loss of such, was tied to my ability to create a new generation.” He took his phone back from Tito with a sardonic smile.

“Which means that when I desire to die, I must either randomly father children to expend my lifeforce, or love someone enough to live a final lifetime with them, or at least have children with.” He frowned briefly.

“Did you need to go now?”

She didn’t realize she had been bouncing her knee until he pointed it out.

“Yea, I need to get back home. My mom is not fucking happy with me, right now.”

Zhao’s mouth opened, then shut. He looked like something unpleasant had occurred to him.

“Well, I will call you on the phone, instead of… the other way.” He grinned again, standing. Zhao also stood and she again noted that Kiishthwa was at least a head taller than him.

“I will help you in any way I can to reunite with your sister, or at least understand why she may be unreachable.”

Well that sounded fucking ominous.

The ride back home was quiet, and somewhat tense. She was nervously braiding and unbraiding pieces of the long yellow wig she had put on for comfort reasons. Tito had sent back a message to her mom saying she was fine. But the response message was-

-Are you with Zhao? Call me

She didn’t even know how to respond to that message. Her mother deeply believed that Zhao had murdered her sister. The level of anger and suspicion wasn’t something she was prepared to deal with.

Leaning back, she tried to zone out, staring at the road. Zhao seemed to have his thoughts turned inward as he drove. She turned to study his profile.

“My mom is losing her shit and wants me to call her.”

She received one glance of surprise, then he turned back to driving with a scowl. “Then call her.”

“I’m not dealing with that level of psycho right now.”

Zhao sighed loudly, his hands gripping the steering wheel. Their speed picked up, and she could see his jaw was clenched.

“You need to call her, Tito. She’s probably convinced I’ve kidnapped you.”

She scoffed. But internally, she was cringing at the accuracy of that statement. “At least we have a lead.”

“A crazy old man that thinks he can use mind control and that your grandmother is an alien from another world?” He said and she blew a raspberry at him and flipped him the bird.

“I believe him after that fucking moonwalk I had, and your story about Raina being beamed up.” Snark was the easiest route through opposition.

He grumbled to himself, opening his mouth again.

The flash of blue and a WOOP WOOP startled both of them. Tito’s eyes snapped to the dashboard and saw they were pushing 80.

Zhao smacked his palm on the steering wheel in frustration and began slowing down. After pulling onto the shoulder of the road, he closed his eyes for a moment of composure. Then he reached across Tito’s lap without saying a word. His lips were pressed thin, and he pulled his registration and insurance from the dash compartment.

The police officer walked up and looked bored. He went through the normal “Do you know why I pulled you over?” routine. Zhao handed over his license and information, then laid his head back on the headrest as the cop walked back to his vehicle. He closed his eyes and covered his face with one hand.

She was about to say something, when both of their phones shrieked an alarm causing them to jump. Tito snatched it up, expecting a weather report. Instead she saw her name.

-AMBER ALERT FOR TANYA MARIE VASQUEZ, AGED 16, LAST SEEN…

Shit, she actually fucking did it!

“FUCK.”

Zhao’s expletive startled her and she stared at him.

“Maybe he won’t get the memo?” She hesitantly said.

Behind them, both officers in the squad car got out with guns drawn. “STEP OUT OF THE VEHICLE AND PLACE YOUR HANDS ON THE DOOR!”

“Just floor it!” She shouted.

Zhao cast her a withering look before going to open the door. “I’m already a murder suspect. I’m not going on a high speed chase. I hope you figure out what happened to Raina… and that your mom drops the pending kidnapping charges.”

He handed her his phone and took a breath, “Call my Mom.”

A separate cruiser came to pick her up after they had taken Zhao away. It had been awful. But not nearly as bad as being forced to talk to her mother on the phone.

“TANYA, ARE YOU OK?!” Blasted out of the speaker.

“Mom, calm your tits. This entire thing is a huge fucking overreaction.” The noise that came out of the phone was… excessive.

“Zhao didn’t fucking murder Raina and I’m-” Something her mom was shouting caught her off guard.

“I think fucking NOT.” She glared up at the officer that was standing on the other side of a desk. The man raised his eyebrows as he stared back. She rolled her eyes, realizing it wasn’t his fault her mother was flipping balls at her. She narrowed her eyes, or was it?

There was a pause of silence. She could feel her mother trying to collect herself.

“The lead detective thinks that you both have been in a relationship and ya plotted with him to ‘disappear’ your sister.” She felt her mouth popping open, and her mother continued. “Do not talk to anyone until I am there, or there with a lawyer. I cannot believe ya went anywhere with that man! You’re SIXTEEN.”

“I’M NOT FUCKING MY SISTERS BOYFRIEND.” She shrieked before she could control herself.

Tito closed her eyes as the cop in the room broke stoicism with a wide grin. She turned away in irritation and modulated her tone. “I will talk to you when you get here in.... eight hours?” There was a disgusted throat noise and a beep. She lowered the phone, staring at it.

“The bitch hung up on me.”

The officer laughed, “Well there’s a cot over in this room you can lay down on until she gets here. You aren’t under arrest or anything, otherwise you’d be somewhere else.” She assumed the man had no idea what was going on, or she might have been ‘somewhere else’.

Now that she thought about it, she could see how things would look odd from an outside perspective. What a fucking mess. She pulled Zhao’s phone from her pocket after the cop left her alone in the room.

She thought it would be locked, but luckily it wasn’t, and looked up his mother in contacts. She blew out a breath, and dialed the number.

There was a long pause, then a dialing click and ringing. She suddenly remembered that Zhao’s parents were all the way in China. Tito had a brief moment of panic as she frantically tried to think about what time it would be there. Before she could hang up in fear, a woman answered in a long Cantonese dialogue. She sounded pissed.

“Ah, ma’am-”

There was an exclamation, then- “Who is this? This is my son’s phone! If he has been detained, legal counsel has advised that his property may not be seized without a warrant.”

Holy fuck.

“No, this is Ti- Tanya Vasquez, Raina’s sister-”

She was cut off by another deluge of Cantonese. Tito could hear two other people in the background.

“Why do you have his phone?”

Oh, hell. She may as well tell her. She rushed the words out. “My mom put out an Amber alert and we got pulled over in West Virginia, he gave me his phone and said to call you.” She paused, then continued. “We were trying to replace Raina.”

The silence on the other end of the phone was profound.

“Thank you for contacting me. I will send our lawyer to speak with you, and to fix this mess. Keep his phone until the lawyer contacts you to retrieve it.” The phone beeped.

“Everyone is hanging up on me today. Shit.”

Her hands ran across her face, yellow strands of her current wig tickling the corners of her eyes. She pulled it off and folded it, gently wrapping it in her coat before laying back to stare at the ceiling. Eight hours before her mother showed up and chewed off her head.

Fuck me.

It was barely four hours after they had processed him and placed him in holding with two other occupants, when a nonplussed officer called him to the door.

“You have a Mrs. Barnes on the phone- Your lawyer?” They look mildly mistified, and he guessed they rarely had such a quick response to an arrest in their precinct. Tito had called his mother. Zhao was filled with both relief and overwhelming dread.

He imagined that one or both of his parents were on a flight back from Hong Kong, spitting mad. He’d likely be paying them back for the legal costs with his firstborn child from the well-bred bride of their choosing.

The officer pointed to the small phone bank on the side of the holding cell. “Phone one, wait until it rings. You’ll have eight minutes.”

Dutifully he waited till it rang, then picked up the receiver.

“Mr. Wong? Your mother tells me you’ve been arrested for kidnapping, and violating your bond agreement with the state of West Virginia. I advise you speak to no one until your bail is posted and we meet with the judge tomorrow morning. You are lucky it is not Friday, your mother suggested, and I quote, ‘Let him rot with his foolish choices.’”

He hung his head, palming one of his eyes as he felt the beginning of a tension headache. His mother certainly had a right to be angry. He’d skipped classes and state lines to return to where he was the suspect in a missings person case. He fully expected his parents to disown him.

“I’m guessing I’m here for the night?”

“Yes, Mr. Wong. Have a good night.”

“Good night.” He echoed to the already dead line.

As he turned to look over the holding cell, one of the other two occupants turned away from staring to hastily scratch at his arms. Zhao sighed and went back to the flattened mat he’d been given. May as well try to sleep.

Even though it had been difficult to fall asleep in the frigid holding cell, Zhao had let his exhaustion drag him into slumber.

He dreamed of Raina. He was standing at the edge of the clearing and watched her disappear in a column of light.

Raina!

His voice echoed hollowly. He could feel his body in motion, but he was moving at half speed. His hands outstretched before him, trying to touch the light.

He dropped out of the dream memory into a more familiar dream setting. He stood next to a group of his peers, talking to a smaller woman that he inherently knew was his sister.

Since he could remember, he had these fantasy dreams where he was some type of elven prince. His early childhood he would run through the halls of some gigantic underground complex with his sister, or be with his family praying under the boughs of a great banyan tree at the base of a waterfall.

Later, in Zhao’s teenage years, his dream self got into some type of trouble and was suddenly living in a castle, learning statecraft and hunting with an older man that treated him with respect and affection.

Sometimes he could understand the language spoken, other times it was as if the dream was on mute. One night he had dreamt of riding through a forest with his sister at his side- a surreal quality to the landscape and the only auditory sensation was the rushing sound of water. Only the rush of water, even as they laughed and exchanged words.

This night he could barely hear or understand anything outside of a strong Thrum, Thrum, THRUM- Like a fluttering heartbeat in his ears. People were dancing in a village square. The frenetic activity was disconcerting to Zhao, who was just a passenger.

He turned his head and saw her standing in a doorframe across the square.

Raina. Zhao whispered.

She was so important to him that she was now in his fantasy dreams. He felt his mind strain to move towards her. To his surprise, his dream self was completely oriented on her.

He looked down at his sister’s hand on his shoulder as she said something to him, then turned his eyes back to gaze at the strange beauty across the dancing public.

Go over to her. Go over to her RIGHT NOW. He howled inside his dream vessel.

To his absolute surprise, he began to approach her as she braided her long hair. He noted that it was unusually golden with black and silver streaked throughout. She looked like anxiety incarnate as she fiddled with her braid.

He got her attention and she stared at him. Zhao hungrily stared back, willing her to see him. He wanted to speak to her, ask her if she were all right-

Zhao paused for a moment, and reflected on his belief that this was actually Raina. Were these dreams a window to where Raina had gone? If this were the case, why was he connected to this person whose vision he shared?

He saw Raina move her mouth, and realized she was whispering his name. His jolt of joy threw him awake.