by Jadyn Chase
I slipped out of the pen and stood up. He didn’t move. He gazed up at me from the floor. His bright eyes read into my soul in ways I couldn’t imagine. “Thank you, Paige. Thank you for everything.”
I shrugged and glanced around. “I’m sorry about this. I have to shut you in. It’s as much for your protection as ours. If anyone sees you free, they’ll shoot you on sight. I’ll do what I can for you, though I can’t promise any miracles.”
He only nodded. “I understand and I’m grateful for your kindness so far. It’s more than I expected from anyone in this place.”
I didn’t want his gratitude, especially since I hadn’t been able to help him at all. I turned away. “I’ll try to come and see you later. If I don’t, you can be certain I’m doing everything I can to help you. I want you to understand that.”
He nodded again, and I couldn’t stand around any longer. I hurried out of the unit and down the corridor. I couldn’t stay in this awful place another second. I couldn’t go back to my lab and clean up the remains of Tristan’s test—my test.
What was I thinking? I told myself I couldn’t let myself start thinking of him in that way, but the truth was that I already did start thinking of him in that way. I thought about kissing him. I touched him. I put my arms around him more than once. I held his hand and comforted him. I’d already passed way beyond thinking of him in that way.
Christ, what was I going to do? I couldn’t help him without risking my own life doing it. I couldn’t turn my back on him, either. I couldn’t let Sweeney hand him over to the military. No way. They would tear James apart piece by painful piece until they got what they wanted out of him or killed him in the process. I had to do something, but what?
8
James
I observed Paige through the window of my containment pen. After three weeks in this hellhole, I started to understand the daily rhythm. Ever since that disastrous test when she saved me from Tristan, Paige barely looked sideways at me. She spent nearly all her work hours in this containment unit, but she hardly ever spoke to me.
She scribbled on her notepad and tapped at her machine. I could only guess what she was doing. She told me she would keep working to free me, but from all outward appearances, she gave up caring about me long ago.
No one came to test me. I never set eyes on that insect Tristan. I hoped and prayed Paige stayed in this unit to protect me from the likes of him, but without even a considerate glance from her in weeks, I began to lose hope of that.
In the middle of her endless scribbling, the door opened. One of the technicians entered with my lunch tray. Paige tossed her pad and pen away and hopped off her stool. She almost snatched the tray out of the man’s hand. “I’ll take that.” He gaped at her until she waved him away. “You can go. I’ll give it to him.”
She rotated to present her back to the startled worker. She set the tray on the table and picked up her pad again. “It’s time for your Depthamol injection, James. Put your arm through the trap.”
She depressed her button and the hinged aperture flipped open. I got used to these thrice-daily administrations. I scooted into position and slipped my arm through. She caught my wrist and strapped it into place with her usual facility. The needle stabbed into my elbow.
“That’s it. You’re all done.” She bustled into view once again and I sat up. She picked up the tray. “Now you can eat your lunch.”
She fed it through the slot and resumed her position. She clicked her pen and went back to writing.
I collected the tray and rested it on my lap. I leaned my back against the ruthless metal and sighed. Of all the torments in this hole, the lack of human consort stung the worst. I could put up with everything, including impending death and destruction, if only she would talk to me.
I picked up my fork, but when I prepared to stab it into the mashed potato, I froze. A rolled slip of paper protruded from the shapeless dollop. I blinked. Yes, it really was a piece of paper.
I glanced through the window. Paige sat in the same position bowed over her pen. She didn’t look up. I checked again. The paper hadn’t vanished. I brushed my fingertip against it. It was real. I didn’t imagine it.
I plucked it out and flicked away the remnant of potato. I unrolled it and read in tiny, scrawled handwriting,
I’m so sorry I can’t talk to you anymore, James. I wish I could, but I’ve already faced disciplinary action from Sweeney for not completing the cattle prod test. The military is planning to collect you on Friday. That’s three days from now so you need to be prepared for that. For the last week, I’ve been replacing your Depthamol injections with saline. That’s salt water that doesn’t have any effect on you. When the time comes, you’ll be able to shift and fly away, but you have to stay calm and quiet until then. Don’t give anyone any reason to think you’re not on the Depthamol. Once you get out of the building, fly far, far away. Leave England and go somewhere no one will ever find you. It’s the only way you’ll be safe from them. I’m sorry I can’t do more for you. I’ve risked my job standing guard over you these last few weeks so no one comes along and gives you any more Depthamol. If anyone sees me talking to you, Sweeney will probably either sack me or transfer me and I won’t be able to protect you. Please forgive me for everything I’ve done to contribute to this situation. I can only hope that by helping you escape I might somewhat redeem myself in your eyes. Paige.
I looked up to discover her gazing at me over her pad. For the first time in weeks, I recognized the person I got to know in the beginning. Her eyes welled with tears. God, I wished more than anything I could put my arms around her right now.
All this time when I thought she had abandoned me, she was helping me and protecting me. She was planning my escape at the cost of her own interests. I never could have asked her to do so much.
Now she’d ensured that I could and would escape. I had to keep calm. I had to play along. I had to make good on the chance she gave me. I owed her that much.
My heart burst with emotion for her. I wished above all else I had kissed her when I had the chance. I would probably never get another chance like that again. The minute I got out of the building, I would fly away and leave England and Paige far behind. I would owe her my life and I would never be able to repay that debt.
In a fraction of an instant, she lowered her head and returned to her work. The wall came down and she reverted to being a cold, heartless stranger who didn’t give a fig about me.
I stuffed the paper into my mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it. I’d read something like that in a mystery novel when I was a boy. Nothing ever tasted as good as that dry, tasteless paper. She cared! She saved me yet again. What a woman she was!
I savored every morsel of that meal. While I ate it, I drifted in the heights of ecstasy knowing she was right there, a few feet away beyond the glass. She was standing guard over me. She was protecting me with her own life to make sure I got free.
I didn’t look at her again for the rest of the day. I didn’t have to. She was always there. I put my arm through the hole and let her stab me with another injection. I wanted to laugh for joy when I pulled back my arm all black and blue with stab marks. Those were her love bites, her kisses, the marks of her affection. She cared about me. She showed me in a thousand ways.
What was I doing, accusing her and blaming her and resenting her? I was a worthless clod for ever doubting her. Paige. My Paige. If I ever found a way to express my gratitude, I would spare no expense. She deserved so much more than I could give.
I closed my eyes and reclined my head against the wall. I let myself drift into a dreamy haze. For the first time in weeks, I didn’t have to worry. I didn’t have to think and puzzle out a plan of escape. She was doing that for me. She paved my way to freedom.
The next two days passed without incident. She didn’t speak to me except to order me to put my arm through the slot. She continued to work on her stool as though I wasn’t there and I didn’t disturb her.
Friday dawne
d—at least, I assume it dawned. I couldn’t see anything outside the building. My heart skipped a beat in anticipation of what would come. I couldn’t begin to imagine how this escape would play out, but I trusted Paige above all else.
The technician brought my breakfast tray. I picked up my buttered toast and found another piece of paper underneath it.
Here’s what’s going to happen today, James. The military transport truck will arrive around eleven o’clock this morning. They’ll send a troop of guards down here to collect you. I’ll have to release the door to let you out. Don’t shift then. Wait until they get you onto the loading dock outside. You’ll have a clear shot at the sky and they won’t be able to stop you. I might not be there by then. I don’t know if they’ll let me near you after I release the door. Good luck. I wish you well. Your friend, Paige.
I munched my toast in utter, supreme peace. I couldn’t remember caring about anyone as much as I cared about her. I certainly never met a woman as worthy of respect and admiration. She planned this whole thing down to the smallest detail. She thought of contingencies I didn’t and she risked all to communicate with me.
I put the breakfast tray aside and closed my eyes. I concentrated all my attention on staying calm. I rehearsed my escape as best I could. The problem remained of how I could shift once I got outside. If the military men didn’t threaten me, I was just an ordinary prisoner with no powers at all. I might have to start a fight and make them attack me the way those bobbies did.
A rattle startled me out of my reverie. I looked up to find Paige staring at me with enormous, frightened eyes. Before either of us could say a word, the door burst open and a huge fat man in a dirty business shirt and no tie entered the unit.
A dozen armed soldiers crowded in behind him. A few dropped to their knees and aimed their weapons at me while others formed ranks in the back.
The fat man swiped his forefinger at Paige. “Release the door.”
Paige stared at the soldiers. Then she turned around and met my astonished gaze. This was it. I was leaving her, possibly forever. I wouldn’t even get a chance to thank her properly or to say goodbye. Somehow, I never imagined such an eventuality could mean so much. I needed to take a real parting from her. I needed to at least shake her hand and I couldn’t even do that.
She broke away and punched the button. The glass slid up and the soldiers lunged at me. In a heartbeat, one of them spun me around and smashed my face into the wall. Someone crammed his rifle barrel into my neck. “Don’t move or we shoot.”
I didn’t struggle. I closed my eyes and let them wrestle my wrists together in the front. They loaded me with shackles fore and aft. Then they whipped me around and propelled me toward the exit.
Paige and the fat man—I can only assume this was the notorious Sweeney about whom I’d heard so much—retreated to make room for the soldiers. The men marched me out of the unit into the corridor.
I watched in a surreal blur as the underground laboratory passed me by. They escorted me through the halls that had become so familiar these last several weeks. They came to the end of the line and Paige swiped her card through the mechanized locks.
The soldiers prodded me into a stairwell. A few of them streamed ahead and up the stairs. One of them turned around to shut the door when, for no apparent reason, Paige tried to duck through behind us.
The soldier held out his arm. “Not you, Mum. You stay here. Our orders are the prisoner and personnel only.”
Paige’s eyes shot open. Her lips parted to say something. “Let her come,” I blurted out.
The soldier shook his head. “Sorry. Orders is orders.”
Then, for no reason at all, he raised his arm and shoved her back. She stumbled and hit the door jamb. The sight alarmed me and I tried to step into his path. “Take your hands off her, you filthy piece of rubbish. Don’t you dare.”
The soldier spun around so fast I couldn’t react. He swung his rifle up and aimed the butt at my head. I saw the wooden stock rushing toward my eyes and I dodged at the last second. The thing whizzed past my ear.
I can’t explain what I did next. I wanted to protect Paige from this uncouth ruffian who would treat her with such colossal disrespect. I wouldn’t tolerate anyone mistreating her, not after what she’d done for me.
I never fancied myself a fighter, but the country squire I used to be ceased to exist a long time ago. I was a fugitive already and I acted as one. I veered around the weapon and dove for the man. In half a second, I slung my chains around his neck and hurtled toward the wall. I twirled and hit the concrete yanking him off his feet.
I wrenched the chain around his neck with all my might. I sensed the dragon rearing its head. It wanted to break out. Not yet, I told myself. Not yet.
The soldier kicked and struggled in my grasp. His pathetic little efforts fed my mounting fury for death and destruction. I clenched the chain tighter. The noise attracted his comrades’ attention. The seven or eight still in the stairwell wheeled around and saw us.
Some shouldered their weapons. I laughed inside my head. Come and get it, you wretched twerps. I wanted them all dead for ever daring to lay a hand on Paige. They might not have done it, but they wanted to stop me from protecting her. Never again.
“Drop it!” one of them shouted.
The man in my arms gurgled in his throat. The chain cut off his air and he flailed harder. One of the others yelled again, but I didn’t listen. Death. I wanted death for them and anyone else who stood in my way.
The soldiers all pointed their guns at me ordering me to let him go which, of course, I didn’t. How long this might have gone on, I can’t imagine. At that instant, though, my victim accidentally squeezed off his trigger.
The bullet exploded into the ceiling causing the other soldiers opened fire. I crouched behind his body as bullets began to strike his chest. Without thinking, I slung my hand around his shoulder and grabbed his wrist. I crammed his finger onto the trigger while aiming the gun at his friends.
Bullets sprayed from the weapon in their general direction, impacting everything from the walls to the soldiers in the stairwell.
I crushed the man’s finger into the weapon until no more bullets came out. A sickening silence fell over the stairwell. The soldier’s body slumped in my grasp. I released the chain and he flopped at my feet. I stared at the mayhem and destruction I had wrought. No one was getting up.
Out of nowhere, Paige jumped into my line of sight. “Hurry, James! You don’t have much time. Take this.”
I blinked. She pressed something small and flat into my hand. I looked down to see that card she had used to unlock the door.
“Run straight up the stairs and out onto the loading dock. You’ll be able to shift there. When you do, you’ll break the chains. Go! Go now!”
She pushed me away. I couldn’t let this chance go by. I grabbed her shoulders and rotated her around to face me. I gripped her harder than I should have, but I needed to feel her in my hands right now. This could be the last time I would ever touch her. “Thank you, Paige. Thank you so much.”
Her eyes lit up, and she burst into a magnificent smile. Lightning quick, she darted in and kissed me. Her warm lips compressed against mine and a halo of ecstasy flooded through me. I never wanted that kiss to end, but all too soon, she yanked off and gave me another rough push. “Go! Hurry!”
I staggered to the stairs. The chains weighed me down, but I hobbled as well as I could up the stairs to another locked door. I swiped the card through it the way I’d seen Paige do it before and the lock popped open.
I hauled the door open. As she said, it communicated to a concrete platform outside. The minute I got it open, I spotted another ten soldiers. They surrounded a transport vehicle parked with its back end pointed at the stairs.
The instant I showed my face, they opened fire. A bullet struck me in the face and the dragon reacted before I could even think. A tiny, secret part of my soul protested against this. It became reality at the point
where the ordinance made contact with my skin.
Scales erupted out of me in a blur of mindless ferocity. This happened only a few times before, but now I understood the process enough to sense the scales materializing of their own volition.
The bullet crashed into my scales and my neck whipped back. The next second, it snaked forward on an impossibly long, sinuous crack. It shot my head out and unloaded fire and brimstone on that truck. It boomed in a catastrophic concussion of smoke and billowing flame. Bodies catapulted into the air. The bullets in their magazines all burst at once and the molten heat vaporized them against the sky.
I crouched on the platform watching the whole sordid affair unfold. None of these helpless vermin would ever stand in my way again—not ever. The dragon in me savored the delectable sight of my enemies going up in smoke. I deliberately waited to make sure no one came along and tried to stop me.
The truck hummed with flame. Apart from that, a sparkling, clear morning extended outward to pastoral land beyond. I didn’t know where I was, but that didn’t matter. I was gone. I was free.
I extended my wings and lifted off. The English countryside dwindled beneath and the blessed sky enveloped me in silence.
9
Paige
I sat slumped in a chair opposite Sweeney’s desk. He paced up and down propping his hands on his ample hips. The very fact that he wasn’t sitting down told me how serious the situation was. “Do you know the flack I’m getting from the military brass? How could this happen? How in God’s name could you let this happen?”
I kept my eyes fixed on a linoleum square under my shoes. “I have no idea how it happened.”
“This was the most valuable subject we’ve had in years,” he snapped. “How could you let him get away? How could you betray this country in so blatant a manner?”
I didn’t raise my head. I mumbled under my breath. “I didn’t let him get away. I told you I have no idea how he did it.”