by Romi Hart
The next instant, a puff of smoke erupted from the rocket launcher. A vapor trail corkscrewed across the yard. The rocket screamed straight at her. She heard Malachai one more time, the last time. “Isabelle!”
The next thing she knew, an unholy ball of fire enveloped her. The explosion shook her to her core, but she couldn’t see anything. Searing heat surrounded her in a halo of yellow and orange flame. She couldn’t think. She could only succumb to the inescapable destruction folding her in its grasp.
She blinked. The undulating fire rotated around her in ever-succeeding waves. She must be dead. This must be Hell because she couldn’t see anything beyond that all-consuming fire.
After what seemed like an impossibly long time, the heat faded. The swirls lessened and she realized she wasn’t looking at flames at all. She stared at a solid surface glowing with heat. Through the pulsating waves of flame, she distinguished scales in that dense surface.
All at once, it peeled back. She blinked up at a gargantuan dragon crouching over her. The gleaming yellow and orange surface was its wings circling her. The heat radiated off its skin. The flames winked and danced outside it and lit up its wings with heat. They glowed almost transparent, but the fire didn’t burn it.
The creature opened its wings and peered down at her with its flinty, unwavering gaze. It rose on its clawed legs and arched its huge spiked body in curves around her.
She scanned the area. A smoking ball of fire incinerated what was left of the house. Embers gleamed all around her and the stench of burning wood and fabric stung her eyes and nose.
That monster rotated around. It dragged its long tail through the gleaming coals. The fire didn’t harm it at all. It let out a guttural rumble from somewhere inside its enormous body.
Its dark brown skin cooled somewhat, but it still shone with the roasting heat throbbing off its scales. She couldn’t stop staring at it. It didn’t fit with her concept of reality.
Those military men out in the yard retreated, but the shooter didn’t drop his rocket launcher. He backed against the building and his friend hustled up next to him with another rocket. He dropped it down the tube and curled away plugging his ears again.
The dragon rotated around and glared at those tiny men. How puny and insignificant they looked compared to that thing. The monster squatted over Isabelle, but it didn’t fold its wings around her. It pried them back and spread them.
It whipped its snake neck back and screamed the loudest shriek Isabelle ever heard. That sound set her nerves on end, but the military guys didn’t seem to mind it. The shooter fired and the rocket erupted streaking at the dragon.
The creature shot its pointed head forward and unloaded a brutal jet of flame. It sizzled through the air and vaporized the rocket in a cloud of flickering heat. The fire blasted against the building and roasted the assailants where they stood. For a second, Isabelle gaped at their bodies writhing in screeching agony. The next instant, they went up in smoke and vanished.
13
Malachai cast a glance over his shoulder and wiped his hand across his soot-streaked forehead. “Shit, man! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have given you any lip on the phone. You were right.”
“Yeah, well, you were right about not leaving her alone.” Victor pivoted to one side and scanned the neighborhood. “It’s me who should be apologizing for not listening to you. I’m sorry about that.”
Malachai looked up. He had to look down to make eye contact with his older brother. “Are you…. are you sure?”
“Of course. I mean, look at this place.” Victor waved toward the apartment building beyond the sidewalk. A cloud of black smoke billowed behind it from where the cottage used to be. “She would be dead if you left the way I ordered you to. You were right. I stand corrected.”
Malachai blinked at his brother. He couldn’t bring himself to accept that Victor actually said those words—to him! Victor—stand corrected? Was that even possible?
Victor stole a peek toward the apartment building. “What do you want to do about her?”
Malachai didn’t have to look over there to know who he was talking about. “Christ, man! What the hell are you asking me for?”
“You know her better than I do and you know this situation better than I do. I want you to decide.”
Malachai brushed his hair out of his eyes again. He didn’t want Victor saying that he knew Isabelle better. He didn’t want to think about knowing Isabelle—not in that way, at least. “I can’t make that decision. You’re in charge here, not me.”
Victor lowered his voice and sidled closer to Malachai’s side. “You’ve been right about her from start to finish. Now I’m asking you. Can we trust her? Do you trust her enough to bring her in?”
Malachai raised his eyes and found Victor peering into his very soul. Malachai swallowed hard and spoke the words he hardly dared to think. “I trust her. I think she can be an asset to us. Don’t ask me how I know that. Call it an intuition. If you leave the decision to me, I would bring her in. She deserves that. She can help us—as soon as she gets that silly thought out of her head that she can cure us. She’s smart and she’s resourceful. If you can get around the fact that she’s human, I say we bring her in.”
Victor studied him while he blurted out these words. Malachai couldn’t explain even to himself what made him say it. He didn’t know he felt that way about Isabelle until right now.
Through it all, she never once lost her cool. She attacked those military guys in the parking lot to help him. She used her keys and killed one of them. She kept her head together even when she faced overwhelming numbers of them trying to knock her off. Even when they attacked and destroyed the cottage, she never panicked. She didn’t scream and go all hysterical on him, not even when she saw him in his dragon form.
Victor looked toward the apartment building again. When he inspected Malachai this time, he compressed his lips. “If you’re sure, then let’s do it.”
Malachai shrugged and cast his gaze to his hands. He didn’t seem to be able to stop rubbing them together. “Anyway, she’s seen me now so it’s either that or we kill her ourselves right here and now and I don’t think I can do that. That’s the third time I’ve had to fight to save her life. I don’t think I can allow you or anybody else to harm her. Call me stupid, but that’s how I feel.”
Victor gave him one more hard glare. Then he nodded. “All right, man. You talked me into it. Take her home.”
Malachai froze. “What?”
“Take her back to Ogru-Kuche. She sure as fuck can’t stay out here. They’ll fucking mow down the whole damned neighborhood if we don’t get her off the streets.” Victor started to walk away. He got halfway down the block and came striding back. “Once you get her inside, I want you in the war room. We need to talk.”
He rotated on his heel and stormed off without looking back. Malachai’s stomach wrenched watching his brother leave. Victor would go back to Ogru-Kuche the way he always did. Going back to Ogru-Kuche meant nothing to Victor. Why should it? He belonged there.
Malachai belonged there, too—at least, he used to. He still did, but how could he do the job Victor just gave him? He hardly dared to turn around even though he knew what he would see.
She was sitting over there on the steps. When he gazed toward her, he couldn’t see past the stunned shock in her expression when she saw him in his dragon form. He couldn’t look at her now without seeing that.
Riley sat on one side of her. His sister Courtney sat on the other side, but while he observed the party from the sidewalk Courtney got up and left. That left Isabelle alone with Riley.
Malachai winced to think what Riley was saying to Isabelle right now—or what Isabelle was saying to Riley, for that matter. Was Isabelle telling Riley how she put the moves on Malachai and he almost went through with it? That would be his worst nightmare.
He could handle this so long as no one knew how close he came to doing it with a human. Riley Strickland, his respected sister-i
n-law and Victor’s most trusted adviser—he couldn’t imagine anyone he would least like to know what he did with Isabelle—or almost did.
Now he had his orders. He stuck his foot in it by telling Victor to bring Isabelle into Ogru-Kuche. What did he do that for? Even thinking that, he knew he would do the same thing again. He couldn’t leave Isabelle to fend for herself on the streets of Central City and he sure as fuck couldn’t stand by and let the New Breed harm her, let alone kill her. That horse had already left the barn. Now he was in for the whole hog.
He strolled toward the building, but he stopped down the path. He hated to cast his gaze toward the steps, but when he did, Riley and Isabelle spotted him. How could they miss him standing right in front of them?
What did she think of him, now that she could no longer deny what he was? He told her in words that he was a dragon shifter, but he could see for himself she didn’t understand what that meant. She understood now.
Riley didn’t smile. She knew. She murmured something in Isabelle’s ear. Then he very clearly heard her say out loud, “I’ll see you later.”
She got to her feet and headed down the path. She squeezed Malachai’s arm passing him. The next minute, she was gone. She took away her comforting, easy-going manner and left him to deal with this alone.
Isabelle stole a glance at him and looked away. He didn’t want to approach her, but the sooner he got her inside, the better for everyone. A few New Breed stared at her from their yards, but no one came near her. Decades of fear of humans conditioned them to keep their distance. Her knowing about them didn’t help much.
He advanced a few paces and stopped in front of her. She wouldn’t look at him for more than a second before she turned her head. She scanned the neighborhood without really seeing anything.
He raised his hands and let them fall. “You better come with me. I’m going to take you to Ogru-Kuche. It’s the only safe place for you now.”
She shrugged and turned the other way. “Is this….is it always like this?”
“What do you mean? Is what always like this?”
She pointed her chin toward a family huddled in their doorway. The mother clutched her children close to her and narrowed her eyes at Isabelle. “The surface is…it’s like some kind of water. I can see through it to a world underneath, but it’s all blurry and indistinct. I can see it down there. I can see that the water isn’t the real world. It hides what’s really there, but I can’t make out what’s underneath.”
Malachai blew air between his lips. “Yeah. It’s always like that.”
She shook her head staring at everything. “How do you do it? How do you stop everybody from seeing it?”
“It’s not that hard. No one wants to see it. You must have seen it a million times and never realized. No one sees it who doesn’t want to see it. They see what they want to see. They want to see poor people. They want to see people with freakish disabilities. They want to see people who were damaged in the womb. They want to believe all those people are still human. It serves them to think that, so they do.”
She wouldn’t stop shaking her head. “Will I ever go back to…will I ever be normal again?”
He heard himself whispering. “You are normal, Isabelle. You’re as normal as the rest of us.”
Her head snapped around and her gaze cleared. She locked her eyes on him. “You’re…. you’re not normal, are you?”
His chin sank on his chest. He didn’t want her to see those words hurt him. “I’m normal, too, Isabelle. I’m as normal as you are.”
“You’re…..” She swallowed hard. “You’re…. a dragon.”
“Yeah. I’m a dragon. A lot of us are.”
She looked away again. “Riley’s a dragon. She’s a dragon just like you. She looks like that when she changes.”
“She’s red, but yeah, she looks like that. Courtney’s one, too, and so is Victor. You’re gonna meet a lot of ‘em in Ogru-Kuche.”
She opened her mouth and closed it like a suffocating fish. “I…. I kissed you. I kissed a dragon.”
He almost walked away then and there. He swiveled to one side before he caught himself. “Look, Isabelle. I’m going back to Ogru-Kuche now. If you want to come, you need to come now. Otherwise, you can go your own way and take care of yourself.”
She spun around and scowled at him. “Of course I’m coming to Ogru-Kuche. Did you think I wasn’t?”
Apparently, he did think she wasn’t. He spread his arms one more time. He couldn’t get his thoughts together. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but we can protect you. We’re the only ones who can.”
“I know you can protect me. You’ve done it so many times. You’re the only one I feel safe with. Riley just offered to take me to Ogru-Kuche herself, but I told her I wanted to go with you. I don’t….” She faltered. “I don’t want to be away from you. I don’t think I could handle that.”
His throat tightened. He didn’t want her feeling safe with him, but wasn’t that what he created when he protected her? He didn’t want to feel like protecting her, but he did. He didn’t want her out of his sight. He couldn’t handle that, either.
When did this happen? When did he become so obsessed with her safety, with her well-being? When did she become the most important thing in his world?
He extended his hand to her, but now it was him who couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want her to know she affected him like that.
Her fingers closed around his and she moved through space to his side. He didn’t want to feel that sense of overarching relief at having her near him. He didn’t want to remember her huddled small and vulnerable under his wings. He didn’t want to feel the blasts of scorching heat reflecting off his scales.
Christ, protecting her like that felt so mind-blowingly good! He didn’t want any of that, but now it consumed his very soul. He couldn’t let go of her hand no matter how he ordered himself to.
He headed off down the street with her at his side. He was taking her home, home to Ogru-Kuche. He was taking her to Anarock in a way he didn’t before. She would see everything there. She would become…..
She wouldn’t become anything. She would never be New Breed. She would always be human and that made her the enemy. He couldn’t be holding her hand or wanting her near him. He couldn’t be kissing her or letting her kiss him. He couldn’t be getting hard making out with her.
He had to hold in his mind at all times that she was human. He could never forget that and he could never give in—never again!
He crossed the street. She matched his movements exactly. She never left his side or broke his concentration. She accompanied him around one block after another, all the way back to the barbed-wire fence.
Only there did she hesitate. She recoiled from the trash-infested yard stinking with drunks and toothless old women. A flea-bitten dog wriggled onto its side to scratch its mange-bedraggled fur.
Malachai advanced to the gate before he felt the tug of her arm resisting. He turned around and his heart sank when he saw the revulsion and disgust in her features.
He gathered his resolve. He couldn’t let a simple reaction like that to block him from his purpose. He drew near her and murmured in her face. “Look beyond the surface, Isabelle. Look beneath and you’ll see another world down there.”
She scanned the yard baring her teeth. “Are these…..are these shifters, too?”
Before he could answer, her eyes popped wide open and she gasped. He looked over his shoulder and saw Jules Hitchcock standing there. He must have appeared in front of her and surprised her.
He turned back to her and his grip tightened around her hand without meaning to. “You’re going to see a lot of different people here, Isabelle. Not all of them are shifters, but I can promise you one thing. What you see here is not Anarock. This is the watery surface. Anarock is underneath and it’s nothing like this. You have to look beneath the surface before you see it.”
She froze in horrified shock for a minute. Then she
braced herself. She narrowed her eyes at Jules, at the homeless heaps of rotting humanity—at all of it. “All right. Let’s go.”
Malachai turned on his heel to find Jules holding the gate open for them. He frowned back at Isabelle the way she frowned at him. She better get used to a little anti-human prejudice around here.
He guided her inside and Jules locked the gate behind them before he vanished again. Malachai conducted her up the steps and inside. She copied him stepping over unconscious bodies and dodging putrid beggars dressed in disintegrating rags.
He steered her into the stairs. She relaxed when they emerged in the upper corridor. She stared at the paintings and furniture, but she stopped dead in her tracks when he unlocked the Griffin family apartment.
Riley stood up from the living room couch where she sat with Victor and Tessa. She burst into a huge grin and held both arms open to Isabelle. “There you are! Welcome home! It’s so great having you here.”
She put her arms around Isabelle and gave her a big hug, but Isabelle didn’t raise her arms. She stood rooted to the spot gaping at everything. She took in the electric lights and the shiny modern kitchen, the leather furniture, the flowers in the vase on the big dining table.
Riley noticed her not moving. She held Isabelle at arm’s length and inspected her. Then she grinned. “You better sit down.”
Tessa hustled to Isabelle’s other side and took her hand out of Malachai’s grasp. He relinquished Isabelle to his mother’s ministrations.
Tessa patted her shoulder dragging her to the living room. “It’s a lot to take in all at once, isn’t it? Come on in and I’ll make you something to eat. You’re gonna be just fine, child.”
She pushed Isabelle down on the couch and took herself off to the kitchen. Malachai hung back watching his family take Isabelle in hand. He pushed away the suspicion they were taking her away from him. He knew better than that.
Victor turned to her. “Malachai and I have to go back downstairs and take care of some business. Those guys who attacked you won’t give up just because you’re here. In fact, that will only give them the excuse to come on even stronger. You can stay here for a while until we find an apartment for you. The good news is you can take your pick because a few people have moved out recently.”