by Jada Fisher
My head was certainly not a fan of all the rattling and bouncing, reminding me with every jolt that I had sustained a pretty big injury to it. Either that or I was a complete and total baby. Since my brain ran my body, it made sense that it emphasized its pain as a priority.
Eventually, we made it out of the construction zone and I recognized the fancy streetlights and decorations of my surroundings, but not the houses themselves. I reckoned that we were approaching from the opposite side, at the top of the hill the community sat on, as opposed to from the bottom, like the bus did.
I had never realized just how much space there was in the rich part of the city. Where I lived, space was the highest commodity. Every bit of space was meticulously used and crammed, whether with housing or public transportation or stores or other vital things. I don’t think I’d ever had a yard in my entire life. Yet, all of these buildings had their own garages, driveways, and sprawling expanses of grass. It just didn’t seem fair.
Then again, one of the first lessons I had ever learned was that life wasn’t fair and it wouldn’t ever be. Sometimes you had to roll with the punches, and sometimes you had to throw your own.
“Should be just over this hill,” I said, pointing over her shoulder.
“Thank goodness, because I’m getting pretty low on gas and I have a feeling there might be a horde on our tails.”
“A horde?”
“Yeah.”
“As in, a surging crowd full of angry enemies?” I asked frantically.
“Yeah, that’s what a horde means, right?” She snorted. “You’re the bookworm.”
“What, I am not a bookworm! I am definitely an art chick.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever stereotype you are, it doesn’t really…” Mallory trailed off and alarm lanced through me.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Smoke,” she answered flatly, speeding up to the top of the hill that overlooked Bron’s manor.
I looked ahead to see there were indeed three different gray pillars billowing into the sky. My stomach dropped, and when Mallory finally skidded to a stop at the top of the hill, that feeling didn’t improve at all.
The beautiful manor I had walked through was ablaze below. Red, orange, yellow, and blue licked at the walls like greedy, hungry maws that could not be satiated. I didn’t know if it was irony or just unfortunate to watch a dragon’s home go up in flames, but it was terrible either way.
“This…is awful,” I whispered, hand over my mouth. Was Bron okay? Was he trapped within? Would the flames even hurt him? I didn’t know and I couldn’t seem to get my mouth to formulate the words enough to ask Mallory about it.
“Yeah. I would say so.” Several shadows flitted over us and Mallory’s head whipped the way it came. “And it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”
I followed the direction she was looking to see several dark vans pull up and about two dozen men calmly step out. They were all dressed in dark pants and grey button-up shirts, like they were on the same staff together and this was their uniform. If I had to guess, these guys were a step up from the previous group that had tried to kidnap me.
“Crap,” I muttered to myself as they closed in.
11
Involuntary Fight Club
“Do you remember any of the stuff I taught you?” Mallory asked, voice dropping low.
“How do you think I got free the first time?” I asked.
“Good. I was hoping you made them hurt a little.” She turned, raising her fists. “Back to back and we don’t let anyone get between us if we can help it.”
I brought mine up as well. “Got it.”
“Oh, and keep the helmet on. Right now, your pupils are practically wide enough to eat dinner off of. We should probably get you to a doctor after this is all said and done.”
“If we survive.” I eyed the men as they spread out to encircle us.
“Please, they need you to appease their boss. If something happens to you, they’re all dead.” She cracked her neck, rolling her shoulders as she did. “I’m the one who’s expendable.”
“Not to me.”
She shot me a smile over her shoulder. “Aww, you’re cute. For being so tall, you have a whole lot of heart.”
“I have no idea how my height correlates to my ability to care.”
“Please, everyone knows that the taller you are, the smaller your heart is comparative to your whole mass. It’s basically science. Also, duck!”
I did as she said, bending my knees and thrusting my hands forward. I caught the attacker in the chest just as his fist went sailing over my head, forcing him backward. Mallory whirled, grabbing his head and yanking it down to slam into her knee.
That was just the beginning. I would like to think that I was useful, but mostly, I just got in the way. Mallory was a force of nature, fending off anyone who came near, but she was tiring. I could both see and feel it. As much as I shoved people away, or dealt out kicks to shins when I could, or punches to people she knocked off center, I wasn’t doing nearly enough.
So, I pushed harder. If Mallory threw someone, I went to the ground to pummel them. If she spun to roundhouse an attacker, I followed up with something else to take them out of her way.
Eventually, I moved onto the offensive. I was still following her lead, but I was trusting myself more. My nerves were fried, but I had to push through. To believe I could do this. While I never had any reservations about throwing my weight around in the occasional schoolyard scuffle, this was quite different.
Several of them rushed us at once, and when I craned my neck to see Mallory, she was already busy holding off two others. I looked back to four closing in and did the only thing I could think of.
It turned out when you were 5’11”, you could literally throw yourself at a group of people in an attack. We all went down into a pile, and it was a tangle of limbs and blows as all of us tried to get back on our feet.
“Thanks,” Mallory breathed, descending on the foes and finishing them off.
While she took care of them, I fought to get to my feet. Looking back at the men, I saw there were still at least ten of them left standing, just watching us like we were the most hilarious thing they had ever seen.
I couldn’t quite get what they found so amusing until their faces began to ripple and morph.
Oh…right. They were dragons.
I watched in horror as the men became an array of serpentine beasts, snapping their jaws like they were cackling at us. A handful were drakes, just like the one I had already faced, but there were also two other kinds in their number.
One was exactly like the drakes, but with what looked like short, spiny wings attached to their front legs. If I was recalling my dragon types correctly, that was called a wyvern and was capable of short bursts of flight.
The other type had no legs at all. Wyrms, I thought they were called, but mythology didn’t quite cover how they had two jaws, one right below the other, which were loaded with glistening teeth.
I swallowed, true fear lancing through me. It was one thing to know that dragons and shifters existed, it was another thing entirely to watch them slither into their more dangerous forms. It added a very surreal quality to my life that I didn’t exactly need, considering the caliber of most of my dreams.
The biggest of their number stepped forward, and I crouched, ready for an attack. But the creature wasn’t paying attention to me at all. Instead, his cerulean eyes were focused solely on Mallory as she continued to pummel the men surrounding her.
Its jaw fell open and I saw the inside of its mouth begin to glow, as if someone had turned on a flashlight in its throat. I knew what was happening without an explanation, and I ran for my friend.
“Mallory!”
There wasn’t enough time to shove her out of the way. I didn’t even know if there was enough time to reach her at all. So instead, I ran right into the path that the fire would take and braced myself.
I thought I had been scared before,
but this…this was true terror. I had already been gnawed at by voracious flames once in my life. I knew how they scalded. I knew how the tongues of heat would lick along my skin, devouring everything it could until there was nothing left of me but pain and torment.
I braced myself, waiting for the shock to my system. Except…it never came.
I stood there, arms protecting my core for several seconds, until I finally cracked an eye open and looked at what was happening.
My mouth hung open and my breathing stopped entirely. There was a plume of fire shooting out from the maw of the drake, but it had stopped short about a foot away from me, bouncing off like water from a faucet that had hit a spoon at full blast.
But it was what it was bouncing off that had me stunned. Some kind of transparent barrier stood between me and my attackers. It was a swirling, luminescent lilac that refracted the light into a scattering of rainbows across my body. It was beautiful, and shielding, and I had absolutely no idea what it was.
“Um, not that I’m ungrateful,” Mallory said, dropping her last opponent and walking toward me. “But how are you doing that? Also, what the hell is that?”
“I…I don’t know,” I answered breathlessly.
I knew that it was coming from me, and that my entire body was sweating with the effort of maintaining it, but I didn’t know what or how.
The flame finally spent itself out and my homemade force field dissipated. Once more, my head was throbbing wildly and everything went blurry.
“I…”
“Yeah?” Mallory asked, helping me stand straight.
“I think I’m gonna puke.”
“Ah! Not on my shoes! They’re new!”
After a lot of valiant effort, my stomach finally won out and I completely lost my lunch. It tasted much worse on the way up, but thankfully, nothing attacked us while I went about my business.
“Hey, Davie, you good?” Mallory asked, patting my back.
“Just give me a minute,” I groaned, doubled over and holding my stomach.
“Yeah, that’s the thing. I don’t think we have a minute.”
Although my legs and middle were weak, I straightened and looked back to the line of dragonoids that had just tried to roast my friend. Dread filled me as I realized that not only were there the ten of them that had been there last I looked, but at least a dozen more had landed, and they were all staring at us with malevolence in their eyes.
“Not to make a situational pun, but did we just leap out of the pan and into the fire?” I groaned, wiping my mouth.
“Yeah, looks like it.”
I heaved a sigh and lowered myself into a stance just like Mallory had showed me a dozen times over. “Boy, I wish you’d taught me a whole lot more self-defense right now.”
“And I wish you would have showed up to learn a bit more.”
“Touché. Not much we can do about it now.”
The dragons began to move forward as one. I had the inkling that the only reason we were alive was because they couldn’t kill me, lest they face the wrath of their employer. Otherwise, we would both be either some form of toast or ripped to shreds.
“Hey, Mallory.”
“Yeah?”
“You promise me, if this goes south—”
“Oh, this is definitely going south.”
“—that you’ll run.”
“Excuse me?”
“They want me alive, right? What use is a dead seer? So, if they’re going to take me, you need to survive so you can save me. Got it?”
“Let’s pretend I agree so we can focus on the fight, okay?”
They were almost on us. “Mallory, I’m serious.”
“So am I. Stop talking and start punching!”
I wanted to argue with her longer, but the current circumstances weren’t exactly conducive to conversation. I buckled down and readied myself for the fight of my life.
The dragonoids picked up their speed, closing in on us. Before they could reach us and no doubt end the fight very quickly, a thundering roar split the air, shaking the very earth we were standing on.
For a moment, the sun was blotted out, and I risked a glance up to see a long, scaled underside quickly descending to the ground. I barely had time to blink before its massive wings pushed a forceful draft over us all, and the next thing I knew, it had landed.
This creature was no drake, wyvern, wyrm, or basilisk. It was a certified, maiden-stealing, castle-razing, bona fide giant dragon.
Thick scales of silver coated it from head to toe, different-sized pieces all interlocking like a fluid, yet metallic armor. Black accents marked the flawlessly polished hide every now and then, making its scales look like a carefully crafted suit. Its wings were easily as wide as a bus, and comprised of black, leathery skin between the silver spines. Claws the size of my hands tipped the end of its feet, matching the giant teeth in its mouth.
“Holy crap,” I breathed, looking up at the creature in total awe.
Our opponents tried to close in once more, but the dragon roared again. I had to clap my hands over my ears at the sheer volume of the sound, and the advancing shifters let out a chorus of whimpers.
“Come on!” Mallory cried, grabbing my wrist and yanking me toward the massive dragon. “This is our ride!”
“What are you talking about?” I gasped, my eyes never leaving its gargantuan, scaled frame. “We need to run!”
What? Do you not recognize me?
Despite everything going on, I froze in place as the dragon stopped roaring and turned its head toward me. Perfect, emerald eyes stared at me, the green almost too bright to be real, and its black, slit pupils nearly depthless.
“Bron?!” I asked, almost scared to believe that this could be the kind, pretty boy that I had just eaten lunch with.
In the flesh. Well…sorta.
“My God…” I breathed, not knowing what else to say.
Just Bron will do. I advise you to get on before our friends here recover and try to rush us.
“That’s what I was trying to tell her,” Mallory said, shoving me toward his bent rear leg.
“Wait, do you two know each other?”
No, I have never met this woman before, although I am pleased to make your acquaintance now.
“Then how did you—”
“Holy fish on a cracker, woman, I put two and two together, now get on!”
I complied, although I still had about a dozen more questions, and grabbed onto the thick scales above my head to haul myself up. It was by no means an easy climb, but after a few slips, I found myself perched on Bron’s back, tucked between his large wings.
Mallory scrambled up like she was a pro and plopped down right behind me. She wrapped her arms around my waist, making me feel a bit safer, then called down to Bron.
“Alright, we’re good!”
Hold on.
The men sent to take me, and who had probably burned the mansion down, seemed to realize that we were about to make our getaway and all surged forward at once—despite the obvious danger.
Bron retaliated by knocking a good chunk of them to the side with one of his muscled forelegs, which was taller than some of the drakes themselves, then whirled to knock the rest aside with its tail.
That bought Bron enough time to start beating his leathery wings. I could feel the force lifting us up, but his feet were still all on the ground. It wasn’t until he wiggled slightly and launched himself into the air that we finally had liftoff.
My stomach lurched and I let out a noise that might have been a laugh, but also might have sorta been a scream. It was like being on a rollercoaster, but with nothing holding me down except for my thighs squeezing Bron’s sides and Mallory’s arms around my waist. While I had never been much of an adrenaline junkie, I suddenly understood a lot of the appeal. It felt like lightning itself was rushing through my veins, making my heart thunder and my blood race from my head to my toes.
“This…this is amazing,” I breathed, my voice nearly gi
ddy.
“If you say so,” Mallory said, her voice muffled. I tried to sit up a little straighter to look at her, but her face was pressed firmly into my back.
“You okay?” I asked, some of my euphoria pausing to make way for concern for my friend, who had saved my life at least three times that day.
“Yeah. Just not the biggest fan of heights.”
“I would make a short joke if your arms weren’t currently wrapped around several of my vital organs.”
“Good choice. I would hate to have put so much work into keeping you alive only to have to kill you now.”
“Yeah, that’d be a real waste of energy.” My lips curled into a smile despite our morbid discussion. It was good to know that no matter how topsy-turvy the world went, I could still rely on my best friend for her humor.
Are both of you alright?
Bron’s voice drifted back to us, even though I still wasn’t sure how we were hearing it without actually hearing it.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” I called. “A little banged up, but fine.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Mallory argued. “I’m pretty sure she has a concussion.”
“Well, yeah, there’s that, but like… I’m fine in the moment.”
My deepest apologies, Miss Davie. If I had any idea they would move so fast or so aggressively, I would have never allowed you to walk home alone.
It seemed impossible, but his words dampened the beautiful view I had of the city as we cut through the sky. “First of all, you can call me just Davie. Secondly, I don’t need you to allow me to do anything.”
Of course. Poor choice of words on my part. He sounded sincere to me, but it was a bit hard to judge his tone considering he wasn’t actually speaking and I seemed to be hearing his voice inside of my own head. At least three different treaties have now been broken. Unless there has been some serious political maneuvering I don’t know about, I think we just witnessed a declaration of war.