by C. J. Ayers
Matt side-stepped to stand in front of Alisa.
Alisa screamed again. And she kept screaming as the old guy shakily stood up. He was too skinny, too frail, to be a dragon, and yet here he was. He had shapeshifted in mid-air and fell to the ground, looking no worse for it. He merely acted like he had stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, as he brushed himself off and stretched his limbs.
When the old guy gave her a stern look, she stopped screaming. It was then that she noticed she had pressed herself against Matt’s back. As large as he was, though, he couldn’t quite conceal all of her. She did her best to suck in her gut and hide more properly. Old man or not, Matt had said he would probably try to kill her, and she wasn’t taking any chances.
She grabbed the back of Matt’s jacket and said a Hail Mary.
“I will confess,” the old guy said, voice surprisingly strong and deep. “I am confused by your actions. When I saw you, I thought you had sided with Charles on this latest conflict. But, then you took a human witness and fled.” He shook his head and spread his arms out a bit. “I have never quite understood you, son, and I’m afraid I still don’t. You need to explain yourself.”
“What I do,” Matt said, “and what I don’t do is none of your business. Why you are so obsessed with one human witness is beyond me. Even if she did tell anyone what she saw, she would be deemed insane.”
Alisa bit back a frustrated comment, though she did allow herself to glare at her protector.
The old man sighed. “Matt, you know our laws.”
“Dad, you know I don’t care about our laws.”
Alisa’s eyes flew wide. “Hold up—‘dad?’” One hand still holding Matt’s coat, she used her other hand to point at the old man. “This guy is your dad? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Both men regarded her with a deadpan expression that somehow managed to convey some contempt. The similarities in their eye color, the shapes of the jaw…
“Oh,” Alisa said, glancing back and forth at them. “I kind of see it now. But in my defense, it’s very dark out, and I don’t have reptile eyes…”
“She won’t stay quiet,” Matt’s dad said, returning his attention to Matt like she wasn’t even there. “She has to die.”
Alisa blanched, her grip on Matt’s coat tightening.
“No, she doesn’t,” Matt growled. “I won’t let your blind traditionalism take any more innocent lives, human or otherwise. It doesn’t take a genius to see the foulness of it.”
“Is that why you were speaking with Charles?” Matt’s father asked. “You agree that our ‘traditionalism’ is something to be destroyed?”
“Charles tried to recruit me for this idiotic war you two are engaged in, but I told him—like I have always told you—I do not want to be associated with our kind on any matter. I represent no one but myself. And as myself, the witness behind me is under my protection.”
“If you didn’t want to be involved with our kind, then you shouldn’t have interfered with our battle.”
“I didn’t interfere with your battle. I simply stopped you from taking an innocent life.”
“And why did you even stick around after meeting with Charles?”
Matt huffed. Bitter amusement was thick in his tone as he said, “Maybe I just wanted to stargaze for a while.” He pointedly looked up at the beautiful clear sky.
His father’s face twisted with anger and hurt.
Alisa’s breath caught in her throat. If he was just a typical old guy, she would take him on, no problem. But how much stronger did these guys get as dragons? As giant dragons, no less? She accidently tugged on Matt’s coat when she tightened her grip, her quivering knuckles paling.
“You are no longer of my name,” his father hissed, “but I will not let you stand in my way in doing what is right for my people. So move before I make you move.”
Alisa practically pawed at Matt’s back while she tried to get a better hold of him. In her haze of her growing distress, she feared that he would do what his father ordered him to do. Perhaps stupidly, she tried to make sure that Matt stayed in place.
“No,” Matt said.
Relief twisted with apprehension in Alisa’s gut. She crouched behind her protector, her eyes glued to the old man to see what he would do next.
One second, he was just an angry old man. The next, his eyes flashed yellow and he bared shark-like teeth.
Matt shoved her to the ground before she could think to scream again, and then he rocketed himself into his father. As the two tumbled and assaulted one another, their bodies grew and twisted into the massive shapes of dragons.
Alisa had maintained enough sense to roll over on to her hands and knees before pushing herself up. As she ran away from the tumble, Matt’s rapidly growing tail nearly crashed on top of her. She cried out and jolted to the side, tumbled back down before scrambling up again.
Her high heels got lost in the chaos. But despite the possibility of snakes, scorpions, and other frightful critters, Alisa couldn’t bring herself to care.
When a loud, shrieking whoosh burst behind her, Alisa turned and saw that the two dragons were twirling, spiraling in the air. In a twisted kind of way, it was a magnificent sight. The beasts were pretty graceful when they flew.
Then they swiped their claws at one another. They mostly missed each other—dodging, weaving in the sky—but then liquid sprang from a dragon’s sides. One must have drawn blood from the other.
Alisa blinked owlishly and watched as the fight continued. Try as she might, she could comprehend little from where she stood. She hugged herself and bit her lip, worry for Matt and fear for herself constricting her chest.
The dragons shot toward the ground, the monsters so close together that they looked like one jagged being. They smashed into the ground, sand and dust bursting out in clouds.
Alisa clamped her hands over her mouth. The quiet that followed clawed into her confidence and hope, and her eyes watered. Matt.
One dragon rose and loomed over the other one, a motionless heap.
Alisa’s mind screaming at her to run—run NOW. She snapped her attention back to the convenience store in the distance, and before she could give it a second thought, she sprinted in that direction. Her bare feet slapped against the sand and shot waves of agony up her legs, and her lungs were quick to burn and ache; she didn’t slow though—didn’t even look back at the conscious dragon, though she hoped beyond hope that it was Matt.
The now-familiar sound of inconsistent wind in the distance whispered in her ears.
She couldn’t fill her lungs, they felt like they were on fire. And though it was pointless to continue fleeing, she continued anyway. Screw that old man dragon if he thought he would take her down without any kind of resistance. And if it was Matt—
Please God, let it be Matt.
She was whisked off her feet and was suddenly zooming through the air. She shrieked, and then nearly vomited when they shot upward. It was as if she was on a carnival ride, the worst carnival ride ever, going higher and higher in the air.
She was raised and flipped over, falling out of the dragon’s claws. Before she could shriek again, she landed on the dragon’s back. Instinctively, she grabbed at the horn that jutted out of its shoulder.
She recognized this dragon. Matt, Alisa realized. But as relieving as this was, she still screamed when Matt flew forward and made her body slide back a bit.
She held on tighter, she didn’t want to have Matt save her only to end up falling to her death.
Chapter Three
Once sunlight trickled above the eastern horizon, Matt landed on the outskirts of a little town amidst several miles of plains and farmland. He shapeshifted with a gracefulness of a ballerina—every movement precise, poised, and elegant-looking. And he always managed to be clothed.
Lightheaded and exhausted, Alisa stumbled over the ground and nearly collapsed. Her legs seared in pain, like she had run all the way here—wherever here was.
Ma
tt strode toward the town without even glancing at her. “Come on.”
“Why?” she said, even as she followed him. She was too tired to be irritated, but she acted like she was, anyway; she didn’t know how else to respond to everything that had happened. “Your dad seems pretty determined to murder me, unless you murdered him first.”
“I didn’t. I just knocked him out.”
“Great, great. So, in the meantime, are you going to send me into witness protection? Because that might be useless against dragons. I think. I don’t know.” She sighed, sagging forward and blinking hard. Pseudo-irritation gave way to hopelessness, which somehow worsened her exhaustion. “Matt, please, just tell me what we are doing now. This is my life we’re talking about—I have friends back in Vegas and a home in Seattle. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think I have the right to know.”
Matt didn’t say anything for a moment, and Alisa was almost ready to let her pseudo-irritation return in full when Matt released a breath and turned to face her. “You’re right. It’s all very complicated, and it’ll take a while to explain, but I will explain everything to you once we get you clothed and fed.
“Dad isn’t going to give up hunting you like I thought he would, so we’re going to have to deal with this situation in a different manner.”
Alisa scrunched her face. “What manner?”
“Food and clothes first, then we’ll discuss it. Truth is, I’m hungry, too.”
Alisa grunted in mock protest, but she was actually pretty hungry.
They entered a general store, Matt waved his hand toward the clothing section while he wandered over to the front counter towards the deep-fried food was. Lovely.
Alisa trudged over to the few racks of gender generic clothing. Flicking through shirt after shirt—pants after pants—she pouted at the depressing sight before her. No, this wasn’t about being fashionable, but why couldn’t it be? Just a little? It was bad enough that she was being hunted down by an elderly human-hating dragon, but did she also have to be in baggy non-gender specific clothing?
Ultimately, she forced herself to make a choice and picked a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt that didn’t look too bad under the right lighting. When she paired them up together in her arms, she dared to believe that she could actually look cute in them.
Cradling her new clothes, she went into the single-roomed bathroom and got dressed. Tearing her favorite dress into shreds was a heart-shattering experience, but it had to be done because she couldn’t reach the zipper.
When it was all said and done, she truly did look cute in her casual outfit. It was like she was having an at-home kind of date with a boyfriend of a couple years. She thought of Matt and smiled wistfully. As kids, he had been kind of shy, the silent type, but passionate. He had grabbed her hand more than once as they ran down sidewalks and talked about all the places they could runaway together and visit.
Ironic that it looked like some of those dreams were coming true, in the worst possible way.
Grinning at her reflection in the smudged half-mirror, she threw away the remainder of her dress before exiting the tiny bathroom.
Matt was stuffing his face with junk food, the cashier gaping at him while running his credit card through the cash register repeatedly.
Alisa pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing. But the closer she got, the more comical it was to watch Matt curl up a pizza slice and scarf it down in just a few bites. She couldn’t help but say, “So are all of you like trash-hounds, or is it just you?”
Matt swallowed his latest pile of food and glared at her, only to have his eyes flash and widen. His lips parted, as well, his entire frame loosening.
Alisa furrowed her brow. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” She glanced over herself and remembered that this was a cheap outfit. “We’re in a general store, pal, okay? It’s not like they have designer stuff that will instantly make me look like a leggy, blonde supermodel.”
“What? No, that’s not…” His expression stiffened and he cleared his throat. A hint of pink graced his cheeks, but before Alisa could get a better look, he turned away. “Forget it. Let’s just pay for everything and get out of here.”
“What about shoes?”
“What?”
“There aren’t any shoes here. And just because you have eaten half of this store’s supplies of burritos and pizza, doesn’t mean that I’m full. And I want to go somewhere else. This place is depressing.”
The cashier nodded in agreement, his face falling in utter despair.
Matt sighed. “Fine.”
After getting some generic based brand of tennis shoes, Matt took her to a fast food restaurant. He ordered about ten hamburgers for himself and one cheeseburger for her.
Eating her greasy cheeseburger breakfast, she sat across from Matt and watched as he rapidly ate his way through all ten of his burgers. Despite its general disgustingness, she couldn’t help but be impressed. And even a little envious. She wished she could eat that much and look as gorgeous as him. As big as he was, there didn’t seem to be an ounce of fat on him, just thickly bulging muscles. Matt had grown into quite a looker, and she… well…
She forced the insecure thoughts away and sat straighter. Swallowing her bite of food, she said, “So you were going to explain yourself. Get to explaining already.”
Matt leaned back against the plastic booth, his arms outstretched and resting on the top of it. He seemed content, which was odd, given the circumstances. “What do you want to know?”
And if that wasn’t a loaded question. She lowered her burger and crossed her arms, a disgruntled expression threatening to make its way on her face. “Everything, obviously. Just start at the beginning. I’m a good listener.”
“I’m sure.”
She glared.
He smirked. “The beginning, then.
“Basically, dragon-shifters have been around forever. There are some myths that claim that dinosaurs were the first shapeshifter’s to ever walk the earth, but then humans practically killed them off. Now the descendants of the shapeshifter’s keep themselves hidden from humanity in order to keep safe.”
“Hold up,” Alisa said, raising one of her hands as if to physically stop him from talking. “How the hell did some puny ass humans kill a bunch of dinosaurs? That’s absurd. And dragon-shifters don’t need to hide from humans to stay safe. They could just kill them.”
Matt leveled her with her sour look. “I thought you were going to listen.”
“I did. Now I am commenting. This is typically how a conversation works.”
“Well, you did bring up the issue the dragon-shifters are currently warring over. My father believes that we should remain in hiding to keep the peace, but Charles and many of his followers believe that things would be better if they just killed off the human race. Then the earth would only belong to the dragon-shifters, who could do as they pleased without hiding.”
Coming out of her mouth, it had sounded like common sense. Coming out of Matt’s mouth, it clearly sounded like genocide. Because it was.
Alisa swallowed and clutched her hands together beneath the table. “Can’t there be some kind of middle ground? Why do dragon-shifters have to live in hiding?”
“Yes, why would they do such a thing? It’s not like humans would freak out when they learned about the existence of dragons, nor would it result in violence, persecution, and other vicious things.”
“Sarcasm is not a pretty color on you.”
“It’s complicated,” he said, ignoring her. “It always has been, and I imagine it always will be.”
Alisa bit her lip, her mind racing. As quiet began to descend, Matt opened his mouth—clearly ready to whisk her away again. But there were still far too many questions, and she didn’t know when they would be sitting down like this again.
“So these dragon-shifters,” she said, amused by the impatient look he gave her, “they have like a secret society? With laws? That was what your dad
said.”
“Pretty much, yeah. The main focus has always been keeping the shifters wealthy and powerful, and keeping them hidden. It’s a way to take care of our own.”
“…your dad also said you weren’t really a part of that anymore.”
“I’m not.”
“Why? Was it always like that or…?”
Matt cracked his jaw and lowered his arms. While he clearly seemed resigned, he didn’t seem horribly ashamed or uncomfortable as he said, “To obtain wealth for each dragon-shifter, they usually resort to theft. This government alone has lost millions, if not billions, of its own dollars, and it has no idea how it happened. I do.
“I was never obsessed with being wealthy, but I born with a sizeable trust that is now worth billions. I rebelled, I argued, I disobeyed, and the consequences of those actions had me disowned by my family, my clan, and my entire species.” He lowered his gaze. “I still don’t regret my actions though.”
Pride and pity warred with one another in her emotional offering, leaving Alisa fatigued. She forced herself to smile. “I don’t think I could ever be that brave. Losing my family and friends like—” She jumped and swore. “My family and friends. I have to call them to make sure they know I haven’t been kidnapped.” She winced and waved her head back and forth. “Well, you know.”
“Yeah,” Matt said. He shifted his arm back, squirmed, and then took out a burner phone from his pocket. “Use mine. It shouldn’t be traceable.”
Blinking owlishly, Alisa took the phone and glanced between it and Matt. Finally, she remembered one important question she had been meaning to ask from the very beginning. “How can you be clothed and stuff after your…um, ‘episodes?’ Shouldn’t everything rip apart each time you change into a dragon?”
He snorted, amusement in his eyes. “It takes a great deal of training, but the shifting and growing cells can be manipulated over things like clothing. You don’t see it, but my clothes are essentially hidden beneath my scales like the rest of my human body.”