by E. A. James
He struck the Major with all his strength. His hands closed around his throat to choke the life out of him, but the Major raised his arms against Tanak’s chest. With one powerful blow, he sent Tanak flying backward onto the paving stones.
He slammed into the ground, but he bounced up on his feet again in a flash. He dove for the Major a second time, but this time, he never got within range. The Major saw him coming. He pulled a small handheld weapon from his waist and fired at Tanak.
Margila screamed. She put out both hands to her own true love, but she couldn’t break free from Marcus’s maniacal grip. With every step, he dragged her closer to the vessel intended to spirit her away from the only place in the world she wanted to be. Once he got her inside and took off into the sky, she would never see Tanak or the Raveniss again. Of that, she was most certain.
She couldn’t let that happen. She fell on him with might and main. She clawed the hands holding her. She kicked him in the shins and gouged at his eyes. She had to stop him. For a moment, she succeeded in slowing him down. He had to stop walking toward the ship and concentrate on subduing her. He gave her a few well-aimed punches in the ribs and face until she stopped fighting.
She dared turn her frightened eyes across the courtyard. Was Tanak alive or dead? She saw him lying on his back on the ground with Major Bloodkist standing over him. The Major aimed his weapon at Tanak, but Tanak made no move to get away. The Major’s arm stiffened in readiness to fire. His finger moved to cover the firing mechanism.
At that moment, Tanak whipped out his left leg and hooked Major Bloodkist around the ankle. With one kick, he knocked the Major flat on his backside. The gun flew out of his hand. At the same moment, Tanak rolled over on his stomach and planted his hands on the paving stones.
He didn’t jump to his feet, though. Faster than thought, his neck lengthened, and his head shot out toward the fallen Major. His legs bent forward at the knee, and hooked claws scratched the paving stones. His skin changed color from pink to greenish purple. Great leathery wings unfolded from his back and beat the air with savage blows.
The Major slipped in the act of getting his feet under him. He pawed at the ground to gain a purchase in his haste to crawl backward to get away from the massive dragon looming over him.
Tanak lowered his head to within inches of the Major’s face. He let out a ground-shaking shriek that sent chills up Margila’s spine. The Major cried out in terror in spite of himself. He kicked and fought to get away, but for the life of him, he couldn’t decide whether to crawl backward on his rear end or whether to turn his back on the dragon to stand up and run.
The minute he got one foot on the ground, Tanak flapped his wings. The wind drafting off his wings sent the Major tumbling to the ground again. Every inch of ground the Major covered brought Tanak pounding after him. His green head bobbed on his long neck, and his tail lashed the air with wicked hissing noises.
Tanak made no attempt to stop the Major scrambling backward to his puny little gun. He followed at close range, and when the Major rounded on him with the gun aimed, Tanak drew himself up to his tallest. He reared back on his hind legs with his wings outstretched.
He covered half the sky, and his shrieks of rage rent the heavens. Margila ducked low in Marcus’s grip. She couldn’t watch this, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Tanak.
The Major leveled his gun at the dragon and squeezed the trigger. At the same moment, Tanak dropped to the ground on all four legs. His head swung level with the Major, and he let out a powerful blast of orange flame. The fire incinerated Major Bloodkist in a blazing inferno. The gun vaporized in his hand, and within seconds, nothing remained of him but a trail of smoke wafting away on the breeze.
Marcus must have seen the whole thing, but the instant Major Bloodkist disappeared, he redoubled his efforts to get Margila to the ship. He hooked his elbow around her neck and set off across the courtyard at a smart pace. She tugged at his arm, but there was nothing she could do. She could barely breathe. She could just summon enough lung power to croak out, “Tanak!”
He slammed one big hind leg down on the ground, and the whole courtyard shuddered under his weight. He brought down a front leg and moved closer to Marcus. One more step and he would cut off Marcus’s only avenue of retreat.
Tanak bent his head low and opened his smoking mouth to burn Marcus to a crisp the way he burned up Major Bloodkist, but at that moment, Marcus jerked around. He grabbed Margila by the arms in a crushing grip, and he crouched behind her. He held her up in front of him to shield himself from Tanak.
Try as she might, Margila could not get away from him. She aimed her kicks backward and jerked her arms right and left until they ached. Marcus only tightened his grip. Tanak wouldn’t attack as long as Marcus hid behind Margila. He backed toward the ship. He would get airborne with Margila inside, and Tanak would have no choice but to let him fly away with her.
Just when she started to give up hope, Tanak turned away. He let out a stronger jet of flame than she’d ever seen, but he didn’t aim it at Marcus. The flames licked around the vessel. For a brief, lingering moment, the vessel withstood the onslaught. It stood firm while the flames flickered over its shiny metal hull. Then, piece by piece, it blew away in the blasting hot wind. Its front end turned to glowing particles, and the particles sailed off in a shimmering shower of golden sparks. They fizzled out in the cooler air behind the ship.
The front end dissolved and vanished. With a powerful puff of breath, Tanak disintegrated the rest of the ship, and it ceased to exist.
Marcus stared in wide-eyed wonder at the place where the ship once stood. For just a moment, he relaxed his grip on Margila’s arms to watch his precious ship fly apart into dust. She yanked free and ran toward Tanak. When Marcus recovered himself, he stood alone, face to face with the dragon.
Tanak bellowed at him in rage. Marcus could do nothing but stand there and await his fate. Tanak took one last step toward him. His shadow blocked out the sun and cast Marcus into darkness.
At that moment, the screech of dozens of engines whined over the horizon. Dozens of ships raced across the sky, all heading south. They rocketed away at top speed to disappear into the mountains, but before they could get far, more than a hundred dragons soared over the battlements in hot pursuit. They shot their fiery breath at the fleeing ships and destroyed those in the far rear.
Margila raised her face to the sky. A laugh and a shout of joy broke from her lips. The dragons covered the whole sky with their magnificent wings. They cleared the mountains of these menacing vessels and left the citadel cleansed at last.
A crowd of soldiers burst through a gap in the wall and charged into the courtyard, but they paid no attention to the dragon standing there. Raveniss chased them into the open and surrounded them with rifles aimed. The tide of battle had turned. The soldiers waved their arms and shouted to the fleeing ships, but it was too late. Marcus leaped forward and ran into their midst.
One last ship tagged behind the dragons. It raced after the fleet in search of its comrades. It hovered over the citadel and the courtyard. It sent down a whirlwind of crackling energy that surrounded the soldiers with Marcus among them. Before Margila or Tanak could react, it transported him and all the soldiers up into itself and flew away.
A moment later, the dragons returned. They sailed around the shattered spires and surveyed the surrounding countryside. In twos and threes, they banked toward the ground and landed. They changed back into people, and so began the long, arduous job of rebuilding after their battle.
Margila turned around to embrace her dragon, but she found a man standing at her side instead. She regarded him with stunned surprise. Would she ever get used to him changing so fast while her back was turned? Then her surprise fell away. She threw her arms around him in grateful relief.
They both spoke at once. “Are you all right?”
He touched her cheek. “I’m fine now that I have you back. Who was that madman?”
“A
madman is exactly what he is. He wanted to take me back to the village. He didn’t want to believe my only home, my only life is here with you.”
THE END
Taken by the Alien Dragon
CHAPTER ONE
The space ship shuddered as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Keep it steady,” Bane said, putting his hand on Hocus’s shoulder. The pilot was good at handling the ship but they hadn’t been sure what they would find. Earth had looked like a good option. The readings had told them that the air was breathable and the atmosphere was similar to PAX217.
Bane closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His fingers felt numb. His stomach was hollow even though he’d been taking in what his body needed. Space ship food, the stuff that tasted like cardboard, just wasn’t the same as a good meal.
Bane turned his attention back to the window of the space craft and Hocus’s steering. The planet was rich, green and browns splattered across a canvas of ethereal blue. He was scared it was a dream. Since PAX217 had been destroyed he’d had so many dreams about homes that could give him what he’d lost. Give him a place to belong.
“There,” Bane said, pointing. Hocus shifted direction and they headed for a medium patch of Earth compared to the others. The US of America, the Internet had told him. They’d made an effort to tap into the Earth’s resource system to learn more about the place they hoped to call home.
The flight down to the surface was quick. Compared to the time they spent in hyper sleep when they’d traveled through space, their time awake felt surreal. The space ship touched down and the door opened with a suction sound and warm air rushed in. It was the first time Bane had felt anything other than the constant room-temperature interior they’d existed in on their quest to find the new world.
“What do you think?” Mage said, coming up next to Bane. Her hair was long and blond, hanging well past her hips. She would stand out in a place like this. He’d seen the pictures. Females seemed to have lost their classic look about a hundred of their years ago.
“I think that this might just work,” Bane said. He looked over the vast stretch of yellow sand, the formation in the distance that created a jagged line between the sky and the horizon. “One we establish that this is the place we can send for the others.”
Bane stepped out of the ship and his feet sank a little into the sand. It was warm, baked by the sun that sat high in the sky. Just past noon according to the daylight cycle on Earth. He walked a couple of steps and then his feet hit a harder surface. He knelt down and inspected it. Hard, it seemed to be formed out of many tiny rocks. A road, he believed it was called. He’d downloaded so much into his system that it was hard to sift through it all in one go.
He got up and turned around, waving to Mage.
“This will do,” he called out.
“Watch out!” Her voice was accompanied by a humming that started up, loud and intimidating. The sound of rubber on this road, spinning faster than fast. The wind whistled around the iron beast coming at him at lightning speed. White, with eyes that looked angered and a broad black mouth, tilted in a grimace.
Bane jumped out of the way, just in time. The beast made a whining sound and then charged on; leaving Bane behind in a cloud of dust that made him cough and heave for air.
“What was that?” Mage asked.
Bane leaned down on his knees. Hocus appeared in the doorway and raised his eyebrows. He had brown hair, slicked back against his scalp and curling around his ears.
“Their mode of transportation, I believe,” he said.
Bane nodded. “Stay off the narrow strips of tar. They run on them.”
It was strange being on Earth. The planet felt like home, but it was alive with energies that hadn’t existed on PAX217. Their planet had been a peaceful one. This one felt like it was constantly moving, spinning not just around the sun, but with a power of its own, something that drove the humans onward.
It was unsettling and addictive, all at the same time.
“We shall camp toward the north,” Bane said and pointed. Mage and Hocus both turned and looked. Bane had chosen a spot some distance from this road that spelled out his death.
They moved the ship. It wasn’t easy moving over the land that had a stronger gravitational pull than their home planet. Bane felt tired quicker. He would have to adjust if they were going to survive here. Fight here. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but they had to be prepared.
They barely had their living spaces erected when a thunderous noise sounded from above. It didn’t stretch along the vast skies as it did at home. Instead it came from a singular spot in the heavens, a machine with blades that sliced the atmosphere into pieces of tension.
“They’ve noticed our arrival,” Hocus said. “Perhaps we could—”
A spray of bullets came from the flying machine – helicopter right? – And bit into the earth all around them. Bane ducked for cover.
“They’re shooting at us!”
Mage screamed. Hocus swore and then a crack sounded like lightning had hit rock. It was the sound of Bane’s own temper, taking over. They were here in peace, dammit! They didn’t ask for war. They had not done anything to instigate it.
There was no time to think as the beast ripped out of him. Anger, fear, possession, they all had the same effect. They set the beast free.
Bane felt as the animal rose out of him. His skin hardened, stretched across his growing body in a thick span of scales. He heard a roar and another pop to his side. Hocus had lost it, too. Only Mage held onto her humanity. Maybe it would be better for her that way. The males could take care of the war.
Hocus’s dragon was red and orange with touches of yellow and black. When he moved the sun fell on the scales and it looked like he was pure fire. He blasted sprays of fire at the helicopter and it looked like molten gold.
Two strikes and the helicopter went down. It exploded in a pathetic display on the ground.
Another two suddenly appeared around Bane’s head, irritating like flies. They drew Bane’s attention away from Hocus, who seemed to fight with more machines that had arrived.
Bane breathed fire at the helicopters around him. Another spray of bullets, this time down his back. He roared. It stung like a bitch. His own scales were blue and green, with white and black streaks that shimmered like water when he moved. The downside was that he showed blood where Hocus’s injuries went unnoticed.
There was no time to think about what was happening. Canons appeared from the helicopters and fired at Bane. They left much more of a mark on his skin than the bullets. He managed to take out one helicopter with a blast of fire. Fury made his vision white, but the edges were tinged black. He was losing blood.
He fell. They’d underestimated the humans, expected they wanted peace with all their speeches about it. They should have brought more soldiers. They shouldn’t have come at all.
When his head hit the ground they were on him. There were so many humans it made his mind spin. They were all around him, scurrying like ants around his colossal dragon’s body. Bane lifted his head. Hocus was back in human form, limping, leaning on Mage as they headed to the ship.
As long as they got away there was still a change. Bane watched as Hocus looked back, but they kept going. Good. If the humans had him he would survive. And if he did die he would know that his race was till safe.
CHAPTER TWO
Washington D.C. looked just as it always did, but everything was different. Hannah sat on the little bench in the lobby; legs crossed one over the other, long nails tapping on the file in her lap. She glanced down at her shoe. It was one of those fashionable things with the sharp toe and the glaring finish that looked great and felt like hell to walk in.
She should have worn something else. But Mr. Stirling, president of Technico Industries, wouldn’t approve of anything else. Hell, it was hard enough just to get him to approve of the fact that she was his daughter.
“Mr. Stirling will see you now,” the se
cretary said. Her hair was graying at the roots like she’d been trying to hide her true age and her watery eyes were empty and cold. Perfect for the job of her father’s PA. No one with a heart could work with a tyrant and survive.
The office was big and spacious, and looked nothing like his office at home. Here it was all business. There were no pictures of Hannah and her mother. There were no plants or any other semblances of life. There was a desk, a bookcase and a coffee station that only the PA used to serve her father on her hands and knees.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked, getting up when she walked in. He glanced down her body, taking in the women’s power suit she’d chosen to wear. He frowned at her shoes and walked past her.
Hannah pushed her hands into her hair, fluffing it a bit, and trotted after her father.
“I’m going to introduce you to Mr. Doyle. He’s head of the Foreign Lifeforms Department.”
Right. The idea that there might be life somewhere else out there, other than earth. Hannah had been preparing to work at Technico Industries her whole life. Her father wanted her to walk in his footsteps. His were damn big shoes to fill.