“No. I’m not leaving,” Liam replied stubbornly.
The voices were muted, they seemed nearby, but perhaps behind a wall or outside a door somewhere. Dawn wondered how long she would exist here, in this in between place that wasn’t quite life and wasn’t quite death. For a while, there had been nothing at all, and now there were voices again. What was happening. What did it mean?
There was another voice now. She didn’t recognize it, but she could hear him speaking, possibly to Liam and her father. What was he saying? She couldn’t quite make it out. Struggling to pull herself up from this place she had fallen into, she tried to really listen to what was being said. He was closer now. It took a moment to realize he was now speaking to her.
“Dawn? Are you awake? Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”
She tried to focus, to will her body to do as he asked. She imagined herself squeezing his hand with hers though she couldn’t feel it. Both hands tightened around the imagined appendages her mind conjured. She heard a loud gasp and quiet sobbing. Her mother. That was her mother. What was this?
“Good girl. Listen to me, Dawn. You have had a little bit of a problem, but we have fixed it. Your head is wrapped, and you have some tubes and needles poking about. You should be coming around once the anesthesia finishes wearing off, so I don’t want you to be alarmed by any of this. It will all come out once you are awake and doing things on your own.”
“What happened to me?” her mind screamed, but there was no response. “Liam? Liam?”
No answer. Dawn was afraid. Perhaps the only thing worse than being dead was being normal. She couldn’t communicate with her mind. She couldn’t read anyone’s thoughts. What else couldn’t she do?
“Thank you, doctor,” her father was saying.
“I’d like to have a few words with you and your wife outside,” the doctor told him.
There was the sound of a door opening and footsteps, followed by the door closing behind them. Dawn lay in her darkness, feeling lost and afraid. She had never been afraid of anything, but now fear was the only thing she could feel. Her head was hurting again, not as bad as before, but hurting still. It lasted for a few minutes, and then a warmth seemed to wash over her, sending her spiraling down into the darkness again.
“Dawn? Are you awake?”
The words barely registered. It felt as if she was climbing through mud that had fallen on top of her, pushing her downward into this horrible place. She tried to swim through it, struggling to rise toward the sound of his voice. Liam. It was Liam. His voice grew clearer as she pushed the sludge aside bit by bit until she seemed to be able to breathe above it.
“Dawn? Please wake up. I miss you. I need you to come back to me,” Liam was saying.
Slowly, she realized that she wasn’t hearing the words with her ears. She could feel him again. Her mind could reach out to him again. Her heart raced in her chest. Now, she could hear sounds, this time with her ears. There were beeping noises around her. They increased with her excitement. Machines. There were machines attached to her.
“Liam? Liam? Can you hear me? Liam?”
“Yes! I hear you!” his mind responded.
“Liam, I’m scared. What is wrong with me? Where am I?”
“You are my house. Well, in the hospital beneath the council floors. You are hooked up to some machines, but you are doing better and the doctor says they will take them off once you are in the clear.”
“In the clear from what? What happened to me?”
“You had some sort of brain hemorrhage. Blood was leaking into your brain from a ruptured vein.”
Dawn was quiet for a moment, absorbing this. How could that have happened? She had been fine. She had felt fine. Then, she was like this.
“Will I be okay now?”
“Yes. You will be perfect.”
Dawn felt her entire body relax. She felt so relieved, even more by the fact that she could actually feel her body now. Her head still ached a bit and she felt stiff, but that was probably from just being stuck here in bed and whatever operation they had done to fix her head. A horrible thought struck her.
“No, Dawn. You look just fine. You do not look like a monster. I’ve been brushing your hair for you so it wouldn’t be messy.”
“You brushed my hair?” she said, feeling overwhelmed with emotion suddenly.
“Of course I did. I love you, Dawn. I have always loved you, and I always will. I was so afraid I would lose you.”
Dawn could feel his angst, his pain at the thought of being separated from her. She could feel his fear. It was heartbreaking.
“I love you, too.”
“I know. Now, get better so that we can get out of here. This place is depressing.”
Dawn felt happy. She wasn’t dead, and Liam loved her. Perhaps she had always known that, but she had never been sure that he had.
“You are a ridiculous turd.”
That was her. Liam’s ridiculous turd. It wasn’t exactly a romantic notion, but it was good enough for her.
CHAPTER 9
“One step at a time,” Liam told her as he helped her up the steps to her room at home.
“Quit coddling me. I’m just fine.”
“No, you aren’t just fine. You just had brain surgery, and you have been in a hospital bed for almost two weeks. You are weak.”
“I just need to fly.”
“You do not need to fly,” her father said from behind them. “No flying for the next few weeks.”
“That doesn’t make sense. It would help me heal.”
“It would burst the sutures in your head wide open first and cause more problems. Don’t you even think of shifting until they have done their job and dissolved, Dawn McCord,” he barked at her.
“Listen to your father, for once,” Liam added as they topped the stairs.
“You sure are bossy when I’m weak,” she replied.
“I sure am.”
She heard a chuckle from her dad behind them as Liam continued helping her to her room and guided her to the bed. Her father sat down some things the hospital had sent home to change her head bandage and some medication for the headaches the doctor said would remain for a bit longer while she healed.
“I’ll go help your mom downstairs,” he told her. “Liam, don’t stay too long. She needs her rest.”
“Ah, the bossy gets bossed by the bossiest,” Dawn quipped.
“Be nice. Liam carried you out of the middle of nowhere to get you help and then stayed with you every day at the hospital. I think he is entitled to be a little bossy for a bit,” her father said before leaving.
Dawn looked toward Liam. She was surprised that he had done all that…or was she? He continued on out the door as if nothing had been said, his footsteps trailing away as he headed downstairs. She reached out for him, comforted that their link seemed to have been reestablished now.
“Thank you, Liam.”
“Just get better, turd.”
“I will.”
“I know.”
Dawn settled in to try to get some sleep. Things felt like they were finally getting back to normal. She could feel Liam again even as he made his way out of the house and back to his house. He reached out for her when he got there to let her know he was still thinking about her. It made her smile to know how much a part of his thoughts she had become. Her door creaked open, and she could feel her mom’s presence.
“I am fine, Mom,” she told her.
“I know you are, honey. I just wanted to check on you one last time before I went to bed.”
“Goodnight, Mom.”
“Goodnight, Dawn.”
The door closed, and Dawn pulled the covers up around her chin. She felt content. Sleep came quickly, partly because of the medication she continued to be on, and partly because her heart felt so full. A smile spread across her face as she thought about Liam saying he loved her. She had always known he did, but now, she knew it was far more than just as a friend.
Still, her dreams were not as full of hope as her thoughts. As she drifted away, she fell into a world where nothing was what it seemed. She walked through shadows, where everyone had a secret and no one was who they appeared to be. Tommy was there, and he was angry, so very angry. He was chained to a pole in the city center.
“This is your fault!” he spat at her as she passed by.
“It is not my fault. I didn’t tell you to do those horrible things to Harlan! You did them because you are cruel and heartless.”
“You better hope I don’t get free from these chains. I will do worse to you.”
Dawn shrank back, looking around for Liam. He was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, there was no one there but her and Tommy as he hissed hatred at her, and then he was changing, breaking the supposedly unbreakable chains designed to keep him from doing just that. His large wings spread out, blocking out the sun as his large teeth bared in her direction, a deep hiss emanating from within him.
Dawn tried desperately to shift, to take flight, but she couldn’t. She was helpless, standing there as he stood over her, preparing to rip her apart. Her heart raced as she waited to be destroyed, and then she was being torn away, snatched up by something she couldn’t see. Her body dangled haphazardly in the air as she flew through the air and was dropped onto the soft turf of a nearby meadow.
She watched, stunned as Liam turned, his massive dragon snarling furiously at Tommy as his own dragon landed behind him. She continued to try to shift, but nothing was happening. Instead, she was forced to watch as they ripped at one another’s necks, each determined to take the other down. Their bodies smacked against one another, making the most terrifying noises. Blood flew everywhere, and then Tommy had him pinned.
Dawn screamed as he pulled back his enormous head and then pushed it forward again, unleashing a steady stream of fire that looked like a pure rush of lava and then turned toward her. She looked at Liam’s motionless, charred carcass on the ground, grimly aware that she was still screaming and was unable to stop. He was upon her as she tried to shield her body away from him, though she knew there was no need.
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare tear you apart with my dragon. I can do you in just fine with my bare hands, you worthless bitch,” she heard Tommy say.
She looked up at him to see he had changed back into human form and was now reaching for her, pulling her upward and shaking her as she continued to scream uncontrollably.
“Dawn? Dawn!” she heard her mother saying.
She felt confused. Where was her mother? She tried to call out to her, to tell her that Tommy was going to kill her, but she was still only screaming. Things began to swirl and change as her body shook with Tommy’s hands on her and then he began to fade away and disappear. Dawn blinked, her room slowly reappearing. Her mother sat on the edge of the bed, gently trying to shake her awake.
In the doorway, he father was just stepping in, a distraught look on his face. She was in her room, safe and sound. It was just a nightmare, a horrible dream. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest as she tried to shake off how awful it had felt and her mind reached out for Liam, contented by the sound of his heartbeat as he slept peacefully in his bed.
“Are you okay, Dawn?” her father asked, joining her mother on the edge of the bed.
“Yes. It was just a really bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. It’s okay. Just bad thoughts that turned into bad dreams.”
“Do you want to come sleep in our room?” he asked.
“What? Dad! I’m almost eighteen years old! I don’t need to sleep with my parents like a little kid.”
“Well, the offer is open if you change your mind,” he said evenly.
“Go back to bed. I’m fine,” she told both of them.
Her mother reached up and stroked her head, careful not to touch where the bandage remained. She smoothed several strands of hair away from her face and kissed her cheek before motioning for Dawn’s father to make his way out of the room. She followed, casting a smile backward in Dawn’s direction as she settled back down into the pillows.
It took hours to get back to sleep, and even what she managed was restless, but she finally managed to get a few hours here and there. When she awoke, it was late the next morning, and she was drenched in sweat from writhing around in her sleep. She was still groggy as she made her way downstairs to find her parents in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast.
“You didn’t wake me?”
“We thought maybe you needed the sleep after such a rough night.”
“Thanks,” she said, uncertain what else she should say about it.
She wasn’t used to being weak or frightened, and she certainly didn’t want them worrying about her. She wanted to see Liam, but he would be at school today. He had a lot of days to make up for already since he had refused to leave her side while she was in the hospital, according to her parents. It would have to wait until he got done for the day.
“I’ll warm up your breakfast,” her mother was saying as she made her way back upstairs to take a shower.
“Thanks. I’m going to take a shower first. I’ll be back down in a few minutes.”
“Make sure you wear the shower cap in there,” her mother called out as Dawn headed up the stairs.
Dawn’s hand went up to her hair. It was stringy and dirty, but she couldn’t get her bandages wet. Only a few more days of suffering through the dry shampoo her mother had been combing through it in the meantime. She felt disgusting. Dismissing the thoughts from her head, she showered and returned downstairs for a bite to eat.
CHAPTER 10
“Everything looks good, Dawn. We’re going to take out these outer stitches. The ones on the inside should have already dissolved on their own by now.”
“Will I be able to wash my hair now?” she asked.
“Yes. You can do whatever you like, except shift. I know it has been a while, but you’ll need to stay away from that for at least a couple more weeks.”
“I thought I was okay to shift once the stitches dissolved?”
“It’s just a precaution. The wound is healed, but you are still at risk of splitting it open with too much pressure on it.”
“It’s been weeks! Wouldn’t my dragon healing make it get better faster?”
“Yes, but as I told you before, you might split it open before its healed. It’s just like if you break a bone and it heals before they can set it properly. We have to rebreak it to fix it. I don’t want to have to put you back on a table to repair unnecessary damage.”
“Fine.”
“Good girl,” he told her.
Dawn sat still as he pulled each stitch from her head. The hair around them had begun to grow back, and he accidentally pulled at a couple of them as he did so, but she refrained from flinching as her father stood by watching until he was done.
“All right, that should do it,” he told her.
“Does she need to come back?”
“Not anytime soon, unless there are any issues. Any continuous headaches, blurred vision – the things you’ve already been warned to watch out for. If nothing comes up, I’ll just need her back her in six weeks for a follow-up scan to clear her completely.”
“Sounds good,” her father said as she hopped up from the table.
“I can wash my hair now, right?” she asked hopefully.
“Yes, you can wash your hair,” the doctor replied.
They both thanked him and made their way out to the hallway where they encountered Liam and his father. Dawn smiled at him as they approached.
“How’s our girl?” Mr. Donnelly asked.
“She’s good. Clean bill of health.”
“That’s good to hear. Had us all very worried for a while there,” he said.
“I imagine so,” he replied. “Owen, I need to talk to you for a bit.”
“Sure. Let me get Dawn home, and I’ll come back.”
“I really
need it to be now. It’s pretty urgent.”
“I’ll take her home, Mr. McCord,” Liam told him.
“Are you sure, Liam?”
“Of course. I was coming to your house anyway.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. Dawn and I both still have homework to catch on. We were supposed to do it together. Plus, I hear that Mrs. McCord is making a big pot roast with all the sides.”
“Well, if you are coming over to eat, I sure hope it’s big.”
“I know. He can eat his weight in food. I feel like I should write you a check for his meal,” Mr. Donnelly laughed.
“Could you?” Dawn’s father said as if he were serious.
“Dad!” Dawn protested. “Come on, Liam. Let’s go.”
There were chuckles behind them as they made their way from the underground hospital and up through the council building to the outside. Liam opened the door for Dawn and waited for her to sit down inside before closing the door and making his way around to the other side.
“I wonder what your father wants with mine?” she said as he got in and started the car.
“I don’t know if I should tell you this, but Harlan died.”
“What?” Dawn said, feeling a sharp pain in her chest.
“I’m sorry, Dawn. I know you feel bad about what happened to him, but there was nothing they could do for him. He just stopped responding and drifted away, Dad told me.”
“What happens now? Will they do anything to Tommy for what he did to him?”
“I don’t know. I think that is what my father wants to talk to yours about.”
Dawn felt very sad that Harlan was gone. She had been too late and couldn’t save him from what had happened to him. If only he had spoken up, had told someone or maybe if she had known him better, she would have touched his hand or brushed past him closely enough to pick up on what was happening to him before it was too late.
“Do you think he is what caused your brain to bleed?”
“What?” she replied, jolted from her thoughts
“Your father told me that you wouldn’t let go of him. He said you tried to heal him and wouldn’t let go even though it was draining you.”
Dawn of the Dragons Page 4