Badass Dragons: The Complete Set

by Rosette Bolter

  CHAPTER SIX

  Cheryl’s eyes focused on the man they’d been following. He had stopped now, though was still facing forward away from the officer and the car. Cheryl could see that he was dressed completely in black leather – jacket, pants, boots, gloves. As the officer came within a short distance, he turned slightly. Enough for Cheryl to see he was in his late twenties. Around her age.

  She couldn’t hear them talking, although a conversation had commenced. The man was speaking very quietly, almost under his breath. Cheryl could barely see his lips moving. After about half a minute, the officer appeared satisfied and then started his way back to the car. The man was about to turn and leave, but then something caught his eye.

  Cheryl.

  She sat up, a little alarmed that he was now staring at her. At first he made no move, or show any sign that he was going to make a move. Then all at once, he was running at the officer.

  Almost at the car, the officer stepped away from it in anticipation of the attack, but there wasn’t enough time to draw his gun. Cheryl watched as the two of them collided and dropped to the road with a loud thud. Her first instinct was to lock the car doors, but as she heard some obscure growling amongst the struggle, it was followed by a stronger, more urgent one.

  RUN.

  She grabbed hold of the car door and pushed it open. The growling had become louder, more angry and pronounced. It wasn’t the officer growling of course. She could hear him crying out in pain from the weight on top of him. There was no way Cheryl even wanted to see what was on the other side of that car.

  She took off at full pace down the in the direction they’d came, straining her eyes to see if there were any more cars on the horizon. As before, everything was perfectly lit here, but the road was empty. Long and silent.

  Her feet were going numb. The pain of today’s nightmare shift had somehow been absorbed out of them, or temporarily pushed away. Even though the run was draining the little that was left of her strength at rapid pace, she knew that if she stopped for even the briefest second the pain would shoot back there with a vengeance.

  Now that she’d covered some ground, she looked back over her shoulder to see if she was being pursued. Her gaze drifted and drifted, searching for the man and the officer. Any sign of them at all.

  “What?” Cheryl whispered out loud.

  The car was still there. But the two of them had completely vanished.

  Her run had now diminished to heavy steps backward – slower and slower. The pain increasing. Cheryl’s lips curled in a whimper as she felt it bite into her ankles, and she lowered herself onto the road. Tears welled in her eyes, but her thoughts weren’t with the physical toll her body was taking. All she could think about was Sophie and how she had let her down. Just seeing herself now, afraid and crumbling out here, fleeing for her own life, and not thinking about others. She felt bad. Guilty.

  Slowly, she rose till she was standing again.

  “Okay,” Cheryl said breathlessly. “I’m ready for you now. Ready, ready…”

  She started her way back to the car and there was nothing but the night air chill to keep her company until she got there.

  Outside the driver’s side of the car, on the road where he and the man fallen…

  There was a giant patch of blood.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Cheryl’s peripherals exploded with fire, as barely inches to her left, a heavy presence fell out of nowhere and hit the concrete with a deafening crack. Facing up, Cheryl discovered it was the officer’s body and if he wasn’t already dead before he’d landed here, he certainly was now.

  “Hooow…?” Cheryl whispered in a high pitched voice.

  Then an even louder noise grabbed her attention as the hood of the car was struck with another falling object. This time, Cheryl screamed and tripped backwards over the officer’s body. As she struggled to get her feet untangled from him, a figured emerged from the wreckage, landing upright on the road in front of her seemingly unharmed. Now she could see him up close she noticed his skin wasn’t the right color. Even with it being reflected by the orange overhead lights that lit up the road, his face was gray and thick. Almost reptilian.

  “Hooly shit,” Cheryl murmured continuing to back away.

  He stepped forward and laughed in a calm, controlled manner.

  Cheryl recognized the laugh.

  “It’s you,” she said. “What have you done with my sister?”

  “Ah,” he replied. “So you must be Cheryl.”

  “Where is she?” Cheryl demanded. “What the hell is going on here?”

  The man growled aggressively at her. His lips parted and Cheryl could see instead of teeth he had a sharp set of salivating fangs. He made a sudden move as if he was about to pounce on her, but stopped halfway through.

  His eyes shifted to his left, out into the recesses of the sky. He shuddered with annoyance, and then turned back to Cheryl.

  “The Dragons have her now,” the man stated. “You and I. Everyone else. No one will ever see her again.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “The Dragons?” Cheryl shouted. “What Dragons?”

  What the hell was he talking about?

  “I can’t stay here,” the man replied. He walked around the side of the car and back onto the footpath. Cheryl struggled to her feet and caught up with him.

  “Will you please answer my questions?”

  “No,” the man said softly. “You need to leave me alone now.”

  Cheryl swallowed. “You know shit about my sister. You’re all I’ve got. I’m not going home until I’ve found her.”

  The man sighed. He then held his hand out in an open palm towards the sky.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m signaling to them that I don’t mean you any harm. We’re just talking.”

  “Signaling who?”

  “Who…?” the man scoffed. “Who do you think dragged me up to the sky?”

  Cheryl stared at him blankly.

  “The Dragons are watching out for you. Well, at least one of them is. I don’t know how many are up there. I can only assume they’ve given your life importance because of your relation to Sophie.”

  “Just…” Cheryl stammered. “Dragons…?”

  “Well, you’re just a stupid human, aren’t you? You think you know everything, don’t you?”

  Cheryl shook her head. “Just tell me how I can get Sophie back.”

  “You can’t,” the man insisted. “They’ve chosen her. They won’t let her leave. I thought maybe I could get to her in time before they did, but it was too late.”

  Cheryl swallowed. “I need you to tell me everything. Start from the beginning. All you know.”

  “I can’t,” the man replied. “We’re on thin ice as it is. But … if you want to meet me somewhere…?”

  “Okay. When? Where?”

  “There’s an antique store in the next town off this highway, going east. It’s called Zany Finds. It’s across the road from a night club called Fleets. I’ll be there in the next hour. We’ll have a chance to talk alone.”

  “Okay,” Cheryl nodded. “But you better be there, I swear.”

  The man licked his lips. “Don’t worry I’ll be there.”

  As they parted ways he added to her, “My name’s Cadogan by the way. Cado for short.”

  Cheryl squinted at him, her eyes suspicious. Then she looked out into the darkness that consumed them all.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The man wasn’t human. Cadogan. Cado. Whatever the hell he was called. Cheryl had watched him fall from the sky and hit the cop car hard enough to crash the front and back windows, but he had been able to stand soon after. He’d been able to walk.

  Then there was the matter of the face. The rubbery texture of his skin. The color. It was almost as though he was wearing a mask. But that was his real face.

  If what Cheryl was seeing here was real, then maybe what Cado was saying about dragons was real also? Sophie had sai
d something about a dragon before she’d been taken. Unless dragon was a metaphor for something else and not the giant flying beast Cheryl was up until this point certain was just a fantasy – then they both meant the same thing.

  Cheryl shook her head to herself, as she walked along the side of the highway. “I must be the one doing drugs,” she whispered.

  And then, almost in response to her little joke, she saw something blue shoot across the horizon sky. Cheryl stopped in her tracks. She opened and closed her eyes. The image burned in her brain, was gone from her eyes now – but she had seen it.

  “Holy crap,” Cheryl whispered. “Holy fucking crap.”

  She took a deep breath, bowed her head and advanced further.

  About a quarter of an hour or so later, she was back at her mother’s house. Not inside the house, though Cheryl could have used a proper indoor rest. She stared out at it, the lights all off. Complete darkness. She wasn’t about to wake her mother up for this. She doubted she’d believe Cheryl or even care to begin with. With some regret, she climbed back into the driver’s seat of her car and started the engine. She had a fair idea of where the antique store was already, and she knew how to get there.

  She pulled away from the curb and kept going straight until she found the highway. Once there it soon became apparent that there were numerous police cars surrounding the officer’s body and car. Instead of going back, Cheryl carefully indicated to the right side of the road and sailed past them, refusing to make eye contact. She shivered within herself, almost feeling complicit in the man’s death. Guilty about not doing everything she could to help them there.

  But this was Sophie. Cheryl had to follow her heart. She couldn’t let anything stand in her way. As dangerous and shifty this Cado seemed, he was her only chance of rescuing Sophie. Perhaps the only chance anyone had of rescuing her.

  About ten minutes later, the next town approached. There was some traffic here now as the nightclub was currently still open, amongst various other fast food locations. The street between the nightclub Fleets and the antique store was busier still. Cheryl had to park a distance away from the store to get to it.

  On foot and outside the car, she walked along the footpath. She passed a trio of drunken girls singing a song together whilst laughing, and managed to avoid their swerving path. Next ahead there was a heavy set man in a blue tank top and jeans lurking outside an alleyway. He had blond hair and shiny blue eyes. Cheryl glanced at him briefly, but next thing she knew she felt his whole hand wrapped around her wrist and dragging her into the alleyway.

  “What the hell?” Cheryl cried. “Stop it! Let go!”

  When they were about halfway down, concealed in darkness, he shoved her against the brick wall and stared at her emotionlessly.

  Fear prickled Cheryl’s insides. She was about to scream for help.

  “Don’t say a word,” he whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Cheryl bit her teeth together, and then forced her foot upward, directly at his crotch.

  What her foot connected with was so solid in its prominence, it bruised her ankle. The man appeared unaffected.

  A thought too silly to be said out loud jumped at her: was that his cock?

  “Don’t do that,” he seethed.

  His grip around her sides tightened.

  “Okay,” Cheryl murmured. “What do you want?”

  “Go home. Forget about Sophie. And forget about the man you’ve come to see here.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “If you go see him now, you will die. He will rip your skin apart and he will drink your blood. He’s a monster who is not to be trusted. If seeing your sister is so important to you, then maybe, in the long term future, a meeting might permit itself. But not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not this year.”

  “Are you with them?” Cheryl asked. “Are you one of the –?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I am a dragon.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Look,” Cheryl said between breaths, “you can’t just take her. She’s a free person. She’s allowed to go and do whatever she wants.”

  He put his fingers through Cheryl’s hair. He was looking at her. Absorbing her beauty.

  She was suddenly frightened he would want her too.

  “I’m Jet,” he said.

  “Jet…” Cheryl murmured.

  “Yes.” He blinked. “As cruel as I could be to take you, I won’t. Because I have principles.”

  “Take me? You mean like Sophie?”

  “She’s not mine, you know. She belongs to Synrith. Once he lays his claim he never retracts it. And besides – your sister committed a crime against the clan.”

  “What crime?”

  “She stole from us. A very important artifact, that would be dangerous if it were to fall into the wrong hands. For her, the only alternative would be death.”

  “Alternative to what?”

  “Slavery.”

  “Slavery!” Cheryl exclaimed. “That’s not fair! You can’t do that!”

  “I won’t laugh at you,” Jet said. “But your protest is foolish. You should thank me that I have spared you from that parasite. And that I haven’t harmed you for myself. I guess I’m old fashioned that way.”

  His grip was loosening.

  “You have to tell me where she is,” Cheryl insisted. “I’m not giving up on her.”

  “You’re going to have to promise me you will.”

  “No – I will not!”

  “PROMISE ME!” Jet shouted and punched the wall behind her head. Cheryl recoiled in fright and watched as he retracted his hand leaving the brick in a pile of dust.

  “Okay, okay,” Cheryl whimpered. “Just go then.”

  He let go of her and then stepped away from the wall.

  Cheryl wrapped her arms around herself and watched him disappear silently out into night road.

  She stood there for some time before retracing his steps out of there.

  Already she knew that she was up against it, and she was frightened.

  But Cheryl would never give up.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  He was probably still watching her. Even now, after their confrontation, he’d want to make sure. Of course, Cheryl had no idea whether he really was somewhere out there, in the endless sky looking down – but the thought set her back a little.

  To her left, there was her car. To the right, at almost as much distance, was the antique store. What would happen if he was watching her and she went there? Hadn’t he warned her for her own good? It was stupid to think he’d care what she did anyway. She was nothing to him.

  But at least, he now knew someone loved Sophie. And dragons or no dragons, she’d rip the eyes out of anyone who harmed her. Without that integrity with herself – without the love she had inside – Cheryl’s life was nothing. Sure, most days seemed like pointless exercise after pointless exercise, even if her job in nursing did help some deserving people, but right now – tonight – she couldn’t let that part of herself go.

  With an almost spiteful expression on her face, she turned to the right and furthered her way along that side of the road.

  Standing outside the antique store, it appeared to be closed. She put her hands to the window and couldn’t see anything but darkness inside. She looked around her again, making sure all was safe, and then proceeded to the side of the store. She walked across a patch of gravel and then up a concrete platform. This led round to a backdoor, which was also locked. Cheryl stepped away, unsure for a moment. Then she went back and knocked on it.

  Ten seconds later the door opened a crack.

  “Come in,” Cado whispered.

  Cheryl stepped in through the open doorway, and slunk inside the misty passage. There weren’t any lights on where they were.

  Cado closed the door and then motioned for her to follow him. She did so, and eventually they found themselves in a room behind the front of the store.

  In the centre of the carpet was a circle of colored candl
es burning. Blue, yellow and green. There was incense burning and glittery like objects on either side of the room. There wasn’t any furniture, just two pillows on the floor inside the circle.

  Cado stepped over the barrier and beckoned Cheryl to sit with him. She complied.

  “This isn’t the most secure of places,” Cado said quietly. “But at least we’re alone and no one can hear us.”

  “What do you have to tell me?”

  “My sister, Cassandra, is friends with your sister. Cassandra was … giving Sophie something in exchange for a task she had to perform, which she did, eloquently. It is unfortunate the dragons found out it was her who did the deed. You’d think they’d leave it, given how she’s nothing but a worthless human who has no war with them – who didn’t know what she was getting into. But dragons don’t think that way. They’re prideful creatures. They had to take her in restitution.”

  Cheryl nodded.

  “They don’t know of our involvement of course. If they did, they wouldn’t have spared my life. No – I’m just the hopeless bloodsucker looking for his next feed.”

  Cado reached behind him to produce a small wooden box.

  “What’s that?” Cheryl asked.

  “You look at it. You tell me.”

  Cado undid the latches and exposed what appeared to be an exquisite dagger. The blade was gold, and the handle was silver, encrusted with green emeralds. Watching the candle flames flicker on its polished surface, made Cheryl feel drowsy.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  “It belongs to the dragon Synrith. Cassandra was just going to sell it to some wolves for a few dollars, but since she heard of Sophie’s capture she is willing to part with it for free.”

  “If we give it back,” Cheryl said hopefully, “will they let Sophie go?”