by Juniper Hart
“They’re trying to send a message,” the guy said patiently. “You’re just lucky I showed up before you walked in that door.”
“I’m lucky, huh?” she looked at the soup all over the floor. “That’s weird. I really don’t feel terribly lucky right now.”
“I can protect you,” he asserted.
“Looks like you’re doing a great job so far,” she hissed, a bit more sarcastically than she meant.
To be fair, it had been a rough day even before the guy had showed up, then there’d been the door fiasco, and then she learned someone had busted up her home for no reason.
“Well, if it weren’t for me, you’d be dead. You need to trust me.”
“You need to leave me alone,” she snapped. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what happened to my door. I don’t even know what happened to my apartment. But I know this—I am not in the mood to deal with any of this shit.”
She started towards the door. “I’m leaving.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No. You’ll get out of my apartment and you’ll go anywhere that’s far away from me.”
“No. I’m coming with you. You’re not safe.”
As she started to walk past the man in red, his arm zipped out and caught her around her lower back. Before she could react, he’d pulled her towards him and was kissing her. For a split second, she was too stunned to react. Then, she brought up a knee between his legs into his groin.
He groaned and stepped back, obviously in pain. “That went better in my mind,” he said, tight-lipped.
“I imagine it did. Now, I am not going to tell you again, get out of my way and stay away from me.”
He straightened. The vein on his throat was sticking out. She was impressed that he was dealing with the pain so well. Mental note—tough.
“Look out the window,” he instructed.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Not entirely sure why she was still there and hadn’t stormed out already, she walked over to the window. As much as she wanted to get away, a part of her was terrified, and he did save her life. Why was someone trying to kill her?
She gazed out the window, but couldn’t see anything. The humidity of the air conditioner paired with the recent downpour cast a thick fog across the clear panels. The man rubbed his hand across the glass. The condensation dissipated and a single name was left on the window, as if it had been written with someone’s finger earlier.
Marilla.
The man’s eyes darted down. He cleared his throat. “Never mind. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.”
She looked at the name on her window. “How’d you do that? Who’s Marilla?”
“I can explain everything,” he sighed. “You just need to trust me. This place isn’t safe. Roland is after you.” He met her eyes firmly. “You can trust me, Goldie. I’ll protect you.”
She looked at the window then back at her ruined apartment. Someone had been there. Someone had done those things and left her a death trap. Who? She didn’t know. She wasn’t even sure it wasn’t the guy standing at her side. Maybe there was a chance—a tiny chance—that he was telling the truth. She couldn’t bring herself to believe he was a dragon. What sane person would? But, she felt a connection to him, like she did know him.
Not just friends, either. Lovers, maybe. He was so familiar. Even with the frustrating events of the day, she couldn’t help but look at him and feel protected and safe. She cocked her head at him, studying his face. Oddly enough. She did feel like she could trust him.
“Fine.” She could hardly believe she said it. “Fine. But if you try to kiss me again. I’m leaving.”
The very ends of his lips turned up in a smile. “I won’t make any promises.”
3
“So…” she looked around her apartment. Her clothes were still stuck to her body and she was shivering miserably. “What now? You have a plan, I hope?”
“You have any weapons here?”
“I have a gun.”
“Go get it.”
She walked off to her bedroom, or what passed for a bedroom. Basically, it was a small room that barely fit her queen-sized bed. The intruder had even messed up her bed, ripping her sheets and tearing apart her mattress. Her dream of curling up and falling asleep was shattered. Clothes were tossed everywhere. Her favorite t-shirt was sitting on top of her upturned dresser and a few of her bras were hanging from her bedframe.
She sat on the floor, and just looked around. Her day couldn’t get any worse. Of course, she had almost died. Okay, her day could have been worse, but still, she was having a hard time holding back tears of frustration.
“Oh, that’s just irritating,” she said out loud, the anger had mostly worn off, leaving only disappointment behind. “Why did anyone do this? I would’ve been long dead before I could see any of this.”
“It was for me,” the guy said beside her. “Roland knew I was coming after you. He didn’t know I’d get here before you walked in. He wanted me to see your place destroyed.”
That was unsettling. Roland, whoever this guy was, apparently was rather violent and vengeful.
Sarah shook her head in confusion. “I’m starting to not like this guy. Why does he hate you so much? More importantly, why does he hate me so much?”
“Long story.”
“Well, it looks like I’m not going to bed, so I have some time on my hands,” she said, trying to wrap her mind around the fact she was willing to listen to a guy that thought he was a dragon. “Let’s start with your name.”
“Ember.”
The name sent a tingle down her spine. Like his appearance, his name awakened some sort of recognition in her mind. She couldn’t place why she remembered the name or why the name made her tingle, but it certainly did. Huh. She filed that away in her brain. She didn’t know what this Ember guy did to her to get her to feel all these ghost feelings, but she didn’t have time to worry about it.
“Trust me, you know me...” he said, still trying to convince her.
“Sure.”
“I’m serious.”
“I’m sure you think you’re serious,” Sarah responded.
She stood once again to collect the gun. Moving past a pair of her favorite running shoes, she slid her hands under her bed. Her fingers touched something hard and cold. There it was—the gun that her father had bought her six years ago, when she’d turned eighteen. She kept it loaded and ready. All she had to do was chamber it and fire. She hadn’t found a need for it yet. It sat there for all those years, collecting dust.
When she looked back at Ember, he was staring at her intently. But it wasn’t like most guys. Not Ember. Instead, he seemed to watch her with an almost childlike admiration, not just looking at her body, but deeper. He shook himself out of his trance when she caught him staring, but he didn’t apologize. Sarah decided not to say anything.
“So, Ember,” she said. “Here’s the deal. I don’t trust you completely. I just can’t. You’re obviously crazy. So, here’s what we’re going to do instead. You’re going to explain everything that just happened and then you’re going to give me all the information you have on this Roland fellow so I can call the cops.”
“Bad idea.”
“Nope. A bad idea is talking to a guy that thinks he’s a dragon.”
“Do I have to show you my fire thing again?”
She could tell he was starting to get frustrated. “Not unless you want to get shot.”
“So, you carry a gun and a Taser?”
“At this moment, yes.”
Sarah’s quick responses had always gotten her into trouble. Even when she knew she needed to keep her mouth shut, she just couldn’t. She would have the last word, period. It was the main reason she’d had a rocky relationship with her dad during her teen years. They were too similar. They butted heads about everything, and then neither one of them wanted to back down. When he died a few years ago, Sarah felt a deep loss and wished she wou
ld have appreciated him more.
Ember scowled. “I wish you’d remember me. I know it must be hard for you to see me again after all these years, but I wish you’d at least remember something.”
She felt a little guilty. Her hard expression softened. The guy was obviously earnest. Crazy? Yes, probably. But earnest? Oh, yeah. He thought he was telling the truth, and she’d seen his throat heat up. Something was obviously not human about him, but she wasn’t ready to think about that yet.
“So, in your world, am I also a dragon?” she asked.
“No. You’re a human.”
She checked the clip in her gun. It was there. They were good to go.
“Well, that’s good. I’ve always felt like a human. So, what now, dragon boy?”
He looked at her with a glint of marveling in his orange eyes. He had a strong jaw and Sarah was willing to bet he had washboard abs under that shirt.
He asked. “How are you not freaked out by this? I thought you’d be freaking out.”
“I’m freaking out,” she said honestly. “Oh, trust me. I’m not happy with this. But I can freak out later when I’ve had time to absorb what just happened.”
“I can take you somewhere safe,” he said. “But you’re going to need to do what I say, no matter how strange it might sound.”
She almost said, I don’t need protecting. Then she thought about it. Yeah, she did. She needed protection. She didn’t know Roland and she didn’t know Marilla, and she really didn’t know why someone would be out to kill her. She spent her days making coffee and kept to herself most of the time.
Ember seemed liked he truly wanted to help, and that he was genuinely concerned for her welfare. Her instincts said to trust him. Sarah hated to rely on people. Hated it—from group projects back in high school to group organizations as an adult. She just worked better by herself. As much as it unnerved her, she couldn’t do that. She would be lying on the ground just inside her doorway, just a shredded pile of Sarah without Ember’s warning. Who knew what else was out there?
Slowly, she nodded her head. “Fine. But, please, tell me what’s going on.”
“Of course.” He grinned at her. He turned his head and for a brief second, she caught a glimpse of his teeth. His canines were much sharper than they should have been.
“C’mon, Goldie,” he said, still smiling. Abruptly, he froze. “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
“Load your gun,” he ordered. His demeanor changed, from cool and collected, to intense, almost animalistic. “Now. It’s going to take too long for me to call for back-up. I should have called the EDJ the moment I knew about Roland.”
“The EDJ?”
Ember responded curtly, “Yes. The Enchanted Department of Justice.”
She made a mental note to ask him to explain what the meant, but in the moment, his tone made her feel like she would do anything he said. Sarah loaded the gun, which felt big in her small hands. “What’s going on?”
He sniffed. “They’re here. They must have sent a cleanup crew.”
“Start making sense!”
The moment turned to chaos.
Something shot through the window, shattering the glass around where the word Marilla was still visible. It flew straight for Sarah. Ember’s hand shot out and caught the thing—a steel arrow, quivering about six inches from the side of her head.
“Go!” roared Ember, shoving her towards the door. “Go, now!”
Startled by the sudden movement, she almost wiped out, slipping on the clothes strewn about her room. She was a talented athlete, so she managed to get her feet under her before she got through the door. She could hear something breaking through the glass. When she turned, her eyes widened as fear took hold of her body.
Two beings came through the window, but they weren’t like any animal she’d ever seen and they weren’t humans—not by a long shot. Sarah’s brain refused to validate what she saw. The creatures were tall, bulldog-like beasts with jutting fangs, but they wore cotton-ribbed tank-tops and jeans.
Both were holding bats with blades, knives, and bits of broken glass sticking out of them, which they swung at Ember. Ember suddenly looked very small next to the gigantic creatures. One of them whacked Sarah’s ceiling fan with his forehead, accidentally. As Sarah watched with horrified surprise, a third beast crashed through her bedroom window and clawed his way in.
Ember ducked, and the first swing of the huge baseball bat missed him. A loud, thunderous sound came from Ember. What was the point in that? Sarah couldn’t see the benefit until crackling, white hot flames came from his throat, bathing the beasts in fire.
“Fucking dragon!” roared one, covering his eyes with his thick, hairy forearm.
Sarah had been staring in horror, standing still with her mouth agape. She snapped herself out of it and jerked the gun at one of the beasts. After lining up the sights on the creature’s burly chest, she popped off a couple shots.
To Sarah’s credit, she didn’t miss. The bullets streaked straight into the huge beast’s fatty skin, sinking deep and vanishing from sight. The beast snarled and came after her with the bat. She yelped and scampered back into the kitchen, still shooting him time after time.
She was vaguely aware of a transformation overtaking Ember over by her couch. One second, he was there in his tailored suit, and then he was gone. A dragon took his place.
A sleek, red, scaled, freaking dragon. He was the size of a truck, and he hardly fit in her living room.
The dragon was fast. He pounced onto one of the big men, taking both of them down. Sarah was so stunned that she almost missed the beast in front of her swinging at her with that cruel bat. She ducked at the last second. The bat zipped over her head and smashed into her cabinet, ripping it off the wall. Her foot caught on it and she fell.
The creature was on top of her in a second, squeezing into the space between the wall and the island. She kept shooting him until the gun in her hands started clicking helplessly. She scrambled back, looking for something to throw at him. Her hands found something on the counter that seemed solid and she launched it, hoping it would do some damage.
A box of Shredded Wheat whacked the beast in the face. The box broke, dumping frosty white dust on him.
“So, you’re her.” His voice was deep and guttural, like a pig if a pig had suddenly gained the power of speaking. “I’m going to skin you and—”
That’s as far as he got before something hit him in the back of the head. He froze, blinked once, and fell forward like a felled oak tree. He hit the bar stools. They crumbled like tinfoil under his frame.
Ember, no longer in dragon form, was standing behind him with a wild look in his eyes and a bloodied bat in his hands. The bat looked outrageous in his normal hands. His was no longer wearing a suit jacket and his red shirt was ripped across the front, exposing rock-hard chest muscles. His spiky hair had been roughed up and his throat seemed to be glowing with heat from the inside.
He dropped the bat and hurried over to Sarah, taking her hand and leading her out of the remains of what used to be a cute kitchen. Her legs shook from the adrenaline.
“We have to get out of here,” he urged. “Are you okay?”
He took her face in his hands and looked her up and down, checking her face for any injuries. “Did they hit you?”
“N…n…no.” Her chin was quivering despite her best efforts to keep it still. “Wh…what were those things?”
“Orcs,” he replied. He slid a hand down her lower back and guided her towards the outside of the building. Her heart pounded. Part of her wondered if she was going to pass out.
They reached Ember’s car. He whipped out his keys and unlocked the doors. He opened the door for her like a gentleman. Why her brain isolated that fact at that moment, she might never know. It was all she could do to bring her mind back to normalcy. Had he just been a dragon?
She had been attacked by orcs. Whatever orcs were.
&nb
sp; And a dragon saved her.
She finally got her wits about her. Ember was driving fast, continually checking his rearview mirror for anything suspicious. He reached over with his right hand and placed it on her knee.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be this way.”
4
Sarah sat in stunned silence, not speaking for several minutes while Ember weaved in and out of traffic. She’d left her wits back at her apartment. The funny thing was that her landlord would show up in the morning for the rent, probably mad like always. She’d always wanted to get revenge on him. She’d been an excellent tenant. She always paid on time and she hadn’t missed a payment, but for some reason, the guy had it out for her.
Well, looks like she was going to get her revenge after all. That would be an interesting one to submit to the insurance company. She could imagine how that conversation would go.
Hi, my building has sustained some damage.
Okay. What caused it?
It appears to be three large men with tusks.
Can I provide you with the number of a psychiatrist, sir?
She looked over at her companion. Ember had been telling the truth after all. He was a dragon.
Oh, God. She felt a headache coming on. She was still holding the gun despite having no bullets. The creepiest thing was that those men hadn’t come for Ember. They’d come for her. Ember had called them a cleanup squad. If the dust thing at her door didn’t kill her, they had been there to finish the job.
This Roland guy was an asshole.
What had she even done? Sarah was a good girl. Sure, she was a bit of a rebel. She didn’t like the slow lane. Sometimes she snuck food into movies. But that was about as bad as she got. She wasn’t involved in any illegal acts. She hadn’t hurt this guy, as far as she knew. But then again, if she was being honest with herself, she had to come to grips with the fact that none of the last hour made sense.
All she’d wanted to do was go home after a long day and forget the smoothie guy. Her biggest concern had been talking to Jamie about her love life. Little did she know her life would have taken such a dangerous turn.