by Karin Shah
Remembering the pain he’d encountered trying to get at the women, he attacked the side of his trailer instead as if to burst through the plastic and thin metal. A rending, cracking noise strafed through the trailer as it partially surrendered to his strength. He reared back to charge again.
“Shit!” Thalia muttered again and the stinging hit him when he touched the now deformed panels of the trailer wall as well.
The new site of the barrier pierced through to his human side. Roan seized back enough control from his dragon to prevent himself from making another assault, but it wasn’t easy. His dragon was willing to bear any pain to go after his mate.
“Roan! Get it together!” Thalia commanded, her eyes glowed and something told him she used a hefty dose of vampire persuasion. “What happened?”
He panted, wrestling his dragon further back into the recesses of his mind, but the wrenching pain remained. He wanted to howl with it, but managed to eke out, “She left.”
Chapter 25
Thankfully, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to tell Lu and Thalia what had happened. Roan’s words were thick and raspy with torment, but he managed to get the message across.
Lu’s eyes were dark, her forehead pleated, she reached a hand toward him as if to touch him, then seemed to remember the barrier or his attack and curled her hand into a fist. “Well, I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”
Thalia looked just as concerned, but not as sanguine. She shook her head. “Things are advancing too quickly now. We can’t wait.”
Lu nodded. “Okay. We can all go. I’ll unhitch the truck.” She started to open the door.
Thalia grasped Lu’s shoulder. “He’s too far gone. I don’t dare release him. I’ll have to stay here and maintain the barrier.”
At another time, Roan might have been annoyed about being spoken of when he was in the room, but his dragon seemed to have grown exponentially stronger overnight, and he was barely holding in the need to ram the barrier again.
Lu sliced a glance between Thalia and Roan. “But . . .”
Thalia set her chin. “If he goes feral, goes dragon, and gets out, I’ll have no choice. The Ethereal Council edict is ironclad. Anyone who risks exposure of the magical world is to be killed.”
As crazed as it was at the moment, Roan’s dragon wasn’t stupid. Thalia’s words gave it some pause, and it retreated a little.
Lu’s throat worked convulsively as she nodded. Her dark eyes were liquid with tears. “Roan, keep it together buddy. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
When the door latched behind her, Thalia came closer to the barrier. Her pale skin shone in the light from the window and her crescent-moon-shaped raspberry birthmark seemed a deeper pink. She licked her lips. “If you can maintain control for a few minutes, I can drop the barrier and put you into a deep sleep. It might help you hold on until Sofia can get here.”
Sweat dropped down Roan’s face and rolled onto his collarbone as he considered the option. His dragon seemed to have settled somewhat, but it was clever in a cold, cunning way. It might be trying to trick him. “I wish I could, but I don’t trust my dragon.”
~ ~ ~
The pain in Sofia’s chest had kept all but the most restless sleep at bay, exhausted, she must have finally fallen asleep, because a commotion awakened her.
She checked her phone. 10:20 a.m. She massaged her tired face and rubbed the ache in her chest. Maybe she should go to the hospital? No amount of antacid seemed to mitigate the pressure.
She flopped back against the ancient pillow Tia had unearthed for her, the acrid out gasses from the aging foam nearly burning in her nose, and groaned.
Despite exhaustion and her pain, she couldn’t let Tia deal with whatever was going on by herself. The elderly woman had been at the hospital last night, for God’s sake, and had to be as fatigued as Sofia, probably more. She sat up and stared down at her body. She’d fallen into bed fully clothed, so at least she was decent.
Finger-combing her flattened curls and patting her head to make sure everything was going in the same direction, she shuffled to the door and slipped into her socks and sneakers to face the noise.
It was a cool day and the misty air slapped some more clarity into her tired mind. She stepped to the ground and shut the door, scanning the fairground for someone who knew what was going on.
Tia, Carlita, and her family, as well as several sleepy looking carnies milled around. Whatever had caused the ruckus that woke Sofia, she seemed to have missed it. “What happened?” she asked.
Carlita swung toward her, the teenager’s wild blond ringlets stuck up in back. “Some dude came, saying he was a cop or something, and had a warrant for Roan’s arrest! Guy got all riled up and took a bunch of newbies to help the dude.”
Sofia deciphered the teenspeak and shook her head. “Warrant? Roan hardly leaves the . . .”
The fight!
Damn, she should have known that would come back to smack them in the ass. But the fight happened in Roman county. Why would a sheriff come here?
Regardless, Roan was in danger. Sudden unreasoning rage surged through her. Her throat burned with the effort of holding in a growl. Her hands shook. She had to help him. She breathed deeply for a moment to regain some semblance of composure. “If it’s about what I think it is, they’re going to regret bringing the police in. I’m going back to be with Roan and get him a lawyer.”
She squeezed her tia’s scrawny arm through her bright pink gauze blouse, “Are you going to be all right?”
Tia clicked her tongue. “I’ve been taking care of myself since before you were born. Hurry up and get out of here, m’ija. If I know Roan, he won’t react well to being arrested.”
~ ~ ~
By late morning, the almost physical wound in Roan’s chest had retreated somewhat, getting incrementally better, but he still couldn’t stop pacing.
The dragon inside him seemed to have reached some kind of critical mass he could only ascribe to Sofia’s absence. A conclusion Thalia shared.
He closed his eyes. I’m not an animal. I’m human. I have to stay here. He repeated the words on a loop like a mantra. If his concentration lapsed for even a second, his dragon wouldn’t hesitate to take over.
Thalia’s barriers kept him contained, and the dragon feared pain as much as any animal, but she was expending tons of energy.
The fact that her spells could contain him at all must indicate she was pretty damn strong, but everybody had a limit, and though the barriers still hummed against his scales, he could see a fine film of perspiration beading on her pale forehead.
She’d brought in her familiar, Spirit. He apparently had his own magic, because he’d allowed her to take a few short breaks, but the breaks grew shorter each time and when she returned, the duration between the breaks shortened too.
How much longer could any of them hold on?
With the growing strength of his dragon, his keen hearing had gotten tenfold more sensitive and even through his mantra he could hear activities around the campground. People gossiped and made coffee and food, ate, showered, and at least one still snored away.
Another sound abruptly registered. Several cars roared up the road leading to the campground at a higher than necessary rate of speed.
Danger! His dragon fought to the surface again, but he stuffed it back. Yes, it might be the townies who’d come before or any number of other threats, but it could also be nothing.
He listened to the vehicles drive into the outer parking lot. Car doors slammed. Several urgent words were exchanged, though he couldn’t quite hear the content, only the tone, and that tensed his muscles and fed his dragon.
He’d been overly optimistic. His dragon had it right. Whatever the drivers wanted, it wasn’t trivial.
A number of footstep
s marched across the gravel. They were making a beeline for his trailer. Shit!
His dragon scratched at its internal cage. Lunch? It suggested and he shuddered. No matter what they wanted, his dragon had to stay contained.
He glanced at Thalia. The look in her eyes told him she could also hear the intruders. Neither one of them flinched when the heavy knock came, but Thalia’s eyes flared red, revealing her tension, and he felt his dragon surge again. Clearly, it gained power from his emotions. He breathed deeply, trying to stay calm.
Thalia sighed. “I’m going to drop the barriers and open the door. Can you stay human?”
He nodded, hoping it wasn’t a lie.
Chapter 26
Sofia’s hand trembled on the steering wheel. Slim had still been sleeping when she’d rushed out. Thankfully, he’d left the keys sitting out. Unable to wait, she’d borrowed his car without asking. Something she’d never normally do.
What the hell was the matter with her?
Her clothes cut into her flesh at the seams and chafed everywhere else. Her joints ached almost as much as her chest, maybe more because that seemed to be diminishing a bit.
The nearer she got to Roman county, the sensations seemed to grow in inverse proportion with the pain in her chest. It was as if there was some alien part of her longing to bust out and—well, do what she didn’t know—but it couldn’t be good.
It certainly wasn’t normal.
Get to Roan. Get to Roan. The chant repeated in her ears ,and she had to tamp down the urge to tailgate and change lanes aggressively to push ahead of the intermittent traffic. Thankfully, once she passed the county line, the roads were practically empty.
At last, she gripped the steering wheel hard enough to bleach her knuckles and forced herself to ease off the gas to make the turn onto the final road with minimal tire screeching.
How far behind Guy and the Sheriff she was she couldn’t say, but a haze of tawny dust still hovered in the air on the road ahead. Someone had passed here recently.
Several unfamiliar cars littered the irregular parking lot beside the campground. They’d been parked half-assedly, slanted and with little more than a cursory nod toward the painted lines, as if the owners had been in a rush.
She slammed the brakes, rammed the gear shift to park, jabbed the ‘off’ button and jumped from the Nissan. Engine fumes still tainted the afternoon air. The cars hadn’t been here long.
A shout caught her attention. It came from the area near Roan’s trailer. The hair at her nape stood on end. She broke into a run.
Several brawny men surrounded his steps. She didn’t recognize most of them, they must be the newbies Carlita had mentioned. Guy was on the top step, his hand curled into a fist. He’d obviously just knocked. A weedy, ginger-mustached man who appeared more suited to a desk job than the deputy his blue windbreaker pronounced him, balanced on the lower step. A few performers had encircled the newbies.
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
Guy raised his hands. “This deputy has a warrant for Roan’s arrest.”
The outside group began shouting. Sofia couldn’t really understand individual arguments, but it seemed that they also assumed the warrant had to do with the recent fight and were completely on Roan’s side.
If she weren’t so worried, she might have smiled.
In any case, she whistled for silence. All eyes now on her, she squeezed through the crowd until she was below the deputy on the bare dirt beneath Roan’s stairs. “We have to respect the law, but don’t worry. I’ll follow the officer to the station and make sure Roan gets a lawyer.”
The deputy’s freckled face burned crimson at her declaration. He grimaced. Why she had no idea, but he didn’t speak. Maybe he realized it was in his best interests not to.
Guy knocked on the door a second time. The noise seemed to drill through her skull. It was all she could do not to lurch at him and catch his fist.
Suddenly, a heavy feeling of pressure, as if they were under several meters of water, descended over the campground. Guy froze with his hand hovering over the door. Others must have felt it too, because everyone fell silent. All motion had stopped.
What the—?
She surveyed the people nearest her and discovered a vacant, blank expression on their faces. A frown pulled at her eyebrows. Some unseen force seemed to be at work, and she appeared to be the only one unaffected.
Sofia.
Someone said her name. At least, she thought they did. The voice sounded like Thalia, but the other woman was nowhere in sight.
She swung on her axis to scan for the source of the voice, but came up empty.
Sofia, I need your help.
Now, she was sure the voice was Thalia’s, and she was not hearing her through her ears, but in her head.
She blew out the breath she’d forgotten to exhale. With everything happening with her tia, and her worries about Roan being arrested, the things that had happened after the party last night had retreated from the forefront of her mind.
Now it all surged back.
Roan didn’t have body mods. He was under a spell. She didn’t even have a second to process the memory.
Thalia continued, There’s not much time, so I’ll be brief. I’m a witch and Spirit is my familiar. I didn’t come here to perform. I came to find Roan. He has a family who’s been searching for him for years.
Sofia’s heart stopped. Roan’s family had found him. Where did that leave her?
Roan said he didn’t have a chance to tell you everything last night and I can’t now, but I know you care for him. Chimeras have three sides, lion, dragon, and human. When they’re in balance, the human mind exerts control over the other forms, but as they grow older, the wild side, usually one or the other, starts to take over. They gradually lose their humanity until the animal is all that’s left. Roan is at that point and as a dragon, if that happens, suffice it to say it will be all kinds of bad.
He can’t handle a confrontation right now. Spirit and I have just enough energy to misdirect your friends. When I do, I need you to come in and help Roan stay human.
Sofia wanted to argue. This was out of her realm of experience. She knew nothing about magic. How could she bring him back? But that other being inside her demanded she comply.
Roan needed her. Now.
Before she could move, the hush that had fallen over the group, snapped like a worn cable. The pressure lifted and everyone’s stared at the trailer steps, as if no time had passed.
Then Sven shouted. “He’s not in there. I saw him running toward the woods a few minutes ago.
The misdirection Thalia had mentioned.
A few others agreed with Sven and the crowd moved en masse toward the pine trees at the other side of the meadow with Guy and the deputy leading the way.
Sofia scowled. All they needed were some pitchforks and a couple of torches to resemble a mob from an old monster movie. Too bad it was the middle of the day.
As soon as they were far enough away, Thalia opened the door and came out with her dog—familiar—whatever.
“I’ll lead them away. Talk to him. You’re the only one who can save him now.”
Her words seemed dramatic, but the expression on her face was too grim to question. Sofia swallowed, her pulse revving, and mounted the steps.
What she saw when she opened the door drove her heart rate further through the roof. “Shit!”
Roan’s trailer looked as if a bomb had gone off.
The wall across from the kitchen curved out as if some powerful force had deformed the metal. The molded plastic inner wall had massive cracks. She winced.
A clicking growl drew her attention away from the damage.
Roan huddled in the dark narrow space between his bed and the outer wall li
ke a dog building its courage to attack.
Horizontal blinds cleaved the light from the opposite window, revealing and hiding his features in slices. His scales seemed more defined, his jaw bulged. Ridges loomed over glowing green, slit-pupilled eyes. Corrugated, dark-brown horns curled up from his black hair.
She should have been terrified, and she couldn’t deny her hands shook and her knees knocked, but that was nerves not fear. Deep in her soul she knew he wouldn’t hurt her—himself and others, yes, but not her.
No. She wasn’t afraid of him. She was afraid for him.
Could she get through to him? She still had so many questions.
Yet there was no space for qualms, Thalia had spoken to her telepathically, controlled all those people, and Roan shifted form as she watched like time lapse photography of an eaglet to an eagle.
The comparison was all too on the nose. His old appearance, which had elicited a fight or flight response in her a couple weeks ago, seemed tame and relatively cuddly contrasted with the dangerous predator she could see him becoming.
The ferocity and menace emanating from him felt palpable.
A shiver sent cold fingers down her spine. He was a danger to himself and others.
The same part of her that knew he wouldn’t hurt her stiffened her backbone. She could do this. She could help him regain his humanity. Any other outcome couldn’t be tolerated.
She tried to speak and found her throat clogged. She cleared the blockage and tried again. “Roan.”
She stepped forward, reaching a hand toward him, willing it not to tremble. An instinct whispered that emotions were the trigger into and out of the shift. Anger, fear, and pain shoving him toward his other side, acceptance, reassurance, and love bringing his humanity to the fore.
She grappled for every ounce of certainty and fortitude she possessed.