by Romi Hart
“Where am I?” Her voice rose in alarm. Nothing made sense.
A hand touched her shoulder, but that only set her nerves on edge. Why couldn’t she get up? Why couldn’t she see?
“You’re in a lean-to outside. Are you warm enough?”
“I’m warm but I….” She faltered. What was wrong with her? “Why am I outside? Why am I not inside?”
“The other guys wouldn’t let me bring you inside. I don’t blame them, to tell you the truth. It’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?” she demanded. “I guess humans aren’t allowed in your houses.”
He lowered his voice to a soft murmur. “You’re not human anymore, Riley. You’re one of us. You shifted earlier, but you probably don’t remember it. You were out cold. You did it unconsciously.”
“What!” She lunged off the ground and immediately collapsed. “I can’t! I’m human.”
“You’re New Breed now,” he told her. “You’re a dragon shifter just like us.”
“No! I can’t be!”
He didn’t say anything. She sensed him retreating before her outburst. That hurt worse than the idea that she could be one of those revolting dragons.
She wanted to push the whole thing away, to make it not real, but she couldn’t push him away. He was her only lifeline to sanity in this mess.
She put out her hand and touched nothing in the dark. “Victor?”
“Yeah?” he whispered.
“I…..I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Don’t worry about it, girl. You’ll be one whether you want to be or not. You better eat some food and get comfortable ‘cuz we have to move out at daybreak. You can’t stay here so you’ll have to come with us.”
Her mind roiled in a frenzy. She couldn’t take all this in so fast. She couldn’t accept it. She wanted to go home. She wanted her teammates and her room back at Barksdale. She wanted everything to go back to the way it was.
A dragon! That was impossible. She spent months trying to kill those things. She couldn’t be one of them.
All at once, she couldn’t bear this a second longer. She flung her arm over her eyes and burst into tears. She hated herself for feeling this way, for being helpless. She especially hated letting her sworn enemy see her weak.
Out of the dark, something solid touched her. A big, warm, male presence made contact with her side. Victor leaned into her arm and whispered in her ear. “Hey, now. It’s not as bad as all that.”
“Get the fuck away from me!” She rounded on him shrieking in mindless rage. She shoved him with all her might. “Don’t you dare come near me, you filthy, stinking son of a bitch!”
The next instant, she dissolved in sobs. She clamped her elbow over her eyes and convulsed in agony.
Victor disappeared into nothing and snorted under his breath. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it….”
He never came back. He left her all alone with this awful despair. That was the worst part of the whole thing. She needed someone and he treated her with nothing but kindness since this whole nightmare started.
Now she had to push him away when she really needed him the most. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she just accept his hospitality? Why did she have to lash out? She didn’t mean to.
Her skin crawled remembering that he was one of those dragons. Thoughts about his kindness and his efforts to save her life couldn’t change that. He wasn’t just one of them. He was that dragon, the one that killed Pineapple and almost killed her. He was the reason she fell in the water in the first place.
Her anguish morphed into irrational hatred. She loathed him. He did this to her. He made her this freak and now he had the gall to try to be nice to her. She almost wished he had left her to die. He brought her here and saved her life to torment her, to make her one of these abominations like himself.
She made up her mind then and there to get the hell out of here. She would go along with whatever cockamamie plan they had to keep her with them. She would play possum and watch her chance. When she saw an opening, she would break free.
She wiped her tears off her cheeks and gazed up at the starless sky. A heavy overcast of cloud blocked out all view of the heavens.
She calmed down enough to think straight. She would get back to Barksdale one of these days. Maybe when she finally got there, she would have gleaned enough information about this so-called New Breed and their activities. She could tell Major Dickerson all about them and the military could wipe them out once and for all. She could be the lynchpin that allowed the military to get rid of these dragons so they never bothered anyone again.
She wouldn’t be able to do anything about the water, though. The military might wipe out all the dragons and the other New Breed, but they could never clean up that spill. It migrated too far away from its original source.
Her mind staggered at the thought of it. The toxin must have mutated millions of people. No way could the military ever get rid of them all. They might be crawling all over New Orleans by now—not to mention Lafayette, Baton Rouge….
She was in the Atchafalaya Wildlife Refuge. That was west of Baton Rouge and these New Breed people considered this their territory. They even set up villages here. The spill occurred south of New Orleans on the coast. That could only mean one thing.
The poison must have migrated across most of southern Louisiana by now. It must have contaminated millions, if not billions of acres of land and…. She didn’t even want to think about how much water it contaminated.
Her head spun. No one could stop that. Not only was it far too big, but it already happened. No one could put that horse back in the barn. Fighter pilots could target the dragons. They were easy to spot. Others of this New Breed could slip under the radar. Shifters could pass for human. They could be living side by side with normal people and no one would know the difference.
What about herself? Victor said she was a dragon shifter. She might pass for human if she ever got this stupid fucking problem under control. She could never be normal again.
Despondence threatened to inundate her again, but she shoved it away. She finished her pathetic little pity party. She wouldn’t give in to it again. She would get out of here. She would get these bastards put down and she would go on her merry way like nothing ever happened.
5
Victor kicked the girl in the ass. He didn’t do it hard, but he made it hard enough to wake her up.
She whipped over onto her back and glared up at him. She squinted through the sunlight coming through the trees. “What the fuck!”
“Get up,” he told her. “We’re moving out.”
She looked around. Stupid bitch. She pushed him away when he tried to comfort her last night. He should have known better. Now he would never care one shit about her again. She could suffer for all he cared.
She glared around her at the camp. Finn, Lincoln, Bryce, and Isaac all stood a few paces away eyeing her right back. “Where are we going?”
“We’re taking you into the Quag. Get up and shake a leg ‘cuz we move fast.” He started to turn away.
“What’s the Quag?”
“It’s our name for the bayou,” he clipped over his shoulder. “It’s swamp where humans don’t go. It’s our territory.”
She growled under her breath and got to her feet. She ran her fingers through her hair, but she didn’t complain.
Lincoln leaned against a tree and crossed his arms over his chest. He grinned at her like a clown. His eyes twinkled like this situation was the greatest joke ever. Bryce made a face. He rolled his eyes to Heaven and walked away. He didn’t give the girl a second glance.
Finn’s reaction gave Victor the most pause. His deep brown eyes glittered out of his black face, but he didn’t glare at her like he hated her. Victor knew him well enough after all these years. Finn studied her like a prey animal he wanted to hunt. That didn’t make sense.
Victor stormed past the men and picked up his shotgun from where it leaned against the
house. When he faced his comrades, he waved his gun after Bryce. Lincoln chuckled and shoved himself off the tree. Isaac and Finn tagged after him. The party headed off into the trees on an eastern line. That left the bitch.
She narrowed her eyes at the scene. Victor didn’t give a flying fuck anymore if she liked it or not. She was going with them. He pointed his gun barrel down the path. Without a word, she strode out of the village and took her place at the end of the line. Victor brought up the rear so he could keep her in sight.
At least she didn’t lag or drag or whine. Victor would have blown her head off if she did that. She kept pace with the men all day. She never once lost her footing and she never said a word.
The longer this went on, Victor discovered his fury dwindling to fascination. She said she grew up in these swamps. She said it was her land and she certainly acted like it. She knew the terrain. Her feet naturally found the right footings even on soggy, unstable ground.
She danced across log bridges. She tripped over steppingstones. She even swung from branches to clear bogs. The water soaked up to her ankles in some places. Her boots squished when she walked, but she paid no attention to that. She was used to it. Anybody could see that.
She turned out so different than what Victor expected. He expected her to rebel, but she put up no fuss at all.
The group ventured deeper into the Quag. None of the guys looked back to check on her. Why should they care what happened to her?
At noon, they stopped at a backwater. Finn and Isaac sat down on a log and took some cornbread out of their packs. They passed it around with a lump of cheese and a sack of water. Isaac handed them to her when her turn came. She took the food and ate and chased it down with water.
Lincoln got to his feet and wandered off. He got ten yards away when Isaac followed him, but Finn and Bryce stayed behind. The girl studied everything around her with undisguised curiosity. “How far are you going?”
Victor shrugged. “We’re meeting up with my pop and another hunting party. He’ll decide what we do and where we go.”
She swiveled around to scrutinize him. “How did you manage to live your whole life out here without coming into contact with the outside world? I didn’t think it was possible in this modern age.”
“Anything’s possible. You probably wouldn’t think it was possible that at toxic spill could change the course of human evolution, but it did.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied. “It just seems strange, probably because I never met anyone who grew up without contact with the wider world. Are all…. New Breed like you, or do some live among the humans?”
“Lots of ‘em live among the humans, but most stay away from them. We try to avoid getting involved in their world if we can. That’s why we stay in the Quag. The two don’t cross over.”
“Where do they live around the humans?” she asked.
Victor waved at the surroundings. “All over—New Orleans, Baton Rouge—you name it.”
Her mouth fell open. “New Breed live in New Orleans?”
“Why does that surprise you?”
“How do you stop the authorities finding out about you,?” she asked. “How do the normal people not notice a bunch of mutant freaks living in the middle of a modern American city?”
Victor picked up his gun and sauntered away. “I can’t explain it to you. You’ll just have to see for yourself. Then you’ll understand.”
He made it halfway down the trail before he realized she didn’t follow him. He looked back. Finn sat in the same place with his penetrating eyes fixed on her. She held unnaturally still and didn’t look away.
The instant he saw that, Victor rotated on his heel and hustled back. He had to break that spell in a hurry. She didn’t even realize what he was doing.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her off the log. “Come on.”
She stumbled and gave a startled yelp. “Hey! What are you doing?”
He marched her away without loosening his grip. “Get moving. Don’t look back.”
She tried to struggle. “Let go of me, Victor! What are you…..Cut it out. That hurts.”
Victor moved his mouth close to her ear and snarled into what he could only hope would be her brain. “Don’t look at him like that. Don’t look him in the eyes at all if you can help it. Understand?”
“Why?” she asked. “What’s so bad about him?”
“Don’t you know what he’s trying to do to you?” he snapped. “Keep away from him. He’s dangerous.”
She twisted one more time, but when he still didn’t release her, she quieted down. She let him walk her away and Victor began to relax. The farther she got from Finn, the more the effect evaporated. Victor would have to keep an eye on those two in the future. That could wind up being his worst nightmare yet.
A few miles down the line, they bumped into Lincoln and Isaac standing behind a barbed-wire fence. A paved road crossed in front of them and they peered at it from the undergrowth.
Victor pushed between them. “Anything?”
Lincoln shook his head. “No sign yet.”
Riley shouldered her way in. “What are you looking for?”
“The other party.” Victor turned away. “If they aren’t here now, they won’t be here at all. We’ll go the next rendezvous point and see if we can catch them up.”
She drifted into her place. Victor forgot about bringing up the rear. He fell in line with the others. The trail sent him into a trance the way it usually did, but toward afternoon, he found himself in the back again. Finn walked in front of him with Riley next ahead of him.
They turned a corner and Victor caught a glimpse of Finn’s face. A demonic smile brightened his features. His teeth shone and his eyes sparkled. Dimples indented his cheeks. Victor’s blood ran cold when he realized Finn was looking at Riley again.
Victor needed to stop that. He needed to intervene. He had to make sure she didn’t fall into his clutches. Too many women went that way to their destruction.
He took one step. At that moment, Riley shot off the ground so fast she startled Finn. He staggered back and ran into Victor. The two men floundered in confusion for a second watching her rocket off the ground.
She lunged upward. The instant her feet left the ground, she transformed before Victor’s eyes. Her body stretched to an impossible length. Her neck extended longer and longer. She curled her arms and legs in, but the rest of her kept on growing and didn’t stop.
In a fraction of a second, she launched into a huge, ferocious, glittering red dragon. She took wing and zoomed away into the eastern sky. She shrieked once and that plaintive, mournful sound echoed down the wind.
Lincoln and Isaac both turned around staring in surprise, but it was too late. She’d flown the coop. Victor pushed Finn off. Finn turned around with a very different expression on his face. They both stared at each other in astonishment for a second. Neither of them saw that coming.
The next instant, they both coiled their legs under them and launched after her. Victor streaked into the heavens burning up the miles as fast as he could. He had to catch up with her. A new shifter could do anything. She could go berserk and devastate New Orleans without even realizing it.
Finn matched him move for move. He changed into a sinuous black monster three times Victor’s size. He plowed past Victor flying at breakneck speed. Victor couldn’t let him reach her first. God only knew what he would do to her in this condition.
Victor caught sight of her against the sky. She spiraled higher and higher. She didn’t seem to be flying anywhere in particular. She probably didn’t have the first clue what she was doing. Her dragon spirit took over and obliterated everything else. She wouldn’t be thinking clearly for a good long while.
Finn raced toward her, but she didn’t notice him. She didn’t notice anything but her own mighty self. Her tail whipped in the wind and she glared at the ground far below her.
Finn circled in her wake and narrowed his eyes to lock her in his sight
s. Victor didn’t hesitate a second. He hurtled between them on a mission. He hit her with all his weight. In a flash, he whipped his coils around her and knocked her sideways. He had to get her onto the ground before someone noticed them.
She screamed in rage and surprise. Finn played his usual game by holding off. He let Victor make himself into the bad guy. Of course he did. He always did.
She put up a fight. Victor expected that, but he didn’t expect her to be so incredibly strong. She whipped her body in every direction trying to break his grip. She freed one wing and flapped to stay airborne.
When she realized she couldn’t shake him off, she rounded on him snapping and slashing her fangs. She caught him off guard attacking so soon. She gashed the corner of his eye. Blood blinded him for a second and his temper flared. Stupid fucking bitch. How did he get himself saddled with this fury? He should have listened to his brother and his friends. He should have left her to rot.
She bombarded him with attacks so fast he couldn’t think straight. He had to stop them both from plummeting to the ground at the same time that he stopped her from escaping. Without thinking, he lashed his tail around and clocked her upside the head.
She wavered for half a second. The next moment, she exploded into violent jerks that threatened to break every bone in his body. She pounded her snout into his eyes and mouth and chest. She hammered her tail at him and cut him with her teeth. Never would he have believed any female could be so strong and so volatile.
He screamed trying to hold his own, but he knew better than to call on Finn Weeks for help. He hovered off Victor’s wing with that mysterious smile plastered across his face. Knowing him, Finn probably wanted her to kill him. That way, Victor wouldn’t be around to block his access to her.
She cocked her tail for another brutal strike. It cracked with a whiplash and hit Victor’s wing. The pain made him draw it in for a second. When he did, their combined weight pulled them to Earth.
Gravity caught him. He couldn’t hold himself up. When he tried to extend his wing, she looped her tail around it and pinned it to his side. The solid ground rushed at him with blinding speed. They would crash any second.