Chapter Nine

Jade

I didn't think about the consequences.

I shifted.

The asswipe with the gun fired a fraction of a second later, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off my scales. My dragon hide, stronger than any man-made steel, bullet-proof, fire-proof, could withstand most anything thrown against it. Perhaps not a missile, or a tactical nuke, but against a yo-yo like this fucker, no prob.

"Fuck," he yelled, then ran.

At first, I thought he ran from the enormous dragon that stared down at him from nearly thirty feet up. I was wrong. He ran clear of the cars, then shifted into a dragon.

"Shit!"

Alix cowered behind me, safe from the bullets, but petrified with terror that a dragon's four legs and wings stood over her. Blubbering in her fear, her face stark white, she shut her eyes as I spun and reached for her with my talons.

"Don't kill me," she screamed.

I saved my breath and didn't answer her. I dared not fight that asswipe. Not with Alix to protect. He'd smash her flat just to spite me. Seizing her in a firm yet relaxed grip, I leaped skyward, my wings beating strongly. Alix screamed again, completely freaking out, losing her mind.

"Chill," I ordered. "It's me. Calm down, okay? I've got you."

Her shrieks faltered, but she quivered in my grip, her eyes tightly closed as I carried her higher and higher. Risking a glance back, I saw the asswipe hard on my tail, flying fast and closing the distance. Neither of us flamed. Flames did little damage against dragons and alerted sharp-eyed humans to our presence.

No. He intended to slash me to pieces with his talons, let Alix fall ten thousand feet to her death. Not gonna happen, buddy.

Smaller, lighter, and faster than he, I beat my wings strongly, putting distance between us. With the storm clouds so low, I entered them moments after jumping into flight. Time to lose you, sucker. Once deep within their cover, I switched direction. With my inner navigation keeping me informed, I knew I headed toward the mountains.

Most excellent. The storm concealed the rocky crags, turning them invisible. The clouds eddied and pooled around my wings, possibly informing the pursuing asswipe where we were. I changed direction again, this time angling north, parallel to the mountains.

Any glance back showed me zilch. No pursuit. While I could have lost him that easily in these thick clouds, I dared not believe I had. Zigzagging my way across the sky, staying within the storm, I reversed direction, dropped several hundred feet in altitude, headed south again, then east.

All the while, Alix shivered and shook with cold and terror.

I had to get her back on solid ground and warmed up before very much longer.

"J-J-Jade?"

"Yeah, honey, it's me. I'm headed back now. I think we lost him."

Alix moaned. "I'm f-f-freezing."

"You're gonna be okay. I know you're cold, you're scared."

Daring to send a narrow stream of flames near Alix to warm her up, I hoped the asswipe wasn't anywhere nearby. Should he see it, he'd be on me like a hawk on a dove. Alix's teeth continued to chatter, but her shivering eased a bit.

"You're a dragon."

"To be perfectly accurate, I'm a dragon shifter."

"Oh."

Diving beneath the clouds, I looked sharply for the goon chasing us. I saw nothing of him. The snow still swirled heavily enough to conceal me as I soared lower, gliding toward the vast city below. Once again, my navigational instinct kicked in, and within a few minutes I landed in my apartment building's lot where we'd started.

I set Alix down, then shifted to my human form. She gazed at me, her already huge eyes threatening to fall out of their sockets to roll down her cheeks. She also shivered, her lips and eyelids blue. Despite our need to hurry, get out of that place, I took her into my arms.

"I'll help you warm up," I murmured, rubbing her arms, her back. "You're so cold."

Alix started to cry against my shoulder. "I want to go home."

"As soon as you can drive, we'll head to your place."

I got her into her car, started the engine, which warmed the interior. After shivering for a while longer, her cold hand in mine, Alix finally sucked in deep breaths. Her face no longer had that gray tinge, her lips were no longer blue.

"I need," she began, then wiped her face with her hands. "I need an explanation."

"You'll get one. When we get home."

Alix nodded. "I'll follow you."

"Okay."

My car took longer to warm up, but as I drove toward her apartment, I kept an eye on her headlights. She drove steadily, without veering or sliding, which gave me the feeling she'd be okay. So. How to explain to your best friend that you're not human, but part human and mostly dragon?

"I'm in so much trouble," I muttered.

Alix parked her car beside mine, and we got out at the same time. Alix's fear had shifted during the drive home it seemed, as she came out yelling at me.

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me?" she screamed. "That you're – you're –"

"That's why," I shot back. "You'd be scared of me. You'll think I'm some monster. Dammit, you're not even supposed to know."

Alix blinked, flipping her hood to cover her head. I did the same. "Yeah. I guess I can see that. Come on. It's cold out here."

We trudged through the snow to her apartment unit, climbing the stairs, Alix's keys in her hand.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she muttered, her hand still shaking as she put the key in the lock. "You saved my life."

"I saved both our lives," I replied, following her into her apartment. "He wanted me dead, too."

I swung the door shut behind us.

That's when the arm pushed it back open. The snowy figure of a man stepped inside, his brilliant blue eyes surrounded by snow.

I reacted without thinking.

I seized my baton, snapped it open and swung it toward the intruder with everything I had behind the blow. Before it struck either his head or his shoulder, breaking either, he raised his arm in self-defense.

My baton broke that instead.

Screeching, swearing a blue streak, Magnus dropped to his knees on Alix's carpet. Holding his broken left arm in his right, he flinched from me when I raised the baton again.

"Don't," he yelled. "I'm not here to hurt you. Fuck, you busted my arm. Jade, I want to help you. Don't you hit me again with that fucking thing. Fuck ."

I lowered the baton and risked a glance at Alix. She stood behind me, scared, but standing her ground. She looked from Magnus to me, then back to Magnus.

"Why?" she asked, stepping forward, reaching for my arm. "You kidnapped her in the first place."

Magnus, his sweat mixing with the melting snow on his face, shook his head. "Can we talk? After we fix up my arm?"

***

His arm turned out not to be broken after all.

"I'm losing my touch," I commented as Alix applied a poultice that would help bruising, swelling, and pain to his left forearm, then wrapped it in gauze with an outer wrapping of cotton. By the time she finished, Magnus had relaxed considerably, and stopped saying "fuck" every other word.

"That feels much better," he murmured, flexing his swollen fingers.

"I'll make you some herbal tea," Alix said, washing her hands. "It'll help you to heal."

Alix left the bathroom, and me to stare at Magnus. And Magnus to stare at me. "Why can't you be nice like she is?"

"She's naturally nice. I'm not."

He stood up from the toilet, towering over me, and nearly had me reaching for the baton. "How does she know all this healing stuff?"

"She's into the New Age guru shit," I answered, then turned away. "She's studied it for years, makes her own home remedies."

"That's pretty cool."

He followed me into Alix's sparse kitchen where she boiled water in a kettle and set out cups. He sank into a chair with a sigh, his eyes watching my every move. Alix brought the cups to the table and studied him with a critical eye.

"I have a salve for those cuts, too. If you'd like."

"They'll be all right. Thanks."

I knew the marks from a dragon's talons. "Who'd you fight?"

Magnus's upper lip curled, and his eyes darkened. "My old man. And yours is a shit."

"Tell me about it."

We continued to look at one another, suspicion uppermost in both of our minds. I saw it in his tense expression, just as he surely saw it in mine. Alix glanced between us, then went back to her tea making.

"So what do you want?" I asked.

"I came to protect you."

"Guess what? I don't need you. I escaped that prison without your help. And how do I know you aren't looking to turn me over to him?"

Magnus's feral smile didn't reach his eyes. "That warehouse you were in? I caved the entire thing down on his head."

Alix half-turned. "Oh, great. You're a dragon, too. How many of you beasts are there?"

"Too?" His eyes widened. "She knows?"

"I had to fly her into the storm to hide from your pop's goon," I answered sharply. "He'd have shot us both."

"I see."

"I still want to know why you never told me, Jade," Alix complained as she poured hot water into a ceramic pot. "You could have trusted me."

"Humans aren't supposed to know we exist," Magnus answered quietly. "There are enough of us to take over the world if we tried and wanted to risk lives. We don't want that. Should the military learn we exist, their rockets would take us out. We like hiding in plain sight."

Alix poured hot water into the cups containing the tea. "That true, Jade?"

"Yeah. Except most of us don't want to rule the planet. That's too big of a responsibility. We'll sit back and let you humans kill each other, then we'll carry on with our lives."

Alix sat. "Ah, got it. Lemon with your tea?"

Magnus took lemon. I refused.

"So what now?" I asked after we three took several careful sips. "I don't need your protection. Alix and I will depart in a few days. That'll be the end of it."

"No. It won't."

I watched him over my cup's rim. "How so?"

"Arnaud will have cops, TSA, humans, and dragons looking for you. He has far too many people on his payroll for you to simply walk onto an airplane and fly to Madrid."

"Not nice," Alix murmured, sipping. "He must have the bucks."

"And connections," Magnus said. "People who owe him favors. He has very long fingers, and he'll find you."

"Then I'll shift, put Alix on my back, and fly away anyhow," I said firmly. "Who needs an airplane to fly?"

Alix stared at me in horror. "Oh, no, I can't. I about died up there tonight. Of sheer panic, terror, fright, and any other excessive emotion."

"We'll figure something out," I snapped. "You're on that asshole's radar now. I won't leave you behind."

I silently challenged Magnus with my stare, daring him to say anything to discourage me. He swallowed his tea, met my gaze, and smiled.

"And if my father get's wind of that? And sends a dozen dragons after you? What then? Dive into the Atlantic or the Pacific, let Alix drown trying to evade them? Fight them while risking her life?"

"Uh, no flying on a dragon," Alix said, her voice quivering. "Nice thought, Jade, but just the same, maybe you should go it alone."