CHAPTER 12

Jake

Coming back to Uncle Robert's apartment, Alex and I didn't find the place the way we left it.

The state of the place made the back of my neck break out in scales.Everything told a story that was scary as hell:the piano bench lying across the room from where it should be, broken against a chair; the souvenir balls lying cracked on the floor; the big, ugly crack in the TV screen.And no sign of Lily.

Our first thought was to check every room; maybe she'd ducked somewhere to hide.No such luck.When we came back to the living room, that was when Alex noticed the note card on the piano.

A note card — something polite, elegant, almost dainty, sitting there in the violent mess that had been made.Alex picked it up and read it aloud.

"You guys took what's mine.I took it back.Duvall, I'll be seeing you real soon."He looked up from the card at me, and scales and horns broke out on his face, and said what we both knew.

"The son of a bitch came and got her."

My own horns broke out as I said, "Or sent someone to get her."I looked around again at the signs of what had happened.I wondered fearfully, "How did he know?How in the name of hell did he know where she was?We were careful.We covered her tracks.When we took Lily out to Dewsbury, she was in that scarf and those glasses.What the hell…?"

"I don't know," said Alex, "but he knows she was with me — and he knows she was with you.And he's got some plan to…"

The ringing of a phone cut Alex off.That was when we saw the phone on the floor next to the baseboard under where the TV was mounted.Lily's burner phone.I ran and grabbed it.

"Lily?" I blurted into the phone, crazy with fear.

"No, it's me — Elyse," said the familiar voice on the other end."Why would Lily be calling her own phone?"

Almost stammering, I told Elyse what we'd found.I pulled the phone away from my ear a bit so as not to get the full volume of the terrified scream that came next.

"What?WHAT?" Elyse shouted."He came into your apartment and got her?Oh my God!Oh my God!Lily…"

"We're not sure it was him," I said."It could have been someone that he sent.But from this note, the bastard's got her and he's planning to come after Alex and me."

Elyse insisted, "Then you've got to get out of there before he comes back, or sends whoever back there!You can't be there when he shows up again!And you have to call the police!"

As I rubbed my forehead, the horns and scales had receded, but the stark fear still clutched at me."I know," I said, barely able to breathe, let alone talk."You're right.We'll do that as soon as I hang up."

Over my shoulder, Alex demanded, "What are you gonna do when you hang up?What is that?"

I heard tears in Elyse's voice when she said, "My God, Jake, if he's got her again…what if he hurts her?What if he beats her up again?If he's mad enough, Mark could…"

Unable to stand hearing the rest of that, I said, "I know what he could do.We won't let him."I looked over at Alex, whose scared, angry eyes silently posed the question in my own mind, So how are we supposed to stop him?I gulped and grimly corrected myself, "We…we won't let him get away with it."

Alex came around beside me with ridges of scales over his brow."What are you gonna do?What are you talking about?Let me talk to her."He reached for the phone and I pulled it away from him, continuing to listen to Elyse.

"Oh, Jake, we can't let anything happen to her," said Elyse, her voice cracking."Call the police now.Tell them he's a monster.Tell them they've got to find her."

"Yeah, I'm going to hang up and call them right now.You hang on; we'll let you know as soon as we know anything."

"Call who, goddammit it?!" Alex shouted.

I ended the call and looked him in the eyes."Who do you think?I'm calling the cops.We need help, here."

"Not from them," said Alex.

"What do you mean, not from them?Alex, who the hell else are we supposed to call, man?You know what's happened to Lily.She's in trouble."

"Yeah, she's in trouble that we got her into and we have to get her out of.No cops, you hear me?I don't want any goddamn cops!"

I started to get hot inside as if I were a mythical fire-breathing dragon."Listen, Alex, this isn't like your old gang days when you always wanted to steer clear of the police.And this isn't like when we were Jousting and the place might get raided.Your old instincts say don't trust the police; I get that.But we don't have time for this.Every second we waste, something might be happening to Lily.Is that what you want?"

Alex totally lost his shape.His head and neck morphed; his wings came through the slits in the back of his shirt; his tail unfurled from the give in the back of his trousers.He went full dragon while still in human clothes and hissed at me as if I were his enemy and not his best friend."I said no fucking cops!"

Reacting to Alex's outburst, I morphed the same way, and now we were two dragons in human clothing, hissing and snapping in Uncle Robert's living room."You idiot!" I bellowed at him."Stop being a fucking Firewing!Lily's in trouble; I'm getting help!"

"NO!" Alex roared, and swatted at my hand with a hard swing of his tail, knocking the phone from my grip.

I watched it go flying onto the couch where we'd had our first time with her.Then I swung my neck around at him and stared a blazing look into his face."You damn fool!" I bellowed at him.

We forgot who we were and what was going on.Our human selves completely disappeared into our dragon selves, and we lunged at each other, my talons locking with Alex's, and started to push at each other.Our tails whipped and thrashed wildly in the air, knocking hard against the floor, the wall, and each other, trying to batter each other into submission.Alex actually lunged at my throat, snapping hard as if to sink his fangs right into me.Furiously, I butted him right in the snout with my horns, knocking him back onto the floor on his wings.While lying there, he lashed out with his tail again and knocked my legs right out from under me.I went sprawling back onto my own wings and he jumped onto me.Our talons locked again and we went into an insane wrestle, rolling back and forth to get the upper hand — or claw.At one point, my flailing tail came down on the coffee table and broke the top of it.The air was filled with the sounds of the two of us screeching and roaring at each other.

And that was when the phone rang again.

In mid-grapple, Alex and I lifted our dragon necks up and peered over at the phone, ringing on the couch, and it was as if a hot fog lifted from my head.Angrily, I pushed Alex off me.He rolled away and I murmured in a rumbling dragon voice, "Son of a bitch."I pulled myself from the floor and went to pick up the phone again.Crouching beside the sofa and relaxing my body back into human shape, I answered, "Hello…what…?"

"Jake?" Elyse's voice returned.

Clearing my now-human throat, I croaked back, "Elyse?"

"Did you and Alex call the police?"

I looked over at my idiot friend, who crouched on the floor, returning to his own human body, and said sullenly, "We, um, had a little situation over here.I was about to.We had a, um, little disagreement."

"That's what I thought," Elyse said testily, "after I heard Alex before.You two morons, you got into some stupid ‘Alpha dragon' fight, didn't you?Lily's in God knows what kind of danger and you two had to start acting like bull dragons.That's what happened, isn't it?"

Watching Alex from the corner of my eye, I said, dismayed at myself, "Listen, Alex just has kind of a history with the…"

Elyse stopped me."Oh, Lily told me what kind of history Alex has.How can you both be so stupid at a time like this?You are disgusting, both of you.Since I figured you didn't call the police, I called them myself.I gave them your address; they'll be right over.Can you please be not trying to kill each other when they get there?"

After that dressing down, which Alex and I both deserved, all I could say was, "Yeah.We'll be ready for them.Thanks, Elyse."

I just caught her muttering curses at us when I ended the call.

By that time, Alex, still sitting on the floor, had calmed down and settled into being as ashamed as I was.We sat quietly for a moment, hardly wanting to look at each other, until I said, "We'd better not touch anything.The police will want to see the place the way we found it."

"Well," said Alex, "except for the coffee table."

I looked at the coffee table and what our fight — and my own damn stupid tail — had done to it, and was perhaps even more disgusted than Elyse was.Shaking my head, I said, "We were supposed to be looking out for her."

We both hung our heads and thought about that.