by Jadyn Chase
“I don’t like going down there without you. I should introduce you to Father and Mother. It’s the proper thing to do.”
I took his hand and pressed it. “It will be fine. I’ll have plenty of time to meet them after this is all over.”
“What if it’s never over?” He rotated around to stare at me. “What if we have to go on the run and I really do never see them again?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I wanted to fix all the problems facing him, but I couldn’t. No one could. I could help him, but some things could never be fixed. Even if, by some miracle, we figured out how to stop him becoming a dragon, we would never be certain the military wouldn’t come after him again. For all I knew, he would have to keep running for the rest of his life. Could I handle that?
I shoved those thoughts out of my mind and spent the rest of the day getting ready for the reunion. I got out the transit map and went over the route James would have to take to Dover. I could put him on the train, but after that, he would be on his own.
“I’ll order you an Uber to take you from the train station to the Castle. I’ll pay for it in advance, so all you’ll have to do is get in the car. Just try to act casual and be friendly to the driver.”
He furrowed his eyebrows looking down at my phone. “I don’t understand any of this, Paige dear.”
I patted his shoulder. “That’s okay. The main thing is that you get to the Castle in one piece. I’ll pay for everything in advance. If you get into trouble, you can call me—or have someone else call me.”
He shook his head and turned away. “I don’t like leaving you alone. It’s not worth the risk.”
“What do you mean—leaving me alone?” I countered. “You’re the one in mortal danger, not me.”
“You’re wrong, Paige dear. As long as I’m with you, the dragon can protect you. If the military came along right now, I would have no need to worry for your safety. If I leave, you’ll be completely unprotected. It’s better if we stay together.”
I blinked at him. “Are you saying you don’t want to go to the reunion?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m saying it would be better if we went together—not for my sake, you understand. I’m not worried for myself. The dragon will protect me from anything that happens, including the military. It’s you I’m worried about. You should come with me.”
“If I did that,” I told him, “we would have to flee immediately afterward. We couldn’t come back here. We would have to leave the country that very night. We would be sending up a signal flag that I knew where you were and that we were together. The military would be onto us in a heartbeat.”
“Well, what would be so bad about that? We’ve talked about leaving the country before. So we’d see my family first, but the end result would be the same. We would be living somewhere without this dread threat hanging over our heads all the time. I wouldn’t have to stay confined indoors day and night and you wouldn’t have to concern yourself with hiding me.”
I touched his cheek. “You’re really sweet.”
He leaned forward and put his arms around me. He drew me into his comforting embrace. “I don’t want to live like this. I don’t want fear and anxiety to rule the rest of our lives together. I would rather us both be free than to see my family. If I have to choose, I choose a free future where we can both relax and enjoy ourselves. Not even my family is worth that.”
I laid my ear against his chest and smiled, but tears stung my eyes. He said, the rest of our lives together. He wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.
I buried my lips and eyes in his heart. I loved him more than I could stand. I just wanted to keep loving him forever. I didn’t care how or where or why as long as I had him.
He kissed the top of my head. “I love you, Paige dear. Promise me we’ll be together when this is over.”
My mouth said, I promise, but no sound came out.
We stayed like that, wrapped in each other’s arms, until morning, but I didn’t sleep. I kept staring into the dark thinking about everything.
The sky outside the window started to get light when my phone pinged. I pried myself out of his grasp and I sat up to find his eyes open. He hadn’t slept, either. “That’s the notification,” I told him. “We have to take you to the train station.”
He didn’t get up. He examined me from the pillows. “I meant what I said, Paige dear. This reunion isn’t worth either your safety or our future. I don’t feel right leaving you like this.”
“I’m not ready to give up on finding the rest of your family,” I told him. “This could make the difference to figuring out what causes you to change into a dragon. You have to go and that means you have to go alone. If we can cure you and prove to the military that you’re fully human, they might let you go.”
He compressed his lips. “You know that would never happen. Even if you proved I was human—which I’m not—they would only want to take me into custody to do their own experiments on me. For all we know, they would want to change me back. They might use me as a prototype to create more men who could change back and forth at will.”
My shoulders sagged. “Yeah, but….”
“We will never be free. If you insist on me going to this reunion, promise me we’ll leave when it’s over. Promise me we’ll travel somewhere far away where we can live in peace.”
I swallowed hard. I knew he was right. I just didn’t want to admit it. “I promise.”
He sighed and sat up. “All right. Let’s go.”
He got dressed and I drove him to the train station. I bought him a ticket and stuffed it into his hand. “This train will take you to Dover. Here’s a piece of paper with my phone number on it. If you need help, call me. Everyone you see around you has a cellphone. They can call me if you need it.”
He nodded, but his clear eyes remained riveted to my face. The closer we got to actually parting, the more I got the same sinking feeling this was a really bad idea. I grieved over his leaving as though I would never see him again. What if something terrible happened to him in Dover? What if the military planted that advert instead of his brother? What if they were waiting to capture the whole family?
The alarm sounded and James glanced over his shoulder toward the train. It was too late to change my mind now. I pushed him into this situation. Now I couldn’t get out of it.
He bent down and kissed me once. Then he backed away. My heart ached watching the glass doors close in front of him. The train started moving and he glided out of view. A crushing weight of loneliness and despair descended over me. I was all alone. He wasn’t here.
I loved him. Now I was more alone and more devastated than when he first escaped from the lab. I discovered too late how much he really meant to me. I wanted to call him back, but he already moved beyond my sight.
I hovered there between life and death. I was a ghost without home or family or any human connection to this world. My one lifeline, my one shred of humanity, rode away on that train.
I stumbled out of the station and got into my car. I was driving back to an empty house. He might never return to it. I might be alone for the rest of my life.
No! I couldn’t accept that. He would come back. He said he loved me. He didn’t even want to go to the family reunion. He would rather turn his back on his family than leave me. He said so himself.
I parked in front of the house and slammed my car door. I stomped inside and sat down on my bed. I got out my laptop and logged onto the internet.
12
James
I took a seat and rested my head against the window glass. I shut my eyes and breathed a long sigh. I left Paige alone and unprotected back in Norbiton. I couldn’t reconcile myself to that decision. This family reunion didn’t mean as much to me as her safety. I should be with her. I should be protecting her.
She probably thought she was protecting me by hiding me in her house, but the situation changed long ago for me. I didn’t care about myself. I only wanted to protect her from anyon
e who might harm her.
This train carried me farther and farther away from her. It moved me in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go. I didn’t want to go to Dover—not ever again—at least not as long as she wasn’t there.
A clunk woke me from my ruminations. I glanced out the window and a sign flicked past. Clapham Junction. I started to shut my eyes again. I didn’t need to think until I changed trains at Waterloo. Paige went over the entire journey with me more than once so I remembered every detail.
At that moment, someone sat down in the seat next to me. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of this except that there was hardly anyone else in the train. I say hardly because when the person’s knee touched mine, my eyes popped open.
I looked over to see a largish bloke looming toward me closer than he should have been. He smelled strongly of…. well, I can only say he smelled strongly of male and he hadn’t shaved in a week at the very least.
He pretended to grin, but not really. He revealed a set of teeth half rotten off. The tattered bottom edges of the stumps showed black against the yellowish upper enamel. “’Ey, guv. You going up to town, then?”
I stiffened. “What if I am?”
“You transferring on to Canterbury, then?”
I tried to retreat but the seatback blocked my way. The more I cringed to shrink away, the closer he inched. He wedged me into the corner so I couldn’t move. “I…. I might be.”
He leered even wider if that was possible. I cast a hesitant glimpse around the car and saw, to my horror, that we were not, in fact, alone. Three other less than savory characters occupied seats not far away and observed the interview with the utmost interest. Their eyes sparkled with a dull, grotesque sort of vibrance that made me sick.
My erstwhile companion jerked his chin at me. “How’s about you float us on to Canterbury, seeing as how you’re on your way there yours own self?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I have no idea what you mean.” I managed to avoid telling him to speak the Queen’s English if he hoped to make his wishes known to me.
He pointed his chin at me again and his eyes darted down to my chest. “Float us the dash, mate. You can stomach it, I reckon.”
I opened my mouth floundering in confusion. I stammered to get the word out. “Ww…what?”
Before I could blink, he lunged at me. He shoved his putrid face right up against my nose. “Come on! Come across with it and din’t muck about. We’re transferring at Waterloo so don’t toss us ‘round. We ain’t your Sunday aunties, you know.”
I couldn’t fathom how to respond to this, but at that moment, he shot out a dirt-encrusted hand and thrust it unceremoniously into my pocket. He groped around in my nether regions for I don’t want to think about what.
I reared back and went nowhere—again. “You brute! How dare you?”
He paid no attention and continued to fossick deeper. He plunged his fingertips between my legs. “Come on, then! Where’s the dosh?”
“You filthy bloody bastard!” I fumed. “I’ll….”
I snatched at his wrist trying to free myself from his ministrations when one of his chums leapt forward and seized both my arms. In half a second, he wrenched them above my head and pinned them against the glass. “What gives, Jerry? Out with it.”
“He’s fucking empty, the blighter!” the first man snarled. “The beater’s bloody flat.”
I flew into a volcanic rage. I kicked and spat and flung every curse at them that I could muster. I must have made some headway, because the first man, the one his friend called Jerry, yanked his hand out of my pocket in a huff. “Roll the bastard. He must have somefink.”
Quick as lightning, the other two dove in. They laid hold of me by all four limbs. No matter how hard I struggled, they manhandled me onto the floor and pinned me face down.
Hands ranged over my back and hips and legs. They groped in places I dare not mention. I yelled and fumed and fought against their hold. “You foul brutes! I’ll tear you to pieces. Do you have any idea who I am?”
Out of nowhere, a shattering blow struck me across the back of the head. Explosions burst in front of my eyes and I felt myself sinking into unconsciousness. Even as I succumbed, volatile rage burst out of me. I wanted to kill these treacherous fiends. I wanted to burn them all alive. All I had to do was shift.
I didn’t shift. I called up the dragon in all its fury. I commanded myself to break out of my skin and rip them apart. I even dug around in the parts of my soul where I knew the dragon lived.
A loud ding woke me from a swoon. I lifted my broken head and squinted around. The train car door hissed aside and I looked up at a sign. It read, Waterloo. I craned my neck the other way. The car was utterly empty.
The door stood open. It didn’t close. Legs and feet walked past beyond it, but nothing happened. I took a few minutes to realize those men must have left me alone. I must have fallen completely unconscious. That must be why I didn’t see them leave.
I hauled myself onto my hands and knees and crawled for that door. I collapsed face-first on the platform outside. The next thing I knew, someone was tapping me on the shoulder. “Time to wake up and go home, mate. Ye can’t stay ‘ere, I’m afraid.”
I peeled my face off the freezing concrete and peered behind me. A helmeted bobby peered down at me and tapped me with his truncheon. My heart sank. Not another bobby. I couldn’t face this.
“Come on, Sir,” he chided. “Time to get up or I’ll have no choice but to run you in. Can you stand?”
His fingers gripped my elbow. I had to get up. I couldn’t let him arrest me. I braced my feet against the pavement and propelled myself up. My skull split with pain, but I swallowed down my rising nausea and steadied myself as best I could.
The man gave me a push. “Off you go now. Get yourself a cab and go home to bed.”
I stumbled forward. I passed another Waterloo sign. I was in Waterloo station. That much was clear. I staggered outside and the crisp, clear night air struck my brow. I wobbled there for a moment thinking. Waterloo. It was night. I left Norbiton in the morning. I was on my way to Dover.
I rotated all the way around and looked into the station. A large clock hung from the wall and read eight o’clock. It must be eight o’clock at night. The reunion was at eight o’clock at night.
I almost collapsed again. I’d missed the reunion. I must have been lying in that train car for hours—possibly for the whole day. For all I knew, I’d traveled all the way to Dover and back again before I came to.
I scanned the area and noticed a bench not far away. I teetered toward it and lowered myself onto it. I had to think, but my brain wouldn’t function. I let my head sink into my hands and I wheeled in vertigo for what seemed like hours.
I was at Waterloo. Waterloo. I had to get somewhere. I ought to go to Dover. I needed to get to the family reunion. No, that wasn’t right. The reunion was over—or it would be by the time I got there. Besides, I’d already used the ticket Paige bought me riding around flat on my face in the train car.
Paige. She would be wondering where I was. To hell with Dover and to hell with the family reunion. Only Paige mattered. I needed to get back to her, but how?
My mind reeled up out of the muddy depths and I looked around. Cars and pedestrians crisscrossed my view. After these weeks in modern times, I began to understand what I was seeing. I was at Waterloo and I wanted to return to Norbiton.
I scanned my surroundings. Things became clearer with every passing moment. I replayed the incident in the train. Those men hit me over the head exactly the way the bobbies did at Buckingham Palace. That blow should have triggered the dragon. I even wanted it to, but it didn’t.
Could I be cured? I dared not hope for that. I had to return to Paige. She would be able to figure this out.
I heaved to my feet and started walking. I had no other way to get back to her. Waterloo wasn’t that far from Norbiton, but I didn’t care if it took all night.
I arrived
at an intersection and looked around. I didn’t recognize the terrain, but I knew enough to head west. If worse came to the worst, I could always ask directions. I still spoke English, thank God.
I checked both ways to cross the busy street. I made sure I measured a nice, large space between the cars. When they whizzed aside and left an opening, I dashed across and gained the footpath once again. I was safe for now.
I set off again feeling more confident by the minute. How hard could it be to walk across town? Perhaps some kind-hearted person would even give me a lift. I could only hope.
I made it halfway down that block when a screeching sound made me look behind me. I barely turned when I spotted a random car veering all over the road. Its wheels screeched against the pavement and its hind end whipped in wide swishing movements. It wavered from one side to the other barreling straight for me.
I wheeled around fast, but not fast enough. It hopped the kerb and lumbered onto the footpath. I jumped aside, but at that moment, it skidded the other way and smashed right into my legs. The impact sent me somersaulting over the bonnet and I flipped skyward.
For a fleeting instant, I watched the buildings and clouds rotating at a strange angle. I registered that I was off the ground tumbling through space. Blistering pain fired through me. A faint hint of a suggestion entered my mind that I could put out my wings and fly away from here, that I was a dragon.
The next moment, I crashed to Earth and bounced on the cruel road. The car screeched a few more yards and smashed its front end into a nearby building. Screams and yells resounded beyond my awareness, but I lay broken and immobile on the ground.
Someone touched me. “He’s bloody dead.”
“He’s not dead, ye nuppty fruitcake! For Christ’s sake, he’s bloody breathing. Look.”
“Call an ambulance. He’s bleeding sore from the head.”
“Don’t fucking touch him, Frank! You’ll likely kill him.”
These voices floated into my brain from a long way off. Sirens echoed far and wide. I couldn’t get my thoughts to clear, but I had to get up. I had to get to Norbiton. I had to get back to Paige.
