by Maz Maddox
I chirped, trying to sound playful. He didn’t move. I inched a little closer, lying flat again once he gasped and pushed himself further into the wall.
I gave a long sigh and kept watching him. I needed to give him time.
Humans are fragile.
Simon lowered his shaking hands from his face, watching me with terrified apprehension. I didn’t move, even though that’s all I wanted to do. Lying still was dangerous. Vulnerable. But I had to for Simon. After a couple moments, Simon’s breathing started to slow, and he swallowed.
“What…” he whispered to no one, trailing off in confusion. He dared to glance towards the door before landing back on me, his shoulders easing down from being tensed up to his ears.
I gave another little chirp.
Friendly. Good.
Simon’s hand was trembling as he slowly reached out, his palm up. I very slowly scooted across the carpet to him and put my nose to his open palm, breathing in and out. He was clammy and cold, fear dancing all over his scent. I could feel his racing pulse in my snout, smell his sweat.
Simon took a deep, fast breath like he was about to sob. “I’ve lost my mind,” he whispered, sounding dangerously close to tears. His eyes swept the door again like he was searching for something.
“Dalton?” he called out, his eyes darting from the door to me. When he heard nothing, he tried again, sounding scared.
Oh.
He’s trying to find me.
I’m right here, Pretty Simon.
SIMON
I had snapped. I finally lost my goddamn mind.
I was staring at a giant, feathery raptor in a hotel room. Had I really watched it attack those men? The blood on the carpet sure as hell looked and smelled real. The ringing in my ears from the gunshots felt real too. My heart felt like it was trying to escape my chest with a hatchet, and the pounding in my ears made me feel dizzy.
Where the hell was Dalton?
Was he dead? Did this thing kill him?
Tears were falling down my cheeks as I watched this creature -- this dinosaur -- staring at me. It was so much bigger than I ever imagined it would be. Seeing something as a skeleton was nothing compared to how it looked in the flesh. Its muzzle was pebbly and dry, just as dark as the feathers covering the body. They had an iridescent blue sheen to them, so dark in color that they were hard to see when flattened together.
Across its tail, the feathers fanned out towards the tip like a broom, the very tips of them striped with white. The same arrangement was across the feathers of its arms, which had long, sharp claws on hooked fingers. Of course, its giant claw on each foot could be seen, even with the feathers blanketing them as it lay down.
Its eyes were strikingly blue, like the tip of a sharp blade of ice. They looked so hauntingly like Dalton’s that it made my chest ache. His silence was driving me to a panic, and my mind was racing with ideas of him being disemboweled like the deer in the forest. As beautiful as this creature was, I couldn’t help but be paralyzed in fear by it.
I had seen what he could do. The screams of those men still bounced around in my head. Why the hell wasn’t it attacking me? Was it full? Toying with me? Its eyes held so much intelligence as it watched me, that I almost felt tempted to talk to it. But that would make me more insane, wouldn’t it?
Each time the thing chirped, I saw flashes of its deadly teeth. Rows of daggers filled its jaws, sharp and ridged like steak knives. Blood was drying across the pebbly skin of its snout from the previous attack, which made my stomach churn. There was a small shine to one side of its mouth that didn’t match the rest of it. Two little dots caught the light of the sun as it tilted its head to examine me.
They almost looked like studs. Like the damn thing had its lip pierced.
Like Dalton.
“What the hell are you?” I whispered, locking my eyes with that of the giant, blue-eyed raptor sitting in front of me.
With another perky chirp, the raptor raised the feathers across its head, unfolding and flexing like an alert cockatiel. The feathers across its skull stood up like a shark fin, bright pink and proud…
Like a pink mohawk.
“Dalton?” I blurted in horror. The raptor chirped again and pushed its nose into my chest, scooting forward to lay its massive head across my lap like a starved pet puppy.
“Dalton?” I repeated on the verge of a breakdown. Another chirp and happy sigh as I put my hand on top of its head.
His head.
Dalton’s head.
Dalton’s...raptor….head.
I felt myself struggling to breathe. My head started to swim.
“What’s happening? How? How?” I lifted his muzzle with both hands to look at him. “How is this possible? How are you possible?”
I needed to understand. I needed to process what was happening and how this could be reality. The raptor -- Dalton -- lifted his head and tilted it.
Then he winked.
And I fainted.
Chapter Eleven
Dalton
That could have gone better.
Shortly after Simon flopped over unconscious, I heard the blazing sounds of inbound sirens heading our way. While my feathery side wanted to nest, my much more logical human side was screaming to get the fuck out of there. I shifted back to my human form, scooped up Simon, dumped him in the Rodeo, went back for the fossil and got the fuck out of Dodge. There hadn’t been a ton of people in that tiny motel, but one would be too many. My license plate was surely photographed and I hoped like hell no one saw me in my raptor form beyond the men I attacked.
My phone was buzzing constantly, but I waited until I was on the highway to answer it.
“Status,” Montana’s voice was stern, which meant he had been worried.
“Not great,” I admitted, only remembering I had a head wound when I brushed my palm over it. “Hyena’s guys found us. They attacked and…”
“Us?”
Shit.
“Yeah.” I winced. “Simon and me.”
There was a pause, and I heard Montana take a long, measured breath.
“Are you hurt?”
“Nothing major. I got my bell rung and some kicks to the ribs. I’m alright. There’s...a bigger problem, HC.” My stomach twisted but I powered through it. “While we were being attacked, I shifted.”
“Jesus Christ, Dalton.”
“It was reflex!” I snapped, hating the disappointment in his voice. Montana was a stuffy pain in the ass, but I couldn’t stand that disappointed dad tone. “They were going to kill us. They took me off guard.”
“How many people saw you?”
“I don’t know. I attacked three men for sure, but we were at a hotel…” I trailed off and punched the steering wheel in frustration. “Fuck!”
“Focus.” Montana’s voice was like a firm hand pulling me back onto the path. “We have measures in place for things like this. Stressing is going to make you make a mistake.”
Another mistake, you mean.
Montana continued, “Get off the main roads, ditch your car, and stay low. Royal is working on getting information.”
“How did they find us? Royal said they lost our trail.” I was fishing around for a napkin to wipe some dry blood off my head.
“Looks like they were tipped off by a state trooper that stopped into a gas station. The paleontologist was seen buying snacks and the clerk was excited to tell someone.” His voice was even, but I knew him well enough to know he was fuming. His anger didn’t scare me, though I’d seen the bad side of it before. Thankfully, never fully directed at me.
“Montana, I--”
“Keep your head. You know what to do. Call me when you’ve landed somewhere and we’ll plan the next steps.”
“Ok.” I wanted to get my apology out, but he disconnected. I had severely fucked up. There were plenty of rules I didn’t give a shit about, but I’d never broken the one golden rule: never shift around humans. It was pretty damn easy to follow. How the hell could
I let this happen?
I glanced over at Simon, still pale and out cold. Seeing him in danger is what ignited the fire, but the moment I saw blood the flames were fanned into a wildfire. What the hell was my deal? He wasn’t a teammate. He wasn’t even a friend. I barely knew this guy and yet I shit on my team’s guarded secrets the moment he was in trouble.
I was acting like this dorky paleontologist was mine.
My Pretty Simon.
My knuckles hurt with how tightly I was wringing the steering wheel, my head swimming with what the next steps were going to be, when I heard Simon grunt. His eyebrows furrowed as he blinked awake, pushing himself up in his seat. His memories apparently came roaring back, because he jerked and looked at me like I was the boogie man before rubbing his eyes and scanning the road ahead.
“Where are we? What happened?” He sounded exhausted and rattled, which was understandable.
“What do you remember?” I reached behind the seat and grabbed a bottle of water from the gas station bag of supplies. He took it on autopilot, but didn’t open it.
“Nothing that makes sense,” Simon whispered. “Dalton, were we attacked?” His eyes widened when he saw the dried blood on my head. “Oh, my God. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. It’s a scratch.”
“Why the hell are you naked?” He rubbed at his temples. “What did I see back there? Dalton, I’m really confused.”
“Listen, I know your head is spinning right now, but you gotta stay with me, ok? Hyena found us because of that cashier lady from last night. It’s not your fault,” I added quickly before he could apologize. “We just gotta change our tactics. You’re not gonna like it, but we need to ditch this Rodeo and get another car. Then, we’re laying low for a bit. Alright?”
“You have to steal a car?” Simon asked after taking a sip of water.
“Yeah. It sucks, I know. But after we get settled down, I’ll answer whatever questions you have. Deal?”
Simon let the words hang in the air while he swallowed a bit more water. When he spoke, it was almost too soft to hear. “Dalton. Did that really happen?”
I took a long breath. I could deny it. Ask him what he was talking about. Tell him he hit his head and just dreamed it.
I could have.
But I didn’t want to hide from him. It didn’t feel right.
Was it selfish? Yeah. Stupid? Probably.
“Yeah.” I met his eyes for a moment before turning them back to the road. “It did.”
Simon went silent after that. I would imagine that his mind was imploding in on itself from the events of the day, but I didn’t have time to be his therapist, fossil smuggler and thief all at once. Getting us to safety was my priority, then I could help him through his mental breakdown.
I didn’t have to travel far to spot a large supercenter style grocery store with a giant parking lot. The place was always swarming with people, but that meant heaps of vehicles to pick from. It was all about timing, patience and speed. I parked next to a very ordinary, silver Toyota sedan that could never be picked out of a line up. No dings, weird bumper stickers, odd paint -- nothing that made it special.
After pulling some clothing on from my duffle in the Rodeo, I told Simon to be ready to spring out with the fossil case. He nodded, pale and exhausted, and clutched the case to him like it was his firstborn child.
The car’s door was easy enough to jerk loose with the proper tool, and I slipped inside casually to fiddle with the steering column. Once the car rumbled to life, I waved at Simon who nearly sprinted to the car like the Rodeo was on fire, holding the case and the duffle we had to share.
We slipped out of the crowded parking lot without issue and melted into the sea of cars on the highway. Once we travelled further from the town, I knew I needed to swap the plates to keep the black and whites off our tails, but that would be easy enough. My main concern was my fuck up and Simon’s silence.
Shit had gone sideways really fast.
After the plates were swapped, it was another hour before I decided it was safe to stop. The small dive motor inn aptly named “The Get-Away Motel” was about as basic and simple as I could have hoped for. They accepted cash, didn’t ask for an ID and barely even glanced my way as I got my room key. As long as I didn’t burn the place down or make too much noise, they didn’t give a shit. It was perfect.
Simon walked into the small room like a zombie, his eyesight unfocused and distant, his movements slow and sluggish. As he sat on the squeaky mattress, he set the fossil case down with a heavy thump and stared at the floor. I felt a sharp tug of concern as I shut the door behind him, making sure to lock it. I checked all the windows and set my gun down on the bedside table, so he knew we had it.
“Hey.” I squatted in front of him and put my hands on his knees. His brown eyes floated to me and I could see the toll all of this had taken on him. If the man’s hair wasn’t already graying, I would have guaranteed silver would have sprung from this shit. “You still with me?”
“I think I’ve lost my mind,” he whispered, the fear in his voice making it shake. “Dalton, I think I’ve snapped and I’m so, so scared.”
“You didn’t snap,” I said gently, giving his knees a squeeze.
“I saw you as a raptor,” he hissed quickly, whispering as his eyes widened. “As a goddamn dinosaur, Dalton. You tell me that’s not absolutely insane!”
“Yeah, I know, and I told you that it happened. You didn’t make it up, so you didn’t lose your mind.” I dropped my hands away as he stood and moved past me, starting to pace around the room like a caged animal.
“That’s impossible. What you are saying is impossible, so why are you saying it?”
I stood slowly and let out a long breath. Jesus Christ, Montana was really going to kill me.
“I can prove it.”
Simon stopped and stared at me. “How?”
“I’ll shift again.” I tugged my shirt off and tossed it onto the bed, kicking my boots off next. “I’ll change into what you saw and you’ll know you’re not crazy.”
Simon’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head, unsure of what to do with himself.
“You’re serious.”
“Deadly serious.” I shed my pants and tossed them next to my shirt. “I think it’s probably best if you don’t watch the...you know. Shifty part.”
“Why?” Fear had been replaced with cold skepticism, his scientist brain practically spitting smoke as it tried to make sense of it all.
“Because I’m pretty sure it’ll traumatize you?” I snorted. “How about one freaky ass thing at a time, ok? Just cover your eyes.” I waved my hand at him. “You’re making me nervous.”
Simon exhaled like a bratty teenager and covered his eyes. It made me laugh to see such a put together mess acting like a pissed off kid.
Besides my brothers in RELIC, who were also like me, I had never changed between forms in front of anyone. Even with Simon’s eyes covered, it was still hard for me to shake the paranoia during my shift. Since I could remember, I had been told to never let humans see me change, never let the secret out.
Well, that was out the fucking window now.
The flex was slower from my nerves, but it didn’t change the result. My feathers sprouted, my bones reshaped around twisting muscles, and soon I was shaking my tail feathers as the final shiver ran over me.
Simon peeked from around his fingers before dropping his hands away. The look of horror he had before, back in the previous hotel, was long gone. There was no fear spiking his scent or shaking his limbs. When he reached out to touch me, there was only a beat of hesitation before his fingers caressed my feathers.
His brown eyes scanned over me, his mouth open in amazement as he allowed himself to understand it was real. Even though I knew he wasn’t scared, I still felt the urge to sit or try and be smaller. As it was, I stood over him easily, and I was very aware of how small and fragile he was when I was like this.
I gently touched my nose to h
is chest, hoping he knew I was trying to comfort. A bloom of warmth spread over me at the sound of his strangled laugh, and I felt his heartbeat skip as I touched him. Little, hot drops fell onto my snout from his chin and I turned my head to see that he was crying.
He gave a sob as he covered his mouth, his fingers shaking as they traced down my neck.
“You have pre-flight feathers,” he said around a gasp as he touched my arm. “I knew it. Oh, my god, look at your tail.”
I was very proud of my tail, so I shook it and flared out my feathers. I was rewarded with a sobbing laugh as he touched them, like my feathers were made of something precious. It was hard for me to understand why he was crying, so I made sure to watch him carefully for any troubling signs. Simon scrubbed his arm over his eyes and hiccupped a small chuckle.
“This has been my dream since I was seven,” he confessed around a sniff, wiping tears from his cheeks. “I figured the best I was going to get was Horner’s weird dino-chicken. This is like seeing a dream come true.”
I ruffled my feathers at that, and he smiled. Even in the state I was in, that smile made me warm. The dimple was back and I had the urge to try and bite it. I refrained, but I did chirp a little. It pleased me that he liked my feathers, that I was a good specimen. The ancient reflex to display my colorful stripe and flex my claws was drumming in my blood, but I wasn’t sure if that would be charming or scary for humans.
“Can you come back?” Simon asked, smoothing my neck feathers down, his eyes searching mine. “Back to being a human? I have just...so many questions.”
I pushed on his hands, urging them up towards his face. It took him a moment to understand what I wanted before he covered his eyes again. I pulled myself back to my human form, no longer feeling the unease that I had before.
“Fucking pinches,” I complained, rubbing at my neck. “I usually go a couple hours between shifts. It’s like twisting your neck too far.”
“Does it hurt?” Simon asked cautiously, pulling his hands away. “When you...do that?”
