Sucked In

by Charissa Dufour

Chapter Eleven

  The crazy guy jumped out of the SUV, tearing his seatbelt from its bolts. Through the windshield, I saw… wait…what?

  I saw a dragon standing on the sidewalk next to Sylvester Park.

  Okay, that's it! I'm done. No more fairy tale creatures are allowed to exist. Because I just can't take any more!

  I glanced out my own window. To my astonishment, the few pedestrians walking along didn't seem to notice the massive beast wedged between the trees. It looked pretty traditional for a dragon—wings, spikes, teeth, lots of teeth, and a long tail. What was unexpected, aside from its existence, was the way it looked to be engulfed in flames. The orange and gold flames licked up its body until they turned blue near his head. The weirdest part was that it did not seem to hurt the nearby trees, though it was clearly quite hot. The falling rain sizzled around its head and created a billowing cloud of steam.

  Before Nikolai could get far, the dragon shifted to a nearby street light and gave it a massive push with its wide shoulder. Just as it began to topple, I realized the dragon had pretty good aim: the falling light was directed right at the SUV. I slammed the door open, leaving a dent in it, wrenching myself free from the seat belt. The pole crashed into the front of the vehicle just as I reached the pavement. I felt shards of glass clatter down around me, some of them scraping my skin.

  Not giving myself a moment to hesitate, I bolted toward Nik and away from the crumpled front end of the SUV. Nikolai had rounded the back of the vehicle and was tearing metal bits from the underside. I tried to copy him but wasn't quite strong enough. I added a few dents to the mess, but that was about it. Not to mention, I had no idea what he needed from the underside of the vehicle.

  “Duck!” Nik cried, just as the dragon turned its fiery breath in our direction.

  A few pieces of the car caught on fire, while others melted. I dropped to the pavement just in time. The heat was excruciating, but when it stopped I discovered no part of me had become engulfed in flame. I glanced over at Nik. He seemed equally unscathed.

  “I'm going to distract it,” he shouted. “You run around to its back and ram this through the thick part of its tail to anchor it.”

  He handed me what appeared to be the Land Rover's bent crankshaft. That's what it's called, right? Crankshaft? I took hold of the enormous piece of zig-zaggy metal and crawled to the back end of the car. Nik jumped out from his cover and bolted toward one of the parked cars. The movement caught the dragon’s attention. A stream of fire sprouted in Nik's direction, missing him by mere inches. I ducked out from the protection of the destroyed Land Rover and ran across the street, dodging the few cars heading toward Capitol Lake. The drivers seemed oblivious to me and my crankshaft.

  I dropped between two parked cars just as the dragon ran out of breath. Nik ran to the next car, keeping its attention on him. I snuck behind one of the concrete planters. The dragon and its tail were only a few meters away. I waited for it to start another fiery bellow. When it did, I jumped forward, the crankshaft raised in my unnaturally strong arms, and ran to its side. I had to jump over its fiery tail as it swished back and forth—which became especially difficult considering the blinding steam rising from its body. Somehow I got to its rump without drawing its attention. Heat from the body painfully licked my skin, similar to how heat rises from the oven when you first open the door. My skin felt instantly dry, as though it might crack if I spent another second near the source. I slammed the one straight end of the zig-zaggy piece of metal into the part of the dragon where the tail met its spine.

  The heat from the dragon's body subsided noticeably. What had I just done? I’m sure Nik would know, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

  Just as I was about to turn and run, I felt something large and scratchy grab me by the torso and jerk me off the ground. I screamed and flailed my limbs uselessly while glancing down to see a giant tree—its long, naked branches acting as hands. I had a sudden image of Treebeard and felt a little bit like Merry and Pippin—very uncomfortable and very afraid. Standing at the base of the large tree was a mostly naked woman, her brown hair flecked with leaves and branches. What clothing she did have appeared to be made of leaves. Other than the plant life growing from her body, something about her appeared off. Though humanoid, her skin was the mottled color of dried leaves. One of her hands was placed possessively on the trunk of my attacker.

  Now, I have been to Sylvester Park many times. It's the local hippie hang out, and my friends like to go and watch the protesters make fools of themselves. But in all my visits, I'd never seen a mostly naked humanoid woman with a pet tree before. The tree-huggers in the area wore black socks with their Birkenstocks and layers of unwashed clothing. Though they tried to commune with nature, I'd never seen one actually control it. Like most of the last couple days, this was very new to me.

  The tree-being squeezed me slightly before pulling me away from the now really pissed off dragon. I glanced down to the street and noticed Nik peeking over an enormous pickup truck; his attention was torn between the giant moving tree and the fire-breathing dragon.

  Nik ducked behind the truck, reached into the back, and pulled out a giant tire iron. Next, he yanked the front door off. He used the door as a shield and the tire iron as a medieval lance.

  Nik charged.

  The dragon managed to get its head whipped around, its fiery breath hurdling toward Nik before the vampire reached it. The vampire caught the blast on the door, the sudden heat shattering the window. Nik ducked his head and managed to keep himself from catching on fire. He pressed forward through the stream of fire—a proverbial knight with car parts.

  Now, like any other girl, I had once dreamed of a knight riding to my rescue, killing the dragon, and saving me from the tower—I just never imagined it would actually happen. Nor did I imagine my knight would be a vampire I hated, his weapons would be imported car parts, the dragon would have fire for skin or my tower would be a sentient tree that was trying to squeeze me into vampire goo.

  When it ran out of breath, Nik rushed the dragon and skewered it. Handy things, those car parts, besides the mundane use. The dragon slumped over, its fiery aura fading completely. Was it dead? Did those things die?

  My eyes trained on the naked woman standing at the base of the tree. She laughed, the noise sounding like a mix of a human voice and the rustling of dry leaves in the wind. Very creepy!

  Nik stood up and took a step toward her. “Give me back the girl.”

  In response, the tree squeezed me tighter. I couldn't keep the scream from escaping, though it ended quickly since I couldn't take a very deep breath. Nik glanced up at me and noticed the other branch sweeping down in his direction. He rolled out of the way and ran back toward the cars. Nik ripped the door from his ruined SUV and hurled it at the woman. She skipped out of the way.

  I couldn't just sit in my tree and do nothing, but I didn't have any weapons. I am strong now, a small voice in my brain whispered. I reached up and started breaking off branches and throwing them at the woman. The woman glared up at me. I broke another branch and she grimaced. Sweet! This must hurt her. I reached for a large one—one I would never have imagined myself capable of breaking before yesterday. With all the might I had, I yanked on the large branch and tore it from the trunk as though I had been playing with putty.

  The woman shrieked and dropped to her knees. She crawled to the tree and reached for the trunk. With her contact established, the tree jerked and the branch holding me squeezed. I tried to cry out in pain, but I couldn't breathe. The woman smiled; her green teeth matched her surprisingly round eyes. I wanted to suggest my dentist to her.

  Evidently, I had provided a decent distraction. Nik snuck up behind the woman, wielding what looked like part of the metal from around the windshield. He swung it, the metal connecting with the woman's face. She flew a few feet away from the tree, which went limp, or as limp as a tree can. I gasped for breath. I still couldn't get free, but I could start doing damage a
gain. I reached for the branches holding me and tried to free myself.

  At the same time, Nik picked up a can of gasoline he had retrieved from the back of his Land Rover. He poured it on the trunk of the tree and pulled a lighter from his pocket. “What are you doing?” I shrieked.

  Nikolai ignored me. “Give her back, or I'll light your tree on fire!” he said in a loud, commanding voice. I glanced at the woman. She was standing a few feet away, her slim body shaking with visible fear. Her slightly misshapen eyes grew wide while her long fingers tightened into fists.

  “You wouldn't,” she said in that same raspy voice. It made my skin crawl.

  Nikolai flicked the lighter on, the small flame lighting his face, and held it near the soaked wood.

  “Okay!” The tree-woman ran to the tree, tripped, and reached out to touch the base of the trunk. The branches released me and I fell to the ground with a thud. Before the woman could make a move, I ran to Nik, glad to use him as a semi-living-shield. He didn't seem to mind. With a strange glint in his eye, he dropped the lighter on the ground near the tree and pushed me toward the street. The tree lit up with the aid of the gasoline. No wood in western Washington would burn that easily without a little help—way too wet.

  The woman began to writhe in agony. She slapped her face and legs, rolling on the damp grass as though she too was on fire. We didn’t stick around to see what happened next.