That was all that mattered.
“Did you see her tongue?” Joseph whispered, leaning into Kali so that Alicia would not hear.
Kali nodded, twisting her hands together in a nervous movement. “Yea, it’s forked… like a dragon. A fucking dragon! I never thought I would see one again. I had hoped never to.”
Jared rose from the couch and walked over to see better. Alicia’s eyes fluttered open and she looked at him for a moment before closing them again, breathing deeply. Her eyes truly were amazing to look at, reds and golds dancing almost like a mist, it was like looking at the aurora borealis captured in someone's eyes. He stood next to Bertha and placed a hand on her shoulder, she had been the only one silent so far. She had simply been sitting there transfixed, staring at Alicia, it was unusual for her to be so quiet. Even at the touch of his hand, Bertha still didn’t move.
“Bertha.” Jared shook her slightly, “...Bertha?” Alarmed now, he raised his voice, “BERTHA??” He shook her again by her shoulders, but still the large woman did not move.
She just sat there, unblinking, her eyes never leaving Alicia’s face.
Kali looked over, hearing Jared grow more and more panicked. “Relax, this reaction is normal. She’ll snap out of it in a couple of hours. One of a dragon's powers is the ability to transfix, or rather hypnotize, a person or being. Alicia probably did it without even realizing it.”
Jared turned to her, confused, “Dragon?”
Kali looked at Alicia, she seemed almost to not understand what they were saying, it was like they were speaking a foreign language. Alicia leaned forward, sitting up in the bed, sweat coating her brow with the effort. Her breathing quickened, the bones in her face and body started to shift, sick cracking and popping noises filling the air. Alicia screamed, though not the same as before, it sounded human and filled with pain. The glass, hovering below the windows, hit the floor with a loud clatter, shattering into tiny fragments as it hit the wood. The clock on the nightstand ticked loudly in the eerie silence that followed the crash, and everything else started moving again.
I felt like every cell of my body was on fire. I couldn’t help but twist and squirm on the bed, trying to escape the pain. I reached my hand out, whimpering, pleading, looking down my arm at the people around the bed- but my arm, something was wrong with it! It was a twisted claw, and as I stared at it, the bones popped and shifted, my fingers twisting in angles that should be impossible.
I screamed, I couldn’t help it, between the pain and the shock, who wouldn’t scream? As I watched, my skin sluiced off, almost like when you soap up, and rinse away the lather. It fell, leaving my arm and hand a mass of tendon, muscle and bone. Then, like magic, the skin began to grow back, creeping slowly over the exposed flesh. But the new skin was different- it looked… scaled. Small, reptilian like scales slid over my hand as it contorted.
The pain eased, and I was able to look at my fingers with clearer eyes. They were still sort of there, but they appeared to have more joints, and my nails had turned into long, thick talons. Pearlescent scales covered the entirety of my hand and up to my forearm. At the elbow, it looked like my human skin transitioned from the pearly reptilian scales, to human scales, to human skin.
What in the ever loving fuck was going on? None of this made sense, my arm, was a fucking scaled reptilian mess!
I looked up to question them, but they were standing there looking as stunned as I was. Something about me seemed to have surprised them- but they had to have more of a clue about what was going on than I did. I wanted to know why they were looking at me so strangely, apparently this was surprising to them as well. Bertha was sitting next to me, staring at me like I was the only thing in her world. I looked back at my arm, studying it closely… it was rather pretty, but was this really me? No, it couldn’t be. This had to be some warped dream caused by a fever- a hallucination or something.
Before I could get lost in thought, another wracking pain keeled me over. My face contorted in another scream as I reached back, tearing at my shirt. Something- something was coming out of my back, something was tearing its way out of my skin. I screamed and pleaded for them to get it out.
Joseph moved quickly as Alicia reacted, clawing at her back. Her long talons tore ribbons in her skin. She was begging him- or at least he thought she was- whatever language she was speaking in, it wasn’t English. He could tell she wanted him to do something about her back, so he pushed her forward and peeled the thin, blood-soaked shirt away from her skin.
To leave any scraps of cloth in the wounds could be very dangerous. Once the skin healed- and it would quite rapidly- it could heal over the fabric. Her shoulder blades were jutting out at an awkward angle, until a loud sickening pop filled the air. He winced, watching as her shoulder blades pushed out, tearing the skin.
Red bits of flesh and blood glistening on bone. Alicia wailed in pain and said something, it was garbled against her knees.
Joseph watched as something pushed out of her skin, it was like that Alien movie, the one where the alien pushed and tore its way out of a guy’s chest. That’s exactly what was happening to Alicia’s back, something was pushing its way out of where her shoulder blades were. Alicia cried out and bent further forward, wrapping her arms around her knees. Joseph could see something pushing out, it looked like another talon atop slender delicate bones.
As it pushed out further, he could see soft pearlescent webbing starting to form. Alicia caught her breath and shuddered again, tears flowing freely. Her newly formed wings trembled, delicate and weak like that of a newly born butterfly. The blood and skin slowly began to dry and flake off as Alicia shuddered.
She looked up to Joseph, her swirling colored eyes filled with tears, “xurwk coi pok?” She whispered. He looked at her and shook his head “I don’t know what you’re saying?”
I tried to convince the man to make the pain stop, but he couldn’t seem to understand me when I spoke. I had said it slowly, clearly “Make it stop?” That was all I asked. He shook his head, and said something to me and I couldn’t understand what he said. Was I in a different country or something? No one seemed to understand English.
The older, plain but pretty lady had looked at me in confusion as well. What the hell was going on here? The burning in my back had been replaced by a dull ache, but at least it didn’t hurt as badly. I craned my neck to try to see what changed on my back, I could vaguely make out something that was similar in color to my weird hands.
Joseph went to the door and called for one of the maids, she came quickly, seeing his blood soaked hands without question. He murmured against her ear that he required a bowl, antiseptic and a washcloth. She rushed to get him the supplies he requested, most of his staff realized if he asked for medical or health related equipment it was priority above all else.
She returned and handed him the supplies. He walked into the adjoining bathroom and filled the bowl with warm water and soap and tossed in the washcloth to let it soak. He had everything else he needed in his medical bag, from antibiotic ointment to bandaging and tape. However, bandaging a dragon’s wings didn’t seem feasible.
Joseph walked back to Alicia, who was gazing at him with wide eyes, evidently noting the bowl. He lowered it so that she could see that it was just soap and water and began peeling away the remaining cloth of her shirt. He reached for the washcloth and squeezed out some of the water.
Alicia groaned as the warm washcloth hit her back, an intake of breath then a whimper, letting him know that it had hurt and he eased up on his pressure.
Slowly dabbing the washcloth along her back, wiping away the blood and flakes of torn skin, he cleaned around the wound and the lower parts of her back where the blood had soaked.
The warm washcloth felt amazing, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and lean forward as he washed my back. It had felt crusty and sticky, now the soothing warmth washed away that feeling. Closing my eyes, I rested my face on my knees, exhausted. I didn’t know if I could take much
more of this pain. I heard someone speak and looked up to see the older woman on her cellphone.
Cellphone! I needed to call Jen, I reached out, looking at her pleadingly, but she couldn’t understand my words- but surely my gesture was enough? She shook her head no at me, looking incredibly sad when she did. I really needed to know what was going on. Bertha was still staring at me, she hadn’t moved since I woke up and I was beginning to think that something was wrong with her.
As if on cue, Bertha shuddered and shook her head blinking rapidly “Aye, what?” She looked around, surprised to see Alicia awake, much less her reptilian hands. “What the bloody hell?!”
Kali looked at Bertha and tried to even think where to start her explanation. Instead she shrugged and pointed at Alicia “Bertha, meet the new Alicia, the first dragon we have known of in a few decades.”
Bertha stared at Alicia for a minute- as if she had relapsed into her transfixion- and then sighed, every supernatural knew the history of dragons- and why they had been eliminated. “Well, shit, there goes the neighborhood.” Kali merely nodded.
Jared watched all of this quietly, admittedly when Bertha started talking and moving around again a great surge of relief filled him. He really liked the old cow, well, she wasn't old... but she was a cow. Kinda. He looked over at Alicia, thinking that they were judging her awful quickly. How did they know that she was going to be as bad as the dragons of the past?
Obviously her parents weren’t that bad, or more would know about them. From the files that he had read on Alicia, what was known of her parents was minimal. They had been quiet, non-chaotic members of society- which was more than Jared could say for others he had known. He wasn’t about to say anything, just going based on the information they had about Alicia, he believed that she could prove it on her own.
Instead he walked over to Kali and pulled her aside, lowering his voice as he spoke. “Did you call the Sheriff?” Kali shook her head, “No, not yet, it has been entirely too hectic.”
Jared grabbed Kali's arm and pulled her further from the bed. “You need to make the call, or the sheriff is going to go sniffing around. There are some things it's better he doesn’t know about. Just call him and tell him that Alicia is sick and that she is safe with Joseph. He doesn’t need all of the details, at least not yet.”
Kali pulled away from Jared and scowled at him “As the sheriff of our town, he has every right to know about Alicia being a dragon, having a dragon in town is serious. Surely, even you understand that, Jared.”
Jared sighed, he wasn’t really sure how to get his point across to Kali. “Can you imagine him having to tell his daughter that her girlfriend is a dragon- and was executed for her mere existence?”
Kali’s eyes widened, realizing, how could she have forgotten the texts from the council office? She had worked on them herself, years ago, during the last mass dragon execution. All dragons were to be executed without trial. She looked over at Alicia, laying on the bed, her eyes opening and closing, her body shifted awkwardly to the side so that she was not laying on her still-forming wings. She had to think about this, would it really be right to just kill Alicia, without a second thought? Kali chewed on her bottom lip, it would be simple, she would just have to walk over, lean down and whisper in the girl’s ear.
A simple touch, a few words, and Alicia would die.
Kali walked back towards the bed, the look on her face made Bertha stand and move to intercept her. “Kali, No! Give her a chance, please! She’s a good girl, don’t do this!”
Bertha grabbed Kali's arm, her form towering over the smaller woman. “Please, Kali… don’t!”
Kali looked up at Bertha, her eyes meeting the soft brown eyes. “Bertha…”
She pushed Bertha’s hand from her arm with a gentle pat and stepped around the bovine shifter, a forlorn expression on her face as she approached the bed.
Kali stared down, Jared, Bertha and Joseph standing behind her. Bertha clutched Jared’s arm and moved towards the bed as if to intercept Kali, but Jared stopped her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his embrace.
The bovine shifter burst into tears, large crystalline droplets dragging down her cheeks, leaving behind dirty streaks. Kali ignored the sobbing sounds behind her, she had to do what was right for the community- regardless of whether others thought it was right or not. She looked long and hard at Alicia.
Alicia was an honest, good, kind woman. She was attractive, physically and mentally. She was smart, and friendly. All of the cases that she had defended, her clients had been either the victim, or innocent. She refused to take on cases of the guilty party, stating that she wanted to serve the greater good, not fight for a to criminal walk free.
But now she was something that the entire supernatural community feared to the point of mass extinction. She was smart and now she was dangerous. Kali leaned forward and pressed a hand to Alicia’s brow, wiping her hair back from her face as she whispered in the woman's ear. One simple phrase, that was all it would take.
She pressed her lips against Alicia’s ear and whispered, “Live.”
There was nothing significant in the word, Kali was stating it for now at least. She would not kill Alicia; she would give the woman- the dragon- a chance to prove herself. First needed to let Alicia finish her transformation, she wasn’t quite done, there was still the facial transformation and her tail and feet. From what Kali could tell, she was stuck in a middle form, both human and dragon but not completely either.
Kali turned to Joseph and the rest of them standing behind her.
“Despite the council laws, with at least two members here and present, we can make a temporary stay. Do you all agree that for now, until she proves otherwise, Alicia Jacobs, as a Dragon, may live despite the writings in the council law?”
Bertha looked up to Kali, her eyes still filled with tears and her face streaked with moisture and dirt. A glimmer of hope sparkled in her eyes. “I, Bertha Hoelstine, agree with the temporary stay allowing, Alicia Jacobs to live.”
Jared looked at Kali and nodded. “I, Jared Lobo, agree with the temporary stay allowing Alicia Jacobs to live.”
Kali took a deep breath, the last words spoken would seal the agreement. “I, Kali Wee-sa, agree with the temporary stay allowing Alicia Jacobs to live.”
The magic descended upon them, the sensation was like thousands of needles pricking the skin, not painful but an annoyance.
“The agreement is sealed, any who break this without justifiable reason will be forsworn and the great hunt will take their lives as it deems necessary.” Kali intoned as the seal was created, forming a pact between the three council members present.
Once the magic had settled, Jared walked out into the hallway and took a deep breath. He was grateful that Kali had not killed Alicia. It would be hard to respect her again, if she had. After all, for the time being at least Alicia was innocent. Whether she would stay innocent, who knows, really only time and Alicia’s actions could tell them that. For now, her life was safe. If any council member were to injure her, even those outside of the pact they would be dealt with.
Per council law, if three council members were present and created a seal all council members were bound. It was something that seldom happened, since most council members could not agree on anything long enough. It was also only allowed to be used in emergency situations and without vile or evil intentions. It was a safeguard for all of them, and now if Sarah or any of that lot got a mind to harm Alicia, they’d think twice.
Alicia had dozed off during the creation of the pact, laying on her side with her wings stretched out behind her, now fully dried and formed. They were lovely to look at, the bone structure was delicate and looked as if even the slightest movement would break them. At first they had looked impossibly small, but as they had dried and stretched out, it was obvious that was not the case.
The wings stretched out along the entirety of Alicia’s back and down past her hips, stopping just above her calves. T
he actual portion of the wings that supported weight, both bone and cartilage, were covered in a darker colored pearlescent scaling, it was almost a red hue.
The webbing between the bone-lengths was a white, the outer layer facing behind her covered in pearlescent scales and the inner webbing was semi translucent filled with veins and vessels. Both wings seemed to be fully intact and no damage upon leaving her body was evident. All in all- other than being stuck in the middle of her transformation- Alicia appeared to be doing much better.
Now that Alicia was resting peacefully, at least for the time being, the others needed to regroup. They conversed amongst themselves, discussing what had happened with Alicia. Her change was fascinating to Joseph, unsurprisingly considering his medical background, and he had never seen a dragon. They weren’t even covered in the medical texts since they were believed to be extinct.
A maid had brought coffee, scones and fresh fruit so they all sat and ate while they discussed what to do next. Kali wanted to call the sheriff and tell him everything, believing that he’d understand. Jared, and Bertha were both under the impression that it should be on a need-to-know basis, and the sheriff didn’t need to know. Joseph was too busy drawing diagrams of Alicia’s wings on a napkin to care either way.
Broken Glass: An Alicia Jacobs Novel (The Alicia Jacobs Chronicle Book 1) Page 12
