“When they disembowel the sniveling runt, Galeptopnor will offer you his seed to seal your union.”
This was insane. She must have gotten a spiked drink at the bar.
Connor leaned out from behind a stack of empty vegetable crates and beckoned to her. She struggled, but Cain’s grip dug deeper into her biceps.
Further inside the courtyard, the smaller dragon snarled and snapped, whipping one of the larger creatures with the edge of his tail. The gray howled, backing away, while the first dragon lashed out with one muscular, clawed arm.
A dull thud sounded through the air as the largest gray slammed its reptilian arm into the little dragon’s chest. Cain yanked Anna back as the small dragon stumbled, but its wing hit them with the force of a baseball bat. Cain lost his grip and Anna thudded to the ground.
She ignored the pain, scrambled to her feet, and sprinted toward the stack of crates.
Connor held out a hand to her while dragging Sybil behind him. He grabbed onto Anna like a vise.
“Dra-dragons.” Anna whimpered.
“So I see.” Connor yanked, propelling her into a sprint beside him.
Sybil grunted with each clop of her chunky heels on the pavement. Anna thanked God for the foresight to wear sneakers.
As they slipped from the alley, Connor skidded to a stop a few feet from a line of three more men in gray fanned out in front of the tavern. The door opened, and the bartender stuck his head out. “I’ve called the police.”
Connor didn’t even glance in his direction. “Fine. Get inside and pull down the shades.”
When they were alone, one of the gray-clad men smiled. “Hello Quenor.”
Connor’s nose flared. “Zeph.” He backed Anna and Sybil up a step.
“So, that’s your game, is it?” Zeph walked toward them. “Wait until Gale is busy with the runt, and you slip out with the prize? That’s not playing fair.”
Connor tugged the women closer. “That’s not what’s happening here.” He glanced at Anna. “She’s too young for my tastes.”
Zeph held his hands out to his sides. “Yet here we are.”
The silence seemed to echo along the sidewalk as Connor’s gaze roamed the streets. If he was looking for a way out, Anna prayed he’d find it.
Zeph’s face morphed into a feral sneer. “Hand the girl over. You know this won’t end well for you, my friend.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, drawing Zeph’s attention away from them. Connor shoved Anna and Sybil down the alley opposite the tavern. “Run. Don’t look back.”
The wood and brick walls provided little protection from the biting wind, and even less from the roaring snarls that filled the night behind them.
Anna and Sybil stopped beside a dumpster.
“Oh, God. What were those things?” Sybil clutched her chest. “Who were those guys?”
Anna shook her head. She didn’t give a damn about the guys, but she’d gotten a damn clear look at the creatures fighting behind the tavern. And no, she hadn’t been hallucinating. There were actually dragons in New Zealand.
Sybil started to hyperventilate, and Anna grabbed her shoulders. “Stop. I need you to focus. Can you do that?”
Tears streamed from her sister’s eyes. “Those things, they were monsters.”
“I know, but we have to get out of here. Panicking isn’t going to save us.” She looked over her shoulder. No one else came down the alley, but the roars of the creatures heightened, as if there were even more of them now. She turned back to her sister. “We need to get to those sirens. I need you to run with me.”
Sybil gulped, then nodded.
“Okay then, let’s go.”
They sprinted down the alley. Pungent smells from the dumpsters rose through the air, turning Anna’s stomach. She ran faster, dragging her sister behind her. Their only chance was to find protection, and the sirens seemed as good a chance as any. She darted to the right, and down a deserted street.
Whooting beats filled the air, sounding like someone repeatedly snapping a towel. Anna blotted out the sound and concentrated on the sirens. If she dwelled on what might be flying toward her, she might succumb to a sobbing hysteria.
Something dug into her shoulders. She cried out as sharp claws punctured her flesh.
This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be happening. Why wasn’t she waking up?
Her stomach flipped as the ground dropped out from below her. Sybil screamed, falling to her knees, looking up and reaching for Anna as she rose into the sky.
3
The town drifted from sight as the wind whipped through Anna’s hair and lashed her cheeks. The whooting beat of the creature’s wings thudded in time with her erratic breathing. She twisted and slammed her fists against the gray-scaled talons digging into her shoulders. The pain and the blood oozing from her wounds seemed distant, lost in the wave of horror and her need to get free.
As they rose higher, her lungs burned, and her arms grew heavy. Dizzy, she hung limp and helpless in the huge creature’s claws, watching the pinpoint lights of the towns below drift past. The air around her hummed like a frigid vacuum, mottled by the sound of the creature’s relentless wings. Time could have stilled for all she knew, and the lights passing below could be just a mirage. Her eyes fluttered closed. Maybe if she slept for just a little while…
The beast holding her pitched to the side, and pain ripped through her shoulders. Anna hung on and prayed for this new torture to stop.
Her abductor howled into the night. Blinking away the tears, Anna caught an immense, dark form in the moonlight seconds before it slammed into her captor’s hide.
Anna gasped as the creature above released its grip.
She seemed to hang for a moment before gravity took hold, pulling her back to the ground where she belonged.
The lights of the town below raced toward her. The frigid wind cut into her skin. All pain whisked to the recesses of her mind as she flailed, her scream frozen in her throat.
Coherent sound vanished. The howling of the wind was her only companion, before a cascade of warm green fluttered around her, bumping her back up in the air. She struggled to catch her breath and a scream finally wrenched from her throat as she began to fall again. Her stomach balled as she grappled for unseen purchase.
The green shroud encompassed her again, before a gentler grip took her by the arms and pulled her back into the sky. The lights below grew distant once more. Anna pawed at the warm talons wrapped around her arms. Her shoulders screamed, but the pain paled in comparison to the merciless grip of her former captor. She struggled for breath and leaned her head against the claw gripping her left arm, thankful for the few second’s respite despite now being flown off by a different beast.
Somehow, though, she didn’t feel threatened as she had by the gray dragon, as if this huge, gentle creature above meant no harm. Deep emerald-green scales sparkled in the moonlight as her new captor spun, heading away from the mountain.
Her wounds started to throb despite the gentle touch. A whoosh of breath escaped her lips, and she drew in another. Even though they were turned away from the mountain, heading back toward the populated areas, she was still the prisoner of a giant, flying godforsaken reptile.
The beast slowed, hovering.
Anna blinked the sting from her eyes until the mist cleared and a gray dragon came into focus, beating its huge, bat-like wings. What took her breath away, though, was the pale, limp form of her sister dangling from the creature’s talons.
“Sybil!”
The green dragon holding Anna bellowed in fury. Anna cringed, her ears ringing from the deafening sound. The gray howled once in return, and Anna could swear the beast smiled before opening its talons, dropping her best friend and only sister.
The sky became a nightmare as the green craned its wings and fell, careening toward Sybil’s falling body. One of the dragon’s claws released Anna as it grabbed for her sister, snatching her wrist. They jerked as Sybil’s limp form jolted to
a stop. The dragon’s wings beat furiously, but they continued to fall.
Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, Anna screamed down to her sister. “Sybil! Sybil, wake up. Sybil!”
When would this insane nightmare end?
They spiraled toward the ground, the dragon beating its wings in a mad fury. Anna thought the creature looked at her, sorrow it its huge, dark eyes as it grunted with the extra weight of two women it its claws. It made a pitiful, whining sound before Anna’s arm slipped from its grip.
Her stomach lurched as she fell, undeterred. Screaming, she looked up to see the beast wrapping its other claw around Sybil before night enveloped them. Anna flailed her arms and legs as the lights below screamed toward her. They were beautiful, those lights, almost serene from above. Too bad she’d never know which town they were.
Another roar echoed through the darkness, and she slammed into something hard and warm. The breath knocked from her lungs. She coughed as she started to ascend like she’d landed on the floor of an elevator.
Her breathing slowed as a sense of safety rolled over her, but that was ridiculous, because the warm, gray-scaled hide beneath her hands was not an elevator. Anna trembled as the creature beat its wings, gaining altitude. A deep sense of calm fell over her like a veil. She closed her eyes and languished in it, until another hulking form slammed against her savior’s hide.
Wait. Savior? This was another dragon.
She blinked away her stupor seconds before another huge, dark hide slammed against them. Anna wrapped her arms around her dragon’s neck as it reared back. Her dragon inhaled, and night became day as a stream of blue and yellow flames spewed from the creature’s mouth.
Holeee… Anna cringed back from the heat, but held tighter as the beast’s neck warmed beneath her hands.
Something else slammed them from the side. The dragon balked and Anna lost her grip. She tumbled across the dragon’s rigid spine and pawed at the creature’s tail before careening toward the ground again.
Her scream echoed over the growls and roars of the multi-colored creatures whisking about, clawing at each other. She fell through them and back into the solace of darkness. Three seconds of relief was replaced by the shock of the lights below screaming toward her once more. Her head spun, the lights clouding into a haze as they got bigger.
It didn’t matter anymore, nothing did. She closed her eyes and embraced the frigid air.
Something growled, joggling Anna out of her stupor as a streak of white flew past her. With the lines of the town below in view, Anna screamed as the blur bumped her from below, slowing her fall before white, glowing talons wrapped around her biceps, raising her into the air and dragging her feet across a sloped rooftop.
Dazzling white wings sparkled above, robbing the sky of moonlight and infusing the stars’ brilliance into its own. Overhead, a green and a gray dragon beat their wings, snapping and spewing fire at each other before her white rescuer whisked her away from the mayhem and turned them once again toward the mountains in the distance. Those high peaks that only moments ago sparked terror through her core, now looked more like solace and salvation.
The dragon above her was small, maybe half the size of the others, but even more gentle than the green. He craned his neck to look at her, and what she saw stole her breath— not the soulless eyes of a beast, but concern, tenderness.
She closed her eyes and turned away. It was a trick. Despite its talons piercing her skin, she’d felt safe in the gray dragon’s claws as well. Somehow the beast had pushed her terror aside, masking her primal instincts to make her calm— probably making it easier for it to carry her to her death. This creature was probably no different.
The white dragon growled and coughed. They shimmied, falling slightly before gaining altitude again. One of its wings flapped erratically, a dark fluid dripped from a jagged rip from the outer edge, clear through to the wing bone. Anna shuddered, remembering the clawing and hissing mass of dragons that were… fighting over her? All of this was too insane to comprehend.
With a final grunt, her sparkling savior stopped struggling. The bright wings wrapped around her and tightened. Her world became a glowing pearlescent tourniquet, tight and constricting. She struggled to breathe as dragons bellowed their fury somewhere in the distance.
The white dragon’s heartbeat drummed in her ears, belaying a terror that may have matched her own, before the all-too familiar sensation of falling flayed what was left of her resolve. She pressed against the warm, tense wings nearly suffocating her, carrying them both to their death.
She yearned for the lights of the town, for the comforting presence of anyone human in these last few fleeting seconds; when the brief cry of dozens of muffled voices seeped through the creature’s wings.
A moment of hope dissolved into a horrific crash, slamming her against the base of the dragon’s still-clenched wings. Anna’s head throbbed. Her chest stung. Dizzy, she was unable to suck in a breath, as the dragon’s heartbeat faded to nothing.
4
Dragons didn’t exist. If Nik could get his grandparents to believe that, living in the twenty-first century would be so much easier on them.
He scratched his head as his grandfather ascended the creaking wooden steps of the platform Nik had helped build earlier in the day. The majestic peaks of Mount Cook, or Aoraki as the old folks called the sacred mountain, glowed in the moonlight, casting an eerie backdrop to the ancient ceremony.
Shifting his weight, Nik bumped into one of the hundred or so onlookers lined up on the meadow as Pops lit the torches lining the stage, smiling at each of the teenage girls being offered up for the Seventeen Year sacrifice.
Nik shook his head and searched the girls’ expressions. Most of the sacrifices, barely able to call themselves women, chatted amongst themselves, smiling. One tapped on her cellphone screen, while another was brazen enough to have her phone to her ear and her back to the onlookers.
They didn’t believe in this ridiculous ceremony any more than he did. If a single one of them thought there was even a remote possibility that a dragon would swoop out of the sky and snatch them off the platform, they’d be running for the hills, screaming. They, like he, were there to make their parents happy— or in Nik’s case, his grandparents.
There were dozens of places he’d rather be on a Friday night. He counted them off in his mind and blinked them away. Pops would notice if he was woolgathering, as his grandparents called it. The old man had an uncanny ability to know when Nik was procrastinating, or daydreaming, or lying; name the sin. The creepy skill grated on Nik’s nerves, but he loved the old guy, despite his archaic religious beliefs.
His grandfather started chanting toward the sky as if the stars might actually answer him for the first time in his life. You had to give the old man kudos for his trust in the ancient ways. Nanna and Pops believed without question that dragons existed, even though they admitted to never seeing one.
They were both descendants of the ancient Maori clans that roamed New Zealand before it appeared on any modern-day maps. Every thought, every decision they made was deeply rooted in Maori tradition. Honoring the past was a duty, and not one they took lightly. Their history was a deep-rooted part of them, and as ridiculous as this ceremony was, Nik could afford to stand in the middle of nowhere once every seventeen years, if that’s what made his grandparents happy.
Well, normally he could afford to waste time. This, unfortunately, hadn’t been a red banner year for him. Not that the year before had been much better.
He eyed the makeshift shelters lining the outer edge of the ceremony— a crude ancient Maori village recreated every seventeen years for this event. His family’s tent rose from the ground only a few paces away. It would provide the perfect solace to get some real work done.
However, he owed his grandparents this night of stupidity after they raised him from a tot. Truth was, he would do anything for them. Except tell them the truth, that he was penniless and about to lose the apartment they’
d cosigned for him. If he didn’t find a job in the next few days, he’d have to bury what was left of his dignity and move back in with them. Again.
Life had turned to crap after the plant closed two years ago. He hadn’t eaten a real meal in days, which was why the more practical side of him knew he couldn’t just stand here and watch this senseless ceremony while he should be looking for a way to earn a living.
The elders lifted their torches to the night sky and joined his grandfather’s chant in the Maori tongue. The odd words rang out in a choppy, but melodious crescendo. Nik recognized a word here and there. Among the crowd, the blank expressions told him he wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand most of it. Maori was a dying language from a dying culture. He had no idea why the elders clung to their ancient language and tradition. It was irrational. Modern ways and English had swept across New Zealand eons ago. Why they refused to adapt was a mystery to him.
When his grandfather closed his eyes and reached up to the heavens, Nik inched to the back of the crowd and slipped into their tent.
He pulled out his cell phone and held it high, smiling when he got a connection. He called up his Career Digger app and scrolled through the new job listings. At this point, he’d pick up dog crap if there was a steady paycheck in it.
A scream outside turned his blood to ice. He shoved his phone in his pocket and brushed open the slit in the tent. Someone stumbled by the opening as the teenage girls scrambled down the platform stairs, while others jumped into the fleeing crowd.
In the darkness above, a whooting sound, like a helicopter in slow motion, created a choppy breeze that fanned the flames of the torches. Nik blinked, sure his eyes deceived him when the edge of a huge blue wing caught the torchlight before the flames whisked out.
“Hold!” His grandfather was the only one left on the platform. “Hold! We have nothing to fear.”
Sirens and Scales Page 359
