by Dena Christy
The cold metal of the fire escape bit into the soles of his feet, but he ignored it. There was no time to go back in for his shoes, and he looked down at Elle's feet and was relieved to see that she'd at least had the sense to put on a pair of shoes when she'd gotten dressed.
There was little light in the main area of the fire escape so he kept her close to him as he guided her toward the square hole on the other side that had a set of stairs leading to the ground below.
She went down the stairs ahead of him as quickly as she could safely do so and he followed her down. The surrounding area was all too familiar to him. It was the alley where he'd first outrun the hunters and where he'd met Elle for the first time. There was no time to think about that. What he needed to concentrate on was getting Elle away from this building and to safety.
Elle gave a cry of dismay and he looked at her to see what had harmed her. She was looking at the window in the door at the back of the shop with growing horror.
He looked where she was looking and could see a faint orange glow coming through the window. The fire had not made it to the furthermost back room of the shop but it was on its way. His heart ached for her because he knew how much her shop meant to her but there was no time to grieve the loss of her business.
"You can rebuild it, but you have only one life. We need to get away from the building."
"I know." It was all she said before she turned her face away from the shop. Her hand came out to clasp his, and he led the way down the alley.
As he neared the end he slowed. A prickle raised the hair on the back of his neck.
If it wasn't kids playing a prank that had gotten way out of hand, who had set the fire? He'd been so concerned about getting Elle out and to safety he'd failed to consider that this might well be a trap.
"Why are you stopping?" Her voice was soft as if she too could sense that something wasn't right.
He gave a small shake of his head as he raised his index finger to his mouth. With a tilt of his head he stood still while he tested the air with his nose.
It was very obvious to him now that this was a trap and the hunters might well set it at the mouth of this alley. There was no way they could go back, not with the shop on fire behind them. But he and Elle couldn't stand here waiting for whoever it was to strike. He needed to choose the best direction in which to flee, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on using his other senses to determine the best direction to go. From the left of the alley he could detect the faint odor of whatever substance they'd used to start the fire.
It wasn't particularly strong or pungent, and it told him they were not waiting at the mouth of the alley, but were a distance away. Perhaps they were watching the mouth of the alley, waiting for him and Elle to come running straight out in a blind panic and then they planned to spring.
"Why are we standing here?" Elle tugged at his hand as she spoke quietly beside him. It shook him out of the trance he was in and he made a snap decision.
"When we leave the alley, we will go to the right. And we will run. I want you to run as fast as you can and I don't want you to look back."
"Gregor, you're scaring me."
"I know, sweetheart. If there was another way I would do it." This was their best chance. The hunters would expect them to run out of the alley and stop where they could pick him off. It was a gamble to run in the opposite direction of where he could sense they were. If not for Elle, he would turn and face them and end this threat once and for all. But she was with him and he needed to keep her safe. "I will explain what is happening once we are safe, but for now I need you to do as I ask."
She swallowed and nodded. He moved her so she was on the right of him, far away from the threat. Adrenaline pumped through his system and he could feel his muscles tensing under his skin as he prepared himself to run. As soon as he felt the moment was right, he squeezed her hand.
"Now we run."
Run?
Elle’s mind could hardly grasp what was happening. Her shop was burning, it was the middle of the night and now Gregor was telling her to run out of a darkened alley into another one. She surreptitiously pinched her leg to see if she was dreaming. There was a fervent prayer in her mind that this was a dream, that it wasn’t happening and that she would wake in her bed, safe.
Nothing happened except the pain where she squeezed her flesh between her fingers. So this was happening.
Gregor nudged her from behind and she braced herself to hurtle out of the alley and into dangers unknown. After taking a deep breath she ran the short distance at the mouth of the alley and turned to the right in the direction he’d told her to go. Nothing happened until Gregor came running out close behind her.
Two masculine voices shouted a distance away and terror made her heart clench. Her footsteps faltered and Gregor put his hand on her arm to help her recover.
“No matter what you hear or see, don’t look back. It will only slow you down and above all you need to keep safe.”
His concern for her safety was touching, but she wished there was no need for it and his words did nothing to dial down the fear coursing through her as she ran. If nothing else they made those feelings ten times worse. What was she going to see if she turned around? Were the faces of monsters attached to the sound of booted foot falls that were coming behind them?
Her legs and lungs were burning, and she didn’t know how long she would maintain this pace. She wasn’t a runner, had no reason to keep herself in good enough shape to outrun someone.
“Gregor, I can’t do this much longer.” It took effort just to speak, and she slowed slightly.
“We can’t slow down until we lose them.”
Her heart sunk because she knew she would never keep up running like this. Their pursuers would catch them and they would rob both her and Gregor or worse. She didn’t think mere robbery would lead to a chase like this, the only thing that would make someone pursue two people like prey would be if they were being hunted.
“Gregor.” Her voice came sobbing out, and she knew she was at the end of her endurance. He must have sensed it too. Without breaking his stride he twisted his upper body and scooped her up against him. She clung to him with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
Now was her opportunity to see what was chasing them. It had to be something frightening to make a strong, capable man like Gregor flee. But perhaps the only reason Gregor was fleeing was because she was with him and he did not want her to get hurt.
She risked a peek over his shoulder and saw not monsters but two men. They looked like ordinary men but there must be something different about them otherwise why would they be chasing her and Gregor through the back alleys of Waldron Valley.
Fortunately, their steps appear to be slowing, and it gave Elle hope that perhaps they could evade them. But her relief was short-lived when she saw one man raised what appeared to be a crossbow.
“Gregor.” It was all the warning she could give him before the arrow flew threw the air and unfortunately it was not enough. She watched with horror as the arrow hit Gregor into the muscle of his shoulder, only an inch or two below where her arms encircled his neck. His footsteps faltered, but he caught himself quickly as he continued to run.
“You must pull it out,” he said through gritted teeth, and Elle was surprised to hear he was hardly winded after his lengthy running spree. Then it hit her what he’d said. She would have to pull the arrow out while he was running down an alley in the dark?
“Gregor, you don't mean I have to pull it out right now.”
“Yes, I do. It will weaken me if you don’t. It will be fine, but you need to do it.”
She glanced back and saw that their pursuers were much farther away and had ceased running. It was almost like now that they’d wounded their prey they felt safe to cease their pursuit and wait for Gregor to fall. What kind of men were these that they would hunt another human being like this? And what was it about Gregor that made him their target because she knew
without a doubt it was not her they were after. This was the second time Gregor had ended up with a wound like this.
His footsteps were slowing.
“Elle, please. Just pull it out.” She could hear the pain in his voice and she focused herself. Tightening her legs around him so she was stable enough to move her arms, she reached for the arrow with her right hand. She put her hand down as close to the wound as possible and pulled. It didn’t move. She tried again and nothing happened.
“It’s not coming out.”
“Pull harder.” Gregor’s voice came out in a pained growl as he slowed to a walk. Elle glanced up the street and the men who’d been chasing them were gone. There was a niche in the wall and Gregor ducked in there, pulling Elle with him.
“Why are we stopping? Shouldn’t we be running still?”
“We have a few moments. Now that they’ve hit me, they will feel like they have time to wait to catch us. That’s why you need to pull out the bolt. It's designed to sap my strength.”
So many questions buzzed inside Elle’s head, but she knew she needed to focus. Now was not the time for questions. Gregor turned around, and in the weak light of the doorway she could see what he referred to as the bolt sticking out of him. With a courage she had to dig deep down to find, she walked up to him, put one hand flat on his back for leverage and the other around the shaft of the bolt. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the bolt hard while she pushed against him with her other hand. The bolt tore out of his body, and he groaned as he sagged against the wall in front of him.
This explained how he had come to be on her doorstep that night, bleeding with a wound almost identical to the one he had now. A sickening thought came to her, one she shoved away. Now was not the time to dwell on whether this would be a regular occurrence in his life. Their main concern at the moment had to be getting away to safety.
“What do we do now?” Her voice was quiet as she tried to calm the thoughts racing in her head. Thoughts that perhaps they weren’t going to get out of this and that she would be forced to watch Gregor die before her eyes. She was under no illusions she was the target in all this, but she was certain that the men after them would not want to leave any witnesses.
“There is a place I know, close to here. We’ll go there and move on to the next step.”
“What next step?”
“We don’t have time to discuss it now, we have to get away from here before they find us.” He took her by the hand and towed her out of the niche in the wall and back into the alley. It took only a few short moments for the alley end and empty into a brightly lit street. Elle blinked hard. The bright ordinariness of the streetlights were a startling contrast to the dark terror of the alleys that for a moment she thought perhaps it had been a dream. One look at the blood darkening Gregor’s shirt told her they were still firmly fixed in their nightmare.
Elle glanced behind them every few moments, but there was still no sign of the men who were hunting them.
“I think they’re gone.” There was a note of hope in her voice, and when she looked up at Gregor, there was a grim tightening of his mouth.
“They’re still around. Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” They came to the edge of town, in an old parking lot that had been deserted a long time ago and Gregor came to a stop.
“Why are we stopping here? Shouldn’t we be trying to get to help?” The isolation of the parking lot made them even more vulnerable, and Elle couldn’t understand why he would stop here. This place would make them sitting ducks and no one would be around to come to their aid. “Gregor? This is scaring me.”
He reached up and caressed her cheek. “Scaring you is the last thing I want. I have a plan to get us out of here, but to do that I have to reveal a part of myself that I have kept hidden from you. I need to know that no matter what you see you will stay with me until we can get to safety. Do I have your promise?”
Dread stole over Elle, but what choice did she have but to agree? “I promise.”
13
This was not how he wanted to reveal his true self to her. He wanted to have more time with her, for her to get to know him and for him to prepare her for what lay beneath his human mask. Damn the hunters for forcing his hand.
“I know this will sound insane but I’m a dragon. That is why they are after us.”
He prayed that she would accept him at his word and would accept him as he was. This scene had played itself out in the past, and it had not ended well. She stared at him expressionless as if she could not quite believe what he was saying to her. The best thing for him to do would be to transform and let her see for herself what he was. There was little he could do to prepare her for it at this point.
He saw a movement from the corner of his eye, and a quick glance told him he’d run out of time. The hunters were some distance away, approaching the parking lot, but they would be upon them in no time.
“Once I’ve changed, I want you to climb on my back and I will get us out of here.” Gregor took her by the arms as she continued to stare at him, her mouth moving but with no words coming out of it. “I need to know you understand.”
“I understand.” Her voice was soft, and there was a look of pity in her eyes. He knew she thought he was insane, and that she now felt pity for him. That opinion would change in a matter of moments, and he had no idea how she would react to the truth.
He stepped away from her and embraced the dragon inside him. In a swirl of magic he transformed from a man into a beast and when he looked at her, he saw that her face had turned bone white. He did his best to make a sound of reassurance as he lowered himself to the ground so she could climb onto his back.
The sounds of shouting in the distance seemed to jolt her out of her shock. She came up to him and he stayed where he was until she could climb up onto his back. She clung to him with her arms around his neck as he straightened up and unfolded his dark, satiny wings away from his body and moved them. They lifted in the air and he turned to where the hunters were running toward them. They fired their arrows at him and one sailed by, narrowly missing him.
He let out a great roar. They could have hit Elle, could have hurt her, and if there was one thing he could not allow was for them to hurt his woman. He drew in a great breath as he hovered in the air and breathed a line of fire on the ground in front of them. This would cut off any pursuit they would make, although they would have difficulty following him on foot while he was in the air. He lifted them higher, and he heard a whimper come from Elle. He wished that he could speak, that he could tell her she was safe on his back. He hated frightening her but her safety was paramount and this was the only way he could get her to his home without the hunters following.
Once high in the air, with her arms squeezed tight around his neck and her body resting against him he flew through the darkened sky toward his home. There was so much he wanted to say to her, to tell her now she knew the whole truth about him. Would she accept him? Would she grow to love him now that she knew what he was?
These were questions that were pressing against his mind as he flew into the darkness. He knew the answers would not be forthcoming. Not with hunters after them. The first order of business when they got home would be for him to get his brothers up from their beds and have them join him in taking care of the hunters once and for all.
They left Waldron Valley and the hunters far behind, and he could feel Elle’s body trembling against him. He cursed his current form because while it was the best way to get her to safety, he could not reassure her. The notion that she was frightened sent anger dashing through him. Not at her but at the hunters who were the source of it all.
Once his home was in sight he swooped down and landed in the driveway. He lowered his body so that Elle could slide off his back. For a moment she lay against him, not moving. He made a deep, reassuring rumble in his chest and he felt her gingerly sit up. Her body slid off his and she leaned against him for a moment as if she needed time to
acclimatize to being back on the ground. He gave her all the time she needed and once she was steady on her feet and had moved away from him, he straightened up.
It took only moments for him to change back into the form of a man. In the dim light he could see that Elle was pale and looked shell-shocked. A lot had happened to her tonight, but he hoped that soon she would come to grips with what he was and tonight would only be one bad memory in a long line of good ones.
“I know it’s not the most calm way to travel, but at least we are here and not being pursued any more.” He took a step toward him and she moved back a little. He longed to pull her into his arms and hold her against him, but he could see that this was all too much for her at the moment. He let her have the space she needed and stayed where he was. “This is my home. I live here with my brothers, their wives and Rickman, who you’ve already met.”
She looked up at the house’s imposing facade and nodded.
“What now?” If not for his superior hearing he might not have heard her softly spoken question.
“Now we go in the house and my brothers and I take care of the hunters.” He reached his hand out to put it on the small of her back, and her body stiffened before he could make contact, and his hand fell away. While her reaction to all this was understandable, he couldn’t help the nagging doubt that crept inside him. What if she didn’t accept what he was? What if the actions of the hunters tonight caused him to lose her?
He led the way in the house, determined not to fear the worst unless she’d given him a clear reason to. A lot had happen to her tonight. The hunters had burned her shop, armed strangers chased her, and she had learned that the man she’d been seeing was no man at all.
