by Ruby Ryan
I stopped to survey the damage, but it wasn't enough: Sadie tossed the chair aside and began to stand, a dazed look in her eyes.
I need a weapon.
I ran to the stairs. There was a balcony on the second floor exterior; if there wasn't anything upstairs that I could use as a weapon, I could exit that way and drop down to the ground. I didn't know what I'd do after that, but I'd figure it out when I got to that point.
Halfway up the stairs one of the rotten floorboards snapped in half, sending my leg crashing into open air. I yelped as I fell, banging my other knee on the step and sending pain shooting up my leg. My hands slipped on the dusty surface as I scrambled for purchase, trying to lift myself out of--
THWACK.
The baseball bat slammed into the ball of my ankle. The pain was so bad I screamed, falling forward on my face and almost going through the broken step into the space underneath the staircase. Defenseless and desperate, I kicked behind me like a mule, and my foot made contact with something soft, and I heard Sadie grunt and the sound of something heavy falling down the stairs.
I looked back; she was crumpled in a heap on the landing, and her bat rolled across the floor in the other direction. An intrusive thought came to me: I could descend on her, grabbing her by the hair and smashing her head into the wall again and again. Beating her until there was nothing but red on my hands and on her face.
But the better part of me recoiled at the thought. It didn't matter that this woman had helped kidnap me and was chasing me with a bat. I couldn't kill someone. At least, not now.
I pulled myself out of the chasm of the broken step, but as I tried to put weight on my other leg I cried out with pain and almost fell back in. My ankle was still smarting from the baseball bat, though I didn't think it was broken. I tried putting more weight on it while holding the banister for leverage and winced again.
Sadie groaned and held the side of her head; she was coming-to.
With as much strength as I could muster, I hobbled up to the next step, then the one after that. It took me the better part of a minute, but I made it to the top and could limp after a fashion.
I was in a long hallway with doors on either side. I took the first one on the right, which ended up being a bedroom. I closed the door behind me and locked the knob, then the latch above that.
I turned, pressing my back against the door.
The room was musty and dank, with thousands of dust motes floating through the single sunbeam streaming through the far window. A four-post bed was up against the left wall, with sheets that had long since faded with age. There was a broken sink on the opposite wall, next to another closed door.
I limped across the room, kicking up clouds of dust as I went. The window exited onto the balcony, just as I'd thought. The lock was almost wedged shut, and I had to put my entire body into it before it finally twisted open.
But as I grabbed the bottom of the pane, it wouldn't budge.
"Come on," I muttered, fingers curled underneath the handle. The damn thing must have been stuck from age. I rattled the entire window, hoping to loosen whatever was gumming up the works, but it was no use.
Footsteps in the hall, creaking on floorboards. They stopped outside my door.
The doorknob rattled gently.
"You can't run from me," Sadie said, voice muffled by the thick wood. "You can't run from us. He'll find you, wherever you go!"
I left the window. The door next to the sink ended up being a closet. I was trapped.
"I dated a baseball player in college," I announced. Hearing my own voice made everything feel a little more normal. "All the girlfriends would sit in the stands behind home plate to watch, divided by only an aisle."
I could hear Sadie's confusion when she said, "Huh?"
"The girls were ruthless," I continued, examining the ceiling. There was a ceiling fan that hung slanted and appeared close to falling out, and a lightbulb sticking out of a broken fixture, but nothing else. "They would whisper insults among themselves, but the whispers were just loud enough for the other side to hear, right? And it was a war of words, each side insulting someone from the other side while the boys played ball."
"So fucking what?" she snapped, still behind the door.
"How about we go do that?" I suggested. "We can sit in lawn chairs out in the sun and trade insults while our boys fight up in the sky. What do you say?"
Sadie responded by walking down the hall into some other room, footsteps echoing through the house.
"Guess not," I muttered.
I glanced back out the window; Ethan and the dragon were still circling each other in the sky, a dance of wings. I wondered if I could open the door and make a break for it while Sadie was in another room. It was either that, or sit here and wait for the conclusion of their battle. Sitting around made me feel useless.
Not useless, I thought, gripping the totem in my pocket. I'd given Ethan a chance. Whatever else happened, I'd helped.
Sadie's footsteps returned to my door. There was a short pause, and then something crashed into the wood. It rumbled the door on its hinges a second time, then a third. I thought it was Sadie slamming her shoulder into it, but then a section of the door in the middle split open.
The next blow showed me exactly what it was: a silver ax-head broke all the way through the door, a shower of splinters flying in all directions. She pulled the ax back and swung again, hitting another part of the door. Suddenly the baseball bat didn't seem so bad.
"Fuck," I said.
While Sadie did her best impression of The Shining, I searched for something to break the window. The closet held racks of fur coats that literally fell apart when I touched them, and the wire hangers weren't much better. There were some old cardboard boxes in the corner of the closet, but they were crumpled and held stacks of moldy paper.
The pounding of Sadie's ax was like a clock counting down, vibrations in the floor that made me wince each time.
I went to the four-post bed and got on my hands and knees. There was nothing under there that could break a window. Shit. Shit-shit-shit. I was trapped in this room, and in a few minutes she'd be inside with an ax.
I grabbed the bedpost to pull myself back to my feet, and the entire structure collapsed.
The air was knocked from my lungs as I fell onto my back, the brass bedpost clattering to the floor next to me. Sadie's ax-swings paused for a moment, probably in surprise, but then resumed.
Pushing to my feet, I eyed the bedpost.
I slammed the brass rod into the window like a medieval jouster. It bounced off harmlessly. I tried again, a little bit harder this time, but the bubbled glass was ancient, from a time when windows were as thick as steel. With each successive failure I grew more desperate, grunting and groaning with each useless thrust. I even turned sideways and swung the bedpost like a baseball bat into the window, but there wasn't so much as a crack to show for it.
I tossed the rod down with disgust and anger, then quickly picked it back up again, rounding on the door.
Sadie was almost through. The gash was big enough for a dog, and I could see her body on the other side. I could only hope the exertion from breaking the door down with a goddamn ax would leave her weak enough for me to fight. If I could knock the ax away and get in close, inside her swing range, I might have a chance.
I took deep breaths, hardening my resolve.
Sadie looked through the hole, insanity in her eyes as she saw me. She reached through and unlocked the doorknob, then the bolt. The door was so warped that it scratched along the floor, but it opened enough for her to step through.
She held the ax across her body and smiled.
And then, without warning, the house exploded.
26
ETHAN
Fire was all around me.
It gushed from the dragon's gullet like a liquid, hissing and billowing into the air. The smoke of it stung my nostrils and eyes, and made it difficult to breathe. Soon the entire air was filled wit
h great clouds of smoke, which I avoided as I flew around the beast.
He showed no sign of slowing; the fire within his long throat was seemingly endless, though I knew there had to be some limit he might eventually reach. But as we made figure-eights in the air around each other, I felt my own strength waning. Each flap of my wings was a little slower. I couldn't do this forever. And although the same was undoubtedly true for the dragon, he wasn't expending as much energy as I.
Because that was the frustrating thing: even though he was several times larger than I, he didn't need to move very much. The smallest rotation of his body required me to fly rapidly away from him, escaping the liquid hot death. Already I could feel myself slowing, the muscles at the base of my wings aching with effort.
I circled him, and he belched another cloud of fire toward me. He led me too much, the fire hitting the air ahead of my path, but the heat was so strong I had to clench my eyes shut as I soared sideways away from him. The dragon darted forward in that moment, a rush of air as he beat his wings and closed in, but my instincts were good and I folded my wings to fall away from him, opening them and gliding down and away as he cut the air above.
On and on we dueled, a dance without music.
What made it especially difficult to focus was the battle my love was fighting down below. I could see nothing, but through her emotions in our bond I felt the battle: fear, running, pain, hiding, frustration. It added urgency to what I did; even if I could wear the dragon down over time, I needed to defeat him fast enough to save Jessica.
But how in the world could I do that?
I circled the dragon again as I'd been doing, his long neck craning around to watch me. I needed to change up my strategy, do something unpredictable.
Instead of continuing around toward his back, I suddenly darted in toward his head. If he'd been ready he could have snatched me in his jaws, but he was a moment too late, and then I was flying past his head and along his snake-like neck. The emerald set in the back of his neck glowed; if I could just damage it, or peck it loose...
The dragon did something unpredictable too: instead of turning its heard around to me like I'd expected, he suddenly twisted in the opposite direction, bringing his long tail around like a whip. I screeched and twisted as the thick tail slammed into my wing and body.
And then I was tumbling, the sky and ground spinning across my vision. Everything was chaos in that moment, the falling sensation and the sun rolling across my view like a bright lamp and the scream of the dragon's satisfaction. I tried to beat my wings, to slow myself somehow, but my left wing felt numb and my right couldn't do the work alone.
Sky, ground, sky, ground. I spiraled downward, flapping one wing helplessly.
Somehow through the pain I extend my left wing, not enough to beat it but enough to keep it stiff. It worked like a parachute as my right wing steadied myself, coming to a slow stop just above the roof.
Before my wing could give out entirely, I landed on the ridge of the roof, talons gripping the wood tight.
I spun my head around to examine my wing: it didn't look broken, but jolts of pain shot up the bone when I tried to extend it fully. If only I could--
Movement above.
I craned my head in time to see the dragon diving recklessly, wings spread wide to block the sun and legs reaching toward me. I jumped out of the way of the dragon's claws, but not the rest of his body, as he crashed into the roof. Wood flew in all directions, chunks and splinters and pieces as large as a car, and I fell through to the top floor, landing in an office with an old oak desk. Leafs of paper blew all around like we were in a blizzard, white against the black-green of the dragon's body.
He roared in pain, legs kicking through walls and floor and roof alike. I'd fallen into a room but he was too large for that, his body occupying several at once. Then he roared in anger, and I felt the heat of the flame before I saw it, orange pouring through the hallway into a room beyond. It ignited the old wood easily, especially in the dust-filled air, and soon there was fire all around.
I pushed to my feet; my wing still felt numb, but tolerable. Nothing else seemed broken in my gryphon body.
The dragon's tail suddenly lashed through the air, cutting the outer wall in half and hissing through the air above my head. Wood and brick crumbled around me as the dragon searched the house.
"Help! Ethan!"
Ice water shot through my heart as I heard Jessica calling for help. I could feel the fear in her voice and in our bond. My first instinct was to let go of my gryphon form, to shift back into my human body and run through the house to find her. But of course that was stupid; even if I reached her in time, that wouldn't do much good against a fucking dragon. I needed to remain in this form until I could kill it.
If I could kill it.
Not sure where Jessica was, I stretched my wing one more time, then took flight. The wing only held a fraction of my weight, but it was enough to keep me in the air.
I gained enough altitude to see what was happening. The entire roof had collapsed, along with most of the outer walls of the second floor. The dragon's front half hung out one end of the house, while his back half remained inside; two of his legs were wedged in the floor between levels, and he kicked them forcefully to free himself, sending more wood flying. All the while his long neck snaked around, searching for something to kill.
And there, in the room just to the right of his searching head, was Jessica.
The room was on fire, and she stood on top of a four-post bed--which was missing one of its posts, I saw with my eagle vision. The flames had her surrounded, and were already beginning to lick up the side of the bed itself. She looked around for some way to escape, but there was none to be found.
I'm coming!
I sent the thought, and her head jerked up to the sky. Her eyes widened and then she waved, not in greeting but in pleading, begging for her life as the flames rose higher.
Slowly, the dragon's head turned in her direction.
I pulled my wings in a dive and prayed I had enough time.
27
JESSICA
Well this was shitty.
In retrospect, I should have climbed down from the second floor when I had the chance. After the house exploded with the weight of the dragon tumbling through like a wrecking ball, there was a brief moment where the outer wall had been destroyed. I could have lowered myself down. It was maybe fifteen feet, if I hung from my arms before dropping. I would have been fine.
I would have been safe.
Instead I'd hesitated, whether from surprise or shock or the unwillingness to accept the supernatural fight that was going on. The human fight-or-flight instinct wasn't complete; there was also the stay right where you are because you're too terrified to move instinct. And as luck would have it, that's the one I listened to.
I don't know if the dragon knew where I was, or if he was belching fire randomly, but either way the fire had come, igniting everything with help from the dust-filled air.
And now I stood on this stupid bed, surrounded by fire, with nowhere to go.
The outer wall fell away, revealing the Louisiana forest beyond. If I leaped as far as I could, I would clear the fire... and fall all the way to the ground, probably breaking my legs in the process. A fate worse than burning to death, but one I wasn't ready for just yet.
Half the floor was missing, a truck-sized hole punched through by one of the dragon's rear legs. He'd gotten that leg free, but the others seemed wedged inside, because he roared his terrible roar and kicked his other legs, a motion that made the entire structure shake like a doll house. At any moment the entire thing would collapse, and I would be right in the middle of it.
So much for thinking Mrs. Arnold's scorn was the worst feeling in the world. Burning to death easily took that trophy.
Somewhere in the house Sadie screamed, not in pain but in anger. I heard my name on her lips, telling the dragon where I was, demanding he kill me.
I'M COMING!
Ethan's thought was a sudden beacon of warmth in my mind, and I instantly spotted him flying in the air above. Hope filled my chest, and I waved with both arms.
"Help me! Hurry!" I shouted.
He folded his wings--one of which looked injured--and dove, a green mass of feathers that quickly grew in size.
Time seemed to slow down in that moment. I realized Ethan was diving dangerously fast, when all he needed to do was fly next to me and let me jump on. That's when I felt an emerald gaze, one that wasn't Ethan's at all, and I twisted my head around. Behind the ruins of the wall a black snake slithered, scales as large as dinner plates and with evil horns protruding from its head. The dragon's snout appeared in the open gap in the wall, tendrils of smoke rising from its nostrils as he pushed his way in. The eyes were massive things, glowing like green street lamps, with a narrow oval pupil like a cat's. He opened his mouth in an unmistakable sneer, revealing sharp teeth dripping with saliva.
He breathed, and the smell was like smoke and rot and death.
My eyes widened as I saw the furnace in his gullet begin to glow with fire.
I turned back to my mate, my love, my gryphon rushing toward me. He was leveling out his dive, and would soar past the house in the open space to my right.
JUMP, Ethan insisted.
I shuddered at the thought. If I timed it just right I could leap into the gap and land on his back, but if I missed I would plummet to the ground. But as I felt the sharp inhalation of air behind me, the dragon preparing to breathe his flaming breath, what choice did I have?
