Dark Dragon Daddy

by Abigail Raines

  I ran down the sidewalk and pushed through the crowd of people coming out of the building that was smoking though not engulfed in flames quite yet as the fire engine neared. But it was an ambulance that showed up first. It was only then that I saw a few people crowded around a car and I made out a figure on top of it. It was the mystery dragon, now in human form and having made an impressive dent in the car, caving the roof in. His leg was twisted beneath him and he was unconscious. I’d killed Gus but I knew I might still be in danger. I needed to get away and yet something about the injured man on top of the car made me want to follow him. Why had he tried to help me? Who was he?

  I stood there on the street like a dope, rubbing my belly protectively, my backpack over my shoulder, as I watched the EMTs load the man into a van. I was just relieved he wasn’t dead. The firefighters were running into the building. Everything seemed chaotic and my head was spinning.

  It wasn’t exactly a decision I made to jump into the ambulance with the mystery dragon shifter and the EMTs. It was more like fate shoving me inside. I just had a feeling that I should follow him. Anyway, he had saved me once. He was alone and injured. He needed looking after. The man had been shot because of me.

  “I’m his girlfriend,” I said to the EMTs. It just came jumping out of my mouth, an easy lie. I’d gotten used to lying lately, at least since I’d been on the run. “Is he going to be okay? He was shot, right?”

  “It’s superficial,” one of the EMTs said, nodding. “He’s going to be fine. Broken leg, gunshot wound near the shoulder. Not a great night but considering he’s reported to have fallen a few stories, it could have been much worse. He must be very strong.”

  I sat back on the cushiony little bench inside the van and took a deep breath as I stared down at the man on the gurney while the EMTs fixed an oxygen mask over his face, his leg strapped to a giant brace as the ambulance hurtled through New York.

  I was safe again. For now. And it was because of him, whoever he was.

  At the hospital, I got a chance to rest a bit and attempt to relax at least. But I was exhausted. I’d realized Darien was on my tail a couple of days ago. I’d been too afraid to stop for long anywhere, though in the end, it hadn’t mattered. I hadn’t eaten in too long either and I found enough change in my backpack to get something almost substantial in the vending machines. It wasn’t enough for a pregnant dragon shifter, but it would have to do for now. I didn’t take my eyes off the mystery man, and hovered near him as they dressed his shoulder. I watched them take him away to X-ray and stood by while they dressed his cast. The break wasn’t too bad. I knew that was down to him being a shifter too. It probably wouldn’t take him too long to heal. Still, I felt responsible for him.

  “Here are his personal items.” A nurse handed me a plastic bag containing his wallet, phone, keys, and a belt. I took it, blinking dumbly. It felt strange to be treated like I was his girlfriend but I wasn’t sure they’d let me stick around otherwise.

  Feeling just a little intrusive, I took out his phone. He had a few texts but I immediately felt like I was snooping too much and put it back in the bag. If he had any worse of an injury, I would consider trying to get a hold of a contact. But even now as I hovered by the curtain behind which he lay on a gurney, with his newly casted leg propped up, his shoulder dressed, he was stirring awake. He would wake up and maybe he would be here overnight, but soon enough he would be able to call someone to take care of him.

  I should leave, I told myself. He didn’t need me. This was silly. If I had any doubts, the Gucci on his belt, the shininess of his very recently upgraded phone, and the key on his key chain that said Rolls Royce put an end to them. The guy was clearly loaded.

  And yet, I stayed.

  “Where is my phone…” I heard him muttering behind the curtain and I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling ridiculous. I should’ve left the plastic bag with him even if I was going to stay. Now I had to go in there.

  I rubbed my belly again. At this point, it had become a kind of plea for good luck. Then I pushed back the curtain and stepped forward.

  The mystery dragon shifter looked up at me with raised eyebrows. He was...gorgeous. Darian was a handsome man too, although his soul was so hideous it made him ugly to me. But this man had black hair touching his shoulders and huge, hooded brown eyes. They were soulful eyes. Puppy dog eyes you might say. He had high cheekbones and a plush but defined mouth. Now he sat up in bed in a hospital gown. He shouldn’t have looked so good in a hospital gown, under the glare of fluorescent lights. But he was a breathtakingly beautiful man. I hadn’t really noticed before. There had been too much going on. Now I clenched my fists and drew myself up, taking a breath.

  “Hi,” I said. My voice cracked badly and I cleared my throat, my cheeks burning. “Hi. My name is Dana.”

  Chapter Three: David

  It was her, the girl I’d been trying to save. I supposed I’d somehow managed it. Anyhow, she seemed to have gotten away. She was standing there calmly, by the gurney, holding a plastic bag that looked like it held my stuff. I sat up a little on the gurney and immediately winced. I wasn’t in terrible pain. In fact, I was a little woozy and out of it. They’d definitely given me something. I only had a dull throbbing in my shoulder and my leg, which now bore a monstrosity of a cast. It would heal quickly. It would not heal as quickly as it would for other shifters; another lovely bit of aftermath from my long imprisonment. But it would heal faster than it would for a human.

  “I’m David,” I said. My throat was scratchy and I coughed. I wanted water more than I ever had in my life. I felt greasy and tired but worst of all, my mouth was incredibly dry. I thought it must be a side effect from whatever painkillers they’d given me. “David Kagen.”

  “You...rescued me,” the woman said softly, walking up to stand by the gurney. She laid the bag next to me and her eyes wandered. She seemed hesitant to look right at me.

  I looked her over under the harsh lights of the hospital. Her hair was lank and greasy and she was too pale. She looked like she hadn’t seen a shower or a good night’s sleep and probably not a decent meal in far too long. She was carrying that backpack on one shoulder and she stood leaning over to one side a little as she looked up at me with huge blue eyes. She was quite striking with her long black hair and eyes like the ocean.

  “I was in the neighborhood,” I muttered.

  She snorted at that and raised an eyebrow. “Okay…”

  I sighed heavily and rubbed my chin where my beard was growing in. I didn’t like when my beard grew in. I worked out a lot. I liked to be strong after my long time chained up had made me feel so weak. I was of average height but I was pretty damn muscular now. I also liked my hair long and touching my shoulders. I liked the way it made me look like the paintings of my ancestors. But when my beard grew in the entire effect was just a little too lumberjack for my tastes. I considered myself a little more refined than that.

  “What happened exactly?” I said, trying to speak through the fog that felt as if it were addling my mind.

  “You set Gus on fire,” Dana said slowly. “Then you shifted and he shot you and you fell. Gus dropped the gun, I grabbed it and shot him and I got out of there.”

  “Is he dead?” I said, feeling a jerk of surprise.

  “Last I saw him he was shot through the heart and on fire in a burning building,” Dana said, shrugging. “He looked pretty dead.”

  “Are you alright?” I said, sitting up a little.

  “Ha!” She laughed, covering her mouth and looking away. “You got shot and fell off a building and broke your leg. You want to know if I’m okay?”

  “Well…” I cleared my throat, my cheeks burning. I tended to give myself away, always more than I intended to. I stiffened, looking away from her, feeling myself close up. The meds were actually making me a little loose-lipped. I was never so easy with people but now as I spoke to her, my head was clearing a little. That actually made it harder. “You look...hungry.”

&nbs
p; “I look like shit,” she muttered sadly, rubbing her stomach before clenching her fists and sticking them in her pocket. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  “Who was Gus?” I said. “What did he want with you?”

  She took a breath and then looked me up and down, shaking her head. “Nobody. It’s… It’s not your problem. But thank you. For getting me out of there. Honestly. I just wanted to know if there was somebody I could call for you.” She opened her mouth, her pale cheeks darkening a little. “But you have a phone. So...you can probably call your people.” She cleared her throat. “I should go.”

  She turned and started to walk away. I should let her go, I thought. Things would be so much easier. I’m not good with new people. I’m not even good with people I know. But the girl needed help. This job wasn’t over. I’d gotten myself into something and like it or not, I had to finish.

  Besides that, I felt as if our business together wasn’t through. I needed to know her. I just didn’t know why yet.

  “Hold on,” I said in a low voice. “Wait.”

  She turned around, her gaze fixed on the floor. She looked so sad and chagrined. As if she had something to be ashamed of but I couldn’t think of what. It made me curious about her. Why would she feel that way when she was so clearly a victim of whatever Gus had wanted? He’d said she was bought. None of that could be her fault. Anyway, she needed my help.

  You need her help, a faint voice said. But I ignored that troublesome thought.

  “Do you have anywhere to go tonight?” I said.

  “I-”

  “Just tell me exactly where you’re planning on going if you leave here right now,” I said slowly.

  She opened her and closed her mouth a few times. I could see her fighting with herself; wanting to lie and also not wanting to. Perhaps she was a little proud. That, I could certainly understand.

  “I have a big house,” I said. “And I live alone. But...I have a housekeeper cook. Sort of like a butler. If you’re concerned about your safety or-” I licked my lips, rubbing my annoying stubbled chin. “I’m trying to say-”

  “I wouldn’t be concerned about my safety,” she said. “I mean you rescued me. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to getting shot and falling off a building if you have shitty intentions.”

  I snickered at that. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me and the painkiller made me feel dizzy for a moment like the room was turning upside down. I took a deep breath, trying again to focus.

  “Are you okay?” She said.

  “Painkillers… They’re making me a little…” I shook my head and that made it worse, as if the room was tipping over. I gripped the sides of the gurney as if I might fall. “I’m a little off,” I said.

  “Do you have somebody to take care of you?” She said. “Can the butler take care of you?”

  “I…” I licked my lips. Just like her, I had an urge to reject help. But that would be stupid. We could help each other. There was no reason not to. “Please, if you would like to, come to my place. You can stay there as long as you need. You could assist me.” I smiled tightly and looked away when I said, “Nothing untoward.”

  “Untoward,” she said with a snort. “You’re like some guy from a Jane Austen novel.”

  I gave her a long look; her greasy black ponytail, dingy hoodie, thrashed backpack, and torn up jeans. I suspected she was some kind of diamond in the rough. That’s okay. I’d been a diamond in the rough too for a while. But most importantly, she was a dragon shifter just like me. We had to look out for each other. We were a rarity.

  “So?” I said quietly. “Would that be acceptable?”

  She hemmed and hawed, shifting on her feet and rubbing her stomach. “Okay,” she said, finally. “But I’ll earn my keep. Really, you’ll have to let me help.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, exhaustion pouring through me again. I lay back my head. I wanted to sleep so badly and my shoulder throbbed anew with pain. “Okay just… You could…” I was fighting sleep now. Sleep was winning. Or rather, the painkillers were winning. My words were heavy and slugging on my tongue that felt too thick. “You could go...there. Now or…”

  “That’s okay.” Her voice echoed in the room but her laugh chimed like a bell. “I can wait until you get discharged. I’ll wait right here with you.”

  That was the last thing I understood before sleep claimed me but I heard her sitting down beside my gurney as I dropped off into darkness.

  “Bring him out…”

  The Collector’s voice rang sharply in my ears and one of his assistants jabbed my side with the shock stick.

  Bzzzz!

  The current was strong enough to more than penetrate my thick dragonhide and I howled in pain even as they yanked me forward by my chains into The Collector’s ballroom where his guests waited to see one of his prized treasures.

  “I’ve never seen a black dragon,” one woman said casually. The room was a blur around me. They had me drugged so I’d be extra compliant. My dragon’s nature had been resisting lately. My human self was all but broken but the dragon was harder to tame. Now I was slow on my feet and the people and creatures all around in their ball-gowns and finery was a hallucinatory blur.

  “I’ve never seen a dragon at all,” one man said.

  “Can he breathe fire?”

  “Make him spread his wings!”

  “I want to see his teeth!”

  “He’s awfully small. Is he an adult?”

  “What a wicked creature…”

  “They should hunt them all down.”

  “He looks sick.”

  “Make him spread his wings!”

  Bzzzz.

  I woke with a start, breathless with fear and sweating through my hospital gown. I could still see them all around me. I could still feel those tight chains cutting into my legs and my wings, the bitter taste of the tonic The Collector had forced me to guzzle to contain my fire. I could still feel the shock of the stick. My hands were shaking and I stuck them under the blanket but it was too late to hide my panic now. Dana was sitting up in her chair beside the gurney as doctors and nurses bustled around us. The light of the hospital felt harsh and I squeezed my eyes shut again, rubbing them, wishing I could go one night without waking up terrified even if it did often abate fairly quickly by now. Sometimes I still got flashbacks and panic out of nowhere. The truth was, not very much time had passed since I’d been The Collector’s prisoner and slave. I hadn’t even begun to process it yet.

  “Are you okay?” Dana said, her brow furrowed with concern.

  I took a deep breath and shrugged. “Just the painkillers,” I said. “Gave me a weird dream. It’s nothing.”

  “Oh okay.” She smiled sweetly and settled back in her chair. “Do you need anything? You want some ice or…?” She rubbed her eyes. I had a mind to ask her if she needed anything. I knew very well that she’d be on the streets if she wasn’t in that chair. I wondered when the last time was that she’d had a hot meal.

  “Ice would be great,” I said. “Can you hand me my wallet?”

  Dana grabbed the plastic bag from where I’d dropped it on the floor and pulled out my wallet, handing it to me. I took out a twenty and passed it back to her before sticking the wallet back in the bag. “I want you to take this and go eat. I don’t care where: Hospital cafeteria, fast food, whatever. Go eat.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, gritting her teeth.

  I glared at her, too tired to argue, but hoping my withering stare would break her. Finally she grabbed the twenty and sighed heavily, like I was asking the biggest favour in the world.

  “You can keep the change,” I mumbled, sleep threatening to overwhelm me again. I didn’t want it too. I didn’t much like the idea of more nightmares.

  “I’ll bring you back the change,” she said before I fell asleep again.

  I didn’t remember what I dreamed this time but that might have been because when I woke up, my pain killer had worn off. I pressed the call button for the nurse
with shaking hands. Doctors had been by to check on me once while Dana had gone off to eat and I’d fallen asleep again. I didn’t think it was their fault about the drugs. It was possible my shifter’s metabolism had just burned through them more quickly than they would have for a human.

  “Mr. Kagen?” A nurse said, jogging over.

  I was sweating. My shoulder hurt so badly, I could barely form words. My leg throbbed with pain. “Hurts,” I wheezed. “Please…”

  The nurse rushed over to check my IV, left, and came back to inject something into it. All at once a rush of blissful warmth flooded through me and I lay back again, breathing easy.

  “Thank you.”

  “I don’t understand how they wore off so fast,” she muttered, squinting at my chart. “Huh. Are you a drug user?”

  “No, I just…” I shrugged. “I have a weird metabolism. I always have.”

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. “Your blood tests were very clean. Dr. Emmerson says you’ll be released in the morning and we’ll have scheduled follow-ups for you shoulder and your leg.”

  “Right,” I said, sighing.

  “Do you need anything else?” The nurse said.

  “Ice,” I muttered. “Some ice would be nice.”

  “Oh, your girlfriend brought you some ice,” the nurse said, taking a plastic cup from the nightstand by my gurney. She held it out to me and I took it, blinking dumbly at her.