by Julie Wetzel
Terra turned to the next page. This one had a picture of a smiling man—another dragon—and again, it listed him as missing, presumed dead, with an account of his last sighting. Terra flipped through the twenty or so pages. Each was a description of a dragon that had gone missing. None of the pictures matched the man on her floor. Folding the file back together, she returned it to the pouch. Searching the rest of the bag revealed a bunch of nothing: a few dollars, a book of matches, and some gum. Boy, this guy wasn’t making life easy.
Dropping the bag back to the floor, she shoved it under the couch and got up. Her stomach was telling her it was time for food. Terra pulled the melted vegetables off the dragon man’s face and checked on the lump. It was starting to look pretty good. Still a little red, but the swelling had gone down. Given a little more time, the mark would be gone, and she wouldn’t have to explain how she had dropped him on his face.
She considered him for a minute. With that file full of missing persons, he could be some kind of cop or a private detective. But didn’t they have to keep a badge or something? And what had made him crash in her cornfield? Tossing the bag of vegetables in the air as she walked, she went into the kitchen to start dinner. Maybe he would be awake by the time it was ready, and she could ask him.
2
What the hell! Terra cursed to herself as she dropped her spoon in the pot and headed out of the kitchen. She was going to beat whoever was banging on her front door like that. She paused to check on her sleeping dragon. He was still breathing. Good. Heading over to the door, she yanked it open. The sight that met her stopped her before she could start yelling. Shit.
“Where the hell have you been, woman?”
Derrick, her ex-boyfriend, stood on the porch with two bags in his arms.
“Open this goddamn door and let me in.”
“Derrick!” She gasped. “What are you doing here?”
What in the hell could this asshole want now?
Having left her three months ago, Terra had never expected to see Derrick back at her door. He had dumped her faster than a knife fight in a phone booth when the hot chick he’d been chasing had finally given in. It had torn her up at first, but a little reflecting on their relationship had changed her mind. In retrospect, he hadn’t been the nice guy she had taken him for.
Derrick tugged on the locked screen door. “A tree fell on the shop. Now open the door.”
Clutching the inside door, Terra looked at the horror revisiting her. At first, Derrick had been a great guy—loving and sweet. But, man, once he’d moved in, he had turned over a few new leaves. Suddenly, nothing she did was right, and oh, the temper tantrums he threw! It took her a while to realize that the problem wasn’t her. And thankfully, he’d left before things had gotten physical. She would put up with a lot of things in the name of love, but abuse was not one of them.
Terra pulled her shoulders straight and glared at him. “What happened to your girlfriend?”
“That bitch didn’t deserve me. Open this damn door.” He rattled the screen door again.
Apparently, this shithead doesn’t realize he’s out of luck.
“No,” Terra answered and went to slam the door in his face.
“Damn it, bitch!” Derrick jerked the screen door hard enough to crack the frame. “If you shut that door, so help me, I will kill you.” He tugged on the loosening door again.
Terra was sure Derrick had meant every word he’d said, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let some abusive shit back into her life.
“Leave before I call the cops.”
She tried to shut the door, but it wouldn’t move. An arm wrapped around her shoulders, drawing her back into a very warm body.
“The lady told you to leave,” a deep voice rumbled from behind her.
Whoa! Terra glanced back to see the dragon man holding her against him. When the hell had he woken up?
Derrick stopped tugging on the door and glared at the man. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing with my woman?”
“I’m the one that’s going to beat the hell out of you if you touch her, and I don’t think she’s your woman anymore. Leave. Now.”
With that, the dragon man pulled the door from Terra’s hand and slammed it in Derrick’s face.
Nice!
Derrick’s scream of outrage echoed through the door, but he stomped his way down the steps and out of her life again. Apparently, he felt at ease threatening a woman but wouldn’t stand up to a man.
Good riddance! Hopefully, he will stay gone this time. Now she just had to deal with the naked man holding on to her. This was going to be… interesting.
***
Alex dropped his head to the young woman’s shoulder as his world spun. He really shouldn’t have gotten up from the floor, but listening to someone threatening the girl had pissed him off.
“I didn’t mean to intrude on your personal business,” he apologized.
“Much appreciated,” the young woman answered. They stood there together for a long moment with him leaning on her shoulder. “Umm… You can let me go now.”
“Ha!” Alex let out a mirthless laugh and shook his head. “I would, but you’re the only thing keeping me on my feet right now.” If he loosened his hold on her, he was going to fall over.
She turned in his grip and wrapped her arms around him, taking his weight. “God, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.” He leaned on her as she led him across the room to the couch.
“I’m Terra, by the way,” she said, introducing herself as they walked. “What’s your name?”
Alex opened his mouth to answer, but his brain flatlined. He couldn’t recall his own name! In fact, he had no idea where he was or why he was naked. He stopped, waiting for the answer to come to him, but nothing did.
“At the moment, I have no idea,” Alex admitted. His head was pounding. Maybe he’d hit it or something.
Terra looked at him, concerned. “It will come back to you,” she offered.
He let her pull him back into motion.
“You took a nasty fall.”
Well, that might explain why he felt like a truck had hit him, backed up to see what they’d hit, and then run over him again. God, he hurt. He looked down, expecting to see bruises and blood everywhere, but there wasn’t any. Just him, naked.
“What happened to my clothing?” Alex asked as she helped him to the couch and handed him the afghan from the back. He tucked it around his waist.
“You weren’t wearing any when I found you,” Terra said. She picked up the blanket from the floor, folded it, and laid it over his legs. It was bigger than the afghan and covered him all the way to the floor. “In fact, you weren’t even human when I found you,” she added casually.
Okay, well that explained why he didn’t have clothing. He must have been in dragon form. Oh that’s nice! He remembered he was a dragon, but he still had no clue what his name was. The little voice in the back of his head that he recognized as his dragon part snickered at him. He felt the bright flash of scales slither across the back of his mind, reminding him that he had something important to do, but the pain in his head kept him from coming up with what. Lifting a hand, Alex pressed his fingers into his temple, trying to get the pounding to subside.
“I don’t want to impose on you further, but do you have anything for pain? I think I might have hit my head.”
“Sure,” Terra answered.
Is that amusement in her voice, or something else? Does she know something I don’t? Before he could work out what to say, she called to him from the kitchen.
“Anything in particular?”
He didn’t care what she gave him, just as long as it made his head stop pounding. Alex shook his head no and instantly regretted it. He leaned it on the back of the couch, hoping the extra support would help. It felt like someone had tried to get into it with a sledgehammer.
“Here.” Terra held out her hand towards him.
Alex sat back up
and took what she offered. “Thank you.” He looked at the two mismatched pills and the can of coke. What in the world?
He glanced up at her, confused.
“Aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine,” Terra explained. “The two meds work differently, and the caffeine will help them along. The sugar in there might do you some good, too.”
Whatever. As long as they worked.
Popping the pills in his mouth, he washed them down with the coke, then pressed the cold can to the sore spot on his forehead. God, that felt good! Closing his eyes, he listened as Terra found a seat on the loveseat next to the couch.
“So, how do you feel?”
That’s a stupid question. He’d just told her that his head ached.
“I hurt.”
He took one more drink of the coke before resting it on the couch and leaning his head back again.
“I don’t doubt it a bit,” Terra said. “You did manage to dig a massive furrow in the cornfield.”
Rolling his head over, Alex cracked an eye to look at her. She was smiling at him, but it wasn’t an amused smile. It was more sympathetic.
“You were either moving fast or came down hard.”
He closed his eye and rolled his head back into its place. “Both, if I had to guess by the way I feel.”
Oh yes, hard and fast. What in the hell could take a dragon out of the sky? A quick flash of memory skimmed through his mind—blue sky and a flash of light. Had there been a lighting strike? That could potentially drop a dragon. He tried to get the memory to come back, but it just made his head hurt worse. Great.
“Is there anything I can do for you? Someone I should call?”
Bells and whistles went off in his brain as his dragon growled. There was something he was forgetting. Well, he couldn’t remember a lot of things, but there was something really, really important that he needed to remember. And it had to do with contacting—or not contacting—someone.
Unable to figure it out, he shook his head slightly. “No. I just need to rest for a bit.”
Yes, a nice nap should help greatly! Leaning his head over on the couch, he let go. The tingle of magic raced across his body as his dragon half took over. A few hours in his lesser form should go a long way to making him feel better. And maybe being closer to his instincts would let him remember the things he’d forgotten. Like his name.
***
Terra gasped as a shimmer of magic swept across the man’s body, reducing him to a miniature dragon. She had seen him shift from his large size to human, but she didn’t know he could shift to a smaller size. Amazing!
The small dragon wiggled around on the couch until his head was tucked into the corner under the pillows. He pulled his wings in alongside his body and relaxed.
Terra studied him for a moment, fascinated. He’s adorable in this form. With a body the size of a small Labrador, she could almost imagine him as a dog. But his neck and tail were both much longer. Small versions of the back-sloping horns he’d had in the large size poked out from under the pillows, and his tail curled down to the floor. His scales were the same amazing blue. Standing up from her seat, Terra picked up the blanket and spread it over him.
“Rest as long as you need to.” She patted him on the back.
He snorted into the pillow and let out a sound that was something like a purr.
Oh, how cute! Smiling, Terra picked up his can of pop and took it back into the kitchen. Last thing she needed was for him to knock it over accidentally, and it wasn’t like he would be able to pick it up and drink it in this form. Maybe she should pour it in a bowl for him? Nah. She placed the open can in the fridge and went back to the stove. Hopefully, she hadn’t burnt dinner too badly.
3
Another pounding on the front door pulled Terra away from the kitchen. If that asshole is back, he is going to get what for!
She grabbed her baseball bat from the broom cabinet before heading out. The weight felt good in her hands. Glancing at the couch, she found that her dragon man had moved and was now curled up completely under the blanket. Just a large lump under the comforter. So cute.
Turning her mind back to the knocking, she jerked open the door, ready to knock someone’s head in. Two men dressed in suits stood on her porch.
“Hello,” she said, dropping the bat down to her side. Their suits told her they were here on some kind of business. They didn’t look like cops.
Maybe they’re Mormons.
One of the men glanced at the bat before looking back at her face. “Good evening. Sorry for disturbing you. I’m Parker, and this is my partner, Brett. We’re here with the FBI.” He flashed some kind of badge but didn’t leave it out long enough for Terra to read it.
Terra eyed the man. His white shirt shone brightly next to his dark skin. He seemed the FBI type, but his partner… well, that was another question altogether. The man’s suit was nice, but he needed a shave. Badly. He was rather pale, and his short, brown hair stuck out in odd angles.
“FBI?” Something didn’t sit right with her.
“Yes, ma’am,” Parker answered. He tugged on his jacket like that could make him more presentable. “We’re looking for a suspect and wanted to know if you’ve seen anything strange today.” He glanced down at the bat again.
“A suspect?” she asked. These two didn’t have the right feel for FBI. Hit men, maybe.
“A dragon, to be precise,” Parker clarified. “Have you seen anything like that today?”
A shiver raced through Terra, warning her of danger. These men were looking for the dragon on her couch. But turning him over didn’t seem right.
“Well, to be honest, there have been several strange men in the area today.”
The men perked up as if they had hit the jackpot. “Did you see someone? Can you tell me where they went?”
These men were way too excited about finding the dragon. Making a snap decision, Terra nodded.
“Oh yes! Something came down in the cornfield out behind my house.” She batted her eyes at them and tried to play the innocent girl. “But I was too scared to go out and look.”
“Can you show us?” Parker asked.
“Oh no. I didn’t go out there. But if you want to go have a look, it was straight out behind the house.” Terra laid the sweet-and-innocent routine on a little thick, hoping they would believe she was the helpless girl she was pretending to be. It all depended on how softhearted they were. Terra didn’t think it would work for long, but it might get them to go out and check the back field. Sure, they would find the hole. With the darkness growing, they would probably fall in the sucker—hopefully breaking something.
Parker turned to Brett. “Go look.”
Brett gave Parker a funny look and nodded. “Right.”
Terra did not like the sarcastic way Brett drew out that word.
“Is it possible to come in and look around?” Parker asked. “I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
More warnings screamed in Terra’s head. These men were up to no good. It was time to get her dragon and get the hell out of there.
She smiled at them warmly. “That’s so nice of you. Give me a moment to put Cookie in his kennel. He doesn’t like visitors.”
“Cookie?” Parker asked.
“My dog.” Terra grinned and shut the door on the man.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Grabbing her purse, she slung the thing over her shoulder. She needed to get out of there fast. Pulling the satchel out from under the couch, she slipped that on, too. It might be important to her dragon. She figured Parker would give her about two minutes before he started knocking again. Now came the hard part.
Wrapping her arms around the dragon, she scooped him up, blanket and all. He let out a squeak as she disturbed him, thrashing about in her hold.
“Settle down, Cookie.” She spoke in a loud voice. “You don’t want to scare the visitors.”
The blanket froze.
“Good boy.”
She glanced
back at the windows next to the door. Her momma had always taught her to keep those curtains drawn, but with the fading light outside, there was a chance Parker might be able to seen in. The lump in the blanket softened. Great! Now she could carry him without him fighting. Apparently, dragons did understand human speech. She had been worried for a moment.
“That’s a good boy!” She ruffled the bundle in case the man was watching.
The bundle growled at her.
She smiled at the rumbling mass. Popping the bundle on the bottom, she gathered up the blanket and wrapped it around him more. “That’s no way to behave, Cookie.”
Now, it was time to get out of here. Walking to the kitchen, she heard Brett on the back porch. Checking the cornfield, indeed! Thankfully, she had locked the door. She flicked off the stove as she passed. It wouldn’t do to escape and then let her house burn down.
“Come on, Cookie, let’s get you settled.” She opened the door to the cellar. “In you get.”
Walking in, she closed the door behind her. The men wouldn’t wait much longer before breaking in. She snapped the deadbolt into place with her key. The only way they would get through that was either with the key—one of twenty in her junk drawer—or by breaking the door in. And that was a pretty stout door.
Hurrying down the steps, she moved by memory through the dark. Thirteen steps down. Boxes at the bottom. Right. Ten paces to the wall. Left. The sound of her back door being forced open drove her steps faster. Fifteen paces to the storm shelter. She caught the bottom of the shelf built into the door with her foot and swung the thing open. Slipping into the dark corridor just as the men started beating on the basement door, Terra pulled the door back into place behind her. It was damn dark in there and hard to tell if the shelf was seated right, but by the time the men got the door open and found her exit, she would be long gone.
Now came the fun part—making her way down the less-familiar corridor. She used to play down here as a kid, but that had been a long time ago.
