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The darkness deepened but before the night finished falling, I limped to where the red and blue lights of cop cars strobed through the trees. Dragons swooped, and several breathed fire at the silvery forms they chased. I could only assume my mother numbered among the dragons breathing lethal flame overhead.
A dark, taloned hand closed over my head, the sharp tips piercing the ground around me. I gasped from fright, stumbled, and bumped into the scaly palm of an ancient dragon. My calf picked that moment to give out, and I landed on the ground in a heap. Something about my perspective changed, my vision sharpening and expanding to take in more of the shadowy figure caging me.
I recognized the low, throaty chuckle. I meant to open my mouth to berate my father for scaring at least a decade off me, but rather than a curse-punctuated rant, I squeaked and squealed. The loss of speech stunned me, but the fact I had a long snout, which protruded into my field of vision far more than my human nose had, confirmed one thing: my mother had been right.
Perhaps I had maintained my courage in the sights of a crazed woman, but my father had scared me straight into sprouting scales.
“Be still, little hatchling,” my father rumbled, and he lifted his paw. With a careful application of claw tips, he peeled away the shredded ruins of my shirt, which hadn’t survived my transformation. “They will pay for what they have done.” After plucking away more ruined fabric, he located my derringer, lifting it up. “John?”
A yellow dragon, not quite a match for my father in size, ambled through the trees. Long horns curved back along his scaled skull, and a membrane divided by pointed spines formed a crest between his mobile ears, which pricked forward much like a horse’s. “Perhaps I should bring the other hatchling over, then you can watch them both. Mine’s fussing.”
My father chuckled, low and deep. He lowered his head and bumped me with the top of his nose, working his way under my chin, lifting my head. “Her clothes reek of blood and some chemical.”
Erik’s father drew closer, and I held my ground, although I needed to fight the urge to back away and hide under my father’s belly. “I recognize it. It’s a sedative strong enough to knock the sense and will out of human women. It’s been long enough only some remnants would remain. It also serves as a painkiller. Did you find her shifted?”
“I startled her into it, but she had wandered right by me without noticing. I thought it fair play to remind her to pay more attention. However, the volume of blood on her clothes is concerning.”
“I’ll call in for the hospital to be ready in case she needs a transfusion. Let me fetch my hatchling, then you can keep them both contained while the women bring those mercury bastards down. They won’t take long about it once I tell them your hatchling is in your capable claws.” With a swipe of his paw, Erik’s father gathered up my shredded clothing and bounded off, his wings tucked close to his back. My father nudged at me until I shuffled away from him. I meant to give him a few feet of space, but I tripped, went down with a squeal, and sprawled. As words evaded me, I made whining noises while staring up at him.
With zero regard for my inability to make my legs do what I wanted, he shoved his nose under my belly and pushed me out of the way before settling on the ground. Once he positioned me within his front paws, he went to work cleaning off my scales with his tongue.
I voiced my complaints with a whine, which did nothing to deter my father.
“Oh, stop your complaining. Erik sprouted scales when he learned you’d been kidnapped. Let’s just say he was ready to start beating mercury dragons for their involvement. Fortunately for the mercury dragons, newly shifted hatchlings are like toddlers. He got distracted with trying to walk without falling over, and at that point, your mother and I had dispatched several mercury dragons, leaving him no one to attempt to fell. He is much too small to succeed at such things. Given an hour, you’ll be waddling around and looking for trouble to get into. Given a few days, you’ll figure out how to talk. Like you, he’s a tiny hatchling. Expect him to get cuddly once he figures out who you are. The yellows need a lot of attention.”
The old yellow dragon returned, and he carried a hatchling in his mouth with a long tail, gangly legs, and stubby wings. Erik squealed protests and batted ineffectively at his father’s tooth-filled maw. Rather than lower his son to the ground, he spit, dumping Erik nearby. My father huffed, stretched out his neck, and pulled Erik close. “Keep her warm, little hatchling. You have more than a few hours on her, so she hasn’t figured out how to use her legs yet.”
Erik squealed and bounded over, moving more like a ferret than a dignified dragon. He collided with me, draped his neck over mine, and brought his head around to nuzzle at my chin. He pressed close while I struggled to make use of my legs and stand my ground. Within a few moments, between his enthusiasm and my inability to make sense of my new form, we became a tangled mess of legs and stubby wings.
Making low purring sounds, Erik settled beside me, and he wound his tail around mine.
My father nudged us both with his nose, and then he licked our muzzles. “I will keep an eye on them, John. As we do not need to peel information out of those mercury dragons, you can help bring them down.”
Erik’s father grunted, eased away, and lunged skyward, his wings tearing through a few of the looming branches overhead, showering us with twigs, leaves, and a few larger chunks of wood. My father pulled a wing forward to deflect debris, snorting his disgust. “How clumsy.”
Erik lifted his head and whistled at my father.
“Yes, she was hurt, but she should be fine. I’ll give her an hour or two to get used to her new form, then I’ll help her shift back to human so we can get a better look at her injuries. With luck, she’ll heal a little from changing shapes.” My father eyed us before turning his attention skyward. “Kinsley, Garnet and Tourmaline are fine. Chester and several of Erik’s sisters are watching them, as they were banned from participating in the hunt. They’re too young. Hatchlings can’t fly, and the recently fledged are rather useless at it. This lot picked the wrong families to target. While some of them are old enough to have increased mass, none of them can breathe their element. I’d say they’ve committed suicide, but your mother is in the mood to take prisoners. Singed and barely breathing prisoners, but prisoners all the same. Immediate incineration lacks satisfaction for her.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that my mother might want to draw out toying with her prey. However, after having seen the nightmare lurking within the mansion basement, I held no sympathy for them.
Justice would be brutal, and it wouldn’t be swift. While normally a fan of mercy, granting mercy to the merciless lacked appeal this time.
As neither Erik nor my father would be permitting me to wander off, I decided there was only one thing to do. A nap would improve my evening, and with a little luck, I’d miss the worst of the drama.
* * *
Wednesday, April 29, 2167
The Sapphire Ward
Dragon Heights, Wyoming
I needed to stop waking up in unexpected and unknown locations. That I’d returned to my human form counted as a good thing; I liked being able to talk. However, I disliked being in a hospital room. It reminded me of the mercury lab although the hospital boasted an assortment of equipment, an IV stand, and a rather bemused Erik, who sat beside me.
I meant to ask him where we were, but a long yawn emerged instead.
He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Outside of my family and yours, nobody knows we have changed our status. After you passed out, your dad handled getting you shifted back to human, and he lost his temper when he saw the injuries. I got under foot, so my mother hauled me off by my tail and made me shift back to human, too.”