Fear of Dragon's Fire Read online

  A voice in my head said smoothly, “Horrific is a little rough, considering you look exactly like me.”

  Back to high-pitched squealing. The thing holding me rolled its eyes.

  I thought, as clearly as I could, “What the actual fuck? Are you reading my thoughts?”

  He nodded. How did I know it was a ‘he’? The eyes.

  Those beautiful, black-as-coal, yet vibrant-as-a-star eyes.

  Whatever I was looking at, CC was in there.

  The strange voice in my head said, “Telepathy. It’s a dragon thing. Nobody’s really figured out how to speak with mouths like these, and there’s not much point, when we can do the whole telepathy thing.”

  I was glad we couldn’t talk with these mouths. Because I’m pretty sure I would’ve sounded moronic as I stuttered out, “D-d-d-d-d-dragon?”

  CC was soaring, both physically and metaphorically. He was elated, and the voice in my head made me feel what he was feeling in this intense, empathy-plus-one-hundred-way.

  In my head he said, “I knew you were like us. As soon as I saw your hands. Well, your hands, but also the way you looked at the shish kebab. I could tell you were my kind of monster, but I wasn’t sure. Now it’s official.”

  I tried to say, “I’m not a monster,” but my mind only said, “I’m a monster.”

  He looked bored. He said, “Man, just once, I’d like to meet someone who’s excited about this from the get-go. Here’s the thing, Kat. You can fly. You can literally fly. You were doing it before I caught you and helped you out a bit. Haven’t you always dreamed of flying?”

  I only asked, “Am I stuck looking like this forever?”

  He said, “Did I look like this when we met?”

  I said, “No, you were hot as hell.” I winced. I was being honest, but I really wasn’t in the mood to hit on him right now.

  He grinned. Then he winked and said, “Thank you. I’m hot this way, too. Just literally.”

  I screamed and twisted out of the way of the fire that spouted out of his mouth in a quick poof. He said, “Stop squirming. You think you became the one dragon that’s not impervious to fire?”

  Then he blew a big blast right over my shoulders. It felt... amazing. Like a hot water bath, or one of those hot stone treatments at a massage parlor.

  I purred. Involuntarily, of course. A satisfied, soft grumble came out of my long throat and in return, CC purred, too.

  He kept pouring fire over my body, and I kept making soft, happy noises.

  We alighted on top of a tree. We were in the branches again. He let me find my own footing before he let go of me.

  I saw the fullness of him. He was a dragon, from the top of his head to his toes – his talons.

  A tail. I looked down at myself. He was right, we did look similar, except he was a ruby red and I was a forest green.

  I said, “What the hell am I? If you say I’m a dragon, I’m going to murder you, because I already get that part.”

  He held his dragon paws up in a ‘we cool; gesture and said, “It’s important to cover the basics. But more specifically, you’re what’s called a shifter. You can change, whenever you want, between your boring human form and your way cooler dragon form.”

  I said, “Okay, fine. Let’s say I accept that bit of lunacy and don’t assume the rational thing, which is that you slipped hallucinogens in my drinks. I didn’t want to change into a dragon. So why did it happen?”

  He said, “Okay, this is harder to explain to girls. But look at it like this. You know how when young boys get erections, they can’t control them? Or make them go away? The feeling happens and it’s happening. As they get older, they can ignore it, or make it happen by thinking about certain things? They get control over it.”

  I sat for a moment. I said, incredulously, “You’re telling me becoming a dragon is like a weird erection for me? I don’t know how to control my dragon hard-on yet?”

  He nodded happily.

  I said, “Does anyone know you’re like this?”

  He said, “My whole gang is made up of shifters. Well, shifters and, shall we say – to be delicate – dragon enthusiasts.”

  I could’ve laughed, if I’d remembered how to do that. Enthusiasts?

  I looked down at my hands. I didn’t have the urge to laugh anymore.

  Then the voice in my head said so softly, it was like a lullaby, only it woke me up instead of drew me to sleep, “Do you want to learn how to fly? Like, really fly?”

  No matter how much I hated myself in that moment, how in the hell do you say no to something like that?

  Chapter Eight

  I woke up to sunshine, cut by the partially open shades on the window. The smooth white blanket on top of me was made for sterility, not comfort. I was in a crinkly hospital gown with the back open.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out where I was. Why I was there took a little bit more detective work.

  We’d been flying, right? He’d been showing me, on bigger and bigger trees, how to land. Then we found a huge one.

  I was petrified. This was one of those old-ass Montana forest trees that have probably been there since fish first grew legs and walked around topside.

  CC was staring at me with hungry eyes. Every leap we made, his breathing got heavier. I doubted it was the exertion, since he did all of the leaps so smoothly.

  He was impressed with me. Every chance I took was turning him on.

  The feeling of flight was like nothing else. It had all the exhilaration of a rollercoaster and the smooth replenishing feeling of swimming in clear, smooth water. It was the biggest rush of power I’d ever had.

  I guess the only thing I could really compare it to would be skiing. When you skied, it felt as if you owned the slopes. As if you were part of the wind and also all of the nature that had given itself up to you.

  As I swooped and dove, I felt I was a true apex predator. But the landings always brought me back some humility. I was clunky, and each time I felt as if I was falling off a bike, and I could feel the bruises and bumps under my tough, scaly exterior.

  But, here I was, about to jump off a tree as tall as a small mountain (at least it felt like it), ride the wave of aerodynamics, and come to some kind of stop at the bottom. CC said it was all about trusting yourself to make the landing, or at least trusting yourself to survive if it went awry.

  Surfing always sounded insane to me. Getting out onto the water and praying it didn’t smash your face in, all so you can get a few minutes of adrenaline rush. Really only a few seconds.

  As I looked into CC’s eyes, I thought I understood. I stepped off the tree and flapped my massive wings to get air resistance. They felt great as they unfolded and hit the warm summer air. The air filled my large lungs, and the high I felt was ten times better than the runner’s highs I chased in high school on the track team.

  CC was a second behind me. We looped in the air, dancing around each other on the rhythm of the wind. Occasionally, one of us would bathe the other in a delicious blast of fire.

  Then, he got a devilish look in his eye. “Let’s play,” he said, “Tag.”

  He blasted me with a full cannonball of fire, and I roared with the playful joy of it. I chased him, and he flew back into the tree line, testing my agility. I wasn’t about to give up. He was clearly slowing himself down so I had a chance, which made it all the more important that I catch him. I sent blasts carefully through the trees, trying to hit him without hitting any extremely flammable wood.

  Eventually I had him trapped so he had to rush across a road. I followed closely behind him. That was when I became enveloped in a white light and felt a harsh smash into my ribcage. I heard him scream my name, in my mind. Then all went quiet.

  I woke up in the hospital. Blake was sitting across from me, concerned as all hell but relieved to see me awake.

  Maybe it was all a dream? Is that what I wanted?

  To have never really flown?

  Chapter Nine

  B
lake rushed over to my side and grabbed my hand. I almost recoiled, but then I saw that my hand was completely normal.

  Maybe it had all been a dream. What had really happened, then?

  I looked up into Blake’s soft, brown eyes and waited for some kind of explanation. He looked as if he was going to cry.

  He said, “Kat? Are you awake? Can you hear me?”

  I said, “Yeah, I’m awake. I feel fine. Why the hell am I in a hospital bed?”

  He exhaled, as if he’d been holding his breath all night.

  “Oh my God, Kat, I was out looking for you. I was driving down the road, when all of a sudden this huge thing sprinted out of the trees. At least I thought it was huge. I didn’t even have time to swerve – it was as if it flew right in front of me. But, when I got out of the car, it looked as if I had hit you. But it didn’t look like you. That is, it only partly looked like you.”

  Oh no. It wasn’t a dream. It was all very real.

  He continued, “I could tell it was you, but there was something wrong with your body. It was all green and twisted. I thought I’d killed you, Kat. So I drove you straight to the hospital.”

  He had seen me like that, partially shifted, and had driven me to a hospital. Because he saw what I really was.

  I was a monster, and I could shift back at any moment.

  He ran his hands through his fluffy blond hair, which looked like a halo in the sunlight. He said, “It must sound as if I’m drunk, because, clearly, you’re fine. Maybe I hit something else and then found you. The doctors said you’d been drinking. I don’t know how to explain what I saw. I must’ve been out of my mind, because I thought I’d killed you. Katherine, you’re the most important person in my world, and I thought I’d killed you.”

  I had so many warring emotions. Yesterday, I had wanted nothing more than to hear this. But so much had happened since then.

  So much that he’d never understand.

  Clearly, he couldn’t sense that. He got on to his knees at the side of the bed and looked up at me.

  With a tremble in his voice, he said, “Katherine. It’s always been you. I’ve met other girls and I’ve traveled around, but you know where my mind always goes back to? Walking through the woods with you. Yesterday, when you ran off, I felt so stupid. The whole time I had wanted to tell you how I felt, but my tongue was tied into a knot. How do I take a lifetime and drill it into one sentence, so you understand? So I understand? It took me all these years of your being gone to realize ... You’re it. I want you to be it for the rest of my life.”

  He’d gotten carried away. He clearly hadn’t wanted to say that much.

  He smiled that honey-butter smile.

  He said, “After a lifetime already, of being your best friend, I want to see where this can go. If we take the training wheels off. I want to see what happens if we just go where things take us naturally.”

  Little did he know what happened to my body when nature took over. I was getting nervous. Were my hands changing color?

  I hoped I was imagining that. What would happen if I shifted right in front of him? I imagined it would not be a pretty process.

  I couldn’t let him see it. Where could I go? Where in the world could I hide?

  I looked out of the window, toward the sky. The first and only place I really felt powerful.

  Out in the parking lot was a slender, handsome man in black leather. He was waiting next to his bike, looking at my window. At least it seemed as if he was.

  Because how could he know I was in here?

  Right. The telepathy thing. Did that still work when we weren’t in dragon form?

  “Yeah, it super does,” he said, and winked at me, “Waiting for you, boo.”

  I looked at Blake. He was breathless, searching my face for a response.

  Then he jumped back in without letting me respond, “Maybe this is all too sudden. I get it. I think I’m just making sure I say it now, because when I saw you crumpled up on the ground, I thought I’d totally lost my chance to ever say it.”

  I nodded. I said, “I thought I’d lost my chance with you when I ran into the woods like a madwoman.”

  He smiled, “Hey, you ran away from a horrible date. I was awful. I barely talked the whole time. You must’ve thought I hated you or something. Truth is, I just didn’t know how to say all of this. But I had plenty of time to think about it while driving around the forest looking for you.”

  He rubbed my hand gently. His hands were warm, but not as warm as CC’s fire on my back.

  He said, “Do you think you could ... Forgive me?”

  I nearly jumped. “Forgive you? What for? Being sweet?”

  He shook his head, “For being a dope. And the bad date. Give me a chance at another date? Let’s start over?”

  I smiled. A lump grew in my throat.

  A chance to start over. God, I’d love that.

  Except I didn’t have that kind of chance. There wasn’t any going back from the knowledge I’d gained last night.

  Once you learn how to fly, you can’t forget it.

  I swallowed the lump and told him, “Of course.” I needed him to feel comfortable leaving the room, so I could get out of there. Head to CC.

  His phone rang, interrupting the absolutely blissful expression on his face. He checked it, with annoyance, until he saw who it was.

  “Your parents,” he said, showing me the number, as if I wouldn’t believe him. He flipped it open and rushed from the room, telling both me and them, “I’ll be right down to get you. She’s up now, thank God.”

  He had left the room. I had even less time, now, to make my escape. Once my parents came in, I didn’t think I’d be strong enough to leave them.

  I couldn’t put them through this. Whatever this was.

  I thought, “So how do I get out of here?”

  CC shrugged. “Jump.”

  I frowned. “I don’t have any clothes.”

  CC said, “Totally fine with that.” I stuck my tongue out at him. He said, “I brought you an outfit, just in case you were squeamish about it.” He patted the folded pile on the seat next to him.

  I struggled for a second with the window before finding the lock and popping it open.

  As I leapt, I tried not to think about how Blake and my parents would feel when they entered an empty hospital room – the window open and letting in the summer heat.

  Chapter Ten

  We barely got out of the parking lot before CC started doing dumb shit.

  He weaved through the traffic like a madman. I clutched at his stomach, from my position behind him on the bike, feeling whatever caused the shift in me bubble up in response to my fear.

  I yelled directly into his ear, “Stop driving like you’re trying to die!”

  He shouted back, “Uh, what are you so worried about? You literally got hit by a car last night.”

  I guessed he was right. I was fine, despite having been rammed into by a pickup truck.

  My voice was already hoarse from trying to shout against the speed of the wind, so instead I thought, “But I was in dragon form when that happened. It protected me.”

  He responded, “You’re always a dragon. It’s just that sometimes you don’t look like it.”

  As if to prove his point, in the most ludicrous way possible, he took a sudden left turn, too sudden to handle with the bike, and it rolled.

  It threw me off of it. I tried to keep a grip on CC’s chest, but the force was too much, and I was torn off. I flew through the air in a totally not fun way, and came to a harsh stop against a tree.

  I lay on the forest floor by the highway. No cars were going by, so nobody would stop and help us. I looked at CC, where he was sitting up against a tree, laughing, but clearly in pain.

  I screamed, “What the hell? What were you thinking? You could have killed both of us.”

  He smiled and put a hand on his heart, a mocking version of an apology. “I’ve done that trick a thousand times,” he said, “I did it
the day I met you. I knew we’d be fine.”

  I felt all over my body. He was right. I had some bumps, sure, but nothing worse than tripping over when you’re walking.

  Except when he took his hand off his chest, I saw it had the sheen of blood on it. Ruby red, like his skin when he was a dragon.

  I gasped, and ran toward him.

  I said, “Did you hit a tree or something?”

  He snorted. “No,” he said, “I pissed you off.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked, terrified.

  He said, “Your hand turned into a claw and tried to dig into me when we got thrown. I guess it’s only fair, I was messing with you. I didn’t think you’d shift that fast, though.”

  My heart jumped into my throat and got stuck there. He had a nasty slash across his chest.

  Had I killed him in my fear? Had I ruined that beautiful body because I didn’t want to trust him, or trust that I could take a fall?

  Tears threatened to choke my voice, and my skin itched. I couldn’t let all that primal energy take over now. That’s what had cut him up in the first place.

  I choked out, “What do I do?” I looked frantically toward the road.

  He smiled. “You’ve still got a ton to learn about this whole dragon thing. When an animal gets wounded, it doesn’t go toward civilization. It goes toward water. There’s a spring in the forest a little bit west of here. Let’s head there. I can wash out this wound and let it heal up before we rejoin the group.”

  I helped him stand up and carried most of his weight toward where he pointed. I couldn’t believe how easy he was to lift.

  He laughed, and then said telepathically, “We’ve got bird bones. It’s how our bulky bodies can get airborne.”

  I didn’t want to think about us as dragons, right now. I wanted to remember everything I’d ever learned from CPR or First Aid training.

  We got to the spring fairly quickly, since it wasn’t all that difficult to help him along.

  It was beautiful. Sunlight dappled the dewy green grass, while flowers swayed in the slight breeze. A small waterfall, only a few feet high, added a charming, relaxing babble to the sweet pastoral scene.