Dragon Me Through Space

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

“Catch my bride!” a brown, male Bolsan, a humanoid being with a bull-like face and ears, shrieked behind me.

“I’m not your bride!” I screamed as I ran down the alleyway of Lothantai, the planet I’d hopped to two days ago.

I frantically scanned the network, searching for an escape.

I refused to marry a Bolsan, especially one that snatched me from my hotel room and tried to force me into a shotgun wedding just because I had beaten him at a game of spades.

It wasn’t my fault he sucked at cards and had a super easy tell!

My scanner lit up bright green. A ship was departing in fifteen minutes!

I had just enough time to get my things from my hotel room and make it there to escape.

Hacking into the city’s network, I switched all of the intersection lights to green in the direction I headed.

That way, I didn’t risk getting run over … again.

Once was enough for me.

“Stop!” a deep male voice yelled.

Hazarding a glance back, I squealed at the sight of a tall, stout, absurdly handsome Dragonkin with pearly grey eyes right behind me. Dragonkin were easy to identify due to the horns on the top of their heads.

“No!” I yelled back. “He stole me! I’m not his! I don’t belong here!”

The Dragonkin’s eyes flashed, his eyes changing and the dragon slitted pupil showing for a moment in his anger, and he spun around, turning on the Bolsan chasing me. “You stole her?!” he bellowed.

The Bolsan shrieked in fear and began muttering apologies. Their voices grew faint as I continued my escape, not bothering to stop to see if the Dragonkin believed him or not.

Finally, some good luck! I was desperately due for some.

In the past three days I had been drugged, kidnapped, and received two broken fingers during fights.

This was why I never came to Lothantai. Trouble lay around every corner here, despite it looking like a beautiful oasis. It was not a friendly planet.

While I was glad the Dragonkin had helped me, I wasn’t sure why he had done it. They were known for being harsh, direct, and lethal.

The streets were strangely empty as I continued my escape, which made me wary. Where was everyone? I didn’t sense any traps ahead.

“Scout!” I barked.

A small silver disc the size of a fingernail slid out from behind my ear and zipped along next to my head.

This piece of equipment was the only thing I had left from my home planet.

Scout was one of the most advanced pieces of technology I’d found and had kept me alive more times than I could count on all my fingers and toes.

“Check ahead for traps,” I ordered it.

Scout beeped in acknowledgment and zoomed off ahead of me, obeying.

My feet were sore from running on the hard concrete barefoot, but it was better than running in the high heels they had given me. Plus, one of the heels was lodged in a guard’s head back at the church.

My ear buzzed in warning and the next instant an image of two male Dragonkin standing in an alleyway the direction I was headed popped up in my visual display.

They were both attractive and muscular, even for Dragonkin, and one of them had beautiful green eyes, almost emerald.

They seemed to be deep in discussion. Maybe I could slip by them before they realized I was close.

Scout hovered out of their sight and turned so I could see myself approaching. Just fifteen more feet.

I pushed myself harder, running as fast as I could past the alley and the males who were still deep in discussion. Their heads whipped around as I ran by and Scout watched them for me, waiting to see if they pursued.

One of their communication devices rang and the Dragonkin with grey eyes who had stopped the Bolsan appeared on the screen. “There is a human girl running. Keep an eye on her. A Bolsan kidnapped her and tried to force her to marry him.”

“You give the Bolsan to the cops?” one of the Dragonkin in the alley asked.

“Yes. Protect the girl. There’s something familiar about her. I couldn’t stop her and talk to her, though.”

“She just ran by. We’ll pursue,” he replied.

Both Dragonkin left the alley and began pursuing me.

Crap!

“Scout, return!” I ordered it.

The disc slipped back behind my ear a moment later, nestling into its hiding place.

What had they meant that I seemed familiar? I didn’t remember meeting those handsome Dragonkin before.

Just two more blocks. I could make it. I had enough of a head start on the Dragonkin to keep me out of their reach.

I rounded the corner and had to swerve around another male Dragonkin, this one extremely large, like a wall of muscles and hotness. Why were there so many of them? Why were they so hot?

Maybe I just needed to get laid.

“Stop her!” one of the Dragonkin pursuing me yelled.

“Huh?” the Dragonkin behind me asked.

“Girl! Just wait! We aren’t going to hurt you!” the second Dragonkin from the alley yelled.

His voice sounded familiar. I couldn’t place it, though.

“No!” I yelled back and darted into the hotel. The elevator doors closed before I could reach them. “Crap!” I yelled and swerved towards the stairs. They could run faster on stairs than I could. Heck, they could fly if they wanted to since they had wings.

I put every ounce of strength and speed into my legs as I ran up the stairs. The three Dragonkin were right on my heels.

“Leave me alone!” I growled at them.

“We just need to ask you something,” one of them said.

“Scout!” I yelled. “Wall!”

Scout zipped away from me and then created a solid barrier made of air from its ports. All three Dragonkin slammed into it and growled angrily as they stumbled backwards and down a couple of stairs.

“Return!” I ordered Scout before they could grab it.

I yanked open the door to the floor my room was on and dashed to my door. My keycard was missing. “Come on. Come on,” I muttered as I hacked into the security system of the hotel with my wrist pad and opened the door.

The Dragonkin stepped into the hallway, catching their breaths, hands on their knees.

“You’re fast for a human,” one of them said.

“You a cyborg?” another asked.

“I’m human. I’m leaving. Stop following me,” I grumbled. The door clicked open and I shouted, “Ha!”

I ran inside, but a giant palm slammed against the door, holding it open. “Not, so fast,” one of them panted as he pushed inside.

I grabbed my taser from the coffee table and aimed it at him. “Leave my room, now.”

“She’s feisty,” one of the two in the hallway commented.

“Wouldn’t you be if someone had just kidnapped you and tried to force you to marry them?” I panted, my adrenaline wearing off as I stood still in the hotel room. My bag sat on the couch behind me. It was still packed, since I hadn’t had a chance to unpack last night.

“Who are you?” the giant Dragonkin in the doorway asked. His green eyes scanned my body slowly.

Someone’s communication device rang.

“What?” one of the males in the hallway demanded.

“Did you get her?” I heard the first Dragonkin ask.

“We’ve got her cornered in her hotel room,” he explained. “We don’t have time for this. Our flight is scheduled to leave in minutes.”

The giant in the doorway turned and I took advantage of the distraction.

I spun, grabbed my bag, and ran into the bedroom, locking the door behind me.

I grabbed my gun from the bedside dresser, slipped on my boots, and faced the window.

It was a five-floor drop. Normal humans wouldn’t survive that fall.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t normal.

“Scout, break open the window,” I whispered.

One of the Dragonkin knocked on my door. “Come on, we just want to talk. Why did that Bolsan grab you?”

“Because of my assets,” I said, putting as much innuendo into the last word as possible.

“They are pretty nice,” one of them whispered on the other side of the door.

Scout attached itself to the window and let out two loud beeps before emitting a high-frequency sound that shattered the window and caused the Dragonkin to yell out in pain.

Two for one!

I leapt out the window and Scout zoomed after me. With a somersault in the air, I landed in a perfect crouch on the ground, my boots crunching on the broken glass. The streets had filled up since I had entered the hotel and people stared at me with mouths agape.

“She jumped out the window!” I heard the giant Dragonkin yell, his head coming out to look for me.

I saluted him with a smile and hit a button on my boots. Wheels snapped out of the bottom and I skated through the city towards the landing bays. There was a ship leaving in less than ten minutes. I had to hurry or I wouldn’t make it in time.

People leapt out of my way, shocked at the contraption I was using. It was an old Earth device that humans used to wear and play with. “Roller skates” was what they used to call them.

I wondered what the Dragonkin had wanted to talk to me about. They hadn’t seemed hostile. But sometimes people pretended to be nice before attacking you … or selling you. I knew that all too well and bore the scars from it.

I slowed as I neared the landing bays, changed my boots back to flat bottoms, and used my scanner to find the ship that was leaving soonest. Hundreds of beings of all races from hundreds of different planets milled about the landing bays, giving me ample cover to walk between them, undetected.

I flipped on my cloaking device and walked onto the large ship preparing to depart.

A small crew prepared the ship with luggage that seemed to be only enough for a handful of passengers.

This looked to be a private ship, owned most likely by some rich businessman who wouldn’t even notice me eating a few meals until we reached the next port.

Even if he did notice, I could pay him well enough to convince him to let me stay on the ship.

I found a secluded spot in a cupboard in the kitchen area, hunkered down, and closed my eyes. Running all morning with hardly any sleep the night before, plus the drugs that Bolsan had given me, and the adrenaline wearing off, had taken a toll on me.

“Prepare for departure!” a voice called over the loud speaker.

The ship began to move and I fell into a deep sleep.