Chapter 5 #3
Slowly coming to the realization that I wasn’t going to die at that very moment, I sat up, gazing at the strange and monstrous claws that held the car.
I tried to tell myself I wasn’t going mad while the reptilian fingers tipped with wicked claws flexed and dug in.
The talons left small puncture marks in the suede roof of the car.
“That’s gonna cost him,” I muttered to myself, then giggled hysterically. I clamped my hands over my mouth, afraid that if I started laughing, whatever tenuous hold I had on my mind might slip away.
Once I’d gotten myself under control, I took a few deep, steadying breaths and tried to work up my courage to lean out the window and look up.
The wind blew my hair back and stung my eyes, but what I saw above made me so woozy that I nearly blacked out.
A fucking dragon was carrying the car. Massive, webbed wings flapped every few seconds.
Dark, scaly skin the color of inky glittered in the moonlight, and a huge, wedge-shaped head extended forward, guiding the rest of the humongous body onward.
I scrambled back and clamped my eyes shut, slapping my cheek as hard as I could. The stinging pain of my palm on my skin sent sharp electric jolts down my chin and up to my scalp, making my eyes water. When I opened them, the talons were still clenching the car.
“Holy fucking shit,” I whispered.
Dragons were real? No, that was crazy. This couldn’t be real.
Was I already dead? Maybe that was it. I’d crashed that stupid car while trying to escape from Jackson, and this was all the afterlife.
Maybe when you died, you didn’t go to heaven or hell, but instead you went to some sort of fairytale land.
Of course, I’d end up getting kidnapped by a bloodthirsty dragon rather than getting bent over a couch by a big hunky knight or prince. That was just my luck.
I kept glancing out the windows as we flew, trying to see Jackson. Though, I was too scared to lean out too far for fear of the dragon. I didn’t see or hear him anywhere. Finally, I slumped down into my seat, and hugged my knees to my chest.
Poor bastard. The guy must have fallen…
I sat forward, a sudden yet impossible lightbulb going off in my mind.
I thought back to my escape from the garage, the shadow that had fallen over the car, and Jackson leaping through the window.
Then, he’d climbed out the window a second before the car flew off the edge of the bridge.
He’d vanished, and a few seconds later, the dragon had appeared, saving me and carrying the car away.
“I’ve got you.”
His words reverberated through my skull, echoing back and forth over and over again, gaining more and more weight and heft each time I heard them.
“No way,” I muttered, my voice a husky whisper. “Absolutely no fucking way.”
There was no way in the world this was actually happening.
Dragons didn’t exist in the real world. Yet, hadn’t I noticed how incredibly fast and graceful he was back in the garage?
Strength and power beyond what should have been natural?
In my mind’s eye, I saw him punch through the solid wooden door and crack brick while trying to climb through a window. What if he had other gifts as well?
No. That wasn’t possible. I huddled over, leaning away from the door and the terrifying claws that curled into it. People couldn’t turn into dragons. Science told me all I needed to know about that. Humans could not turn into magical beasts.
Yeah, and an hour ago, you’d have said dragons themselves couldn’t be real either, right? But your eyes aren’t lying. The damn thing is carrying the damn car through the damn air as we speak.
For a few seconds, I continued arguing with myself.
My analytical mechanic’s mind only believed in what I knew to be true from textbooks, school, and general knowledge, and it was fighting with the part of my mind that believed in horoscopes, fate, and luck.
Hell, I believed there were aliens out there in the stars somewhere, and some people thought that was ridiculous.
Yet here I was, being carried through the sky in the grips of an honest-to-God dragon.
Cursing under my breath, I leaned back out the window and looked toward the dragon’s head again. I couldn’t see its face, only the smooth scales under its jaw, like the smooth skin on the belly of a snake, milky white against the black of the rest of its body.
No way this is what’s happening, I thought, but I had to silence the curiosity swirling in my head.
“Uh…” I winced in embarrassment, then raised my voice to shout. “Jackson?”
The dragon continued flying, but twisted its thick neck and gazed back at me. The massive eyes of the dragon locked on me. Both of them were bright blue, but the left had a dilated pupil. The heavy lips curled into what I could only call a grin, revealing razor-sharp teeth.
The shriek exploded from my mouth before I’d even realized it was coming. It was Jackson. The thing had the exact same eyes. That was too big of a coincidence. This gigantic thing, this powerful mythical beast that was carrying me was also the guy whose nuts I’d crushed less than half an hour ago.
Frowning, I glanced through the rear window. Well, if dragons had balls, they must have been inside their body, because there were no swollen and throbbing danglies hanging out the back.
Confused and bewildered by all of it—and still trying to make sense of the entire situation—I sat back and waited, trying to figure out where he was taking us.
Outside, the darkness became almost total as we left the city fully behind, and within thirty minutes we began to descend.
When we got closer to the ground, I leaned out and looked down.
I recognized the place. It was a wilderness area a couple hours’ drive outside the city.
People came here to camp, fish, and hunt.
The small bit of calm that had washed over me vanished as I realized I’d be on the ground soon.
On the ground with a man who could apparently transform into a dragon at will.
I glanced around the interior of the car for some kind of weapon, but gave up within seconds.
I had no hopes of fighting off a person who lifted a five-thousand-pound car and flew it a hundred miles. Hell, he might even breathe fire.
A small access road appeared below us. Jackson flew directly above it until a cabin in the woods came into view. He circled, then descended, setting the car gently on the grass.
He flapped a few yards from me and landed. I opened the car door, trying to swallow my fear, and walked toward him, both awed and terrified by what I saw. Jackson sat on his haunches, massive wings folded behind his back.
“Is that really you?” I whispered, still thinking there was no way this could be possible.
The dragon gave a single nod of his head, and then…
changed. My knees went weak, and I crumpled to the ground, my mouth dropping open in shock as the creature before me became like water or mist, morphing and shrinking in a few quick seconds, and then Jackson stood before me, whole and human once more.
He sighed. “I’m really sorry about all this,” he said apologetically.
My brain, threatening to short-circuit and send me spiraling into madness, fired off a few synapses, and I managed a couple of words.
“You’re…a…dragon?” I stammered.
He rolled his eyes and walked forward, bending down and helping me up. “It’s a long story and—”
My hand snapped up, fingers clenched into a fist. Instinct screamed at me to hurt him, to run and get away.
Jackson’s free hand shot out, lightning fast, and caught my fist. Rather than squeezing and shattering it, or twisting my arm to make me scream, he held my knuckles gently and gave me a sad smile.
“I probably deserve that,” he said. “Might have been better if I’d let you slug me.” Then he winced and twisted his hips back and forth as he adjusted himself. “Though, you may have prevented me from ever having kids, so maybe we’re even. Come inside. I’ll explain everything.”
Sagging in defeat, I gestured to the cabin. “What is this place?”
The building looked more like a luxury hunting lodge. At least three thousand square feet from the look of it, two stories, and an attached garage.
“It’s a safe house I use when I’m traveling or need to get away for a bit. I thought it was the best place to hide that for now,” he said, nodding to the car.
Despite my better judgment, I followed him inside. He flipped on the lights, walked over to the couch, and flopped down. “What do you want to know?”
“You’re joking, right? How about we start with the fact that you turned into a fucking dragon out there,” I said, my voice rising to a manic shout, adrenaline still pulsing through my body. “We can start there.”
Jackson nodded and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Fair enough. A few humans know about us, so I suppose I can clue you in.”
“Humans?” I said. “You talk about us like we’re a different species or something.”
Jackson tilted his head to the side, and winced. “Sort of, not really, but kinda.”
“Oh, crystal clear now,” I said dryly.
“What you need to understand is that there is a world hidden inside yours. Humans occupy about ninety-nine percent of the physical world. You guys have spent centuries confirming what you want to believe, and turning a blind eye to what you don’t want to believe.
Science, as humans wield it, can’t really explain or detect us.
Sit down, this will take a minute,” he said, patting the sofa.
Heaving a sigh, I walked over and sat, though I made sure to put as much space between us as possible. “Go on,” I said, my curiosity outweighing my fear and confusion.
“There are beings in the world, beings like me, that can look like humans whenever they wish, but they are able to transform—we call it shifting—into animals or other creatures. That’s where we get our name. Shifters.”