44
Connor
M y Mom has been sending me messages all damn day and won’t answer any of the questions I ask her. She just keeps asking me the same things. I leave Farlen with the other guys and step outside to call her.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING CALLING ME GET BACK TO HER NOW!”
“Mom, calm down. What’s going on?”
“Connor, you need to get back to her now! Remember what I told you before? Breathe, and just show her how much you love her. Remember that no matter what you see tonight, that is still the girl you love, now GO.”
I am running as soon as she hangs up. Fuck. She’s seen something bad happening tonight. As I get closer and closer to the gym, I hear screaming. I try to push as much strength into my body as I can. As I burst through the doors, I look around on the dancefloor for Farlen. My heart feels like it falls out of my chest. She isn’t on the fucking dancefloor; she is flying above it!
She has wings sprouting from her back. Is she partially shifted? The wings match her dress. They start out white and slowly they fade to midnight black. She has about twenty knives in her. I run under her and yell at her to try to get her to come back down. She needs to get to a healer and fast. She’s going to lose too much blood.
Vashu and Xander come over and drag me out from under her, as her body starts to convulse. We need to get her fucking down from there! Healer Daniel and Payne burst through the crowd. Healer Daniel is saying stuff to Payne, and he is shaking his head. I feel a wave of power come off of him, and Xander and Vashu grunt, but she still is staying up in the air. Everyone else is laying down on the ground.
Farlen looks like she is screaming, but no sound comes out. Her body starts to twist strangely. And Vashu and Xander both swear.
“She’s shifting. Her beast is trying to get out.”
“Why is it taking her so long? When we shift, it takes like thirty seconds tops, even people new to shifting it doesn’t take them long.”
I don’t have enhanced hearing, but I hear all of her bones breaking in her body. I hear the knives pop out of her as they impact on the ground under her. Her body starts to get larger, and scales start to form on her body. She slowly lowers herself to the ground and I try to run towards her, but Xander and Vashu won’t let me.
“She’s not done yet man, you could get hurt until she fully shifts. And even then, we don’t know what her dragon will do.” Xander says. Vashu just grunts in agreement with him.
She’s a dragon? I look back at her. She has a tail and scales like one, but her wings are gone now. Her legs keep lengthening, and I hear her claws crack into the wood of the gym floor. Her tail swishes around and crashes into the ground, missing several of the students. I look over to Payne and Healer Daniel, but it’s just Daniel there. I look around for Payne. It's pretty easy to find him. He’s a large dude and everyone is lying flat on the fucking ground. He is holding Zachariah back as he screams for Farlen.
My own struggles have stopped as I wait for her to finish her shift. Hopefully, soon she’ll be done. A wave of power stronger than the first one blasts its way through the gym. All of us are forced to our knees as Farlen stops shaking and she starts to stand up fully. She throws back all eight of her heads and roars to the sky. With no one stopping me, I crawl over to her and grab her hand, claw, talon. I’m not sure what it’s called. I told her if she needed to scream her fury at the sky, I would be here holding her hand while she did it.
A few minutes into her roaring, shouting starts to come from the hallway. Suddenly, the doors fly open and an elite team of soldiers walks in. As soon as they cross the threshold, they are beholden to Farlen's power, and are suddenly on the ground, submitting like the rest of us. A voice I recognize starts yelling. I can’t hear what he is saying over Farlen's fury. As he walks into the gym, his knees start to buckle and his power ripples across his skin. He locks eyes with me and where I am and starts to pull out his stun baton and starts walking over to us.
“Connor, just remain calm. I will incapacitate this beast and get everyone out of here.”
I still don’t release Farlen’s hand. Looking at the man that I’ve viewed as my brother and best friend for a long time, I shake my head at him.
“I can’t let you hurt her Warren, she is my center.”
Warren looks around the room at everyone on their stomachs, and a decision flashes across his eyes. He marches over to where we are standing and Farlen looks over at him, all eight of her heads focusing on him. He reaches out and presses his hand onto Farlen and hits me with his stun baton at the same time. As I start to lose consciousness, all I hear is Farlen roaring her fury and then it starts to turn into something more human, more like my sweet girl, and I pass out from the electricity arcing through my body.