Page 27 of Serving my Dragon (The Dragocracy Chronicles #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

What bad luck. Our rescue attempt failed.

I blamed Sally for using her ‘special’ move and having Blake finish quicker than expected.

Now we’d gone from victory to me tethered to my uncle.

Although, despite Sally’s command, I didn’t really tighten the cuffs.

Juan helped by flexing his wrists when I put them on, a trick I also employed, meaning we had some slack.

Slack enough that when thunder and lightning began a cascading light show, providing a distraction, I slipped my hands free and my uncle followed suit.

My quick pivot twinged the hole in my leg and I gritted my teeth against the pain only to gasp as I saw Pollita’s cage being struck by a bolt of jagged light. Worse, it electrified the puddle she sat in, and my poor dragon got electrocuted.

“Polly, no,” I whispered as her body went limp.

Pollita’s collapse led to Sally screeching, “Fucking storm.” She directed her rage at me. “This is your fault. If you’d minded your business?—”

Grief-stricken and angry, I didn’t let her finish.

“How about if you hadn’t been a terrible person?

Everything that’s happened: Kayleigh’s injuries, Polly’s demise, even the deaths of those men working for you.

All your fault. You and that greedy bastardo.

” I seethed with rage. My dragon was dead and quite possibly Kayleigh too.

She’d not moved since she’d struck her head.

“All that effort for nothing.” Sally didn’t show any remorse.

“See, this is what happens when you don’t properly kill people the first time,” Blake drawled. He still held the gun and pointed it. “Not a mistake I’ll make again.”

Only before he could fire, an unexpected voice interrupted.

“Shoot my servant and it won’t be a quick death for you.” Pollita, her scales still smoking, stood in her cage.

“It’s alive!” Sally clapped her hands. “And capable of surviving a lightning strike. How incredible.”

Polly cocked her head. “You really are a stupid woman. There is only one kind of dragon that could endure that much current.”

Judging by the puzzled look on Sally’s face, she didn’t understand, but I did. I remembered what Polly had told us in the cave. Dragons had five possible abilities.

And my Pollita’s had just manifested.

She opened her mouth and proved it a moment later, sending a bolt of light so fast Sally didn’t even have time to blink. As the dart of electricity hit her, her mouth dropped open, her eyes bulged, and she hit the ground jiggling.

“What have you done?” Blake yelled, suddenly aiming his gun at the dragon instead of me.

“Let me show you.” Pollita blew out lightning for a second time, hitting Blake in the chest, sending the man staggering.

But he didn’t go down.

While Blake might be in agony, his adrenalized anger kept him upright and firing.

Bang. Bang.

The shots thankfully went wild, Blake’s hands shaking too hard from his spasming muscles. With him compromised, I didn’t think, I acted, diving at the man, hitting him in the knees, taking us down with a splash in a puddle.

“Move, Matias!” Polly ordered.

Again, no thinking allowed. I quickly rolled and ended up on my belly with a view of Blake sitting in the pool of water, face contorted in rage. The gun still in his hand. Aimed at me.

He paid attention to the wrong person.

The lightning that hit the puddle turned it into a charged death trap. I found it hard to feel sorry for the murdering gringo though, as he jiggled and sizzled. The gun fell from his limp fingers. His eyes rolled back. By the time Blake fell over with a splash, he was dead.

“You killed Blake!” Sally squealed, already recovering from her own jolt.

She might have raced to his side if Polly hadn’t growled, “You’d better run, or you’re next.”

With a squeak, the woman bolted, and Juan grunted. “Should have zapped her.”

“I would have, but it appears that’s all I had in me for the moment,” Polly stated. “It will take time for me to hone my new skill.”

“Well, at least you manifested it at just the right time,” I exclaimed. “My beautiful Pollita. Looks like you’re the one who saved the day.”

“Of course I did. I am, after all, a magnificent dragon. Now get me out of this cage.”

“It will have to wait a while longer,” Juan stated. “We should get out of here before the wrong sorts—and by that, I mean folks with badges—notice us. Matias, you carry Kayleigh. I’ve got our mighty princess.”

“Princess?” Pollita snorted as Juan hefted her cage. “How rude. I am of much higher rank than that.”

“Excuse me, drama queen,” Juan sarcastically replied.

“You know I could fry you.”

“But then who would reinforce your citadel and take you on hunts?”

They argued as they began walking toward the fence, leaving me with Kayleigh who remained pale and unmoving but for her chest. It rose and fell slowly.

Alive. Thank dios. I scooped her into my arms, the hold awkward given her arms were still tied behind her back. My injury throbbed but I ignored it as I took long strides to catch my uncle. I had to move fast because Kayleigh needed to get to a hospital.

As the fence came in sight, a low moan had me glancing at the woman I cradled.

“Oh my. Talk about an epic hangover,” Kayleigh groaned.

“You’re awake.” I’d never been more relieved, having feared a brain bleed given how hard she struck the ground.

“Yeah. Ugh.” Kayleigh blinked before exclaiming, “Matty are you okay? I could have sworn you got shot.”

“I was, but I’ll live.” And most likely have a scar to show for it.

“Did we win?”

“We did, but only because Polly found her power. She’s a lightning dragon,” I proudly announced.

“How wonderful,” Kayleigh exclaimed only to wince. “Ouch. Remind me to not get too excited.”

“You hit your head hard. Soon as we reach the cars, we’ll remove those cuffs and get you to a hospital.”

“You always take such good care of me.” She rested her head against my chest and my heart swelled at her conviction. Because I would always do my best by her.

“I will never let you down, mi amor.”

“Unlike Sally,” she grumbled. “That cow. I remember everything. Guess that second knock to the head jogged my memories loose.”

“What do you recall?” I wanted her conscious and talking because wasn’t that recommended for head injuries?”

“Sally pestered me to come with her on this trip. Claimed we’d have a girl’s week of it.

I tried bowing out because by then I’d met Blake and something about him just didn’t sit right.

But given our school was already closing for Thanksgiving and it was all expenses paid, I thought what the heck. What a mistake.”

“It’s over now. You won’t have to worry about Blake ever again. Pollita made sure of that.”

“And what of Sally?”

“Running for her life.”

“Only until the policia catch her,” Juan interjected, our pace slowing as we neared the fence and my waiting family. “Someone’s going to have to be arrested, seeing as how there’s a few dead bodies around that hangar.”

“I can’t believe she turned on me like that,” Kayleigh murmured.

I hugged her to me. “Because she wasn’t a true friend.” True friends and family were willing to break the law and risk themselves to help. I was blessed in that respect.

A clamor arose as my relatives spilled from the cars and joined my soaking uncles by the fence. People fired questions and Juan barked, “Later. We need to get out of here before we are spotted. Go. Vamoose.”

Before we loaded Kayleigh in a vehicle, Santiago snipped her wrist cuffs, after he freed Polly. My dragon would have had a fit at being released second.

She and Kayleigh rode in my lap for the drive to Mama’s house because the latter refused to go to the hospital. I kind of understood. I wanted to avoid it as well, seeing as how the bullet hole would result in people asking questions.

“I’m fine,” she kept insisting. “No nausea or dizziness, just a headache which some Tylenol will fix.”

We’d see about that. I planned to watch her closely.

Seeing the normality of my neighborhood and Mama’s house felt surreal after the night we’d had—which included stopping to grab a large meal for the very hungry dragon. The detour led to us arriving last.

Mama’s windows glowed with lights and the vehicles parked all over made it evident the whole family had gathered. Including Mama, apparently.

“What are you doing out of the hospital?” I cried as I limped in with an arm around Kayleigh, who insisted she could walk. Pollita perched on my shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Mama declared. “But you are not. I’ll get some needle and thread.”

Mama went to stand, and Juan barked, “Sit back down. I’ll stitch up the boy. Sophia, fetch the sewing kit and a bottle of something strong, then meet me and your cousin in the kitchen.”

I ended up pants off, sitting on the table while my uncle squinted at my wound.

Kayleigh held my hand as Juan poured tequila on the bullet wound and I did my best to not whimper like a baby when he used a threaded needle to close it up.

At least the bullet went right through without shattering anything.

Sophia did double duty, holding a light for Juan while peppering Kayleigh with questions.

She’d almost become a nurse before deciding to switch to cosmetology, which turned out to be more lucrative with better hours.

She seemed satisfied that Kayleigh wouldn’t pass out on us, but warned if the headache didn’t ease or worsened to head straight for the hospital.

“Take it easy on that leg,” my uncle advised when he finished and tied off the end of the thread.

“I’ll make sure he does,” Kayleigh promised.

Juan and Sophia left us to join the family in the very crowded backyard. Hopefully the neighbors wouldn’t complain. At least the high walls gave them privacy or I’d worry about someone seeing Pollita.