Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

The cave lacked the comforts of home.

Sure, the trailer hadn’t been palatial, or large or luxurious, but I’d felt comfortable in it. Secure. Warm.

The blanket Maddox included in my supplies was wrapped around me snug enough, and yet I shivered. Blame the fever. Or perhaps trepidation was more the cause.

The hunters had found me.

Almost captured me.

I didn’t doubt their nefarious intentions, but I’d proven wilier than them, despite fighting off the lethargy of the molting. A fatigue that caught up to me and led to me sleeping well past twilight.

By now, Pip would have returned home. Did those miscreants lie in wait for my human servant? I would be most vexed if they harmed her. Yet, while my belly now rumbled with flame, I lacked the size and strength to do anything to protect her. I’d barely escaped myself. If I hadn’t somehow sped up my transformation to the next level of my evolution, I’d be in a cage—or worse.

One thing that did please me? Of all the gifts a dragon could expect, I’d gotten the classic fire breathing. My inherited knowledge informed it was one of five possibilities—the others being acid, wind, lightning, or water, which sometimes emerged as ice.

As for my newly unfettered wings? They lay folded along my spine, still dewy from emergence. It would take a bit of time before the membrane toughened and the tendons strengthened enough to give me true flight. Once that occurred, I’d have to practice, which might prove difficult. Already I knew there would be no returning to the trailer. My enemies would be watching.

Thankfully, Maddox’s plan to have a rendezvous point that acted as a safe cave proved smart. When Pip discovered me missing, she would know where to join me.

If the malefactors didn’t get their hands on her first.

The passage of time proved interminable as I waited. No television to bore me. No books to feed my mind. Nothing but my thoughts and rumbling belly. The snacks beckoned, but I’d already eaten a bag of beef jerky and a chocolate bar. With limited food supplies, I needed to ration, a horrible thing for a growing dragon.

If I didn’t feel so weak after the events of the day, I might have dared to hunt. I’d smelled many warm-blooded yummies on my flight to the cave. It would be exciting to track and capture my own meals and eat fresh. Humans had a tendency to cook everything through and through, except for steak. For some reason, slightly singed on both sides was acceptable to them.

What I wouldn’t do for a steak right now…

I needed to turn my mind away from food. It only made my hunger more pronounced.

I let my mind mull over something Graytemples and the woman had said. Something about an incident in South America and the allusion they’d captured a dragon. Had they hatched from my same clutch, or did they belong to a rival? Did it matter? In this world overrun with humans, dragons might want to think about banding together, lest we be wiped out. I wondered how I could find these other dragons. Had all of them been taken captive, or did some live free?

So many questions and no way of getting answers. The annoyance of it led to me eating another bag of jerky. Then a bag of sour gummies. I slaked my thirst in the puddle that existed down one of the narrow passages, fed by the drips of stalactites above.

The fever passed as I waited, my body returning to a more normal temperature, though still hotter than that of a human, and hotter than before now that I had fire in my belly. A fire that simmered in the back of my throat and wanted nothing more than to spew as my keen hearing caught noise coming from below.

Had my enemies found me?

My tension eased at a whispered, “Abaddon? You up there?”

My protector had come! The elation filling me might be unseemly for one of my elevated stature, yet I couldn’t help it. If Maddox lived, then surely Pip did, too.

I crept from the cave and glanced down to see the large man wearing the darkest of clothes. He’d even smeared his face to match, giving him the ability to blend with the shadows, but my discerning gaze spotted him.

I leaned over the ledge and called out. “I’m here.”

“Are you injured?” he asked.

“No.”

“Thank fuck. We were worried about you, bud. What happened?”

Rather than reply, I had my own query. “Where’s Pip?” For I neither saw nor scented her.

“She’s at my place making sure any spies don’t realize I’ve come to fetch you.”

“She is safe?” My relief was because I wouldn’t have to train another servant and nothing else. Dragons didn’t form attachments to humans.

“For now, but I don’t want to leave her alone for too long. I’ve already been gone almost three hours.”

“It doesn’t take that long to hike to the cave,” I pointed out.

“It does when you first have to sneak out of your building, drive somewhere no one will think to look, and hike in the dark with a GPS-created map that keeps losing a signal.”

He’d done all that for me?

“Your effort is acknowledged, if expected as part of your job.”

Maddox snorted. “Surprised you haven’t fired me, seeing as how I wasn’t there when you almost got nabbed.”

“I expect you to be more vigilant in the future.” I magnanimously forgave his transgression.

“We going to stand around chatting all night or do you want to come with me and see Pip?”

“I thought you mentioned spies.”

“That’s not certain. We just assumed the thugs who tried to take Pip into custody might be watching her in the hopes we’ll lead them to you.”

“You suspect that but left her alone?” I huffed.

“I know it’s not ideal, bud, but I didn’t have a choice if I was going to get you out of these woods.”

“Where are we going?”

“For tonight, my place.”

“That is being watched?” I screeched. Was he stupid?

“I have a way to get us inside unseen, and it’s only temporary. Pip’s trailer’s gone, so she’s going to talk to her boss about living in a barn on his property. Apparently, it’s got a mini apartment that used to be used by the guy who took care of the horses. Better yet, her boss is a big security nut. Fenced property that is electrified with cameras all over. Security guards. And he even has his own drones to prevent anyone from looking in.”

“A barn?” I was stuck on the fact they planned to place me in a home meant for dumb animals.

“Would you prefer to remain in the cave?” Maddox snapped.

“No, but you couldn’t find anything better than a barn?” I complained.

“You know, we have an expression: Beggars can’t be choosers.”

An apt phrase that stung because truly, what choice did I have?

“If it helps, I can console you with leftover pizza and ribs from dinner. Plus, if you’re still hungry after that, I have a tub of ice cream.”

Mmm, I did so enjoy that cold, delicious stuff. “I guess if I’m still feeling peckish afterwards, there is that cat…” I slyly reminded him.

“I know you’re fucking with me, but it’s still not funny,” grumbled the big man. “Now, are you coming down or what?”

“So grouchy,” I exclaimed as I began the descent.

“It’s been a tough few hours,” Maddox admitted. “Sorry if I’m terse. I’m worried about Pip.”

It was only as I reached him, the faintest sliver of moonlight illuminating me, that he noticed the change. “Bud, you’ve got wings!”

“I do,” I proudly stated, letting them flutter. “But they’re not yet ready for flight.”

“Still very cool. You feeling okay to walk or do you need me to carry you?”

My pride had me initially footing it on my own, but as my strength quickly lagged, without asking my protector placed me atop his shoulders, and I curled myself around his neck and shoulders and let him be my beast of burden.

“Feel like telling me what happened?” he asked as he trekked rapidly through the woods.

“Hunters showed up at the trailer and tried to put me in a cage.”

“Let me guess, one of them was an asshole in a suit?”

“Yes. He came with a woman and some men in what I believe are called hazmat suits.”

“Hunh. The group that showed up to harass Pip were in black combat fatigues. And no woman. Just the dick.”

“She might have suffered injury when I spewed my flame.”

Maddox stumbled. “When you what?”

“Along with my wings, my ability revealed itself. I am a fire-breathing dragon.”

“Well, shit. I wasn’t expecting that.” He paused. “Guess that explains the trailer burning down.”

A touch of chagrin did fill me at hearing that. “An accident. The flame burst from me suddenly when I was threatened. I only meant harm to those trying to kidnap me. Pip must be upset.”

“She is, but she was more worried about you.”

The warm feeling within made me think the fever returned.

“We should go assuage her concern,” I announced grandly. “Onward, my long-legged protector.”

It took Maddox longer to reach his borrowed vehicle than it would have taken flying, but once he started driving, he did so above the posted limits—with me hiding ignobly in the back under a blanket.

The entry to his domicile involved parking in an alley and me being stuffed in a duffel bag through which I could only hear. Our subterfuge also involved a convoluted route that took us through a laundromat, identifiable by the smell of detergent, followed by entry into a basement where he allowed me to emerge. I watched as he slid aside a shelving unit to reveal a locked door for which he had the key.

He glanced at me. “The previous owners of my shop and the building right next to it used to run a moonshine operation. They had this door put in so they could skedaddle if the cops showed.”

A secret passage. I heartily approved.

Passing through the opening led us to the next basement filled with neatly stacked boxes.

“We’re under my shop,” Maddox said in a low voice. “I’m gonna pop upstairs to make sure the coast is clear. Wait for my signal and then follow.”

I appreciated his caution even as I champed with impatience. What if Pip had been accosted during Maddox’s absence?

At the low whistle signal, I scampered up the steps and found myself in another storage room with Maddox standing by another door. “Interior stairs to the apartment. Head on up, bud.”

My eagerness had everything to do with my coming meal, and yet when I entered the apartment—having mastered doorknobs—did I head for the fridge?

Nope. I threw myself on Pip and wrapped myself around her.

And to anyone claiming I had tears in my eyes, I say it was allergies to the cat dander, because dragons don’t cry.