dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames (26 page)

But it was too late. A green dragon came over the trees not more than a hundred feet from us. I pushed him face-first to the ground and covered him as best as I could with my body. A moment later flames engulfed us. I closed my eyes against the intense heat and tried to shelter the kid under me. He screamed and thrashed, trying to buck me off.

Then he stopped and so did the flames as the dragon passed us to fly over the store. It’d be back in a minute once it circled around. I needed to get him out of the way before then. Ignoring the state of my clothes—which hung in tatters at the front—I scrambled off of Freddy. It took a moment to see him clearly and then I jerked a hand over my mouth. Silent screams ran through my head.

I hadn’t covered him enough. Parts of his body were ash, including half his head. I swallowed back the rise of bile in my throat and blinked away tears. Had I made his death more painful by not letting him get burned all at once? Why hadn’t I considered I was much smaller than him and that it wouldn’t help?

It took everything in me to look away. If the dragon hadn’t roared in the distance, I might have stayed there staring at Freddy longer. Maybe even begged for his forgiveness, but I didn’t have that luxury. Conrad and Nate still waited in the truck and I needed to get them out of there.

I went to push off the ground and my hand landed on something sharp that dug into my palm. Lifting it up, I realized it was the gold pendant. It must have fallen out of my front pocket after most of my clothes got burned off. The ruby set in the middle shined in the sunlight. I still couldn’t remember where I’d gotten it, but I did know what it did.

“Go,” I screamed, standing up.

They lifted their heads from where they’d ducked down in their seats. The dragon was coming back around. There might not be enough time for them to get away, but they had to try. I waved my arms and yelled at them again. “Get out of here!”

Conrad stared at me. Though we were separated by nearly thirty feet and a pile of debris, I couldn’t miss his expression. He was giving me one last look—a goodbye. He didn’t think any of us was going to survive.

I flashed the pendant at him and saw his nod of understanding. We’d talked about it and how I was certain it could ward a dragon off for a little while. He’d been skeptical, but he’d seen enough crazy things lately that he couldn’t completely discount it. The pendant would buy us time if he’d just believe.

The dragon came over the trees and I lifted the talisman to let it shine in the creature’s eyes. Bursts of red light shot out of it. The dragon let out a loud scream and flapped its wings, holding back from going any farther. With my free hand, I made a shooing motion at Conrad. We had less than a minute. Someone had to keep the creature distracted once it came out of the spell.

Conrad gunned the truck, racing out of there. It was then I realized I’d dropped my sword in my attempt to protect Freddy. I found it on the ground next to him and grabbed it, leaving the pendant in its place. The dragon inched closer—the talisman’s magic slowly letting go. I had seconds left before the creature would be entirely free. The interior of the store beckoned and I raced inside, hurrying toward the opposite end.

I was surprised I didn’t trip over anything along the way. The path was clear in the middle. All the shelves had been shoved or knocked over to the sides of the store. Even in the dim lighting it was easy to avoid the few small things scattered on the floor.

No flames followed me as I made my way deeper into the building. I glanced back and caught sight of the dragon landing on the rubble. It poked its head through the opening, searching for me. Why didn’t it just burn the place down instead?

I tripped over something soft just before reaching the back wall. My body plummeted and I fell face-first into a pile of blankets, almost losing my grip on my sword. It was so dark I hadn’t seen anything on the ground. I reached out, trying to work my way back to my feet. My hand landed on a roundish object that cracked against my weight. A gooey substance seeped out to cover my fingers. Oh, God, please don’t let that be a dragon egg.

Chapter 27

Bailey

I sucked in a breath. Running my fingers over it, I found the shape was about right and the texture was only a little rougher than an egg. Overall, it was about two feet tall. Checking around, I found one more just like it—minus the cracks.

Holy shit. That had to be why no one had raided the store before. A dragon guarded it most of the time and we’d probably shown up during a food run. But where was the dragon’s mate? Wouldn’t one have stayed while the other hunted? Or had a missile killed it during one of the military campaigns? I had no way of knowing why it was alone, but there was definitely only one outside.

Crashing sounds came from behind me as the dragon made its way closer. It huffed and snorted, sending chills down my spine. I couldn’t see anything now except its glowing red eyes. The dragon blocked all the light from the opening of the store. I was trapped right next to its eggs with nowhere to run.

What to do? I gripped my sword as an idea formed in my head. It was a long shot, but it had a better chance of working than just sitting there. I watched the dragon, waiting for it to come closer. The eggs were right next to me. It wouldn’t do anything too rash if it didn’t want to risk hurting them. The dragon had already proven it was smart enough to think of that or else it would have burned the place down.

When it reached five feet away, I leaped up and raised my sword high above my head. I ran toward the creature, aiming the sharp tip toward its face. The dragon huffed out a stream of flames, but I was too close for the creature to hit anything more than my chest. My blade sunk into its left eye with a sickening squish.

The creature roared. It jerked its neck to the left, sending me and my sword flying through the air. My back crashed into a display. Plastic water bottles came tumbling down on top of me. I shoved them off and rose to my feet. Between my flight across the store and the darkness, I’d become disoriented, but I located the dragon. It was about ten feet away and pawing at its injured eye.

The dragon was no longer blocking my path. I scrambled through the various shelves and products strewn across the tile where I’d landed. Before I got far, a tail swung around. It crashed into my legs and upended me. I landed hard on my butt with half the breath knocked out of my lungs.

Snarls had me jerking my gaze in the dragon’s direction. It had almost gotten itself turned around and would be on me any second. I scrambled to my feet and raced for the door, skidding to a halt just before reaching it when two more dragons appeared in the opening. For crying out loud, couldn’t I get a break?

It took me a moment to realize they were both red. One of them glowered at me with familiar eyes. I could have sworn there was annoyance in them, but I was no dragon expert. Maybe it was happiness. He jerked his head in a very human gesture that said to get out of there.

Not one to argue with perfectly good advice—on most occasions—I dashed out past him. Let Aidan and his cousin handle this one. I swiped the talisman off the ground where I’d left it and reached the rubble before looking back to watch them go inside.

It was too dark in there to make out more than large moving shapes, but random objects flew out from the opening. Occasionally, I saw a burst of flames. One of them lit up the green dragon’s face as it roared in pain. I backed up a few more steps, starting to feel guilty. If that was the mother in there, then she was just trying to protect her young. It wasn’t her fault humans had stumbled into her nest.

At the same time, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill me regardless of where she found me. Not to mention her offspring would grow up to be monsters just like her. My slayer instincts told me she had to die even as visions of cute baby dragons flitted through my head. Ugh. I wasn’t supposed to find anything I should kill as cute.

A light breeze brushed against my skin, reminding me I pretty much had no clothes left. There were a few tatters hanging from my legs where the fire hadn’t touched, but not much else. Unless you counted my shoes, which hadn’t been burned this time and remained on my feet. I could take some comfort in that.

A large blue shirt caught my eye, lying among other random objects strewn across the ground. Checking to be sure the dragons weren’t too close, I scooped it up and pulled it over my head. It was a man’s extra large and reached to my knees. The bigger, the better under the circumstances.

Flames caught the corner of my eye. One of the dragons released a breath of fire that burned a hole in the front of the store. I shifted on my feet, debating what to do. Did I stick around and wait for Aidan to finish or did I get the heck out of there? There were already two dragons on one, so they didn’t need my help. I’d only get in the way. Plus, we’d be meeting again tomorrow and could talk then.

The dragons rolled out of the new hole and into the front parking lot about fifty feet from me. Aidan and Donar tore gashes into the larger one, each taking a side of her. I took that as a sign I should go and dashed toward some trees behind the store. It was a shortcut and safer than running along a main street. When I hit a row of fences bordering people’s backyards, I followed alongside them. My body ached as I pushed myself to run faster. It was less than three miles to the library. I could do it.

Lindsey Street appeared up ahead. I turned and raced across a parking lot, praying no one noticed me in my disheveled state. My back protested the pace I set and let me know it with every step I took. I’d made it about a half-mile down the road when a car came from the opposite direction. A man waved his arm out the driver’s side window and yelled.

“Bailey!”

I squinted at him. Was that Earl? He pulled into the parking lot as I slowed to a walk. Yep, that was definitely Earl’s old Monte Carlo he refused to sell no matter what anyone told him. He pulled it up next to me.

“What are you doin’ out here?” he asked, giving me a horrified once-over.

“Long story.” I hopped into the passenger seat and laid the sword in the back.

He cleared his throat. “A long story that involves you losin’ most of your clothes, carrying a sword, and being miles from campus?” He guided the car back onto the road. “You know my imagination is goin’ in about a hundred directions right now.”

My adrenaline was coming down and all I wanted was to catch my breath, not explain myself. I pushed my tangled hair from my face. “My group and I were out looking for supplies and ran into a dragon’s nest. It turned ugly and I got separated from them.”

“It still don’t explain the clothes or the sword.” He gave me a disgruntled look.

Couldn’t the damn man just leave it alone? “I thought maybe if I flashed the dragon with my tits it would distract it long enough for the others to get away. Then I poked it in the eye with my sword. There. Does that explain it well enough for you?”

He let out a chuckle. “Bailey, that’s about the biggest bullshit story I’ve ever heard—and I’ve heard a lot.”

“Take it or leave it.” I crossed my arms.

At this point, I just wanted to put it behind me. I needed time to process Freddy’s death and everything else that happened. If Aidan hadn’t showed up when he did, I might have ended up dead, too. How had he known I was in trouble? Had he been watching me or was it a right place, right time sort of thing? He had found me through scent before.

“You want to head back to the library?” Earl asked.

The tension in my shoulders eased. He was letting it go.

I nodded. “Yeah. They’re going to worry if I don’t get there soon.”

Poor Conrad was probably convinced I was dead already.

“Alright, I’ll take you there,” he said in a gruff voice. “Seems to me you need some time to deal with this, but I’m warnin’ you we will be discussin’ it again soon. Your parents would have a fit if they saw you now.”

My lips twitched. “Grady would probably chain me down in the basement for my own good.”

Earl barked out a laugh. “Lord knows I’m half-tempted to do that myself.”

“Thank for picking me up, Earl.”

He flexed his fingers on the wheel. “I was just goin’ to check on a friend. Ended up findin’ you instead. It’s no skin off my back.”

“Still, I’m glad you saw me.”

I’d never dreamed I’d need him for anything, but since the apocalypse began he’d done whatever he could for me. It meant a lot, even if I didn’t know how to say that to him. I really wasn’t very good at the mushy stuff.

“I’m here, Bailey, any time you’re in trouble.” He paused. “And if things get too hot we can take you and a few of your friends in our neighborhood. Just can’t handle the whole group.”

My gaze jerked toward him. “Really?”

“Foraging for food, keeping the looters out, and buildin’ defenses takes a lot of manpower. Plus we’ve lost a few along the way. As long as you don’t bring too many, you’ll be welcome if you get tired of that musty library.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

It would be a good backup plan if nothing else. Though we’d lost a handful to the church, there were still too many of us for Earl’s neighborhood. New arrivals tended to show up every few days like Nate and Freddy. God, poor Freddy. I sucked in a deep breath. If only I’d remembered the pendant before the dragon first attacked. His dying was on me for not thinking of it soon enough.

“Here’s your stop,” Earl said, turning onto Elm Avenue.

I thanked him again and got out. As soon as his car disappeared around the block, Conrad came running toward me from the parking garage. He pulled me into a hug and lifted me off the ground.

“Bailey, you made it!”

“Yeah, but please…don’t squeeze…so hard.”

“Oh, right.” Conrad set me down. “You’re probably injured. Sorry about that.”

I rubbed my aching ribs. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You want to change your clothes before you go inside?” he suggested. “I haven’t gone in yet so Justin doesn’t have the full story. We can work on it if you want.”