Chapter Nine

Ignacio flew for only a short while, remaining in the air for less than half an hour as his wings beat against the cool night air. He carried Maia in his talons, cradling her as gently as a dragon could, until he decided that he had put enough distance between them and that compound. From the air, the golf courses of Coyote Springs were easy enough to spot. An oasis in the desert, more or less, with the well-manicured and routinely watered greens.

He chose a spot furthest from the club houses, nestled against a dune and a handful of stunted trees, slowing himself to land as gently as he could. The downdraft from his wings bent the trees, but for the most part he left the area intact. Maia was placed onto the grass, those massive claws handling her as if she was made of glass. He immediately shifted back to his human form, rushing to free her from the bonds of her chair.

“Maia,” he said. “Maia, are you alright?”

He scooped her up from the chair, lowering the both of them to the ground as he cradled her in his arms. She groaned at the movement, curling her hands with a wince. Her fingertips were blackened, pain throbbing through them from the shock they had given her.

“I’m… I’m fine,” she said, looking up to him. “Ignacio, we can’t stay here. They won’t just let us go like that. They are going to come after us”

“I needed to make sure you were ok,” he said to her, brushing a hand over her forehead as he did so.

“I’m so sorry, Ignacio,” Maia whispered. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t been so damned selfish none of this would have ever happened.”

“What are you talking about, Maia,” he asked, a concerned look coming across his face. “None of this is your fault.”

“Yes, it is!” She cried, pushing away from him slightly though not enough to leave his arms. “I just had to perform. I couldn’t just leave with you and get out of the city. If I hadn’t been such a selfish bitch we would be miles and miles away from all of this.”

“I am so, so sorry…” She reached up, gently running her fingers through his now shorter hair with a look of anguish coming across her face.

“No,” he said, taking her hand in his own, careful of her blackened fingers. “Maia, none of this is your fault. Do you hear me? None of it.”

He found her gaze and held it, the sincerity of his words more than evident in his eyes. It brought a sense of calm and Maia felt herself able to breath a bit easier.

“Maia.” Hearing him say her name was like a cure. “All of this would have happened sooner or later, no matter what. I’m just happy I was able to meet you beforehand. I love you.”

It was as if a dam broke in her chest and pure emotion came flooding out of her. Hearing him say those words lifted her up and made her feel good as new. A light bloomed in her eyes and that smile returned for the first time in a while.

“Maia, I love you more than anything or anyone in this world,” he professed. “From the first moment I saw you I knew it. The first words we spoke to one another lit a fire in my chest that has only grown brighter with every second I spend with you. I love you, Maia. I will do anything to stay by your side.”

She felt as if her chest was going to burst and she realized she had been holding her breath the entire time. She released it with a look of shock and overwhelming joy, the smile on her face threatening to split it in half.

“I love you too, Ignacio,” she practically gasped. “Oh my god, I love you too.” It was all she could say, her voice cracking as the words left her.

She threw herself around him, her arms tight as she buried her face against his neck. She wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life right there…just like that. Wrapped in the arms of the man who loved her. Unfortunately, their sweet moment would only be allowed to last for a brief time.

The sound of helicopters was one she had come to associate with dread and this time was no different. At first, she had not realized what it was, but the sound became unmistakable the closer it came. Climbing to their feet, the two began to scan the horizon, waiting for a glimpse of searchlight to tell them where it was coming from. If only one of them had been keeping an eye at ground level, they might have seen the headlights before they heard the engines.

A dozen vehicles, easy, came barreling up all around them. Before they realized it, they were surrounded, bathed in light from every angle as the vehicles closed in. A loud, booming voice called out from a loudspeaker, jolting the air around them with its harsh and biting crackle.

“Surrender immediately or we will open fire,” the voice commanded, threatening them. “I repeat. Surrender immediately, or we will open lethal fire.”

Maia’s eyes went wide and wild, scanning and searching all around them for some way to get out. There had to be something they could do in order to get away and be safe. It seemed Ignacio had been thinking the same thing as well, because she suddenly realized that she no longer had a handsome, naked Latino man standing just behind her…but instead a powerful dragon.

It seemed that many of the soldiers surrounding them had no idea the kind of fugitive they had been tracking, since a look of pure awe and fear had frozen a number of them in place as Ignacio transformed. By the time they snapped back to reality and the command to open fire was given, Ignacio’s armored scales had emerged. Maia seemed to realize what was going to happen next and ducked between Ignacio and a pile of rocks protruding from the sand dune, watching with a mixture of horror and hope.

Ignacio opened his dragon maw, breathing hell fire across the landscape towards their assailants. Shouts and cries came from the men who surrounded them and yet the bullets still came. Ignacio lunged towards them, spewing as much hate-fueled fire from his belly as he could. The more they dug in, the more his rage grew and his desire to kill them took over his intention to simply push them back. If they were to hurt Maia in any way, then he would die in that spot as he took them all down with him.

The helicopters were overhead now, hitting them with a spotlight as it hovered and continued to shout that repeated demand to surrender. It seemed they had reached a stalemate of sorts as neither side was willing to back down. Maia saw it and knew there were only two possible ways out of this and she was only willing to do one of them.

“Ignacio!” She yelled out to him. “Ignacio, we need to fly!”

She knew there was no way that they would be able to follow Ignacio when he was flying. He was massive, and she was sure he could move pretty fast when he needed to. Thankfully, he seemed to understand and began to back up closer to where she hid. As Maia carefully climbed as high on the rock formation as she could Ignacio crouched to give her the chance to jump on. All the while, he spewed bouts of fire to keep their attackers back, trying to use his body as best he could to shield her from harm.

Maia did her best to keep her head down as she waited for the right moment to jump onto Ignacio’s back. Bullets flew overhead, thudding into the sand dune with alarming speed and number. When she saw her chance, she took a breath and leapt with all her might. She landed hard on his back, her blackened fingers grasping at his scales for a solid grip as she started to slide off. With a growl of her own, she grabbed hold with all the strength she could muster and hauled herself into a sturdy position on his back. With feet and hands hooked into his scaly hide, she was ready.

“Ignacio, NOW!” She cried out to him. She only hoped he could hear her over the hail of bullets raining down around them.

He heard her, drawing in a huge breath before he unleashed a blast of heat and fire so powerful it almost rivaled the night he had created the glass desert that started all of this. All around them men cried out in pain or alarm, the tires of their vehicles bursting with explosive force from the heat as engines caught fire. At one point, Maia even thought she saw men with guns in their hands melted down to the stock.  

As the trees all around burned against the night sky and chaos ensued amongst their attackers, Ignacio began to beat his wings as hard as he could without harming Maia. Pushing off as he rose into the air, the draft from his pumping wingspan feeding the flames into an inferno on the golf course.

As they rose further into the air, the helicopter swooped around and brought its spotlight onto them. Maia could see a gunman preparing to fire, but before she could call out about it, Ignacio screeched and turned sharply in the air, bringing his heavy tail around like a whip to knock the chopper right from the sky. As it spiraled out of control, it left a trail of smoke, finally crashing down just outside the ring of vehicles with a deafening boom and a catastrophic plume of smoke.

They took advantage of the diversion caused by the crash and Ignacio rose higher into the air before taking off towards the south. His wings pumped with a fury as he sped them away from certain death as quickly as he could without causing Maia to lose her hold on him. It wasn’t long before the bright lights of Vegas were below them, the whole city mapped out in lights for Maia to see as he glided along.

Maia clung tight to the back of her dragon lover, her adrenaline still rushing as she stared in awe at the world below them. She had been mostly out of it during her first flight when Ignacio had broken them free of the compound. For the first time, she saw the world the way only Ignacio had seen it and she was blown away by the beauty of it all. As Vegas passed below them, she settled down against his warm and scaly back, holding on tight as she wondered what awaited them next…and where they were going.