Lawrence
She shouldn’t be taking that drink.
Not that I’m one to talk about making good, appropriate choices, but taking an alcoholic beverage from strangers in the woods? That’s just plain stupid. It’s strange because there doesn’t seem to be anything stupid about this woman at all. She’s human, which is obvious. Her scent is sweet and unique: entirely hers. I caught wind of her while I was waiting to see if anyone showed up at the stone tower.
When she appeared, I thought she might be in trouble. Cameron met Peggy there, after all. That girl was on the run from Lucky: an evil organization hell-bent on the destruction of dragon shifters. This woman isn’t on the run, though. If anything, she seems to be on a journey.
I don’t know much about humans, but I do know that sometimes, they get these ideas in their heads about finding themselves. Like sometimes they want to just “rediscover” who they are or something like that. Is that what she’s doing?
She stayed by the tower for a long time. I thought she was going to just go to sleep. I don’t mind guarding her in the darkness. She doesn’t need to know I’m here. She didn’t notice me from my perch high in the trees, but that’s just as well. This way, I can watch over her now that she’s around other humans.
These ones don’t smell as sweet.
These ones seem like they’re up to no good.
Carefully shrouded in the shadows, I move closer to the clearing where the women are talking.
“What’s your name?” The woman with dark hair says. “I’m Nicole and this is Bernie,” she motions toward the woman with blonde hair.
“Bernie?” The human girl asks. “That’s a cute name.”
“It’s short for Bernadette,” the blonde tells her.
“I’m Julie.”
“Take this, Julie,” Nicole says, handing her a cup. Julie peers inside.
Don’t drink it, I silently beg, but she does, sipping it slowly at first. Then her eyes go wide.
“It’s good!” She says. “What is it?”
“My own special recipe,” Nicole tells her, and then the girls all giggle. “Come on, have a seat. What are you doing out here all alone?”
“Camping,” Julie says. That much was obvious. “What about you?”
“We’re on a journey of sorts,” Nicole says, and I don’t like the way she says that. Of sorts? What the hell does that mean? I can’t quite see all of their equipment and supplies, but something tells me that Nicole and Bernie aren’t here on some spring break getaway. They’re here for other reasons, and none of the ones I’m thinking of are good.
In fact, they’re all terrible.
“Well, seems like a good enough place to find yourself,” Julie comments, sipping her drink.
“Yeah?” Bernie asks, raising an eyebrow. “So what’s your story, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart?
Really?
Come on, Julie, I silently beg the woman. See through this. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I’m itching to jump in like the white knight I imagine myself to be. It’s a dragon thing, I tell myself. I love the idea of saving a girl from trouble, of rescuing her from unforeseen circumstances that could terrorize and harm her.
There’s another part of me, a less noble part, that’s much too curious for my own good. A girl like Julie? What’s she doing in the darkness of the forest?
Julie rolls her eyes. “Bad breakup. You know the drill.”
“Do we ever,” Bernie snickers. She jerks her head toward Nicole. “This girl just got out of a cray-zay relationship. Then again, you probably know all about that.”
“Yup,” Julie takes a swig of her drink. There’s no doubt the alcohol is starting to get to her already. To a normal person, she might look the same, but to a dragon shifter? Julie’s starting to look less focused. Her eyes are glazing over, just a little. She’s having a hard time concentrating.
“What happened?” Nicole asks, placing her hand on Julie’s knees.
“My fucking best friend happened,” she says. My heart squeezes, tensing involuntarily. Ouch. Talk about cliché. I wonder what happened. Did she have too many late nights at work? Was her friend jealous of her beauty? Maybe she just got caught up with the wrong guy at the wrong time. I don’t know, but it’s insane to me that someone could even fathom hurting someone as beautiful or as sweet as Julie.
“Damn,” Nicole and Bernie say at the same time.
“Yeah. It’s funny, I always heard all of these stories about this shit happening, but until it happens to you? You can’t really understand. I didn’t, at least. I mean, Samantha and I were friends. Best friends, I thought. We lived together for a couple of years and everything. Working together, teaching together, living together: Samantha and I had it all.”
“So what went wrong?” Nicole asks. I notice she hasn’t taken a sip of her drink in awhile. I wonder what con she’s trying to pull. Two little humans won’t be difficult to overtake if things go wrong. The truth is that I don’t know any of them, though, and I shouldn’t make a snap judgment.
“I started subbing,” she says. “And tutoring after work. Thought it would be a good way to get a little extra money.”
“Ah. Boyfriend thought you were gone too much?”
“I guess. He and Sam started hanging out.” Julie stands up and starts pacing in front of the fire. She’s holding her cup tightly, but she hasn’t taken another sip.
“How’d you find out?” Nicole asks, softening her voice.
Julie starts to raise her cup to her lips, then seems to trip on something I can’t see. She stumbles forward, dumping the contents of her drink beside the fire. Nicole looks irritated.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Julie says quickly. “I’m so clumsy,” she giggles. “Did I get any on you?”
“No, but we have bigger problems than wet pants,” Bernie says, jumping into the conversation. She reaches for Julie’s cup. “Let’s get you another drink.”
“That’s okay. I can make it myself,” Julie says, heading toward the cooler.
“Please,” Bernadette steps in front of her. “I insist. What kind of a host would I be if I didn’t get you a drink?”
Julie hesitates for a minute and then shrugs. “Sure,” she says. “Whatever.”
She sits back next to Nicole and lowers her voice.
“So how long have you and Bernie been friends?”
A change of subject.
Interesting.
Julie is fascinating me. I don’t consider myself an expert in reading people. Not by any means. Still, I’m educated enough and well-versed enough in psychology to know what she’s doing. She’s establishing a connection with Nicole, and I’m not sure why.
“Not that long,” Nicole says. “We just started working together, but what about you? You were about to tell me – us – what happened with the boy toy?”
“Here you are,” Bernie appears again, shoving a drink into Julie’s hands.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah,” Bernie sits down. She holds her glass up. “Let’s drink to that jerk.”
“You know,” Julie sets her cup down. “I appreciate the drink, but I think I’ve had enough. I’m not feeling too hot, so I’m going to head back and hit the hay, if you know what I mean.”
Hit the hay?
Who speaks like that?
“Don’t go just yet,” Nicole insists.
“See you guys later,” Julie turns and starts to leave. Good girl. She doesn’t seem intimidated by them, but unfortunately, the girls don’t take “no” for an answer. Nicole stands up and grabs her shoulder.
“Wait,” she says.
It doesn’t look like she’s hurting her, but Julie doesn’t appreciate being touched.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Julie says.
“Listen here, you little bitch,” Bernie turns to Julie now, glaring at her. Nicole’s mouth drops open. “If you had just drank your fucking drink like a normal person, we wouldn’t be dealing with this.”
“What, so you could fucking kidnap me? Did you put something in it? Is that why you’re being weird? Is this some sort of B-horror movie, or is this real life? Fuck you,” Julie says, turning away again.
That’s my girl.
My inner-dragon likes Julie. I like her, too. She’s determined and strong. She’s feisty, and it’s been a long time since I met a girl who was feisty.
“Not so fast,” Bernie says, but Julie is gone, traipsing away into the darkness. Good. She needs to get back to her camp, pack her shit up, and move for the night. It won’t be safe to stay this close to these bitches.
“What the fuck?” Nicole turns back to her friend. “What is wrong with you? What do you mean? Did you put something in her drink?”
“Just fucking let it go,” Bernie rolls her eyes and sits down.
“No, I won’t let it go. Do you know how serious this could be? We were just having a drink. You were going to hurt her?” My ears perk up. I thought they were just being bitches, but maybe there’s more to these girls than meets the eye.
“She’s not going to tell anyone. She’s alone.”
“She might realize who we are.”
“Yeah, because a lot of Lucky employees spend time traipsing through the ‘forbidden forest,’” Bernie uses air quotes when she speaks.
My heart drops.
Lucky employees.
These girls are dragon hunters and there’s only one reason they could possibly have for coming into the forest. They’re trying to find Fablestone. It wouldn’t be the first time and it certainly won’t be the last time, but my team has been through hell and back again when it comes to these damn scientists and their accompanying predatory team. We don’t need more trouble.
Recently, a bunch of Fablestone dragons were able to overtake a Lucky facility. We rescued a bunch of shifters, only to find they introduced a strange illness to our community. Natalie, one of the humans who lives with us, traveled to find the one man who could help us: a doctor. Now we have a man who knows the cure for the dragon’s illness that Lucky sent us, but we still don’t know where their main headquarters is.
We still don’t know how they’re going to attack us next.
“Just let it go,” Bernie repeats. “We don’t need to worry about her.”
“Wrong,” Nicole says, pulling out a weapon. I leap forward, but it’s too late. She shoots before I can reach them and Bernie slumps to the ground. Nicole sends a nasty glare in my direction before taking off after Julie. “Fuck you, whoever you are,” she yells, and starts running through the woods.
I growl. The painful howl erupts from my throat before I can stop it. I have to get to Julie before Nicole does. I have to get to her before it’s too late.