Lawrence
Being lost in the woods isn’t how I planned to spend my week. No. My mission was simple: get to the stone tower, sit around for a night, and then come home. When little Julie appeared, I wasn’t worried. I knew she wasn’t a shifter. She wasn’t in trouble. She was just a random human who happened to be camping at our spot. She could be easily ignored, or so I thought. It turns out, however, that I was wrong about her.
So, so, wrong.
Julie is much too brave and friendly for her own good, and that bravery may have inadvertently gotten me shot. I don’t know what the fuck Nicole dosed me with, but it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever felt before. I can’t shift, for one thing. I can barely move, for another.
When Julie gave me water, it took every ounce of me not to scream. She smells amazing and she’s behaving so sweetly. I could hear her heart fucking racing when she neared me. She’s nervous about helping me. I think it’s because she’s never seen a dragon before.
Either that or she’s impressed by my dick.
Not that she looked.
She probably didn’t look.
I should have known Nicole and Bernie were with Lucky. At least, Nicole was. Her friend is most definitely dead now and I’ll probably never learn the truth about who Bernie is. For all I know, she could be some random stray Nicole picked up at the start of her journey, but my real theory is darker.
I’m certain Bernie and Nicole were both with Lucky, sent into the forest to do dragon knows what, and Nicole turned on Bernie. Bernie didn’t realize she was to be the bait. Either that, or they both believed the other would be the bait when the time came.
None of that matters now because Nicole got the jump on me and I’ve been shot. Apparently, my hunting skills are out of practice because everything hurts. Everything feels tight and tension clings to my body.
“It’s going to be okay,” Julie whispers, and then she strokes my hair. My inner-dragon calls to her, wanting her. We’ve never been taken care of like this before.
“He’s not going to shift back,” Nicole says, not-helpfully.
“Fuck you,” Julie says. “And stop talking.”
I feel a rush of contentment knowing someone is standing up for me, but it’s soured by the knowledge that this might be it. Julie is sweet, but she’s no warrior. Nicole is conniving and shrew. Worst of all, if I can’t shift, then there’s no way for us to get to Fablestone. It’s still dark out. The night isn’t even over.
What if my clan doesn’t come for me?
What if they can’t find me?
I open my mouth to speak, but no sounds come out. I can’t tell if there’s something permanently wrong with me or not. Then Julie starts talking, and I realize I may have underestimated her.
“Let’s see what this little guy’s symptoms are,” she murmurs. I take offense at the term “little guy,” but whatever. There’s nothing “little” about me.
“What, you going to play doctor now?” Nicole asks. I can hear the malice in her voice. I can’t turn my head or open my mouth to speak, but I can sense that she doesn’t like the fact that Julie is still trying. “Let me call my team. My radio is back at my camp.”
Yeah.
That’s so not going to happen.
“He can’t speak,” Julie says. Then she runs her hands down my jaw line. I shiver indiscernibly. Her hands are soft, but firm. “Nothing’s wrong with his mouth. Not just his mouth. It seems to be all of him. Some sort of paralysis poison, maybe.”
Nicole’s breathing gets huffy. She doesn’t like having her work analyzed.
Too bad! My inner-dragon is pissed at this entire situation.
“You couldn’t have done anything permanent to him with just a dart,” Julie muses.
“That’s not true.”
Now it’s Julie’s turn to laugh.
“You don’t work as a teacher and not learn how to tell when someone’s lying, honey,” Julie says. “And you, sweetie, are completely full of shit.”
“I am not!” Nicole spews off a string of profanities, but Julie doesn’t seem bothered at all.
Teacher?
She’s a teacher?
How random is it that we’re both teachers?
Maybe it’s not random at all. Maybe it’s fate.
“I’ve seen a lot of movies in my day,” Julie continues speaking as she touches and pokes my body gently. I’m not sure what she’s doing. Maybe she’s trying to see if there’s anything obviously wrong with my body or perhaps this is just another attempt to piss off Nicole. Either way, I’m not complaining that her hands are on me.
She has a soft touch, and it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve had a woman touch me.
Not that there’s anything wrong with women.
Not that there’s a problem with them touching me.
It’s just that things at Fablestone have been a little…crazy…for awhile now. Besides, I have to focus on being a good teacher. That’s why I’m still there. I’ve been lonely for a long time, but teaching makes me feel like I’m actually doing something that matters. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I’m not going completely crazy.
Maybe I’m not wasting my life.
“And one thing I always notice in movies is that when someone gives another person a poison, whether it be through a dart or a pill, there’s some sort of antidote.”
Suddenly, her hands are off me.
“Don’t touch me,” Nicole says, and then I don’t hear anything else. I strain myself, trying to hear what’s happening. Did Julie just sock her? Did she kill her? I can’t tell, and it’s driving me nuts. I hear a rustling and a bit of a scuffle. Then Julie comes back to my side.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Dragon,” she says, running her hands up and down my arms. “I couldn’t take anymore of her smart mouth, so I had to gag her.”
Mr. Dragon?
“I went through her pockets and I found this.”
She’s obviously holding something up, but my eyes are closed now. I think if I tried really, really hard, I could open them. Then again, maybe not. Everything feels hard. My entire body seems like it’s weighted down by some invisible force holding me here.
If only I could shift.
In my dragon form, I process poisons and food and toxins quite quickly. It’s not easy to get a dragon sick, which is one of the reasons Lucky is such a dangerous organization. They’ve devoted their entire organization to hurting dragons and shifters as a society.
Worst of all: they’re good at it.
Now Julie is standing beside me and she may have found an antidote for whatever they gave me.
I just hope she’s brave enough to actually give it to me.
And I hope I’m strong enough for it to work.