stared at Tem in his true form and gasped. He wasn’t just beautiful; he was gorgeous. Usually dragons came in different colors, from a dusty gold to rusty brown or occasionally green, but the coloring of Tem’s scales sparkled in an iridescent deep amethyst.

His wings and forepaws deepened to ebony at their tips, while his claws glittered in the emergency lighting like onyx knifes. His gold eyes blinked at her, reptilian in shape but sparkling with intelligence.

It was the first time she had seen a dragon up close and she was awed.

The dragon extended his forepaw.

Come.

It was Tem’s voice in her head and this comforted her, but still the sight of Tem as a dragon froze her feet in place. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand what he wanted. She got that she was supposed to climb on his back and help the others there too. He meant to break jail by hauling all of them onto his form and she couldn’t for the life of her see how it could be done any other way.

But when she reached for him, a gunshot whizzed past her hand, and then another. She jerked her hand back.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

The shots grew more frequent, peppering the air with whizzing hot pieces of metal meant to harm.

Tem raised his beautiful triangular head and roared. It was a sound so loud and deep that the walls shook around them. The shots stopped briefly, but when Tem began the climb on the lift cable, they started again. But then whatever he had used to stop the bullets at the first rally point of the guards, he started using again. The shots glanced off him and clinked against the walls of the lift.

Evan pulled Astrid’s arm and jerked her away from the opening, which was entirely sensible even if she wanted to watch Tem. It was an unreasonable desire to keep an eye on the dragon, because logically Tem was far better equipped to deal with the threat to their lives than she was.

But she was finding that when it came to Tem, unreasonable desire was the order of the realm.

Human screams rent the air and bodies fell to the roof of the car below with a horrible thud. Tem roared again, a challenge and warning to whoever would stop them, and the walls shook with the force of thunder.

Beside her, Calvin twitched and he groaned. Astrid didn’t know what to make of this, but it seemed that each time Tem roared it drew a response from the unconscious man.

Evan slung the man off his shoulder and held him against the wall.

“Calvin!” he called. “Calvin! Wake-up!”

The older dragon opened his eyes slowly and blinked.

“Tem?” he rasped.

“I’m Evan. Evan Waters. Tem is trying to get us out.”

“Tem,” the man said as a heavy sigh. He closed his eyes again as if utterly exhausted and Astrid gripped his hands.

“Please,” she said. “Stay with us.”

Tem boomed again and rattled the cable, daring the humans to come after him.

Calvin’s eyes flew open again. “It’s not a dream?”

“No. Tem is fighting for us,” said Astrid.

“Good. At least I won’t die here.”

You aren’t dying anywhere, old man.

In a day of surprises, Astrid was shocked again. Tem spoke not just to her, but through her to Calvin.

“What?” he said, just as surprised as Astrid.

Can you shift? asked Tem.

Calvin groaned and even Astrid could see the dragon was too weak to be helpful.

That’s okay, old man. Save your strength. Get ready. I’m coming.

Tem’s claws clinked on the cable and soon his dragon head poked through the lift opening. He shook his head, like a puppy shaking off water from its fur and gave a throaty purr. Astrid could almost swear that he was grinning.

Now.

He pushed through his forepaw and shoulder, extending them into a bridge to his broad shoulders. Astrid navigated Tem’s limb first, and was astonished to find his skin, though it looked like hard scales, was smooth, silky and elastic.

Of course, darling. Hard scales would provide too much wind resistance.

After scrambling up his leg, Astrid settled on his neck where she could sit astride, and helped pull Calvin up while Evan pushed. With Calvin seated, Evan followed.

Hang on, declared Tem. Clutch my hide.

Astrid dug her hands into Tem’s skin.

I’m not hurting you?

Sweetie, you’d have to do a lot more than that to hurt me.

“He said to grab his skin,” she called over her shoulder.

“He’s talking to you?” asked a stunned Evan. “How? I don’t hear him.”

But Astrid shook her head as Tem began his climb. His powerful shoulders moved between her legs, causing her to remember their brief time in his cell.

“Steady, sweetheart. We’ve a ways to go before we can get distracted again.”

She heard Calvin curse and Tem rumbled with displeasure behind her.

Later, later, old man. Job one is getting clear of here.

Pull by pull, moving with unholy speed, Tem took them up the length of the cable. They passed several floors where Astrid spotted men laying on the floor beyond half opened lift doors, but she couldn’t tell if they were injured or dead.

But at the topmost floor the door was flung wide open and a defiant Mrs. Parks stood there, rifle in hand. She wore protective goggles but Astrid did not see the ear plugs. Behind Mrs. Parks stood the commandant, unarmed, but he had an expression on his face that declared he should be feared. Astrid had seen his picture hanging in the hall, but this man’s face was far thinner and weaselly than his official photo indicated.

Parks pointed the rifle at Tem. It wasn’t a normal rifle but was fitted with tranquilizer darts.

“Halt, you abomination!”

Tem howled, but it wasn’t in fear. It was amusement.

“You should move away, Mrs. Parks,” called Astrid. “He’s not in a mood to be generous.”

Mrs. Parks turned a contemptuous glance to Astrid.

“I knew it. Dragon lover. We’ll hunt you down, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

“There’s a problem with that,” called Astrid. “You’ll have to catch us first.”

Tem rumbled and it sounded like agreement with her words. Then, in one fluid move, he launched from the cable and straight into Parks and the commandant. They landed with a hard oomph on the floor and Tem scrambled over the keepers. Astrid could have sworn that he was chuckling.

The dragon prowled the hallway, swiveling his head, and looking for an opening to escape the building. Astrid had not been to this part of the castle yet, but it looked like the administration wing of the building. She caught glimpses of people peeking over the tops of their desks, looking fearful and awed as they moved down the hall.

They should, she thought. Tem is awesome.

Thank you, sweetheart.

Clattering on the floors alerted them to another imminent danger. Astrid gripped Tem’s skin harder when she saw the beefy men in military uniforms stretch across the corridor. One held a grenade launcher pointed at them.

“You can’t be serious,” groaned Evan.

To their left was a set of closed double doors.

Tem. To the left.

Yes!

Tem burst through the doors as a grenade shot over his tail. The incendiary hit a wall and exploded, blasting shock waves that rattled the walls and furniture in the offices to the side. But Tem kept steady on his feet as they surveyed their situation. They had entered a conference room with a table that stretched its length. The far-left wall held a wide window that overlooked the peaceful valley beyond the Hawthorne Facility.  The sound of the soldiers’ boots stomping on the floor told Astrid it was a matter of seconds before they had to face this new threat.

Tem studied the window and pressed a paw against the glass. He shook his head.

I need heat, he mused.

In a swift motion, he turned to face the door, just as the soldiers appeared.

“Surrender!”

Tem snarled and slashed the air with his claws. He took one threatening step toward them.

The soldier with the grenade launcher leveled it at Tem. He fired and Astrid shrieked.

But Tem moved his head and opened his jaw wide, swallowing the grenade whole.

“Oh God, no!” cried Astrid

She felt the explosion within him, and she feared the worst, that he would be harmed or killed by the explosive. But he belched like a man who had one too many pints on a Saturday afternoon and chuckled. Then he opened his mouth and spewed a scorching line of actual fire before their attackers. Absolute fright possessed their faces as these soldiers found, to their horror, that they faced a threat for which they were not prepared.

“Retreat!”

Astrid had never seen men move so fast as they poured out the door back into the hallway.