The dragon abruptly changes directions.
One moment, we’re diving at the remaining soldiers. The next, Kael’s wings are beating hard and we’re soaring back up into the air. He gives another trumpeting warning and blasts fire at the building. Not enough to hit anyone, just a show of his wrath. I watch the building get smaller and smaller as we go up, and the soldiers turn into ants. The lone red banner flaps in the breeze, and I feel odd leaving it behind.
Kael stopped his attack. He heard me say no and he stopped.
I don’t know how to react. I’m relieved, of course, but do I praise him? Thanks for only chomping one soldier in half? Talk as if it’s nothing? Don’t mention it at all? I stroke his scaly skin, a jumble of emotions tearing me up inside. He’s just killed a man. Bit him in half. But he didn’t attack first, either. He had just tried to leave with me, and he only lost his shit when they shot at us.
Shot at me.
Bile churning in my throat, I gaze down at the landscape below. We’re high in the air, Kael circling over the ruins of Old Dallas. From up here, the crumble of buildings is peaceful and pretty, in a disorganized sort of way. They look like children’s blocks that have taken a tumble, not a scattered ruin of a city. Greenery snakes over the jagged edges of the streets, crawling over railings and filling in cracks, messing up the perfect lines of the old highways. From up here, it’s kind of neat…if you ignore the fact that I’m dangling—naked—from the claws of a killer dragon over a thousand feet into the air.
As it is, I just want to know where he’s taking me and how I’m going to get home again.
We fly for a while, until my empty, churning stomach starts to protest. I look up at Kael’s draconic face, trying to gauge his mood. His jagged teeth are still curled in a half snarl, as if ready to attack. His eyes are still fully black.
So we’re still not good…but my stomach is also not good. I think of the soldiers, and the way he’s treated me in comparison to them. He’s been nothing but caring to me, even when his eyes are black.
I pat his foreleg, deciding to take a chance. “I need down, Kael. Please.”
He glances down at me, dragon eyes whirling with emotion.
“Down, please. I know you don’t understand me, but I want down.” I point at the nearest building down below. It’s busted up and missing a lot of windows, but I don’t care. It’s a place to set down.
He begins to circle it, descending, and I feel a surge of relief. I glance up, and it seems like his eyes are leaching slowly to gold, and so I stroke his scales and murmur about how happy this makes me, keeping my voice soothing as we move closer to the building. It’s a mess, of course. Just about every building in Old Dallas is. The top floor has caved in, revealing a maze of walls and a suite of rooms and desks, all destroyed and overgrown with vines. Some sort of penthouse office? I don’t care. I just want down.
Kael picks a spot and descends, flattening out his wings to ease our landing, then tucks them against his body. There’s an enormous hole in the roof, and he moves down into it. We thump onto the office floor a moment later, my head bouncing against his chest scales. He extends his foreleg and ever so gently releases me.
I wobble for a few steps. Okay, more like stagger. But I’m on solid ground, and that’s something. I can breathe easier. I look over at Kael, and his eyes are still swirling too close to black, his triangular ears pricked alert, teeth exposed in his snarl. His tail lashes wildly.
Still furious.
I have to calm him before I can relax. I raise a hand and slowly move closer to him again. “You can relax now, big guy. No one’s here. I promise.”
His black gaze focuses on me, and his tail lashes a little less roughly than before. The big head lowers toward my extended hand, as if seeking my touch.
“I’ll touch you,” I say in a soothing voice. “But I need that black to leave your eyes. Can you do that?”
He butts his head against my hand, movements jerky.
I pull back, alarmed. “Calm, okay?”
The eyes focus on me again, and then, as I watch, they flick to the gold-on-gold. Just briefly, but I know it’s in there.
“Good,” I soothe. “That’s real good. You don’t want to hurt me, right? Claudia’s your friend. You’re just a little wigged out that the others came after us with guns.” Well, came after me with guns. “You thought they were going to hurt me and so you went into protection mode, which is great. But now we’re safe and you can relax, I promise.” I know he can’t understand what I’m saying, but the sound of my voice seems to be helping. His eyes are flicking between black and gold still, but now they’re more gold than black. “We’re okay. Claudia’s safe now. Kael’s safe.”
I keep speaking in low, soothing tones, making sure to repeat our names to try and anchor him. I have no idea if it’ll work, but his eyes are slowly going completely gold, and this time, when he pushes his snout against my hand, seeking my touch, his movements are calm.
The awful tension inside me relaxes. I stroke my hand over his scaly nose, continuing to murmur soft words of comfort. He doesn’t reach out to grab me with his claws again. That’s good. That’s progress. His tail has slowed its lashing, and when he leans in and nuzzles at my neck, I know he’s back to himself.
“There we go,” I tell him, pleased at both his response and the fact that I was able to help. I feel like I’m in control of the situation for a change, and it’s not the worst feeling in the world.
The dragon’s giant head noses me again, and then he sniffs deep. His enormous, serpentine tongue snakes out and licks my arm, and it hurts like the dickens. Right. I’ve been shot. Wincing, I pull away and study the wound. Just a graze, but it needs to be cleaned. And, you know, not licked by a dragon. No telling what that’ll do to an infection.
“We need water,” I tell him. Maybe there’s some in this building, if he’s feeling calm enough to let me explore.
He licks my arm again, this time careful to avoid my wound. I shiver at the simple affection, because I shouldn’t like it. I really shouldn’t. Then he whuffs at my hair again, and the growl in his throat turns to a low thrum. Yeah, I know where this is going. He’s going to get turned on, and then I’ll have to calm him down for entirely different reasons. I grab his nose with both hands and force him to look at me. “Can you change to human form?”
He gazes at me, eyes amber on gold, the thrumming in his throat continuing.
At least he’s happy. “I wish you spoke English,” I tell him, and then try to figure out which mimed gesture will make him realize that we need to chat. I put a hand to my mouth and gesture for talking, then make a two-legged man with my fingers and have it walk. “Two legs? Yes?”
Kael nuzzles at my hands, and the low rumbling in his throat grows more affectionate by the moment.