“He’s not a good guy, mate,” I said the word aloud for the first time.
“I know,” Nic said and rubbed his temples.
“I’ll go and let you rest. I’ll come back with Tops’s hide and then---”
“No. Please.”
“No to the hide? I’ll find something else suitable then.”
“Don’t leave me,” Nic shook his head. “I—I don’t want you to leave.”
Against my better judgement, I sat down on the bed with him. If anyone walked by and peeked through the hospital door’s little window, my cover would be blown. I didn’t want to fight my way out of the hospital, but I could.
“We have to go,” Nic said. “I don’t know how to make this right.”
“I think Clarence would have done the same for his mate. Probably more. I let them live so that they might remember to make better choices in life. So that they might remember that no matter how strong you think you are, someone is stronger, faster, and better organized. So that they might work out their issues in this life and not have them carried over to the next.”
Alarms blazed above our heads, and we both hit the floor. The hospital door’s little window showed blinking red lights and staff running in every direction. I couldn’t make out what they were saying over the screams and the panicked exchange of words.
“Do you think they heard us?” Nic whispered as I wiggled under the bed, taking him with me.
“They shouldn’t have,” I shook my head.
“We’ve got to get out of here. Even if my mum was here, we couldn’t fight the whole Moonscale Guard. I need my clothes! Damn it! I can’t escape with my ass flashing to the world!”
“Where are they?” I asked, glancing around the room from under the bed.
“In the wardrobe over there the last I knew but that was before they cleaned the room,” he pointed.
“Stay here. If one of us is to be harmed it shouldn’t be you.”
“I have scales.”
“Stay here,” I said again and left from our hiding spot before Nic could protest further.
I sprinted across the room and tore open the wardrobe. There were more than a few outfits hung on padded cloth hangers, making me wonder how long his mum planned to keep him here. It didn’t matter. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I almost shut the wardrobe but grabbed a sweater too just in case he got cold. There wasn’t time for me to search for his socks and underwear so this would have to do for now. Once we made it back to my home, I could garb him in anything he liked.
Nic wiggled around dressing under the bed as I tore open the window and looked out. I wasn’t being as careful as I should’ve, but I got lucky, and no one was there. We were twelve or thirteen stories from the ground. Not a bad climb down. Sirens wailed outside too.
“They can’t be looking for us. If they were, the dragoness would’ve told them exactly where we were. If not her, then the medic,”my cat cut into my thoughts.
Either way. Sirens were never a good sign on Earthside.
Nic crawled out from under the hospital bed and brought his wings out.
“No,” I shook my head.
“I can carry you. I’m stronger than I look,” Nic said, joining me at the window.
“No, dragons search high. They expect everyone to escape through the sky because that’s how they’d do it. We climb down and---”
“I can’t climb that. Well, maybe with my wings and—”
“No, on my back,” I said, turning around so that he could climb on.
“I’m not helpless,” Nic said.
“No, you’re not, but this way they’ll have a harder time separating us.”
