“Bastard,” he hissed, his forked tongue thrusting from his jaws. “You’re no son of mine.”
As talking distracted one from the fight, I said nothing in reply. Circling around him, seeking a weakness, I studied his movements. Chubby and out of shape in his human form, he was equally fat and slow as a dragon. I calculated my next three moves, anticipated his reactions.
I lunged forward, ducking low, moving fast. My jaws clamped shut on his left foreleg, and I ground down with all my strength. Arnaud screamed as his bones shattered, his jaws striking at my horns atop my head. Harder than solid bone, my horns protected my skull with ease.
Throwing myself backward, I brought Arnaud with me, flinging my head and neck back and upwards. He howled as my greater strength tossed him to the side at the same moment I released him. Thrown, crashing, into the cement wall, Arnaud’s weight brought the wall down on top of him.
Bury the shit.
Launching myself toward the ceiling, I flamed, crashing through the girders, cement blocks, sending them tumbling down. The weight of the ceiling plus a dragon collapsed the floor under Arnaud. He vanished below, to his own prison, in a hail of dust and broken warehouse.
I wasn’t done.
Extending my wings, I flew through the warehouse’s roof, using my head and horns as battering rams. The structure couldn’t withstand an annoyed dragon. I hit pillars that held up the roof with my hind legs, sending them into the gulf far below. I clawed cement and steel into the void, and flew free of the mess.
I still wasn’t done.
The outer framework of the big building still stood. Flying outside their perimeter, I lashed out with my tail. The structure wobbled. Another heavy strike sent the entire warehouse crashing down into the subbasement. A flurry of dust rose tomake me sneeze as I circled over the pile of rubble that buried my dad.
“Later, Pop,” I called, then banked toward the street where I’d parked my truck. I landed gently in the intersection, furling my wings while glancing around for any eyes the collapsing warehouse might have drawn. In this neighborhood, however, I doubted any fool would linger around in a snowstorm to gape.
Shifting to two legs, now feeling the hot, slashing pain from my father’s teeth and talons, I winced, lightly touching the cuts. I remote unlocked my truck, started it, then drove toward the freeway in the distance. The collapse wouldn’t have killed Arnaud, I knew, but it certainly would take him some time to dig his way out from under all that rubble.
I grinned, thinking of how much pain he’s currently in with a busted front leg. “You might think twice before taking me on, eh? Happy times.”
I had to find Jade. Arnaud was stuck, sure, but he could be out and on his cell to his goons within the hour. If he got lucky and she didn’t. Where would she go? Home? Not to stay, no. She’d know Arnaud would look for her there first thing. Her old man’s place?
“Maybe I should try there first,” I muttered. “He might be willing to protect her even if he refused to pay her ransom.”
Clicking on my cell while trying to keep my truck on the road amid the slush sticking to it, I called up Jade’s father’s address. He lived in, of course, a neighborhood for the upper middle class. His house wasn’t a mansion like my father’s, but it was still ritzy. And on the other side of town.
“I hope you’re helping her, dude,” I said to the steering wheel. “She’s gonna need it.”
***
The storm intensified as I drove through the darkness and snow. Folks tended to get off the streets during snowstorms in this town, thus I encountered little traffic. Plows, red and blue lights flashing, cleared much from the freeways, but that hadn’t stopped idiots who drove too fast from sliding into the guardrails.
Using my cell’s GPS, I followed the directions into Kinnard’s neighborhood, and soon located his house. The lights inside gleamed through the curtains over the windows. I didn’t see Jade’s car in the driveway, however, making my stomach sink.Could it be in the garage?
Parking at the curb, I studied the house for a moment. Taking a deep breath, ignoring the pain of my wounds, I stepped from my truck. The icy wind blasted into my face, stinging the cuts on my neck, as I trudged through the snow to his front porch.
Jade’s old man swung the door open. If he recognized me, he gave no sign of it. Nor did he ask what I wanted. He merely gazed at me without expression.
“Is Jade here?” I asked.
“No. You’re his kid.”
Kinnard eyed my injuries with a lifted brow. “You’d better come in.”
I followed him into the warmth of his house. He closed the door behind me but didn’t invite me further than the entryway. Again, he gave me the once over, and what he thought, I couldn’t read.
“Are you looking to take her back?” he asked at last.
“You know I’m not,” I replied. “I blew it by taking her in the first place. I thought you’d pay up, and she’d go home unhurt. I was wrong.”
“Who did that to you?”
“My father. I left him buried in a cellar with a warehouse on top.”
