Alix nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
“Okay.”
My car took longer to warm up, but as I drove toward her apartment, I kept an eye on her headlights. She drove steadily, without veering or sliding, which gave me the feeling she’d be okay. So. How to explain to your best friend that you’re not human, but part human and mostly dragon?
“I’m in so much trouble,” I muttered.
Alix parked her car beside mine, and we got out at the same time. Alix’s fear had shifted during the drive home it seemed, as she came out yelling at me.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” she screamed. “That you’re – you’re –”
“That’s why,” I shot back. “You’d be scared of me. You’ll think I’m some monster. Dammit, you’re not even supposed to know.”
Alix blinked, flipping her hood to cover her head. I did the same. “Yeah. I guess I can see that. Come on. It’s cold out here.”
We trudged through the snow to her apartment unit, climbing the stairs, Alix’s keys in her hand.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she muttered, her hand still shaking as she put the key in the lock. “You saved my life.”
“I saved both our lives,” I replied, following her into her apartment. “He wanted me dead, too.”
I swung the door shut behind us.
That’s when the arm pushed it back open. The snowy figure of a man stepped inside, his brilliant blue eyes surrounded by snow.
I reacted without thinking.
I seized my baton, snapped it open and swung it toward the intruder with everything I had behind the blow. Before it struck either his head or his shoulder, breaking either, he raised his arm in self-defense.
My baton broke that instead.
Screeching, swearing a blue streak, Magnus dropped to his knees on Alix’s carpet. Holding his broken left arm in his right, he flinched from me when I raised the baton again.
“Don’t,” he yelled. “I’m not here to hurt you. Fuck, you busted my arm. Jade, I want to help you. Don’t you hit me again with that fucking thing.Fuck.”
I lowered the baton and risked a glance at Alix. She stood behind me, scared, but standing her ground. She looked from Magnus to me, then back to Magnus.
“Why?” she asked, stepping forward, reaching for my arm. “You kidnapped her in the first place.”
Magnus, his sweat mixing with the melting snow on his face, shook his head. “Can we talk? After we fix up my arm?”
***
His arm turned out not to be broken after all.
“I’m losing my touch,” I commented as Alix applied a poultice that would help bruising, swelling, and pain to his left forearm, then wrapped it in gauze with an outer wrapping of cotton. By the time she finished, Magnus had relaxed considerably, and stopped saying “fuck” every other word.
“That feels much better,” he murmured, flexing his swollen fingers.
“I’ll make you some herbal tea,” Alix said, washing her hands. “It’ll help you to heal.”
Alix left the bathroom, and me to stare at Magnus. And Magnus to stare at me. “Why can’t you be nice like she is?”
“She’s naturally nice. I’m not.”
He stood up from the toilet, towering over me, and nearly had me reaching for the baton. “How does she know all this healing stuff?”
“She’s into the New Age guru shit,” I answered, then turned away. “She’s studied it for years, makes her own home remedies.”
