The bullet pinged off my scales, ricocheting with a sharp whine into the night.
From three stories up, I stared down at Bethany. I flared my wings and cast her into blackness. Lifting my right talons, I flexed them into a fist. “Go ahead, bitch. Make my day.”
Bethany screamed, a high-pitched shriek that surely my neighbors heard. She fired off several rounds in a blind effort to kill me. Of course, each bullet pinged off my scales, and I wasn’t harmed in the least. In the distance, sirens announced the arrival of the cops. I didn’t have much time. She spun around, perhaps thinking she could outrun me.
I seized her around her shoulders and waist. Lifting her as easily as I lifted a glass, I brought her up to my muzzle, making her stare deep into my eyes. Tears of terror, or horror, ran down her ghostly cheeks to drip into her opened mouth.
“Are you believing now, Beth?” I inquired. “Maybe wishing you’d stayed home?”
For answer she screamed again.
“I guess you’re not a dragon.”
I leaped for the sky, beating my wings, leaving the park, the neighborhood far behind. Effortlessly, I climbed high, gained altitude with every wing stroke, Bethany’s hair streaming in the wind of my creation. Her lungs worked well, however, as she screamed, cried, babbled words I couldn’t understand.
“Like to fly, honey?” I asked. “Take a look around. Do. The ground is very far away, isn’t it?”
She shrieked in answer.
“You know how much I like to dive, Beth? I really, really like diving. Straight to the ground. Let’s go for it, what do you say?”
Folding my wings, I dove. Faster and faster, the wind whipping her breathless screams away, I held her straight out in front on me, letting her see the ground rushing up to meet us. Low over the approaching homes, I snapped my wings out, soaring mere yards over the rooftops.
“That was fun,” I cried, banking upward, my wings stroking hard. “Wanna do it again?”
I beat my wings to gain altitude, climbing toward the stars, the city lights mere twinkles in the distance. In my grip, Bethany choked, her body heaving. Lifting her toward my muzzle, I eyed her with worry.
“You okay?”
A second later, Bethany vomited. The nasty, wet mess coated my talons, dripped down to fall through the empty space. She heaved over and over until she spit only bile.
“Okay, now that’s just wrong,” I snapped, putting her in my left hand in order to shake the puke from my talons. “Would I hurl on you?”
Gasping for breath, Bethany collapsed, her head drooping on her neck.
“Don’t faint on me, girl,” I said. “You gotta see what other talents I have.”
Her hair in her face, her skin so pale I wondered if I’d done her serious harm, she looked up. “What?”
“This.”
Turning my head, I blew a sharp gust of flame. Bethany screamed, tearing at her head and face with her nails. “No, no, no, no, no,” she cried, sobbing, pounding her fist against my claw. “No, oh my God, stop, please, please, Lindsey.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear,” I commented. “You begging.”
“I’ll beg, I’ll do anything you want, I swear to God. I’ll go away, I’ll never bother you again, please don’t kill me, please, please.”
“What are we?” I asked, my tone conversational. “Ten thousand feet up? Were I to open my fist, you’d fall all that long way. Terminal velocity, kiddo. Folks would scrape you up with a spoon.”
“No, please!” Bethany flung her head back and screamed.
“Will you quit that,” I snapped. “You can’t hear me talk if you’re screaming.”
She gasped for breath, weeping, sobbing, her voice low as she pleaded for her life.
“Hear this, Beth,” I growled. “If I were to flame you right now, no one would find anything at all. Not even your ashes. I’ll let you live. I won’t kill you.Now. But if youevercome back, your life is mine. You’ll disappear from the face of this earth. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.” Bethany sobbed. “I’m so sorry, please forgive me, don’t kill me, please.”
