He was on his feet instantly, panic surging through him, the urge to protect Rose overpowering the anger and betrayal. “Shit, where are they?” he asked, frantically searching for his keys, vaguely remembering throwing them across the room when he walked in. “Don’t lose them, I want to know where they’re going.”
“We’re way out in the country off of highway 23,” Vanessa said, slightly breathless but less panicked. “I’m okay following them right now, but if Sandra turns off the highway, they’ll spot me behind them.”
“I’m on my way, try to stay with them, turn off your lights if you have to,” he said, unearthing the keys from under a pile of dirty laundry. “Send me your location so I can find you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I want you to hang up with me and call the police again.”
“Hurry, Malcolm, this feels really bad,” Vanessa said. “I can’t do this on my own.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said, then hung up and raced down the stairs.
Walker and Aaron caught him in the entryway, “What’s the hurry?” Walker asked, jumping out of his way. “Do you need some help?”
“Sandra has Rose,” he said, throwing open the door and rushing out. “She’s got a gun, and she’s already taken one shot at Rose. Vanessa saw it. She’s following them now, and it looks like they’re a couple of miles outside of town.”
Walker grabbed the keys out of his hand, Aaron took the phone. “We’re coming with you,” Aaron said, then looked down at the phone as they ran for his truck. “Malcolm, it’s going to take at least half an hour to catch up with them; we might not make it.”
He stopped and looked around, then up at the sky. “I’m going to shift, I can cover more ground that way,” he said, looking overat his friends. “There’s no moon tonight, so hopefully I won’t be seen. You can follow me in the truck.”
Walker and Aaron exchanged a look, then seemed to come to an agreement. “Do what you have to,” Walker said. “We’ll cover for you, now go.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. After taking one more look at Vanessa’s location, he stepped into the shadow of the trees and let his magic flow. The dragon emerged only a few seconds later, and he took off instantly, his powerful muscles straining to lift him from the ground so quickly after the shift. But only moments later, he was streaking through the darkness, the lights of town first below and then behind him as he followed the highway from above.
He spotted Vanessa’s car first, then Sandra’s SUV, and breathed a sigh of relief that he’d gotten there in time, but the feeling didn’t last long when he saw the circle of parked cars in the distance about a mile off the highway. A sick feeling in his stomach, he surged past both Vanessa and Sandra and circled above the cars, hoping that Sandra kept going, but she turned onto the dirt road and headed straight toward him. He only had a few seconds to come up with a plan, but it was obvious that he’d never be able to save Rose in his human form; he was going to have to expose his gift. There was no choice.
Hovering far above the men gathered in the circle of light, he recognized a few of them as members of the Marbury clan, and the anger inside him blazed to new heights. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they planned to do with Rose. He’d heard the stories of these little outings from his clan members, and it was all he could do to control the urge to kill each and every one of them.
Instead, he watched and waited, memorizing every face as they paced around excitedly below him, anticipating the fun to come. When the car finally pulled to a stop outside the circle,one man walked away from the others and approached the car, a welcoming smile on his face, a white envelope in his hand. A second later, the passenger door opened up, and Rose stumbled out of the car right into the man’s arms, and he grabbed her. She fought him, kicking and punching, but he quickly got her under control, then started laughing, before throwing the envelope into the car.
Desperate to get to Rose, he started to strike right then, but the man was already dragging her toward the circle of cars, calling out loudly to his friends. “Okay, boys, we’ve got us a fighter this time,” he shouted. “Who’s going first?”
***Rose***
Rose was terrified,almost wished that she’d let Sandra shoot her, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. “Get your filthy hands off me,” she screamed, throwing her body around, hoping to break the man’s grip on her arm. “I’d rather die than let you touch me, you disgusting pig.”
He grabbed her face and squeezed it. “And she’s got a mouth on her,” he shouted. “I can think of a few things you could do with that mouth, sweetheart, so save your strength, you’re going to need it.”
The other men laughed and started to crowd around them. She fought even harder, but ended up in the middle of the group, being shoved from one set of arms to another, hands groping her in places no one had ever touched. She refused to scream, wouldn’t give them the satisfaction, but her terror was growing by the second, and she couldn’t see a way out of the situation. When they stopped shoving her around, she ended up back in the first man’s arms, and he started laughing.
“Looks like I’m first, sweetheart,” he said, taking a step back from her and starting to undo the buckle on his belt. “Keep fighting, I like my women wild.”
Fighting for breath, she gathered her strength, determined to fight him every step of the way, even if he killed her, but then above her head there was the sound of wings. The man froze and looked up into the air, then let out a string of curses just as a huge black shadow came swooping down on them and knocked him to the ground. The shadow was gone as quickly as it had appeared, but it reappeared, hovering above them, and for a moment she could only stare, her mind not able to absorb what she was seeing.
The man let out another curse, jumped to his feet, and lunged for her. The shadow beat him to it, and before she could even let out the scream that was bubbling up in her chest, she was being lifted off the ground. As she rose in the sky, the darkness enveloped her, and her head began to swim with shock, forcing her to fight off a wave of dizziness. She finally closed her eyes, telling herself that it must all be a bad dream; she’d wake up soon in her own bed and laugh about it in the morning.
A few minutes later, she felt the ground beneath her feet and opened her eyes, doing her best to stay on her feet, but when she saw the dragon standing over her, she lost the battle. Sinking to the ground, she crawled backwards away from the creature, a scream stuck in her chest because she suddenly could no longer breathe. Feeling like she was going to pass out, she forced a lungful of air past her lips, then backed away a couple more feet, bracing herself for an attack.
When nothing happened, she paused, slowly becoming aware that the dragon had become completely still, its eyes the only thing moving, and that’s when she looked into them. Her heart did another slow drop when recognition swept through her and she forced herself not to look away as a wave of warmthslowly spread through her. As she sat there making eye contact with the beast, it slowly dawned on her that she was looking into a familiar pair of blue eyes, and she gasped, her mind rejecting the idea instantly.
The dragon lowered its head, then took a step toward her and she scrambled to her feet, no longer afraid, just confused by what she was seeing. Before she knew what she was doing, she reached out and ran the tips of her fingers over the thick feathers that covered the dragon’s chest, then quickly pulled it back, surprised by the warmth coming from the beast.
“Malcolm, is that you?” she asked, needing to hear the thought out loud. “It can’t be you, can it?”
The dragon nodded its head, then the air around it began to shimmer and a second later, Malcolm was standing where it had been, a sheepish look on his face. “You weren’t the only one with a secret,” he finally said. “Can you forgive me?”
It was too much for her; her vision began to darken and shrink, her head was spinning, and she felt herself crumpling to the ground. The last thing she heard was a truck pulling up and the sound of Malcolm’s friends' voices as they rushed over to them, then she slipped into a comforting darkness.
She was in her bed at the fraternity house when she woke up. Hattie was sitting next to her in a rocking chair, knitting a baby blanket and humming quietly to herself. When she saw Rose’s eyes were open she set the yarn and needles aside and leaned forward in her chair, studied her for a second, then nodded her head and sat back again.
“You don’t look any worse for the wear,” she said, patting Rose’s arm. “I’ll give you a few more minutes to wake up, and then we can talk if you feel up to it.”
