Baldy didn’t listen. He shifted to the dragon again, stretching his wings.
“Let’s take care of it right now,” Alejo said. “No one threatens my family!” He blurred back into his serpent, and launched so fast at the bronze dragon that it had no time to draw breath to make fire.
It stumbled back, as Alejo’s claws made a razor-sharp swipe at it. Wendy heard the air hiss. The bronze dragon leaped to the air, followed by Alejo, who chased the bronze dragon, harrying it out of sight.
Mikhail Long shifted to his dragon, and rose, circling around above Wendy and Sam, with a great rush of wind. Oriane fluttered down, and landed, then shifted. “Are you all right, petit gars?”
Sam nodded, but his eyes searched the sky. Then he grinned, and Wendy’s heart bloomed with pride and love when Alejo’s beautiful serpent soared over the roof, dropping down. He shifted to his human self, as the two men stood some fifty feet away, looking completely dazed.
Wendy said, loudly, “I don’t have my camera.”
“I have mine,” Oriane said.
“Good! Take a picture of those kidnappers, will you?” Wendy asked—but the men were already hustling around the side of a bungalow.
“Do I go after them?” Oriane asked, her edges already blurring a bit. “I don’t think I can work my phone camera as simurgh, me.”
“I don’t think there’s a need,” Alejo said. “Their boss is not going to be back any time soon. He’s got a broken wing. Er, arm, for one thing, that will keep him grounded, and I believe that Joey Hu is already contacting the local authorities. I think we can all go home.”
“Yes!” Sam yipped. “Can we ride? Please-please-please?”
Alejo turned to Sam, smiling. “Sure, Sam,” he murmured. “Now, show your mother how to get on my back.” And he, too, shifted.
“I’ll be too heavy,” Wendy protested—much as she wanted to get out of there NOW.
Both Sam and Alejo shook their heads. “You won’t fall, Mom,” Sam said, trying to put his cracked glasses back on his nose. Then he hopped up on Alejo’s back.
Alejo crouched down, and Wendy hoisted herself onto his back, climbing behind Sam where Alejo’s long neck joined his body. Alejo’s silver scales were smooth and warm. She instinctively put her arms around Sam, and was about to ask where she ought to hold on, when there was a swirl of air around her, and she saw the ground drop away below.
Alejo banked over the tile rooftops, and Wendy glimpsed K’thrynne leaning against her car as she talked into her phone. She had parked at the bottom of the hill. She was completely unaware of them flying overhead—then Wendy remembered that Alejo, as a mythic shifter, could stealth, as well as Oriane. Apparently, he could hide Wendy and Sam, too.
He banked again, his great wings sweeping out and down as he gained altitude. Then flew over the golden hills, straight toward the gleaming sea.
At first, Wendy was far too frightened—and exhilarated at the same time—to notice much except the fact that she was actually flying. Then gradually her senses widened to delight in the fresh sea-breeze, with its salt tang, in her face. She felt Sam’s small body shivering not in fear, but in delight as he chortled, and called out, “Do another somersault, Oriane,” and, “Higher!”
Alejo obligingly flew higher, so that Wendy could look out all along the curve of the Southern California coast, the green-blue Pacific sparkling all the way to the horizon.
Alejo’s thought came to Wendy over the mate bond:Oriane’s tiring. This is one of the longest flights she’s made, and she also discovered her power. Ah, here we are, and none too soon.
He soared in a wide circle, and Wendy glanced down. She recognized the green treetops of Godiva’s garden, bordered by the roses along the palisade. Alejo and Oriane flew down. Oriane stumbled a little as she shifted, then she blinked, breathing hard as if she’d been running. Wendy braced for a rough landing—but Alejo’s flight smoothed and slowed. “Walk your feet, Mom,” Sam piped up.
Wendy paddled her feet in the air—and then discovered she was on the ground, walking, as Sam hopped around in a circle. “That was so awesome!”
Alejo glanced at Oriane, who was rubbing her eyes. “Oriane, you were amazing.”
Oriane smiled tiredly, then frowned. “I would not let that méchante take you away! I followed the car. It was easy!”
“You were so brave,” Wendy said, spontaneously hugging the girl. Oriane hugged her back, and Wendy said, “Thank you.”
“But I am very tired,” Oriane admitted.
“Let’s all get a rest, and how about I order some pizzas?” Alejo suggested. “Nobody cooks today. We can talk as we eat outside on the terrace. How does that sound?”
“Pizza!” Sam yelped.
“I love pizza,” Oriane said.
Wendy laughed, still a bit dizzy from the surreal flight, and the fright before that. “As I think I left dinner prep sitting in the kitchen, that’s an excellent idea.”
