Cruel Daddy Dragon (Candara Dragon Ops #3)

Chapter 25 - Sarah

“All right, Girls,” I order, “It’s time to go!”

I’m not acting as a friend as I scour my gaze over Lena and Julie. The pair of them are scurrying around, gathering up notebooks and papers.

“Come on!” I bark, “Let’s go! We don’t have time for this! Just grab the map and we need to get to the station!”

“But if there’s an attack, they might destroy all these important documents!” Julie protests.

“Yeah, and I am not leaving Gram’s notebooks behind,” Lena says firmly.

I sigh. I’ve told them that the dragons think there’s an attack coming, but I really don’t think it’s sunk in how bad this attack is going to be. On the one hand, I’m so frustrated that they’re taking their sweet time to gather up all their stuff, but on the other hand, if I explain to them the gravity of the situation, that I had a vision of a complete bloodbath—and Cyrus, in particular, was killed in a gruesome way—I think it would stress them out too much. Lena especially. When I see her straining to reach down, trying to pick up the journals from around her own pregnant belly, it just becomes so clear that we have to try and avoid that kind of stress for her.

But still—

“Guys!” I snap, “We really do need to go! If you don’t have everything you need by now, then you’re not getting it! I promised the fellas I was going to keep you safe! If you’re not moving in a few seconds, then I’m going to grab you both and drag you out of here.”

Both of them grumble, but they’re starting to move now.

We all hustle to the cruiser. Julie gets into the back, and Lena gets into the front. When I start the car, I punch it into motion—and start driving off as quickly as I can get the car to move.

“ Ah! ” Lena yelps, “Sarah! Why are you driving like a maniac?!”

“I told you!” I snap to her, “There’s an attack coming!”

“There’s been attacks coming since the dragons moved here!” Lena calls back, “We should be kind of used to them by now!”

“Not attacks like this,” I grunt.

“What does that mean?” Julie asks from the back.

“Yeah,” Lena says accusingly, “you’re hiding something from us! Spill it, Sarah! What’s going on?!”

I just keep driving for a moment, eyes fixed on the road.

“Sarah!” Lena snaps, “Come on! We all have to deal with the dragons’ overprotective bullshit all the time—don’t you do this to us!”

“Okay, fine!” I clap back, “So I’ve started having visions, and it’s started happening so quickly that I didn’t get the chance to tell you guys.”

“Oh, wow!” Julie says, “How? What do you get visions of?”

“Danger. I’ve only seen visions of trouble. And I’m telling you, this attack the dragons are going to stop is a big one.” I look at Lena from the corner of my eye and then at Julie in the rearview mirror. “I saw some of them getting killed.”

“Who?!” Julie exclaims.

I see Lena staring at me in horror from the corner of my eye. I forcibly keep my view straight on.

“Cyrus and Evander were attacked by almost the entire clan on their way home,” I reply, “That’s why we had to send every one of the dragons out there to try and save them.”

“What?!” Lena shrieks, “You saw Cyrus die, and you didn’t tell me?! ”

“We thought it’d be best to keep that to ourselves until you guys were in a safe place,” I grunt, “We didn’t want to freak you out more than necessary, Lena.”

“Well, I’m freaking out now!” s he snaps.

I sigh. Julie reaches toward me from the backseat.

“Can you have another vision?!” she asks desperately, “Can you see if they’re winning the fight or not? Do you know if they’re okay?!”

“I’m sorry,” I reply simply.

Then, something gleams in the rear-view mirror. My view snaps over to it.

“I can’t believe you’d keep this from me!” Lena shouts.

“They were probably just worried about the baby, Lena,” Julie argues gently from the backseat.

“Yeah, but I’m still here! I have the right to know about this!” she argues back.

“Shut up,” I growl.

Lena looks at me.

“Sorry, what did you say?!” she says.

“Shut up, Guys!” I snap, “We’re being followed!”

They shut up immediately. I look back to the rear-view mirror. There’s a dragon flying behind us, looping back and forth throughout the sky. It’s in a stormy grey color.

“I don’t recognize that one,” Lena gasps.

“It’s got to be Eclipse!” Julie adds.

Here?! In the middle of town again?!

All right. I’m not letting any of us get kidnapped again.

“You buckled in, Guys?” I growl.

“Yeah.”

“I am.”

“Then hold on,” I grunt, “This is gonna get rough.”

I keep driving up the main road. There’s a tiny little backstreet coming up on our left, but I keep driving straight for now—not showing anything to tip off the stalking dragon as to where we’re going.

Just as we reach the road on the left, I yank the steering wheel as hard as I can, pulling up the parking brake in a half-J turn. The car’s back end fishtails out. Julie and Lena scream. I grit my teeth in concentration. As the car swings horizontally, I slam the parking brake down. Stomp on the gas. The car roars. Then, we hurtle forward. As we rocket down the small back alley, I glance at the rear-view mirror. No dragon.

But I don’t have the best view.

“Julie!” I bark, “Can you look around and see if the dragon’s still following us?!”

Julie’s whimpering lightly, but when I talk to her directly, she cranes around and peers out the back window.

“I see it!” she gasps, “It’s not following us, but it’s doubling back!”

“Shit,” I grunt, “It’s gonna be hard to lose this thing from the ground.”

“Hey!” Lena says, “Turn left here, at the end!”

“What?” I ask, “That’s away from the police station!”

“I know, but there’s a craft fair on Sundays!” Lena says, “I sell herbs there sometimes—all the stalls are covered in awning! It won’t be able to see us from above if we go there!”

I consider it for a long second, then nod.

“Right!”

I turn the car again, and just like Lena said, there’s an entire craft fair here, with the stalls sheltering us from above. The dragon shouldn’t be able to see us, but that hits us with another problem; there’s the crowd of patrons of the fair getting in the way of the car. They pass out of the way when they see a police car trying to worm its way through, but we slow to a crawl.

“All right,” I grunt, “I think we’re going to have to abandon the car. We’re not going to get out before it finds us. Let’s blend with the crowd and run there!”

The other two look at each other and then nod with uncertainty.

I park the car up and whip the door open. Lena gets out and then opens the door for Julie while I keep my eyes on the skies. Nothing.

“Okay,” I bark, “I don’t see them. Let’s go!”

I go behind the pair of them, and Lena takes the lead toward the police station; we all know the way. Julie’s watching the skies frightenedly. I take up the rear, also watching for our draconic stalker.

We leave the craft fair and keep to the small back allies. We soon find ourselves separated from the shoppers and break into a sprint—or as much as Lena can, holding her pregnant belly.

But then a hulking shadow drops down in front of us. I sprint in front of Julie and Lena and swing my arms wide, stopping them. The dragon gives us a serpentine smile.

“Hello, Ladies!” the growling beast says mockingly.

I draw my handgun and aim it at him.

“We don’t want trouble!” I snarl.

The dragon breaks out into growling laughter. I know that if I hit the eye or the inside of the mouth, I can at least make him flinch.

“You don’t want trouble?” the Eclipse dragon cackles, “You are trouble! All three of you!”

Lena suddenly steps past me, a shining determination in her eye. She extends her palm toward the dragon.

No! What’s she doing?!

“Lena!” I scream.

My arm snaps out, and I try to grab her and drag her behind me to safety when I see crackling electricity sparking around her palm a bit too late.

As I clasp her wrist, I feel a jolt through my body. Except, it doesn’t feel like I’m being electrocuted. It feels like something’s being taken from me like some energy is being sapped out of my body by my hand gripping Lena’s.

“Whoa!” I hear Lena gasp.

I look up at her, and she’s staring at her own palm. Before, it sparked with power, but now a glowing orb hovers there in a hundred iridescent colors, like ribbons of magic binding together in real-time.

“That’s new!” Lena says.

The dragon steps back. Suddenly, he’s not laughing anymore.

“What the hell?!” he snarls, “You’re witches?! I thought you were just their fated!”

Witches… that’s right! All three of us!

“Julie!” I shout, “Get in on this!”

A second passes, then Julie runs over and takes Lena’s wrist as well, gasping as soon as she touches Lena. The glowing orb Lena’s summoning swells twice as big.

“All right!” I order, “Ready to fire?!”

“Oh, I’m more than ready! ” Lena laughs.

“W—wait!” the dragon yells.

“Fire!” I shout.

Lena cries out. The magic crashes out in an incredible tidal wave of power. It cascades throughout the alleyway, filling the entire space. I see the dragon take flight, but he doesn’t escape before the magic finds him. Before long, it’s too bright to look at, and I clench my eyes shut to it.

Silence.

Lena gasps gently next to me. I open my eyes again. The alleyway is empty, but every inch of it, both the walls and the floor, is charred. The dragon is gone. I think he’s that pile of ash on the floor in front of us.

“Are… we safe?” Julie asks.

“Yeah,” I reply, “I think we’re good.”

I look at Lena. She’s gasping lightly, with one of my hands holding her wrist and Julie’s hand on the back of hers.

“Did we really do that?” Julie asks.

“Yeah,” Lena laughs breathlessly, “I knew I had electro-shock powers, but that’s new!”

I look numbly among the ashen alleyway. My head is ringing. I feel like a large amount of energy has just been sapped out of me; I’m suddenly more exhausted than I was three seconds ago.

“Come on,” I say, “Let’s just get out of the public eye as quickly as possible.”

***

Deep inside the police station, we sit, waiting anxiously. All we can do now is wait to see if our dragons come back home. I’m happy for the new oddity—it’s a distraction.

“So, you had electro-shock powers, huh?” I ask Lena, “Since when?”

“Oh. Er, later than the visions,” she answers, “I didn’t tell you?”

I laugh exhaustedly.

“Oh, maybe you did,” I sigh, “but so much weird crap’s been happening lately that I might have glanced over that bit.”

“I’ll say!” Lena laughs, “It’s all a been a lot, hasn’t it?”

“I wonder…” Julie muses aloud, “Does that mean Sarah and I will be getting our own powers at some point? We all have visions.”

“Yeah,” I agree, “Unique visions as well, so I guess we’re all going to get our own unique powers at some point. I’d feel a bit ripped off if Lena’s the only one who gets the other superpowers.”

“It makes sense if you did,” Lena says, “Since we found out that our ancestors were all a gigantic coven of witches. Looks like we’re just keeping the tradition going. It makes sense that our powers are better together as well—that’s a big theme of witches. The power of many in a coven.”

I just laugh weakly again, raking my hands through my hair.

“Oh, this is so weird… ” I sigh.

“I know…” Julie agrees, “But I’m glad that we’re going through this together. At least we’re not going through it alone.”

“I mean, I had to go through it alone at first!” Lena laughs, “You guys are late! But yeah, it’s nice to have other people to talk to about this. You know, people who won’t look at me like I’m insane when I say: “Hey guys, I’ve got electro-shock powers. Is that weird?”

She laughs. Julie giggles, and I find myself laughing a little too.

“I mean,” I offer, “it’s reassuring that we can do something to protect ourselves if the dragons aren’t here.”

I say it mindlessly, but I feel the other two pinch up as I bring forth the horrid reminder that they’re not here.

But it’s fine. I tell myself, he’s coming back. He said he would. He’s coming back.

Just as I’m hoping and praying, Lena’s phone goes off. Her hand snaps into her pocket, and she brings it out and slams it to her ear with force:

“Hello? Hello?! Cyrus! Thank god!” s he exclaims.

“It’s Cyrus?!” I’m suddenly on my feet, heart pounding with adrenaline.

“Is Kaius there?! Please tell me he’s there!” Julie begs.

“Is Rufus?!” The words slip out of my mouth. I hate how helpless those words sound in the air.

But Lena puts her phone back in her pocket with an arched smile.

“Follow me.”

She gets up and walks back to the front of the police station—the reception area.

And there they are. All of them. They’re messy, they’re clearly exhausted, they’re covered in blood—but they’re here. They’re alive.

My eyes snap over to the ginger hair hanging over the top of them all, and everything else fades away. Everything’s blurred except for that gentle smile, those sweet freckles, those jade-green eyes. My feet move without thought. Rufus’s smile gets wider as I get closer.

“Hey,” he breathes.

I throw my arms around his neck and pull myself into his broad chest. I take in his spicy, dragon scent, tinged with the bitter scent of blood, but still so welcome nonetheless. His warm arms envelop me and crush me to him.

“You okay?” he asks.

I just nod. I feel like my throat is getting tighter. My eyes sting. I’m so relieved that I’m trying not to burst into tears right here and now.

“I told you I was coming back,” Rufus purrs, “I promised.”

I don’t answer, and I lean back a little bit. I move my hands to the back of his head, and those lips flicker in another smile before they lean to me.

They press softly on mine in a slow and savoring kiss—just the sweet feeling of enjoying each other’s lips for a second. Then, we break, and I lean my head on his chest.

“You did,” I murmur, “Welcome back.”

He keeps his arms around me for a long moment. I could be here forever—enclosed in his warmth and his smell and his taste…

“Rufus.” Evander’s voice cuts across the moment.

He looks over, removing his warm chin from the top of my head and making a cold gap in the hug.

Ugh. Damn it, Evander!

I look up, and Evander’s eyes look down at me, too.

“Sarah,” he says, “we need to get back to the house as soon as possible. We have some bad news to share with all of you.”