Shifters: Blood of Dragons (Editing,I promise!)

chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Mom!”unthinking,i charged at the beast,drawing a knife from my belt. i slashed at the monsoon and ran from the lake,yelling at her. “come on!”i screamed,turning back to her on the shore. the beast roared at me and stretched her neck out to snap me up in her jaws. i skipped backwards and threw my knife at her face. it plunged straight between the eyes and she stopped mid strike. she groaned once more before her head hit the shore and her eyes glazed over. i was breathing hard,but i turned and ran up the lake shore towards the docks. my phone rang and i slid to a stop to answer it. “Dylan?”

“is the Monsoon dragon dead?”

“yes. but Mom,she--”

“she’s fine. she climbed ashore a minute ago.”

“okay. get down to her and meet me by the docks.”

i waited anxiously,my hands fidgeting,shifting from foot to foot. where were they? finally,i saw them. Dylan and my mom emerged from the treeline and i went to meet them. i stopped a few paces away from my mother. “you saved my life.”i told her.

“like i would have let it kill you.”

“well,thank you.”

she smiled. “you’re welcome.”

i wasn’t meticulous about keeping my car spotless,but i didn’t want Ellen dripping all over it,so i found a spare blanket in the trunk amongst the tire iron,pry bar,battle axe and other everyday tools found in a car trunk. Dylan raised his eyebrows at the axe. “you know you’re toast if your car is ever searched.”he said.

i just shrugged“I’m also toast if the cops find out i wasn’t sixteen three years ago.”i replied with a wink.

the drive home was fairly subdued. we talked about the attack,but quietly. when i turned into the community,i saw smoke in the distance. “is that the house?”Ellen asked,leaning forward.

“oh,no.”Dylan whispered. i floored the gas and sped up the street until we reached the gate. i slammed the brakes,put the car in park,got out and punched in my code for the gate. the keypad beeped and the gate shuddered open. i left the car and ran up the driveway. the house itself wasn’t on fire,not anymore,at least. it was crumbled,though. i scrambled through the wreckage,yelling, “Ryder?Ana?Tec?”

“Mary--”the sound was muffled but i stopped and called again. “hello?”

“Mary,here...”they coughed and i ran to my right,digging through the wreckage. “Mary--”

“oh my gosh. Tec!”i cleared the wreckage from his face and torso,but he was penned down by a ceiling beam. “Tec,what happened?”

“dragons attacked.”

“yeah i gathered that much.”

“no,listen.”he coughed and hacked before taking a deep breath. “they attacked and they took the others. i hid,fought back. so the leader,a big female who called herself Ignus,threw this on me.”

“Ryder. did they take Ryder?”

“the vapor had him in her claws. he was limp. knocked out or--”

“alright,that’s enough. I’m gonna try and get this off you.”

it took me,Ellen,and Dylan,plus a car jack to lift the beam off his legs and drag him out. Ian ‘Tec’ Masters sat against a burnt wall and sighed. “thanks,Mary.”he said. “and...um,who are you?”

“oh,this is my mother Ellen and Dylan,the trainee.”

Ellen dropped to her knees beside Tec and tapped his leg. “yeow!”Tec yelled. “yeesh. was that really necessary?”