The bullet whizzed by Jeremy’s head as he watched one of the men crash to the side into a table. He spun around, hoping that the shot missed everyone. His jaw dropped. Caleb crouched with both hands held out in front of him. In front of him, the bullet hung frozen in midair. Caleb stared at it, just as frozen. Behind him, Zanie peered around one of the table legs with wide eyes. She glanced from it to Caleb, then lunged forward to drag Caleb to the side out of its trajectory. Just in time. It loosened from the air and buried itself in the wall.
“Jeremy!” Zanie shouted. He spun around, hand on his knife. The man who had not been shot loomed above him, finger on the trigger. Another blast from the shotgun made him flinch and gave Jeremy time to unsheathe his knife, but before he could do anything with it there was an eruption of sound and debris to the side by the bar.
The man stumbled to the side and Jeremy used that moment to knock the gun away from himself and plunge his knife into the man’s wrist. The gun clattered to the ground.
At first, Jeremy thought that Leon’s aim had been off and he shot the countertop or something. But when he looked over, he realized that Moira had transformed into her dragon form. The form which was about as large as the entire room they stood in. She’s knocked out part of the wall and ceiling where the restaurant let out onto the veranda for outdoor seating.
The man began struggling under Jeremy’s knife and Jeremy struggled back for a moment until he saw that the dude was trying to get away. He pulled back his knife and let him scramble for cover under the tables. Jeremy could not see where Leon went, probably crouched behind the bar which was now littered in all kinds of debris. That was where Sean was, although the dryad had curled over him to protect him. She looked at the dragon with interest but did not seem inclined to do anything.
The only person still standing was the hitwoman, who calmly picked up the pistol which had fallen out of the hands of the man that Leon shot. She braced herself in her pointy stilettos, then pointed the gun at the dragon’s head. Jeremy thought that was pretty foolish, but he wasn’t about to give the woman advice when she was trying to kill them. Instead, he watched as she tutted.
“Moira, it’s best if you just turn back.” She started, “You still haven’t learned to control-“
Whatever speech she was about to launch was cut off when Moira loomed over her, opened her mouth, and bit off her head. Someone, either Caleb or Zanie, made a punched-out noise of surprise behind him. Jeremy’s stomach turned as he watched the woman’s neck spurt and her body crumple. Moira spit out her head. She turned and looked at Jeremy expectantly.
“Onto the dragon everyone!” He shouted, leaping up and reaching for their bags. He tossed one of the duffles over his shoulder at Caleb and Zanie. Then he grabbed the horn towering from the side of Moira’s head and scrambled onto her neck.
“We don’t have a lot of time.” He urged, “Hurry, hurry.”
He hauled Zanie up and she scrambled back to make room for Caleb as well. As they slid back to between Moira’s shoulders, where there was more space, she eased them out of the massive hole in the side of the restaurant and lifted her wings in the air. Jeremy pushed some of the debris off her back.
“Holy shit.” Zanie gasped.
Moira managed to get them off the ground with much less effort than last time, but Jeremy couldn’t help but remember she was not able to stay in the air for long before she flipped back to being a human.
“Moira.” Jeremy shouted above the air rushing past them, “You better put us down soon.”
His stomach churned as he looked at how high above the ground they sailed. With three people, Moira was able to gain altitude much easier. Although they were not far above the tallest buildings, the ground was still several hundred feet below them. And there was no deluge of water surging forward to catch them this time.
Moira grumbled beneath them, the vibrations rippling beneath her scales. She pierced through the air with a burst of speed that had Jeremy clinging to one of the rigid spines cascading down the back of her neck and to her tail. He could no longer shout at her because the wind stole the breath out of his lungs. But she was just as aware of their time limit as he.
Her body twisted beneath them. Jeremy shut his eyes against the steep dive, his stomach in his throat. They flew open when they slowed with a jolt. Moira had flung her wings out to act like some strange combination of a parachute and a landing plane. Her inexperience with maneuvering into a landing was obvious as they wobbled down onto the hospital’s helicopter pad. Her claws scraped and skittered against the concrete, but she managed to get them on solid ground before her broad back disappeared.
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They dropped a few feet to the roof with a collective shout, everyone landing on their ass except Moira. She stood on spread legs, brushing dust off her clothes and grinning wildly at them. “That’s the first time I changed back on purpose!”
“You could have let us climb down first.” Jeremy groused, rolling to his side and wincing at the dull pain in his tailbone.
“Holy shit.” Zanie said from where she remained sprawled across the pad, staring up at the sky. From up here a stroke of burnt red was visible along the horizon. The sun was finally coming up. Jeremy looked toward the doors that led down to the hospital, wondering how long it would take for someone to notice their arrival. He had to hand it to Moira. If she wanted to make sure they had to let her into the building, this was a pretty good method to do so.
“Where do your clothes go?” Caleb asked Moira as he plucked a piece of plaster out of her hair, “And your bag?”
“How would I know?”
Caleb huffed and looked around. They had managed to grab everything and haul it onto Moira’s back except for Atticus, who had probably gotten the hell out of dodge as soon as the building started collapsing around a literal dragon. Jeremy sighed. He should never have thrown her. Hopefully, she was okay. They could go back when things calmed down and the council members were gone to look for her. She was scrappy. He was sure she’d be fine, but he was not sure she would stay in the vicinity.
“So when that guy said she could turn into a dragon, he really meant that she could turn into an actual dragon.” Zanie muttered.
Jeremy hoisted himself off the ground and held out a hand for her. “You okay?”
“A little surprised.” She stood steady when he got her up on her feet. Her quick glances at Moira were fraught with wariness, but she did not seem too shaken up. Caleb was still going on about how he did not understand Moira’s transformation.
“Yeah,” Jeremy said, “That was a little much.”
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d also hoped that maybe this council would be more level-headed and able to deal with the situation than the woefully inadequate government and military institutions that were slowly fracturing around them. The way that Juan and Richard took the boat back out to go help other victims of the flood seemed like a pretty normal, human thing to do. He should have known better. These super-wealthy, human-sacrificing dickbags lived on a different plane of existence before all this so why would they be any different after the apocalypse? Jeremy did not want to be around them at Moira’s dinner party, and he was glad to be rid of them now.
“I’m sorry, I should have known they were going to be dangerous like that.” Jeremy continued on, but Zanie cut him off with a sharp laugh. She put her hands on her hips and tipped her head back to sigh at the sky.
“This is so exciting.” She exclaimed, “That was like something out of a movie! I mean, all this has been crazy, but that - ,” She pointed an accusing finger at Jeremy, although her eyes remained bright and her lips spread into a wide smile, “That was insane.”
“Yeah,” Jeremy said hesitantly, “It was pretty insane.”
“I’m so glad I went with you. You guys literally just bested a hit squad. They even called it a hit squad. I didn’t even think those were real!” She laughed a little hysterically, “Has it been like this the whole time for you? You’ll let me stick around, right?”
“As long as you want to keep sticking around, I guess.”
“I’m calling my friends.” Zanie pulled out her phone, while muttering under her breath about literal dragons and councils of druids. Jeremy shook his head. He looked over to find Moira and Caleb squabbling like children as Caleb tried to keep picking plaster out of Moira’s hair to inspect it and she kept trying to bat him away and escape.
“How come you don’t have any blood on your face even though you bit that woman’s head off.” Caleb interrogated.
“Ugh.” Moira ducked out of the way of one of his hands, “Don’t fucking remind me. Bleh.”
“Hey, hey!” Jeremy jogged over and thrust his arms between them to shove them apart. “We’ve managed not to come to blows this whole time. Let’s not start now, children.”
Moira flipped her hair and flounced off. With the way she got that plaster in her hair, every ounce of self-assured haughtiness in her step seemed well-earned. Jeremy was glad she bit the head off the council members instead of siding with them. He wondered if it was a dragon thing, biting people’s heads off. That two-winged dragon had done the same when it tore the top off that person’s car and killed them a few days ago.
Jeremy wished he could say he thought Moira did it because she liked them better than the council members, but he was enough of a realist to admit it probably had more to do with the fact that they wanted to transport her out of the city while she wanted to stay with Derek. He sighed and gathered up the bags to follow in her footsteps toward the stairs down into the hospital.
“You coming, Zanie?” He called over his shoulder. She said a few more words into her phone than hung up. Jeremy was a little surprised by the excitement still shining in her eyes. She seemed pretty mellow when they were on the roof in the midst of the flood. Then again, she had been the only person from her building to run all the way up to the roof just to see what was going on. He probably just did not know her well enough to make any judgements.
Her natural curiosity would be a good thing if she did tag along with them. Thus far everything had just been about survival for them. But Zanie’s excitement was enough to make Jeremy feel a little more inspired to look at everything as less of a roadblock and more of a challenge to overcome.
Although, right now, the fact that Atticus was still down in that collapsed building overshadowed everything. Jeremy’s boots dragged against the helicopter pad. Maybe he could figure out a tracking spell for her or some type of magical leash. Or maybe he could just suck it up and start being more deliberate about learning some spells that he could have chucked at the hit squad instead of his cat. Other people had been firing fireballs and ice shards, so it had to be possible. For now, though, he desperately needed some sleep.