Chapter 38

Once Mother disappears from view, I gradually become aware of my surroundings: the noise of vehicles, the distant blare of a siren, indistinct voices, and Dalia screaming for help. I lurch to my feet on short stubby legs and kick off. I’m hovering above the ground, body undulating like an eel.

Dalia and Leslie struggle to open the driver’s side door of the beater. I see movement inside the vehicle. It’s Jason, trying to push open the driver’s side door from the inside. Haji is in there. My body tenses, stomach clenching. I have to save him, but in my peripheral vision, Mauve stirs. Her chest heaves and shudders. Her scales are blackened where the lightning bolt struck her, much the same as the wound inflicted on Dr. Radcliffe by Mark Cassidy. Radcliffe survived without aid. Mauve will too. She must because there’s nothing I can do for her right now. My friends need my help.

I shoot through the air toward the crash site. More cars are parked along the side of the road. People stand around gawping, some with their cell phones out. I cover the distance to the crash in seconds and hover behind Dalia and Leslie. They stand in the ditch, pulling on the door handle to no avail. Through the cracked driver’s side window, I can see Jason desperately pushing against the door. Devin, face awash in blood, struggles with his seatbelt. Haji’s eyes are closed, and he isn’t moving.

Dalia glances over her shoulder and screams, throwing her hands in front of her face and cowering. Leslie looks too and starts screaming. It’s me I try to say, but the words come out somewhere between a growl and hiss.

No. Not Dalia. She can’t be afraid of me. She’s my BFF, my squad, my people, my family. She has always accepted me, the good and the bad and my un-caffeinated bitchiness on the rare occasion I miss my morning cuppa. If she doesn’t accept me, no one will besides my father. My transformation back into a human must be what it’s like to be run through a trash compactor.

I kneel in the damp grass, panting and shivering from the cold. I’m tired and hungry, and the pain of transformation lingers. Dalia stares at me with bug eyes.

“Allison? That was you? Holy shit. The picture really doesn’t do you justice. They need help.”

“Christ. Your clothes,” Leslie says and takes off her coat. “You’re naked. Put this on.”

I shrug into the coat and zip it up. It covers me to my knees. Dalia gestures to the beater. I need to act before the remnant of my prowess abandons me. Dalia and Leslie stand aside, giving me access to the door.

I take hold of the door handle and yell to Jason. “Push on three. One, two, three!”

I yank on the door handle with all my might. Metal squeals, and there is a loud pop as something fails. I stumble back, nearly losing my balance, with the door handle broken off in my hand.

“Move over as far away from the window as you can,” I say to Jason and Devin. “I’m going to break the glass.”

Jason moves so that he is sitting between the two front seats. Devin shifts in his seat, watching me with glazed eyes. I heft the door handle and hammer it into the window, which shatters from the blow. I use the handle to clear the remaining glass around the frame. I toss aside the hunk of metal and grab the inside of the door frame and wrench on it. My muscles strain and ache, but I feel something give, and there is a squeal of protesting metal, then the door bursts free from its hinges, and I stumble backward, holding it awkwardly in my hands. I drop it in the grass. People watch us from the roadway, some clearly videoing or photographing the scene. I flip them the bird before turning my attention back to the crash.

Jason and Devin try to operate the seatbelt.

“It’s jammed,” Jason says.

“Give me some room,” I say. I take hold of the seatbelt and jerk on it until it snaps. “Get out.”

I stand aside so Devin and Jason can scramble out of the vehicle. Devin sways and collapses. Jason goes to his aid. I enter the vehicle and crawl across the driver’s seat to Haji.

“Haji. Haji.” I take him by the shoulders.

He stirs, eyes fluttering open then closed. “Allison.”

His voice is weak, barely a whisper. I’m so happy to hear his voice I lower my lips to his and kiss him. His lips are smooth and moist and cool. It’s fleeting, but I feel a warm flush through my body. When I draw away, my chest shudders. I lick my upper lip and smile. I’ve never kissed a boy before. It’s not quite what I imagined—the circumstances certainly aren’t—but it’s savage. His eyes open a crack, and he smiles wistfully. We’re the only people in the universe.

“All I had to do was almost die for you to kiss me,” he says. “If I had only known…”

I kiss him again.

****

We huddle together on the side of the road above the beater in the ditch. Haji, his head in my lap, passes in and out of consciousness, sometimes muttering under his breath or groaning. Dalia is helping Devin wrap a makeshift bandage around his split brow. Leslie and Jason embrace each other in a bear hug.

“He needs help. He needs help,” I say, but no one is listening.

My prowess has abandoned me, leaving me too physically exhausted to budge. My body shakes so hard it feels like my bones are rattling, and I’m nauseated. The gathering crowd surrounding us doesn’t help either. They are more concerned with filming and taking photos and staring at me with googly eyes.

“Is that the girl who tore the door off the car?”

“Yeah, it is!”

“What’s your name?”

I stare at the mob, too numb to speak. Haji might be dying in my arms. Mauve might be dead in the field, murdered by my mother. I start stroking Haji’s raven hair. It’s just as silky as I always imagined.

“Please don’t die,” I whisper.

“Hey, girl, I asked what your name is!”

The crowd is growing and slowly encroaching.

“Leave her alone,” Dalia says, standing over me. “If you’re not going to help, leave her alone.”

“I called 911!” someone yells.

“That car in the ditch hit my truck!”

“What’s that giant monster over in the field?”

“You blind? A dragon.”

“That skinny girl in the oversized coat. She’s a monster. Like one of those things on Channel 5.”

“Yeah! Yeah! What is she?”

“A freak!”

“A monster!”

“She’s not a freak or a monster,” Leslie snarls, coming between us and the crowd. She stands at her full height, looming over most of the onlookers. “But I am. If you’re not going help, go to hell.”

“Excuse me. Excuse me.” A woman wearing a black hijab weaves through the bystanders. “I’m an ER doctor. Please, allow me to assess the injured.”

Leslie’s intervention and the arrival the doctor calms the crowd some. The sound of sirens in the distance might also have something to do with it. In short order, the doctor, who smells soothingly of lavender, has Haji lying flat on the tarmac and is assessing him.

“Your friend has a very bad concussion,” the doctor says. “He’ll need to be hospitalized for observation and to check for bleeding on his brain.”

“No. No. Will he be okay?” I say and glance at Dalia who is tearing up. “He’ll be okay, right?”

“With proper medical treatment he should recover,” the doctor says.

She is about to move on to assessing Devin when a shriek splits the air. The crowd screams and points toward the field. Lumbering across the pasture is Mauve with a steaming black scar on her chest.

The doctor’s eyes go wide. “What in the world…”

“It’s okay,” I say. “The dragon is with us. She won’t hurt you.”

The doctor nods and gives me a strained smile and turns her attention back to Devin.

Leslie and Jason come to my side. Jason offers me granola bars and water retrieved from the SUV. Leslie gives me a pair of my own pants and a double layer of socks to keep my feet warm. I gratefully pull on the clothing, then start downing the granola bars and gulping water.

Two police officers show up with guns drawn, yelling at the crowd to disperse. We huddle together along with the ER doctor. The police approach, pointing their weapons at us. Leslie and Jason try to talk to them but are screamed at to stay down and keep quiet. From somewhere behind us in the field, Mauve roars. One of the cops starts shooting. I glance over my shoulder to see Mauve not more than twenty feet away with her wings outspread. The bullets, if any hit her, have no discernible effect. With a roar, she raises her head skyward and lets out a great gout of crackling flame.

The crowd, which hasn’t totally dispersed, turns on the cops.

“You’re making that thing mad, you dumbasses!”

“That’s a dragon! Your guns won’t do shit!”

Faced with a dragon and angry bystanders, the cops retreat to their cruisers across the road.

Mauve lumbers over to the ditch so she is right across from us. She glares at me with her coppery eyes, then turns her gaze toward Mount Rainier. The peak is barely visible above a forested ridge.

“I’m too weak. I won’t be able to transform,” I tell her.

She roars and snatches me in her claws.

“Okay. I’ll come. Let me say goodbye.”

“We’ll take care of them. Go. Close the gateway,” Leslie says and takes Jason by the hand. “We got this. Don’t worry.”

Jason nods. “We won’t let anything happen to them.”

For some reason, maybe her tone or body language or both, I know Leslie will do anything to keep my friends and even Devin safe.

“Thank you,” I say and turn to Dalia.

“I’m going with you,” Dalia says.

“You can’t. You won’t be able to do anything,” I say and kneel next to Haji, who is unconscious. I kiss him lightly on his sweaty brow. “Pull through, Haji. You can do it. Don’t give up.”

When I stand up, Dalia is melting me with her laser eyes. “I’m coming. You say I won’t be able to help? Like you’ll be able to do anything. I heard what you said to Mauve. You’re too weak to transform.”

“I’m regaining my strength. Stay here. I need to know you’re safe. Haji will need you when he wakes up.”

“Haji has Leslie and Jason. What are you worried about? That I’ll get in the way? I won’t.”