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I felt like I needed to protect her. I had seen her entering the pool area and followed, finally meeting up with her out on the make-shift dance floor that was really the bottom of what had been the swimming pool. I had pretended that it was an accident, my bumping in to her.
This was the first time that I’d attended a Culling. A Culling is when a group of dragon-shifters sacrifice a large amount of human lives to the Dragon god. Usually, they are rounded up and then summarily sacrificed. However, it had been found easier to lure them with the promise of a party. The more illegal, the better, especially for us. I’d only recently been inducted into the Order of the Fire, what was essentially an ancient cult of dragon-shifters. The Order predated the Knights Templar. Because dragon-shifters are so rare, and so often targeted by human hunters, we have to join gangs to protect each other. Otherwise, you find yourself alone and vulnerable.
I first saw her, looking at the carousel. She had looked like an angel, with her almost white-blonde hair and her bright green eyes. Her lips were painted a deep red, and her eyes were lined in black. Even though she dressed tough, and had a brash personality as I soon found out, I had the distinct urge to get her out of there. She had followed me at first, gripping my hand as I tried to get her safely out of the Culling. However, her hand soon slipped from mine.
I searched the crowd frantically, but I didn’t see her. Not until it was too late. It began to grow silent, a few footsteps echoing in the cavernous room. One of the guys turned the lights on in the pool room. Humans lay upon the floor, scattered about, and I helped the other members of my gang line up the bodies. They needed to be arranged in a perfect spiral, or the sacrifice wouldn’t work. I searched for her, hoping that maybe she’d gotten out. No such luck. She lay on the blue-tinted floor a few yards away from me. Her eyes were shut, and her mouth was slightly open.
The shaman came out onto the floor, looking about him. He had wild eyes, which glowed golden. He smiled widely, baring his fangs. I had always wondered how hard he tried in order to keep looking like a dragon, even while in human form. He was dressed in flowing black robes, and around his neck was a gold medallion, shaped like a spiral.
He was beginning his chant in the ancient language—sounds like roars came out of his throat as billows of smoke were exhaled through his nostrils. I continued to move the bodies into position—onto their backs, with their hands folded into a triangle over their abdomen, fingers overlapping. That’s when I saw her—she was being put into position by Dany. Dany was one of the few females. Female dragon-shifters were rare. They were the fiercest of our kind. Dany had long, auburn curls and crimson eyes. I raced over, knocking Dany out of the way. Her eyes glowed when she saw me, and she let out a low growl.
“What do you think you’re doing, Mason?” she asked, smoke trailing out of her mouth.
“Sorry. Accident,” I shrugged, trying to look my most innocent. She scowled at me and then moved on to the next person, flipping him roughly onto his back. I waited for her to move on, then grabbed the girl under the armpits, dragging her out of the pool. It was on an incline, and I had to make my way awkwardly through the bodies. Across the room, magical flames were shooting upwards, lighting the building on fire with all the humans inside.
I hoped desperately that we had not been seen, but it was too much to hope for. I heard voices shouting my name, asking me what I was doing. I leaned in, and whispered into her ear, a few syllables, ones that she had likely never heard uttered before. She awoke, looking about her blearily. She gasped as she took in what was happening.
“What the—” she began.
“Come,” I told her. “I need you to run.” She did as I said, immediately springing into action. I saw that several members of the gang were coming, running toward us as they shifted into dragon form. I was ruining the sacrifice, taking one whom they had already marked as their own.
“What are they doing?” she yelled at me as we hit the dark hallway. “What is going on?”
“They are making a sacrifice to the god of flames,” I replied.
“Are they some kind of weird cult?”
“No. They’re dragon shifters,” I replied.
“What?”
“Dragon shifters,” I explained as we ran out into the now-empty amusement park. “Half-humans, half-dragons.”
“I can’t believe this,” she said breathlessly. Behind us, several dragons erupted from the cement building that housed the pool. The building burst into magical flames behind them as the sacrifice continued. Technically, cement should not have been able to burn. But the flames of the dragon god can burn anything, especially when it is in sacrifice to him.
We ran, getting through the gap in the fence that had been cut earlier to allow everybody in. I grabbed her arm.
“If I shift, we can get away from them,” I told her. She was looking at me, her eyes wide in fear.
“You’re one of them?” she asked.
“Not anymore,” I replied, shocked at how quickly that had happened—a week ago, I had been excited to have been chosen to join the Order. In less than half an hour, I had completely betrayed them. I tried to forget the blood oath that I had taken. I had to focus on rescuing her—whoever she was.
“Don’t,” she said. “Please.” Her eyes were wide. She was visibly shaking. I realized that this was all a bit much for her. She had only just learned of the existence of the supernatural. I grabbed her by the hand, and we raced into the streets of the city. As we ran, they became more populated, and we hid among the crowds, walking slowly in order to catch our breath. We walked in silence, still clasping hands.