Page 2 of Stolen By Dragons
"Trust me, there's never a dull moment here. You know what it’s like, you were here.”
“That I do, Tom’s a good one though, he adores you,” I said, grateful my best friend was married to such a wonderful man. Sure, he had crazy ideas and schemes sometimes, but he meant well, and they were a perfect match.
"True, and I know it. I’m forever grateful. You’ll find yours too, don’t you worry, any man is going to be beyond lucky to have you.’”
I opened my mouth to respond, but the words died in my throat. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and a chill raced down my spine. Something was wrong. Very wrong, and I glanced around uneasily.
"Dana," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Something’s wrong, I don’t feel…” I let the words hang as a shudder coursed through me and I slowly turned around, my heart hammering. I knew something was there, I could feel it.
"What? Aria, are you okay? What's?—"
The phone fell from my ear as I stared, my eyes wide.
Holy shit.
A... thing hovered a few feet away in the middle of the road. Shadowy, barely visible, like a ripple in the air. But as I stared, it started to take shape. Claws. Teeth. Eyes that glowed with something unholy.
My heart jackhammered against my ribs. This couldn't be real. I had to be hallucinating. Maybe I'd finally cracked under the pressure of my dad's expectations. Or maybe I hadn’t really gotten past my breakup and now I was crumbling.
The creature – because what else could I call it? – seemed to solidify with each passing second. Its form was vaguely humanoid, but twisted and wrong. Limbs too long, joints bent at impossible angles. And those eyes... God, those eyes. They burned with an otherworldly hunger that made my skin crawl.
I took a step back, then another. My mind raced, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. A costume? Some kind of elaborate prank? A psychotic break?
The creature's mouth opened, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. A low, guttural sound emerged – not quite a growl, not quite a hiss, but something in between that set every nerve in my body on edge.
Run, a voice in my head screamed.Run, you idiot!
I turned to flee, but my foot caught on a crack in the sidewalk. I stumbled, arms pinwheeling as I fought to regain my balance.
My clumsiness would be the death of me, I’d always known that.
A car horn blared. Tires screeched.
The shadow creature lunged.
I stumbled in my attempts to catch myself, my foot slipping off the curb. The world tilted. A sedan barreled toward me, the driver's eyes wide with panic as they took in the sight of the creature and me falling.
This is it, I thought.This is how I die. Taken out by a Honda Civic while hallucinating shadow monsters. Sorry, Dad. Guess I'll never find that good man after all.
Then the world lurched.
Claws wrapped around my arms, yanking me skyward. My stomach dropped as the ground fell away. Wind whipped myhair. I screamed, the sound torn from my throat as I clung to the monstrous hands holding me.
"What the fu—" The curse died on my lips as I looked up.
Scales. Red scales, gleaming like rubies in the sunlight. A long, serpentine neck. Wings that blocked out the sky.
I was being carried off by a dragon.
A goddamn dragon.
As the city shrank beneath us, one crystal-clear thought cut through the chaos in my mind:
Dad was going to be so pissed I'd gotten myself kidnapped before finding a husband.
The absurdity of that thought startled a hysterical laugh out of me. Here I was, dangling from the claws of a mythical creature, possibly hallucinating, definitely in danger of becoming a pancake if said creature decided to drop me, and I was worried about my dad's reaction?
Maybe I really had lost it.