Page 21 of Captured By the Dragon Warrior
But he immediately drew his service weapon from its holster, something I was pretty sure he shouldn’t even have on him back here. And he pointed it right at Ram.
“Fucking lizards,” Murray growled as Ram’s fringe stood up on top of his head and turned orange. “Look at you. You’re just an animal in a cage.”
I could hear a weird, slightly muffled clicking noise, almost like someone was trying to flick on a lighter. It wasn’t Murray since he didn’t have anything in his other hand. Was it the camera? Did it take stills instead of video? Turn on with movement? I had no idea and tried to put it out of my mind.
“Murray,” I cautioned, “come on, man. This isn’t going to do?—”
“Oh, shut the fuck up,” he snapped at me, his weapon still trained on Ram. “Everything was fine until you showed up. Why the fuck did you even get involved?”
“Because you can’t take people hostage?” I couldn’t even begin to keep the derision out of my tone. “Jesus, do you even understand the kind of interstellar incident you’ve caused?”
“Good! Maybe this will make those fuckers fucking leave already.”
“Okay, hold on. Why do you want them to leave? That doesn’t make any sense. They’rehelpingus. For free!”
I had to assume that stalling him was the right thing to do. Even if the camera was taking still photos, someone out there had to be looking at a monitor, right? Unless the whole damn precinct was corrupted, one of the officers had to see Murray with his gun waving around and come help us. I had to believe that.
“Oh, it’s not free,” he said with a laugh like I was an idiot. “They’ve already been taking people away, and we have no idea what’s happening to them right now.”
“They’re getting laid. Dude, they signed up to literally get paid to fuck.”
“Yeah, right. I know those people are fucking sick morons, but these animals want to fuck us? I don’t believe it.” He turned to face Ram and his tone got really dark. “They took them to slaughterhouses, didn’t they? Every last one of them is a burger for one of you animals, aren’t they?”
That was one disgusting-ass theory, and I had to wonder if Murray Coogan had all his marbles. How could anyone think that the Norlons were killing us? For food? As far as I’d seen, Ram was a vegetarian. He might make a meal out of me as often as he could, but I knew in my bones that he cared for me.
“That is utter bullshit,” I said, getting angry. Ram wasn’t talking, just standing there looking pissed, and I couldn’t blame him. “They’dneverdo that to us.”
“How the fuck do you know? They’re just talking animals. Fix us up, fatten us up, and ship us to the slaughterhouses. All those people aredead already.”
Okay, that made me pause for a second. They were curing us and they were making hunger a thing of the past. But, dammit, none of that was so they could eat us!
“You’re wrong, Murray. You are one hundred percent fucking wrong.”
“What the fuck is all that clicking?” Murray snapped as he turned to look at Ram again. “You calling for help, you fucking lizard?” He made a series of ticking noises and laughed.
But I could tell something was happening with Ram. He was turning orange from that fringe on his head all the way down to his toes. Since that was a fight response as far as I knew, was Ram about to bust out of his cell? While there was a gun trained on him?
“Ram,” I cautioned, “take it easy.”
Discretely, he waved his hand down by his side. He wanted me to back up? Trusting that he knew why it mattered, I slowly shuffled toward the wall at the back of my cell.
“Hold it,” Murray barked, looking between us. “What the fuck is going on?”
When Murray swung his gun in my direction, I heard a loud pop, and then all of a sudden Ram was bright white, like all of the orange got sucked out of him. I gasped, instantly worried, and then I froze.
Ram opened his mouth and a stream of fire shot out of it.
Murray screamed and dodged away, but the back of his left leg was suddenly covered in flames. He dropped the gun, smacking at his pant leg, trying to put out the fire as he stumbled away.
There was fire on the ground and up the bars of my cell nearest the wall. Ram hadn’t just unleashed flames, but something liquid for them to consume as well. It was blood red andbubbling, like the fire was boiling it. How the fuck had he done that?
Ram was back to his normal blue with just the orange fringe and now he was yanking on the door of his cell, clearly trying to break free. The second his door’s hinges snapped, the sprinkler system kicked in, dousing us in chilly water as an alarm sounded and lights flashed. All of the flames petered out and disappeared, even the ones trying to burn the pants off of Murray. He collapsed onto the floor, wailing like a baby, and lying in a growing puddle of water.
I flinched when Ram suddenly yanked my cell door open. He stepped inside, and I was so full of questions, I couldn’t say a word to him. He ran his hand all over me like he was checking me for injuries.
“Are you burned?” he asked, tilting my face this way and that. “Does anything hurt?”
“I… No, I’m fine. What the ever-loving fuck just happened? You can breathe fire? Youarea dragon!”
