Page 28 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“That’s exactly what I was doing,” Yrian snarled, but, to my relief, followed when I lurched toward the door, begging my legs to hang in there long enough for us to get to the car.
He must have noticed, because when I stumbled and went to my knees, he scooped me up with one arm, clamping me to his side and more than half dragging me down the hallway to the entrance.
Voices yelled over the continuing sound of the sirens, and people scattered as we headed for the exit, where a number of people were rushing about, waving hands, and crying for explanations.
Yrian didn’t so much as slow down—he simply plowed through the people, scattering them like bowling pins.
“There’s a car outside for us,” I managed to get out as I freed myself from his hold, yanking open the door.“It’ll take us to your—”
The words stopped at the sight that met our eyes.The entire parking area seemed to be filled with people—mostly dragons—along with four different Hashmallim, a handful of human guards, and what I figured were a couple of mages, since they stood in the back and were flinging balls of arcane at the dragons.
To my surprise, Ysolde was doing the same to the mages, although hers seemed a bit off, since halfway to the target, her arcany changed into bananas, a couple of grapefruit, and even a pineapple.Her husband held a sword in one hand and was throwing arcane blasts at the mages with the other.
“I thought dragons couldn’t use arcane magic?”I couldn’t help but ask as Yrian swore and shifted into human form.
“Firstborn can,” was all he said before he started forward toward the nearest Hashmallim.
“No, no, no,” I said quickly, and grabbed at his shirt, taking us both by surprise by using his momentum to send him swinging to the side toward the sedan.“I’m not going through this again.We have to get you away before more Hashmallim come!”
“My kin need me,” Yrian snapped, twisting around to try to pry my hands off his shirt.“I will not abandon them.”
“I do not have the time for you to be all heroic and shit,” I said in a near snarl, slamming him with a great big impulse push.Although I wasn’t a full-blooded siren, I had a sometimes tenuous grasp on mental pushes, and I pushed now like I’d never pushed before.
Yrian glared at me.“Stop yelling in my head!Release me so that I might aid my kin.”
“Not now,” I yelled, shoving him another three steps until we were at the car.
“Go!”I heard Baltic yell, his head turned toward us.“Get him out of here!”
“You heard the man—oh, no, not now.”
A car crested the hill and pulled up alongside the sedan, a man emerging from it with a disbelieving expression that turned to outright confusion when he turned from watching the dragons battle the Hashmallim—they had one destroyed, but the other three didn’t look like they were going anywhere soon—to Yrian and me.
Dr.Kostich blinked twice at the sight of us; then his face screwed up in anger and he started shouting orders.
I didn’t wait.I hit Yrian both with the will glamour I’d been automatically weaving since we left the Asile and with every last ounce of dragon power I held, sending him staggering forward into the car and onto the back seat.I pushed him until he doubled up, slamming closed the door before flinging myself into the driver’s seat.
“Stop him!Stop that pretender!He is not me and he is taking the insane dragon!”Dr.Kostich yelled, but at that moment, a banana struck him on the side of his head.
I jammed my foot on the accelerator, mentally thanking the redheaded dragon for turning the car so it was ready to leave, and was halfway down the hill, fishtailing madly, when Yrian managed to get himself upright.
“Woman!”he bellowed, filling the car with fire.“Stop this vehicle!I have never run from a fight, and I will not start now!”
“You’re not running; you’re escaping, you idiot!And a whole lot of people, including your dad, went to a great deal of trouble to make this happen, so stop trying to climb into the front seat.You’re going to make us crash if you try that again.”
He stopped attempting to take hold of the steering wheel, but managed to get himself into the front seat next to me without actually sending us plowing off the road into the granite wall of a cliff that lined part of the road down.“Why did you have a demon pretending to be a Hashmallim?And who are you?”
“Becket,” I said, spinning the wheel when two more cars careened up the road, one of them slamming on its brakes as we sped past.
“Is that your surname or first name?”he asked.
“First name.Can you get rid of this fire, please?It’s kind of irritating, and I wouldn’t want it to make the gas tank explode.”
Yrian shot me an oddly calculating look for a few seconds before glancing at my legs and feet, which were covered in dragon fire.It died down to nothing just as we reached the bottom of the hill, but the screeching sound of a car trying to make a U-turn on a narrow road hadn’t escaped me.
“Do not give me commands,” Yrian said in a grumpy tone that somehow made me want to laugh.He shot a look behind us, his jaw working.“I do not run from battle.”
“I’m sure you don’t under normal circumstances, but this isn’t your fight.Your relatives will be OK.They assured me they have a treaty with the L’au-dela, so they won’t be harmed.I sure hope there are no mortal police on this road.”
