Page 5 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

“Hey!”I bark,“No bikes on the sidewalk! You’re going to hit somebody!”

The teen screeches to a halt, alarm widening his eyes.

“Er, sorry, Sheriff!” he yelps.

He loops his leg off the vehicle and starts sheepishly walking away. Reassurance warms my chest for a moment. I mean, he’ll probably be hopping back on that bike as soon as he’s out of my line of sight, but the respect in his voice soothes some of the raw nerves.

Maybe I don’t need to worry so much about it. No matter what happens, I’m the only female sheriff Greyson Ridge has ever had—theonlysheriff it has right now.

I’m about done with my morning foot patrol, so I walk to the edge of town, where I left my cruiser. There’s someone by it. It looks like they’re peering in the windows.

Who is that? Merl?Sometimes, he comes sniffing around for a lift when he’s wasted.

But it’s a little early, even for Merl. Plus, after his accident, I think he’s been drinking a bit less anyway. I start moving toward the car, and the figure becomes clearer to me. What becomes clear is that I don’t know who this person is.

It's not themostunusual; Greyson Ridge has decent tourist traffic this time of year. I’m not sure why a tourist would be peering into my car like they’re planning to steal it, though. They sometimes ask for directions, but I don’t know if that would warrant them hanging around my cruiser when I’m obviously not there.

As he cups his hands around his eyes, looking in my car, I stride closer.

“Hey there,” I say loudly, “Can I help you?”

The stranger spins around on his heel and smiles lightly at me. I stutter in my walking when he does. Suddenly, a voice screeches in my head:Run. Run! Get out of there!

He just smiles at me for a moment. His eyes run down me—for a second, I get a horrible crawling sensation, but I realize he’s looking at my badge, not my chest.

“You’re the Sheriff, then?” he asks me.

“I am,” I reply, “Is there a problem here?”

His grin is even wider. The teeth are very, very white.

“None at all,” he replies.

I blink, and suddenly, he’s so close that I can’t properly see him anymore.

How’d he get here so fast?! Shit, he must be a dragon!

My hand snaps down to the handgun on my waist. A large, clawed hand grabs my wrist. Before I can draw my weapon, a sharp prick rattles down my arm. I cry out, and my leg snaps out. My foot hits his leg, and he grunts. The hand releases me, and I turn and start running. Behind me, his sharp laughter cracks through the air.

I need to get the word out! I can’t call on the radio about this—I need to… contact Cyrus’s team about this! I… need… to…

My thoughts start slowing to a crawl, and my vision wavers. My legs get heavier and heavier until it feels like I’m dragging lumps of lead.

Oh, god… That… prick… He must have… injected me… with something! Shit…

My legs can barely move. I’m stopping, even as my sluggish mind screams at me to run. I need to do something else.

I turn around as my body refuses to run anymore. The dragon hasn’t moved—he’s just waiting for me to drop. I draw the gun from my waistband and aim it at him. My vision is completely swimming, like the world I’m seeing is the reflectionof a rippling lake. It’s blackening at the edges as well. I’m going to pass out soon—I just know it.

Oh, god. Am I… going to die?

I can’t see, but I fire the gun once in his vague direction. I doubt it hit. My hands start going numb, but not before I feel the gun drop. My limbs tingle. My knees buckle. Blackness creeps toward the center of my vision. The world jerks; I’ve fallen to my knees. The dragon starts nonchalantly walking toward me. The world tips sideways, and my head cracks against the floor as I collapse. Then, everything goes black.

Chapter 3 - Rufus

Patrolling the center of the town isinfuriatingright now. I can smell those Eclipse bastards crawling around the forest just outside of town, and yet I’m only allowed to patrolinsidethe town. I know this patrolling is basically just a façade to not tip Eclipse off to the fact that we’re planning something, but it’s still driving me insane to just keep wandering aimlessly throughout town. I feel like I can smell them surrounding us. They’re gathering around us, and I wonder what they’re going to do once they have. Cyrus’s logic is sound; they can surround us all they like, but when we find all these powerful relics, that won’t be a problem, and the fact we have Julie, who can accurately pin-point objects with her visions, guarantees that wewillfind the keys, sooner or later. But still… the dragon under my skin is writhing, aching to leap toward the smell of Eclipse and rip them to shreds for what they’ve done...

But perhaps that’s why I’ve been given the most boring route to patrol; Cyrus doesn’t fully trust me right now…

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