Page 79 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

I see Lena staring at me in horror from the corner of my eye. I forcibly keep my view straight on.

“Cyrus and Evander were attacked by almost the entire clan on their way home,” I reply, “That’s why we had to send every one of the dragons out there to try and save them.”

“What?!” Lena shrieks, “Yousaw Cyrus die, and you didn’t tell me?!”

“We thought it’d be best to keep that to ourselves until you guys were in a safe place,” I grunt, “We didn’t want to freak you out more than necessary, Lena.”

“Well, I’m freaking out now!” she snaps.

I sigh. Julie reaches toward me from the backseat.

“Can you have another vision?!” she asks desperately, “Can you see if they’re winning the fight or not? Do you know if they’re okay?!”

“I’m sorry,” I reply simply.

Then, something gleams in the rear-view mirror. My view snaps over to it.

“I can’t believe you’d keep this from me!” Lena shouts.

“They were probably just worried about the baby, Lena,” Julie argues gently from the backseat.

“Yeah, butI’mstill here!Ihave the right to know about this!” she argues back.

“Shut up,” I growl.

Lena looks at me.

“Sorry, what did you say?!” she says.

“Shut up, Guys!”I snap,“We’re being followed!”

They shut up immediately. I look back to the rear-view mirror. There’s a dragon flying behind us, looping back and forth throughout the sky. It’s in a stormy grey color.

“I don’t recognize that one,” Lena gasps.

“It’s got to be Eclipse!” Julie adds.

Here?! In the middle of town again?!

All right. I’m not letting any of us get kidnapped again.

“You buckled in, Guys?” I growl.

“Yeah.”

“I am.”

“Then hold on,” I grunt, “This is gonna get rough.”

I keep driving up the main road. There’s a tiny little backstreet coming up on our left, but I keep driving straight for now—not showing anything to tip off the stalking dragon as to where we’re going.

Just as we reach the road on the left, I yank the steering wheel as hard as I can, pulling up the parking brake in a half-J turn. The car’s back end fishtails out. Julie and Lena scream. I grit my teeth in concentration. As the car swings horizontally, I slam the parking brake down. Stomp on the gas. The car roars. Then, we hurtle forward. As we rocket down the small back alley, I glance at the rear-view mirror. No dragon.

But I don’t have the best view.

“Julie!” I bark, “Can you look around and see if the dragon’s still following us?!”

Julie’s whimpering lightly, but when I talk to her directly, she cranes around and peers out the back window.

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