Page 40 of The Accidental Dragon Baby

“I’ve got this,” Ace told the cart. He dragged the shadow-man along and put himself between the cart and the silver puddles. The puddles gathered into a sea of metal; the silver-skinned man rose out of it completely intact.

Ace threw the shadow-man at his accomplice and breathed fire on them both, following when the silver-skinned man tried to escape. The man began to bubble and boil.

A giant bat swooped overhead and landed loudly on top of the metal shelves.

Ace paused his flames to ask, “Status?”

“No one’s running for the door,” the bat said. “And no one’s coming closer.”

Ace trailed behind the silver-skinned man, who was trying to crawl away.

If he let the man go, the man would bring more kidnappers down on Ivo and Mary. So he kept breathing fire, until the man screamed, boiled, and liquefied. The shadow-man had burned to a crisp on the floor.

This all made Ace uneasy. “They were already in here, looking for someone they could kidnap.”

“Sure seems that way,” the bat—Harvey—said. “We don’t know if they’ve told anyone else about Mary. You’ve roasted their phones.”

Which meant they couldn’t track down any messages the men might’ve sent.

“Damn it,” Ace muttered. With one eye on the bodies, he went to the burning blankets and sucked the flames into his mouth, containing the damage. “That aside, how are Ivo and Mary?”

Worry burned at the back of his mind. Had Ivo and Mary found somewhere safe to hide? Had anyone run them over in a rush to escape the fighting?

Harvey shifted into an eagle and scanned the store critically. “I can’t see them from up here. The heartbeats and voices will take a while to sort through.”

“Keep at it.” Ace gathered Ivo’s clothes and dropped them into the shopping cart’s belly, petting it distractedly. “You did good.”

The cart squeaked its wheels excitedly and followed him out of the aisle.

Ace searched in growing circles around the blanket aisle, half-hoping that Ivo would come out to meet him.

Thing was, he didn’t know what he was looking for.

Mammal. Small and black.

He’d seen a small, black creature recently, long and thin like a weasel.

Maybe there was a reason why Ivo hadn’t wanted to tell Ace what his shifted shape was.

He dropped his gaze to the base of the clothing racks, his heart pounding. “Ivo? I’ve dealt with the threat. It’s safe for you to come out now.”

Was Ivo’s hearing good enough to catch his voice? Or was he trying to hide from Ace?

“Ivo?” Ace murmured, crouching. “C’mon, sweetheart. I need to know you’re safe.”

Something moved at the edge of his vision. And there, shoved against the back of a shelf, behind some vitamin bottles, was a black shadow with pale splotches all over it.

It’s you.

Ace approached them slowly, letting his shoes thump on the floor. The shadow tensed and huddled into a smaller shape.

He’s afraid of me.Ace’s chest ached. He crouched in front of the shelf and swept the bottles aside. “Hey.”

Ivo flinched when Ace reached in. He was warm and furry, and he squeezed his good eye shut when Ace brought him and Mary to the edge of the shelf.

Under the store’s bright lights, Ace saw his scars more clearly: one of Ivo’s eyes was scarred shut, with a pale line stretching from his eyelid all the way down the side of his face. Just like the scar in his human shape.

It wasn’t just that, though.

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