Page 10 of Defy Me

Stupid. She really should have worked on honing her skill a little bit instead of only relying on it during fight or flight situations. Now they needed a new whole new plan. "I will tell you right now we are not jumping off this roof, or climbing down the side of the building, or--"

Jett's eyes turned to fire like the beasts around her. A black shimmer skated across his skin and she got the distinct impression of teeth and claws and scales trying to burst forth.

Poopapalooza.

Was he one of them and had tricked her? Was that even a thing? Men who were also beasts? Only if this was a flipping fairy tale. Which it was not. Man, she hoped she was hallucinating. Or drunk. Yes, drunk would be good right about now.

He dropped her hand and Yvaine gasped as it transformed into dark black skin and sharp scary looking talons extended. Double poo. She backed away, not like she knew where she was going but she couldn't take her eyes off of him as his body continued to morph. He stretched his neck and a row of black spikes erupted along his spine, and then great big wings burst forth. She was in so, so, so much deep, stinky poo. Like up poop creek and not only did she not have a paddle, she didn't even have a canoe.

The necklace around her throat glowed with an eery black and red light and sparks that matched the shimmer drifting over the creature Jett was becoming. In another blink, the man was gone and a full on mean-ass black dragon roared like an oncoming freight train filled with freight trains.

Yvaine sank to her knees and covered her ears at the blast of sound. The batstriches around her turned to Jett and some returned his call with bellows of their own and others jumped around spitting fire and flapping their wings, which were weenie next to Jett's expansive span. The creature, the dragon he'd become resembled the monsters in the way a killer whale resembled a clown fish. There were similarities, but there was no comparison.

The Jett dragon flapped his wings and lifted into the air. He snatched for her with his claws but missed. Yvaine didn't remember moving three feet to the left.

Hold still, Yvaine.

Ack. He was inside her mind. "Stay away, you monster."

I'm trying to save you, dammit.

"Get out of my head. I will, uh, resist your mind control." She mentally threw up brick walls covered in concrete and barbed wire in her thoughts.

The dragon rolled its big black eyes. She didn't realize magical beasts could do that. Wait, what was she saying? She didn't even know dragons or batstriches existed at all. It certainly didn't matter what kind of sarcastic facial expressions they could or could not make. Especially when they were about to kidnap and eat her.

I'm not controlling your mind. Now get over here so I can grab you and fly us the fuck out of this clusterfucking fuck. Jett blew a strip of fire well past her that sent the nearest batstriches running to avoid the flames. A new wave of them burst from the door leading to the roof and they were closing in on her fast. Crud. If they were after Jett why were they aiming their beady little fire eyes at her now?

She backed toward the flames, but damn they were hot. She'd be lucky if her favorite Deadpool riding a unicorn shirt wasn't singed. Jett was so buying her a new one if it got ruined.

Duck, Yvaine. Now.

Instinct had her dropping to the deck and even with her eyes closed tight she knew he was shooting a new burst of flames at the monsters coming at her. When she got the courage to peak one eye open she was surrounded with the fire. Everywhere she looked flames were licking up into the sky from the rooftop.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh. No. He'd surrounded her in a ring of fire. And now she had that song stuck in her head. For the second time in as many minutes she was trapped. Which meant she could use her Houdini-ism and get away. Except invisibility wasn't going to keep her from getting burned to a Kentucky fried crisp.

Panic clawed at her skin from the inside out, fear peeled off what little bits of courage she had left in debilitating layers. Dog gone it. Now she really was the damsel in distress and in need of rescuing. As soon as the thought that she couldn't get out on her own and she was in serious danger something really weird happened. She didn't move, she didn't flip her internal switch, she barely even took a breath, but one second she was in the circle of flames closing in on her, and the next she wasn't.

Yvaine. Yvaine, where are you? Answer me, dammit.

She looked to the left, then to the right. Both ways all she saw was wide open sky with more rooftops all around. "I don't know."

She spun around and saw the batsriches, the fire, and Jett flying above them about a hundred yards away on the next building over. Huh. One more mark in the ways she was a mutant checklist. She had no idea of she'd been transported ala Star Trek, run across the rooftop super fast like the Flash, or now had the ability to apperate like Harry Potter.

Those all sounded better than she was actually shit-faced drunk or completely cray-cray. Again, something to think about later. Now was not the time to squander the chance to get away from the fray. This roof didn't have the same access door as the other one. Of course it couldn't be easy. Yvaine searched the area for anyway to get back inside the building. Over on one ledge the metal curves of a ladder down the side clung to some crumbling a stone.

No way. There had to be a trap door or something.

Except there wasn't. The only other structure on the whole roof was some sort of ventilation shaft and there was no way her butt was fitting through those slats. Okay, then. Over the side of the roof it was. But she was going to be really pissed if she fell and died. She would haunt the shit out of the building inspectors.

She peeked over the side to see where the ladder went and came this close to hurling last night's dinner down to the street really, really far below. Holy crow, she hated heights. The metal of the ladder was scorching hot under her hands and the whole structure shook with the slightest movement. Great. She tentatively placed one foot on the top rung. It held.

The faster she got this over with, the faster it would be over. Yvaine very carefully turned her body so she was facing the building and could grip the rungs with both hands. One step, two, three. Only four billion and seven more to go.

She took a breath to steady herself, but that didn't work even a little bit because she wasn't the one shaking. The building was. Only three rungs down the ladder, she could still see over the top and what she saw sucked balls. The batstriches had found her and were jumping from their roof to hers. There was no dragon's fire to protect her this time. All of the flames Jett had blown were surrounding a blank bit of roof on the opposite side of the building. Not useful at all.

Yvaine. Hold on. I'm coming to get you.

The clouds that had darkened the sky overhead went completely black, like a thick smoke, casting a dark shadow over the entire city. Two of the monsters bounded toward her flapping their wings, and another one sprung up in the nearest corner of the roof. All three had her directly in their sites and the closest one spit shots of fire at her. Hey, weren't they supposed to be after Jett and not her?

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