Page 38 of Training my Human

Pop.

Through the rips on my back, my wings emerged and unfurled, just in time as two tinmen converged from the left and right. I leapt, my coiled legs springing me into the air. The moist membranes along my spine snapped open and caught an air current, however, frantic flapping didn’t give me much height, just enough to glide several feet before my clawed toes touched the ground. I bounced upward again in time to miss another dart.

The forest lay straight ahead. I raced for it, zigzagging and springing into the air, making myself a difficult target.

Once I made it past the first thin line of trees, I did as Maddox advised. Grabbed hold of a tree trunk and climbed as quickly as I could. I darted across the first solid branch before soaring to the next.

The strangers, intent on capture, followed below. I could hear them muttering and cursing. Searching but not finding.

Until Graytemples said the dreaded words, “The drone’s overhead. I’ll have its position in a second.”

Damned machine.

“It’s in the trees!” Graytemples hollered.

I growled, annoyed, and chose to climb higher. High enough my head popped from the canopy and I found myself staring at the hovering drone.

My throat and belly tickled again. The fire spewed too fast for the machine’s operator to react, scorching the metal and plastic, sending it crashing to the ground.

Now try and find me.

I didn’t waste time racing from the area lest they launch another drone. Maddox’s advice rang in my head.Don’t head direct. Try and make sure you lose any followers.

Following that counsel meant it took a lot more time to reach my cave, but in good news, I appeared to have lost the hunters.

Just in time. The moment I entered my hidey hole, I collapsed. The exertion of the change was too much. A vulnerability I could ill afford but couldn’t stop. I only hoped I didn’t wake inside a cage.

If I woke at all.

ChapterTwelve

I putthe kickstand on my bike down and dismounted so I could properly stare in shock at the charred remains of my home.

Everything I owned, gone. My keepsakes. My clothes. My pictures. Everything of Granny.

But worse…

What happened to Abaddon?

He’d been inside when I left. Had he escaped?

My first instinct urged me to race for his hiding spot and see if he was there. I didn’t, though, because common sense slapped me.

For one… someone had put out the fire. I could see the remnants of powder as if a chemical had been deployed, as well as the mud that formed from having copious amounts of water sprayed on the site of my trailer.

Second, the number of ruts in the ground seemed excessive. Several vehicles had been there. Now you might say, duh, firetrucks would leave marks. Except, who would have called it in? Why weren’t they still here? Obviously, the place was occupied. Firefighters didn’t simply hose down a fire and leave right away. Someone should have been there. Someone should have notified me. After all, my contact information could be easily accessed by simply looking up my address in the municipal registry.

Third, I spotted a red tuft on a capsule with a needle on the end. A tranquilizing dart.

As all those observations coalesced into one giant uh-oh, I heard engines. A quick pivot and I could see the vehicles screaming into my place, unmarked black SUVs with dark tinted windows that disgorged several people, none of them in government uniforms but obviously meaning business.

I almost ran. Might have if I’d not spotted movement in the trees as more of these strangers emerged from the forest, some wearing shiny-looking hazmat-type suits, others holding the leashes of dogs that strained in my direction.

Well, shit.

What I’d feared had come to pass. The government had come for me, but had they gotten Abaddon?

Killed him?

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