Captured By The Dragon
Episode 47

Dylan

Nothing was going as planned.

We hit the human realm and were faced with a wall that was tall enough to be used for a prison. I would normally just fly up and pass it, but there were sensors at the top that would catch my movement and alert any officers that there was a shifter in their land. Plus, I doubted that there would be a safe area in the human realm to land as a dragon. I would be caught instantly.

I smashed my fist against the stone and barely felt the the pounding pain I received in return. This was bullshit, when did they put this up? It wasn’t that long ago that I passed through with Patara.

“What the f**k are we supposed to do?” I went to punch the wall again, but Erik caught my fist before I could.

“You’re not going to get through with your fists, Dylan. No matter how strong you think you might be.” He dropped my hand and stood back to observe the wall. “It can’t go on forever. We have to follow it until we find an opening.”

“That opening will be littered with guards, Erik. How the hell did they find this? They must really be cracking down on shifters. More than the last time I was in their land.”

Erik ignored me and started walking along the wall. After a few stubborn moments, I followed him. We walked for a better half of the hour before we finally heard human voices and stopped dead in our tracks before they could see us.

We crouched in the bushes and watched three officers pace the small opening with large guns in their grasp. It looked as if something had ripped through the wall and there was just a small space left to slide through. I gave Erik a look that he ignored.

Apparently we could have tried to punch through it. In my dragon form, I bet we would have made it through easily.

No, Erik was right. That would have been a stupid idea. But a desperate man was full of stupid ideas when he had a girl to save.

“Come on, man. It’s getting late. How long do we have to guard this damn hole?” One of the officers complained as he kicked at the ground like a toddler.

“We can switch off in the morning with the other crew. We don’t want none of this scum getting through to taint out land and steal more of our girls. It’s been enough. Soon this wall will prevent any of them from ever stepping foot back in our lands again.” Another responded as he planted himself directly in front of the hole. I wanted to g***n as loud as I could.

Erik moved me to the side, a bit away from the officers. “Use your charm.” He whispered.

“My… charm?” I furrowed my brow. Erik only looked as if he wanted to smack me.

“We can’t kill them, it’ll let the others know that shifters got through and they’ll be looking for us. But they can’t recognize us to rat us out either if we let them live.”

“So you want me to charm them to let us pass without a question?”

“Dylan.” Erik gave me a long look. “You know what I’m talking about.”

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I did know what he meant. I had more than just a charm with humans, on most occasions I could get them to do as I asked without a question and they would be left in a daze that always left me feeling uneasy. It also left me without much power for a few hours.

I didn’t like using that sort of magic. It came from my dragon side and I only called for it in desperate situations. I swore all my life that I would never use it on someone I cared about, and so far—I had kept that promise. It would have been so easy to make Patara stay in this land forever with that power—but I knew it wouldn’t have been right.

Part of me didn’t want to actually force her to stay at my side. Part of me wanted her to decide to stay on her own. If my feelings were right, perhaps she would finally decide she wanted to stay this time.

Or maybe I was a f*****g idiot and I’m just following what my heart wanted.

“Okay. Stay here.” I whispered. Erik ducked in the bushes and I took a deep breath before I stepped into their sight.

At first, only one of them noticed. He immediately pulled out his gun and pointed it at my chest. I held up my hands just as the other two spun around and did the same as the first officer.

“Hey! Stay right there!” The man in the front yelled. “Don’t take another damn step closer!”

“Calm down, officers. I come in peace.” I smirked a little when I saw one of them flinch at my voice.

“What are you, some kind of emo shifter?” Another officer spat. I could see the sweat already forming on their brow. I had to act fast before they called for backup.

“Because of all the black? I can see why you’d think that. Everyone always tells me to lighten up, but the world is just so damn dark, isn’t it?”

I flicked my wrist slightly and all three of them froze and stared forward in a blank daze.

I dropped my hands and stepped forward. The magic was pulling from me faster than I ever remembered it doing. I didn’t have much time.

“You thought you saw someone, but it was just a rodent that came from the human side.” I spoke the words as if they were music as I slowly walked around the three. Each word was getting harder to speak than the last.

“You continued your shift and saw nothing unusual. No shifters to report tonight.”

All three of them nodded slowly.

“Say it, I want to hear it.”

“We saw nothing tonight.” They all said at once as if they were in sync. “No shifters, just a couple of rats.”

It was eerie to watch the way my magic pulled the words from them. They became shells of themselves from my simple wave. It was a good thing only select dragon shifters had that sort of ability.

Otherwise, I don’t think the human world would have lasted this long.

I whistled once and heard the sound of books crunching against the ground. Erik appeared with a grin. He smacked my back and we turned and slipped through the hole before my magic released them. Once we were far enough, I cut the cord and almost collapsed to the ground.

“That’s an amazing trick, man. I can’t believe you don’t use it more often.” Erik said quietly as we observed our surroundings.

“I hate that power. It shouldn’t be used unless it’s absolutely necessary.” I grumbled. The area was clear of any other officers. It looked like they were near an old abandoned mall and the sun was quickly going down.

“Come on, the van is waiting for us.”