Firebolt

Chapter 2

DAD? WHAT THE─" I couldn't find a way to put into words what had just happened or what I'd just seen in front of me.

He staggered toward the pickup and I closed my eyes. I would be scarred for the rest of my life after seeing him naked. My mind went crazy with words like "dragon", and "Dad", and "dragon" again; thoughts that would land me in the nut house if spoken out loud.

The zip of his army bag pierced the silence. I could hear him struggling to get into his pants. I pinched myself with shaky fingers. How did I not know any of this? Is this actually happening? No, it's a dream. I'm going to wake up soon and-

"You can open your eyes, Elena." His voice interrupted my string of thoughts and I knew I wasn't dreaming.

I opened my eyes and stared at him. "Dad, why didn't─"

"I didn't want you to find out this way. I'm so sorry." He cleaned the cuts on his face with another T-shirt. Our eyes met, and he looked at me with a clenched jaw. All traces of the copper beast were gone. Not one scale was in sight.

He held out his hand for mine, his other hand kept aloft in mock surrender. I took it with one of my trembling hands and he helped me to get out through the opening where the windshield should've been. My entire body trembled now, and the cut on my head stung fiercely.

My hoody and jeans hooked on pieces of broken glass, tearing them, as I stabled my shoes on the crumpled bonnet, but my gaze didn't leave Dad as I climbed through the jagged gap. When I was free from the truck, I watched him pour some clean water from a bottle onto a shirt. He lifted the shirt to my head.

"Ow!" I pulled my head away from him.

"Hold still," he said, and patted my forehead softly with the cool, wet shirt. I ground my teeth. It felt as if someone had hit me with a baseball bat.

I didn't know what to say, and a horrible silence filled the air between us while he put a Band-Aid on my face.

"I need to make a call."

"Dad?" I grabbed his arm, and he turned back around to face me. "Are more dragons coming for us?"

"I don't know, Bear." He caressed my cheek gently with his thumb. He dialled a number and held the phone carefully to his ear. His eyes searched everywhere, his face illuminated by the soft glow of the phone. "Matt, Herbert here. We got attacked by dragons." Dad spoke fast and listened for a few short seconds. He walked away from me with his back facing the truck. "No . . . I told you, not over the phone." He spoke softly. "We are stuck on Interstate 40, just meet us and please hurry. . . I don't know if more are coming." Dad switched off the phone and placed it back into the pocket of his pants and turned to face me again.

"Elena, I need to tell you something. Believe me when I say this wasn't how I planned on doing this." He sniffed hard and wiped his nose with his index finger and thumb. His eyes searched the horizon before they fell back onto mine. "I wanted to take you out for a nice dinner and maybe ease into things," the corner of his lips curved softly, and then it disappeared just as fast. "But..." He sighed, blinked a couple of times, and looked away. "Bear." He looked back at me with tears in his eyes. I didn't understand this. "I love you more than life itself, and I would never let anything happen to you. You need to understand that."

I nodded more than once, but struggled to wrap my head around the fact that my Dad could morph into a dragon.

He swallowed hard and lowered his gaze.

What is he not telling me?

A screeching sound that pierced the darkness made both of us jump.