Dragonsapien by Jon Jacks

the whole room shake. Another
immediately followed, Jake ducking instinctively behind his chair
as the apartment’s outside wall disintegrated in a burst of stone,
brick, timber and furnishings.
    What
the?
    He whirled
around, peering through the rolling clouds of dust, the rain of
smaller, lighter particles that still had to fall to the
floor.
    Where a large
window had been, there was now an immense, roughly hewn
hole.
    And standing in
its very centre, studiously observing the room, was the gloriously
glowing figure of an amber-skinned dragon.
     
     
    *

Chapter 18
     
    The dragon’s
eyes locked on Jake’s.
    He grinned
triumphantly.
    With a deftly
controlled flick of his wings, he swooped across the room towards
the cowering Jake – then abruptly jerked backwards in an explosion
of orange flame.
    Jake spin around
again, this time looking back towards the door. At some point it
had been blasted off its hinges, and a heavily armoured soldier was
now crouching in its frame, the smoking residue of a launched
missile still rising from his levelled gun.
    It was as if he
were back on the island once more, bathed in the glow of the fire
that only a moment before had been Mrs Frobisher, shielding Celly
from the oncoming soldiers, wrapping himself tightly around her as
he begged her not to change, to remain human, pleading to the
soldiers not to attack her, that she was injured, that she wasn’t a
danger to them.
    Rising from his
crouch, the soldier loped across the room, followed by another,
equally well armed and armoured soldier. As they took up positions
by the hole in the outside wall, as if guarding it from any further
attack, a third solider entered behind them.
    ‘It’s me kid,’
the third solider growled confidently. ‘Here to rescue you
again!’
     
     
    *
     
     
    Jake had held
onto Celly as tightly as he could, hoping, bizarrely, that his
enwrapping arms would somehow prevent her wings from unfurling,
prevent her from transforming.
    ‘They’ll kill
you Celly, they’ll kill you!’ he whispered urgently. ‘There’s too
many of them!’
    He felt her
struggle in his arms. But she wasn’t fighting him, he realised; she
was at war with herself, one part instinctively seeking vengeance
for the murder of Mrs Frobisher, another listening to Jake’s
heartfelt pleading, trying to quickly work out if taking his advice
was the more sensible course.
    He sensed the
easing of her body, the resignation. She remained in her human
form. Whether that was because she was worried that he might be
harmed if she changed, or because she recognised that Jake was
right and knew she stood no chance, he wasn’t sure.
    The main thing
was, it gave Jake time to plead for her life.
    ‘We won’t hurt
you!’ he screamed nervously at the soldiers edgily, warily
surrounding them, their guns constantly aimed at Celly’s head. ‘We
surrender!’
    ‘We know you won’t hurt us, kid,’ a soldier assuredly striding
towards them declared with a hash growl. ‘We’re here to rescue you.
As for the girl; she’d better come quietly – or else.’
     
     
    *
     
     
    Lieutenant
Rodgers; the soldier had introduced himself as soon as they had
boarded the helicopter that would take Jake off the
island.
    Celly wasn’t
with them. She had been escorted to another helicopter, the guns of
the surrounding soldiers still unerringly aimed at her
head.
    He had never
seen her again.
    Never heard from
her.
    The Volances,
Lieutenant Rodgers had informed him, had been captured. A boy
amongst their party had told them where Jake was being
held.
    ‘You’ve got to
come with us!’ Lieutenant Rodgers said now, helping Jake up off the
rubble strewn floor. ‘The dragons are out to get you!’
    As if to confirm
the Lieutenant’s claim, a scream alerted them to a rapidly moving
sparkle of gemstones at the hole in the wall as one of the soldiers
was snatched at and carried away by a swooping dragon. The other
soldier turned, fired.
    Jake couldn’t
see the