“That’s not true.”
Now it’s Julie’s turn to laugh.
“You don’t work as a teacher and not learn how to tell when someone’s lying, honey,” Julie says. “And you, sweetie, are completely full of shit.”
“I am not!” Nicole spews off a string of profanities, but Julie doesn’t seem bothered at all.
Teacher?
She’s a teacher?
How random is it that we’re both teachers?
Maybe it’s not random at all. Maybe it’s fate.
“I’ve seen a lot of movies in my day,” Julie continues speaking as she touches and pokes my body gently. I’m not sure what she’s doing. Maybe she’s trying to see if there’s anything obviously wrong with my body or perhaps this is just another attempt to piss off Nicole. Either way, I’m not complaining that her hands are on me.
She has a soft touch, and it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve had a woman touch me.
Not that there’s anything wrong with women.
Not that there’s a problem with them touching me.
It’s just that things at Fablestone have been a little...crazy...for awhile now. Besides, I have to focus on being a good teacher. That’s why I’m still there. I’ve been lonely for a long time, but teaching makes me feel like I’m actually doing something that matters. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I’m not going completely crazy.
Maybe I’m not wasting my life.
“And one thing I always notice in movies is that when someone gives another person a poison, whether it be through a dart or a pill, there’s some sort of antidote.”
Suddenly, her hands are off me.
“Don’t touch me,” Nicole says, and then I don’t hear anything else. I strain myself, trying to hear what’s happening. Did Julie just sock her? Did she kill her? I can’t tell, and it’s driving me nuts. I hear a rustling and a bit of a scuffle. Then Julie comes back to my side.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Dragon,” she says, running her hands up and down my arms. “I couldn’t take anymore of her smart mouth, so I had to gag her.”
Mr. Dragon?
“I went through her pockets and I found this.”
She’s obviously holding something up, but my eyes are closed now. I think if I tried really, really hard, I could open them. Then again, maybe not. Everything feels hard. My entire body seems like it’s weighted down by some invisible force holding me here.
If only I could shift.
In my dragon form, I process poisons and food and toxins quite quickly. It’s not easy to get a dragon sick, which is one of the reasons Lucky is such a dangerous organiz
ation. They’ve devoted their entire organization to hurting dragons and shifters as a society.
Worst of all: they’re good at it.
Now Julie is standing beside me and she may have found an antidote for whatever they gave me.
I just hope she’s brave enough to actually give it to me.
And I hope I’m strong enough for it to work.
Chapter Seven
Julie