Dragon's Isolation - Miranda Martin Page 0,14
she asks.
“No, he’s supposed to go see her today though,” I say.
“Good, make sure he does,” she says. She frowns, scratches her head, and looks at her feet. “I could ask Sverre to handle the bivo.”
Her voice is heavy with worry. She doesn’t want to put her man at risk either, but she’s offering because that’s Jolie. She’s kind to a fault and her heart is so big she will give the shirt off her back.
“No,” I say shaking my head. “Not yet. Let’s see what Addison says.”
“Thankfully, the kids aren’t carrying it,” she says.
“Right?” I agree. “There’s at least one thing to be thankful for.”
“How’s Calista?” she asks.
We talk about Calista and catch each other up on the latest news that we know. I’m giving Malcolm all the time I can since I haven’t been letting him out of the house at all. He needs the time with others I’m sure, and I’m glad to have her to talk with. It puts my mind onto other things besides my own worries. A girl can stare at the same four walls for only so long. I need to see other people, sometimes at least.
Eventually we run out of things to talk about but neither of us seem in a hurry to end our time together, distant though it might be. When we’ve run completely out of things to talk about, I hold up my hands and shake my head.
“I got nothing,” I admit.
Jolie smiles and shakes her head. “Me either.”
“Mind sending Malcolm back out?”
“Sure,” she says. “So, another couple weeks?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say, and she disappears into her apartment to retrieve my son.
As silence fills the hallway around me the weight of worry settles back onto my shoulders, but it doesn’t seem as heavy. At least now I feel less alone than I did. Shidan will be all right. He has to be. I can’t imagine my world without him.
4
SHIDAN
“No,” I call out. “Don’t do that!”
Al is sitting astride the rock wall of the pen I helped design for the bivo. He’s about to jump down on the side with the bivo, which is a terrible idea. Dangerous for him. He’s a human and not strong enough to stop a bivo if one of them was to charge him.
“I got this,” he says.
“No!” I yell again, running towards him, but he drops inside the pen.
I can only see the top of his head on the other side. I drop the bag of grains I’m carrying to move faster. There’s a low moan as the bivo alpha notices the intruder. This is bad.
“Back off, cow!” Al yells.
“Al, don’t threaten it!” I call out, but it’s too late.
The stampeding sound of hoof beats comes over the stone wall. Al’s hand appears over the top, and then his head. His eyes are wide with terror, his face red with exertion. I grab his hands and jerk him over. An instant later, the wall reverberates hard as the alpha slams into it where Al was a moment ago.
Al drops to the ground, panting and shaking. I step back, only now taking time to realize I’ve broken quarantine. If Al is carrying the illness, I’m exposed. The bijass surges over my thoughts and my vision takes on a red haze.
“Why did you not listen?!” I yell.
Al looks up at me from the ground, and now his eyes are wide with fresh fear. He raises his arms defensively.
“I thought I could—”
“You didn’t think!” I yell, throwing my arms wide.
My hands ball into fists. I want to hit him, hit something, anything. A target for the rage, anything to release it. Get it out.
I turn my back on the human and storm away. The primal fog ebbs and swells through my thoughts, assaulting my control. Muttering, I thunder across the open sands with nothing to exact my anger against.
I turn and look back where I came from. On the far side of the wall, the bivo alpha stares. It stomps the ground, glaring with bloodshot eyes. It snorts, shaking its head. My hands balled into fists, tail straight up behind me, I spread my wings and growl.
It paws the sand and snorts loudly, rumbling a challenge. I run at the wall. My feet pound the sand as I tilt my wings to catch the air, lightening my weight. When I’m one stride from the wall, I leap and easily glide over it. I land inside the pen and throw my arms wide, roaring my challenge