landed again on the graytop between Jack and the heenas. Crouching down with his tail raised, he gave another growl.
That was enough for the heenas. Still without a sound, they turned and scattered, scurrying around the stacked crates and vanishing into the dark.
Jack hadn't realized he was holding his breath. Now, he let it out in a huff. 'Wow,' was all he could think to say.
Draycos's neck twisted around, his eyes searching the shadows for more enemies. Then, slowly, he straightened up and turned back to Jack. 'Are you injured?' he asked.
'No,' Jack said, gazing at the dragon in fascination. At close range, he could see now that the scales weren't entirely black: the little sliver of red at the edge of each one was still there. 'No. I'm fine. Thanks to you.'
Draycos cocked his head to the side. 'Yet you seem disturbed.'
'Just a little sandbagged, that's all,' Jack assured him. Was the gold color starting to creep back into the dragon's scales? 'You've been calling yourself a warrior; but up to now all I've seen you do is zap people with their own weapons and fire missiles from the Essenay's control board. I didn't know you could fight like that.'
'A warrior must be adept in all forms of combat,' Draycos said.
'I guess so,' Jack said. No mistake; Draycos's scales were definitely turning gold again. 'That color change is pretty cool, too.'
'It is a side effect of K'da combat rage,' Draycos told him, lifting up a foreleg to study it. 'Our blood is black. As it flows more strongly to our muscles, some of it displaces the color in our scales. Do humans not have a similar danger response?'
'Not really,' Jack said. 'Well, maybe a little,' he corrected himself. 'Our faces get hot when we're mad or scared. On some people it shows a little.'
'Ah. Interesting.'
'Yeah,' Jack said, glancing around. 'Can we get out of here now?'
'Do not worry.' Draycos peered one last time into the shadows, then suddenly turned and leaped. Reflexively, Jack jerked back, whapping his head against the crates. The dragon hit his upper chest above his shirt and melted back onto his skin. 'They will not bother us again,' he said, sliding along Jack's body until his head was back in its usual place on his right shoulder. 'Shall we continue?'
Jack rubbed the back of his head. He was never, ever going to get used to this. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Sure.'
Chapter 10
They reached the far side of the warehouse without any further trouble. 'Okay,' Jack said, waving a hand around. 'This was the pick-up area. What now?'
His answer was a sliding movement along his right arm. Before he could say anything, there was the familiar sudden weight, and Draycos burst from the sleeve of his leather jacket.
Sending an equally sudden flash of pain through Jack's wrist as he left. 'Ow!' Jack yelped.
The dragon hit the graytop and twisted back around. 'What is wrong?' he demanded.
'You almost broke my arm, that's what's wrong,' Jack snapped, clutching his wrist where Draycos's emerging bulk had compressed it against his jacket. 'Geez.'
'I do not understand,' Draycos said, stepping close.
'This is leather,' Jack said, hooking a finger in the jacket's cuff for the dragon's inspection. 'See? Leather. Leather doesn't stretch. This is a snap holding the sleeve cuff together. See? Snaps don't stretch, either.'
'I see,' Draycos said. 'I apologize.'
'Yeah, it's okay,' Jack muttered. The pain was already starting to fade. 'Only the next time you want to go out that way, let me know first, okay? Give me a chance to unsnap it.'
'No need,' Draycos said, tossing his head in a way that reminded Jack of a horse. 'I will not do that again.'
'Good enough,' Jack said. Beneath the jacket sleeve his shirt felt odd. Popping the snap, he gave it a quick look. Draycos's careless exit hadn't been enough to pop the jacket snap, but it had had no trouble popping the button off the shirt cuff.
'That was my fault, too?' Draycos asked, stretching his long neck to peer at the sleeve.
'Don't worry about it,' Jack told him. 'I've been on my own long enough to know how to sew on buttons.' He shook his head. 'I bet I'm the only person in the Orion Arm who needs dog flaps in my wardrobe.'
'Pardon?'
'Skip it,' Jack said, resnapping the jacket sleeve. 'I repeat: what now?'
'We will investigate,' Draycos said. He looked around, then padded off.
Jack watched him go, rubbing his wrist as he groused silently to himself. Coming here had been a complete waste of time. He knew it, Uncle Virge knew it, and if Draycos had any brains he'd have known it, too.
So how and why had he let the dragon talk him into this in the first place?
On the other hand, he'd already seen Draycos pull some pretty cool tricks out of his hat. Maybe there really was a chance.
He hoped so. He really did. After all the scams and thefts he'd helped Uncle Virgil pull off, it would be pretty unfair if he had to stay on the run for something he didn't even do.
Speaking of Uncle Virgil...
