How to Date a Dragon

her room. “Screw it.”

As she was about to open the door, she felt heat on the other side and ran to the window where the fire escape was. Was being the operative word. The damn thing was leaning away from the building on bolts that looked rusted through. Crap! When did that happen? Now there was no other way out. Damn old buildings.

She heard pounding on her door. Maybe Drake was here to save her again. She rushed over and threw it open. To her surprise, Adolf Balog stood there.

“Where’s the other one?” he asked.

“Angie’s at a friend’s house.” Lucky Angie.

“Hurry. Upstairs,” he said.

One glance and she understood why. Fire was licking up the wooden steps from below. “Won’t we get trapped up there?”

“No. There’s a secret passageway to the next building under the roof.”

“Let’s go,” she shouted and hurried up the staircase behind him.

Mr. and Mrs. Balog were already prying open the door to the attic. Why they didn’t have a key she had no idea, but at least they knew a way out existed.

“Pop the hinges, Father,” Adolf said.

“I’ve almost got it.” Mr. Balog grunted, and with one more herculean effort, the lock broke, allowing everyone entrance to the attic. The men stood back and allowed Mrs. Balog to climb the narrow wooden staircase first. Then with a grand, sweeping gesture Adolf indicated Bliss was next. What a time to be chivalrous! But it was heartwarming to realize heroes came in all shapes and sizes.

What she had to climb wasn’t a ladder, but Bliss had to turn her size nine feet sideways to avoid falling off the tiny steps. People must have had much smaller feet back in the seventeen- hundreds.

At last all four of them were under the rafters on their hands and knees. Mrs. Balog said something in a language Bliss didn’t understand, but she figured it meant something like, “Follow me” or “This way.”

Bliss cradled her precious laptop against her chest, which gave her only one hand to hop across the dusty floor.

“Leave the computer,” Adolf said from behind her.

“Not on your life,” Bliss said, and then she realized how appalling that sounded under the circumstances. “Um… I mean, I can’t.”

“Fine. Hurry.”

Why hadn’t the fire department arrived yet? Bliss wondered. Yes, it was the middle of the friggin’ night, but didn’t they have their clothes and boots next to their beds all ready to jump into?

Bliss noticed what looked like a couple of doll beds and some doll clothes. Did kids really play up here? Because of the momentary distraction, she almost rammed Mrs. Balog in the ass. Finally they had arrived at the end of the loft.

The older woman found the door to the next building, turned a wooden latch and gave it a shove. Surprisingly, that was the only security to keep the next-door neighbors from crawling over the Balogs’ heads. I guess back in the day people trusted each other. Then Bliss remembered the locked attic door. Or not.

“We should go two or three buildings over,” Bliss said, even though her wrist was beginning to hurt from hopping on one hand. “My boyfriend is a firefighter and said sometimes if they can’t get to the fire fast enough, the next building will go up too.”

Mr. Balog rattled off some words in another language and Mrs. Balog nodded. A moment later, they were crawling again.

Why me, Lord? Do you really want me to drop out of this competition or something? At last Bliss heard the faint wail of sirens. Thank God. Drake, what took you so long?

Their little parade paused at the next door just long enough to turn the latch and crawl through. Mrs. Balog located the stairs and led the four of them down to someone else’s attic. Then she pounded on the door with both fists.

Shit. It hadn’t occurred to Bliss that they could be trapped in a wall if no one let them out. The Balogs weren’t calling out to anyone, so it was up to her.

“Hey! People! Let us out before we become crispy critters!”

* * *

A lump lodged in Drake’s throat when he heard the address of the job they were responding to. It was midnight, and the place was fully engulfed by the time they got there. He suspected a certain dragon lady had been planning this all along. If he could get his hands around her throat, he might forget she was a female.

The windows had burst from the intense inferno inside, and rather than wait for his fellow firefighters to bash down the front door, he grabbed a hose and leaped through the opening. He was glad he was the first one in there; otherwise the humans would have met with a shocking surprise.

Two little men, no more than a foot tall, stood on the bar spraying soda water at whatever they could reach. Their droopy felt hats and suits would have caught fire except that they seemed to have sprayed themselves first. The miniature firefighters glanced up at Drake, dropped the soda sprayer, and looked as if they were prepared to run away—right into the blaze.

“Wait,” Drake shouted. “Let me help you.”

He reached them in a couple of long strides and opened his jacket. “In here.” He grabbed his suspenders and stretched them out enough to make a pocket in his pants to accommodate the little guys. They glanced at each other with their alien-like, totally black, almond-shaped eyes, then leaped off the bar and into the safety Drake was offering them.

“You’re not afraid of us?” one of them asked in a Munchkin-like voice.

“Afraid of a couple of house brownies? Nope. Are you afraid of dragons?”

“Yes,” both of them answered simultaneously.

It figured. I hope I don’t shift. “Just stay out of sight.” Drake zipped up his jacket, hiding the little fellows who were clinging to his suspenders. His fellow firefighters had finally managed to break down the front door. When Benjamin rushed inside, Drake handed him the hose and said, “I have to find Bliss.”

Benjamin had to shout to be heard over the crackling blaze and the powerful spray of the hose. “Is she here? Now?”

“She lives upstairs,” he yelled.

“Always in heat for your hottie, aren’t you?”

Drake ignored the obvious dig and quickly disappeared into the back.

If she made it out, she must have used the fire escape. He hadn’t seen any residents standing on the street out front. He prayed that he’d see her far down the alley, safely out of the way.

Drake was surprised that the back door was missing. That must have been how Zina got in. He rushed out into the night and frantically cast a glance all around, hoping to see Bliss somewhere. The fire escape hadn’t been lowered. In fact, it looked like it was about to fall off the brick facade. Meanwhile, the roof of the bar caved in.

Crap. He unzipped his jacket and said, “Out you go, boys. You’re safe now.”

The brownies hopped out of his pants and landed on the pavement. They paused just long enough to thank him and waved as they ran away.

He heard one of them mutter, “Boys. Hmmph.”

True, they had white hair and beards, and goodness knows how old they could have been. They might even be immortal like he was… rather, like he used to be.

Drake backed away, hoping only smoke had reached the upper floors. Smoke was deadly too, but he had on lifesaving equipment. If the floors could support him… Horrified, he watched as fire roared and smoke billowed out of every window.

He was needed back inside, but there was no way he could survive without shifting into his dragon form.