Badass Dragons - Complete Set

BADASS
DRAGONS

The Complete
Set

Rosette
Bolter

Also By Rosette
Bolter

Shared By
The Dragon Clan

Worshiped By
The Bear Kings

Engaged To
The Vampire Twins

Stepbrother
Bear

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

It was ten past midnight when Nurse
Cheryl Thames arrived home to her cats in the middle of a brawl and a sink full
of dishes. She staggered in, kicking off her heels and dropped her handbag in
the middle of the floor. Her cell phone spilled out across the tiles and she
almost tripped on it as she made her way to the couch in the middle of the
living room. She flopped down on it, absolutely exhausted. She’d started work
at 10am that morning, and was supposed to finish at seven, but the hospital had
to keep her back. It was all over now thankfully, at least until tomorrow.
Cheryl’s mind was a total blank. She was far too tired to do anything now, but
just shut her eyes and drift away into a peaceful sleep.

Then her
phone started ringing.

Her eyes
gradually opened again, and she rolled herself off the couch. Without lifting
her feet, she dragged herself across the carpet until found the phone on the
tiles. She flipped open the receiver and turned over on her back so she was
facing the ceiling.

“Hello?”
Cheryl answered.

“Hey,” a
quiet voice breathed.

Cheryl sat
up. “Sophie? Is that you?”

“It’s me.”

“Is
everything alright?”

“Not
exactly,” Sophie breathed. “I was going to come see you.”

“Where are
you? Do you want me to pick you up somewhere?”

“Maybe. Just
hold on a second.”

Cheryl heard
Sophie hold something over the phone. She was talking to someone.

“Are you
there?” Sophie returned.

“Still here.
Who’s with you?”

“Nobody.
There’s just this guy wandering behind me. He was trying to ask me something.”

“Is he
following you?”

“No,” Sophie
answered. “He’s only been there a minute. I think he’s on drugs or something.”

“You haven’t
been using have you?”

Silence.

“Sophie?”

“You know
you’re just like Mom. You’ll never get over my past.”

“I haven’t
seen you in months,” Cheryl said earnestly. “I’ve been worried about you.”

“Yeah. Well
anyway … I have something I need to talk to you about. It’s really important.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want
to say with this guy around. I’m not far away from Mom’s house. I’m sort of
making my way out to the highway. We just had this huge fight and everything…”

“Alright,” Cheryl
said climbing to her feet. “I’ll come get you. Whereabouts do you want to meet
exactly?”

“Hold on a
second.”

There was a
brief pause.

Sophie then
swore loudly.

“What’s
happening?” Cheryl demanded.

“This guy
fucking knows my name,” Sophie gushed. “He’s calling out to me.”

“Well get out
of there. Run away from him.”

“I’m trying.”

“Okay. Just…”
Cheryl paced back and forth restlessly.

She could
hear Sophie panting.

“What’s
happening?” Cheryl murmured.

“Oh shit,”
Sophie cursed. “Oh … OH WHAT THE FUCK? JESUS CHRIST CHERYL!”

“WHAT? WHAT?”
Cheryl shouted.

“This fucking
thing’s in the sky, it’s like … it’s a dragon –”

There was a
loud thump on Sophie’s end. It sounded as though she’d dropped the phone.

“SOPHIE?”
Cheryl squealed. “SOPHIE? WHERE ARE YOU?”

Footsteps.
Someone picking up the phone.

Cheryl could
hear them breathing.

“Sophie is
that you?”

A man gave a
heartless chuckle and then the line went dead.

“No!” Cheryl
squealed. “Holy shit no!”

She tried
calling back but there was no answer.

Sophie was gone.

CHAPTER TWO

Cheryl’s squeals had alerted the
attention of her two cats whom had set their differences aside and come out to
see if she was okay. They both stared up at her from the floor as she stood
paralyzed with shock. One of them broke the silence with a distinct
Meow
.

Cheryl looked
to him, and then let the weight in both her knees drag her slowly down to the
floor. She put one hand behind the ear of the vocal pussy cat, whilst the other
one stepped off his place and rubbed his head at her side.

Cheryl looked
down at the phone in her hand. She dialed 911.

“Hi,” she
said, after the operator answered. “I have to report an attack.”

“I have to
ask, mam,” the operator droned, “if you or anyone else is any danger.”

“I’m not
sure. I just got off the phone with my sister, and I could hear she was being
attacked. I think … she’s not answering her cell –”

“What is your
sister’s name?”

“Sophie
Thames. I’m Cheryl.”

“Thames?”

“Correct.”
Cheryl inhaled deeply. “Listen, can you send someone to help me find her?”

“What’s the
location?”

Cheryl gave
her mother’s address.

“A car will
be there soon. Now I need to ask you for some more details. Are you or your
sister in possession, or have access to any firearms?”

Cheryl
sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t afford to waste any more time.”

“Mam?”

Cheryl hung
up the phone. She rose from the floor, a dizzy blur obscuring her vision.

She was
afraid, but needed to be brave.

She was
exhausted, but needed to be strong.

No doubt,
what Cheryl had heard over the phone absolutely terrified her, but at the same
time – she might be her sister’s only hope. Sophie was counting on her.

She scooped
up the spilled contents from her handbag, and then slung it over her shoulder,
rising from the floor. She could have used a hot shower and a fresh change of
clothes from her nurse’s uniform. She could have used a strong coffee to wake
her up.

But there
wasn’t time.

CHAPTER
THREE

Before reaching her mother’s house,
Cheryl took a specific route off the highway that she suspected
Sophie may have traveled. As late as it was, she barely saw anyone at all
through the dark turns along the back roads, let alone her sister. It was
roughly a quarter to one in the morning – twenty five minutes after Cheryl had
left her apartment – and there was no sign of the cops anywhere. Cheryl had
been in such a rush she’d forgotten to phone her mother who was probably in bed
now, fast asleep. After pulling up alongside the nature strip, Cheryl got out
of the car and ran up to the front door. She pressed the bell.

There was a
moment of silence. Cheryl stepped back and moved round the side of the house to
where her mother’s bedroom was. She saw a light come on from behind the blinds
and moved back to the porch. The front door opened.

“Cheryl?” her
mom exclaimed. “What are you –?”

“So she
hasn’t come back?” Cheryl snapped pushing past her into the house.

Mom paused
before replying. “You mean Sophie?”

Cheryl
whirled around. “Yes, Sophie.”

“She was
here. She left around midnight.”

“I know. I
spoke with her on the phone. She said you and her had a fight.”

Mom pulled
her bath robe tighter. “She wanted to borrow some money.”

“And you
didn’t give it to her.”

“Why would I?
She probably needed it to buy drugs. Or pay off some junkie boyfriend’s
gambling debts.”

“Yeah, well,
she’s missing now.”

“Missing?”

“I spoke with
her on the phone. She … she was attacked by someone.”

“By who?”

“I don’t
know. A man. Some guy was following her. I heard what happened on the phone.
She was struck or something and she dropped the phone. Then it went dead.”

“Well,” Mom
said moving past Cheryl, “your sister was always getting herself into these
kinds of situations. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“Forget the
kettle,” Cheryl hissed. “Your daughter is in trouble – now, are you going to
help me or not?”

Mom turned
slightly. “What do you want from me?”

“Look, forget
it,” Cheryl sighed. “The police will be here soon anyway. I’m going back out
there to look for her. You can tell them what’s going on when they get here”

Mom groaned.
“You’re overreacting, Cheryl. Really. If you had seen her tonight –”

“Was she on
something? Was she high?”

“No, nothing
like that –”

“Okay. I
gotta go. Just tell the cops where I am. I’ll be going through the backstreets,
up to the highway. That’s where she was headed.”

“On foot or
in your car?”

“I don’t
know,” Cheryl muttered. She felt the pain in her legs holding her back. But
they were nothing when compared with the pain of losing her only sister…

“On foot,”
Cheryl answered. “Her phone was still ringing last time I tried it. I’m gonna
see if I can find it.”

“What if it’s
been picked up?”

Cheryl’s
mouth dropped. Tears seized up in her eyes.

“I have to
try, Mom,” she said. “This could be our last chance of finding her again.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Passing clouds had drowned out the
light of the moon, and the streetlights became less and less frequent as Cheryl
descended into the brittle maze before her. Keeping her eyes on the ground, she
kept to the footpath, with her phone at her ear. Sophie’s dial tone humming and
humming. The cops still hadn’t showed up by the time she’d left her Mom’s, and
she was worried they weren’t even coming. Worse than that, her mother’s
skepticism about her being able to find Sophie, while unhelpful, rang true. She
went over in her mind what she’d actually heard on the phone. Something she’d
missed that might have indicated that Sophie was joking around. That she wasn’t
really in danger.

What Cheryl
remembered more than anything else was the laugh that man had given at the end
of the call. It was so empty. So cold. It seemed to negate anything that had happened
previously. An all encompassing sense of doom. It was hard to shake. Still,
Cheryl kept the phone to her ear and continued listening to the dial tone.

What else had
Cheryl said before the man had laughed at her? That she was being chased, yes.
But there was something else. Something horrifying she had seen. Was this the
man gaining on her? Was he catching up? Sophie’s response had been one of
terror. Maybe he had a weapon or something?

Wait a
moment. She had said something about the sky. Something about a … dragon. This
was the last thing she’d said before the phone hit the ground. What could
Sophie have meant? What looked like a dragon but wasn’t? Was she speaking in
code? Cheryl shook her head. It was so weird. Such a strange thing to say. She
couldn’t have meant an actual dragon, because they were make believe, but there
was something she meant by dragon that Cheryl just couldn’t figure out.

She was now
at a fork. The road she was on kept going for a bit into the distance. From
there you’d soon be at the highway. This was the way, Cheryl had driven in.

She looked to
the left of her. There was another, even darker street. Would Sophie have
veered off here to escape the man chasing her? Why wouldn’t she run for the
main road where she was safer?

Maybe Cheryl
was in a completely different spot than she’d been in the first place.

To be
absolutely sure, she decided to go down the darker side street. It seemed to go
on for a while. She watched the side of the road carefully, in case she could
see the light from Sophie’s phone blaring out at her. After a couple of minutes
she could see the road was bending back to their mother’s house. The wrong way.
She wouldn’t have come here.

Cheryl turned
sharply and started to backtrack briskly. Then a sound.

A faint buzzing.
She stopped and looked behind her.

It was coming
from the opposite side of the road.

Cheryl ran
quickly to the nature strip there, and low and behold, was a cell phone pressed
face down into the grass. It was Sophie’s.