The Dragon Tree (28 page)

             
This ship isn’t big enough to hold us both. Where is he?

             
He leaned around an intact wall and found his answer. A red mass was writhing on the floor. Dragon features – wings and tail and bony head – were contracting as the red dragon shrunk to human dimensions before Billy’s eyes. The transforming creature cried out in a voice half human and half dragon and looked up at Billy with eyes both fearful and angry.

             
Billy recognized the eyes.

             
Aidan.

             
Only faint red light from the fire extinguisher found its way inside the ship. As the last of Aidan’s dragon features melted away and his skin lost its deep crimson hue, it retained a hint of red coloration. He was lying on his side – naked and shivering – his arms held out in front of his face as if to shield himself from imminent violence. One of his arms was bent awkwardly halfway between elbow and wrist, a broken bone pressing at the skin from inside.

             
Billy was suddenly very aware of how horrific he must look to a cowering human. The light was just strong enough that squinting Aidan could surely see the enormous black eyes looking down on him. He could surely see Billy’s claws digging into the metal floor and Billy’s teeth, as long as his arm.

             
“If you’re going to kill me,” Aidan howled, “just kill me!”

             
It was still night. How had Aidan changed back to his human form before the dawn? Billy searched the ground for any sign of black leaves or powder, but saw nothing to explain Aidan’s change.

             
After the night’s events, Billy was already certain that Aidan possessing dragon powers was an unacceptable danger. He had used his claws to tear through Billy’s flesh and had used his fire to ignite the forest. Wounds could heal and fires could be extinguished, but Aidan had done something much worse. He had risked exposing them all to a crowd of humans. And why? It could only be because he knew there were other dragons in human form, and that they would be attending the Invitational race. Everyone in town would be there, so Aidan’s choice of venue didn’t mean he knew their identities.

             
What if he does know our identities? He’ll come after us again. He’ll expose us.

             
It was too dangerous to let Aidan live.

             
Billy drew a deep breath into his cavernous lungs. He felt the valve in his throat secrete fluid and the gland above it spark. He raised his head to line up his blast, ready to direct the flames at Aidan. It would be so hot that Aidan wouldn’t suffer. He would die before he felt any pain.

             
Billy looked in Aidan’s eyes… He was terrified…

             
I can’t do it.

             
With a cacophonous roar, Billy thrashed left and right, bashing his club of a head against the walls of the ship. The metal groaned and the deck overhead settled even lower, but the structure held. Billy pushed off with his front paws and crawled backward at a furious pace until he was out of the ship.

             
Billy spun and launched himself back through the warehouse doors. He pumped his wings angrily and soared – like a bullet – toward the clouds.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

             
Hiroki was able to get a signal on his cell phone. Two hours later a tow truck lumbered up the mountain road and pulled up next to the Buick.

             
“Holy hell, boy,” said the driver. “Your car pick a fight?”

             
“Sideswiped by some crazy trucker,” Hiroki groaned as he shared a glance with Eva. She shivered in yet another combination of ill-fitting clothes from Hiroki’s trunk. “We’re lucky we weren’t hurt.”

             
“Aint that the truth.” The driver whistled and went to work.

***

              Reiko was in the living room, curled up in an afghan and reading a book. Unlike Eva’s mother, she hadn’t allowed herself to panic that Hiroki was out late. When he turned sixteen she raised his curfew to 1am so he could… be a teenager. Her father had been too strict with her and she didn’t want to pressure Hiroki the same way.

             
When she heard the rumble of an engine she peered through the curtains expecting to see Hiroki’s Buick. Instead she saw a tow truck. Hiroki and Eva climbed out and strolled up the driveway. Reiko met them at the door.

             
“I want the whole story. Now,” she insisted.

***

              As he flew back toward civilization, Billy once again felt the searing cold sensation. The wounds across his chest were still gaping and oozing dark blood, but the cold
inside
his body concerned him much more.

             
He flew past Alpine, stealing glances at the sleepy town from the partial cover of wispy clouds. Hudson was just a few miles west. He dropped lower and looked for a good place to land and wait out the night.

             
The change began with no warning.

             
His wings suddenly felt thin and weak, barely able to support his weight. His limbs felt cold as the leathery flesh that shielded him from the air temperature melted away. His head began to throb as it collapsed inward with surprising speed, much faster than any of his previous transformations.

             
I’m going to crash.

             
He was already falling when the crystal clear thought arrived. His body was changing unevenly, one side shrinking at a faster pace than the other. One wing was all but gone while the other still pumped feverishly.

             
He saw an open field on the north edge of Hudson and tried to steer himself toward it, but he was tumbling through the air now… out of control. He hit the field at speed and it knocked the wind out of him. His larger wing scraped the ground and slowed him somewhat, but his momentum sent him barreling forward end-over-end. When he finally came to rest he was lying on his injured chest with his face against a flat rock. The change was all but over. He watched through groggy eyes as his black nails turned clear and the scales disappeared from his arms.

             
Gasping for air he struggled to his knees. He was naked and shivering – as vulnerable as Aidan had been in the bowels of the fishing trawler – as he staggered in the direction of the RV park.

***

              William heard the moans outside his window and leapt out of bed. He pulled his blinds apart and saw Billy stumbling toward the trailer. He was as naked as the day he was born and covered in filth.

             
William snatched his sheets and raced outside. He wrapped the linen around his son and steered him toward the trailer door. Billy was clutching his chest and shuddering. William pried his hands away and saw the deep red ravines in Billy’s flesh. There was very little blood but Billy’s injuries looked devastating.

             
“We’re going to the hospital, Billy.”

             
“No hospital!” Billy screamed. “If it shows up… in the records… I was there…”

             
William shook his head angrily. “You’re not making any sense, Billy. You feel feverish. Hospital time, right now!”

             
“Please dad, you don’t understand!” Billy reached for William’s hand and clutched it. “Hiro’s mother is a nurse. Call her.”

***

              Eva sat beside Hiroki on the couch as he described the mountain car crash. Reiko was so rapt by the fanciful details of the runaway truck sideswiping the Buick that she didn’t hear the kitchen phone ringing.

             
“Mrs. Tanaka, your phone,” Eva said.

             
“Hello,” said Reiko as she held the phone to her ear. “That’s not an option. You have to take him to the hospital… I understand that, but it simply is not an option… Please, Mr. Rasmussen—”

             
Hiroki and Eva leapt off the couch simultaneously. They shuffled toward Reiko with mouths agape and tired eyes pinned open. Reiko saw the fear on the faces of the two teens and shook her head.

             
“All right, Mr. Rasmussen,” Reiko sighed. “ I’m on my way.”

***

              Hiroki and Eva jumped out of Reiko’s car before she could put it in park. Eva rapped on the door anxiously. When William swung open the door the two teens pushed past him without a word.

             
William remained on the porch, his arms across his chest as Reiko extracted her medical supplies from the trunk of her car.

             
“I’ll need light,” said Reiko as she hurried toward the porch.

***

              At Reiko’s instructions, Hiroki dragged the coffee table and entertainment center out of the living room then turned on every light he could find. It still wasn’t enough so he raced through the trailer and snatched up lamps. Eva ran into the first bedroom she saw – Billy’s – and tore a sheet off his bed. She raced back into the front room and spread out the sheet on the now empty floor.

             
“Water, Eva,” said Reiko as she opened her medical kit. “Fill every pot you can find and turn the burners on full blast.”

             
Eva had always found the sight of blood beyond nauseating. Just the thought of blood was enough to turn her stomach. But Reiko needed her help to tend to Billy. She gulped down her nausea and refilled the water pots.

             
William had wrestled a pair of boxer shorts over his son’s hips to cover his nakedness. Billy was lying on the couch, sweating profusely and babbling incoherently. “…was red and… in the ship… scared…” Billy rambled. “So cold… inside, so… so…”

             
“Don’t speak, Billy. You don’t have to speak,” William urged.

             
The sweat made Billy slick in William’s arms. He nearly dropped Billy as he lowered him to the floor.

             
“Eva, we need ice to break his fever,” said Reiko.

             
“How much?” Eva asked.

             
“Whatever you can find. Run to the neighbors if you have to, but get all you can. Do it now, Eva. Do it
right now
.”

             
Eva flung open the freezer and saw no ice at all. She raced out the trailer door with Hiroki right behind her.

             
As Reiko looked over her patient in the dim light she couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice. “I don’t understand these wounds,” Reiko muttered as she cleaned the lacerations. “There should be much more blood. What happened to him?”

             
William shook his head, every bit as baffled. “He wandered in from the north side of town, from the field and the woods up there. Looks like a grizzly must have got him.”

             
Reiko slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and turned back to William who was cradling his son’s head in his lap. “Do you promise not to sue me?” asked Reiko.

             
“Why the hell would I sue you?” William asked.

             
Reiko locked eyes on William and waited a beat to make sure he was listening. “If he gets an infection. If his wounds don’t heal properly and he loses mobility in one or both arms. Before I do anything, I need your word that you will not sue me.”

             
“You have my word. Please help my boy,” William muttered.

***

              Billy’s neighbors had been upset to hear a knock on the door after midnight, but Eva and Hiroki pleaded their cause and successfully collected three twenty-pound bags of ice. The ice was now lining Billy’s body, pressed against his naked skin and melting into the sheet beneath him.

             
The four gashes in Billy’s chest ranged from six inches long to nearly nine. The worst was an inch deep.

             
William was shaking as he held a bare light close to the wound so Reiko could see her work. His shakes worsened to the point that Reiko looked up and found his eyes.

             
“You have to hold the light steady, Mr. Rasmussen.”

             
“I’m sorry, I…”

             
Eva placed her hand on William’s back to comfort him and reached for the light in his hand. He gave it to her gladly and backed away to lean against the couch.

             
“Hiro,” said Reiko as she turned focused eyes on her son, “I need you to come down here next to me. I need you to hold the edges of this laceration together. Do you understand what I’m asking? I need you to put on a pair of gloves and push together the edges so I can run thread across the gap and close him up.”

             
“I understand,” Hiroki answered.

             
The wound was so deep she was forced to stitch it closed in several layers, starting at the deepest point and working her way out. “His fever is breaking, Mr. Rasmussen. He’s going to be okay.”

***

              Billy was on the couch, wrapped in fresh sheets and sleeping soundly. Eva knelt beside him and brushed the hair off his brow. She had kept her composure while Reiko worked, but her tears would no longer be denied.

             
“You did it, Billy,” she whispered. “You did it.”

             
Reiko insisted that William call her if there was any change in Billy’s condition. She was encouraged by his temperature returning to normal, and by his strong pulse suggesting no great loss of blood, but the frightening nature of the wounds demanded further caution.

             
“Maybe I should stay here overnight,” said Hiroki. “To keep an eye on him and let Mr. Rasmussen sleep.”

             
“No, Hiroki. We’re going home.” Reiko spoke the words firmly enough that there was no room for argument.

             
William rose to shake hands with Hiroki. “Thank you for everything. You’re an amazing kid. And this mother of yours…”
              “I know,” said Hiroki with a melancholy smile.

             
Reiko helped Eva to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist. They were both exhausted as they headed for the trailer door. William stopped them and swallowed the lump in his throat.

             
“I don’t know how to thank you,” he said. “Isn’t that what people say in the movies? But it’s the only thing that makes sense to say.”

             
Reiko opened her mouth to respond, but William lunged forward and wrapped both Reiko and Eva in his powerful arms. “Thank you,” he muttered.

***

              As Reiko pulled up to the Diaz house, she turned to face Hiroki and Eva in the back seat. “Now listen to me, you two. I’m not a fool and I don’t like being lied to. Your story about the car accident on the mountain road suddenly feels very suspicious. And Billy’s wounds… the way you both responded to his wounds, like you weren’t surprised. I’m telling you now that I have questions, and I will insist on answers.”

             
“Yes, ma’am,” said Eva quietly.

             
“Okay, mom,” Hiroki echoed.

             
Reiko nodded, not quite satisfied. “I also don’t like telling lies. But Eva, if your parents knew what happened tonight – that I dragged their teenage daughter to Hudson to perform a very illegal medical procedure – they’d probably have me arrested. At the very list, they’d forbid you to see Hiro again any time soon… Maybe that would be a good thing. I don’t know.”