Page 17 of Red Dragon’s Heart

He lifted his head and stared at her with those unnerving eyes. They were just wrong—his whole body was wrong. Misshapen, unnatural.

Without breaking his gaze, he slowly rose to all fours and slunk over to the bars separating them. He stretched his neck out and sniffed her hand.

Maddie stopped breathing.

His nose moved up her wrist, within millimeters of the force field. Then he opened his mouth, and closed his jaw gently around her wrist.

Maddie was too terrified to move.

He wasn’t hurting her, although she could feel the points of his huge teeth barely denting her skin. Just enough pressure to keep her from being able to pull away.

He looked up at her again, and suddenly those evil eyes looked… sad. Hopeless.

He sank slowly to the floor, like a big mutant dog, but he didn’t let go of her.

So… what did she do now?

Besides panic. No, don’t panic, she told herself. Don’t panic, don’t don’t don’t.

Reflexively, she started to hum under her breath, the way she’d done as a kid when she was lonely or scared. Stay calm. Keep him calm. He can probably sense your emotions.

She hummed a lullaby, the most soothing one she could think of. Then another, and another. He began to shiver uncontrollably, but he didn’t let go of her wrist.

On the other hand, he didn’t bite it, either.

So she kept singing. Her throat was dry, so dry, but she had to keep going. She felt like she was casting a spell, and if she stopped, she would die.

His skin began rippling again, bulging and receding, the scales shimmering. Then they started fading on his upper body. His hair reappeared, and then his face began to change. He let go of her arm and she pulled her hand back as his face grew fully human.

Except for the eyes. They were still monster eyes. Still full of anger—and despair.

He lay there for a minute, his body still trembling. Then he said in a raspy, inhuman voice, “That was a stupid move, reaching through the bars. I might have bitten your hand off.”

She swallowed hard, almost unable to speak. “But you didn’t.”

“Don’t do it again. You won’t be that lucky the next time.”

She’d been hoping there wouldn’t be a next time. “What do you want from me?” she asked.

Those eerie eyes turned accusing. “You… did this,” he rasped. “To me.”

She opened her mouth, about to tell him she hadn’t meant for him to be caught in the gas and changed with the others. But then she realized—this cell was here already, waiting for him, with the containment field to hold him inside. He wasn’t shocked at becoming a monster; this had happened to him before.

So it wasn’t her gas that made him like this. But somehow, he still thought it was her fault. All that pain, all that agony.

But he still didn’t want to hurt her. He’d even told her not to put her hand through the bars again. Maybe he wasn’t such a monster? Or maybe he just didn’t want her to bleed to death before he got what he wanted from her.

“How is this my fault?” she asked. “What did I do?”

He didn’t answer, just closed his eyes as though he were exhausted. She couldn’t imagine how much pain he’d endured. The latest welts still showed on his skin.

“Are you okay?” she ventured.

He gave a soft huff of cynical laughter. “No.”

“Is it… is it over?”

He gave a small shake of his head, and winced. “The monster will rise up again before long, and it all starts again.”