The stranger swept into my room, moving with a sinuous, liquid grace that no regular human could ever hope to possess. He wrapped his fingers almost delicately around my handcuffs and gave a sharp yank. The chain connecting me to the bed snapped off like a twig.
"May I see your arm?"
I didn't even think of arguing with him. It didn't occur so me until later how utterly reckless this was. Following the orders of a complete stranger just because he had walked into my hospital room and started making demands. That's how girls like me go missing and end up being found buried in the woods a week later. But at that moment, I was only concerned with one thing: staying out of jail. And, if that meant going along with his guy, then so be it.
I held out my arm. The man—Isaac, that was his name—swiftly pulled out my IV and slapped a Band-Aid over the puncture wound. "Hurry up, we don't have a lot of time."
I threw my blanket aside and stood up. I shivered as my bare feet hit the cold tile floor. I was dressed in nothing but one of those flimsy hospital gowns.
"Here, put these one," Isaac handed me a lab coat and surgical mask. While I was teetering on the edge of sanity, he somehow sounded perfectly calm.
I quickly shrugged into the lab coat. It was way too big for me, the sleeves dangling about an inch past my fingers and the bottom nearly trailing the ground. I tried not to think of how conspicuous that was going to make me. I rolled the sleeves back and then looped the surgical mask behind my ears. My hands were shaking so hard it took me three tries to get it in place.
Isaac watched me with his eerily intense gaze. I could feel the power radiating from him like a physical force. "Okay, now hold still."
I jumped a little as Isaac deftly swept my hair into a pony tail, twisted up onto the top of my head and shoved it into one of those surgical hair-nets. "There, that's better. Your hair is way too noticeable."
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"I guess there's not much we can do about the eyes. Just try and keep your head down until we get out of the building."
"What are you-"
"Follow me, come on."
Okay, I'd have to save my questions for later. I did as Isaac said and kept my eyes glued to the floor as we left the room and entered into the crowded hallways. I was shaking like a leaf. I couldn't believe what I was doing here. I felt like any second someone was going to yell at me to stop, or worse hit me with a Taser or a tranquilizer or whatever they used to handle out-of-control shifters.
The hallways were crowded. People jostled me back and forth. It took all my will-power not to look up. I wanted to know if anyone was staring. I felt like there glowing neon sign flashing over my head, letting everyone know who I was and what I was doing.
Isaac's feet—the only part of him I could see—turned left down a slightly less crowded hallway. I followed closely behind. I heard the blare of a TV and risked a quick glance to my left. A big group of nurses and doctors were crowded a flat-screen hanging from the wall. It was showing footage of the crash site. Cars in the ditch. Cars pinned against the guardrail. The huge transport truck lay on its side, one end mangled almost beyond recognition. I turned away just as they flashed to a close-up of the gigantic fissure that split the road in half.
Isaac picked up the pace. I felt a stab of doubt as I sped up to match his longer strides. What the heck was I doing, here? I didn't even know this guy. He could be a serial killer, for all I knew. There was a small but vocal group of people who insisted the shifters were all evil, soulless monsters. I had never believed it, but what if they were right? What I was going from a bad situation into an even worse one?
An alarm sounded, high and shrill. A loud, disembodied voice echoed through the hallways.
ATTENTION ALL STAFF. WE HAVE A CODE BLACK. I REPEAT, WE HAVE A CODE BLACK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ALL PATIENTS AND GUESTS, PLEASE STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUSTION.
ATTENTION ALL STAFF. WE HAVE A CODE BLACK.
The message kept repeating, but it was drowned out by an explosion of noise all around us. My footsteps faltered. My heart slammed into the roof of my mouth.
They know I'm gone! They're coming after me! They're looking for me!
"Cyprus, stay calm and keep moving," Isaac said out of the corner of his mouth.
Stay calm? Stay calm? I was staging a jail break and now the whole hospital was onto me! Not to mention all the other stuff that had happened today! In what universe was this a "staying calm" type of situation?
The hallways suddenly seemed twice as crowded as usual. The staff members sprang into action, ushering groups of people into various rooms. Some kid started screaming his head off. I saw a few security guards in black uniforms moving through the crowd, talking on radios and scanning people's faces.
Adrenaline surged through me. Isaac put a hand lightly but firmly on my shoulder. It was the only thing that stopped me from bolting towards one of the exits.
"You'll attract attention if you run."
I looked up at him. He was striding along at the same casual pace. His expression was so relaxed he might have been going on a stroll through the park. How the heck was this guy so calm? Was he even human?
He steered me down another hallway while chaos grew around us. The alarm continued to assault my ears. I was feeling slightly dizzy. My legs were stiff. My lungs couldn't seem to expand properly.
This was never going to work. They probably had the whole hospital completely locked down already. I was so stupid! Why was I doing this? We were going to get caught, and then I would be a hundred times more trouble than I already was. I mean, what did this Isaac guy expect? Did he think we were just going to walk casually out the front—
Okay, really? Really?
We had emerged in the main lobby. It was mostly deserted, though I noticed the top of someone's head peeking out from behind the front desk. A guard stood watch at the door. He snapped to attention the moment he saw us. His eyes seemed to bulge out of his skull as he took in Isaac's appearance... and maybe mine as well. I still didn't know what the deal was with my eyes.
The guard snatched a radio off his belt so fast that his hand was a blur. "Back up! I need back up over here!"
Isaac kept walking, steering me along with him. He smiled politely at the guard as we approached. "Good day, sir. How are you this morning?"
"The missing patient is in the font lobby with another shifter. I need back up now!"
A crackling voice responded. "Stay where you are. Don't let them leave!"
"Got it." The security guard widened his stance and puffed out his chest. He planted himself in front of the door and raised his hand, palm forward, as we approached. "Sir, I'm afraid I can't allow you to come through. This patient is under arrest and considered extremely dangerous.
What? Extremely dangerous? Me? If I hadn't been so utterly petrified I would have laughed.
Isaac kept moving, not so much as a hitch in his step. The guard appeared to be losing his confidence. Behind us, the floor vibrated with dozens of rapid footsteps. I was beginning to feel like nothing but a helpless spectator to all this insanity.
We were seconds away from the entrance. The guard hovered uncertainly in front of the door. He appeared to be assessing the situation. He had to know that he couldn't possibly stop two shifters at once. Not on his own. Even a dozen guards probably wouldn't be enough to stop Isaac. He was supposed to be one of the most powerful shifters in the world.
"Stop!" the guard yelled. "The police have been called! They'll be here any minute. I you refuse to co-operate they will be forced to-"
He leapt aside as Isaac walked calmly by, pushing the door open and giving the man a polite nod at the same time. "Thank you for the warning, sir."
And, just like that, we were outside. A strange feeling came over me the moment we crossed the threshold between the hospital and the parking lot. The fresh air was like a balm on my frazzled nerves. Warmth seemed to radiate up from the ground, starting in the soles of my feet, then spreading up my legs and branching out to the rest of my body. The trees, the grass and the soil had never smelled so sweet. I felt like a drowning person taking a deep, life-giving breath.
Unfortunately, the moment was short-lived. That security guard had not been kidding about the cops. Sirens blared in the distance while red and blue lights flickered off the hospital windows. We had barely made it a few steps down the sidewalk when the front door burst open and a pack of security guards came charging after us.
"This should do," Isaac said, pulling me to a halt.
"What?" I looked back. My evil nurse stood out among the sea of black uniforms. Those two guys in business suites were on either side of her. The younger one looked absolutely furious. "What are you talking about? We're completely surrounded!"
Isaac gave me this weird little half-smile and closed his eyes.
For a split second, I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane. The air whipped in a torrent around me. It was so powerful that my eyes watered and it felt like all the oxygen had been momentarily sucked out of my lungs. My hair broke loose from the hairnet, and I thought I saw flashes of iridescent green mingling with my usual glossy black.
It ended just as quickly as it started. And, when the dust settled, Isaac had been replaced by a savagely beautiful dragon.
He was about thirty feet long from end to end. His scales were just like his hair, each one a different shade of blue and gleaming like polished gemstones. His body was sleek and stream-lined. The membranes between his wings were like razor-thing sheets of moving, pliable aquamarine.
He arched his neck and stared at me with one slanted, silver eye. Get on.
I didn't move. I was dumbfounded. Somehow, the knowledge of just what kind of shifter Isaac was had never reached me. And, if seeing him transform into a dragon wasn't crazy enough, I could have sworn I had just heard his disembodied voice talking right inside my head.
Could this day get any weirder?
The cop cars all shrieked to a halt, forming a half-circle around the hospital. The security guards were closing in fast. I saw all of this almost as an after-thought on the edges of my vision. I was fixated on Isaac's mesmerizing stare.
All of the sudden, I found myself seized with this crazy, reckless confidence. The feeling was so alien and out of place that it felt like a stranger had briefly taken over my thoughts.
I leapt onto the dragons back, dodging one of the security guards that made a grab for me. "Let's get out of here!"
Isaac flared his brilliant wings and took off into the sky.