Dragonsapien Read Online Free

bodies.
    ‘An ornamental
trident, perhaps?’
    The doctor
smiled, as if aware of and amused by the inadequacy of his
explanation.
     
     
    *
     
     
    Stepping out
into the apartment block’s hallway, they bypassed the
lift.
    They took the
stairs. And they headed upwards, towards the roof.
    Hincheley had
informed them that, as he had been led upstairs from the basement
where the police had found and arrested him, they had passed other
officers in the foyer. On hearing this, everyone had agreed that
more officers were probably guarding the block’s other exits; the
police had obviously come here with the intention of making an
arrest.
    It was the
powerful Hincheley who had taken charge of Jake.
    No matter how
much Jake squirmed in an attempt to break free of Hincheley’s firm
grip on his arm, it was useless. Even if he tried to drag his feet
as they ascended the stairs, Hincheley lifted and pulled him along
effortlessly. After a few painful experiences of the inevitable
tightening and twisting of Hincheley’s hand on his arm, Jake
eventually stopped trying to hang back.
    When they opened
the door leading out onto the rain swept roof, however, he
hesitated.
    ‘Where…where are
we going?’ he asked fearfully. ‘You’re not going
to…to…?’
    ‘To throw you
off the roof?’ Hincheley grinned sourly. ‘No; though if you keep on
struggling to break free of my grip, you might find you end up
falling anyway.’
    ‘What’s that
supposed to mean? That you’re going to make out it’s an
accident?’
    Hincheley didn’t
bother replying. They were now out on the roof, where the heavy
rain was drowning out any normal level of conversation.
    No one was
talking anyway. They were all stripping off their jackets, shirts
and blouses.
    Hincheley
swiftly changed the hand gripping Jake’s hand as he shrugged off
his own jacket. He simply ripped off his shirt.
    Neither Perisa
nor Mary seemed perturbed or embarrassed about revealing their
breasts. But Celly hung her head, hiding her blushes, her
shame.
    Jake, despite
the horror and disgust he had felt earlier, thought she looked
beautiful. He tried not to stare, yet couldn’t avert his
eyes.
    Celly’s skin was
changing, glistening. It sparkled, as if made of finely spun gold
and silver threads, graced with whirling patterns. A ruby glow
spread throughout it, a sign, though Jake didn’t know it, of
Celly’s embarrassment.
    Even through the
heavy rain, Jake could see that everyone around him was going
through a similar transformation. Their skins shone like expertly
burnished metal, like jewels that had been crushed and turned into
elaborate mosaics, like the aurora borealis, captured and only
slightly tamed.
    The light
reflected from them created a multitude of rainbows in the falling
droplets of rain.
    With a sound
like the abrupt snap of a flag in the wind, wings appeared from
each of their backs. The nearest equivalent, Jake supposed, would
be like colossal bat wings, but here the membrane stretched between
the thicker framework was of the same gloriously sparkling
skin.
    He looked back
towards Celly.
    With her
outstretched wings of patterned gold and silver, she was terrible,
frightening – and the most entrancingly gorgeous thing he had ever
seen.
    With the merest
flap of her powerful wings, she began to effortlessly rise into the
air.
    He suddenly felt
strong arms wrap around his waist from behind; then he was rising
up alongside her.
    They were flying
through the pounding rain.
    Glancing down at
the city streets passing far below, Jake immediately realised the
meaning behind Hincheley’s warning not to struggle.
    If he broke free
now, he would plummet to his death.
     
     
    *

 
     
     
    1
week later
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Both Celly and
Jake had rapidly learned how to move through the jungle swiftly and
silently.
    They didn’t want
to warn off any animals that, even now, might be about to
innocently wander into their carefully set traps.
    One of the prime
spots for