Renegade

Griffin's POV

After she had wrapped her hands around my legs and purred in delight, the Flight Attendant Herpeton began to change, as I expected she would, transforming into a full-grown, despite a bit young, dracanae. But had been anticipating something like that. Like I said, I can read a nametag that says an old form of the word ‘Serpent’ in Greek when I see it.

I reached for the gun in my back pocket, and pressed it to her temple before she had even finished her transformation.

“Don’t. Even. THINK. About moving, you monster,” I growled, and she growled, too. Both of us were frustrated. She was about to fail her one and only job from whomever employed her, and I had been forced to kiss her like I was all drunk in love. Which I wasn't, by the way!

“On your knees,” I said, and even though there wasn’t much space in the cramped restroom, she obeyed. Then, after I attached my silencer, I murmured,

“In the Name of the Gods,”

Then I squeezed the trigger, and she turned into yellow dust like cornmeal. But the dust smelled like shedding snake-skin. Disgusting. I looked down and realized the girl/snake-woman had
managed to pull my pants down, and my face reddened.

If anyone saw you now, I thought to myself, you’d shoot yourself.

Then, I looked down again and started to feel a searing pain in my calf. Part of the dracenae’s claw had been snapped off and was sticking out of my leg. I knew Emily had the med-kit, but part of me felt too scared to face her, even if was going to die from a claw to the leg. I could feel the poison rushing up my leg, and I realized that an explanation for Emily would have to wait.

I pulled my shorts up and re-attached my belt, cursing to myself silently. Emily was going to be so pissed off. That thought, despite all of the monster dust that covered my legs, made me laugh. So, I laughed and laughed and laughed until another passenger knocked on the door to the bathroom.

Oh Gods, I thought, How long had I been in there?

I quickly brushed off the rest of Herpeton from my shorts and walked out of the bathroom, tucking my gun back into the magical holster/fanny-pack that Xavier/Crow had given me.

Gods, that’s confusing, I thought.

Then, silently, I walked past the bewildered passenger looking at the messed up bathroom, and the frat guy that was trying to give everyone else in line for the bathroom a fist-bump. I walked back to my seat and sat down, checking my gun for any imperfections that I knew wouldn’t be there.

“Med-kit,” I muttered to her, and she asked, in a total rage,

“What?”

“Med-kit,” I sighed in pain, “Emily, I’ll explain if you would hand me the med-kit. I got stabbed in the leg.”

Momentarily, her white-hot anger turned to concern as she looked at my calf. Then, she went to work.

I ended up explaining the story to her as she removed the claw fragment and dressed the wound. That hadn’t felt good, by the way. After she was done wrapping my leg, she still looked angry, still definitely wasn't ready to believe what had happened.

“So what exactly did you do with…her?” She growled. I knew I was in deep trouble, so I decided to answer honestly, which in hindsight was probably the best decision morally, but it got me into even more trouble.

“As I explained, she came onto me. She started kissing me hard, and then she opened up the bathroom door, and then she turned into a dracanae. But I was waiting for her to do that, so I killed her. Another monster dead. No biggie.”

“NO BIGGIE?” She screamed, attracting a couple mystified looks from some nearby passengers.

“Shh, Emily, calm down, will ya?” I said, And Emily stared huffing and puffing like a Big Bad Wolf.

“That girl wanted much more from you than a kiss,” Emily said indignantly, “She wanted to either kill you or worse.”

“Worse?” I asked with a confused smile, “what do you mean, worse?”

“You know what I mean!” Emily snapped, “more than just a kiss.”

As I looked at her, I realized that she was blushing. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, waiting to fall, meaning that she must have been severely traumatized, genuinely hurt. That snapped the smile off of my face like a rubber band sting.

“Whoa, whoa, Emily, are you okay?” I asked, concerned.

Oh, great, I thought to myself, scolding, you’ve made her upset! Griff, you’re so STUPID sometimes!

“I’m…I’m fine—” She answered shakily.

“No, you’re not,” I said definitively. Then, something inside told me what to do. I stood up, wincing from the pain in my calf, and said,

“Come here.”

I put out my arms for a hug, and slowly, shyly, she accepted. I knew how she felt. Or at least, I thought I knew how she felt. Well, maybe I sympathized with her worries that the dracanae was going to kill me. I had felt that for the entire time she had been unconscious after the Periphetes attack.

She put her head on my chest and wrapped her arms around me slowly, sobbing into my shirt. I thought that I would start to blush, start to feel embarrassed, but none of that happened. I just knew that she needed to know that I still was, I don’t know, faithful to our friendship, I guess? Look, she needed the hug, okay?

I held her for a while, letting her breathing return to normal. Once she had successfully taken ten normal, big breaths, I started to pull away. She sat back down in her seat and we talked quietly for the rest of the plane trip, making the four hours we had left feel like a breeze.

Once we landed at La Guardia, I began to play with an idea in my mind.

“Hey Emily,” I began, “I’ve been thinking about Nico’s riddle.”

“And?” She asked.

“Well, the one part we haven’t solved is the part about his name. You mentioned that Xavier could be spelled two ways, right?”

She nodded and I continued, “Well, since 24th St., the ‘X’ in Xavier’s name, doesn’t cross 5th directly, what about 26th?”

“Good idea,” She agreed, and we quickly walked to the nearest map of Manhattan. We found the intersection of 26th and 5th, and I remembered where I knew that address from.

“Madison Square Park,” I recognized, “Uncle Xavier used to take me on walks through there when I was really little. That’s where they’ll be.”

“Perfect,” Emily responded, and then we hailed a cab. Even though I had run away from them, I found myself embracing the chance to see my parents again. Plus, Xavier and I had some serious talking to do.

Notes

THERE. All problems resolved. Family reunion next chapter.

Enjoy,
Grafon