Jamal POV
I left Autumn in charge of Summer back at the hotel. I was sure that nothing could go wrong that way. Autumn was responsible enough. I trusted his judgement. Even though they were the same age, Autumn acted like he was years ahead of his sister. He was the one who came out first so yeah he very much was the elder one but his level of intelligence at such a young age was almost alarming.
I walked down the street with my hands in my pocket looking at the simple things of human living. I decided that today I was going to take a walk. My main aim was to go grocery shopping for Summer. She was such a pain in the ass sometimes. She had insisted that I buy human junk food just so she see what they taste like. Autumn did not say a word to her but I knew that he too might be interested in the junk party with Summer. I walked into a large mall in search of a grocery store. There were many stores in this building. I could see where they sold clothes, foods as in fast food, electronics like phones, laptops, and one tiny stupid thing the human put in their ears to play music and block out external sounds. I wondered why anybody in their right senses would opt for that sort of stuff. Why would you want to block out external sound just to pump garbage in your ear? Not as if human music was any good. Though there were some sounds that were akin unto that of the werewolves, they had a lot of music that sounded like garbage even though we both used the same instruments with a few differences.
After a small time of looking, I found a junk store. That was literally the name – junk store. I wondered what the owners had thought when naming a place like that. If I had not known what it was, I would have thought it a place where rubbish was sold. I walked into the store and my eyes were set on all the many stuff Summer had been describing to me. She wanted them all. But how was I supposed to buy them all. It turned out that that was what Summer had been doing with her time and internet ever since we got here. The names she had told me for all the brands of chocolate were all here. Little surprise there.
I picked a few things, then picked some few things, then picked some more, trying to remember all it was that Summer had asked me to get. By the time I was done picking, I had filled my trolley with excessive junk. Some of the customers gave me side look. I could hear a little girl even whisper to her parent “is he Santa Claus? So this is where Santa gets his stuff in preparation for Christmas,” I wondered what that meant.
I stood on line for payment with my large trolley of junks, most of which I had no idea what they were or what they tasted like. The little girl waved at me when her parents took her to join the line. Her mother scolded her and made her turn away but once her mum pulled out her phone, she looked back and mouthed Santa Claus to me. I did not have a clue what that meant so I did according to Summer’s advice. “If you ever meet a human child, just give them Chocolate and they will be your friend.” So I took out a bar of whatever this brand called itself and tossed it to her. She caught it and winked at me. Mission complete, I thought. I just made a friend. Maybe Summer would be proud once I tell her about this. The cashier showed me my bill and I paid instantly. I also added the candy I tossed to that girl too.
Eventually, I was on out of the junk store and still in the mall when I saw Xander walk out of a bar with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. He had emptied it halfway and just as he saw me, he stopped, frozen. It was then I remembered our last encounter. It was the moment we both looked into each other’s life and he found out that I was a werewolf, but I had also found out something about him too, he was a dragon. Of course, I did not make a big deal out of it. I knew that within us there were those that wore the skin of others. I did not just expect it that Xander was going to be one of them though I should have told from his supernatural boldness when facing me. Now I could see it clearly in his eyes. He was drunk. Drunk supernaturals were easy to read.
Play the gentle man, I thought at first. But how was I supposed to with a drunk dragon. Xander approached me dangerously.
“Xander,” I stretched out my hand for a hand shake. Surprisingly, he took my hand.
“Jamal,” he responded. I then realized that he was not drunk at all, just one bottle was surely nothing for a dragon blood. Then what gave him red eyes?
“Your children,” Xander said. My heart paused on hearing their names. “Methis is their mother.”
He had found out. I did not know how but he had found out.
“You are a dead man.” Xander smashed the bottle in his hand against my head used the shard to stab me three times in my throat.
I heard screams of onlookers but it was my own pain that worried me. My neck was a blood faucet; I was choking on my own blood. I pressed my hand against my neck to try to stop the blood but Xander was on the offensive. He ran into me and mounted me. Xander raised the bottle again to stab me but I was quicker this time. I jabbed him on his midsection. He doubled over. I jabbed him on his midsection again, and again, and again until he spat blood from his mouth. Then I pushed him over. I shook my head violently, trying not to turn into my wolfself. If I did, Xander was dead. I saw Xander’s eye change, turn red. Then he charged at me, he was ten times faster and fifteen times stronger. One blow and I was flying miles away into the electronic store.
I crashed against the glass and recovered quickly. I knew what Xander had just done. He was struggling too not to turn into a dragon so he had settled to seep his dragon powers little by little and apply it in his human form. I could do that too.
I rose to my feet, all my fighter’s instinct kicking in at once. Xander was strong, but I had fought battles. I was stronger.
Xander rushed towards me and with a force capable of levelling a car to shred, lunged at me. I swiftly sidestepped, tipping him out of balance and with the anger in me, I grabbed Xander by the neck. I threw in the air and jumped to catch up with him. With both my forearms, I smashed him by the chest back to the ground. He landed loudly. I mounted him and began choking him. But my anger was rising and choking him was not enough. I held him by the head, smashing his head against the floor until the tiles broke into pieces. I shifted the pieces of tiles out of the way to expose the dense concrete. My anger had gotten the best of me. Today was the day Xander died.
I bashed his head once, then twice, then on the third time, I felt a hard blow like a hammer slamming into my side. I was sent reeling by the pain to the floor. In my peripheral vision, I saw someone drag Xander’s limp body away. I looked up and came face to face with a young woman. I recognized this one. This was Sophia, Sophia’s best friend, brother to Xander. She was dragon blood too.
I stood on my feet and assumed a stance. If I had to kill this one too, I would. She charged at me and threw a few blows, I dodged one, parried two but one hit me in the jaw. I countered her last strike and switched carefully to her left side where I stomped on her left knee with great force. Sophia shouted in pain, a shout of helplessness. She must have known what I wanted to do. I switched to her right side and stumped on her right knee. Sophia screamed again. Now she was kneeling down, weak and helpless. I stood over her, exerting my dominance. Then slowly I brought her to the ground. First a punch to the left cheek, then the right, then her nose and two more on her nose. Blood dripped down from it, then she went to the ground.
That moment, I felt something was wrong. I looked up and saw Methis staring at me in shock.