Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #2)(57)

It was a long wing, with tall metal beams, half-finished walls, and supplies stacked randomly around the room. Looking around for cover, she saw a large pallet of sheetrock. Mina ducked behind it and tried to make her breathing softer. A few seconds later, she heard the same double doors open with a creak followed by the swishing sound of plastic slowly being moved to the side.

She could hear Diedre looking for her, her feet slowly moving across the cement floor. But then something changed; the sound became louder, and the floor vibrated with each step. She could hear breathing, and it was loud. Mina peeked around the corner of her hiding place and could see billows of dust floating up on the other side of the room where Diedre was. No, wait. It wasn’t dust; it was smoke.

Mina heard a gurgling sound as if something was snuffing and breathing loudly. She froze in extreme terror, her mind trying to put together what she saw with the laser pointer with what she was hearing. It wasn’t good. A metal clang rang out, and Mina looked across the room toward where the sound originated. She could barely see the crowbar that had fallen to the floor. Her heart raced and thudded loudly in her chest.

She didn’t need to see what was hunting her to know that Diedre had transformed into her Fae form, and she was coming closer to Mina’s hiding spot. Mina crawled on her hands and knees and moved over to a large pile of wood beams seconds before Diedre came around the corner.

From her new hiding spot, she could see the Fae, and it terrified Mina. She was a dragon. Not the pretty fairy tale kind, but more of a shorter, stockier version. It walked and slithered on four legs and moved very much like a lizard. It was silver and black, and it coughed puffs of smoke. The dragon leaned down and sniffed the area that Mina had moments ago vacated.

She was doomed; there was no way that Mina could kill the dragon, especially when she didn’t have the Grimoire. At most, she could maybe harm it or distract it while she got Nan out of the hospital. But she was running out of time and out of hiding places. The dragon was beginning to pick up speed in its search. As if it was the one becoming more desperate.

Her hands were clammy with nervousness, and it finally dawned on Mina what she had going for her. As she watched the dragon maneuver the large room, she found its weakness. The dragon wasn’t very fast. The ceilings were too low to use its wings and so it was forced to amble around on its four legs. If she ran, she could outrun it.

She ducked on the ground and began to crawl across the room to where she had seen the crowbar fall. Mina’s hand reached out to grab it, and she saw the tool belt next to it, left by a construction worker. Grabbing a hammer, Mina counted to three and tossed it as far as she could in the corner away from the double doors. It clanged loudly, and she heard the dragon roar in excitement and rush to the corner.

Mina was finding it very hard to breathe as the room was becoming dense with smoke. But she took a deep breath, and as soon as the dragon passed her, she took off running toward the double doors.

The dragon turned its deep blue, angry eyes on Mina and changed directions to chase after her. Mina screamed in fright when she reached the doors and pushed them closed as soon as she exited. Turning, she could see the dragon bearing down upon her through the glass slits. Clenching her teeth, she thrust the crowbar through the metal handles of the door just as the dragon tried to bust through the doors. Mina fell onto her backside in fear and watched as the large metal doors held firm. Smoke billowed out beneath the door every time she pushed against the crowbar, but they didn’t budge. A large blue eye pressed against the door pane and looked at her angrily.

She swallowed back her fear, dusted herself off, and ran back upstairs toward Nan. Praying that the doors would hold until Nan was safe. Once she was back on the fourth floor, she walked quickly down the hallway, noticing the red and blue lights flashing on the wall when she passed a window. Someone had finally called the police. And now with police on the premises, all she had to do was get Nan out of the hospital and somewhere safe. She could try and track down the Reaper again and get the Grimoire back on a different day. She knew that the Reaper wouldn’t give up; she would eventually try and kill Mina. But by then, Mina would have found a way to kill a dragon.

Mina came to room 413 and quietly opened the door slipping inside. The room was dark and the drapes closed with just a flicker of red and blue lights dancing on the ceiling. She couldn’t hear any music, which meant the impromptu concert was officially over. Walking over to the bed, Mina stumbled over something on the floor. She reached around in the near darkness to move the object, and her hand came in contact with a warm leg, and it was attached to a body. Mina pulled her hand away quickly and looked up to see that Nan was still asleep and her heart monitor was still quietly beeping.

Slowly, she moved around the bed and reached for the light switch next to the hospital bed. Her hand shook with fear. Quickly, like pulling off a Band-aid, she flicked on the light and looked at the body on the floor. It was Dr. Martin. There was a large lump on the side of his head and blood on his forehead.

Mina reached down to touch Dr. Martin’s neck to feel for a pulse, and he moaned softly. He was still alive! A soft beeping sound came from across the room, and Mina looked to the corner to see a man sitting silently in a chair watching her.

He was dressed from head to toe in black with a long leather jacket that reached the floor. The man reached over and touched the alarm on his expensive watch, shutting it off. She looked at the clock in the room and back to the man in the chair. It was midnight. He slowly stood up and walked toward her, his hand reaching for a long wooden object leaning against the wall.