I was barely able to unleash a scream before Ari grabbed my wrist with his strange fingers and reached over to grab Remington as well with his other hand.

Suddenly the floor opened from under us.

I screamed as we fell into a room on the floor below us and headed straight to the fangirls watching Supernatural in bed. The fangirls looked up and screamed before we landed right on them- and went straight through them.

I gasped when we popped up on the floor below that, finding myself in a whitewashed bathroom with marine tiling. A guy in the shower stopped mid-Beyonce song and screamed. We screamed back.

I looked over at Ari as we fell through the next floor. And the next. "You're doing this!?" I yelled. "When are we going to stop?!"

Ari looked around before back at me and shrugged as I heard a frustrated roar from outside.

"I just went through somebody!" Remington screamed, his legs flailing. "I DON'T WANNA GO TO HELL!"

I looked over at him to see if he was alright. The little color he had had vanished, leaving behind a sea of freckles on a milky white face. His eyes were shut tight, as if he were scared that when he opened it he would find himself face to face with Satan himself. Lights and faces flashed as we went down from floor to floor but he remained a little ball of fear.

Before I could call out to him that the terrestrial tethers of earth had not yet released its grip on our souls, my stomach did a flip as our descent slowed dramatically. We hovered mid-air before coming to a stop on the marble floor in the welcoming room of the hotel. The person behind the desk promptly fainted.

My eyes widened when the air seemed to harden underneath me to cushion my fall before I realized what situation we were in. "Let's go!" I barked, pulling Ari and my brother to the door.

Remy gasped and stumbled forwards from the force, looking around in surprise. But he seemed to snap out of the trance when we stumbled to the sliding door. "But the dragon's out there!" Remington wheezed as he witnessed the chili pepper hedgehog of death send fragments of the hotel wall crashing down onto the grass in an effort to find us.

"It's not looking at us! Let's go!" I growled, tugging at them again. Remington balked before rushing out in front of me. I grit my teeth and almost pulled Ari off his feet in my haste. His wings made a hissing noise on the pavement as he struggled to keep upright. As we streaked across the parking lot, we could hear screams as people found their personal space intruded by the schnozzle of the winged Tyrannosaurus Rex. A couch went flying, crashing to the ground just a foot beside us. I let out a small peep of a scream, yanking Ari out of the way of the splinters of wood. The dragon screeched behind me and I half expected his jaws to clamp shut around my waist. The flickering lights announcing that the truck was unlocked greeted me just in time for me to throw open the door and single handedly haul a hundred-sixty pound guy inside. Did I suddenly have superpowers or was it the adrenaline? I wasn't sure. The ground beneath my bare feet shivered as the giant beast shifted its weight. Oh no, oh no oh no oh no. Seeing Ari's long wings splayed over the doorway, I scurried to shove them all inside before slamming the door. I jumped in the front seat just as Remington cranked on the big truck.

I bit back a scream as the truck roared to life and the dragon's head slowly twisted to look at us. "Drive drive drive!" I yelled.

"But... what about Chase?" Remington panted.

"Right here!" Chase said, peeking over Ari's back. "Just GO!"

"Drive normal. Don't attract attention," I warned.

But Remington rocketed over the curb with a roar. The wheels spun, dirt flew, and we all screamed. Chase clung to Ari's head as Ari's wings spread, his long fingers clinging to the headrests. I lurched forwards in my seat, grunting as the seat belt dug into my stomach. A flying lego hit me in the forehead and I went crosseyed before the truck's front wheels hit the grass and we all jerked forwards. Remington had the pedal to the metal the whole time so the second the wheels hit the grass it send us rocketing towards the highway, where Remington barely gave us time to recover before doing a hard turn, sending everyone leaning to the side, clumping together like a bunch of wide-eyed sardines.

As soon as I could breathe again, I flashed a glance in the rear mirror only to find a huge yellow eye taking up the whole window. "Oh my MOBY DICK!" Remington screamed. "It's going to EAT US! What do I do what do I do?" His hands shook as either side of us cars veered to the sides to escape the low flying living aircraft. "Vamanos! Faster!" Chase screeched. "FILTHY HOBITSES!" Ari sobbed, ugly crying in fear in the back.

I gave a war cry and kicked open the door, sending the heavy truck door straight into the beast's eye.

The red dragon roared in surprise, jerking its head away from our truck only to crash into a semi. Remington put on a huge burst of speed as the surprised dragon struggled to create lift, clearly dazed. Its flapping wings hit the pavement with a loud, painful thwack before it lurched headfirst to the asphalt. I watched in the rearview mirror as it sprawled out over the lanes, one wing spread haphazardly to the sky. Traffic went to a complete standstill.

We drove a bit farther, eyes on the road and muscles stiff as a board before Remy finally spoke. "Did you just hit a dragon with a car door?"

"Yup," I whispered, slowly nodding my head.

"Wow," was all Chase whispered.

"My Precious..." Ari said in a tiny voice, his shoulders shaking with emotion. I sighed at my little buffoon and unbuckled, twisting around to hug him. "It's okay.... It's okay Ari, dear." I crawled into the back with him, watching as his lovely wings shrunk back into his arms. "I guess you're probably a wyvern, now, aren't you?" I whispered. "A big, beautiful wyvern." I stroked his thick black hair, kissing his temple.

Remington drove for a long moment of silence before bursting out "Okay what in the name of Wolverine's whiskers just happened!?" He just about wheezed.

"We're alive," I sighed and leaned back in my seat, all my muscles relaxing. "We're alive," I whispered again, and suddenly I felt my whole body almost turn into lead in exhaustion as the adrenaline drained from my system. I grabbed a pillow and put it up against the window, leaning my head against it with a sigh. I could see the light from Chase's iPad in the corner of my eye, hear Remy talking to me- or himself I wasn't sure. But I sort of faded out, flashes of what had just happened going through my mind. Those wide open jaws... that frightening eye. The roar... goosebumps raised on my arm. I could have died.

As streetlights blurred in my vision, I found myself drifting off.

I yawned what seemed like seconds later, dimly thinking I was still in my dream realm, where I was currently having a lit pool party. I had just jumped into the pool as various fictional perfect guys floated around in giant fruit loops. "Ah, Four in all his tattooed glory... and there was Thor enjoying the punch! Oh, I hope dad doesn't get mad that Legolas just spilled his cake into the pool.

"Legolas... aren't elves s'posed to be graceful?" I murmured, before the sound of my own voice shocked me awake. "Woah." I blinked and looked around.

Wet.

I was very wet.

I was soaking actually. Probably because I was chest deep in water.

Chest deep in... water... I looked out the window blearily, a warmer liquid dripping between my eyes. Somehow I knew what it was. Blood. The sun filtered through the leaves as if heaven had been opened up before me. I stared at the beautiful sight, sighing softly. Dimly, I wondered if an angel was going to come down from that ray of light, face shining, glowing arm extended towards me. He would be beautiful.

CRACK!

A talon jabbed at the car window, jolting me out of my fantasy. Webs of cracked glass spread across my vision.

CRACK.

The talon jabbed again, and I jolted up, breathing hard. "Wh-what?" I could see Chase's wolfy face out there, his paws clinging to the car while his horrifying tail-hand jabbed at the window.

The car dipped forwards and the determined wolf stayed glued to the car as we started to submerge under the surface. My eyes widened as I realized what was going on and I ubuckled, looking over at Ari and Remington, both of whom were knocked out. How was I going to get them out of this mess? I didn't have time to lose. Grabbing Ari's arm, I shook him roughly. "Come on, up up up!" I growled. "Come on, let's go!"

Another crack and water started pouring in faster as I reached forwards and shook Remington's arm. "Remington!" I screamed. He was leaned forwards against the steering wheel, his head resting on the top, his nose just inches from the water. When I shook him, his head fell off and he snorted some of the water up his nose before jolting awake. "What-huh!?" He looked around wildly just as the window broke further, causing a waterfall of water to pour in. Ari screamed.

We were totally submerged now. I tried to help Chase crack open the window by slamming my fist against it, breathing hard as it might be my last. "Ari... now's a good time to show us what you can do!" I squealed. Remington reached out like Ari was his savior and gripped onto his wing. "You can do this," he looked at the dragon as a trail of blood drifted down his forehead. Then he was swallowed up in water.

Ari made a snorting noise of fear, his eyes huge before reaching out and grabbing me.

The car drifted right through us.

I watched in stunned silence as the black truck faded into the depths. It wasn't until Ari jerked on me that my stunned self realized how much I was dying for air. I swam towards the surface, Remington and I working together to pull Ari with us. Behind us, the wolf creature spun his tail like a flagella to swim behind us.

We broke the surface and I breathed in a happy lungful of air, panting as we made our way to the bank. I shivered, realizing just how cold I was. Sitting down hard on the bank, I unleashed a sigh. "Ohhh..." A groan escaped me as I flopped back on the shore by Ari.

"We're alive.... We're alive," Remington whooped and raised his fists to the air. "We're alive!" He crowed. Then my reserved brother grabbed Ari's face and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I knew you could do it!" He sighed happily.

Chase padded out of the water before shaking himself off like a dog, his hair automatically going back to the hardened spikes shape. "Well, thanks to your poor driving, we lost the iPad."

"Well, boo hoo," I said. "At least we got out alive." It irked me how we narrowly escaped death and all he could think about was the stupid iPad.

"We might as well have not!" Chase growled. "That iPad had the device for tracking the dragon riders! Without it, we'll get caught in a millisecond!"

"That's true," I murmured as I ran a hand through my hair. "We lost... everything."

Remington looked away. "I... fell asleep at the wheel." He mumbled, ashamed.

"Idiota," Chase grumbled.

I didn't need to know Spanish to know what he meant. "Shut up," I ran a hand through my wet hair. "We'll find a way."

Remington slowly got to his feet, looking around. All around us was miles of woods. The bridge we had crossed over was old, and only had two lanes. No cars were passing so far. "Where are we?" He murmured.

"Last I checked, somewhere in rural New York," Chase snapped his tail like a whip. "Middle of nowhere."

Remington bit his lip. We were freezing. We had no clothes, no food, no supplies, and a cold breeze filtered through the air. How long would we last out here?

Ari let out a low whine before sniffing and stiffening.

That's when we heard a low growl behind us before a net was thrown over our unsuspecting bodies.