Chapter 2

When Alice gets home from the store, she sees Jack's changed into an oversized hoodie, and both himself and Taylor seem to be in a state of shock as they stare off into space.

She frowns at once, asking "Jack? Taylor? What is it?"

Taylor's the one that snaps out of her shock first, and she nudges Jack in the side sharply. When that doesn't seem to work quite enough, she says "Jack, ask her. If there was ever a time, I'm telling you this is it."

Alice frowns at the statement, and frowns even harder when Jack hunches into himself for a moment before squaring his shoulders and nodding, and asks "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Jack lets out a slightly hysterical laugh, running a hand through his hair under the hood, and says "Something happened alright, Mom…" He learned he's sprouting dragon scales, and since his mom has no idea...he can only assume he's getting this from his long-lost father that left before he was even born - that, or there is something extremely weird in the forest around the town, and they all need to evacuate immediately before people start sprouting fish-scales, feathers, and horns.

His dad still sounds like the more likely explanation. Gods, he feels like Percy Jackson must've in the book series when he first found out he wasn't a normal human kid.

Alice is at Jack's side as fast as her legs can carry her, questions spilling out of her mouth as she goes - is he hurt? Sick? About to throw up?

Jack shakes his head, then says "Mom, it's...I don't know what it is, but I don't think I'm sick or anything..." He might be going crazy, but that's a long-shot considering Taylor saw the exact same thing he did.

Alice frowns, and says "Whatever it is, then, please just tell me, alright?"

Jack nods, then abruptly drops to the couch, asking "Mom, what...what was dad like? Was there anything...I dunno, weird about him?"

Alice raises an eyebrow in concern, and slowly says "Well...there were some people after him. That's why he couldn't stay, he had to leave to protect us. As for anything weird...weird how?"

Jack pulls his hoodie down to expose the patch of scales on his neck, and says "Weird like this, Mom."

Alice stares for a solid twenty seconds, eyes gone as wide as physically possible, and she finally says "Oh." She promptly drops down to the couch as well.

Taylor frowns, asking "Mrs. Fallon?"

Alice runs shaking hands down her face for a moment, then says "Honestly, I'd hoped this day wouldn't come."

Jack frowns as well, asking "'This day?' Mom, what do you mean?"

Alice takes a shuddering breath in, and says "It's…hard to believe, Jack." Sometimes she thinks it didn't happen even now...until she sees Jack once more, and reality comes crashing in again.

Jack incredulously says "Mom, I'm sprouting dragon scales on my neck! 'Hard to believe' took a bus downtown about thirty minutes ago."

All the breath leaves Alice in one big rush, almost as if she's been punched in the gut, and she nods saying "I see. Your rash, then…gods, I should've realized sooner." She glances up at him, and adds "It never went away, you just said that so I wouldn't worry."

Jack asks "Mom…you knew this would happen?!"

Alice straightens her posture, looking about twenty years older in the space of a few sentences, and tiredly says "I knew it might happen. I knew there was the possibility of it happening." She closes her eyes for a moment, then says "Jack, you…you got this from your father. You've realized that by now, from your earlier question."

Jack swallows nervously, then asks "Mom, this is gonna sound crazy, but…was dad a…dragon?" He's half-expecting her to say no, another small part is thinking she'll frown and start up on a lecture on drug use like one overly-strict teacher in the tenth grade did after four Seniors were caught smoking weed in the boys bathroom.

Instead, Alice nods her head and says "I hadn't known, at first. For a while, Drayce was just like any other man I'd met…bar the detail that he was two-hundred pounds of solid muscle, didn't have an ounce of fat on him, and could lift the end of a pick-up truck with ease."

Taylor nervously asks "And then? What changed?"

Alice runs a hand through her hair, and says "We…we got attacked. I'd recently learned I was pregnant. And…I'd said there were people after him. He'd told me as much, said that they might find him even here. I'd laughed back then, said nothing happens around here. We got married, enjoyed ourselves…and then they showed up one night. Drayce…he revealed himself to me, killed them all. I don't know what they were…but they didn't get the chance to lay a finger on me. Drayce, he…he had to leave. Get far away from here, from me…from you, Jack. It killed him to leave, but he had no choice. It was him leave and make himself a target, or all of us pack up, run, and never stop. Neither of us could do that to you, keep moving around and never let you settle in anywhere."

Jack asks "So…why now, then? Why's this happening all of a sudden?"

Alice shrugs helplessly, and says "I don't know, Jack. I'd genuinely thought you'd be lucky enough to escape this when nothing happened at puberty. Well," she amends with a weak attempt at a smile, "nothing more than you shooting up a few inches in the space of a month and getting three times as solid in the space of a few years, anyway."

Jack runs a hand through his hair, and asks "What now, then? What do we do? Travel cross-country to try and track him down?"

Alice bites her bottom lip in thought, then says "One of the…men that came for Drayce," she disappears into the office for a moment before coming back with a small card, "this dropped out of his pocket right before Drayce killed him."

Taylor picks it up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she does, and reads "'Mythos: the most fantastical scene in the night.' Mrs. Fallon…a nightclub?"

Alice nods, and says "Yeah, a nightclub. I don't have the faintest idea why people after your father would go somewhere like that. I don't even know where it is or who they were." Or what they were, for that matter. Not definitively, and she never wanted it confirmed that vampires had broken into her house to try and kill her or Drayce or worse.

Drayce killing them with his bare hands was a big enough of a shock, right along with how wings sprouted up from his back or how he could control fire with just a thought.

Taylor grabs Alice's phone nearby, quickly typing the club name into Google - what pops up is a place in Las Vegas.

The reviews rave about it, from the crazy-hot dancers to the drinks so strong they can knock a full-fledged body-builder down in one glass to the smoking hot owner of the club, Antonino Styx.

Taylor frowns at a picture of the club after a moment - Antonino Styx sitting on a club couch, the most stunning woman ever snuggled into his side, sleek raven-black hair tumbling down past her shoulders in waves and stunning purple eyes glancing at the camera languidly - and asks "Does he look a little…I don't know, pale to anyone else?"

Jack and Alice take a closer look at the picture, and Jack slowly says "It could just be the lighting…" He seriously doubts it, though, after he started sprouting dragon scales. He absently scratches at the back of his neck, feeling more skin peel up suddenly, and groans to himself - that piece is about the length of his index finger and the width of three of them.

Sighing in defeat, Jack stands up and says "I'll be back in five…again." Time for yet another round of lotion - knowing his skin is peeling off as dragon scales form underneath in no way makes the constant itching and burning go away or even more bearable. It just weirds him out about it even more.

When he takes the hoodie off in the bathroom, he sees there's two more red patches just starting to form on the inside of his wrists. Jack buries his face in his hands for a moment, trying to breathe as he processes the turn of events his life has taken in the past hour and a half or so - his father was a dragon that happened to be able to disguise himself as human, apparently, he's half-dragon and sprouting scales, and the only lead they have to finding him is a nightclub some people that came for him before he was even born happened to have a card for.

'My life's gone completely mad…'

Jack tries to fight off a wave of hysteria as he covers his entire chest area, arms, and thighs with lotion, then groans once more when he sees the irritation on his neck is slowly spreading across it. He's apparently sprouting dragon scales across the areas that would need to be protected the most, his mind supplies - the neck, chest area, wrists, etc. And, upon checking where the rash on his thighs is located, major arteries.

'Well,' Jack decides, 'at least if I'm attacked they'll have a harder time doing me in…'

Unsurprisingly, it's not the comfort he was hoping for. No, right now it feels more like a noose around his neck, getting tighter with each inch that gets irritated somewhere on his body.