Chapter 17 - Lena

"What do you mean, your father?" I can't connect the dots between what just happened and what Cyrus is telling me.

"I'll explain. Well, he will hopefully be able to explain."

"You aren't making any sense. What was that? What was wrong with Tom's eyes? Did he actually hiss?"

I round on him, my frustration flaring. I put my hands on my hips as Cyrus raises his hands in a defensive move. Sparks are crackling in my peripheral vision.

"Can you take a few deep breaths? And try to calm down, maybe?"

Calm? Calm down?!

An arc of electricity jumps from my hand to Cyrus before I can even land my hand on something to throw at him. The surprise of it scares me, and I jump back, inspecting my hand as if it's some sort of foreign body. My eyes fly up to Cyrus as he is hit with the bolt of electricity mid-chest and crumples to his knees.

"Oh God! Cy!"

I move toward him with my instinct telling me to help him, but then the reality hits me that I'm the one who just somehow brought my six-foot-four, solid-muscle "husband" to his knees. I fold my arms under my chest like that will somehow make it better, but panic is setting in.

"Deep breaths, Sweetheart, please? It's getting stronger," he struggles with short breaths.

The panic isn't making things any better for him. I try and fail at calming down. I shake my head with disbelief. Tears start streaming down my face, and I have no idea why.

Cyrus's body convulses hard, and I can see his muscles straining against the effort. He pushes himself to stand, but looks like it's taking a monumental effort. I just keep shaking my head.

"I can't. This can't be me. It can't," I keep repeating, blinking through the tears.

He finally crosses the small distance between us and strains to pull me toward him, folding me into a giant hug. I feel his body shaking violently with the effort.

"Breathe in for four, slowly. Good. Now, slowly out for four. There you go. Again."

His body is starting to shake less, and he's able to get a hand up to my head, running his hand through my hair, trying to move it out of my face as the last waves of sobbing hit me.

"What the fuck is happening to me?"

He looks down at me and exhales deeply.

"I wish I knew, but we're going to get some answers, okay? I think it's going to be really important that we try to keep you as relaxed as possible since your emotions seem to drive this. I know that's hard, but honestly, we'll have to. What herbs will help you? Anything?"

He loosens his arms like he's going to let me go to look for something, and I reach around, pulling him back toward me.

"Wait."

His arms fold back around me, and he holds me tight while I stand there for a minute. I try to do what he said, breathing. The closeness of him is helping.

"Just stand here for a minute and let me think. If you step away, it comes back."

"Okay," he whispers and goes back to just standing there and holding me.

The tears are starting to subside, which is great. I hate crying, and even more so in front of people. It just adds to the anxiety of whatever the heck I am doing to him.

I inhale deeply, and his familiar warm scent saturates my brain. It makes me feel safe. It's that part of me that knew from the first time he touched me that he's safe and feels like home.

"Okay, peppermint and chamomile tea, maybe? I don't want to be here in town. What if I hurt someone?"

He shushes me and turns so that I'm tucked under one arm and moves around the store, steering me along with him while I'm curled around him, clinging to his waist like a lifeline.

"You're not going to hurt anyone. We'll figure this out. I do think we need to close early and maybe get you back to the house."

He gathers up the tea ingredients I recommend, and I crush up some of the peppermint leaves and just chew on them. Better than nothing. It's helping with the nausea that's set in since I nearly killed him and Tom. What the heck is wrong with me? There's nothing medically I have ever heard of that would make this make any sense.

The trip back to the house is tense and quiet. The logistics of the car force me to sit in my own space, away from him, and causes the anxiety to creep back in.

We get to the house and all of the guys are there except for Milo, who's still stuck teaching at school for a few hours yet. The air is frigid and the ozone-heavy smell of snow is lingering in the air. We're going to have snow before the day's out. I can feel it. I can't remember a year when it felt this solidly like winter in late October. The combination of the cool air and serious faces causes a shiver to run through me as I get out of the car.

Cyrus comes around and pulls me back to his side. I let him, seeking out that comfort and calm that seems to come from his nearness now that I'm not having some full-blown fight-or-flight response that tries to kill him. Just the thought causes a small crackle of energy at the corners of my vision.

"Hey," Cyrus whispers, "Don't worry. The guys have seen weirder. I promise. We'll figure this out."

"What's up?" Evander asks urgently, his eyes filled with worry as we close the distance with everyone. The guys are spread out around the porch around the outdoor table, but they all look tense. "We got your… message. We knew something was up."

Cyrus fills them in while I stand there, still in some weird state of shock. I'm not sure if I'm more shaken by the fact that all of this happened or in the very matter-of-fact way that he's explaining it all to them. Like it's perfectly normal for someone to just spontaneously electrocute people. Sure, totally normal.

"That sounds like draconic power. That's really weird. We're absolutely sure you're human, right?" Rufus asks with a questioning look at me, like he'd be able to see something there that wasn't there before.

"Excuse me?"

A crack of electricity whips out and licks the side of his face, causing him to go rigid before Cyrus pulls me back into a full-body hug again.

"Breathe, please."

Evander moves closer and peeks at me around Cyrus's arm so that he's able to make eye contact while he talks to me.

"He doesn't think. His tongue isn't really connected to his brain most days," Evander offers by way of apology for Rufus as I work on controlling my breathing.

"Ev, what the hell is wrong with me?"

"We're going to figure it out, Lena, I promise." Evander's tone is reassuring, even if something is lurking in his eyes that worries him.

"We're going to have to tell her the truth. The whole truth. There's no other way that any of this will start helping her make sense of what's going on."

A crackle of energy is lurking at the edge of my vision again and Cyrus's body tenses around me as another jolt of energy pulses from my body.

"More lies?" I don't know why my voice sounds so weird, but it sounds foreign even to myself.

He struggles to relax his muscles but manages to run a hand through my hair. The sensation is like an off button for my anxiety.

"Well, okay, yes. Because I'm going to be entirely honest here and tell you the whole truth, I will need you to work on those calming breaths, okay? O, can you make her some tea with that stuff we brought in the car?"

Cyrus settles me in a chair at the far end of the porch with a blanket and the tea before he joins the rest of his team around the table at what they seem to hope is a safe distance from me.

"Answers. Now, please," I snap as I sip slowly at the tea. I feel my irritation pulling at my control over my emotions, and the longer they delay and make ominous statements, the worse it's getting.

"I think showing you may be better than trying to tell you straight out. Just because I am pretty sure if I start talking first, you'll fry my ass," Cyrus sighs as he steps off the porch and starts pulling his shirt off, dropping it to the ground as he walks.

He's stripping as he walks halfway down the driveway away from everything. I look frantically at the guys, but they're all just focused on me.

"What the hell is he doing? This is serious. I don't have time for him to try and distract me with his strip tease."

"Lena," Cyrus calls, pulling my attention back. He's stripped fully naked now and holds my eyes for just a moment before a ripple of energy rolls over his body.

His arms and muscles elongate, and everything shifts in a shimmering haze as his body expands several feet taller. Clawed feet land on the ground with enough force to shake the ground, wings unfurl from his back, and a long-spiked tail swings around him as oddly familiar amber eyes stare back at me from the large, bronze-scaled face.

Cyrus's body is larger than normal. His thighs thick and powerful, have a more animal like shape and are covered in scales. Where his chest has always been muscular it now looks like it's been carved from bronze. Large spikes furl out from his shoulders, flare out from his arms and horns curl, twisting up from his head.

He flexes his wings—yes, wings—out to their full length, and they're massive. Light glows through the gold membrane. He's a… dragon?! What the hell?

My brain is struggling to process and a high-pitched ring starts to fill my ears, and the world fades to black as I feel myself passing out.

Cyrus is clothed and I'm in his lap as I come to. One of his arms is looped around me, and the other is brushing hair back out of my eyes. I blink up at him and around at the guys, who are all still as far away as they can be.

"What the hell happened?"

"Well, what do you remember?" Cyrus asks with a quiet smile.

"A fucking—you're a dragon? Am I on drugs again?"

"No drugs. Not even Milo influencing you into sedation," Cyrus offers with a patient smile.

"Is Milo? Are you all?"

"Yes," Cyrus explains, "That's why we've had to still keep some secrets. I hope you can understand why that's not exactly something we can let be public knowledge, even for someone we're close to. There are only about two thousand of us left in the world, and we really have only lasted this long by keeping to the shadows."

"Dragons? I'm hallucinating again, right? There's no way."

"Do you need the rest of us to show you?" Kaius suggests, wiggling his eyebrows at me suggestively. He's greeted by a full-on growl from Cyrus that rumbles deep from his chest.

"No, no, no more strip teases, please," I answer quickly, thinking back to Cyrus's moment of "show-and-tell".

"Not funny, Kai," Cyrus grumbles as Kaius smirks from across the porch.

"So, not to sound absolutely dumb here, but… why are you really here then, and what does this have to do with little old human me suddenly electrocuting people?"

"Well, that part we're still trying to figure out, in all honesty. There's a prophecy that's been around for about a hundred years: ‘When the moon Eclipses the Sun, the veil to the human world will fall, ending the Sun's powers, and the Eclipse will take over all.' Admittedly it is cryptic, and it's been driving our elders, like Cyrus's Dad, mad for years."

Evander is trying to explain as factually as he can, and he's far less upsetting to me than Kaius at the moment, so I'm grateful when he continues.

"The targets we followed here are part of a clan that calls themselves the Eclipse. We're from the Soleilus clan, which is the Sun referenced there, and have been holding power for the last couple hundred years. But they aren't the only ones we're fighting."

He pauses, his eyes taking on a pained look as he glances at me and Cyrus.

"Cyrus took over eight years ago, and we've solidified our power a good bit, but it's not a guarantee they couldn't overthrow us in the Council. We think they're here looking for a magical relic. That's what gives our clans most of their power. Our children being born and bred in the presence of these relics produces stronger generations."

"Okay, so what are you saying? These Eclipse people think I have your magic thingy?"

"Yes, that's been Nestor's theory," Cyrus sighs.

"Nestor?" I ask, turning to look up at him.

"My father."

"Okay, so your dad thinks I have some magical whatsit, so he sends you guys out here?"

"Pretty much, but it's a really powerful magical whatsit," Orion says quietly from his corner of the porch. "I can't tell you the last time I felt traces of power like I do here."

"Can you all stop calling it a whatsit?" Cyrus sighs, "Anyway, yes, that's the long and short of it. That's why we're here. The other part of your question as to what's happening to you, that I don't think any of us have an idea on."

The group all shake their heads slowly. Awesome, I've out-weirded the magical group of weirdos. What could possibly go wrong next?

"I'll call Nestor and ask him to check the archives, but honestly, I've never seen or heard of a human going through an awakening of power. It's like what we go through as teens when we come into our powers. It's the closest I can get to it. It's all just tied to raw emotion at this point," Evander offers, "It's going to be important that you work on learning to control your emotions. Especially since we don't know what this really is or means."

"I'm a human, right?" I ask it but hear how silly it sounds as the words come out of my mouth, "There's no way I'm a dragon, right? You guys are born like this."

"You're definitely human," Cyrus respond, and the whole group nods, "Your scent gives it away. Something is changing it, but you're still definitely human."

"My scent? You're what, all sitting around sniffing me? Gross."

"It's not like that," Cyrus laughs lightly, "We have really strong senses. Some of us have different abilities, but scent is just a thing. It's a part of who we are."

"I think I'm going to need something stronger than tea."