8. Reylor

Chapter 8

Reylor

M y phone rang, and I recognized the number. Actually, I’d barely made it to my truck before I typed her name in with the number, so I’d know it was her if she called. Assuming she called. I didn’t think she would.

Now she had and I’d only left her place a few hours before.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Reylor!” she gasped out. “I need you.”

I sat bolt upright on my sofa inside the small house I was renting until I bought a place of my own.

“Are you alright, Hannah?” My heart thundered, roaring through my chest, and scales rippled across my skin. If I wasn’t careful, I’d shift and that was never pretty inside a small living room. The lease specifically stated I was not allowed to conduct “monsterly activity” on the premises.

I suspected imploding the room and scorching the walls with my shift would be considered monsterly activity.

“Someone’s inside my building,” Hannah whimpered.

“Where are you?” I was already halfway toward the front door. I wrenched it open and leaped off the tiny porch, landing squarely on the lawn.

“Inside my car.”

“Lock the doors.”

“Already done.”

“Good. Stay where you are. I’ll be right there.” I ended the call and seamlessly shifted, bursting off the lawn with my wings snapping out. A few flaps put me above the building, and I flew over the town, aiming for her B&B. After landing in her driveway behind her car, I shifted back, realizing I hadn’t grabbed my bag when I left.

Naked, I leaped over to stand beside her car door.

She gaped up at me, her gaze gliding down across my chest to my waist. The rest of me remained hidden by her door—I hoped. When her eyes returned to mine, she blinked a few times before lowering her window. “Where are your clothes?”

“Shifted. Forgot my bag.”

“Shifted as in into a dragon?”

I nodded.

“Do you strip before shifting?”

“When our bodies expand, our clothing shreds. When we return to our human form, well . . . As I said, I forgot my bag.”

“Okay. I’m not wearing much more than you, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. I was in my tub when the lights started flickering.”

“Electrical issues?”

She shook her head. “The wiring was redone within the past ten years. The roof. The plumbing, though not all the fixtures yet. The rest was left for me.” She explained about the lights and finding her front door and windows open. “And when I went to call you, my cell phone was missing. I know I plugged it in and laid it on my bedside table, yet I found it in the kitchen, the cord dangling onto the floor.”

“I see.”

“I didn’t put it there.” She grappled with the towel she’d wrapped around her body after bolting from her bath. “I’m meticulous about stuff like this. I keep that cord in my bedroom in case I need it, and I always plug my phone in at night. I went around and made sure the front door and all the windows were locked before I went to my suite and locked myself inside to bathe. Although,” she frowned, “before I got in the tub, I swore I saw someone slinking around in the backyard. I went out and looked, but I didn’t find anyone or evidence someone had been there.”

I snarled my fingers through my hair. “You should’ve called me then.”

“I thought it might be a tourist who got lost and wandered up the beach. Or that I might catch whoever is destroying my flower beds.”

“Which is why you should’ve called me. I’m here to handle this now. There’s no need for you to endanger yourself.”

“I suppose.” Her sigh bled out.

I peered toward the building. “Wait here.” I left her, striding across her lawn and up onto the porch. The front door was wide open. All the windows looking out onto the porch were too.

I studied the area, seeking movement in the dense vegetation on either side of her lawn but found nothing. Was the perp watching? I might dismiss a pocket watch as a ghostly occurrence—a big maybe right there—but tonight’s tricks had been done by a real person. I doubted ghosts opened windows and doors, let alone moved plugged-in phones, even if they might make lights flicker.

I couldn’t believe I was starting to believe ghosts existed.

Before I left her porch, I grabbed a cushion off one of the wicker chairs and held it over my groin. No need to shock her any more than I already had. I rejoined her at her car.

She’d gotten out and leaned against it with Max in her arms.

He blinked at me before peering around, his whiskers twitching.

“Let’s go inside,” I said.

We climbed the front steps and entered the foyer, and she locked the door behind us. She flicked the switch, and the lights came on overhead.

“I swear they didn’t work a short time ago.” Her voice came out high-pitched and frantic.

“I believe you.” Someone was playing games with Hannah.

I was going to track them down and rip off their head.