Chapter Thirteen

Lindsey

Waking up in Brody's strong arms, his body next to mine, feeling his warmth, had to be the best sensation I'd ever experienced. Without his presence, his arms around me, I know I wouldn't have slept a single wink. When I lifted my head from his chest, drowsy, still half asleep, I saw him wide awake, smiling.

"You didn't sleep at all." I yawned around the accusation.

"'Fraid not. I hated to move you, but I have to get to work."

"Okay."

Rising to my elbow, I leaned over to kiss him. "Take the truck. I don't think the neighbors should spend the day looking at it."

"I already reached that conclusion."

Brody rose from the bed, wearing only his shorts, catching my breath at his utter magnificence. He dressed quickly, tucking his big package into his jeans, not afraid to grin when I watched him do it. Sitting up, wearing my shirt and undies, I crossed my legs.

"Will Rivers come after me?"

"I don't know. That's why I don't like leaving you alone."

I nibbled my lip. "Maybe I'll go somewhere for the day. Take my laptop, work from a café or the library."

"A most excellent idea."

Leaning his hands on the mussed bed, he kissed me. "Don't shower, don't eat, just grab your computer and go."

"But I stink," I protested.

"Better stinky than dealing with Rivers alone," he said. "And you don't stink."

"Yeah, I do."

I climbed from the bed and donned a fresh pair of jeans. I turned my back as I removed my shirt and put on a clean one. Not out of modesty, not completely. I didn't want Brody to see my unsightly scar. In my office, I grabbed my laptop, its charging cord, my Ford's smart key. I seized my purse just as Brody hustled me from my house.

"Eat along the way," he ordered. "Don't come back here unless I'm with you."

"Okay."

I gave him the keys to the truck, watched him drive away with the engine roaring. Only then, witnessed by neighbors or not, I got into the Ford and left my house. I didn't see anyone watching from doors or driveways and wondered why I needed to be secretive.

"They need to mind their own damn business."

***

I worked at an internet café in the downtown area, eating sweet rolls and drinking coffee. The place was quiet, subdued, other people working on their laptops even as I did. I fit right in.

Except for the bandages on my wrists.

My rope-torn skin burned with a fire that neither aspirin nor ibuprofen managed to put out. My typing movements pained them, but I had to make a living. I needed the income. Badly. I dared not let my thoughts of what I truly was interfere, but it did, anyway.

I'm a dragon. A fucking, flying, fire breathing dragon.

How does one process the knowledge that one wasn't human? That fire breathing dragons do indeed exist, and one is, er, one of them? Everything I'd ever thought about myself had been tossed into turmoil. My parents? They had to be dragons. Did they not know? Is that why they never passed that information to me?

Pausing in my work, I gazed into space, wondering if I should e-mail them. Hey, Mom and Dad! How the hell are ya? I'm a dragon shifter, I found it out the hard way. You guys are dragons, too. How about we all take a flight?

If they weren't aware, that wasn't the way to tell them. If they did know, why didn't they tell me ? Teach me about myself, what I am, what I'm capable of doing. Teach me what to do, and more importantly, what not to do. No, dear, no setting the schoolyard bully on fire. We can't let the other children know you're a dragon.

I sighed and sought to get my work done. Only by sheer will did I finish the article and e-mail it off to the client. That left two more to start, a short story to complete, and a copy-editing job with a deadline of tomorrow. I pulled up the editing task and worked on it throughout the afternoon. Cup after cup of coffee kept the lines from blurring, my exhaustion fighting me to stay on top, always challenging me for dominance.

Five o'clock. Brody promised to drive straight home, collect me, then we'd take the truck back to the farm, or wherever it was my unnamed kidnapper took me. I had few qualms about returning. I may not have conquered my weariness, but I sure as shit conquered my fear.

He stood on the sidewalk by the truck, waiting for me as I parked the Ford. Brody kissed me as though it was the most natural thing in the world, and I accepted it as the same. "You look tired," he commented as we entered my house.

"I'm all done in," I admitted.

"We can wait on the lessons," he said, concerned. "Let's just run the truck back, wipe our prints, then come home."

I caressed his broad chest, looking into his face. His wound had nearly healed, and I suspected his remaining scar wouldn't detract from his hotness a single bit. "No," I replied. "I need this. I do."

"Okay."

He grinned as he gestured for me to join him in the pickup. "We'll be flying back."

I gulped. "Oh. I see."

"It's easier for you to tell me where to go than for me to follow you."

"Right. Maybe."

I turned us around only twice as I navigated and Brody drove. The first stars emerged in the dark sky when I guided him down the long dirt lane from the highway. In the truck's headlights, the devastation I'd caused the house was even more clear than I remembered. We busily wiped our evidence from the truck and left the key in the ignition.

"Where is he?" Brody asked.

In silence, I led him to the body. Critters had already been at him. His eyes had vanished, as had his lips and, I think, his tongue. Flies, even in the darkness, buzzed over his dried blood, laying their eggs. Their offspring would devour him in due course. Along with the coyotes, coons, rats.

"Austin hasn't found him then," Brody murmured.

"Or did, and just left him," I said. "He can't go to the cops and say my serial killer friend was killed by the victim I sent him to rape and murder."

"Good point."

Brody walked away from the old farm and the corpse, heading toward the trees. I followed, scared and thrilled, terrified and worried that I couldn't shift into my dragon again. Or if I did, I'd kill myself by trying to fly. Or burn Brody to death.

He took my hand. "I'll shift first. Don't be scared. I'll never hurt you."

I swallowed hard. "Okay."

After taking several steps away, Brody changed. I stumbled back in terror as he towered over me, his golden eyes lit from within. His massive wings blocked all the starlight even as he grinned, his reptilian lips sweeping back from long, backward curving teeth.

"See?" he rumbled, his voice Brody's, yet deeper. "I'm a dragon."

He stunned me with his beauty. Throwing off my fear, I walked around his pillar like legs, his massive tail, his scales that seemed to draw in what light there was and make him glow. He arched his long sinuous neck to follow me, the rank of spikes from the crown of his head to his shoulders bending as easily as his neck.

"Breathe fire," I ordered, my voice a squeak.

Turning his head, Brody exhaled a single line of flame. Even with his head turned, and its slender length, its immense heat struck me, making me sweat.

"Good God," I panted. "How hot can your – our – fire get?"

"Hot enough to turn steel into a glowing pool in seconds," he replied. "Okay, focus your thoughts on your inner dragon. She's there, within you. Focus at first, then with time and practice, shifting will become second nature."

"I don't know if I can."

"Try it, baby."

I shut my eyes, breathing deeply, calming my nervousness. I imagined my dragon within my mind –

I changed .

"You did it!" Brody whooped.

My emotions careening from wild fear to wild elation, I looked around at myself. Again, I saw clearly in the darkness. Every blade of grass, every pine needle, my every black scale. With more control, I spread my wings and took a few tentative steps. My long, savage talons tried to trip me up, but I soon grew used to them.

"That's it," Brody crowed. ‘Take your time. Get used to your dragon. She's you, and you are her. Every time you shift, she'll be right there to guide you. Her instincts are yours."

"How do I make fire?"

"That's a little tricky," Brody explained, pacing to stand at my side. "Your breathing is normal, yes? Lungs, air in and air out?"

"Yes."

"When you want your flames, you will them. Your fires aren't like a furnace, waiting, burning. You take a breath, suck in like so, and command your fire. Like this."

Brody exhaled a vast gust of flames so hot I leaped backward. I stumbled over my tail, caught myself with my wings, and finally balanced myself. "Holy shit."

Small flames burned merrily on the ground. Brody stomped them out. "Inhale, think fire, exhale. Try it."

I tried it. I inhaled, thought fire, and merely breathed outward. "Nothing happened."

"Focus, Lindsey. It'll come to you."

Again, I focused my thoughts inward, concentrated, then inhaled, and sent such a huge swath of flames I scared myself. Again, I lunged backward, flailing my wings, hurting my tail. I'd set fire to the dead twigs and pine needles, forcing both of us to stomp them out.

"Your finesse will come," Brody said, grinning. "Just practice. Now, it's time to fly."

Panic hit me. "Uh, no, that's okay. I'll stay on the ground. I'm sorta afraid of heights –"

"Don't be a pussy."

Spreading his wings, Brody leaped into the air. His front legs folded under his chest, his rear legs behind him, his long, spade tail trailed in his wake. His beauty in flying had my jaw dropping in astonishment. He soared as gracefully as any hawk. Instantly, I craved to be up there with him, flying as he did, the wind under my wings lifting me higher and higher.

"Come on," Brody called down. "You can do it. Your dragon knows. Trust her."

"I'm not very good at trust remember," I snapped.

"Do it. Use your legs. Jump, catch the wind."

Grumbling under my breath, I gathered my haunches under me, then leaped.

My broad wings worked without my asking them to. The wind caught me, not the other way around. As the ground fell away beneath me, I looked up to see Brody circling high over my head. I beat my wings, working them harder, gaining altitude – flying !

"Oh my God," I shrieked, elated. "I'm doing it. I'm flying, I'm flying ."

Brody dove past my face, laughing. "Where's your fear of heights?"

"What fear of heights?"

I gained confidence in my dragon. Brody was right. She knew what to do. How to dip a wingtip to bank right or left. How to fold my wings to dive. How to spread them before I smashed into the ground and speed ten feet above it. She was there all along, teaching me, guiding me, helping me to be the real Lindsey.

I flamed as I flew. The sheer joy I'd found in flying high into the sky beside Brody brought my soul's fire illuminating the black night. Brody flamed at my side, dancing with me beneath the stars, soaring with the starlight on my wings.