Chapter 7

"Demons? Demons are real?"I croaked out. Goose bumps erupted all over me. Not because of his story. No, after the events of yesterday, and meeting a real goddess, why not believe that demons are real? Heck, maybe other mythical creatures would be as well.

Snorting, I leaned back in my chair, staring at Trace, imagining what he would look like in his shifted form. "Next, I suppose you'll tell me dragons are real, too." I leveled my gaze at him, not in anger but in wonder.

No matter what he revealed about himself, no matter how frightening, I knew deep down it would not extinguish my body's need for him. I sensed that this inexplicable draw was not going to cease, only grow. And I feared it would never end, not even if I gave in to my desire and took him into my body. I had to stop objectifying him and his lickable body. He was more than a walking sex dream, right?

"Actually, you'll have a chance to meet one eventually. My brother Quinn is a dragon shifter."

Huh? I had half been suspecting Trace was one because of his wings, but his were made of feathers, not scales.

"Wow, okay. So I'm guessing you're something else."

"I'm a phoenix shifter. Our mother has a warped sense of humor. At our birth, she gifted us each with an alternate form. I've always suspected she did it to piss our father off. But she so rarely speaks of their time together, so we've had to piece together some things on our own."

A phoenix shifter?"Wait. Don't phoenix die every thousand years, then be reborn? Or so I've read. Does that mean you come back as an actual bird, or…?"

This question seemed to agitate Trace. He pushed back from the table and paced the room.

"Actually, it's once a century and I'm at the beginning of a cycle. That's why my wings are out. I'm unable to shift them back as I'll gradually turn into my phoenix form before igniting into fire, then flaming out in a spectacular display. But, yeah, typically, I rise from the ashes in human form."

All of this was too fantastical. But being who and what I was, most of what he just told me didn't seem that far out there. If I had grown up without magic, I probably would have collapsed into a blubbering mass of confusion. So, okay, I could deal with this. Still wasn't sure about the mate thing, but I'd handle this new world of immortals that included gods, monsters and, yes, even aliens.

A wave of empathy overcame me as I noticed the look of longing on Trace's face. A look that seemed to be begging me to not only believe him, but accept him.

Standing, I walked toward him, suddenly needing to be closer to him. "That, in a word, sucks. To be a creature that dies over and over, how awful." I purposely avoided saying anything about how I now suspected the mating bond had been running havoc through my veins.

Trace wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me in tight against his hard frame. With my feet dangling, my heart pumping, and my body screaming "yes," I held my breath, desperately hoping he'd kiss me again.

"I am no creature. I shift into a phoenix, yes, but I assure you, I am all male." Trace's words came out low and gruff. He sounded like a starving man—for me. Or was that wishful thinking?

I needed to change the subject before I did something drastic and begged him to kiss me, and so much more. But he beat me to it.

Disappointment filled me as he let me go. "There's food in the freezer. Please help yourself. I need to get back to finding a way to break my mother's spell and find any of my brothers. Don't wait up."

Shocked at his sudden change in mood, I watched as he left me and went back to the bank of monitors, and satellite maps, effectively dismissing me. Don't wait up? Who did he think he was? I should just lock myself in the bedroom and ignore him until this ridiculous episode ended. Besides, I needed to continuing searching the castle for the spell book. That was, after all, the reason I'm here. Not to be ravaged by a phoenix shifter who had me salivating like a female in heat.