Prologue

The Gathering Storm

~~The Peace of being without war~~

~~Evenness of mind, temper, and composure~~

~~Create by imagination, invention, and design~~

Storm walked around the little store listening to the gossip about one of the biggest disasters ever recorded—at least how these people were now witnessing it. She shook her head in amazement. How could humans be so insensitive? Not to mention stupid. That was one of the million and one reasons that she didn't hang out with humans for too long. They not only were, for the most part, clueless, but they seemed to have rose-colored glasses on all the time. The rumor mill was running full blast, it seemed today.

"They say that thousands of those bastards are dead. The whole place just split the roads and ate'em right up. Can't you just imagine what they were thinking when they were being swallowed up like that? I can't, I tell you what." The man behind the counter had himself a great audience, and he was taking full advantage of it today.

"Heard tell that them there houses just toppled over like the kids' blocks. Smashing people while they slept in their beds." The man speaking shook his head. "Mercy sakes alive. It sure did a nasty bit of business over there on that street."

"God is taking some sort of vengeance on them there foreigners. Sure as I'm a ‘sitting here, it's God doing them people in." She actually had to physically close her own mouth when the person made that statement. "They should have stayed in their own place not here where we people are." Storm wondered if a one of the people standing at the counter knew that they were all foreigners to this land.

She also wondered what they'd say about her and her sister if they knew what they really were made her smile. She wasn't going to speculate on it too much, but they'd have plenty to say. There was no doubt about that. They couldn't have gotten more foreigners than they were.

Storm and her twin sister, Ember, were time adjusters for the world. They, like a great many other beings, moved throughout time and made slight adjustments in the fabric of reality when and where it was needed, smoothing out the lines so that it looked untouched, perfect. They'd been doing it longer than any of the beings in this room had been alive. And they would continue to do so long after they were nothing more than dust in their graves. Humans and shifters alike had no idea how many times they'd been recused from their own stupidity.

To do their jobs, they would travel back and forth, sliding into whatever persona was needed to blend into the world they were in. It took great strength and lots of practice to even attempt what they did for the world. Sometimes, they were the only ones standing between the extinction of mankind and the world being populated at any given time. Storm caught a reflection of her face as she walked around the little odds and ends store.

Tall, at just over six-foot, Storm was well-proportioned and athletic. Of course, no one would see that under her long dress and equally long sleeves. Her long dark hair, when not pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head as it was now, hung nearly to her waist in springy corkscrew ringlets. Her wings, too, pressed tightly against her back and legs only gave a small hint of what she really was.

Her skin, like her sisters, was alabaster and smooth as velvet. The only mark that marred their skin was the tattoo of their kind. It was a dragon that wore the wings that curled around their back clawed hands seemingly holding onto their shoulders while the tail trailed down their ribs and wrapped around their legs. Storms on her left leg, Embers to her right.

When their wings were spread and covering their arms from shoulders to their wrists, it would be, she supposed, frightening to anyone who would see her without any knowledge of what she was. Smiling at the men when they tipped their hats at her, she put her purchases on the counter and waited her turn to be waited on.

At the moment, Storm was in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-three in the body of a school teacher about to start "schooling" the area children in their reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was the closest body that fit her size when she popped into the time zone. The teacher would have no memories of her being Storm for a bit. There would be a slight accident, a small tumble that would alter her memories. Not that she'd remember Storm and what she had done, but the teacher would recover easily and never be the wiser of what she'd done for her world.

This time, working in this area, it had been a small fix. A mountain had come down on a family that was digging for clay and killed the youngest child. Storm had been tasked to save the child. Her future and that of a great many generations beyond her wouldn't be born if she'd been killed. Saving the family, simply making them later than they had planned to the mountain side, had done the trick. The mom, always so organized, would forget to bring the cold water she'd stored in the creek that ran by their home to keep it nice and chilled for them all. Storm loved it when it was something like this had been.

There were times when whole realities had to be altered. Generations needed to be moved ahead to save someone. Sometimes, it was to save a being or one of the descendants of a human who was needed in the future. Other times, it was to erase a horrific time in the lives of humans—mostly, it was natural disasters where many deaths occurred. Humans, for the most part, would change up their entire lives, nothing to do with the ones that had been killed because they were witnesses to something so horrific that they had seen. It was all in the timing, she knew.

Other times it was the consequences of the disaster that were too large and affected too many things when they rippled down through the ages and had to be removed. Something as simple as a house being crushed with their things inside. It could have been the witnessing of a family pet being killed. Any and all things that would alter everything, and it was up to them to repair the damage that had been done.

As Time Displacement Officers, they were there to insure that the shifts were smooth, with no overlapping lines after the time frame was removed or fixed. Storm would watch an event, something that she'd fixed a thousand times to make sure that things were normal. However, gifted humans or small children saw the flaws. It was easily explained as déjà vu. Or a dream, too. Small children would complain to their mothers or fathers about how they'd done this before, only to be told that they were wrong. Poor little tykes. She would believe her children, should she ever find one, she knew that.

Storm was also there to capture another of their kind and bring him to justice. It was he who had moved the family to the mountain for the one to be killed. And he would have profited off of the disaster had she not been there when it unfolded. That neither was something that they could let happen. Everything you did, even from pulling a leaf off of a tree, would affect generations of families, she'd come to learn. And that was the very thing that the other being was doing.

His name was Grail. He had been altering reality to suit his own personal gain and to profit for a while now, but no one could catch him. She was determined to find and make him pay before he could cause any more trouble. Altering a time line too often would lead to sloppy work and time twitches that people would notice. And that was something that she was afraid of more than anything that she'd encountered in the human world. Too many glitches would wake the residents of the world to question what was going on, and it would—nearly all the time make them question their sanity.

Profit and notoriety from their jobs, both of which were laws that carried the sentence of death if broken, was what he had been doing today. Storm shuddered at the thought of the death he would endure when they took him back to Chilast, their magical realm. Death would not come easily or quickly for one like Grail. He had to know that. So why was he doing this when he knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught?

They didn't have the people to chase after him and keep the world and its people safe. As it was now, they were stretched to the limit. Working from sun up to sun down and all the between time too, it had been so long since she'd had a day off that she wanted to just lie down, pull some leaves over her, and go to sleep. For about a thousand years.

Storm's twin sister, Ember, had gone to Tokyo to study and gather names of their kind for the continuation of their race. So far, all she'd been able to find was the list of dead. All of the dragons that had come after her and a few others who had been killed were on that list. That wasn't doing any of them a bit of good, and they all knew it. They were aging out, the lot of them and there wasn't anything that they could do about it.

It didn't bother their kind when they would wind time backward. It was the moving of time forward that would harm them. Time, it would add, even if it was only a click of a second to their age. And having to look at something over and over, forward and back, it might well add as many as ten minutes onto their long lives. After a while and all those adding up, a dragon would age quicker, worn down by time and effort, because without rest and some time off, they'd just fade away like all the other creatures in the world.

Storm had been sent to the Americas for her assignment to find and collect Grail before he could act on his plan. If they didn't find him, and soon, all the work they'd kept up with would be useless. They'd all be dead, and there wasn't anything that could be done about it after that.

But she had a feeling this time was different. They knew his plan, what he had needed and who to make himself in a new body to get away. It was what they had needed, what they were counting on to bring him to heel and to make all their lives safer without him in their worlds.

There was supposed to be a natural disaster, a large-scale shift in the earth's interior make up that would cause the entire state of California to drift into the deep ocean and sink, killing all the inhabits there. There were people there that he needed to complete the next phase of his power play against his own kind. She had been sent there to make sure that it didn't happen and to bring Grail to the Laws of the Realm.

Those people, men, and women alike, were the pioneers of the future that Grail was manipulating. Their collective knowledge would be passed down to their children and then on to the next generation. They were brilliant and would revolutionize the world with Grail's backing and help. And not in a good way that would only benefit themselves and no one else.

They, like Grail, were evil and only thought to gain untold riches and wealth from sources within the different time lines that he was supposed to care for. From future records, the Time Displacement Office – the TDO and the Elders of their kind, knew that he had taken this opportunity to steal them away along with all their equipment. In the aftermath of the devastating slide, everyone would assume they had been killed as well. After decades of exhaustive tracing and retracing the lines of time back, the TDO knew this was where he made his first move to bring his plan to fruition.

But the quake, the distraction as it was never to happen. At least not where it had happened in the history they had studied. It had happened the day before in Tokyo, where Ember was studying and gathering information. She worried for her, and when she couldn't contact her, she just knew the worst had happened.

Storm had been trying to contact her sister for hours without luck. They were both immortals and could shift and fly away if danger was imminent, but with the suddenness of the quake in Tokyo and the horrific scale on which it had occurred, Storm feared her sister needed her and needed her now.

Storm felt the first touches of Ember as she exited the store. The feelings got stronger the more Storm concentrated on her sister's touch to her mind. It was all she could do to keep an eye out as to where she was going and thinking about her sister at the same time.

"Are you all right? I've been trying to reach you for hours. What's happened?" Storm said as soon as the link was snapped into place between them. Ember told her that she was fine, never better. "I've been so worried about you that I can barely breathe."

"There are signs of him here. I have contacted several of our kind in the area, and they say that he stayed with them for one night two days ago. I can smell him and his poison here deep within the belly of the mountains where the records are kept." Storm smiled at her greeting. Ember was never one to mince words when it came to their jobs.

"Did he hurt any of them? Ask them for their help?" It would be just like him to murder them all just to throw them off his scent. But, at least for now, he only killed when he could gain from it.

"No. He spoke to no one but the people who were kind enough to allow him to rest at their dwellings. They say that he had a satchel with him, but he didn't seem to want to let anyone know what was in it. The Elders found a small thread, or we may not have known that he was even here. He's either getting better at hiding from us, or we're getting worse at our job, Storm."

"It's the same story here. He spent a night with the others here and then left. No one mentioned a satchel, though. He moved the place and altered the fabric where he had been. Ember, he didn't take the people he had before. Somehow, he has modified the events of that night yet again." Storm was suddenly terrified, and she was sure things were going to get worse before they caught up with him. "What do you suppose was in the sachet? I mean, is it important you think?"

"Moran, the one who was closest to him when he was here, said that it had photos in it. Some of them were old tin types, others digital, and one hologram. He thought they looked like me, but the eyes were the wrong color. I'm assuming that it must have been of you. Also, from what I could gather, there were images of the people in California. There…there was a picture of a man, as well. One that we've not encountered in all our searches as yet."

"Photos? Maybe he's using outside help trying to find these people. Makes sense that he would have pictures. He'd have to show them who to look for, right? No, he didn't take anyone, as far as I can tell. It's…he's changed everything again."

There was a long pause, through their connection; Storm could feel her sister's tension.

"What is it? Something has happened. Tell me."

"The Elders, they called me two days ago. They needed an extraction. I…they had me take a human away from a deadly shooting. I've no details yet, but he is to be guarded at all costs. I have him deep within the mountains with us. He is curious but not frightened. I think that is why there was a shift in the location of where the quake happened. I think we missed this man somehow, and we angered Grail by taking him. He was in one of the photos in the Grails collection. Storm, this man, he was to die."

"Who is he? Had he been taken by Grail before? Is he one of Grail's minions?" She was more worried for her sister's safety than ever before.

"No. He isn't like that. His mind and body are pure. His spirit is clear. The shooting I took him from killed the others like him – men who uphold the law. I barely made it to him before the killings began in a house in New York. My wings were damaged slightly; I've been in a healing sleep until now." Still, Storm could feel her hesitation.

"Tell me the rest, Ember." She could have looked, she supposed, but in her current state, she knew that she'd hurt her sister. And she didn't want to do that. Hurting her would hurt her as well. "Ember?"

"I've been…the others here, we've…I've formed a bond with one. I've found my mate, Storm. After all this time, I've found my mate, and I'm afraid. Not of him, no, but what this is going to mean for the two of us. They will curtail my work soon."

Storm felt her heart stutter to a stop. Her mate, Ember, had found her mate. Storm moved to the outer wall of the store and leaned heavily against it. This would change everything. Ember could no longer help her with their job. As soon as Storm thought about it, she felt horrible. Ember had found her mate. She should be rejoicing.

"Storm, please don't be mad. I didn't mean for this to happen." She had hurt her anyway. The tone of Ember's voice told her that.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm happy for you. It's just a surprise, that's all. I wish you nothing but happiness and good fortune. I love you." Storm, stronger now because she had heard from Ember and knew that her sister was going to be all right, continued. "I'm going to contact the Elders and see what they want me to do now. You'll be all right for now? You're making sure that you're all safe while you work?"

"Yes, I am fine. Thank you, Sister. I will be waiting for you in our cave. You let me know when you will be arriving, and I'll be watching the sky for you."

Storm hoped it would be that easy, but knowing the Elders as she did, she doubted it very much. They would want something from her, and she'd do it because Storm was loyal to a fault.

~~Devotion to the continued existence of life~~

~~Devotion to the supreme good~~

~~Pure condition of body and mind~~

It was against the Laws of the Realm to appear before the Elders in any other form than the one that you had been born to. She didn't mind that so much as she loved being a dragon whenever she could. As soon as Storm arrived at the castle, she reached out to touch the magistrate to set up a meeting with the Elders and the Queen. She was both surprised and terrified that they had readily agreed to see her as soon as she had eaten and shifted.

Food was brought to her, and she enjoyed a large meal. As soon as she had finished, she knew that she needed to complete her mission and get back to her sister. Moving to the outdoor paddock just outside her suite of rooms, Storm began her shift.

She loved to be a human. Storm loved the soft textures of their skin, the feel of the hair upon the body. She also loved the way the fingers bent and was able to grasp things within them. The light feelings of simply walking would make her giddy with anticipation of stepping into the grass or sand with her bare feet. But to be her true self, there was nothing better.

Storm was a dragon, an Enneahedral Dragon—also known as a Ninefold Dragon. She was as rare as any being could be. Storm was the ninth daughter of nine daughters for nine generations. When she had been hatched, she had inherited all the elementals of the earth and the nine directives as well. Her powers were nine times that of her sister Ember—even though she'd only been seconds behind her in coming out of her shell and abilities that went beyond any other dragons.

With being the ninth in so many lines, Storm was to be Queen of their kind as soon as she found a mate worthy of her and her love. But she was in no hurry to find either. She was too busy to care for a lover and didn't want one slowing her down either.

As soon as she stepped into the magical arena, she let her body respond to the pull of her Dragon. First her body elongated, her spine curving and pulling, stretching to accommodate the large bulk of her form. Then her feet, dainty and small as a human, they too stretched and great claws formed at the toes. The wings at her back began pulling away from her body and forming into a great expanse, wide and full. Flapping them once, she felt the blood surge through them, and then she pulled them tight against her body. Her face molded and formed into a massive head, teeth a foot in length and sharp as the talons at her feet filled her mouth full and lethal. The human skin along her arms became scales of great strength, able to protect her from any weapon, small or large. Her scales shimmered in the moonlight, catching and reflecting the gold and silver that blazed within each protective shell. By the time the shift was complete, Storm was a massive twenty-five feet tall, seventy feet wide with her wingspan, and weighed several tons of pure muscle and bone. She moved to the large door that went directly into the throne room and bowed before the other dragons gathered there, careful of every step that she took.

"Mistress Storm, thank you for coming to see us so quickly. We have much to discuss." Storm dipped her head to hide her confusion. They had expected her?

"You must go to China. We need for you to bring back the man Alexander Walsh. It is imperative that he survives. He is vital to the future of our race, to all of us."

"Pardon me, Sire, but my sister, Ember, she is—" Storm started to tell them what she was sure that they already knew but they cut her off.

"Ember is going to have a hatchling soon. She must stay hidden. If Grail finds her, he will destroy her and the babe. No, it is you who needs to go and bring him back to us. May we count on you to serve us well, Mistress Storm?"

"Of course." Storm bowed before them and took a step back to leave the room. She was stopped by a slight cough from behind her.

"My lords, have you yet told the Mistress what is expected of her?" Storm startled. The being was small but by no means diminished in her stature. Standing before her was the strongest being any had ever known. Her mother, Queen of the Enneahedral Dragon clan, had swept into the room, her strength preceding her. "I will take it upon myself to do that now. You're dismissed." The people in the room disappeared at her command.

"Mother, you look well." Storm never knew how to speak to her mother, Morning. She had always intimidated her. Now was no different. Her beauty was one of the reasons, the other was that her mother wasn't really the affection sort of person. But then, neither was she.

"You look beautiful, child. I would like for you to shift and meet me in my private chamber. I should like to speak to you about this mission." Nodding once, her mother smiled. "We'll have a luncheon, you and I. And tea. I should like to speak to you about your other adventures, too, if you would allow it."

Immediately, Storm's body started its shift to human form. Within seconds, she was dressed similarly to her mother in a long silk robe with their crest blazing over their hearts. Storm nearly stepped back from her as Morning was standing very close. Surprisingly, Morning reached out and hugged her close to her.

The tightness of the hug had tears fill her eyes. It had been forever since her mother had hugged her, much less had hugged her first. Wrapping her arms around her mother, she heard her soft sob, and when she pulled away, her mother turned her back to her and started talking. As if nothing had happened.

"This man, Alex, you will bring him back to us safe. It's important." They were seated in the large room that her mother used when she came to the castle's offices. "I know that your sister is there, but she is breeding now. Thank the gods, and it's important to all of us that she be able to deliver her hatchling safely." Her mom sat down so Storm did the same in an equally ornate chair.

It was not a question, but Storm answered her anyway. "Yes. You can trust me to keep him safe."

"It's not his safety that I worry about. It's yours." Morning shifted on her seat, her unease evident on her face and posture. "Alex is your mate. It is determined by the Elders that he will father the next line. His bloodline is strong and pure. He will provide you with love and companionship for the rest of your life and on into the next. You and he and the family you breed will be the ones to destroy evil. "

Storm looked sharply at her mother. No. No, this could not be happening. She did not want a mate chosen for her. She stood and began pacing the room.

"You're angry. I don't blame you, I would be—"

"Pardon me, but you don't know me well enough to judge my anger. I will bring this man to you, but no one is choosing my mate." She turned on her mother, not sure that this was a smart move on her part, but she was pissed. "Was Ember's mate chosen for her as well? I'm sure that she'll be thrilled to know that her life has been arranged for her."

"No, her finding her mate was a surprise to us all. But this man, Alex, has been chosen as your mate since before he was born. And you will not use that tone with me, young lady. I am still your mother." Storm took a deep breath and then sat down when her mother asked her to.

"I miss said what he was to you, Storm. No one chose him for you. It was written in the tomes of the future. You will mate with him and bring children into this world that will be needed. When I said chosen, I meant that it has been written."

She stalked out of the room and into the courtyard again. This time, she shifted as she ran, her body forming and shaping as she went. By the time she had gone a hundred yards, she was launching herself into the sky and soaring across the night.

~~Enjoy great happiness~~

~~Maintain a fond hope for all kind~~

~~Uphold the reparation of magical energy requirements~~

Storm shifted to a human as she touched the ground. Her body threw off its form as if it were a heavy coat she no longer needed. She had landed close to the mouth of the cave where the man Alex was waiting.

Storm had contacted Ember when she left the Realm late last night. Telling her the events that had happened at the castle but she left out the part of "the man" being her mate. She did not plan on taking him as her mate, so she felt no reason to relay the news. Storm had also asked Ember to have the man waiting for her at the mouth of the cave. Storm did not want to take the time to go down and get him. The sooner she took him to the Elders and finished this assignment, the happier she would be.

"You're to come with me. I'm to take you to the Chilast," she said when she saw who she assumed was Alexander. She put out her hand to have him come with her.

"I don't think so. Not until someone explains to me what is going on. One minute, I'm on a domestic violence call. The next I'm being wrapped in wings and brought here. Wings—I've seen some weird shit as a cop, but wings are something I've never encountered before." Alex sat hard on the stone next to the wall. He looked stubborn and formidable. She was annoyed but impressed, too.

He was a very handsome man and taller than her by a good half a foot. His hair was dark, as dark as Storm's, but where hers was curly, his was straight and hung just past his shoulders. The shirt he had on had been torn, so she had a delicious view of his hard abs and harder chest. It looked smooth, and her fingers itched to touch, not just his chest but his entire body. Storm decided that she did not like him and would not be his mate, no matter what anyone said about it.

"I don't have time to explain, so get ready to go." She could feel the attraction to him and she hated him all the more for it.

Before he could say anything else, the earth shook beneath them. Alex fell to the cave floor, and Storm was thrown to the wall, striking her head hard. While she fought the blackness tying to consume her, she threw a protective shell around Alex.

"Well, hello, Storm. You have something that belongs to me. I want him. Now!" Grail moved into the mouth opening of the cave, and Storm felt his power surge against the spell she had wrapped around Alex. It wouldn't work, of course, she was much stronger than him, but it would weaken her more in protecting the human.

Grail had been a gray Dragon in color when Storm had first met him, his color bleeding into his human form, giving his eyes and hair the same rich colors. Now, he was black as pitch. His eyes, once a soft, rich, pewter color, were now black with his dark magic and evil. He was tall, as were all their kind, but he was also heavy. His lack of physical activity not keeping him in the shape he should have been. Though his face, dusky in pallor, was gaunt and shallow. She wondered how he could fly, much less take flight.

"You can't have him. I'm to take him back to the realm." She opened her magic and pushed hard back.

Grail raised his hands, and power appeared in the form of a ball of electricity. The longer he held it, the bigger it grew. If he hit the protection, he would destroy it. Storm needed to get them to safety now.

Storm moved in a flash to stand in front of her assignment, she shifted part way, and her wings fluttered out from her back. She flapped them once and their powerful movement moved air strongly around the forest and knocked Grail to the ground as he stood in his fragile human form. Turning to Alex, she grabbed him up and ran to the lighted opening just beyond Grail. As she passed him, she felt a searing pain in her back but did not slow her pace. By the time she was in the open light, she was a full dragon, Alex tucked tightly in her talons. She soared high in the air just as Grail screamed at her to come back.

As a dragon, she could see all the areas where it would be safe for them to land. Her vision was perfect, and she could see the heat from any humans or animals below them, not wanting to land where anything could find them. Storm knew she was losing blood, but until she landed and got the man to safety, there was little to nothing she could do. She was getting weaker and knew that she would need to land soon or risk falling and crushing the man she was sent to protect.

Opening her mind, she hoped to be able to speak to the man. It was the way of their kind to be able to talk to their mates when there had been no bond at all between them. Unlike most species, she could have spoken to Alex since his birth had she known about him being what he was to her.

"Are you hurt? I should have asked sooner, but I wanted to get you out of harm's way."

"No. I'm fine. Your claws are digging into me, but I fear that if you lessen your grip, I feel I'll fall to the earth—unless that is your plan? Tell me, Storm, do you plan to play toss the man into the air and see if you can catch him before he plummets to the earth? If so, could we not play today? I have a very busy schedule tomorrow, and if I'm crushed…well, it could put a crimp in things. No, I think a little pinching is preferable to death. I can smell your blood. How hurt are you?" She told him that she was, but she would heal when they landed. "If there is anything I can do to help you, please let me know. I'm pretty handy to have around."

She smiled at his sense of humor. Storm had not expected that. He was being very calm for a man who was being flown well above the clouds by a huge blue dragon.

"I must land soon to sleep and heal. I know of a place where you'll be safe until I can do both. No one will bother you there." She told him with as much reassurance as she could. Weakness was pulling hard at her, and she did not think she could go much longer.

"So you plan to leave me? I hope you don't expect me to sit around quietly waiting for your return. I may not know what is going on or why that other…what was he anyway?"

"He's a dragon like me. And you will stay where I tell you. You are to live at all costs. I don't have time to placate your feelings, human. I can easily say that you were eaten by Grail as not. Now be quiet." Storm began her decent.

Pain racked her body, and she knew that the landing was going to be hard. Seconds before she hit the earth, she dropped Alex and tumbled over him, careful not to land on him. As much as he irritated her, she did not want to kill him.

Her body shifted as soon as she stopped rolling, shifting to the last shape she had taken, hiding her true identity from anyone who would come upon her injured body. It was there to provide their kind with surreptitiousness.

Storm sat up just long enough to ensure that Alex was all right, her body and mind already pulling her to sleep. The area where she had taken them was hers; it was safe and hidden well from everyone, including any of her kind. She saw Alex stand and stride toward her just as blackness pulled her under.

~*~

Alex leaned over the woman he had carried into the house he had found a mile or so from where she had fallen. The fire he had lit in the deep fireplace reflected off her face, the reds and golds of the flames casting surreal shadows across her flawless cheeks. She was a beauty, just like her sister, Ember.

There was no doubt to him that the two women were sisters, as they were identical twins and as alike as any he had ever seen. He moved the dark hair away from her face and ran his fingers down her downy cheek. When she stirred slightly, he grinned. She was by far the most stubborn person he had ever met.

"Why do you look at me like that?" She looked up at him, her voice soft in the hushed room.

"I was thinking about how unlike your sister and you are. You are very beautiful, both of you. But you lack her softness and the…genteel nature that she has. You are strong and stubborn. And I've never wanted to kiss anyone more than I do you."

The expression on her face was priceless. He nearly laughed out loud but caught himself before it burst forth. He was afraid she would hurt him. Alex was not a stupid man, he had seen what she was, and while it was hard to believe, he was not going to dismiss the fact that she had flown them away from trouble.

"Why?" He asked her what she meant. "Why would you want to kiss me? It's not like I'm all that much. I'm, well, at least for the moment, just a woman who has the ability to change into a great dragon. Nothing special about that."

"Why would I want to kiss you, or why do I think you're stubborn?" He touched her again. He could not seem to help himself. "And you are extremely special. I've only just thought of this too. You're extremely special to me for some reason. Do you know why?"

She looked at him for long moments, and he suddenly felt her touch his mind again, this time in a searching way, not to speak. Alex was not sure why he did not block her, but he would not try to fight her if she needed reassurances.

"You're a vampire. They didn't tell me that." She sat up on the side of the bed, but he didn't move back. It put them closer than before and he was happy with that.

"Yes, I'm a vampire. You're a dragon. I didn't know that you even existed until I met Ember. You say ‘they'. Who? And who is that man who tried to kill us?"

"The Elders of our kind, they are the ones who sent me to bring you back to them. The other dragon, his name is Grail. He's also a dragon like me, a time shifter. Did Ember tell you what we do?" He nodded, and she continued. "He was there to kill you and me because we're supposed to be mates. We are to deliver the next line of dragons. Mother told me that our children were meant to destroy him and his reign. I didn't stick around long enough to hear why. Grail has been building his power base for many years and has been moving through time making adjustments in the fabric of lives to gather monies to fund his cause—to destroy all dragons but himself. I was in the Americas waiting for Grail to make a move to take a group of scientists away before they were to die, but he came here to get you instead. We had been tracking him for some time. The earthquake that happened in China was the result of him having a temper tantrum. Ember said that she had been sent to save you, but she didn't know why until I spoke to her. You see, you were to die in that last call you went on when on patrol. When Grail realized that you had survived, he unleashed his anger on those people."

"I'm sorry for them. I never meant to cause them harm." He was a good cop, and he never pulled his gun unless it was the only thing left for him to do.

Storm stood up and looked at him. The glow from the fire danced in her eyes. When she licked her lips, he watched, mesmerized by the pink tip moistening her lush lips. "Storm…"

Before he could claim her mouth, he felt himself being tossed across the room. Storm landed across his body, protecting him from falling debris. Her hand clamped tightly across his mouth when he started to speak.

"Grail." She said in a way of explanation. Moving quickly, she stood and pulled him close to her.

"I know you're in there, Storm, my dear. Come out and play with me, and bring our tasty friend along with you. We'll char him up and laugh over the silliness of all this fighting. I can offer you so much more than he could ever."

Alex pressed back against the far wall and flipped Storm around so that her back was now where his had been, and he moved hard to her body.

"As a human, is he a mortal? Will he die like a regular man?" Alex moved the thoughts through her mind. The words where fast and hard, urgent even.

"No. Yes. It needs to be silver through his heart, though. But his dragon would protect him by wrapping himself around Grail and taking him away. Grail would sense your movement, and as quick as you are, Grail is much faster. You can't…you can't think to beat him, do you? He'll take you, kill you."

"Do you care, Storm? Would you morn me if he kills me?" Now, his voice was a caress, a stroke along her heart and mind.

Without hesitation, without speaking in his mind, she answered. "Yes. Yes, I would."

"You are mine, understand?" He warned her. At her nod, he kissed her quickly and pulled his gun from his ankle holster. Winking at her, he took her hand and moved to the front of what had once been a small house.

"Please, Alex, please don't do this. He'll kill you." She whispered in his mind again.

"He'll try." When he started to step away, she pulled him back into the semi-darkness. "What?"

"You need to feed from me. I'll strengthen you, protect you. Feed from me, and my dragon will know you, and it'll keep you safe, keep us both safe."

Alex looked at her and smiled. He felt his fangs drop into place to feed. The need to sip from her nearly staggered him off his feet.

He wanted to savor her, make her his, and knew from her sister that dragon blood, especially Storm's blood, was poison to those who did not ask and were given permission before drinking. But for those who had been allowed that rare sip, the benefits were amazing. Alex leaned into her throat, nuzzling her skin, tasting her with his mouth and tongue. Licking the area just over the pulse pounding in her neck, he pulled back slightly and stuck his bite deep and quick. Her moan ran along his skin like a caress.

At the first taste of her essence, he immediately felt the power surge into him. The more he drew from her, the stronger he felt his body getting. Alex was an older vampire, so his strength was not paltry, but with her surging through his veins, he felt extraordinary.

Pulling back reluctantly, he sealed the tiny wounds with is flick of his tongue. Moving his mouth along her jaw, he reached her mouth and sealed his over her heat.

"I know that you're in there, Storm. I demand that you come out now and face me. I have plans for us, plans that do not include that vampire mate of yours. Children of our union will bring me more money than I ever imaged."

Alex backed away from her slightly and saw the lust in her eyes. "If you stay right here, I'll take care of him, and we can get back to where we were before he interrupted us."

"I need to keep you safe. I need to stand at your side." He smiled at her possessive tone.

Moving and taking her hand once again, he hid his gun behind him as they walked forward.

"Ah, the future Queen and her stud. You know, I think I'm going to enjoy killing him. Oh yeah, this is going to be…"

He never finished. As he dropped to the ground, Grail stared at the smoking gun in Alex's hand.

Alex and Storm watched as Grail began to shift into several forms quickly before he just simply melted into the ground; his blue blood stained the ground beneath him.

There was a lot to be said for the element of surprise.

~*~

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what it is you're saying. I understand the words but not what it is you're talking about. I don't have a sister. Nor do I have any idea where you might have gotten your information about me having one." Layla looked around at the men seated at her kitchen table. "Well? Are you just going to sit there and act like I didn't just tell you that I have no one left that I'm related to?"

"Ms. Jacobson, several months ago, you filled out a DNA test for one of the ancestry places." She told him, again, that she hadn't done that. "Well, we have it on good authority that you did. It turned out that you have not just a sister, but you have a grandmother as well."

They'd been saying the same thing to her for the last two hours. Layla had only just gotten to bed after working a twelve-hour shift at the hospital when they pounded on her door. When she opened her door to figure out why the fuck someone would be wanting to talk to her at nine in the morning, they entered her home without her permission and began pulling out paperwork that was still lying all over her table.

"Look. I'm exhausted and need to get some sleep. Either agree with me that I didn't do this DNA thing and get out, or simply get out. I don't know where you get off telling me this shit anyway. I've been around for the last twenty-five years alone, and I don't need a family at this point in my life." The man who seemed to have the most to say said that they had to clear things up. "I have cleared it up. If you have a problem with it, then I don't give a shit. Get out now, or I'm going to call the police and have you removed."

"Don't you want to know what they left you?" She asked him if they'd died. "Yes. The two of them were in a car accident, and both were killed instantly. "It's quite a large sum of money. As well as other things that are now yours." Something occurred to her, and she glared at the man in front of her.

"So these people knew about me enough to put me in their will, and yet this is the first time that I'm hearing about them. Is that correct?" The man, she didn't know his name and wasn't at all concerned with learning it said that they had all her life. "And they never thought to contact me in any way? Never once reached out and said, hey, we're related? That is a pretty shitty thing to do if you ask me. I could have used a couple of relatives when I was growing up. What is their excuse for not, I don't know, reaching out to say ‘hi' or something like that?"

"They didn't want to disrupt your life." Layla nodded, then stood up. "It's all right here if you would allow us to tell you about it. As I said, there is quite a substantial amount of money for you. Wealth beyond your wildest dreams, young lady." He seemed pissy to her, and she found that her own temper was getting the best of her.

"Get out." The man started to protest, she was sure, and she went to her door and opened it. "I said to get out. If you don't leave by your own power, then I'm going to be forced to help you out of here."

They didn't bother gathering up the paperwork that was still strewn all over her table. The man in charge tried to hand her his card, telling her to contact him when she was in a better frame of mind, but she didn't take it. He ended up laying it on the table and telling her that she was missing out on a great deal of money.

When they were all gone, she sat in her living room, too pissed off now to go back to bed and steamed. Her head was hurting so badly that she was sure it was going to take her days to get it under control again.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she did a search on the names that she'd been given as her relatives. She was surprised to find out that they had both been killed only a week ago and had been buried just four days ago. Reading about the accident, she was nearly to the end of the article when someone knocked on her door again. Getting up, pissed about as much as she'd been in some time, she jerked the door open and stared at the man standing there.

He was candy on a stick. Layla had no idea where that thought had come from, but she thought that her imagination had it right. He was tall, about three inches taller than her own six foot, and well built. She knew this because the shirt he had on formed to every curve and muscle that it was holding. His hair, dark brown, looked to have been styled by his fingers and not in an ‘I wanna look wind tossed' sort of way but more like he'd run his fingers through it so many times—in what she assumed was frustration—and it still looked good. Licking her lips, her mouth suddenly dry, she got ahold of herself and glared at him.

"What do you want?" He asked her if she had a phone he could use. "And you don't? You do know that every person in the world, even babies still in diapers, has a cell phone attached to their face. Why pray tell don't you have one?"

"I have one, but I tossed it across the road when I had an accident. The fucking tow company said it would be several hours before they could get to me." She asked him why he didn't just pick it up and use it. "Because not that it's any of your business, someone drove over it before I could get to it. Can I use your phone or not?"

"Not." She slammed the door and went back to the couch. "I've had enough of men treating me like I'm dirt on their shoes today. Mother fuckers."

The pounding at her door had her screaming. She didn't normally do that, scream out her frustrations like that, but she figured that today was a good day to start. Going to the door when the prick kept pounding on it. She opened it and was knocked back on her ass when something or someone hit her full in the chest.

Flying backward gave her no time to react. When she hit her head on the table that was behind her, she felt it like it had hit her in the forehead, too. Before she could react, not that she knew what she'd do, the big man was lying across her with his arms wrapped around her. But they weren't arms. Were they wings?

She didn't move when she heard gunfire. The man moaned but didn't let her go. Layla was sure that he'd been killed when he lifted his head and looked down at her. There was so much anger in his eyes that she found herself slightly afraid of him.

"Don't move." She nodded. "You've pissed someone else off today, I'm guessing. That's why you're a target for whoever fired at you."

"I didn't piss…well, I did, but surely attorneys wouldn't shoot at me if I didn't take their telling me that I have long-lost relatives? Would they?" She was suddenly set free. While she stared at the man from the floor, he looked like a regular person. "You had wings. I saw them. You wrapped me up in them to…you kept me from being killed."

"I don't know what you're talking about. People don't have wings. You must have hit your head." She sat up and watched him as he wandered around her living room. "Where the hell is your phone? The sooner that I'm out of here, the better things will be."

"It's in the kitchen. I don't have a cell phone." She pointed to the kitchen when he asked her again where it was. "You're welcome. Shall I help you off the floor, miss?"

Layla wasn't thrilled that she was talking to herself. She'd done it a long time ago, talking to herself when she was stressed. It had taken her a long time to get out of the habit. Now, here she was doing it again and didn't care that people were making her have bad habits again. Getting up off the floor, she looked at the pillow that had the stuffing hanging out of it. Looking around, she found six, what she assumed were bullet holes around her living room and in her furniture. When the man came out of her kitchen, he sat down on the only chair that wasn't shot up.

"They'll be here in twenty minutes." She asked him to go out and wait in his car. "It's wrecked. Don't you pay attention when someone speaks to you? By the way, you're supposed to go to court tomorrow, or the attorney you pissed off is going to get all that money. It's a great deal of it."

"You snooped in my things? Christ, don't you have any manners?" He didn't answer her but did lay his head back and close his eyes. Kicking him in the foot, he glared at her and asked her what she wanted. "How much?"

"Forty million. That's just in money. I didn't get to read all of it, but there are some properties along with some investments. I'd have to get online to check the prices for today to give you a good accounting. Don't let them take the money. While I don't have any idea what sort of person would leave you money, but the attorneys will get it all, and you'll get nothing." She sat down. Layla was sure that he was still talking, but all she could hear was forty million. Looking at him, she asked him if it was forty million in dollars. "What else would it be? Pennies? Christ, you really did hit your head. Yes, it's dollars. You need to find someone to keep an eye on you. You're not very smart, are you?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm supposed to be brilliant. I have a doctorate in two medical fields. I know eight languages, and I'm fluent in smart ass. Or so I've been told. What's your excuse for being a fucking bastard? Someone shit in your oatmeal this morning? No, that can't be right. You're much too good at being a bastard for it to have just happened." He said she was a smart ass. "I freely admit that. However, I'm not in the best of humor today, so it comes out more."

"You're just stubborn enough to let that money go to waste, aren't you? Christ, you could just take it and spread it around to families that need some helping hand." She told him she'd not decided what she was going to do. "I might just show up to see how you handle yourself. It might be the most entertaining thing that has happened to me of late."

Going to her door, for the second time today, she was tossing someone out of her home. Her head was pounding so hard that she was getting tunnel vision. And this arrogant ass wasn't making it any better. When she felt something trickle down the back of her neck, she reached up to see if her hair had come loose. As soon as she looked at her hand, she knew that she was in big trouble.

"You're bleeding." She stared at the man. His face was becoming fuzzy as she watched him. "Did you hear me? You're bleeding. What the hell is wrong with you that you don't even know—"

"I want you to get out of my house. I'm fucking sick to death of you calling me names." He said again that she was bleeding. "Really? Is that what all this red stuff is that I have on my head. Well, aren't you just about the most helpful shithead that I've ever known?" She pointed to the door, or at least she hoped that she was. "I want you out of here right now."

Layla was getting sicker by the moment. If she passed out in front of this person, she knew that he'd just leave her on the floor to die. Telling him again to get out, she held onto the back of her couch to keep herself upright. But it wasn't working. She was falling forward even as the fucker was grabbing her.

"I'm not going to save you. You're not going to be anything to me, do you hear me?" If she answered him, she didn't remember. Everything was hurting now, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to close her door when he left her alone. If he left her. Things were moving too quickly for her to make sense of anything at the moment.

"Madison, she's lost a lot of blood." She didn't know the other voice, but it was just pissy enough that she knew that it had to be a person that was related to shithead. "Are you going to do anything?"

"No. He's going to leave me alone." She knew she'd said that out loud as both men turned to look at her. While she didn't know where she was, Layla knew that she wasn't at her home anymore. "I want you both to get out of my house and leave me alone. I want to die in peace."

"You're not at your home. Now shut up and let the doctor see to your head. You should have said something about being hurt." She thought about his wings and how they'd kept her from being shot. "I don't have wings. You're just off your rocker enough to tell someone that you saw them. I don't have them. Now, close your mouth and let the doctor fix you up."

Layla knew the voice that was yelling at the man. It was her boss, Doctor Sheppard. When she felt the pinch at her arm, the feeling of floating slid over her, and she let the drugs take her under. Reaching for her friend, Sheppard told her that she was going to be just fine. Just fine, indeed.

"I heard you telling patients that when they were dying. That's not too terribly encouraging right now." Laughter. She didn't know from whom, but it made her smile. "I never knew you had such a sexy laugh before. Hey, don't let that man come in here. He's mean, and I don't like him."

"I don't like you either, but that's not going to matter much in the long run, now is it?" That was as confusing as she had ever heard, and she thought about telling the man that. "Listen, you have to lie still. He can't stitch you up when you're moving around like a rabbit trying to find his hole."

"Don't be a doctor. You have no bedside manner at all. I thought I told you to go away." He said that she was holding his hand. "Well, I don't want to do that either. Go away."

However, she couldn't let go of his hand. For some unknown reason, she was getting some comfort from it. Security came to mind as well. When Sheppard told her that he was going to give her a bit more juice this time, there was no way she was going to be able to speak. Every part of her body was relaxed enough that she was sure someone had taken out all her bones.

Tomorrow, she was going to have to go to court and figure out how she had a family. Her last thought was that the man was somehow going to be related to her too, and wouldn't that have been like the monkey calling her mom.

"Go to sleep. What the hell is a monkey calling your mom about?" Layla felt her mind simply shut down. If she answered shithead, she didn't care. The fucker could go to hell for all she cared.