Chapter 14

Stepping out into the cool air of the fall afternoon, Kira couldn’t help but shiver.

Something about Caleb’s hand on her arm had seemed to heat her whole body from the inside out – like a warm, sweet wave of golden light washing through her. Now that they’d left the diner and he wasn’t touching her anymore she felt suddenly cold, and she found she was weirdly reluctant to part with him just yet.

And also, now that I’m less shaken up about Heit’s sudden appearance… why was Heit acting like they knew each other?

Kira frowned a little. No, that wasn’t quite right. Heit was acting more like he knew about Caleb, rather than them being actually acquainted. The way he’d asked about Caleb’s family, and then said he remembered when Caleb had told him his family collected film – it had all seemed just a little bit strange, considering Caleb had told her he’d never met anyone from Tongle Heit. Why would he have heard of Caleb’s family at all, or remember that they collected film?

Well, then I guess I also have some questions I think I’d like answered,Kira thought, glancing up at Caleb. Despite her curiosity, however, looking at his face now, she couldn’t bring herself to believe he’d misled her. She was sure there must be some completely logical explanation for it – perhaps someone in Caleb’s family was a bigger deal than he’d let on, or something like that. Perhaps if they were movers and shakers in the movie industry, he preferred to keep that info to himself until he knew people a little better. She could understand that.

But still….

“Oh. Um. Hey – did you want to get a cup of coffee with me or something?” Kira blurted, before she could think better of it. She figured this was killing two birds with one stone – this way, she got to spend more of her day off with Caleb, and she could also set her mind at ease a little about why Heit seemed to know about his family.

Caleb blinked at her as if surprised, but then his gorgeous, sunny smile spread across his face, revealing both his cute dimples and the very, very attractive smile lines around his eyes.

Guh,thought Kira, staring at him.

“I’d love to. Where should we go?”

Oh… right.

Kira’s actual home was a half-hour drive away up the mountain – she didn’t want to take him that far out of his way, especially since it was already after lunch, and night fell early at this time of year. Nor did she feel bold enough just yet to invite herself over to his place.

“Uh, how about my office?” she said, before mentally kicking herself. Her office wasn’t exactly a romance hotspot – but then again, maybe that was for the best. She needed to try to keep a clear head for the time being. Anywhere sexier than the place she worked every day, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep herself from jumping the poor man mid-sentence. “I have, uh, a coffee pot there. And, uh. Chairs.”

What’s wrong with me?Kira thought furiously. She’d been able to form a perfectly good sentence five minutes ago – but something about the memory of Caleb’s hand on her arm had turned her into a stammering mess.

Unconsciously, she rubbed her hand over the place where his fingers had been. Somehow, that patch of skin still felt warmer to the touch than the skin surrounding it – but that couldn’t possibly be the case, could it?

“That sounds delightful,” Caleb said, still smiling. “Coffee and chairs are two of my favorite things.” After a moment though, his smile faltered a little, a more serious look crossing his face. “And… maybe while we’re there, we could talk a little. I have a few things I should probably tell you.”

Kira nodded as they walked toward her Range Rover. Perhaps Caleb was going to tell her himself about what Heit had been talking about, without her having to question him after all.

The short drive back to the entrance of the park was a little more subdued than the drive over had been. When Kira chanced a quick glance at Caleb during one of the few straight stretches of road, she found him looking contemplatively out of the window. The idea of asking him Penny for your thoughts? crossed her mind, but for now, she decided she’d just let him think, and let herself concentrate on driving.

Pulling up outside the cabin, Kira opened the door and swung her legs out, glancing back at Caleb as she did so. He looked quite pensive now, and suddenly Kira wished she’d thought to stop by Sylvie’s and pick up some sweets – the look on Caleb’s face when he’d tried the cupcake she’d given him had been nothing short of radiant.

Well, at least I can offer him a good cup of coffee,Kira thought as they walked up the wooden steps leading to the front door.

Inside, she turned the heater up a little, and then went to put the coffee pot on. Turning, she leaned back against the counter, crossing her arms over her chest.

I guess it’s time for a few answers, then.

“So… why was Heit talking like he knew your family?” she asked, watching Caleb’s face intently.

Caleb sighed. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, Kira – we really don’t know each other, and I’ve never met anyone in the Heit or Tongle Cla—families. But the circles my father moves in… well, sometimes they involve people like them.”

“So like… investors?” Kira asked, tilting her head. “You said your family was in movies, so –”

Caleb shook his head. “Not quite. It’s more like… well, I guess perhaps it’d be easier if I –”

As fascinated as Kira was to find out where this was going, she was momentarily distracted by the sound of the coffee pot behind her coming to the boil, beeping at her to let her know it was done.

“Hold that thought a second,” she said. If Caleb was having trouble explaining, then maybe it’d be easier over coffee. There was nothing coffee couldn’t make better.

Pouring two cups, she picked them up and brought them over to her desk.

“Here you g—” she began to say – only for the cup she’d held out to Caleb that he was just beginning to take from her to suddenly shatter to pieces, spraying hot coffee and shards of ceramic everywhere.

“Oh my God!” Kira cried, snatching her hand back – but it seemed, somehow, that the coffee had completely missed her, instead splashing across Caleb’s hands and arms. “Oh, shit – Caleb! Quick! You need to get some ice onto that right away!” Kira rushed over to the minifridge, yanking it open. She grabbed a towel from the counter and tipped out the ice cube container into it, creating a cold compress. Then she dashed back to where Caleb was sitting, looking more bemused than in pain.

“Quick, hold out your hands, I’ll ice them for you,” Kira said. In her panic, she barely noticed that his skin didn’t seem at all burned – nor did Caleb himself seem to be acting like someone who’d just been doused in near-boiling coffee. “I’m so sorry,” she babbled. “I didn’t know – I swear, I use that cup all the time, I never noticed it was cracked at all –”

“Kira, it wasn’t,” Caleb said calmly. “There was nothing wrong with the cup – and please, don’t worry. I’m not hurt. I promise you.”

“You can’t always feel it at first,” Kira blurted, realizing too late she really should have made two compresses, one for each of his hands. “But that coffee was hot, there’s no way it didn’t burn you – I just can’t believe I –”

“Kira, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Caleb insisted, still sounding completely calm, but Kira was sure the pain of being burned would kick in any moment now. “And please… believe me when I say you really didn’t hurt me. Look at my skin. It’s not burned at all.”

“But –” Kira started to say, before looking down. And blinked.

It wasn’t just that Caleb’s skin wasn’t burned – there wasn’t a mark on it at all. It was just a bit wet from coffee. Kira’s eyebrows drew together.

But… how?!

“I don’t understand,” she murmured, putting the ice pack aside to hold Caleb’s hands between her own, gently turning them over. “You really don’t have any burns at all… unless it’s just they haven’t shown up yet? I really shouldn’t have taken the cold compress off –”

“Kira. I promise you, you didn’t hurt me.” Caleb’s voice was firm as his fingers curled around her hands, keeping them in place.

Wow. His hands… warm…Kira thought in a mild daze. And for some reason, they made her skin tingle. Little ticklish electric sparks ran up and down her arms, and she pulled in a quick gasp of breath at the sensation. That feels so weird…

But it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, either, especially not when it was combined with the warmth that was quickly collecting in her belly.

Okay! Okay! Get a hold of yourself!

She’d thought bringing Caleb back to her office would mean this kind of thing wouldn’t happen – but instead, it just seemed to have created a situation for this exact thing to happen.

Blinking, Kira looked up – and then swallowed as she realized how close in to Caleb she had leaned, their faces close enough that she could feel his breath ghosting over her cheeks.

“Oh – um –” she whispered, shivering, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to pull away. She licked her lips, and watched as his eyes darted down to follow the movement, seeming to grow dark with desire as they did.

Okay. I definitely didn’t imagine that,Kira thought, even as she found herself leaning in, drawn irresistibly toward him.

“Um – Kira –”

Caleb’s voice was a low, husky rumble that sent a shiver of lust straight up Kira’s spine. At least until she realized that by saying her name, he was trying to get out of her attempted kiss.

Immediately, Kira felt herself flushing with mortification, pulling back.

Argh. I guess I did imagine it after all.

“I’m – I’m so sorry,” she stuttered. “I didn’t mean – I mean, I did, but I – ugh, this is soembarrassing…”

She tried to yank her hands away from where they were still gently encircled by Caleb’s fingers, only to find he tightened them to hold her in place.

“No! Kira – no, that’s not what I meant.” Caleb sounded desperate – and his eyes looked desperate. It was sincere enough to jerk her out of her puddle of mortification for a moment.

“Um – then – why did you stop me?” she made herself ask. Her heart still felt like it was doing double-time in her chest, and despite everything it was still taking every ounce of willpower she possessed not to throw herself at him again. She’d never wanted to kiss anyone so badly before in her life.

“Because… because I haven’t finished explaining things to you yet,” Caleb said, a raw edge to his voice. He was still staring at her lips, and Kira got the feeling he was having to hold himself back just as much as she was. “And I think I owe you an explanation before we go any further. And then you can decide if you want to go any further.”

“O… kay…” Kira said slowly. What on earth was Caleb talking about?!

“And I think… maybe… we should discuss this outside,” Caleb said, glancing around. “The last thing I want to do is make your computer short out, or bring your roof down on both of our heads.”

Kira frowned, opening her mouth to tell Caleb that that wasn’t exactly likely, but quickly shut it again. She didn’t really get what Caleb was talking about, but she figured if he had something to tell her, maybe she should just shut up and listen.

“Come on,” Caleb said, standing and pulling her to her feet. “I’ll tell you everything outside. And I mean everything.”

As baffled as she was, Kira let herself be drawn to the door. She walked down the steps, and had barely set foot on solid ground again when she heard a horrific crash! from behind her.

“Caleb!”

Whipping around, she was just in time to see Caleb jumping back onto the platform by the door as several of the steps suddenly collapsed in on themselves, falling into the dank space beneath.

“Oh my God, are you all right?” Kira called from where she stood on the ground below. How could that have happened?! The stairs hadn’t had anything wrong with them three seconds ago!

At least Caleb also seemed to look like there was nothing wrong with him – but that didn’t make things any better! He could have been seriously injured, all because she apparently hadn’t noticed the steps needed some maintenance!

“I’m so sorry,” Kira said, shaking her head. “I swear, I get those things checked every six months –”

“It’s not your fault, Kira,” Caleb reassured her, holding up his hands. “This is all… well, it’s just me. It’s not just the coffee and the stairs – you remember the plate? And the tree branch? And how I told you my car broke down?”

Kira nodded. “Wow. I can’t believe how often these things seem to happen to you. You’ve got to be the most unlucky guy I’ve ever heard of. It’s just like you’re under a curse or something –”

Kira had only said it as a bit of a lame joke to try to lighten the mood, but Caleb’s eyes immediately brightened as she spoke. Suddenly, he was down on the ground with her – a jump of about six feet, and yet, he’d taken it as if it was nothing, and at such a speed that she hadn’t even noticed him doing it.

Whoa – what the –

“Then – you do know about curses? That makes things so much easier – I was worried you might not believe what I have to tell you. So you must know about shifters then as well – I wondered, because when I tasted that cupcake I knew that – uh –”

Maybe Caleb had noticed the look of complete non-comprehension on Kira’s face, because he suddenly trailed off, frowning slightly.

“Oh,” he said after a moment. “You, uh, don’t actually know about any of those things at all, do you?”

Kira blinked up at him. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, aware she probably looked like a fish, but she wasn’t really sure what it was she was supposed to say.

“Uh… curses?” she finally managed to stutter out. “Shifters?”

Well, obviously she’d heard of curses before – but they were things from fairytales. No matter how unlucky Caleb might be, he wasn’t actually under a curse. And as for shifters…

Nope, no idea there.

“Ah.” Caleb looked a little sheepish. “I think maybe I’ve sprung this on you in a way I didn’t mean to. I was just overwhelmed for a moment, thinking that you already knew…”

“Already knew about what?” Kira asked, starting to feel just a little impatient. Caleb wasn’t making any sense. And just how had he jumped all the way down here so fast? Or at all?!

“Right,” Caleb said, looking down. “It seems like I have a little bit of explaining to do. I should say though… what I’m about to tell you might sound a little implausible at first.”

“Um. Okay,” Kira said warily.

“Maybe we could go sit down on those park benches over there,” Caleb said, then paused, considering. “Or maybe you could sit. I don’t want to break anything else around here.”

Kira laughed despite herself. She still had no real idea of what was actually going on, but everything had taken on such a feeling of dreamy unreality that right now she felt ready for anything. Crossing the small clearing to the park bench, she sat.

“Okay. Hit me.”

Caleb swallowed. “Okay. Well, here goes. You know how I said I was here just for a bit of hiking? That’s not actually the case.”

Kira blinked. “All right.”

“The truth is… the truth is that I’m here looking for something. I just have no idea where to find it – or even what it is, really, just that it’s here in this parkland. Somewhere. And that it’s gold.”

Kira’s eyes widened. “Gold? Hey – wait. Is this why you were asking me about if I’d ever heard any rumors of buried treasure around here?”

Caleb nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. It is.”

Shaking her head, Kira raised her hands. To be honest, she felt a little angry. “So, that’s it? You’re not really interested in nature at all? You’re just a treasure hunter, looking for some kind of bullshit buried gold as some kind of get-rich-quick thing?”

“No – no, that’s not it at all, Kira,” Caleb said, alarm crossing his face. “I don’t have any interest in the gold at all, just for itself. I need it because it’s the only way to break the curse that’s been plaguing my family for the past seven generations – well, not everyone in my family, just one person per generation. And in that generation, the lucky guy is. Well. Take a wild guess.”

Kira could feel her mouth hanging open, but right now, she couldn’t quite find it within herself to close it.

“You?” she eventually managed to squeak out, though she didn’t actually believe the things Caleb was telling her… did she?!

Caleb nodded. “That’s right. Me. That’s why everything seems to have been going wrong, ever since I came here – all those little accidents that’ve been happening? They’re all because of the curse. It’s nothing major – nothing that would kill me. But I can’t let myself get too close to anyone in case I endanger them. And every time I try to do anything in life – say, get a normal job or not set my oven on fire – things usually end… pretty badly. It’s why I haven’t been able to step into the family business. I can’t possibly risk anything happening to the thousands of films they’ve collected over the years. Some of them are the only ones left in the world. If anything happened to them, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

Kira stared up at Caleb as he spoke. Whatever the case, he certainly seemed to believe what he was saying was the truth. And he spoke with such conviction that Kira found herself, well, not believing it exactly, but…

But… it can’t really be true, Kira argued with herself. There’s no such thing as curses. Who’d even put a curse on someone? A witch? A wizard? A warlock? What even is a warlock, exactly?!

“You don’t believe me.” Caleb looked a little crestfallen. Evidently, he’d seen her doubt in her eyes.

“I… well, it’s not that, exactly,” Kira said awkwardly. “It’s just that… well, it’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? I mean… you’re really telling me that magic curses exist? I agree you seem to have a lot of bad luck, but that could just all be coincidence, right? I mean, how do you know there’s a curse? Isn’t this just more likely to be a family legend that’s gotten out of hand, and now it’s become something like a self-fulfilling prophecy? You’re expecting to have bad luck, and so you do?”

Caleb nodded. “Well, you do have a point – and I guess if I were a normal human, I’d definitely agree you might be right.”

Kira stared up at him. “What do you mean? You are a normal human, aren’t you?”

“Not exactly.” Caleb grimaced a little. “Kira, have you really never heard of shifters?”

Mutely, Kira shook her head. She could not even begin to guess what Caleb might have to tell her next.

Caleb sighed. “Okay. Well, here goes, I guess. Shifters are… well, we shift. From humans into… other things. And some of those things are, I guess, what you’d call mythical creatures. Some of which have mythical powers. Including being able to put curses on things.”

“O… kay,” Kira said. Well, this was definitely going beyond ‘family legend got out of hand’ territory. She really didn’t know what to say to this. “So… uh, what do you shift into then?”

“A dragon.” Caleb’s answer was instantaneous.

Kira stared at him. “A… a dragon?”

“That’s right.” Caleb swallowed, licking his lips. “Uh, I realize that might be a little hard to believe.”

“Well. You’re not wrong there.”

Pulling in a breath, Caleb looked down, then back up, straight into her eyes. Despite herself, Kira gasped. She’d never seen anyone with eyes so blue before.

“So I could show you, if you liked.”

Kira blinked, not immediately understanding him. Then it hit her. “You could… show me you turning into a dragon?”

“That’s right. But it’d have to be somewhere there’d be no chance of anyone else seeing.”

Kira shook her head. She couldn’t really believe what she was hearing. “Uh. Well. Here should be okay. Because it’s not in view of the road, and everyone knows the park is closed today. So no one’s going to turn up out of nowhere. So you’re fine to turn into a, uh, dragon.”

Especially since that’s not actually going to happen,Kira thought – though for some reason, it felt almost as if she was trying to convince herself that it was. God, I meet a cute, hot, sweet, funny guy, and he thinks he’s a dragon! This is just my luck. There always has to be something, doesn’t there?

“Okay. If you’re sure,” Caleb said, taking a few paces away from her. He paused, staring into her face. “And… Kira, just remember, no matter what happens, it’s still me, okay? And no matter what I look like, I would never hurt you. I promise.”

“Uh, sure,” Kira said, nodding. She honestly had no idea what she expected to happen next.

Maybe nothing. Which was why it was kind of a shock when Caleb closed his eyes briefly – before his body seemed to shimmer, and then he began to… to…

Well, shift, I guess, Kira thought, as her eyes bugged out, her mouth dropped open, and she leapt up from where she was sitting on the bench.

“Holy – holy – moly!”

At first, Kira wondered if the light was playing a trick on her – but no, that wasn’t the case at all. The shimmer quickly became actual movement, as Caleb’s form swiftly changed from that of a normal human’s to – to – something else.

A dragon,Kira thought vaguely, staring at him.

Because there was absolutely no doubt at all that that was exactly what she was looking at.

Caleb’s skin had become beautiful, shimmering, blue-black scales, a long tail swishing out behind him. His limbs had become powerful legs, ending with clawed feet. His eyes glowed gold, above his long, elegant snout – from which Kira was sure she could see just a touch of smoke rising. And over his back –

Oh, wow –

– Were two massive, elegantly curved wings, made of membrane so fine she could see the sunshine glistening through them, but obviously powerful all the same.

Kira stared, open-mouthed.

Okay,she thought dazedly. That is definitely a dragon.