by J. K Harper
He could smell the acrid blast of her fear, mingling with the beautiful scent he normally associated with her. Apparently she did have a strong mind, though, because her voice was reasonably steady when she spoke again, although it sounded as blanched as he guessed her face still was.
"Are you sure I'm not crazy? Is there some sort of reasonable explanation for all of this?" She waved a shaking hand in the air.
Sebastian felt his heart beat so hard with mingled relief and renewed trepidation at her reaction that he could feel it pumping his own blood. "Yes, there is. But first, tell me. You're not hurt, are you? He didn't hurt you?"
Slowly, taking a moment to assess things, Lacey shook her head. Her eyes were still fixed on him, their expression a far cry from her glorious passion earlier. "No, I'm okay. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I was falling, but I'm okay." She sounded slightly surprised by that.
A long moment held them, filled only with the sounds of crickets and the slight rustle of the grasses.
"Sebastian,” she went on in an even more steady voice, “you need to tell me the truth right now. Because I'm not sure I can believe what just happened. Except...that it happened.”
She laughed, but there was a gasp in it. “I've been trained to believe in things that I can see, touch, smell, hear. And," here she swallowed audibly, "I know that I saw a—a dragon. And I could smell the smoke from the fire that came out of his mouth. I could feel his claws, and his front—paws, I guess, when he grabbed me. And you."
Her voice lowered to a whisper again as she stared at Sebastian, shaking her head. "I just saw you right this second. There was an enormous dragon, and then—there was you."
She fell silent, clearly having exhausted her ability to further explain the situation on her own. Instead, she waited for him to tell her what was going on.
Trusting him to tell her the truth. Trusting him in a way that he hadn't trusted her.
Sebastian felt like the worst man on the face of the planet. He took a deep breath, raking his fingers through his hair. Still watching him with wary eyes, Lacey pushed herself up into a standing position. Sebastian automatically stepped forward to help her, but she flinched again and shook her head. The night was more than warm enough for her to still be wearing the pretty little dress she'd changed into for dinner—how long ago that now seemed—yet she also looked oddly vulnerable, standing there, alone, in the empty swell of landscape somewhere on his family's property.
Sebastian's vision, still enhanced from having been his dragon so recently, could see her clearly enough in the moonlight. She didn't have a scratch on her, although her hair was a wildly tangled mass tumbling over her shoulders. He also saw that her legs, while supporting her, trembled.
He wanted to catch her up in his arms, stroke her shining hair, reassure her that everything was okay.
That he had her. That she was safe.
That he had made a dreadful, awful error in judgment earlier. One born of his own incredible distrust in women. One born of his own blind arrogance and stupidity.
A look at Lacey's face now said that his being able to touch her again anytime soon was not a remote possibility. Briefly shutting his eyes, he took another breath before opening them to look straight at her as he answered.
"You are very certainly not crazy. I wanted to tell you. I meant to tell you soon." He snorted out a self-deprecating laugh. "In truth, I actually planned to tell you this evening. After we dined. I certainly had no intention of this manner being your introduction to the truth of my world."
“And what exactly,” she said slowly, watching him closely, “is that truth?”
He searched her face for any signs of the beautifully open, thoroughly desirous woman who'd been so in the moment with him earlier, literally so open to him.
The only expression she wore now was one of pure wariness.
"Lacey," he tried again, uncharacteristically fumbling for the right words. "I am—my family is from a very long, very old family of dragon shifters. We have the ability to shapeshift from human to dragon and back again.” He shrugged as he said it, slightly opening his palms to underline the truth of that statement. “What you saw tonight is real. There are creatures far outside the realm of normal human understanding who roam this world." Very quietly, he added, "I am one of them."
His words dropped into silence. The slight breeze rustled again, whispering through the dry grasses, in the branches of the nearby pinyon trees, ruffling Lacey's dress around her thighs. The crickets hummed a background harmony to the scene, while in the distance a great horned owl let out its distinctive hooting cry.
The sound of the car engine carried to them as well. Lacey's head jerked as she snapped her eyes in that direction, clearly alarmed.
"It's Ricardo and Maria," Sebastian hastened to assure her. He felt sick at the nervousness he could sense winging through her body. "They're coming to find us."
Slowly, Lacey dragged her eyes back toward him. Although his enhanced vision was slowly dimming back to his human range, Sebastian could still see her face clearly enough. Her eyes were shadowed. Her face was a pale blotch beneath the fiery mane of her hair. After another long moment during which only the increasing sound of the car in the distance and the quiet background saw of the crickets were the only noises, she said, "They know."
It was a statement more than a question. Sebastian nodded. "Yes."
Lacey nodded her own head, very slowly, her teeth catching up her lower lip as her eyes left his again to gaze somewhere in the distance. He sensed her brain was frantically processing everything. He stayed quiet, leaving her alone, even though it half destroyed him to do that.
In just a few more moments, the lights of the SUV found them, slashing a brightness across Lacey's face that made her squint and throw her hand up across her eyes. The headlights immediately cut, leaving only the parking lights on. The car idled to a stop, a door opening and slamming before the engine was even cut. Hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Without needing to look, Sebastian knew it was Maria, with Ricardo close at her heels.
Maria swept past him, not even deigning to give him a glance, but she drew up short just before she reached Lacey. "It's okay," the older woman said, speaking English. Sebastian sensed that Maria knew Lacey needed as much connection to her normal reality in the moment as possible. "You're not hurt?"
Ricardo pulled up beside Sebastian, giving him a single, searching glance. Sebastian tightened his jaw and didn't return it. There was a heavy sigh, the faint touch of a hand on his shoulder, and retreat. Sebastian knew Ricardo and Maria had the greatest esteem and love for him, having raised him practically like he was their own child since his parents' death when he was so young. Ricardo also knew it was up to Sebastian to salvage the situation.
"No," Lacey said in a faint tone. "No, I'm not hurt." Her eyes, more visible now in the added orangey glow of the SUV's parking lights, blinked as she focused on Maria. She looked at Ricardo, then back at Maria, then to Sebastian again. Carefully, as if sounding out every word in her head before speaking it aloud, she said, "So, apparently Sebastian is a dragon. A dragon—shifter." She stumbled over the term. "And you both know that, right?"
It was so quiet that Sebastian could hear Ricardo swallow beside him, feel the tenseness coming off of Maria. The one thing ingrained in each member of the few human families in the world who knew the truth about shifters was that speaking about that truth was never to be done. Ever.
Sebastian realized that Maria and Ricardo had recognized that Lacey was his mate the second she walked through the door, thus knowing that one day she would have to know the truth about his dual existence. Even so, answering her question in the affirmative was something that went so against everything they'd each known since the day they were born that he could literally feel Maria struggle to speak.
Finally, Maria sighed. She tilted her head the slightest bit back in Sebastian's direction before she very gently said, "Yes. We know this thing. We have
always known."
Lacey nodded in a jerky motion. Her lingering nervousness was still so evident that Sebastian trembled as he forced himself to stand still. To not go to her and gather her in his arms, soothing her, stroking her hair, assuring her everything would be okay. To have to stay back from her, because she feared him.
Damn it all to hell. Never would he have imagined this incredible day ending in such disaster.
In a voice that was regaining the cool composure he usually associated with her, Lacey said, "I want to see it again. I need to see it again." She looked at Sebastian, her legs now as steady as her voice. "You need to show me again. You need to—change into a dragon. Sh-shift,” she stumbled over the word. “In front of me, and them." She tipped her chin at Maria and Ricardo. Firming her voice even more, she said, "Sebastian. I need to see you turn into a dragon."
Silence settled again. Sebastian could smell the dry, soothingly familiar scents of his home. The sharp tang of Lacey's nervousness interlaced with her soft floral scent that tugged at him with longing. The breeze rumpled his hair, gently wafted Lacey's dress again. He nodded. "Of course."
Stepping back from them all, he gave space for his dragon to come forth. During this entire exchange, his human side had still been so in tune with his dragon that he'd only been aware of himself as Sebastian. As one single being. Now, he allowed the human part of him to fall away as he pictured his dragon form, letting it ripple and flow over him somewhat more slowly than usual. Through the change, although her figure wavered and blurred for a brief moment as his eyes went from human to dragon, he kept his gaze upon Lacey. Assessing. Watching.
Enormous, truly blacker than the night around them, making himself hunker down on the earth so he looked perhaps a tiny bit smaller, Sebastian took on his dragon form in front of Lacey.
His beautiful mate. The mate he hoped with all his heart he wasn't about to lose.
~~~
It took all of Lacey's willpower to not flee screaming into the night as Sebastian did exactly what she had asked him to do and turned into an enormous black dragon in front of her eyes.
Her entire body thrummed with what she knew was her sympathetic nervous system as it very sympathetically flooded her highly alarmed self with chemicals. Chemicals that strongly suggested she fall back on the good old human standby of madly bolting when in the face of danger.
Yet this wasn't actually danger.
This was Sebastian.
There was no way she could deny it. The man who'd touched her, stroked her, laughed with her, talked with her, captured her heart during the past year, was an honest-to-god, definitely real, freaking gigantic dragon. As in, the creature of myth and legend.
Her mind wobbled again with the shocking truth of it.
Taking another deep breath, Lacey made herself stand still and examine Sebastian as best she could in the soft darkness. He was huge. Long, even with his tail curved forward and wrapped in front of his front legs. Interestingly, he still smelled the way she associated with him. Like the primitive depths of the forest, scattered with hints of a deliciously spicy musk.
As she watched, he carefully lowered his head to the ground, snaking it forward at the end of his long neck until the massive jaws rested only a few feet from where she stood.
To be honest, if it hadn't been for Maria and Ricardo standing nearby, watching him as calmly as if they'd seen him turn into a dragon hundreds of times before—which, she realized, they probably had—in all likelihood she would've given in to her body's frantic instincts and blindly vamoosed into the dark.
Yet something else deep within her also knew without a doubt that this was Sebastian. She could sense the connection between them, that electricity that snapped and sizzled every time she was around him. Despite her shocked reaction of fear, at the same time she knew on a level deep down that this giant creature wouldn't hurt her. In fact, she sensed that it would do anything to protect her.
He would do anything to protect her.
Slowly, she took a step forward. Then another. When she was close enough to him that if he turned the enormous snout just an inch, he could've knocked her over, he held himself so still that only the sound of his breathing and an odd sort of rumble from deep within him emerged. Lacey reached out her hand to the side of his face. She braced herself for cold, possibly slimy scales, similar to what she felt being carried by the other, horrible dragon. To her surprise, the dark black hide she touched was not only soft but warm. Even hot.
Emboldened, she stroked the ridge on the side of his face, beneath his eye, on the top of his head, to the side of the fearsome looking spikes that proudly jutted out of it. The rumbling sound came from him again, and he very lightly pressed his head into her hand. It was almost like an enormous cat purring.
Lacey completely faced his side and placed her other hand on him, leaning in slightly to sniff his hide, even though she felt slightly ridiculous doing so. But really, the smell was so much of the decadent, dizzying scent she associated with Sebastian, only times ten, that she couldn't help herself.
This enormous, stunning creature was Sebastian. There was no doubt about it.
Bit by bit, she felt herself relaxing. It was real.
There were such things as dragon shifters in the world.
The parts of her brain that had stopped thinking were slowly spitting out puzzle pieces that clicked into place. The Bernal family's association with dragons, such as on their crest. All the dragon-shaped items that come across her way during the past year of studying the Californio culture and Sebastian's own personal legacy. The paintings, pendants, statues of dragons. The extraordinary treasure room in the hacienda.
The man's own luxurious, powerful, bordering-the-edge-of-deadly presence that propelled him through this world in a blast of wealth, intensity, planet-wide desire.
Yes, it all made sense now. Even so, it was too much for her to process in the moment.
After a last inhale of the cedar-y, dark spiced pine scent of his hide, Lacey stepped back again. She couldn't quite see the color of his eyes in the darkness, but she could see the gleam as one of them regarded her, slowly blinking once or twice during the long moments of her observation.
Finally, she quietly said, "Okay. Can you change back?"
Before she could take another breath, his huge shape shimmered, disappearing into the fully clothed, still fully sexy man she knew was Sebastian Bernal. Lacey swallowed as she held her ground.
Finally, she managed, "Okay. I believe it. I believe everything. And I want to go home. I'm sorry, but I can't take this right now. Take me home? Please?" But she didn't direct the last part at Sebastian. Instead, she gave a pleading look toward Maria and Ricardo.
There was another short, almost pained silence while they clearly waited for Sebastian's answer, although by the tightness on Maria's face Lacey guessed that the older woman would have some particularly sharp words for Sebastian later on. Sebastian nodded, murmuring that he would call the pilot to meet them at the plane.
As Maria put her arms around Lacey's waist and gently guided her to the vehicle, Sebastian stepped forward as if to join them. Lacey stopped, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I feel terrible saying this, but I can't. I just want them to take me. Please, Sebastian. Please understand. I believe you, but I can't deal with this right now."
With that, she turned and got into the car, closely followed by Maria and, somewhat more slowly, Ricardo. As he pulled away, Ricardo flipped the lights back on.
Sebastian stood in their glare, watching with an expressionless face as Lacey left him.
Chapter Eighteen
For the first time in her life, Lacey missed work the next morning. She called in sick, which made her feel vaguely guilty. Her justification was that she was sick. Sick to her heart, at least. While she was fairly sure now that she wasn't sick in her mind, there was still a vague possibility that she really had dreamed the entire past day. Either way, it would be impossible for her to function at the place own
ed by the man who had ripped her soul into fifty different pieces.
Gabi still wasn't home, and she hadn't answered Lacey's last text. Really, though, she wasn't even sure what she would say to her best friend.
Hi. So, I had head-banging, world-shaking, life-changing sex with the hottest man on the planet, he took me to his private family ancestral home, showed it off to me, let me into his secret treasure room which I'm pretty sure is literally worth more than Fort Knox, wined me, dined me, and then, oh yeah. This other guy showed up, turned into a dragon, carried me away, dropped me, at which point my sexy man, who was also apparently a dragon, swooped in and saved me. Like, he flew in to save me, because he was, you know, a dragon. The kind with wings that can fly. So I didn't die, but I may have lost my mind. How was your day?
Nope, not so much.
She had to think about it for a while before she could talk to her closest friend in the world about the situation. As for anyone else, absolutely not. Not her parents, who would definitely think she'd lost her mind. She had been so immersed in her grad school network during the last several years that Gabi was the only one with whom she felt truly comfortable sharing information.
Apparently, she wasn't supposed to do that anyway. Because, right. Dragon shifters weren't supposed to exist. No one could know about them. At least, that's what Maria had told her when they drove back to the plane.
The only thing she could really do was shove everything aside and take a break to be certain her mind didn't snap after all.
So she did. She watched TV, but it made her feel like her brain was being dumbed down into a pathetically sheeplike idiocy, so she shut it off.
She decided to go to the beach. Yet when she got there, the sight of all the happy, oblivious families making sand castles and splashing in the waves that rolled up onto shore was so bizarrely normal that she couldn't stand it.