by Jane Kindred
She compromised and scrambled some eggs with spinach, mushrooms and peppers and crumbled some sharp cheddar and seitan sausage substitute into it. After dishing it up—the largest portion in a big serving bowl—she grabbed the rest of the bag of spinach and tossed it into a separate bowl with some cucumbers and tomatoes, just to give the dragon some options.
“I wasn’t sure if you were hungry,” she said coming back from the kitchen with the food. “I’m always starving after s—” She swallowed the word, heat rushing to her face. The dragon probably had no idea what she was saying, but it didn’t seem right to discuss having been intimate with someone who was no longer in human form. “I don’t know if you’re a grazer or a hunter. I’m guessing hunter, but this is all new to me...so, here—take your pick.” She set the bowls in front of the dragon, but it merely gave them a disinterested sniff.
“Suit yourself.” Ione sat to eat on the one chair that hadn’t been knocked over in the chaos.
By the time she’d finished eating, the towel she’d tied around the dragon’s wound was soaked through. Ione got another from the laundry room and this time wrapped it around a smaller towel folded into a square and pressed against the wound. She could swear as she finished that the dragon was purring.
She tucked her robe around herself as she stood, realizing she’d probably been flashing it. Not that Dev hadn’t seen it all, but this wasn’t exactly Dev. Ione pinched the bridge of her nose and realized how tired she was. The events of the night had worn her out—some more pleasantly than others. Maybe she’d be able to come up with some way of dealing with the dragon in the morning if she just got some sleep.
Damp wind was still blowing through the gaping hole that had been her living room wall. Ione pulled the heavy curtains across it, which helped a little. Between Rafe’s wards and the alarm system—and the fact that a freaking dragon was camped out in her living room—she’d probably be safe enough. She pocketed the Glock just in case.
“Okay, I’m going up to bed. Will you be all right down here?” Like he was going to answer. “Okay,” she said again. “Good night.”
She figured she’d probably just lie there on the bed no matter how tired she was. How could she possibly sleep with a dragon in her living room? But she was out like a light, only waking early in the morning to a loud thudding and clattering on the stairs.
Ione grabbed the gun and jumped up, launching herself into the hall to find the dragon clumsily attempting to climb the spiral staircase, its tail coiling through the railing.
“Mother of God. What are you doing?”
The dragon’s claws slipped on the open wooden stairs and it tumbled backward before flinging its wings out instinctively to catch itself, apparently finally remembering it could fly. It circled the open-plan area beneath the vaulted ceiling, sweeping pictures off the wall and onto the living room floor—with every other item it had knocked over on its way to the stairs—finally settling on the landing, puffing steam like the “Little Engine That Could” and looking rather smug.
Ione tucked the pistol into her waistband at the back of her cotton pajamas. “You’re pretty pleased with yourself, I see. What do you want, a treat?” The dragon tilted its head. Ione yawned. Judging from the pale glow from the skylight, it was about six in the morning. “I’m going back to bed. If you’re hungry, you’re going to have to wait until a reasonable hour.”
After climbing back under the covers, she heard the dragon lumber into the room, just barely clearing the door frame, and settle onto the floor by the bed. Ione opened one eye as the dragon curled its tail over itself like a cat for warmth. How a dragon could be cold with steam coming out of it, she wasn’t sure, but it certainly made for a comfortable room for a human.
She woke again a few hours later to find the dragon gone, but a curious lapping sound was coming from the bathroom down the hall. “Oh, God.” She’d forgotten to give it water. This was why she didn’t have pets. Among other reasons.
Ione kept her eyes closed and pretended not to hear it, stirring only as the dragon thumped back into the room. She opened her eyes, a bit disappointed that the dragon’s transformation hadn’t simply reversed given a few hours. Was he going to be stuck like this? Blood was dripping down the creature’s foreleg, the makeshift bandage soaked through.
She got up and got another set of towels to replace the sodden ones, trying not to think about the state of her pale wood floors and the cream-colored carpet in the living room as she rebandaged the wound.
But by the time she’d cleaned up and gone to the bathroom, blood was already seeping through the towel. Shouldn’t the bleeding have stopped? Maybe dragons had different circulation systems. What the hell was she going to do? It wasn’t like she could dial 9-1-1 and get a paramedic over here to treat a dragon. She needed a vet.
It occurred to her that Theia had worked as a veterinary assistant while studying for her degree in zoology. God, she couldn’t bring Theia into this.
The dragon’s warm breath seemed to be more rapid than it had been. She had to do something.
Theia answered on the first ring. “Hey, Di. Guess you must have felt me dreaming about you, huh?”
“Uh, no. Not exactly.” Before learning about the Lilith blood, she’d never taken her baby sister’s prophetic dreams seriously. “What have you been dreaming?”
“Mostly just vague dreams about power—your magic growing stronger.”
Ione didn’t know about that, unless her magical abilities had been responsible for what had happened to Dev.
“I also dreamed you got a dog. Which is hilarious, because you hate animals.”
“I do not hate animals. I just don’t like having to clean up after them. I did enough cleaning up after you guys.” She bit her tongue. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“You did, but that’s okay. I know it couldn’t have been easy having to take care of a bunch of snot-nosed kids when you were barely more than a kid yourself. And we love you for it. You know that.”
Ione’s eyes were smarting and she pinched her arm. She couldn’t afford to be sentimental right now.
“Actually, that’s what I’m calling about. Animals. Do you know anything about...reptiles?” God, was it a reptile? Were dragons reptiles?
“Some. Why?”
“I thought I heard a prowler last night and I ended up shooting this poor lizard. Just winged him, but it’s bleeding a lot and I can’t figure out how to stop it.”
“You...shot...a lizard. With a gun.”
“Yeah.”
“You have a gun?”
“Obviously. Can you give me some advice on how to treat it? I can’t exactly put a Band-Aid on it.”
“You’re trying to treat a lizard. That you shot.”
“Yes.”
Theia was quiet for a moment. “Wouldn’t a bullet just—rip the poor guy in half? How big is this lizard?”
Ione tried to keep her voice calm. “It’s big. Some kind of Gila monster maybe.”
“You know those are venomous.”
“I’m not getting too close to it. Anyway, it seems to understand that I’m trying to help.”
“How are you planning to treat a Gila monster without getting too close to it? Don’t mess around with that thing. You should call Animal Control.”
“Theia, just tell me what I need to do.” She’d slipped into her “stern mom” voice.
Theia was quiet for a moment. “Di? We’re not actually talking about a lizard here, are we?”
“Of course we’re talking about a lizard. Stop quizzing me and tell me what to do!”
“This is an actual reptile.”
“Yes, it... I don’t know. I think it’s a reptile. Shit.” She was losing it. Ione tried to steady her breathing and get things back under control.
“I�
��m on my way over there.”
“No. Theia, do not drive all the way down here. Don’t you have a class this morning?” It was over an hour’s drive from Flagstaff where Theia had just started graduate school and was a teaching assistant for undergrad biology classes at Northern Arizona University. “Theia?” Ione realized she’d hung up.
She put the phone back in the base and glanced at the dragon. “You hungry? I still don’t know what to feed you.”
Slipping her gun back into the waistband of her pajama pants, she headed downstairs. When she reached the bottom, the dragon coasted down from the landing and took up its place in the corner of the living room. Ione made eggs again, which the dragon again showed no interest in. It also turned its head away with a steamy sigh at oatmeal and fruit, though it eagerly drank an entire dishpan full of water when Ione remembered to offer some after recalling the bathroom incident.
After opening the heavy curtains to let some light in, leaving the sheer inner ones rippling in the breeze through the empty pane, Ione righted the overturned couch and sat watching the dragon drink, chin in her hands and elbows on her knees.
“I don’t know what to do. Usually when I bring a guy home he leaves right after. Not that I bring a lot of guys home... Anyway, they most certainly don’t turn into dragons and take up residence in my living room. Not that I’m blaming you. I’m sure you’d rather not be here, either. And I’m not saying I don’t want you here, I...” Ione rolled her eyes at herself. “I don’t even know you, is the thing. And it seems like, lately, every time I get involved with someone, he turns into something crazy, so I was absolutely not planning to get involved with you or anyone else. Not that last night wasn’t absolutely amazing—”
The doorbell rang and Ione nearly vaulted to open it, relieved not to have to be alone with the dragon and her unstoppable mouth. Instead of Theia’s dark, chin-length bob, Rhea’s shock of bleached-blond hair met her on the doorstep.
Rhea grinned, bouncing from toe to toe. “Where is it? Where’s the dragon? I have to see the dragon.” She bounced past Ione into the house before Ione could stop her, while Theia, having made a slightly more sedate exit from the car parked in the drive, arrived at the door. At least Rhea had remembered to slip off her shoes in the entryway before she’d barged in.
Ione frowned and grabbed Theia’s arm to pull her inside. “Who said anything about a dragon? And why did you drag Rhea into this?”
Theia slipped off her skimmers and took the pair of socks Ione handed her from the basket by the door. “She has some kind of tattoo convention in Flagstaff and decided to surprise me for breakfast. I couldn’t exactly keep her from finding out where I was going. Or why.” She folded her arms. “And if you try to tell me it’s a Gila monster one more time—”
“Oh. My. God.” Rhea’s awed voice echoed from the living room.
Ione found her sitting on her heels on the carpet, barely a foot from the creature. “Rhea!” The dragon’s tail was uncoiling slowly, its eyes fixed on Rhea with mistrust. “Get back! It doesn’t know you.”
Rhea reluctantly let her twin pull her to her feet and drag her away. “How does it know you?” Rhea turned with her hands on her hips. “Why do you get a dragon?”
“I don’t get a dragon. I just—happen to have one at the moment.”
Despite having pulled Rhea away, Theia was now crouching in front of the creature with her hand outstretched. “Hello, there. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to look at your wound. Can I look?” With her head slightly bowed, she reached tentatively for the bloody towel, one eye peering out from under the short curtain of her hair to gauge the dragon’s receptivity.
“Theia...” Ione took a step toward her, her chest tight, but the dragon merely lowered its head back onto its paws.
“What happened to the window?” Rhea had just noticed the gaping hole in the room.
“What do you think happened to the window?” Ione tried to keep one eye on Theia to make sure the dragon wasn’t going to change its mind as she undid Ione’s makeshift dressing. Being pulled between both twins felt familiar. They’d been like twin dervishes as children, one finding more trouble to get into while Ione tried to clean up whatever mess the other had made.
Rhea’s gaze fell on the butt of the Glock tucked into Ione’s pajama pants and she fixed Ione with a furious glare. “Jesus, Di. Did you shoot that poor thing? What is the matter with you? And why do you have a gun?”
Ione sighed and untucked her white cotton tank to cover the piece. “It’s for protection.” The house was a bit isolated, at least from the back, and even with the alarm, the full-length window was an easy target. Ione wanted to be prepared if she needed to defend herself or her property before the sheriff’s department could respond to the alarm. “And I shot it because I thought it was about to kill me.”
Rhea looked back at the dragon, her eyes wide with admiration. She’d always had a fondness for the mythological version—which, until now, Ione had assumed was the only version. “Where did it come from?”
Theia saved her from answering. “The bleeding really should have stopped by now. It’s not that deep a wound. Maybe there’s something preventing it from clotting, like a charm designed to ward against it, or a spell.”
“Rafe came by earlier and put quetzal wards all around the property. Maybe that’s affecting it.”
Rhea paused in pushing a chunk of glass around at the base of the window with her stockinged foot and looked up. “If there are wards around the property, how did the dragon get in?” She glanced back at the glass. “The window’s broken from the inside.”
Nothing ever got past Rhea. “It was already inside before it...transformed.”
Rhea turned to study the dragon. “That’s a person?”
“It was.”
“Who?” Theia’s eyes were on her now.
Ione sighed. “Dev Gideon. He’s the Covent assayer. They sent him to investigate me because they think I was in league with Carter Hamilton. I’m pretty sure he came to get rid of me.”
“And he came to the house?” Rhea’s brows drew together. “You said this happened last night.”
There was no way Ione could keep the heat out of her cheeks under Rhea’s scrutiny. She could feel it spreading across her face like fire.
“Oh. My. God.” Rhea gaped at her before raising her hand to meet her twin’s high-five without even looking. “I owe you fifty bucks, Thei.”
Ione scowled. “For what, exactly?”
Theia grinned. “I bet her you weren’t as tightly wound as you like to seem. That you were secretly getting way more action than the rest of us.”
Ione turned to Rhea, catching her in a little dance that she immediately stopped. “And you bet I was an uptight prude.”
“Uh, no...” Rhea looked at her twin and grinned sheepishly. “Okay, yeah.”
“Nice. The both of you are terrors.”
“We try.”
“So what’s he look like in his human form?” Rhea eyed the dragon appreciatively. “Is he hot? Tell me your new boyfriend’s not a stick-up-his-butt doofus like Carter Hamilton.”
“He is nothing like Carter Hamilton.” The words had come out a little more violently than she’d meant them to. “And he’s not my boyfriend. Can we not talk about this in front of the dragon?” Stupidly, she’d lowered her voice only on the word “dragon,” as though that was the one thing she didn’t want Dev to hear. “I have no idea whether his consciousness is still in there.”
The dragon had raised its head and was watching them curiously.
Rhea’s expression changed as she studied it. “Does he have a tattoo?”
“I...” She wasn’t about to admit that she hadn’t seen Dev naked except out of the corner of her eye as he was face-deep between her thighs while she was tied to the headboard. “I don�
�t think so.”
“I see something patterned.” Rhea went closer, crouching to peer at the dragon’s breast. “It’s a pentagram. Could that be the ward? Maybe it’s there to keep him from transforming into the dragon. Until something triggered it and now the tattoo is working against him.”
Theia nodded thoughtfully. “So what triggered it?”
Without saying anything else to each other, the two of them seemed to come to some conclusion simultaneously and they both turned and fixed their eyes on Ione, speaking as one. “Lilith blood.”
Chapter 8
Ione quickly steered the conversation away from the inevitable question. “I don’t care how it got this way. I want to know what to do about it. I can’t even get it to eat anything. It drank some water but I’ve offered everything I’ve got in the house and it isn’t interested.”
Rhea headed toward the kitchen. “Have you tried raw meat?”
“I don’t keep meat in the house.”
“For crying out loud. You can’t just give him carrots and apples like some pet horse.”
“I didn’t give him—it—carrots and apples.” She wasn’t about to start ascribing gender to the dragon as if it really was Dev. For all she knew, he was gone for good. “I made eggs with cheese and meat substitute. And I gave it a bowl of salad just in case.”
The twins burst out laughing and Ione glared, about to tell them off. But the tension she’d been trying to contain finally broke and she sank onto the couch and laughed until she cried.
After the three of them had gotten it out of their systems, Rhea took her keys from her pocket and headed for the door, shoving her feet into her sandals as she opened it. “I’ll go to the store and pick up some steaks. And then maybe we can put our heads together and try to figure out how to reverse the transformation.”
Theia sat in the one chair by the window that hadn’t been knocked over. “So...exactly how did he get this way?”
“How do I know? He just—transformed out of the blue.”
“What were you doing at the time?” Theia’s eyes widened when Ione didn’t answer right away. “You weren’t actually doing it when he shifted?”