by Linzi Baxter
“I told you to stay inside, Alida.”
Gideon knelt down next to the young girl so he was the same height as her. “It’s so good to see you, Alida.”
The girl shook his outstretched hand. Her eyes flashed. “You need to stop fighting the pull.”
“Can you explain what you mean by ‘pull,’?” Diem asked.
The girl giggled and ran off.
Kirin shook his head. “Let’s go inside.” He eyed Diem. “And we’d better get you some food.”
Gideon gripped her hand, and she felt a shock go through her system. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’ll explain in time.”
Time. She would live a lot longer than she would have if she’d remained human. The thought of not aging, she liked. Nobody could explain how long she would live, because they didn’t know much about humans who’d been turned and she’d stopped letting people poke her with needles.
They followed Kirin through the bare home to the kitchen. She’d only met Lucy a few times but had thought the human would make her place feel like home. This house felt cold, and only the bare minimum decorated the walls.
“When was the last time you ate?” Kirin growled. It seemed everything he said to her came out in a growl.
“Yesterday.” If she hadn’t been so hungry, she would have lied, but the thought of food made her stomach growl as loud as her dragon’s roar. “I just need a quick snack.”
“She needs more than a snack. Diem shifted earlier when we were attacked,” Gideon said.
“Who attacked you?” Kia asked as he walked into the kitchen.
“They wore the same emblem Kael used. That’s the reason we’re here,” Gideon said. “Diem thinks we can go to Cassadaga, Florida, and Emma will help us find her sister, but someone is after Diem.”
She was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation. Her eyes kept going to the sizzling steak on the stove. The piece of meat was larger than anything she’d seen at a grocery store. It made her mouth water.
Kirin pulled a couple of beers from the fridge and handed one to Gideon. “How do you know they want her dead?”
“I think they blew up my house. When we fought the men at the escape route, they had loaded silver bullets.”
Diem hadn’t known that. “How do you know they were silver? Can silver kill me?”
Kirin shook his head. “Silver can’t kill a dragon. It hurts like a bitch until you have the bullet taken out. The only way to kill a dragon is to chop off its head.”
After five minutes with Kirin, she’d learned more about herself than she had in the past six months.
Gideon took a sip of his beer. “Two of the men were turned shifters, and the other two were human.”
“I’m guessing you killed them?” Kirin asked.
She glared. “They were trying to kill us.”
“We’re not the enemy, Diem,” Kirin grunted.
He was right, but she was on edge. “Sorry. I want to find my sister and figure out my dragon.”
Kirin placed the large steak in front of her. “You need to learn to keep your dragon fed. Shifters eat a lot more than humans. Our metabolism is ten times faster.”
“Easier said than done. You know how expensive it is to keep my dragon fed?” She took a bite of the delicious steak.
Gideon turned to Kirin, his voice tight. “Have you heard anything else about any labs?”
“No. We’ve also been tracking any shifters who have gone missing.” Kirin pinched his brow.
“How about humans?” Diem asked between bites. “Kayda and I were taken from a bar.”
“It’s not easy to track missing humans. They disappear all the time, and we haven’t seen any spikes on the reports.”
Gideon downed the remaining beer. “So going to Florida is our best bet.”
“We can keep searching here, but Florida might be the fastest way to find her sister,” Kirin agreed.
She took her last bite of the steak. “I know you guys don’t like me, but do you have any books about dragon shifters?”
“What do you want to know?” Kirin asked.
Her face heated. “My dragon seems to not want to leave Gideon alone. While I was waiting for him to help me, she forced me into a shift each night, and we flew over to his house.”
“I see.” Kirin paused. “And when you’re near him?”
She shrugged. “The dragon quits. It’s the first time in a long time she isn’t pushing at my skin.”
Kirin burst out laughing next to her. “I think this is a question for Gideon to answer.”
“I’ll explain in time,” he grumbled next to her.
She scowled, mostly because she was frustrated. “Thank you for the food, but since there is nothing you can help us with, I think it’s time we head to Florida.”
Kia walked into the kitchen. “You should let Lucy look you over before you leave.”
“So she can drive a bunch more needles in me and not tell me anything?”
The pint-sized woman used that second to walk into the room. Her belly had grown since the last time Diem had seen her. She looked close to four months along. “I’m sorry. Deep down, I knew you couldn’t control yourself from taking Nyx, but it was hard to put the anger away. You also helped us when we needed it.” She let out a sigh. “Let me run a couple of tests, and I promise to tell you the results before you leave.”
“I’ll let you take a couple more only if you guys promise to help find my sister.”
“We aren’t fighting against you. Lucy will take a few tests, and I’ll work on cooking you some more food,” Kirin said with a raised brow.
She wanted to say she didn’t need the food, but she nodded instead. Lucy reached out and grabbed her hand. Diem followed Lucy, and Gideon stayed with Kirin and Kia. She hoped Lucy would answer the questions nobody else would.
When they reached the middle of the garage, Lucy placed her hand on the floor. A screen appeared and scanned her face. A year before, Diem would have been in shock when the floor moved. Now nothing seemed to surprise her much anymore.
She stood at the top of the stairs, holding her breath. “I’m not sure I want to go down there.”
Lucy placed her hands on her hips. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I’m not going to hurt you. Also, you’re a dragon, and I’m human.”
“Okay.” She followed Lucy down the narrow staircase until they came to a square room.
Lucy smiled. “Alida said everything will work out for your sister and you.” She placed her hand on the wall again, and elevator double door appeared. The two stepped through the doors into a gold-plated elevator.
Diem’s dragon didn’t like that they’d left Gideon alone. She took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on what Lucy said. “How would Alida know?”
“She can see things before they happen. Alida can do many things we don’t understand.”
The elevator jerked to a stop. “But she thinks my sister will be okay.”
“Yes.” Lucy stepped forward and let the software scan her face before the door opened.
They walked down a long, narrow hallway to his state-of-the-art lab. This secret lair was so much homier than the one upstairs.
Lucy walked over to the drawer and grabbed a syringe. “Can you tell me how your dragon is doing?” She looked down for a second. “My close friend was changed, and her shifts are hard. She’d already found her mate, so that helped with the transition.”
“What is a mate?”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “Hasn’t anyone talked to you about being a shifter?”
Diem couldn’t hold back the frustration or the tears. “No. And nobody will explain why my dragon goes crazy for Gideon. He keeps saying he will explain.”
Lucy eyed her for a second. “Men.” She wiped alcohol across Diem’s arm before sticking the needle in. “Your symptoms are signs that he’s your mate.”
“Can you explain this, please?” Diem asked.
Lucy
sighed. “This should come from Gideon, but he’s having issues with what happened to him. If I had to guess, I’d say he doesn’t think he’s good enough for you. A mate is the one person in the world your dragon is made for. There is nobody else for you, only him, and when you both stop fighting the pull, your dragon will settle down.”
“And if he fights the pull forever?”
“I’m not sure what happens to warlocks who fight the pull, but dragons can get sick,” she said, not looking Diem in the eye.
“Nothing good has come from getting turned into a dragon.”
“This is a speed bump in your long story. Give it time.” Lucy took the needle out of Diem’s arm, walked over to the computer, and placed her blood in a machine.
“How long before you have anything?”
“I should have something by morning. You and Gideon should stay the night and hit the road first thing in the morning.”
Her dragon wanted to get on the road and head out right away. “I don’t want to put you guys out.”
“It will give me time to finish the tests,” Lucy said, looking down at the computer. “I’m running these to hopefully have answers for you.”
“Any answers would help.” Diem took a deep breath. “Is there a way to go back to normal?”
“There might be a way, but I’m not looking into it. If someone ever got their hands on that type of drug, it could be deadly.”
“That makes sense. It’s just…”
Lucy walked over and grabbed her hand. “This world takes some time to get used to, and you haven’t seen the good side yet.”
The machine beeped, and Lucy walked back over. “That was fast.” She printed out a few pieces of paper. “Did you ever know your parents?”
Diem bristled. “No. Kayda and I were in foster care from a young age.”
“According to this, you might’ve had dormant shifter DNA,” she said excitedly.
“That would explain the shift,” Gideon said from the doorway.
Diem wanted to walk across the room and wrap her arms around him. Instead, she sat in place. “Why wouldn’t I have shifted before?”
“Some shifters can only be male. Gators are one shifter that is only born male. The girls just heal faster and don’t get sick.” Lucy typed a few things into the computer. “Did you get sick growing up?”
“Neither Kayda nor I ever got sick.”
Gideon walked across the room and stood next to her. “I wonder how they figured out you had shifter DNA. Did you give blood lately?”
Her face turned bright red. “Yes.” She could never find a man she wanted to settle down with, but she wanted a kid. A few days before she went to the bar, she’d visited a fertility bank for assistance with getting pregnant.
“Where did you go?” Lucy asked.
“I went to Cross Roads Fertility.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Gideon growled.
Diem rolled her eyes. “Stop being so growly. I would think you’re a wolf shifter. You don’t need a man to get pregnant, and I wanted to be a mom.”
“You’re not having someone else’s kids,” he said.
Lucy giggled from across the room.
“I’m not sure you have a say in who I have kids with,” Diem said.
“You’re my mate. If you want kids, they’ll be ours.”
4
Gideon
He didn’t know where the words had come from. At no point in his life had he ever wanted kids or thought about having kids. But when Diem mentioned having someone else’s kids, he saw red. It took everything in him not to pull her into his arms.
Kirin walked in and laughed at Gideon’s outburst. Lucy smiled, and Diem’s eyes turned a deep green.
She pushed her index finger into his chest. “You can’t go around saying things like that.”
“I’m your mate. The only person you will have kids with is me.”
“You’re the most frustrating person I’ve met,” Diem hissed. “I asked you earlier what this feeling was—why my dragon seemed to always want to be near you. You said we would talk about it later.”
He loved how fired up she was—the way her eyes turned greener the madder she got. “Technically, it is later.”
“It doesn’t matter. The second I was changed, my life priorities changed. How could I bring a child into a world I don’t understand? Hell, if I have kids, will they be shifters?”
Lucy tapped her pen on the counter. “Honestly, there was a chance before you were changed that your kid would be a shifter. Just because you couldn’t shift didn’t mean you wouldn’t pass down the gene.”
“Are you able to find my birth parents or figure out what type of shifter is in my genes?”
“It’s not that easy. The injection they gave you changed a big portion of your shifter DNA, but your DNA had the tracers of a shifter who’d been changed, as compared to someone who didn’t have any shifter DNA.”
Science made his head hurt. He hated how Diem’s eyes dimmed when Lucy asked her next question.
“If we could find DNA from before the change, could we run it against the database?”
Diem let out a sigh. “I don’t have anything. Everything from my previous life is gone.”
“Give me time. I might be able to separate your DNA, and once we find your sister, I can see what strands connect you together. This might help pinpoint who your parents were.” Lucy put another vial of blood into the machine.
Gideon had dodged Lucy’s needle for the past two months, but it was time he got his own answers. “Did you want a sample of my blood?”
The scientist's eyes lit up. She grabbed a needle from the drawer and rushed to his side. “Yes. I’ve never gotten to look at the DNA of someone as old as you. This will be so cool.”
Diem snickered next to him.
“You know, it’s not nice to call someone old. Furthermore, it’s not as if your mate is young.”
Lucy looked him in the eye as she pushed the needle into his arm. “Kia is young compared to you.” She lifted her chin. “Your blood might help answer questions about bloodlines. And—”
“You can say it. And explain how someone controlled me. You want to know if weakness in my DNA made it so Kael could use mind control.”
He’d wondered the same thing for the past month. It was another reason he wasn’t good enough for Diem. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t imagine walking away from her. Warlocks could live without their mates. Not all shifters would fare the same. Wolf shifters would slowly die if they were denied by their mates. He wasn’t sure what would happen to a dragon shifter.
“You don’t have anything in your DNA that would make you weak.” Lucy shoved another needle in his arm. The scientist was taking a lot of his blood. “I was going to say we could check the connection between you two. When a shifter finds their mate, each person’s DNA changes.”
“How long do you need to run your tests?” If anyone was able to help Diem, it would be Lucy.
She walked across the room with his blood and put it into a machine. Diem was sitting next to him and hadn’t said a word. She stared toward the door, where Alida stood next to her father. The young girl had shoulder-length blond hair. Her eyes were a deep blue, almost purple.
“I won’t hurt you.” Alida stepped into the room. Kirin gripped her hand as they walked toward Diem. “I wanted to tell you, Kayda will be okay, but you need to find her.”
“Do you know where she is?” Gideon asked.
“I can’t tell you that. There is only so much I can say.” Her eyes turned white for a second. “But you will only find her if you go together.”
He planned to help Diem find her sister. After the mission, he would go to his house in Ireland and heal his broken heart. Diem was too good for him, and he would need to walk away from her in the end.
“Mates don’t have the choice to walk away,” Alida said with a smile.
“Did you just read my mind?” Gideon muttered.
“Wh
at did I tell you about reading people's thoughts, Alida?” Kirin frowned at his daughter.
“He’s stubborn,” the young girl said.
“The things in my head are private,” Gideon said. He’d given Diem advice to keep her mind clear, and he hadn’t done the same.
“Your thoughts are loud!” Alida huffed.
“Is this how the guy on TV claims he sees your deceased family? He can read your thoughts and knows what to say?”
Alida giggled. “They can’t read minds. They do research on the audience before they show up.”
Lucy walked back over. “I still think Talia should open up a shop and do readings, but Kirin has her too busy at the council. As for your blood tests, I hope to have some answers in the next couple of days.”
“I don’t want to wait any longer to find my sister,” Diem whispered.
This was his chance to delay even longer. But when he saw the moisture pooling in her eyes, he knew he wouldn’t deny her anything. “We’ll leave in the morning. Kirin, do you have any rare trinket I can buy from you? I need something for Emma.”
Kirin tilted his head to the side. “Does Emma or Arrow know you're going to Cassadaga?”
“No.” Maybe it was time he made amends for some of his past actions, but Diem came first. “I’ll figure it out. Hence the reason I need a rare trinket.”
He knew it was a long shot asking a dragon for an ornament. They collected them and never gave them up. Even something worthless was hard for a dragon to ever get rid of. If Kirin turned him down, they would look for something on the drive.
“I’ll take a look tonight,” Kirin said.
“Maybe Conley would give you one of his trolls.” Lucy laughed. “I’m sure a fairy would love a troll to protect her little yard. Kia showed me pictures of the fairy gardens in Cassadaga. I can’t wait to go down there. I’ve been on the lookout for my gift ever since he told me about them.”
“Conley won’t give up a troll,” Alida said. “He’s still angry I asked about them. He’s the one who got excited when we were in the mall and he found one with rainbow hair. I didn’t know it was his dragon’s secret.”
Kirin reached down and swooped his daughter into his arms. “I’m sure Conley isn’t mad at you.”