by Meg Ripley
But he slowly let the plate slide back into the sink as a frisson of energy crackled across the back of his neck. Something was wrong. He grabbed a towel and dried his hands as he headed into the living room. “Is everything okay?”
Julian looked up at him from the couch, arching one eyebrow. “Of course. Why?”
“I don’t know.” He scanned the room. The children were playing peacefully if not quietly on the floor, with Finn babbling his nonsense to Kaylee about the blocks he was stacking. Xander had a tablet in his hand and was skimming through whatever internet article he’d found to be the most fascinating. Julian and Beau had started a card game on the coffee table. There was nothing unusual or out of sorts in any fashion.
“Maybe you should sit down for a while,” Beau offered, gesturing at the recliner. “You’ve had a rough week.”
Holden shook his head. There was no way he could sit down. Something needed to be done—something more than the dishes—but he didn’t know what it was. “It’s not been that rough.”
Xander gave him a knowing smile. “No, of course not. You’ve only found your mate and then discovered that she basically thinks you’re a bad guy. Nothing difficult about that at all.”
Glaring at him, Holden regretted telling them anything. What Xander had said was true, but that didn’t make it easy to hear. “That will sort itself out.”
“Are you sure?” Beau leaned forward to wipe a line of drool from Elliot’s chin. “Seems like it would be pretty difficult to work things out with her when she doesn’t want to have anything to do with you.”
“Shut up.” But Holden knew the other shifter had a point. And there was definitely something pulling at him to get out of the house, to find what was wrong and fix it. He didn’t think it had anything to do with his relationship with Leah, but he still needed to take some sort of action. “Can you guys make sure Finn is taken care of? I’ve got to go.”
Xander and Julian laughed, but Beau smiled. “Of course. I’ll just take him home with me if you aren’t back before bedtime.”
Holden nodded. “Good. I have a feeling I won’t be.” Grabbing his keys and heading out to the garage, he fired up his car and drove straight into town. Every sense in his body was telling him there was something wrong. There was danger out there somewhere. He would find it.
11
Leah drove home after the séance, feeling drained both physically and emotionally. It was always difficult to see Naomi, and it wore on all of them that a special friend who had completed their inner circle was truly gone. It was always difficult to lose someone, but it hurt more to know that Naomi had been so uniquely special; there hadn’t been anyone else like her on Earth.
Parking in the alley that ran next to her building, Leah let herself in the side door of the store and climbed the stairs to her apartment. She carried an odd feeling in her gut, one that almost felt like excitement or fear. But there was nothing for her to be excited about. She was divorced and alone in the world except for her two close friends. Her first attempt at a new relationship had been such a rollercoaster that it had left her windblown and exhausted. She never wanted to see Holden Reid again, and if the universe was kind to her, she never would.
Flicking on the light, Leah dumped her purse and keys on the counter and peered in the fridge. She hadn’t bothered to grab any dinner before the séance, but she wasn’t really hungry. She felt the obligation to eat, but not the hunger. There was plenty available in the fridge, but none of it appealed to her, so he shut the fridge door and headed for the couch.
Normally, it was easy for Leah to settle in once she was at home. Using her psychic abilities for her business had given her the delineation between home life and work life, and she was usually good at turning herself off so she could relax a little before bed. But tonight, she felt too restless to put her feet up on the couch and turn on the television. There was something in the air, and it was beckoning to that nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It made it feel as though there was someone there with her, someone she hadn’t invited.
Concerned, she walked down the short hallway off the living room and peeked into her bedroom, the guest room, and the bathroom. She cursed herself for not having a weapon in the house. Her psychic powers wouldn’t protect her against an intruder. But she only found shadows, and she returned to the living room.
Sitting on the edge of the couch, she couldn’t resolve herself to let it go. Snagging a flashlight from a nearby shelf, she tiptoed downstairs to the shop. It was as she had left it, with the lights off and the front door locked. The partition wall made deep shadows in her reading room, hiding the couch and the oak bookshelf where she kept an array of items that assisted her in her work. But she scanned the flashlight over them and found nothing unusual.
Just as she was about to head up the stairs and force herself to go to bed, she heard a noise near the back of the building. She turned to find the back door open, the warm night air blowing in and rifling the papers on her desk.
And a hulking figure standing in the doorway.
Leah didn’t need to touch the trespasser to know he meant her harm. Waves of anger emanated from him, making her take several steps back until she bumped into the wall. “Get out of here,” she called into the darkness. “This is private property.”
“Oh, I know exactly where I’m at.” The man strode forward confidently. A beam of light from a streetlamp came in through the windows at the front of the store and slanted across his face, revealing a scar on his cheek.
With horror, Leah realized exactly where she’d seen that face before. She’d never met the man in real life, but she had seen him very clearly when she had touched Josey’s hand. She cleared her throat. “I’m warning you to get out right now, or I’ll call the police.” Why hadn’t she brought her cell phone downstairs with her? It was bad enough that her mystic powers were fading in and out, but now even her common sense was getting faulty.
“I don’t care. I’ll be done with you long before they get here.” The man took another step forward and lifted his hand, revealing a sharp knife that gleamed in the light. “I understand you told my Josey to stay away from me.”
Her breath was shallow, skipping along to the quick beat of her heart. “I never told her that. Whatever problems you and Josey have is your business, and not mine.”
“You should have thought about that before you talked to her. You see, she made the mistake of cheating on me, but I was willing to forgive her. I just about had her back, but then you had to go and mess it all up.”
Leah swallowed, trying to be brave. “You scared her, and that’s the only reason she came here. There wasn’t anything I could tell her about her relationship that she didn’t already know.”
“No!” the man screamed. He was in Leah’s face now, his breath hot and fetid in her nostrils. “That’s not true and you know it! She and I were doing just fine, but you convinced her I was out to hurt her. I went to her house just to talk, and the bitch went and called the cops. I’ve got a fucking restraining order on me now. How am I supposed to work things out with her when I can’t get within a hundred yards of her?” His fingers tightened around her arm. “You’re coming with me, and you’re going to tell her that she’s been wrong about me.”
“It sounds to me like you have some personal issues to work out. You need to talk to your lawyer and a couples’ counselor, not to a psychic.” She trembled inside, terrified by the aura this man was exuding. He was going to hurt her if she didn’t cooperate, and there was no doubt about it. “But you can’t tell me you didn’t mean any harm to Josey. You wanted her back at all costs, and that’s not how relationships work.”
“Aren’t they? Are you going to tell me you wouldn’t go to the edge of the Earth and back for someone you love?” He clamped a meaty hand around her arm and brought the edge of the blade to rest against the delicate skin of her throat. “Don’t you have someone who means more to you than anything?”
Leah wished
she could say that she did. And she desperately wished she could explain to this man that there was a big difference between going to the ends of the Earth for someone and stalking them. But she was afraid even to swallow, for fear that the sharp knife would slice right into her flesh. She could feel the prickle of the honed edge against her skin, and it wouldn’t take much.
“She might not, but I do.” This voice came from behind the intruder, causing him to spin around, knife at the ready.
Just then, the weapon was yanked from his hand by scaly red fingers, trimmed in claws. The knife clattered to the floor, and a great crimson beast threw Josey’s ex to the ground. The monster’s hands were on his chest, pinning him down, and his teeth were only an inch from his face as he spoke. “You will not harm this woman, not unless you want to deal with me. I can promise you, I know what it really means to do anything for the person you love.”
The sharp scent of urine pierced the air, and the man on the ground trembled. “What the fuck are you?” he mewled. His voice had been so rough and deep a moment ago, but now he squeaked like a terrified kitten.
“I’m her protector,” the monster growled. “And I will do anything to keep her safe.”
Leah kept her back against the wall as she took in the creature who stood in her shop. He had expansive, leathery wings, the upper edge of which brushed the ceiling. His thick, black claws were sharp as razors as they clutched at the shirt of the assailant, and his crimson scales shone in the dim light. The entire scene before her was like watching a distant dream come to life. Not only had she seen the scarred man in a vision before, but she had seen the dragon. He was the very same figure that Holden’s reading had revealed to her.
Right down to those sharp, blue eyes.
The dragon lifted his hands from the man’s chest. “Go now, before I change my mind.”
Scrambling to his feet, the dark-haired man was out the door and in the street in only a fraction of a second.
Turning to her, the dragon’s head moved from side to side on his long neck as he studied Leah. “You don’t need to be afraid of me.”
Her throat worked as she tried to regain the ability to speak. The experiences she’d had with her supernatural powers had at times been difficult to take, but this was, by far, the hardest. “I’m…I’m not sure that I am.” She reached out a tentative hand, touching the smooth scales on the dragon’s cheek, surprised to find that they were smooth and silky. Once again, she saw the same vision of a den of dragons, with Holden stepping out of a red, scaly skin. “Holden?”
He pushed his muzzle against the touch of her hand. “It’s me.”
“I can’t believe this.” Seeing him in this form made her understand so many things. The vision she’d had of him in the dragon’s den, the feeling that he was living two lives, and Naomi’s message about her kind being nearby all clicked into place like puzzle pieces. Holden hadn’t really been lying to her, he had just been protecting his identity. She couldn’t blame him for that. But it also brought up numerous questions.
“Believe it.” Holden took a step back. His wings folded, shrunk, and pulled into the flesh of his back. His thick, strong legs morphed back into very human ones. He writhed as his neck shortened and his face transformed into the one she had come to know so well. Each scale on his body tipped up on edge and sank down into his skin.
Leah’s vision blurred as tears came to her eyes. She blinked rapidly, but she couldn’t hold them back. They were hot against her cheeks.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Holden moved toward her, tentatively, taking her into his arms.
“It’s not that.” She burrowed her face into his chest, soaking up his energy and relishing his strong grip around her. She had felt so cold since she’d left his house, and she had chalked it up to exhaustion and emotional stress. Now, she knew it was just because she needed him. “I’m just so relieved.”
He pulled back so that he could look down at her. “You are?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the look of shock on his face. “You have no idea.”
12
“I feel like a bit of an idiot,” Leah admitted as she fluttered with the tea kettle and pulled two mugs down from the cabinet, her hands visibly shaking.
“Why should you?” Holden watched her carefully as he leaned against the counter. He hadn’t moved more than a few feet away from her since he’d arrived, and he didn’t plan to. He had known, even from a great distance, that Leah was in trouble. It was for that reason that he’d gone flying down the road, even though he hadn’t known it at the time.
“Because I should have known. When my senses are off, I can tell. They definitely weren’t off when I was picking up those visions about you, and I chose not to trust them simply because they didn’t make sense. It made me judge you unfairly.” She watched the steady flame of the gas burner under the kettle.
“Leah.” He moved so that he stood just behind her, his hand on her lower back. “There’s no way you could have really understood what was going on. It wouldn’t make sense to anyone, no matter what kind of powers they had.” Holden wished he could have just told her about it right away, but it had been too risky.
She pursed her lips. “Maybe most people wouldn’t, but someone who had met a dragon shifter before ought to.”
“What?” His voice was too sharp, and he cringed inwardly. But the other men had seen Leah back at The Parlor, and none of them had mentioned knowing her.
Taking a deep sigh, Leah turned to face him. “I knew a woman back in college. I’m friends with a couple other girls who have supernatural powers, and Naomi was one of us. But while I’m a psychic and two of the others are witches, Naomi was a shifter. She had the power to change from human form to dragon and back again.”
Holden’s eyes narrowed slightly. He knew he should believe her. There was no reason for Leah to lie to him, not now. But when he, the other three and the four dragonlings had been transported off of Charok, they had been the only ones of their kind left. “A female? I don’t understand.”
Leah shrugged. “She was just like you. She never said much about why she had that ability, and we simply accepted her for who she was.”
“Where is this woman? I need to talk to her.” If there was a female shifter on Earth, then he had to let the others know.
But Leah shook her head. “You can’t, not really. She died over five years ago. The only time we get to talk to her is when we hold a séance, and even then, her time with us is very limited.”
“Could I join you the next time you have one?” Holden’s mind was racing. It seemed completely impossible that another dragon had been here, and he only wished they had known about her sooner.
“Of course. I don’t think it would be a problem, and my friends would be happy to meet you.” Her face flushed an attractive shade of pink. “But it would be nice if I understood a little bit more about you and why you’re able to turn into a big red dragon who makes grown men piss their pants.”
Holden couldn’t help but laugh at that. “It’s a lot to explain, but I’ll try to keep it simple. We’re from another world. Our kind was threatened by a spell to the point of extinction, and we had no choice but to leave. A sympathetic warlock managed to send us here. We’re just trying to exist, like anyone else.”
Her cerulean eyes looked away for a moment in thought. “And your son?”
“He’s a shifter as well. Our queen had laid four eggs before she died, and we each took one. They hatched shortly after we came to Earth, and we’re fortunate that they seem to prefer being in their human forms. But I have to admit there are times that they express their dragon side, and it’s not always convenient.”
Leah laughed softly, a beautiful noise that made him want to be closer to her. “Typical kid, then, huh?”
He smiled. “Yeah, he seems to be. But I think you and I both know we’ve been dancing around what we really need to talk about.”
She had been looking at him, but she dropped
her eyes to his chest. “I’m not sure I know what to say. It’s all so strange, but wonderful. First, I think I owe you an apology.”
“For what?” Unable to resist the urge, Holden reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She looked so vulnerable, even though she wasn’t currently being threatened by some corrupt human with an odd sense of justice.
“For running out on you this morning and accusing you of being a liar. I didn’t trust myself, and it made me not trust you. I didn’t know what else to do, and I was just scared.”
Holden leaned forward and pressed his lips to her smooth forehead. His hands skimmed down to gently encase her hips and pull her toward him. “You didn’t know. It’s okay. I don’t blame you at all.”
Leah tipped up her head, encouraging his lips to meet hers. He didn’t deny her, fulfilling the need he had been feeling himself. “I have so many questions. There are some things that make a lot more sense than they did this morning, but I still feel like there’s more I should know.” She flicked her tongue out, tentatively.
He responded, deepening the kiss and pressing their bodies together. God, how he had longed for her. It had been less than a day since he’d had her in his bed, but it felt like an eternity. Holden resisted the urge to dig his fingers into her flesh just to prove to himself that she was there. He needed her more than he could ever explain, and if he had his way he would never leave her side. “We have all the time in the world to talk,” he said, moving his lips down her jaw line to nip at her ear. “But there’s one very important thing you need to know right away.”