I screamed.
Lachlan let out a throaty yell. He tumbled into the hallway.
I went after him. “Lachlan!” I called.
But he was throwing himself against the walls, bouncing down the hallway like a ping pong ball, and going too fast for me to touch him.
I hurried after him.
He rounded the corner at the end of the hallway, slipping out of my sight.
“What is it?” said Vivica from behind me. I could hear the wails of both of the boys renting the air.
I shook my head at her and sprinted after Lachlan. When I rounded the corner, he was nowhere in sight.
The front door was open. I ran through it.
He was outside, doubled over, his head thrown back, his teeth clenched in pain.
“Lachlan.” I skidded to a stop next to him, crouching over him. I put my hand on his skin.
And recoiled. He was burning up. He was so hot that he’d burned me.
“Get away from me,” he growled, and smoke poured out of his lips as he spoke. “Stay back.” He swatted at me.
I tried to duck away from his swinging arm and lost my balance. I went sprawling on my backside.
Lachlan straightened, letting out a strangled roar of pain. He threw back his head. There was the sound of cracking bones.
I winced. When I looked back, he was all red, every bit of his body bright red. And the thing under his skin, it was pushing out in all directions.
Lachlan turned his face at me, but it wasn’t his face. Something else was stretching out his skin, which was changing, getting rough and scaly. He had a… snout.
Oh God. I leaped to my feet. “Get in the lake, Lachlan! You’re shifting!”
But it was too late.
Lachlan stretched out his arms, and there was a ripping noise. He shrieked in pain, and his arms were wings. Huge wings, bigger in span than typical dragons—maybe nine feet of wings. They were red and magnificent.
Where Lachlan had stood, there was only a dragon.
I let out a cry. No. No, no, no. He’d shifted out of water. He was gone, and there was nothing left now. That was how rogues were made.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I collapsed to my knees on the grass, sobs bubbling up from my throat. He hadn’t made it to the water in time. Why couldn’t I have seen earlier what was happening?
Lachlan-the-dragon took to the air effortlessly, flapping his wings to gain altitude. He joined the rest of the rogue dragons and they all streamed toward the clouds.
Behind me, I heard the sound of boyish giggles. I turned. And through my tears, I could see Wyatt and Jackson, pointing up at the dragons and laughing. They were standing just outside of the doorway with Vivica.
Wyatt didn’t understand. His father was gone. There was no more Lachlan, just a soulless husk of a thing. The rogues did nothing but eat and destroy, and there was no way to get one to return to human form, because the shift destroyed the human form. I’d seen his arms turn to wings. They were arms one moment, wings the next.
Why hadn’t I understand what was happening?
I supposed I didn’t really know what a shift looked like. I’d never opened my eyes under the water and watched any other dragons that I knew shift, not even when I was a teenager and I was first starting to shift. The shift wasn’t something that a dragon had to learn. It was a biological instinct—an urge that began to hit around puberty. And the only thing that could be done was to make sure one was in the proper place for shifting when it became so unbearable that a dragon had to give in to it.
After some time, a dragon was strong enough to control when and where he shifted, but when dragons were just acquiring the skill, it could strike at any time it pleased and it rarely appeared when a teenage dragon wanted it to.
At any rate, I had no idea what a shift looked like. I’d never witnessed one in my life.
Still, that was no excuse. I should have recognized the signs. After all, Lachlan was the blood dragon. I should have realized that meant he was going to literally become a dragon. But I had never really thought it all through, I supposed.
And now, Lachlan was gone.
I gazed down at my engagement ring, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting married. I wasn’t going to be spending my life with Lachlan.
Another giggle from Wyatt.
I ran for him, scooping him up off the ground. “No, no, sweetie,” I whispered. “You don’t understand.” The poor little boy didn’t have a daddy anymore, and he had no idea.
Wyatt struggled to get out of my arms, pointing up at the sky, where the red dragon that had been Lachlan was leading the rest of the dragons in a series of complicated and intricate flight patterns. Above us, they circled, then all broke off and turned in the air like synchronized swimmers.
Wait a second.
If Lachlan was a rogue, then that should mean that he had turned into a crazed monster. He should have been coming for us with all the others, trying to burn us alive. But instead they were doing loop-de-loops in the sky.
That wasn’t right.
I set Wyatt down and stood up slowly. Could it be? Was he…?
Lachlan-the-dragon dove out of the air and landed just in front of us. He shook himself, and as he did, he shook away his scales and his wings and his red skin, and he was just Lachlan right in front of us.
He’d shifted back!
I ran for him and I wrapped my arms around him. “You’re okay!”
“Of course I’m okay,” he said, grinning. “Did you see what I can do? I can fly.”
Wyatt ran for us on chubby legs.
Lachlan let go of me to pick him up. He twirled with his son. “Daddy can fly, buddy.”
“Daddy needs to go put on some clothes,” said Vivica.
Lachlan looked down at his naked body. He turned red again—but this time it was a normal blush. He handed me Wyatt and headed for the house.
Vivica gave him a wide berth getting back through the doorway.
In moments, Lachlan was back outside buttoning a pair of jeans as he came through the door. “Okay, that was awesome!”
“It was terrifying,” I countered. I felt as if I’d been run over by a semi-truck. I was smashed and confused. “I thought you’d become a rogue. You shifted out of water.”
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s weird, huh? Wonder why that worked.”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but I thought you were dead. My heart was breaking, and you were just up there flying around having the time of your life.”
He laughed gently, coming over to kiss me. “I’m okay,” he murmured.
I pushed him away. I was angry with him for some reason. I knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, but the emotions I’d felt had been powerful, and now I felt thrown by it all.
He laughed again and pulled me close. “Penny, this is good,” he said. “I don’t know if you saw the fire I was breathing up there—”
“I wasn’t paying attention in my grief,” I said.
He let go of my and peered up at the sky. “But it was even hotter than the stuff I was breathing last night. And in dragon form, I felt as if I was so strong, as if nothing could stop me. There was no drain on my magic. I wonder if it works the same way as it does for you. When I’m in dragon form, do I create magic just by existing?”
There was no way to know something like that. Vampires didn’t create magic themselves. In order to have usable magic, they had to consume dragon blood or wear a talisman. And before he got into the technical, nitty-gritties of the situation, I really wanted a chance to take a breath.
He pointed at me. “This was what was happening the other day, when you said I turned red, don’t you think? I was almost shifting.”
I thought about it. “Yeah, it must have been.”
“Whoa,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “I wonder if I could do it again.” He was like a kid at Christmas. He didn’t even care that he’d scared me half to death.
Of course, I was glad th
at he was okay. And maybe that was all I should focus on.
Lachlan unbuttoned his jeans and started to shimmy out of them.
“Okay, warning?” said Vivica.
“Sorry,” called Lachlan.
She stomped into the house and shut the door.
Lachlan shut his eyes, concentrated.
I watched him. In the distance, I could hear the sounds of birds chirping in the morning light. The air was cool and comfortable now, but it was steadily getting warmer.
Lachlan opened his eyes. “That’s not working at all.” He pulled his jeans back on.
I cleared my throat. “I hate to tell you this, but you may not have any control over it for a while.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when dragons go through puberty and they first start shifting, it just… happens sometimes. You have to be careful as a teenage dragon. Always need to be near a body of water, because you never know when it’s going to come upon you.”
“Seriously?” he said. “And how long does that last?”
“A couple years,” I said.
“Years? We don’t have that kind of time. There’s got to be a shortcut,” he said. “There’s got to be some way I can gain control over the shifting faster.”
“Well, maybe you will,” I said. “Because you’re older, and you’re not a typical dragon. Maybe it’ll only take a few weeks for you.”
He sighed. “Even that could be too long.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s not like it’s a skill I learned. One day I couldn’t control it. The next day I could. Like a switch getting flipped.”
“Great,” he muttered. “Just great.” He looked out at the rogues, which were all standing at attention on the periphery of the property. He rubbed his chin. “Man, I could really go for some blood.” Then he turned and went into the house.
I followed him, carrying Wyatt.
He went into the kitchen, opened the door of the refrigerator, got out the blood, and then went over to the cabinet for a glass. He poured the blood into the glass.
Vivica was already in the kitchen. She was loading toast into the toaster. “I’m going to heat up some sausages too,” she said, “in the microwave. You guys want some?”
“Yes,” said Lachlan. “Definitely sausage. What else for breakfast?”
“Fruit,” she said.
He wrinkled up his nose. “Aren’t you missing some food group there?”
“It works for me,” I said. “You want help cutting up fruit?”
“Yes,” she said. “There are grapes in the fridge. Cut them up for the boys?” Uncut grapes were a choking hazard.
“Sure thing,” I said.
Lachlan leaned against the counter and sipped at his glass of blood. “Maybe eggs? Are eggs a food group?”
“No,” I said, getting out the grapes.
Lachlan took another drink. He grunted.
I dropped the grapes. “What?”
Lachlan’s face was turning red. He set down his glass and gripped the counter. Slowly, his face returned to normal color.
I let out a breath of relief.
But he was grinning. “It’s blood!”
“Yes,” I said. “You’re drinking blood.”
“No, that’s what causes the shift,” he said. “I need to be able to drink blood in order to shift. I have to have enough in my system, or I can’t.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I guess that makes sense.” He was the blood dragon, after all.
“And did you see how I stopped that shift from happening?” He spread his hands, giving me a big grin.
“I saw,” I said.
“I can control it,” he said. “I’ve been at this shifting thing for less than an hour, and I can control it. I’m kind of awesome, don’t you think?”
I picked the grapes up off the floor. “You were until you said that.”
* * *
I truly think Lachlan could have spent the entire day shifting back and forth between dragon and human form. He wanted me to shift with him, said we could go on a flight together, and I wanted to get caught up in his enthusiasm. But the truth was, I felt overwhelmed by all of this. Lachlan was changing so quickly. I didn’t know what to make of it.
In the end, it was me that reminded him we’d made an appointment to talk with someone about Wells that day. Wells had been released to go to the funeral of his best friend’s wife. We were going to see her sister.
The sister’s name was Emily Taylor, and she’d said she’d be happy to talk to us, since she had no real love for Simon Wells. She thought his interference in the family had only been bad for her sister. The dead woman’s name was Kate Jones.
We met Emily somewhere in public. She had wanted it that way. It was a little cafe with tables set up outside on the sidewalk. We all sat together there and ordered cold drinks. Lachlan had soda. Both Emily and I got fruit-infused iced teas. The table wasn’t quite big enough for all of us. Emily sat on the other side, clutching her drink as condensation beaded up on it. Lachlan and I sat on the other side, our drinks crowded together on the tiny table.
“So,” said Lachlan, “we understand that Simon Wells was close friends with Kate’s late husband.”
Emily sipped her iced tea through a straw. “Yes, back when Dave was alive, Simon was over at their house all the time. And I didn’t like it, because—even before he got arrested—we all knew Simon was bad news.”
“That so?” said Lachlan.
She nodded.
“Bad news in what way?”
“Well, in the way that he was a drug dealer,” she said.
Hmm. I guessed that he’d built up his drug-dealing empire before getting locked up. He had simply modified his business model once he was in jail.
Emily sat down her drink. “I didn’t think having a man like that around Jean was a very good idea.”
“Jean?” said Lachlan.
“Kate and Dave’s daughter,” said Emily. “She wasn’t born until after Dave was gone. Kate got pregnant right before he died.”
“And when did Dave die?” said Lachlan.
“Oh, it’s been around twenty years now, I think,” said Emily.
Lachlan raised his eyebrows. “So, Simon’s been dealing drugs a long time.”
“Kate was young when Dave died,” said Emily. “She was strong, though. She got through it. She managed to make a life for herself and her daughter, a good one. Even though she was only a single mother, she managed to start a very successful business.”
“Oh,” said Lachlan. “What did she do?”
“She was a dog walker,” said Emily.
“Really?” I said. “And she was successful with that?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised what people will pay to have someone walk their dogs. When Jean was young, Kate would have that little baby strapped to her front in a baby carrier and she’d be holding the leashes of five dogs, traipsing through the neighborhood. Over time, the business grew so much that she was able to afford a lovely house and private schools for Jean. It was really inspirational.”
Lachlan cleared his throat. “And during all that time, did she have any contact with Wells?”
“With Simon? Well, no, he was Dave’s friend, wasn’t he?”
“So, they had no contact at all, but then he made it a point to work very hard to get out of prison for her funeral,” said Lachlan.
Emily pursed her lips. “I’m not saying they had no contact at all.”
Lachlan picked up his soda and took a long slurp through the straw.
“What?” said Emily. “You don’t believe me?”
“I’m not saying a word,” said Lachlan. “Uh, let’s talk about Jean, then. How old is she?”
“Twenty.”
“And what high school did she go to?”
“She went to the local school,” said Emily. “Bartle High.”
“I thought you said that she went to private schools.”
“Well, the priv
ate school she was going to was very small,” said Emily. “They didn’t have a marching band or a dance team, and Jean was interested in both of those. So, for her last two years of school, she went to the public school.”
“What year did she graduate?”
“Is Jean important?” Emily furrowed her brow.
I had to admit I wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“Well, to be honest, we’ve been unsure why Wells might have had a yearbook from the high school in his possession. We thought it might be connected to another crime, but if Jean went to the school—”
“That’s where she graduated.”
“Well,” said Lachlan, “that explains it then.” He reached across the table to shake her hand. “Thank you for your time.”
Emily just looked at his hand. “That’s—that’s all?”
“That’s all,” said Lachlan.
She shook his hand.
* * *
Back in the rental car, Lachlan didn’t start the engine. Instead, he got the yearbook out of the back of the car and began paging through it.
“So,” I said, “it was all about his best friend’s daughter?”
“Best friend’s daughter? No way,” said Lachlan. “That kid was born after his friend died? Her mother afforded houses and private schools while walking dogs? I don’t think so.”
“So, what do you think?” I said.
He stopped turning pages and tapped a picture of Jean. “Well, she looks like him. Pretty obviously too. If Emily there didn’t see it, she must have been really good at deluding herself.”
“What are you talking about?”
Lachlan passed the yearbook to me. “Look at Jean.”
I located the picture on the page, and I realized what Lachlan was talking about. The resemblance was uncanny. “She’s Wells’s daughter.”
“Yeah,” said Lachlan. “This is his family, Kate and Jean. That’s why he had to get out for her funeral. He’d been taking care of them all of those years. He didn’t want anyone to know, because the fact that he slept with his best friend’s widow in the wake of his best friend’s death doesn’t make him look good.”
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