by Leia Stone
Danny smiled. “Teach her how to disarm someone, take someone to the ground. Basic skills she will need if a druid tries to grab her.”
Logan looked relieved to be given the suggestion. He nodded. “Yes, of course. We can do the magic stuff later.”
“Or never.” I rubbed my palm, which thankfully seemed to be healing. A jolt of surprise ran through me then. It was healing! “I can heal.” I mumbled.
Logan crossed the room and glanced at my pale hand, once seared red with the markings of the knife. “Well, that’s one good thing we have going for us. Your little purple magic display with the neighboring shifters must have ignited your powers more fully.”
A slight grin tugged the corner of my lips. Cool. I felt a little mentally unhinged at the thought of being indestructible, but it was also thrilling. I have healing powers.
Logan stood before me and motioned to his body. “There are many ways to take a man down, but let’s focus on three. The neck.” He did a karate chop to my throat, stopping just before touching me. I swallowed hard and nodded.
“The groin...” He tugged his bottom lip down, making a painful face, and I couldn’t help but grin. “And the armpit.”
My head reeled back as I laughed. “The armpit?” What a joke.
He shot out lightning-quick then, and shoved his thumb up into my armpit. A cry tore from my lips as I moved my body, trying to get out of his grasp. Deep pain radiated from my elbow to my ribcage, and then he let go.
“Hurts like hell,” he stated.
I glared at him, rubbing my underarm. “Yeah it does.” I was totally burning his next meal.
He nodded. “Your turn.”
He opened his arms wide as if asking for me to bring it on. I frowned. “I don’t know about this. I’m not a fighter type of person.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “The first ten minutes of knowing me, you punched me square in the jaw as I tried to save your life.” His jaw muscle twitched and I stepped back a foot.
“I did?” Oops. I must have been acting on instinct. I certainly didn’t remember doing that.
“Yes, you did, and I was pissed, and also relieved. That’s the kind of attitude you will need to survive this lifestyle. Someone threatens you, you take them down. No questions asked.”
He was right. I needed to not care about hurting him or embarrassing myself. I needed to train, to learn to protect myself so I didn’t have to depend on a pack. I put my arms into fists in front of me and Logan grinned.
“Horrible form, but I like your spirit.” He winked, adjusting my hands.
Over the next hour we went through one repetitious drill—karate chop to the throat, thumb to the armpit, and then knee to the groin. I didn’t do it hard, but Logan pretended to fall over every time, and that’s when I was supposed to run. Throat, arm, groin, run. We did this until my muscles creaked and Danny looked like he was dozing off from boredom. I was about to ask for a break when Danny suddenly sat erect.
“Druids are here,” he said in a flat monotone voice. He flung out his hand and a glowing yellow light slammed into the knife cabinet where Logan kept his glowing green swords. Could these druids sense the dragon magic that adorned the blades? Logan’s eyes bugged out of his head.
“Why are they here?” Logan mouthed as we heard the crunching of tires on gravel.
Danny closed his eyes, breathing deeply, as if in a trance. “They are the same ones from Eva’s bar. They want to meet Sloane.”
Oh shit.
“Shit,” Logan muttered, coursing my internal dialog.
Danny stood. “We chat with them, assure them all is well, and they will leave.”
Logan looked nervous, which I hadn’t thought possible before now. “How many are there?”
The sorcerer closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Three.”
Logan looked absolutely shocked. “THREE! I thought only two were at Eva’s bar? Do they have their truth witch with them?”
I was guessing that druids didn’t hang out together, because Logan seemed downright shocked that this many were clustered together.
Danny looked deep in concentration, his eyes rolling under the lids, emanating a faint yellow glow. Then he grinned. “Their truth witch has fallen ill, thanks to Eva. They must have flown this third druid out to finish their investigation.”
A car door shut and Danny put a finger to his lips. Did he just say investigation? I felt like I was going to be sick. What if they smelled that I was one of them?
Logan crossed the barn quickly and slipped his hand in mine, the warm skin making my dragon coil tightly inside of me as a low buzzing worked its way up my arm and into my chest. Logan leaned in slowly and whispered in my ear. “You’re my wolf shifter girlfriend. We’ve been dating about a month, and I asked you to move from Phoenix to join my pack here in Flagstaff.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to think of the way his hot breath tickled my neck or the way I liked how he called me his girlfriend, even if it was fake.
“Okay,” I replied.
Logan nodded to Danny. “Okay.”
Danny walked over to the barn door and swung it wide as Logan kept my hand tucked firmly in his and pulled me alongside him. We were walking out there, right into the path of these whack-jobs who wanted to kill me and eat my soul, or whatever it was. This was a really bad idea and I was totally going along with it. YOLO.
10
AS WE EXITED the barn, Danny walked in front of us, probably to shield us if the druids started flinging red magic fireballs. Logan had my hand firmly grasped in his; I was slightly terrified, so my palms were dripping sweat, but he didn’t seem to care. I could see now that Keegan had the front door wide open and was leaning in the doorway, holding his shotgun while three druids in sleek black business suits stood on the porch.
“To what do we owe the pleasure, gentlemen?” Keegan’s voice dripped with sarcasm and it was clear the druids were not welcome here. A man stepped closer to Keegan, extending his hand. He was the largest of the three, and had a dark brownish-red ponytail, and tattoos that crept up his neck; that’s all I could see from my angle behind them. “Nice to meet you, alpha. I’m Steven of the North Ireland druids.” He had a thick Irish accent and I couldn’t believe it when Keegan looked at his hand and didn’t make a move to shake it, outright rejecting him.
“I know who your people are. What are you doing on my property?” Keegan asked curtly, his eyes going golden.
Danny shuffled his feet faster, stepping closer to the porch. “Now, darling, is that any way to treat our guests?” Danny called out to Keegan, turning on his charm and causing all three druids to turn around.
Holy shit. These mofos were scary. Like they drank steroids and ate children for breakfast scary. As they turned around, I could see they were bulked-up and had that danger vibe coming off of them in waves. I must have stopped walking, because Logan’s hand jerked me closer and I picked up my pace, coming to rest beside Danny. All three pairs of druid eyes locked on me and then my red hair. Each druid had some sort of intricate Celtic tattoo on their face or side of their neck, and all I could think about was how much they looked like they belonged in prison.
“Ah. This is who we wanted to meet. Sloane, am I right?” ponytail guy, Steven, said.
My tongue felt like sandpaper in my mouth and I couldn’t speak.
Finally, I found my voice. “Sloane Murphy.” I nodded.
They gave each other a look I couldn’t interpret. “You Irish?” Steven asked, his eyes tightening. His gaze raked over my hair to my face, then down my body.
I simply nodded.
“That’s right. And I’m her boyfriend, Logan.” Logan put the emphasis on the word boyfriend, causing the bigger druid to chuckle.
“Relax, Logan. We’re not here to take your girl. As I’m sure you have heard, we have interest in redheads after a new dragon shifter was spotted near the Grand Canyon.”
I paled, and Logan’s hand clamped down on mine like a vis
e.
Dom’s voice came out of nowhere then, and I hadn’t even realized that he’d snuck up around the side of the house until he was behind me.
“The dragons are all gone. Just leave us lowly half breeds alone,” Dom spat. I knew without looking back that he was probably holding half a dozen guns.
The druid’s face fell into a grimace. Gone was the friendly mask. He now wore a menacing face. “You’re lucky we don’t start hunting your kind,” the druid growled. “And you know damn well the dragons aren’t gone or humanity and all of their weakness would be extinct by now.” The air charged with some type of magical current, the wind beginning to swirl and pick up dust.
Keegan cocked his shotgun, and that’s when shit got crazy.
The big druid spun around at the sound of Keegan’s shotgun cocking. “How dare you threaten me!” He flung his hand out and red magic shot from it, slamming Keegan in the chest and throwing him backward into the house.
“Enough!” Danny yelled, and the door slammed shut at the same time the wind died down.
Steven looked curiously at Danny, and then Danny had that fake award-winning smile back on his face. “Let’s be frank, boys. My friends are all half human, and they know what you think about them, so your presence is barely tolerated here. Why don’t you ask your questions and then be on your way.”
Steven’s lip gave an irritated smirk. “Fair enough.” He nodded to one of his druid henchmen.
One of the two druids nearest me stepped closer to me and reached out his hand.
“Just gimme yer hand so we can get dis over wit’ and ya’ll can get on wit’ yer day,” the short druid said in an even thicker accent than the first. I could barely understand him, but I had heard enough to be scared.
I looked at Logan and he nodded. Logan’s hand tightened in mine as I extended my free left hand. I could hear commotion in the house, and hoped that Keegan was okay. The smaller Irish man took my hand in his and I saw his eyes flash a deep burnt orange. He brought my sweaty palm up to his nose … and sniffed. He smelled me. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but it wasn’t that.
He took another whiff, and this time a bright orange magic seeped from his hand and swirled up my arm.
Danny clapped loudly, breaking my silent awe, and I jumped.
“You’re a hybrid!” Danny squealed in excitement. Damn, this guy deserved an Oscar. He looked like a genuine fan of these asshats. But Danny’s exclamation made sense. The orange eyes, the smelling, this druid was half sorcerer—I was sure of it—something Logan said was impossible because of their creed. One race, one blood, or something like that.
The druid looked mildly annoyed by Danny’s interruption, but nodded. “My father’s a druid, my mother was a pureblood sorcerer.” He said the word pureblood with such pride, it made me sick.
Danny looked impressed. “A rarity. I didn’t think your … people allowed such crossing of the breeds.”
Steven chuckled deeply on the porch. “We don’t. That’s why his mother is dead, but he is of use to us, so we keep him around. Especially since our truth witch mysteriously fell ill when we started questioning about this missing redhead.”
His words made the bile rise up in my throat. They killed his mother just for sleeping with a druid? Why not kill the druid? Freaking double standards.
Steven took a step closer to Danny and pinned him with a half-lidded gaze. “What is a pureblooded sorcerer doing hanging out with a bunch of half breeds?”
Behind me, Dom gave a low growl in his throat, and it was a dead ringer for his lion.
Danny shrugged. “I’m sleeping with the alpha. The sex is too good for me to leave,” he confessed, and I found myself fighting a grin.
Super-big badass druid got really uncomfortable then. Like the fact that he was in the presence of not one, but two gay men was too much to handle. He backed up a step, looking at Danny with a disgusted look, and I decided right then and there that I would train to be a badass druid killing machine just so I could wipe people like this from the face of the earth.
The orange misty magic crept back down my arm and into the hybrid druid’s hand then and he let go, looking at the king of steroids.
“She ain’t a dragon. I dun know what she is, but she ain’t skyborn.” He concluded.
I released the breath I had been holding, but Steven was still eyeing me with speculation.
“She a mutt?” Steven asked, and I tried to suppress a growl.
The smaller man shrugged. “She ain’t pureblood. Les go.”
Keegan was back at the doorway with Gear, both holding guns. Keegan looked to be masking his pain, but I could see sweat beading his brow.
“Have a nice day,” Keegan called out as the men retreated into their black sedan and peeled out of the driveway.
We all sighed then, taking a moment to just breathe.
“Keegan, are you alright?” Logan asked.
Danny stepped up to the porch and Keegan waved everyone off. “He broke my collarbone. It will heal.”
Danny put on hand on his hip and glared Keegan down. Finally, Keegan walked out from the doorway and I noticed he had a slight limp. “I wouldn’t say no to some of that healing magic.”
Danny made a humph noise. “Well, I am your employee now.”
Keegan growled lightly. “It’s not like that,” he whispered to Danny, but Danny just ignored him and rubbed his palms together, making some yellow misty magic rise up, before laying it on Keegan’s chest.
The moment Danny’s palms touched Keegan’s chest, his face relaxed and he sighed in relief.
“Won’t he need to see Eva? To take a scale for healing like Nadine?” I whispered to Logan. I had remembered Logan telling me in Nadine’s loft that she would die without a healing.
Keegan had excellent hearing, because he was the one who answered: “He didn’t hit me with magic intended to kill. It was more of a shock, a slap in the face for cocking my gun. I’m not wasting a scale on this, and neither of you can shift to get a scale with druids in town. I’ll be fine. A bit of pain won’t kill me.”
“It might knock some sense into you,” Danny muttered.
Keegan just grinned. “So you’re staying with me for the sex? Guess we better start having sex.”
Danny smacked his collarbone lightly and Keegan winced. “Please. You know I just said that to get that big homo hater’s panties in a bunch.”
I laughed at “homo hater.” I liked Danny; he was a breath of fresh air.
Logan shook his head in disbelief. “They had a hybrid.”
Danny chuckled and left Keegan on the porch, waving a hand at Logan. “That old thing. Oh, honey, he wouldn’t know a donkey from his own ass. He didn’t even notice that when I clapped loudly I set off a counter spell. He’s harmless.”
I grinned and I looked over at Keegan to see that he was staring at his ex-lover longingly.
“Thank you for that,” Logan told him, and Danny simply nodded.
“Do you think they know anything?” I asked the group. Sophie and Nadine must have gone into town, because they were nowhere in sight.
Dom was the one to speak: “The big guy wasn’t completely sold, but he didn’t want to start a fight on a hunch. They make me sick. Every single last druid needs to be hunted and burned.”
Logan and Keegan nodded their agreement, and I found myself shrinking back.
Dom’s declaration was like ice to my heart. I mean, I understood. Hell, I agreed. They were racist murdering assholes, but … I think I was one of them. What if I … turned dark and attacked Logan or something? At that thought, I realized we were still holding hands, so I pulled mine out of his grasp.
“I’m tired, I think I’m just going to shower and take a nap,” I told the group.
Keegan and Logan shared a look, and then Keegan nodded. “Of course. There’s pizza inside. Help yourself. Nadine and Sophie are shopping in town, but I want everyone back for dinner, because the two new packmates are coming to meet e
veryone. I think you’re going to like them.”
I nodded and started walking inside. As I passed, Danny’s arm snaked out and caught my wrist lightly, forcing me to turn and look at him. “It was really nice to meet you today, Sloane.”
My heart was beating like crazy because I was ninety-nine percent sure Danny knew my deep dark secret. But damn I had a good feeling about him, that he wouldn’t rat me out. “You too, Danny.”
He released my hand, and with one last look I walked inside, grabbing a slice of pizza on my way up the stairs. Those men were awful, the way they spoke about my friends as if they were less than them because of their magical lineage. It made me feel dirty. And to think I might be one of them … it made my skin crawl.
I didn’t really want to nap, I just needed to think, to wrap my head around everything that had happened the past few days. After closing the door to my room, I plopped on my bed, and at the same time Mittens shot out from underneath it and jumped on my lap. She coaxed a smile from me with her incessant purring as I rubbed the length of her back and got lost in my thoughts. The fingers of my free hand curled into a fist as I absent-mindedly rubbed my palm where the knife had singed it. Clearly, I wasn’t even dragon enough to touch the knife, wasn’t full of enough good. A horrifying thought came to me then—what if I touched a red druid’s knife? Would it not harm me? Would I be able to kill a dragon with it? Kill Logan with it? No—that thought was too much. I collapsed back into the pillows and raised both arms above my head to block out the stupid smiling unicorn that was looking down on me. Mittens was massaging my thigh as I started to feel the pull of sleep take me down.
Stuck between sleep and waking, I had a vivid dream that caused me to toss and turn. In my dream there was a man. He sat in a cave behind a waterfall, just sitting there calmly in quiet meditation. He looked to be about early forties, dark chocolate-colored skin, with a few grey hairs in his trimmed, well-kept scruff. His black hair was cut short, and although he seemed too old for me, I had to admit he was good looking. He sat erect in a cross-legged meditation pose, shirtless, eyes closed. And when I wondered why I would be dreaming of this man, his eyes snapped open and I felt a shock run through my sleeping body. His eyes were hauntingly beautiful. They were like a honey-colored sunset, like something I would paint.
