by Leia Stone
Although his skin was dark, I could see the outlines of tattoos along his shoulder and neck, and my stomach sank. He was a druid. He was looking right through me as if I was there in the cave with him, but … he didn’t scare me. Not like the other druids I had met. At that thought, his lips quirked into a half smile, and I was snapped awake as Mittens pounced on my head and attacked my hair with her claws.
“Ow! You crazy cat.” I ripped her off and swatted her bottom before placing her on the ground. She took one supreme look at me and then retreated to her place under the bed.
My heart was still pumping with adrenaline as I recalled my dream. The dark-skinned man with the honey-colored eyes. I grabbed my sketchbook and colored pencils off of the chair beside my bed and started drawing. I had to. I couldn’t get him out of my head. Like he was important to me. It felt stupid, considering I was pretty sure he was a druid, but he didn’t feel evil. Not like the others. Evil didn’t meditate under waterfalls, right? The last druid I dreamt of had found me, so I was hoping this wasn’t another one of those prophetic dreams. Maybe I should tell Logan? But then he would probably wonder why I was dreaming of all of these druids.
Because I am a druid…
I sketched in a blind frenzy, reminding me of my early college days when I was filled more with inspiration and less with care for technique or pleasing the viewer. An hour passed and I had a detailed sketch of his face and torso in graphite. But those eyes … I colored them first and they were perfect. It took over ten colored pencils to get the color right. So many yellows, oranges, and browns. Who was this man? Why did I dream of him?
“Sloane?” Nadine knocked on the door and I slammed my sketchbook shut, clearing my throat.
“Come in,” I called out.
Nadine entered and gave me a shy smile. “I heard three druids came while Sophie and I were in town. Must have been scary.”
I nodded. “One of them chucked Keegan across the house like it was no big deal.”
Nadine shrugged. “Druids and shifters hate each other. There are always fights when we get together. Normally they only hang out at pureblood bars, so we don’t see them on the social scene.”
My mouth dropped at the mention of pureblood bars. The fact that there was segregation like that, it was horrid. “That’s awful. Why do they hate humans so much?”
Nadine sat down on the edge of my bed, her straight black hair falling around her shoulders. “Humans are weak. Druids despise weakness. Magic is strong and Faery used to be filled with strong magical creatures, so I guess they’re trying to get back to that place so they can rule the world and all of her magical minions or whatever.”
Sounded delusional. “So, you’re half human…”
Nadine nodded. “Yep. I regenerate if hurt, and I age slower. We age normally until puberty, then it’s about one year for every five human years, but I will get old and die one day just like them. Our DNA stops regenerating injuries at about age eighty. So yeah, I guess I’m weak too.”
I scoffed. “You’re not weak, you’re part human. It’s just natural and comforting. Getting old and dying is normal.”
I wanted so badly to be normal again. Logan had said we would never die unless we were killed, and it scared the shit out of me. In my mind, it made me a monster.
Nadine slapped my thigh. “Cheer up! We’ll have plenty of time to stick it to the druids over the next few decades together. Come on, Keegan wants us all downstairs to meet the two new recruits. They’ve been sworn in and bound to you and Logan, so it’s not possible for them to spill your secret.”
“My secret?” I paled, and Mittens took that moment to swat at my dangling feet.
Nadine looked confused. “That you’re a dragon shifter?”
I sighed in relief. “Right.” Man, I was getting paranoid. I really needed to hear back from Eva already.
I told Nadine I would change and meet her downstairs and she left. I had promised to help cook for this bunch, so I needed to pull through. If I thought we might stay here a while, I would plant a garden. I hadn’t had a back yard since my mom passed, and it would be nice to garden again. It reminded me of her.
After cleaning up, I put on my favorite pair of tight cargo pants and a black t-shirt with one of my drawings screen-printed on it. It was an iridescent hummingbird drinking soda from a straw. I grabbed my new phone and tucked it into my back pocket as I made my way down the stairs. As I was rounding the corner, I overheard Dom and Logan talking.
“It took every ounce of willpower I had not to gut them all,” Dom seethed, and I knew right away who he was talking about. Druids.
Logan chuckled. “You know, beheading them is my favorite.”
My stomach churned.
Dom spoke next, his voice was full of rage: “We should hunt him down. Kill him.”
Logan sighed. “I know and you know that I want nothing more than to have a world where druids don’t exist, but … I tried, and he’s too powerful.”
Now that had my attention. “Who?” I asked, and Logan spun around, took one glance at my t-shirt, and then a half smile tugged at his lips.
“Did you draw that?” he asked, indicating my shirt.
Shock ripped threw me. How the hell would he know that? “Yeah…” I said.
He nodded. “It has your style.”
Logan Sharp knew my drawing style? My dragon coiled tightly inside of me and a pulse of warmth shot down my legs, making a slow burn start between my thighs. Okay, it was official. I needed a hysterectomy or something. My dragon lady parts were malfunctioning and I was stuck in heat.
I changed the subject. “You were saying you tried but he was too powerful. Tried what?”
Logan shared a look with Dom and brought his left arm up to rub his right shoulder. “About five years ago I tried to kill Ardan. We hunted him down and I tried to take him out. I thought if I could kill the evil master, the minions would … go away.”
Holy shit. “What happened?”
The room had quieted. Sophie, who was cooking in the kitchen, had stopped, and Gear and Cooper, who were playing video games, dropped their controllers; Nadine stopped sharpening some knives. They all looked at Logan.
“I nearly died. He tore my arm right off. Keegan got me out. Otherwise I wouldn’t have made it.”
My mouth dropped open. “The master of all evil druids tore your arm off?”
He nodded, rubbing that spot again. “Yes. It took about nine months to grow back.”
My eyes widened. “GROW BACK?”
Logan chuckled. “Dragons are descended from lizards. So yeah, it grows back as long as you don’t bleed out.”
Holy freaking crap! I’ll admit I had the same thought. Take out this Ardan character and save the world, but clearly that wasn’t on the agenda. Unless you wanted to lose an arm.
“Didn’t he see you? I mean, now he knows what you look like…” I mused.
Logan shook his head. “I wore a ski mask. We all did.”
Geez. I couldn’t imagine getting your arm ripped off. If I thought Steven and those other meatheads were scary, then I didn’t even want to meet this Ardan character.
“Alright, enough storytime, I need help in the kitchen,” Sophie announced, pulling my thoughts away from Logan’s story.
“Right,” I muttered, and threw myself into the task at hand—making forty chicken soft tacos for ten hungry shifters.
“So, do we know anything about the new recruits?” I asked Sophie as I diced fresh tomatoes.
Sophie and I had thawed a little; she had seemed friendly when I was helping her in the kitchen, so I thought I would take advantage of it.
Sophie shrugged. “Just that they are twin brother and sister. Both bear shifters.”
I dropped the knife I had been holding and it clattered onto the granite counter. “Bear shifters!” I whisper screamed.
Sophie tipped her head back and laughed. “You’re a dragon.”
True. Enough said.
By the tim
e we were done frying forty taco shells, my wrist was sore. And I wasn’t sure we’d have enough food. Bear shifters … they must eat more in one meal than I did in the entire day. Come to think of it, my appetite had increased a little since I started shifting, but not as much as the others. I wondered if it was because I was only half dragon. In the end, Sophie and I decided to take the leftover ground-up chicken and make a quick chicken enchilada soup to dip the tacos in. Sophie would never say it, but she liked watching me cook; she was learning. I’d already taught her how to make an avocado aioli and she’d actually written the recipe down. I decided not to pull the boys in for their cooking lessons until tomorrow.
We were just setting the pot of chili on the dinner table when the front door opened. Sophie and I turned at the same time as the two giant shifters walked in, dwarfing the alpha. The guy was nearly seven feet tall and packed with more muscle than a professional wrestler. He wasn’t my type but he was good looking, I would give him that. Caramel skin, brown hair, and hazel eyes. His sister was nearly six-feet-tall, her hair long and curly, hanging low about halfway down her back.
Sophie leaned in closely and whispered into my ear. “Dibs.”
I just smiled, secretly glad that her sexual attention was pointed away from Logan.
“Everyone!” Keegan announced. “This is Roxy and Ruben. They are bred from a long line of skyborn protectors and are very excited to be joining the team.”
Gear and Cooper rushed in to introduce themselves first, while I hung back with Sophie. “So there are people still training their kids to protect the skyborn, even though there is only one left?” I asked her. I had remembered her saying she was trained to protect since the age of three.
Sophie looked over at me with only mild annoyance, which meant I might be growing on her. “First of all, there’s two now. You keep forgetting that. Secondly, yes. My family and dozens of others train their young to protect in the hopes that the remaining skyborn will find them and hire them. The money isn’t great. I could make more doing something else, but protecting Logan … and you … it’s a great honor.”
Wow. That was almost a compliment. “So, if you had kids one day…?” I let the question hang in the air.
Sophie nodded. “They will learn to protect. Just as I did.”
Wow. I imagined there was some secret list out there that Keegan had of shifters who were secret skyborn protectors, and when one died or he needed to add to his pack, he just picked off of his list. Crazy.
“Sloane?” Logan was calling me to the door with his hand outstretched. I stepped forward, taking his hand, and ignored the pulse of heat it caused to creep into my stomach, where my dragon lay resting.
“This is Sloane Murphy, the other skyborn,” he told the twins, and I dropped his hand and waved sheepishly.
Ruben and Roxy both bowed. “It’s an honor to be a part of this team,” Ruben said with a very slight Russian accent.
Roxy looked a bit star-struck. She wasn’t your typical beauty like Sophie, but there was something unique in her features, exotic, that gave her a beauty that was rare. “A female dragon…” she breathed, staring at my hair. The hair shock was common; my hair was redder than a tomato, and I added an apple-red shampoo wash that kept it away from the orange and more into the cherry-red variety. But the dragon awe was new and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. Luckily, Logan was.
“We are honored to have your service. Sloane is … unique, and we’ve just had a run-in with some druids looking for her, so we’re going to need more help. It’s great to have you. Come on in.”
He ushered them inside, but I was still hanging on the way he had said “unique”—like it was a disease, like there was something wrong with me. There was. I knew it and I was just waiting for Eva to confirm it.
I shuffled to the table, just as Danny walked through the front door wearing an adorable red plaid scarf and holding a steaming to-go Starbucks cup. “So, this is one of the perks of being let into the inner circle—taco Tuesday,” he stated, looking at the table full of food.
Keegan pointed to the bear shifters. “Ruben and Roxy, this is Danny, our pack sorcerer and coffee addict.”
Danny’s eyes danced at Keegan’s mention of coffee addiction. It must be an inside joke between them.
“Hello.” Danny waved a hand in their direction and then gave me a wink.
He crossed the room to stand near me. “I know Sophie didn’t cook this amazingness up by herself. She’s not that talented.” He pointed to the table and Sophie stuck her tongue out at him.
I smiled. “I helped.”
Danny squeezed my upper arm. “I love that shirt. You’re my spirit animal,” he whispered, and I just laughed. His quirky unpredictable personality had grown on me.
Danny and I took a seat with everyone and silently started to eat while the others dug in. Sophie had taken it upon herself to sit next to Ruben and shove her cleavage in his face, peppering him with a thousand compliments. Meanwhile, I was quite shocked to hear Dom actually speak when he said about ten words to Roxy, asking her about her favorite model gun. Poor Nadine kept stealing glances at Gear and I eyed her tattooed arms finding a new one each time.
“Hey. You’re quiet tonight. You okay?” Logan had sat next to me and was now whispering in my ear, which brought that unique woodsy Logan smell with him.
I shrugged. “Just the run-in with the druids I guess. I’m fine though. I’m actually tired. I wasn’t able to nap much earlier with Mittens attacking my head.”
Logan smiled. “You know she’s your cat now, right?”
God … he’s sweet and funny and good looking. How much longer was I going to be able to fight this undeniable attraction I had to him?
I returned his smile. “Can’t help it if she loves me more.”
Logan’s hand reached under the table and squeezed my thigh. As he leaned in close, I felt the heat of his breath on my neck. “Don’t worry about the druids. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he whispered.
I barely registered his words.
Hand on thigh…
My dragon shook herself; I was flushed with adrenaline. His promise. His hand. It was all possessive, but … in an intimate, caring way I couldn’t explain. My dragon was slithering around inside of me like a two-year-old hopped up on sugar. It’s like she was trying to tell me something but couldn’t speak. Yeah, screw what Logan said, I was stuck in heat; I was sure of it. I wonder if I needed to see a veterinarian about that or something.
Logan pulled his hand back and went back to finishing his taco, but it was too late. I was flushed and … well, hot and bothered. I needed some space to think.
I set my spoon down into my empty chili bowl and stood. “I’m tired, everyone. I’m just going to head up to bed early. It was so nice to meet you guys,” I told Roxy and Ruben.
Roxy and Ruben nodded. Logan looked at me a little concerned but nodded too. “Goodnight.”
As I made my way up the stairs, their chatter started up again, and I was relieved to have some quiet time. The moment I stepped into my room, my butt pocket started to vibrate.
I pulled the phone out hastily, closing the door shut. The only people who had this number were the pack and Eva. Pulling the screen up to my face, I saw that Eva was calling. Finally. Did I want to answer? Did I really want to know what my blood was—what I was? Yes. I had to.
I pressed the green circle and held the phone to my ear. “Hey, Eva.”
Her voice was warm and polite but there was an underlying tone I couldn’t read. “Hi, honey. Are you alone?”
Oh shit. “Yes. I’m up in my room.”
She was silent for a moment and I knew then without a doubt—I was half monster. Then she confirmed it. “Sweetheart, I took your blood to my friend and he confirmed that you are in fact half druid.”
Tears pricked my eyes; my throat tightened with emotion. “How?”
Eva sighed. “Well, If I had to guess, I think it was your mother, sweethear
t. She was a druid and fell in love with your father, who would have had to have been a dragon. She probably left the druid clan and they magically stripped her of her power, making her essentially human.”
I gasped. “They can do that?”
Eva gave a sarcastic chuckle. “They can do almost anything, dear.”
Frick. I was in shock. “My dad … a dragon. How?”
“You’re twenty-one years old. Twenty-one years ago, there were two dragons alive, Logan and Marcus.”
I gasped. “Logan … could be my father?” I couldn’t breathe.
Eva rushed her words. “Of course not!”
I exhaled all of my breath in one rush, unable to handle the kind of mental torment that would have held. “Who is Marcus?” Where did I know that name? It hit me then. Logan had mentioned a Marcus. He’d said he was a sucker for redheads … like my mom.
Eva exhaled and I could tell this story hit her personally. “He was Logan’s mentor. They had a falling out. Marcus started talking crazy, talking about having sympathy for some of the druids. How not all of them were bad. Things like that. They had a disagreement and Marcus left. Logan looked for him for a few years, but finally only found him when he died. Killed by druids when you were probably a baby.”
“Shit.” I couldn’t take any more; I couldn’t breathe and it felt like a five-hundred-pound rock was sitting on my chest. Maybe I was having a heart attack. My mother … my sweet mother, who gardened and dedicated her life to teaching children … a druid. A dragon killer.
“You’re sure? You’re sure that your sorcerer friend is one hundred percent certain I am half…?” I couldn’t finish.
Eva’s reply shocked me. “Oh, honey, my friend isn’t a sorcerer. He’s a druid, and yes he’s one hundred percent sure.”
What did she just say? “You’re friends with a druid?” Maybe it was wrong of me to trust Eva. She could be working for the other side. How stupid and naïve I was to give a sorcerer my blood!
