“Laila?” Shanton tilted his head to the side.
I stepped closer and then it was like those first two steps built up momentum because I kept going. And didn’t stop until I was against him, my arms wrapped tightly around him. My body shook. His body was stiff, probably as surprised as I was by the move. I didn’t consciously make the decision to hug him, but apparently my body wanted comfort and it was determined to get it.
Slowly, his arms lowered and pulled me closer into him.
“You’re shaking,” he whispered.
“Uh-huh,” I said into his hard chest and hugged him tighter. His scent became home to me. The familiarity of the freshness in his scent, the way I felt like I was the one soaring through the skies relaxed me. Tension I refused to acknowledge since coming out here on my own disappeared. I wasn’t alone anymore.
“Dammit, Laila.” Shanton’s hands went to my ass and pulled me up until I had no choice but to wrap my legs around him. He hugged me tighter, and I realized by the way his back muscles quivered that he had feared for me. He needed this hug as much as I did, even if he wouldn’t admit it. He’d take the comfort under the disguise of comforting me.
And I’d take that too.
I needed a fucking hug and I was going to take it.
Chapter Sixteen
Once we both got embarrassed enough with all the hugging, we pulled away, and I smiled. Siitha reminded me he was there too and pressed against my side. I had a feeling the feline was not going to leave me anytime soon. We’d been apart for far too long.
“How did you find me?” I asked again, really getting tired of repeating myself.
This time he answered seriously as he replied, “Soon after Lombardi called me, I took off into the wild, taking Von with me. He’s the only avian shifter around who could keep up with me. My wyverns were out on a mission, and I refused to wait for them. This guy followed me when I flew over the area he claims as his.” He smiled at my kitty. “He’s good. I flew the entire time and he managed to keep up. He’s faster than we give him credit for, and he never lost me. I picked up your scent about four hundred miles ago and tracked you from there. You’re fast, Laila.” He begrudgingly gave me that compliment.
I smiled big. “I know.”
He snorted and continued. “We were probably about fifty miles away when the behesiff disappeared. He must have sensed you using your magic.”
My eyes widened, and I looked down at him. “He can sense me from that far away?”
“He chose you as his.” Shanton’s explanation was too simple, as if he expected me to understand completely what that meant.
When he finally noticed the weird, confused look I was giving him, he went into depth. “A behesiff is the best creature on this planet when it comes to tracking magic. He adores your magic, that’s why he chose you to attach himself to. While you probably don’t feel it as strongly as he does, there is a bond there, and that bond allows him to know where you are. As soon as we got close enough and you used a huge chunk of magic, he was able to zone in on the flare and track you.”
“That’s amazing,” I said and rubbed Siitha’s head. “Siitha, you’re amazing.”
The behesiff purred, enjoying my attention as his eyes closed and he tilted his head to give me better access to underneath his chin, where he loved getting scratches. I didn’t care what anyone said about him, he really was just a big fluff ball. At least until someone pissed him off.
“Siitha?” Shanton raised an eyebrow. “You named him Siitha?”
I nodded and smiled. “Hale kept referring to him as Poosiitha in the letters. So I shortened it.”
Shanton chuckled. “Poosiitha means cat in Shawnee.”
“Oh.” I laughed. “Then the name fits even more. Hale knows me too well.”
Shanton shook his head before glancing behind me at the roaring river. “Why are you thinking of crossing the river?”
“I have to. That’s where they are.”
“Who?”
“The ones who broke into Biomystic. The same ones who stole my memories and used that to help them build the dangerous device stealing magic from anything near it.”
“It’s late and if we cross now, we’ll have to face the night creatures. Let’s bed down and early in the morning, we’ll head out.”
“You’re going to come with me?”
“Of course,” he answered. “I can’t let you get killed, and don’t lie to yourself. Once you step foot on the soil over there, you were going to sign over your death warrant. They’d eat you alive, after playing with you for days.”
I smirked. “And they wouldn’t dare with the big bad dragon at my side?”
His nose flared and the red specks in the browns of his eyes flared. “Fucking right. They know better. Besides, I can feel your exhaustion. You need rest. Real rest.” He moved closer and his voice dropped down. “I’m here now, Dr. Porter. So please, get some sleep tonight. Rest. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
My heart thundered with his words. He was promising to look out for me all night in order to let me get the rest I desperately needed. Heat flickered in my heart at his thoughtfulness.
“Only because you said please.” Before overthinking it, I went up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Not waiting for his reaction, I went to the bag that I had left on the boulder. I leaned against the boulder and Siitha came over, lying against my body. I moved until I was partially on top of the feline, his warmth and softness lulling me into a sense of security.
Shanton stared at me with an unfamiliar look before giving me his back. He stayed like that until exhaustion took over, and I fell asleep. When I woke in the morning, he was still standing there. I had a feeling he hadn’t moved much while I slept. Siitha was still underneath me, steadily breathing, eyes closed. His ears flickered, telling me he was awake, but he wasn’t ready to move. That was okay. He was comfortable, so I didn’t want to move either. We could be lazy together.
“How do you feel?” Shanton asked, his head turned slightly to give me a side glance.
“Like I can run a hundred miles,” I exaggerated, but I did feel a lot better. I knew I’d only slept so good because my body knew Shanton was there, and he’d never let anything happen to me. No sane creature would dare go against Shanton.
He smiled before glancing across the river. His muscles rippled underneath his skin, and I realized he was straining against something. He didn’t seem to notice that he was still shirtless, and I enjoyed the way the early morning light warmed his skin, giving it a soft glow.
Von landed with a bag and smiled at me as he handed it to Shanton.
“You’re looking better,” he noted.
I gave him a small smile. “Thank you. I feel better.”
“Good.” He turned back to Shanton. “Do you wish for me to head back? Or continue on with you?”
“You can’t miss that meeting,” Shanton said.
Von nodded. “Then I’ll be going. Don’t raze any land. Mother Nature would not be happy. Even you aren’t safe from Her wrath.”
Shanton growled. “I know without you having to tell me.”
“Just reminding you.” Von turned to me. “Be safe, Laila, and don’t let Shanton bully you too much.”
Before Shanton could grab him, Von shot up into the sky, the sound of his wings almost covering up his chuckling as he disappeared.
“He’s fun.”
Shanton ran a hand through his hair. “He’s a pain in my ass, but he knows how to get the job done.” He tore his eyes away from the sky and focused on me. “What’s your game plan?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re really not going to drag me back?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“That’ll make Dwight mad.”
He just shrugged.
I turned to look across the river again. “I want to go,” I said. “Yes, I’m curious, but I can feel those bastards, and I’m desperate to hunt them down and make them suffer for what they’ve done.”
“Revenge,” Shanton said with a note of approval in his voice. “Never thought you’d have it in you. At least not to this extent.”
“I’m… furious,” I said. “There’s a lot built up inside of me and it’s all focused on that bastard, Padraig.” My body shook with my words and my hands curled at my side. Siitha whined and bumped me to break my focus. Burying my hand into his fur helped as some of the anger dissipated.
“Then shall we get going?”
“You’re okay with coming with me?” I asked and met his eyes.
He walked forward until he was inches away from me. He looked down at me with a soft expression. “I’m wherever you are,” he whispered and ran his hand along my cheek. The intimacy in his touch stole my breath, and I gasped as his energy tingled along my skin. “I’m not leaving you alone to deal with this on your own.”
I tried to respond, but frankly, his lack of a shirt made that impossible.
“So, we cross the river,” I said in a lame attempt to keep my brain focused. His muscles rippled as he moved. They called to me, begged me to lick and taste them. I bit my bottom lip, and Shanton took in a sharp breath.
“Yes, we cross the river.”
I tore my eyes away, but it was a losing battle to keep them away from his chest. “Maybe put a shirt on?” I asked breathlessly.
“No.”
“No?”
“We’re going to fly. It’ll be safer in the air for you.”
I smiled. “And we’ll move a lot faster.”
He nodded with a feral smile. “Exactly.”
For the first time, I realized how desperate he was to find them too. He wanted revenge as much as I did. I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t under the impression that he knew Henzie or any of the other guards killed. When my eyes narrowed in suspicion, his only reaction was to smile more. He definitely had an agenda, but he wasn’t going to share it with me anytime soon.
“Are we doing this, or are we going to stand here while you try to pick me apart?” he asked, amusement in his voice.
“We’re doing both. Shift, oh grand dragon sir,” I said and motioned for him to take the stage.
He chuckled as he handed me his bag and stepped back.
Shanton’s shifting was an implosion of energy. He sucked it all out of the air as he changed in a blink of an eye from his large human form to a sleek dragon, easily twice the size of a giant with a long barbed tail. His leathery wings unfurled as he lowered himself to the ground so I could crawl onto his back.
“Show off,” I mumbled, ignoring the sound of his huff.
His scales glowed dark red underneath a haze of blackness. He was hot to the touch, but not burning as I found a spot on top of his wide head, finding purchase with two of his horns and his scales to help keep me in place. His head was so wide I could’ve stretched out flat and not hung off either side. Shanton waited as Siitha hopped on too, curling his large body around mine, using his tail as my seatbelt.
“All set,” I said, and Shanton’s wings flapped, sending a surge of wind out around us. Birds took flight, creatures squawked or whined as they took off, smart enough to move away from the dragon.
We lifted off the air, and I grinned as my hair whipped around my face. I’d need to remember to put my hair up in the future, and yes, I was definitely going to do this repeatedly in the future. I was riding a frickin dragon. It was so much different than when I’d ridden the wyvern form of one of his guards. Wyverns did more gliding and slithering through the air than actual flying.
Dragons made more use of their wings. Shanton flapped his wings hard, lifting us up and then picking up speed to cut through the air. We were moving fast, the air glacial. Only the magic within me and Siitha’s body wrapped around me kept me from freezing to death. I didn’t care. This was amazing.
I only had a brief glance at the river as we flew over the shivering blue water, beckoning me to jump in. I’d bet the river would be revitalizing. Before its allure could get a tight hold on me, we were over the Mississippi and off into the true wild of America.
As we flew over the canopy of trees, branches reaching up to absorb as much of the sun as it could, something felt wrong. Missing. I frowned and looked around, at the bright blue sky, the birds flying away from us, the shaking of trees as beasts moved underneath their crown.
“Stop,” I said as realization dawned on me. I didn’t have a frame of reference, no guide, nothing. I felt nothing. “Land. Land right now,” I said.
Shanton didn’t respond, and I used my heels to kick him. As his head rose slightly to let me know I had his attention, so did I. “You need to land, now,” I said.
His wings flapped. Those darn things had to be easily four times my height. He tilted and we went down into a clearing by a huge lake. As soon as he landed, I slipped off his back, Siitha at my side. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I felt it.
“Shit,” I said and ran my hand through my hair. Well, this was inconvenient. I eyed the dragon, envious of the freedom he had in that form, the ability to soar through the skies. “Might as well shift back, Shanton,” I said.
He changed a moment later in an explosion of energy, as if not even his human form was good enough to hold all of his dragon inside.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. I got too lost in his naked body to respond.
“Laila?”
“I, uh…”
Damn. My imagination was not good enough. It took a moment to tear my thoughts away from his skin. He always had a soft red glow, but with it being so close to his shift, the red was bright, highlighting all the hard planes of his body. Before I could drop my gaze too far down, I turned away.
“Laila?” Shanton asked again, this time humor slipping into his voice. He knew he was affecting me.
“I can’t feel them,” I finally responded and frowned, turning in the direction I knew them to be. They had been going southwest for a while, but right now, they were heading directly west. “While we were up in the air, I couldn’t track them.” I stomped my foot. “Apparently, it’s an earthly tracking spell, so if I lose contact with earth, I lose what connects me to them.”
“So you’re feet need to stay on the ground.” Clothes rustled, and I hoped he was getting dressed. Otherwise, I may have attacked him, and out here, vulnerable to our surroundings, that’d be a sure way to get us both killed.
I nodded. “Unfortunately. Damn. And at that speed, we could have caught up to them in a matter of hours.”
He shrugged, not seeming upset about the change in plans. “Then we start running.” He broke out into a huge smile. “And I get more time with you. It’s hard to steal you away when the others hold your attention all the time.”
My mouth quirked up into a flirty smile. “Aw, do you feel lonely?”
A soft rumble escaped his chest. “Damn right. Why do you think I hunted you down so quickly? I have time with you now without the others breathing down my neck.” He frowned and looked off to the side for a moment, his head tilting, as if listening to something. After a moment, he shook his head. “But now, I get all the time in the world to woo you while they twiddle their thumbs. Come. We need to get moving. While I’m the most dangerous creature in the world, this side of the river likes to forget that, and I’d rather not waste time trying to remind them. My brethren have not been doing their job out here if they think to approach us. I’ll have to meet with them again.”
“Your brethren?” I asked.
“Yes, three dragons on this continent. The other two like to keep hidden while I’m in the limelight. One of them is more dragon. I think he forgot how to switch to human form and he lives out here, but closer to the west coast. The other is up north where it is winter most of the time. He enjoys the subzero weather.”
“When was the last time you met them?” I asked, letting him lead us.
“We meet about once a decade to check-in on each other. We’re due for another meeting.” He frowned at that and looked like he was making a ment
al note to get that onto his schedule.
“Will they come to Springer City?” I asked, a little excited about that prospect.
Shanton snorted “Would you like them to raze the city down when Neve decides Bastian’s ugly face is offensive?”
I laughed. “Oh, please tell me more. I love family drama.”
Shanton grinned and did just that to pass the time away as we hiked. I used magic on my feet so we could move faster, and we created a system that worked for the three of us. I pointed in the direction of my tracker and with that knowledge Shanton maneuvered us around, but kept us on course. By the growls Siitha gave off every once in a while and how Shanton had us take what he called detours, they were steering me around unseen dangers.
The entire time, I learned more about dragons and their history from Shanton. I also learned that they were the kings and queens when it came to family drama. With us lowly folks, family drama meant a small nasty spell, maybe not talking to each other for years or decades, but with dragons, villages and mountains disappeared. Earth itself was rearranged while they battled out their arguments.
And, of course, Shanton had been right in the middle of some of those moments. Our history was riddled with dragon drama apparently.
“Did you really tear your uncle’s wing off?” I asked.
“They grow back. He just couldn’t fly for a few hundred years.”
My eyes widened at that.
“Can he fly now?” I asked.
“For a while. But he tried to get back at me and I tore his other wing off.” He smirked at that, but then the smile dropped away. “We lost some good people because of that fight. I tried to stop it. At that point, I was tired of all the politics and underhandedness, so I tried to be diplomatic about it. It bit me in the ass, and I lost a good vampire friend of mine because of it.”
I mulled that over, trying to read between the lines. “Is that why you’re here in America? Did you exile yourself?”
“Exile, huh?” He rubbed at his jaw. “No, not exile. Peace. I came here on my own. I wanted away from it all. That’s why I use Von to communicate with the dragons in Europe. He can spin my responses to sound like sirens singing.”
Magical Redemption Page 15
