by Riley Storm
“Your skin isn’t glowing anymore,” she observed, astounded at how calm her voice sounded.
“Huh?” Victor looked at his arms, where they were visible through the torn suit. “Yeah,” he said, tugging off the arms completely. “Damn, I really liked this suit. Stupid Ursa whelps.”
“You talk so funny sometimes,” she said. “I don’t get it. And you started that fight. It’s not their fault. Now give me back my keys so I can leave, please—and thank you.”
She reached out to take the keys from his hand, but Victor didn’t let go. He stood there, tall and immovable, a wall of granite that she couldn’t hope to shove aside.
“You’re in shock,” he said calmly, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder.
Cheryl flinched away and he paused, hand hanging in mid-air for a second before he dropped it back to his side.
“Sorry,” he said gently. “You’re probably terrified of me right now, aren’t you?”
“No,” she said immediately, shaking her head vigorously from side to side. “Of course not. Why would I be? It’s totally normal. What I saw in there is normal. There’s a completely rational reason for it. This is a TV show, right? We’re shooting a show? That was special effects, definitely. Just some sort of suit you were wearing that lit up. It must be,” she said, laughing a very shaky laugh, her eyes darting all around the parking lot.
“Cheryl.”
“Where’s the camera crew? Where is everyone? They’re very well hidden. Is this a prank? Am I being pranked? Haha. Victor. You’re so funny!”
“Cheryl.”
“Am I going to be famous? Do I need to sign a waiver? What about autographs? Oh, I didn’t do my makeup today. When should I report to makeup? Are they ready for me now?”
She tried to step around Victor to see, but the big man moved to block her path, one thickly muscled arm extending out to either side.
“Cheryl!” he barked.
Jerking in shock, she looked up at him. “Victor! How did they make your skin glow? That was so cool. I—”
Fingers cupped her chin, and Cheryl had time to make one single surprised noise before Victor did something completely unexpected.
He leaned over and kissed her.
It wasn’t a peck on the cheek, or even on the lips. Warm lips covered hers, and Cheryl was swept up into it with a passion that sliced through the fog covering her brain. This, this was something she understood. Something she knew.
And something she couldn’t deny she was enjoying one hell of a lot. The slight catch of stubble as his lips moved against hers. The strong but restrained press of his fingers against the back of her head, gently pushing through her hair, sending tingles down her spine.
With her shock melting off, Cheryl gave herself more into the moment. Her lips parted willingly, her tongue sliding across his with a sensuality that surprised her. He was so masculine, so powerful, that the tenderness of his touch came unexpectedly. But not unwelcome, as her body responded.
“Wait,” she said abruptly, pulling back as the heat of their kiss brought her brain momentarily back into focus. “I don’t like you.”
Victor grinned. “And I don’t like you. But isn’t this good?”
Then he kissed her again, and Cheryl answered by not stopping him. It was good. Better than good, really, because Victor was a great kisser. One who made the rest of her body shiver and feel weird things, amplified as one hand slid down to the small of her back, grabbing her in the same place the other shifter had earlier.
Except this time, Cheryl found she longed for such a touch. To be brought in close, to feel the heat and press of his body against her. This time, it was welcomed. In fact…
She broke away before her brain could complete the thought. “Wait. Victor. What I saw in there…”
“I can show you,” he said. “But you’re going to have to trust me.”
“Ha,” she said with a snort. “The last thing I trust is you, even if I’m making out with you in the parking lot for some reason.”
“I think that reason,” Victor said strongly, “Is that you find me irresistibly attractive, just as I think the same of you. We don’t have to trust one another, or even like one another, to appreciate physical beauty.”
“Maybe,” she allowed after a moment’s contemplation of his words, though she’d known the truth of them from the second he spoke. He was hot, the type of man most woman dreamed of having.
All thick, bunched muscles and taut rear, clad in a—now ruined—suit that made him stand out from any crowd. It was enough to get her blood flowing just a little faster to even think of him. Having his hands on her, his mouth over hers, well…Cheryl could read her own body, was all that mattered.
“But if you want to know the truth of what you saw, it’s going to require a change in our relationship,” Victor said, standing in front of her now, speaking calmly but in a tone that brooked no argument.
“We’re not in a relationship,” she stated.
He rolled his eyes. “Words may have many meanings Cheryl, and you know that. Don’t be pedantic. Nobody likes it.”
She bit back a hot retort, mainly because he was right. Not like I’m going to tell him that.
“So, do you want to learn the truth? Or are you comfortable accepting it was an optical illusion?”
Frowning, Cheryl bit at her lower lip, chewing it uncertainly. Did she want to hear whatever he had to say? It sounded…serious.
He was glowing, it had better be serious!
“Do I take the red pill or the blue pill?” she muttered.
“What?” Victor looked blank.
“Never mind.”
What did she do?
Twenty years from now, aren’t you going to want to say you had the courage to find out what it was you saw?
“Why should I trust you now?” she asked. “Up until now, you haven’t exactly shown to be trustworthy.”
Victor looked surprised. “I haven’t lied to you. I haven’t told you everything about me, but that’s hardly lying.”
Fixing him with a hard stare, Cheryl waited, but he didn’t go on.
“So, that bit where you told me you couldn’t fund the Outreach Center because the money wasn’t there? That wasn’t a lie?”
Victor’s mouth had already been open to protest, but when she finished speaking, it snapped closed with a speed that surprised even her.
“Shit. You’re right. I did lie to you about that.”
“See.”
“You have my apologies for that,” Victor said, sketching a quick bow. “At the time, I really didn’t understand how much you cared for the project.”
“Well I do,” she snapped, suddenly forced to bite back some anger. “Sorry.”
Victor just waved it off, but his attention never wavered as he stared into her face. “This is more than just about your job though, isn’t it?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, determined not to lie to his face, not after she’d just called him out. But that didn’t mean she had to answer.
Victor didn’t need to know about her personal quest, about her quarrel with her parents who lived far away now. That was her own personal battle, something she’d been fighting for many years. She didn’t owe him any sort of explanation.
“I think it does,” he said softly, but didn’t pry. “So, do you trust me? Do you want to find out the truth?”
“What’s it going to cost me to do so?” she asked quietly, sensing the gravity behind his words.
Victor hesitated before replying. That in itself was enough to warn her this wasn’t a joke, that whatever he was about to say was serious to a degree the two of them hadn’t ever been before. At least, not with each other.
“Your world,” he whispered softly, eyes boring into hers.
18
How was he going to do this?
Why was he doing this?
Victor had so many questions. Questions that he didn’t have answers for. Not even suggestions abo
ut answers. He’d leapt so quickly to stop Cheryl from doing something stupid, knowing how important it was to keep their secret contained, that he hadn’t even stopped to consider how he was going to explain everything to her.
Damn you, Aaric.
The fire dragon had ordered him to go and deal with her, but in a way that, to Victor’s brain at the time at least, had seemed like he was supposed to tell her their secret, to show her the truth so that she could understand.
But why would he show some random human? What did she need to know about dragons? There was simply no rationale behind it, and without the other dragon around, he couldn’t ask him either.
What if he meant to silence Cheryl, instead of reveal everything to her?
Victor snorted and shook his head. There was no possible way that was what Aaric had meant. The fire dragon simply cherished humans too much to give such an order, and certainly not so cavalier as he had. No, Aaric wanted him to show Cheryl the truth.
But why?
“Something funny over there?”
He looked to his right sharply, having forgotten in his thoughts that Cheryl was still standing across from him while he waited on her answer.
“More than you can ever imagine,” he said wryly, declining to elaborate when she lifted her eyebrows in question.
“Fine, be all mysterious then,” she said.
The mood had lightened again as Cheryl avoiding giving him a straight answer, but truthfully, Victor was okay with that. The longer she stalled, the longer he had to come up with a solution to everything.
“What reason do I have to trust you, Victor? We’ve been at each other’s throats every step of the way, ever since you took over the Outreach Center from Aaric. I know what I saw in there, I know I wasn’t hallucinating either. That I’m not on any drugs.”
He remained stoic, quiet, unanswering. To even confirm she had seen what she saw would tell her that she had seen it. He couldn’t do that. Not here, not now. Cheryl either came into the fold entirely, or not at all. There was no middle ground, no hesitation allowed. All or nothing.
Cheryl waited, and waited, finally crossing her arms in obvious impatience. “You’re not providing much of an argument in your favor here.”
“I don’t have to,” he said, dulling the edge of his words as much as possible. “Either you want to know what I have to say, or you don’t. Either is fine.”
“And if I don’t?” she asked cautiously.
“Then either we pretend it never happened, or you go tell people what you think you saw, and people call you crazy for it. You lose your job, become shunned from society, and quite possibly spiral down a very dark hole.” He shrugged. “I’d rather that not be the way things go, but this is your choice, Cheryl, not mine, and I won’t influence it one way or the other.”
“Christ, you really do paint a dark picture there.”
“I’m not here to sugar-coat anything for you. You’re an adult, you can make your own decisions.”
“And if I decide I want to know, I have to give up my world,” she said, repeating his words. “Will I be able to live normally?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to hurt me?”
Victor frowned. “What? Of course not!”
“Where do I have to go to find out?” she asked.
“To my House,” he said, wondering if she’d understand the implications. Probably not.
“Which is where?”
“Not in town,” he answered, growing tired of being interrogated, though he knew they were all valid questions.
Cheryl shifted uncomfortably as she prepared to ask her next question. “Will I be allowed to come back?”
“That depends on how you process what I will tell you,” he answered, meeting her eyes and staring into them, not flinching away as he told the truth.
“You sure do know how to build suspense,” she said, trying to force a laugh. “So if I can’t accept whatever this big secret is, you what, snap my neck and drop me into a pit somewhere?”
Victor’s jaw dropped open. “What the hell do you take me for? Some sort of evil villain? I’m not a murderer! No, we would just forcefully confine you to the property. You would live a luxurious, but private, existence. That is all.”
“We?” Cheryl asked, latching on to his slip of the tongue. “Who else is there?”
But this time, he remained silent. He was risking giving too much away already.
“The time for questions is over,” he told her, searching her almond eyes for any clue as to which way she was leading. “The time for decisions, is now.”
Cheryl rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly at his heavy words, sending her platinum-blonde hair swishing back and forth in the long ponytail that she always seemed to wear.
“The time for decisions is now,” she mocked in a higher-pitched voice, turning side-on to him while she watched the patrons and employees flow back into Leblanc.
“You can either go tell them what you saw,” he said, pivoting on one heel. “Or you can come find out the truth.”
With that, he walked away, making a quick detour to the valet drop-off to retrieve his keys before heading out into the parking lot to retrieve his vehicle.
Cheryl didn’t move, staying rooted to the spot, obviously lost deep in thought and trying to decide on what to do.
Victor pulled open the door to his SUV and climbed in. A big truck blocked his view of the rest of the parking lot, but there was no sign of Cheryl.
Oddly, that brought feelings of sadness and disappointment to the fore. He frowned.
Was I really wanting her to come that badly?
The answering emotions, from his mind and his dragon, seemed to be a resounding Yes!
Why? Why did he care what she did? There was a piece of the puzzle missing here, something he couldn’t put together. Victor felt blind, grasping in the dark for the explanation to his feelings that continued to elude him.
A knock at the passenger window startled him back to reality. He glanced over to see Cheryl standing there, knocking with one hand, pointing at the door handle in irritation with the other.
He scrambled for the unlock button, managing to lower three windows and re-lock all the doors first as he fumbled to punch it in properly.
“You okay in here?” she asked, pulling the door open enough so that she could see him, though she didn’t get in.
“Yup. Just fine,” he said tightly, fighting back the embarrassment that he knew was filling his cheeks.
“Alright. Let’s go then,” she said quietly, and got into the car.
Victor nodded, waiting until she was buckled in before he put it into gear. They pulled out onto the road, neither speaking, which was perfect because he needed the time to think.
Great. You got her to come along, to trust you enough to learn your secret. Good job.
But what the heck are you going to do now?
19
“You weren’t kidding when you said you didn’t live nearby,” Cheryl said as they rounded yet another corner.
“Are you not enjoying the drive?” he asked, waving with one hand at the multi-colored hue of fall leaves on the trees and swirling across the road.
The reds, yellows and oranges created a beautiful rainbow-like hue as the SUV sped along, blurring together out the side windows. She could see that, knew it was beautiful, but her attention couldn’t stay focused on it for long enough to become lost in the drive like she usually would.
“I’m too nervous to watch,” Cheryl admitted. “The tension is killing me. I must be insane for getting into this car with you.”
“Curiosity is a powerful motivator,” he said. “I understand, having done similar things that make me think I was stupid.”
“Like what?”
“Trusting a witch,” he muttered tightly.
She could see him struggling to contain his emotions as he spoke. For the most part, Victor had succeeded, but she could hear just a hint of something like hur
t, or maybe embarrassment. It was tough to tell, and Cheryl wasn’t going to pry. Her focus was on something else anyway.
“A witch?” she asked cautiously, wanting to make sure she’d heard right.
Victor just looked up and smiled a knowing smile at her. But he didn’t say anything.
“You at least know that you’re absolutely infuriating when you do that, right? You’re aware of it?”
He shrugged. “We’re almost there.”
“Almost where, Victor? There’s nothing out here!” she complained.
That couldn’t be true of course. There wouldn’t be a road to nowhere. But that didn’t help ease her nerves. This was perhaps the riskiest, stupidest thing Cheryl had ever done.
“Home,” he said quietly, as the spacious SUV slowed.
Cheryl sat up straighter, realizing that a tall stone fence could be seen set just back from trees that lined the road on her right. Trees that, upon closer inspection, were planted far too evenly and in a straight line to be naturally forming.
Only the gaps in the trees where the leaves had fallen let her see the fence, because the land sloped upward just beyond the tree line, preventing anything from being seen at ground level. It was an ingenious design, granting privacy and yet blending in all at the same time.
There was no disguising the massive metal gate crossing the driveway, however. Tall, imposing and wickedly spiked at the top, it screamed Stay Out in a very 1920’s style. Very ornate, yet functional at the same time.
Victor pressed a button on the overhead console of the SUV, and the gate shivered then began to retract to either side, revealing that it actually overlapped nearly halfway. Clearly, there was function as well as form behind the design.
“This is your home?” she asked quietly, looking through the fence. Beyond was a long driveway, lined with huge fir trees that rose into the air to heights she’d never believed feasible. It was awe inspiring.
“My family’s home, yes,” he said. “This is the ancestral home of the Drakon clan, I guess you might call it.”
She smiled. “Sounds like it should be one of those fancy homes that has a name to it,” she joked.
Victor didn’t laugh. “It does.”
