by Bianca D’Arc
He had to be lonely all the way out here on his own, but he wouldn’t consider moving the few times she’d mentioned the nice retirement communities going up closer to the city and all their amenities. No, Arthur was happy where he was, although always glad to see her when she visited.
Today, they had talked of visions and mythological creatures. There was never a lack of conversation when they were together, but today’s was especially far-reaching. She felt so much more settled now that he’d taken her seriously. The only problem was going home so late. The road wasn’t the greatest even during the day, but now…
She felt almost like something was watching her progress through the dark night in the middle of nowhere. A shiver coursed down her spine, despite the heat. The desert got cold at night, though it wasn’t late enough yet to be truly chilly. Still, there was a presence, of sorts, in the night. She could feel it.
And then…her headlights began to flicker.
Shit!
She’d seen this before. Her old car liked to conk out on her at various times. She could never predict where or when, but the old jalopy wasn’t exactly reliable. Which was why she usually tried to stick to safe routes, and not be anywhere near no man’s land at night—and she was now.
Darnit.
Although she prayed really hard to whatever gods might be listening, her little car sputtered a few times then rolled to a halt as conking noises came out of the tailpipe, finally dissipating into a rude sound.
Great. Just great.
Chapter Two
The car far below rolled to a stop, the electricity to the feeble headlights cutting out altogether. The dragon could see there was no one around for miles and miles as he circled lower to investigate. His wings made no sound, stretched out to slow his speed and tilted to allow him to spiral downward as gravity won out over the air currents in a measured battle he controlled.
He saw a figure get out of the compact car and walk around to the hood. He could tell as he flew ever lower that the driver was female…and all alone. What was she thinking, driving out in the desolate mountains all alone at night in a clunker of a car?
Knowing he couldn’t leave her like that, he looked around for a good place to land and shift, far enough away to avoid detection and close enough to get to her in a reasonable amount of time. He decided to approach from the direction she’d been heading, so as to avoid any questions she might have about where he’d come from. If she’d been on the road for any length of time, she’d probably wonder why she hadn’t noticed a man walking along it as she passed him.
Paul set down and shifted quickly, grateful once again that the extra magical power of the dragon allowed him to retain his clothing and possessions even while in shifted form. They simply went somewhere else—where, exactly, he didn’t know—then came back when he resumed his human form. Right now, that left him wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with a backpack full of supplies he’d packed just before leaving Grizzly Cove a couple of hours before. Wearing his favorite dusty boots, he looked like a hiker. Or so he hoped. He didn’t want to scare the woman. Only to help her.
“Hello?” he called as he approached. He didn’t want to startle her too badly, appearing out of the dark. He clicked on a small flashlight that had been in the side pocket of his backpack.
The woman straightened from her perusal of the engine and turned sharply. “Hello?” she called back, her gaze zeroing in on the little light in his hand that he held shining on the road in front of him, even though he didn’t need it to see clearly. Dragons—even in human form—had superb night vision.
“Looks like you’re stuck. Can I help?”
Paul knew his words would sound accented to her. He had grown up in Romania, and English wasn’t exactly his first, or even second, language. That might help him in this case, though. He decided to pose as an eccentric foreign sightseer, backpacking his way across the United States.
“Do you know anything about engines?” she called back, squinting, clearly unable to see him yet.
“A little,” he replied, grateful that she seemed to be welcoming rather than fearful. Too trusting, he thought privately, but good in this case, for him. “Let me see if I can help.” He closed the gap between them and took a position next to her—though not too close—in front of the engine. “I’m Paul, by the way.”
“Syd,” she replied quietly.
Close now, he could scent her nervousness. So. She wasn’t as unaffected by the situation as he’d thought. It was good that she was cautious. A woman alone on a deserted road was not a safe thing to be in any country. There were too many predators out there that wouldn’t hesitate to do such a woman harm.
But Paul was not one of them. He was a predator, of course, but he would not harm this woman. He would help her on her way and go about his business.
“I am used to European cars, but I think this one suffers from an electrical problem,” he said after a few moments studying the engine. He could actually see the flow of electricity, and where it was failing. Just another one of his little quirks. He could fix her car, but he’d need a few things from his pack.
Shrugging off the backpack, he reached into the pocket where he kept a few tools and supplies. A roll of electrical tape and his Swiss Army knife was all he’d need for this repair, so he grabbed those and set to work. First, he disconnected the battery, to avoid any unnecessary shocks.
He cut a loose wire to give him a fresh connection point, then stripped the plastic sheathe off the wire, using his knife. He re-made the connection and sealed it with electrical tape before reconnecting the battery. All the while, the woman with the unlikely name of Syd watched in silence. He could tell she was lowering her alert level, little by little, as he worked without making any overt moves toward her. Good. He didn’t like her being afraid of him, even if it was a healthy survival instinct in this situation.
“It should work now,” he told her. “Try to start the car.” He didn’t close the hood. He wanted to watch the electrical flows—the path of the heat in the wires—to be sure everything was in working order before he sent her on her way.
She got into the driver’s seat and turned the key. The car started, and the headlights came on with nary a flicker. Paul watched the engine for a moment to be certain, but he was pretty sure the old car would get her back to the city with no further problems. He shut the hood and went around to say goodbye. She had rolled down her window and had a worried look on her face as she regarded him. What was distressing her, now?
He didn’t like the tension in her expression, and an instinct rose in him to make that look of anxiety go away. He wasn’t sure where it came from or why he was reacting so strongly to this woman, but he was a creature of fire and instinct. He had to follow where the dragon led…for it had never led him wrong.
“Can I give you a ride back to town?” she asked, her tension increasing in ways Paul didn’t like.
“That’s all right,” he told her. Was she offering despite her better judgment? Did she feel obligated to offer because he had helped her? “I’m heading that way.” He pointed down the road toward where she’d come from.
“But there’s nothing there for hundreds of miles,” she told him, truly worried now.
What was his best move here? Should he accept her offer and ride into the city with her? Would that alarm her more—being stuck inside the car with a stranger on a dark, deserted road for however long it took to get to the city?
“I have my gear,” he told her, trying to brazen it out. He patted the strap of the backpack on his shoulder and tried to sound confident, though it was pretty obvious he couldn’t have enough food or water with him to survive in this terrain by himself for any length of time.
“It won’t be enough. Not for a trek across the mountains. You’ll need more equipment, and there are no shops this way. All the places to buy the things you need are in town,” she told him, biting her lower lip. Suddenly, he felt the urge to stop her—with his own lips. If a
ny nibbling was to be done, he wanted to be the one doing it.
She was a very attractive woman, with lush curves and a sense of latent power hidden deep inside her. Now, that was interesting.
He looked back down the road from the direction he’d come and shook his head as if coming to a decision. He would accept the ride and set her mind at ease as much as he could. He wanted to know more about this mysterious woman.
“I suppose one more night in civilization won’t hurt,” he told her, keeping up the pretense that he’d come from the city on his way into the mountains.
Syd was torn. The man had appeared out of nowhere to help her. She still wasn’t sure about his intent, but he’d been nothing but polite and helpful since walking out of the darkness to her rescue. He might still be a serial killer, of course, but she couldn’t let him walk across the desert with only the supplies in his backpack. If someone else didn’t come along this road—which wasn’t well traveled at the best of times—then he’d be in big trouble sooner rather than later.
He was a tourist. It was obvious from his thick Russian-sounding accent. He likely didn’t fully appreciate the danger he was in trying to trek across this kind of landscape without proper preparation. She couldn’t, in good conscience, leave him out here. He’d helped her. Now, it was her turn to help him.
She’d be on her guard, though. He was still an unknown, but having him in her car for the drive back to civilization was preferable to leaving him to his own devices out here in the dark and then wondering if she’d issued his death sentence. Surely, she could survive the relatively short ride back into town with no major problems? She hoped.
“Hop in,” she told him, trying to sound encouraging. “There’s room for your pack in the back.”
“Only if you’re sure you don’t mind. I promise you, I’m not a criminal or anything.” He gave her a smile that could melt butter. What was it about foreign men that always set her drooling at the least little provocation?
But, to be honest, this man—now that she got a good look at him from the light the car was putting out—was a hunk of epic proportions. Muscular. So very muscular. And handsome, too, with a little trace of a beard that looked both neat and bad-boy all the way. Dark hair, dark eyes that flashed with an inner light. When he smiled, she felt magic in the air.
But that had to be her imagination running away with her. He’d come to her rescue. Probably saved her a very uncomfortable night, at the very least. It was just a hero complex or something. Some sort of weird psychological attachment she felt because he’d rescued her.
Right?
She had to focus. He’d said something about not being a criminal. The best way to handle this whole situation, she decided, was with humor.
“Now, if you actually were a criminal, wouldn’t you claim not to be?” she challenged him, hoping to keep things light. She couldn’t give in to the weird attraction she was feeling. That would just be too pathetic.
“I suppose you’re right,” he allowed, giving her that killer smile again. “But I really am just a traveler, making my way across the country. I thought I’d look for some of those lost mines everyone claims are in the area.”
“You’re a prospector?” She looked at his little pack. Prospectors these days had all sorts of equipment, didn’t they? This guy wasn’t prepared at all. Shaking her head, she waved at him again, making a gesture that invited him into the car.
“Not really. Just a tourist with wild ideas of what might be fun to try while I’m here.” His smile was disarming…and totally enticing. Damn. This Paul was really a handsome son of a gun.
As she waited for him to open the door, she had a flash of insight. A knowing. This man was on a dangerous path, but he was no danger to her, personally. In fact, she suddenly knew that by inviting him into her car, she was changing both of their futures…for the better.
A sense of calm, tinged with hopeful joy, filled her. She’d felt that feeling before when she’d made momentous decisions in her life. She’d always brushed it off, but in light of the weird visions she’d been having lately, she now thought maybe she’d been experiencing a subtler form of the more intense visions all along. The knowing was something she’d taken for granted throughout her life, though she’d always suspected it wasn’t quite “normal”—whatever that meant.
Somehow, she just knew stuff. And right now, she knew she was doing the right thing. The destined thing. The needed thing.
Paul climbed in, and suddenly, the small car seemed even smaller with his large frame taking up so much space. He’d flung his pack into the backseat and then strapped himself in like a good passenger. Revving the little engine with more gusto than it really had, she set off again, carefully picking her way down the twisty mountain road.
“So, where are you from?” she asked as a conversation starter. “You sound sort of Russian, but I’m not good with all the regional differences from that part of the world.”
“I grew up in Romania, but I’ve been traveling for a while. This is my first time in the United States,” he answered easily. His voice was warm and rough, deep and masculine. It sent little shivers of awareness down her spine.
“What do you think so far?” she asked, just to keep the conversation going while she had a private meltdown at the timbre of his voice. Damn. She’d never had quite such a strong reaction just to a man’s voice. He could probably make her come just by talking to her, if he had a mind to try.
Blushing at her own thoughts, Syd was thankful it was a dark night and he couldn’t see her very well in the dark interior of her car. At least, she hoped he couldn’t see her well. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the road to look in his direction.
“The people are very helpful,” he answered, a playful note in his voice. She had to chuckle at his clever reply.
“I’m glad you think so,” she said, injecting a tone of modesty into her voice. Secretly, she was pleased at his compliment and quick wits. “Have you had a chance to see any of the sights?”
“Well, I saw the coast. I started my journey in the Pacific Northwest. Washington State. The redwoods are fantastic.” She could hear the true enjoyment in his words and was glad for him. “Then, I came down here through the mountains, so I didn’t see anything of California, though I would like to one day. I hear those southern beaches are especially beautiful.”
“But the idea of finding a lost mine was just too much to resist, eh?” she teased him a bit.
“I guess,” he said slowly, as if he was considering his answer. “I confess, I was drawn to the area. I guess I just like the desert climate and the mountains more than the sea. Finding a lost mine was just something fun to try. I’m not a serious prospector or anything. Just a tourist, really.”
“I’m not sure if you know this, but every once in a while, people die in the mountains looking for lost treasure. The landscape here may be pretty, but it can also be quite deadly for the unprepared.” She felt it only right to warn him. She didn’t have a heart to let him go out into the wilderness without the right equipment. She didn’t want his death on her conscience.
“Yes, thank you for the warning. I will resupply and try again. I guess I wasn’t really thinking about it when I set out. I’m used to cities,” he told her, and that last bit of his statement rang false in her mind.
She didn’t know why, but she knew he was lying about being a city slicker. It seemed an innocuous enough statement. What did she care if he was from the city or a true outdoorsman? Perhaps he was embarrassed about his lack of preparation for a trek into the mountains. Maybe he was trying to save his masculine pride. Either way, she let it slide for now as unimportant, though she would remember the falsehood. She didn’t like it when they piled up.
Finally, they were approaching the bright lights of the big city. The metro area was sprawling, but from this direction, they’d hit Scottsdale first. Rejoining the highway, they’d already passed one of the many big resorts in the area. Tourism was a big part of
the business in this area, but she suspected the man in her car didn’t have that kind of money necessary to get a room at one of the fancy places. Instead, she aimed her little car for a cheaper hotel she knew on the outskirts of town. She’d leave him there, knowing that he could get just about anywhere from that spot, since there was public transportation not far away.
“Do you have a map of the city?” she asked, wondering if she had chosen the right course of action.
“Sure. No problem,” he told her, not really answering her question directly, but she shrugged it off. He was an adult, and judging by the look of him, he could take care of himself in the city. The mountain trails, though… That was another matter.
“There’s an outfitter near the hotel I’m aiming for that will have all the different kinds of gear you might need if you still intend to go prospecting,” she told him, trying to be helpful.
He just nodded and kept looking out the window as if he’d never seen the city before. She found herself pointing out various sights as they passed them, acting as a tour guide of sorts. He seemed very interested in everything she told him.
He’d easily agreed to the hotel she suggested, as if it didn’t matter all that much to him. Perhaps he was going to go somewhere else as soon as she dropped him off. She tried not to worry about his fate. Did he even have enough money for a hotel? Would he end up sleeping on the streets? She had to trust that he knew what he was doing and would be all right, because the impulse to get further involved with him was strong…and dangerous.
She stopped at a traffic light as they got into town, the number of cars on the road minimal at this time of night and this far out of the city proper. She was about to turn to her passenger and say something when dizziness washed over her like a wave. Sweeping her under. Dousing her in a vision of darkness.
