by Ruby Ryan
"Careful..." Ethan said, putting out a cautious hand.
"Don't worry, I'm avoiding the emerald. Just showing you that I have it."
He frowned, then nodded to himself. "I knew you had it. I was out in the hall getting screamed at, and the moment you picked it up I knew. Like I could feel your fingers on its surface."
"Add it to the list of oddities of today." I put it back in my pocket. "And along those lines, how about we get a drink? I could use one, which means you could probably use seven."
Ethan looked down at himself. "I really need to get clean. I think this shirt is giving me a rash. How about a shower, then drinks?"
I took him by the arm. "Lucky for you, my apartment has both."
*
I opened a five dollar bottle of merlot and poured two glasses while Ethan showered in my bathroom. There was only one option for food in my freezer, a pasta skillet meal, so I pulled that out and dumped it into a pan.
"Hope you like spinach farfalle," I called when I heard the shower stop.
"Spinach what?"
I looked down at the skillet. "It's like butterfly shaped pasta."
"That works for me," he said, still in the other room. "Honestly, I'm not very hungry."
Yeah, cause you carved out the inside of a cow like it was a melon. I was glad to have been unconscious for that part.
He walked into my small kitchen wearing the change of clothes he'd brought from his apartment. "You look like a new man," I said, glancing sideways.
"I feel like it, too." He stepped close, his arm brushing against mine, and leaned forward to sniff the air above the stove. "Smells good. Maybe I'm hungry after all."
I handed him his glass of wine and poured myself a second, then toasted the air between us. "To not being crazy. I hope."
He clinked his glass to mine and took a long drink. "Well then. What's our plan?"
"Right now," I said, "the farthest ahead I can plan is the bowl of pasta I'm about to devour. Everything else is secondary."
He leaned against my fridge and stared off. "I don't know what's happening with my body. But I need to get a hold of it sooner rather than later. If I random transform into that thing..."
"Gryphon," I pointed out.
"...that thing while sitting at my desk at work, then I'm really screwed. And beyond that..." He hesitated.
"What?"
"The voice in my head." He pursed his lips. "It was a dragon."
"A dragon," I repeated, deadpan.
"That's what it said. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but Jessica: I believe it. He's a dragon, and if we're going to fight like he insists then I need to be ready. I need to get used to my other form."
"That's no crazier than anything else I saw today. Yeah, I agree with your assessment."
He nodded with finality. "So with all that in mind, I think it's best we take a sick day tomorrow."
I split open the sauce packet and dumped it over the pasta. "You can take a sick day. But I'm just a temp. I don't have that luxury."
"Why not?" Ethan insisted. "You said it yourself: Mrs. Arnold hates you. It won't affect anything."
"It'll affect my rank at the temp agency," I explained. "I might not parlay this contract into a full-time job, but I still need to go back to the agency and get a new contract. Two missed days in a row isn't something I want added to my record."
Ethan looked disappointed, but said, "Yeah, alright."
"You can hide out here all day." I dumped the pasta into two bowls, and sprinkled Parmesan cheese over the top. "We can test your superpowers when I get off work."
Ethan took his bowl, looked like he wanted to argue more, then said, "Alright."
BANG BANG BANG.
Someone pounded on the door so hard I almost dropped my pasta onto the floor. Ethan whirled toward the door, fear shining in his gorgeous green eyes.
"You don't think someone knows..."
But I feared I knew exactly who this was, and it had nothing to do with Ethan.
"Jess!" Mark yelled from outside, a slur to his words even though it was only 8:00. "Jess, open up!"
Ethan glanced at me. "Ex boyfriend," I whispered, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Jess! I can hear you in there. Don't hide from me! I just want to talk."
I didn't want to talk. I wanted to be left alone. Mark had said he understood, that he would give me my space, but that had only lasted a few days before he'd started getting possessive. I'd been ducking him for a week, and he'd finally caught up with me.
Before I could say anything, Ethan's face hardened and he strode right at the door, unlocking the bolt and throwing it open.
"Jessica doesn't want to talk to you."
From my vantage in the kitchen the door blocked my view, but I could hear the frown in Mark's voice.
"The fuck are you?"
Part of me wanted to tell Ethan to stop. To go somewhere else, to let me deal with my problem myself. He didn't need to worry himself over it, and it only embarrassed me for him to suddenly be in the middle.
But the other part of me, the larger part of me, loved seeing his muscular form step in between us. To end the harassment.
"I'm Jessica's coworker," Ethan said. "We're having dinner together. Please leave."
Mark stepped forward into the doorway, his arm coming into view. Ethan didn't flinch as Mark pointed at his hair. "Your hair's wet. You smell like fucken shampoo."
"I'm going to ask you one more time," Ethan said calmly. "Please leave so we can finish our dinner."
"The fuck I am."
Everything happened swiftly, before I could process what was happening. Mark tried to push past Ethan, his eyes locking onto me instantly. His pinched face flashed with fury, a sight I'd seen many times before, the face that had led to me dumping him two weeks ago, and as his lips pursed together I knew he was about to call me a whore.
Before he could, Ethan shoved him back with both hands. Mark bounced off the wall, surprised for a moment, but then he was twisting and swinging his right arm through the air. I felt myself cry out as the blow neared Ethan, but he was quicker, leaning back just enough for the fist to hiss through open air.
Ethan growled, a noise I felt as if it were in my own head, and punched Mark in the gut.
It was a crushing blow, the muscles of Ethan's arm flexing like some beautiful machine. Mark doubled over and fell back against the wall, gasping and groaning as he tried to breathe. Ethan, my gryphon, pointed casually at the door.
"Leave."
Mark's face twisted in rage again, and in his drunken state I almost thought he'd try to continue the fight, but some morsel of logic won through and he scrambled out the door.
The lead weights left my feet and I stepped into the doorway, watching to make sure Mark was really going. His hunched shape punched through the doorway into the stairwell down the hall, and then he was gone for good.
The door across the hall cracked open, and I saw my neighbor Aly staring out at me.
"About time," she nodded in satisfaction.
I closed my door. I'd been holding my breath, I realized, and when I let out a shuddering breath it became difficult to breathe.
Ethan steadied me with his hands. "Are you okay?"
I panted with my back against the door, the emotion of the encounter crashing over me. Ethan pulled me to his chest, his warm and strong chest, just as the tears began to flow.
I wept, and trembled, and let Ethan rub my hair with his hand, and when I finally stopped the pasta had gone cold.
"I'm sorry," Ethan said in a rush. "I don't know what came over me. I would never presume to do that without your permission, but I could feel your pain, I don't know how, but I felt it and wanted to make it go away..."
"It's fine." I wiped my face with the back of my hand. "You weren't presumptive at all. I've been avoiding him since we broke up, and a confrontation was probably for the best. Some closure."
Ethan held his wrist with the other hand. "I've never
punched anyone before. Man, that hurt, even hitting him where he had no bones."
I grabbed his arm and gave his knuckles a soft kiss. "Some pasta and wine will make it feel better."
It was weird, but having Ethan nearby was a comfort. This man I'd only known for a day, who had some insane ability I still couldn't quite comprehend. But we ate pasta in content silence, and then got ready for bed, and before I could say, you can sleep on the couch, if you want, he was climbing into bed with me and sighing in the sheets.
I rolled over, and he draped an arm across my body, and it felt like the most normal thing in the world.
On the bedside table, within reach, the gryphon totem pulsed.
9
ETHAN
I'm pretty sure I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow, because the next thing I knew my phone alarm was vibrating on the table and faint light was streaming through the window.
I was in Jessica's bed, I realized. I'd climbed right into bed without thinking, and gone straight to sleep! It seemed normal last night, I guess, but now it felt awfully presumptuous.
But with Jessica's body curled against mine, two bodies spooning wonderfully, I couldn't make myself care.
We had a connection, and it had to do with that totem. Even now, with Jessica's body blocking my view of it, I could feel it on the other bedside table. It joined us, somehow. Like two souls that had been together for eons and had only just found one another.
I wasn't the kind of person who believed in love at first sight, but this was awfully close.
Love. Was that what this was? I'd known this woman for two days, going on three, and our first meeting hadn't gone well. Not many men transformed into a beast and carried a woman's unconscious body across Texas on their first date.
Okay, so maybe love was a strong word. Fondness felt more... I don't know. Cautious. I was fond of Jessica, and I knew she was fond of me.
But I couldn't shake this feeling.
I rolled over to turn off my alarm. Jessica rolled with me, groans of protests coming from deep within her throat.
"No leave. Stay. Cuddles."
I slid an arm under her neck to let her snuggle against my chest. "You're needy in the morning."
She draped a thigh over mine, brushing against my morning wood. The rest of my body stiffened at the contact, and she opened one eye.
"I'm not the only needy one."
She pressed herself tighter against me, grinding her panties against my thigh. I could feel the wetness there; I wasn't the only one who woke excited.
She kissed my chest softly, gently butterfly kisses that moved across my body as she slowly climbed on top. I ran my hands along her back, and Jessica quickly tugged off her shirt to give me access to her bare skin. The feeling of her breasts pressing against my body was like pure, extracted bliss.
"You feel nice and warm," she crooned, practically stealing the words out of my mouth.
"Yeah?"
"Mmm hmm." She kissed along my breastbone, then up to the side of my neck. "I've got a place nice and warm for you, too," she whispered in my ear, playfully biting my earlobe.
She straddled me, and reached back to pull her panties aside. Then her fingernails were raking along my rock hard cock, from the base up to the tip and back down again. She wrapped her fingers around it and guided it up, rubbing my head against the drenched opening of her pussy, teasing both of us at the same time.
My lips found hers, and our noses brushed together while we kissed.
Slowly she lowered herself onto me, tiny little nudges with her hips. My head pushed deeper each time, slowly becoming coated with her natural lubrication, and it was all I could do not to grab her waist and speed along the process.
Finally Jessica gave in, pushing down all the way to my base. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide in a silent moan as I ran my fingers through her hair.
And then I couldn't hold back anymore. I grabbed the side of her hips with my strong hands and thrust up into her, slowly at first, but growing faster in time with Jessica's movements.
We rocked together in the bed, slowly making love, and our orgasms were full of passion and release and barely-retrained silence.
Jessica rolled off me and kissed me on the cheek. "Let me go to the bathroom first, then join me when you hear the shower."
I watched her legs and ass stride away, and was certain she was sashaying extra seductively for me.
I'd never showered with a woman before--yeah, I know, weird for a 31 year old, but I'd always dated women who preferred privacy in the bathroom. I found it wonderfully sensual, the water running over our bodies and the steam clouding everything we saw. She squirted shampoo into my hair and scratched it into a lather with massaging fingers and then pulled me down under the scalding water.
"Now you're clean," she said, slapping me on the ass.
After, I laid back in bed, nude, and watched her blow-dry her hair in the mirror.
"The closest DART station is two blocks to the east," she said. "Otherwise, I've got lunch meat in the fridge and bread in the pantry."
"Works for me," I said. "Mostly I'm going to do some research online. Come up with a plan of action."
"I'll leave my laptop unlocked. But do all your searches in my TOR browser. I don't want the FBI or NSA or whoever seeing How can a gryphon kill a dragon? in my Google search history."
"TOR browser. Scandalous," I teased.
"Can't let big data see all my secrets."
Dressed in a beautiful pencil skirt and a green blouse, Jessica bent over me and gave me a long, passionate kiss. Just when I was thinking she would hop back in bed for another round, she pulled away.
"Think about that while I'm slaving away for Mrs. Arnold," she said, and left.
But she only got as far as the door before stopping.
"What's wrong?"
She came back into the bedroom, rounded the bed, and picked up the gryphon totem. "I'm gunna take this with me."
I blinked. "Why?"
"Because... I think I have to. It won't let me go without it."
That didn't make any logical sense, but it felt right. I shrugged and said, "Don't hit the gemstone by accident."
"I'll warn you if I decide to push it out of curiosity." She grinned, gave me another kiss, and then she was gone.
10
JESSICA
It stopped me.
Like I'd run into a fucking brick wall, the totem stopped me.
The moment I was at the door, I could feel it demanding I turn back. It felt wrong to leave without it. An impossibility. And the moment it was in my hand, and then in my purse, I felt safe again.
No, that wasn't right. It was more accurate to say that I felt like Ethan were safe again. That only by guarding the totem could I protect him.
Protect him from what? I wondered as I drove to work.
Even though I was ten minutes early, Mrs. Arnold was waiting for me with her arms crossed.
I went into her office, and allowed myself to be yelled at. I told her that I'd taken Ethan to the hospital with flu like symptoms, that his fever was so bad I didn't dare leave his side. When she was done yelling she admitted that she'd gotten an email from Ethan explaining the situation, but she still insisted I should have taken my assigned work laptop with me so I could work from the hospital.
When I showed her all the progress I'd made during my all-nighter, she grudgingly admitted that I wasn't completely useless.
The day passed slower than any day of my life. Normally being busy made time fly, but all I could think about was the nude hunk in my bed at home.
And the secret we shared.
At lunch I got a text message that finally broke the monotony:
(UNKNOWN): Your lunch meat expired three days ago.
I frowned at the screen, then saved the number in my contact list as Sexy Gryphon Boy.
Jessica: Expiration dates are for wimps.
Sexy Gryphon Boy: I had toast and jam instead. I l
ike toast.
Jessica: Good to know you're easy to please
Sexy Gryphon Boy: Not THAT easy. Right?
Jessica: We'll see when I get home.
Sexy Gryphon Boy: Assuming I don't fly away. I might fly away. Did I mention I can fly away?
Jessica: Cockiness isn't sexy.
Sexy Gryphon Boy: That's not a word
Jessica: Sure it is. "Ethan the gryphon exudes cockiness." There, I even used it in a sentence.
Sexy Gryphon Boy: You made that up
Jessica: Technically ALL words are made up.
But our secret little conversation was exciting me, so much so that I considered walking into Mrs. Arnold's office and making myself vomit all over her floor so I could go home.
I bought a sandwich from the office cafeteria and pored over my work. Ethan had emailed me the database account information, so I was able to make a backup of the Production environment before applying the changes to the boundaries I'd made the other night. But the backup ended up not being necessary, and the change went as smoothly as any I'd ever seen.
By the time I left the office I'd even knocked out half the items on my to-do list. Maybe I'd find a way to impress Mrs. Arnold after all.
I arrived home at my apartment to find my boy-toy sitting on the bench outside, enjoying the sun.
"You look like Forest Gump waiting for the bus," I said.
"Nice to see you too." He got in the car and said, "You don't want to change before we leave?"
"After spending all afternoon daydreaming about you morphing into a gryphon and flying around like my own personal airshow? Hell no I don't want to waste time changing! And don't worry: I've got the totem there in my bag."
Ethan nodded. "I know. I could feel it drawing closer as you drove home. Hop on I-30 and head west."
I focused on the shitty stop-and-go traffic as I wound through Dallas. Only when we were on the interstate did I look over at Ethan.
"So what's the plan? I'm surprised we're driving this way."
