by R M Taylor
“Beautiful name for a beautiful woman. You don’t smell human; may I ask what shifter you are? Or are you Fae?” curiosity was eating at him, he couldn’t pinpoint what she was, and it was bugging him big time. She finished her drink and seemed to hesitate a second before speaking.
“I’m a dragon shifter. But keep that to yourself Aris Landon, we’re a very rare breed” she looked at his lips when he smiled. A dragon shifter! She would be magnificent as a dragon, he just knew it. Her animal would be no less stunning than she was, he had no doubt.
“Wow, yeah, dragons are exceptionally rare, you’re the first I’ve ever met to my knowledge. Flying must be amazing. I would love to go for a flight, it must be exhilarating” he shook his head, his awe genuine. She was amused by him, a small smile adorned her face now, her eyes kept examining his face and several times he caught her gaze sweeping his body. Well, alright then she liked him back. Excellent, good place to start, he thought. The fact pleased him, and the knowledge prompted him to ask more questions.
They talked for hours, becoming comfortable sharing details. The conversation stayed light, and they chatted about the many differences between vampires and shifters. They talked about their abilities, her job as a detector, telepathy, dreams, her ability was like his own in many ways. They made each other laugh, their humour was very similar, they were on the same level. Their conversation was playful and flirty and before they knew it the second bottle of champagne was finished, and the club was winding down.
“Can I see you again? I would love to take you out sometime?” he was trying for cool and relaxed, but even he could hear nerves in his question.
“I’d like that, I like you Aris, thank you for cheering me up. It would have been a shitty night if I hadn’t met you” she said, and he could hear lies in shifters, she was genuine.
“What’s your number? I’ll one ring you so you have mine” he smiled again, struggling to keep a smile off his face constantly for fear of looking like a goofy idiot. He rang her number so his lit up on her phone.
“Got it, ok Aris Landon, give me a text or call sometime and we can go for that flight” she winked and got up. He watched her leave, deciding to follow her home to make sure she got there safe. He didn’t leave until he saw her light go out. He was in trouble here, 5 hours of talking and he was hooked. He couldn’t let her go, he was seeing her again. Lucy Delarossa was fascinating on too many levels.
Chapter 17
Two weeks later, and Lucy was still reeling from the drama with Althea. Her dreams were vivid and turmoiled, and every day she woke up tired from the restlessness. That morning Lucy woke at the sound of her maid cleaning and tidying. Her head was heavy and aching and her mouth felt like something had crawled in and died while she slept. She had met Toni the previous night to catch up and talk things out. Not that she was great at the talking things over thing but the night out with Toni had been fun. She threw the covers over and sat up slowly, eyes squinting at the light coming from the window. Blackout blind her ass! Moving slowly like a zombie she went to the bathroom and started the shower as she answered the call of nature. She swallowed a glass of water and stripped, checking the temperature, she then moved under the stream of hot water. The hot water was amazing, and she started to feel better as she washed and scrubbed. Thoughts about Althea were still prevalent in her mind as she cleaned herself and she was angry that she missed something so big. She could sense lies for goodness sake! How could she not detect the deception? Toni pointed out repeatedly that her gift had a turn on switch, but it did no good, she experienced transient stuff from random strangers, why not from her friends?
Granted she wasn’t looking for it, and she had to tune into her gift, it wasn’t on constantly, but she should have been able to pick up on the lies by omission. No wonder Connor didn’t argue when they finally had the “talk” He obviously wouldn’t fight it if he and Allie were a thing. She revisited their recent interactions and realised that Althea had deliberately worded things to evade her detector abilities. If she couldn’t answer without lying she had skirted the issue, like the first time Lucy had asked what her boyfriend’s name was. She answered, “boy toy” and laughed. When she asked Althea where they met, she had said “through a friend” Lucy had not realised the friend was herself. It was ironic that Lucy had been doing the same to Althea about the inheritance, to avoid giving details. Different reasons, but same outcome. No straight answers and clear facts, just vague details.
That night was awful, and she had to stop obsessing, but it highlighted how much their friendship had deteriorated in the last year. Even the night out with Toni last night had been a bit strained at times, they had lost that easy comradery. Althea’s barb about money irked her, if it wouldn’t raise more questions than answers to give them some she would have, but she had no idea who was tracking her, if anyone was. But there you go, too late to change anything now. She certainly was not giving Connor any now. She may be shallow, petty, and vengeful but fuck it, she was betrayed, and it hurt. Fuck them. She may not love him anymore, but she was still sore over it. Toni had done her best to understand, but Lucy still couldn’t explain properly, and every time she mentally ran through the conversation it sounded stupid and dramatic. It was “Schrodinger’s cat” only the cat was her flipping inheritance. She had a lot of money, yes. She couldn’t use it a lot in case the lawyer was right about there being a risk. She didn’t want to antagonise any apparent enemies she may or may not have. She knew little of her family or their past, so she had no idea if the threat was real. She was in limbo. She could use the money, but she couldn’t use the money. She had property all over but couldn’t live in them, and she had all the answers but didn’t have them as she couldn’t read the damn book. It sounded crackers, and she couldn’t make herself explain it to Toni when she knew it sounded so paranoid and strange.
Then there was Aris. Oh my, then there was Aris. Holy hell that man was gorgeous, he was her type in every single way. He may as well have been shaped from her list of her perfect man, her heart wouldn’t stop racing when he first sat down that night. He was also the vampire from her dream, which shocked her to her core. But, it did not freak her out as much as it should, he was obviously a murderer in her dream, she felt his regret. Even though her dream showed her he was burying someone, she had learned to take the dreams with a healthy pinch of salt and not take them as truth. Sometimes dreams were screwy. She had mentioned him to Toni, but they spent a large amount of their night out talking about Toni’s daughter, who was so beautiful Lucy couldn’t help but feel envious. She didn’t mention the dream or its content. She had a feeling she did see truth, and dream Aris did murder someone. It should scare her off, but dammit it didn’t, she was a dragon and she could burn his ass. Even better, she could eat him, preferably in the good rather than bad way. Smiling at her own innuendo, she decided she would do something good for herself, she would go for a fly.
In her mind's eye, her curled up dragon shot her head up at the thought. She was a laid-back dragon, quite content to give her human plenty of time, but it had been almost a year and she was past impatient. She got out of the shower feeling much better after a thorough pamper. She went back to her bedroom as the maid was finishing changing her sheets.
“Hey Donna, thank you for doing that, I didn’t take my makeup off very well last night so some of it was probably on the pillows” Lucy smiled at her.
“No problem Lucy. I’ve done that myself so many times. That’s everything done, I will be back Monday morning, same time” She smiled at Lucy as she gathered the dirty sheets into the clothes basket containing Lucy’s dirty laundry, and then breezily left the room for Lucy to change.
Lucy liked her, she was warm and approachable and kind. Plus, she folded some of the towels into cute shapes on the shelves which amused Lucy. The girl was funny, eccentric even, and very thorough. She knew it was her maid’s job, but Lucy found items rearranged and neater than she left them, all grouped together and s
traight, almost perpendicular, Donna was that tidy. Sometimes it annoyed her, as it took longer to find anything. Lucy was not a tidy person and would not apologise for it. Life was too short for tidy rooms and matching socks, clean was a must, tidy not so much. Looking through her wardrobe, Lucy found some comfortable clothes and pulled them on along with her trainers. She decided to drive up to a forest about an hour away, so she could let her dragon out somewhere remote to fly.
After a quick breakfast and coffee, she drove north. She had been to False Ash Forest lots of times, it was sprawling, with a reservoir, plenty of land with lakes and steep hills that were more mini mountains they were so rocky. Pretty much all she needed to relax and give her dragon time. Named False Ash after the trees that dominated the lower levels of the region, they were not Ash trees but looked similar. A half hour into her journey her inner alarm started to sound. She kept noticing the same car following her. Trying not to be paranoid, she kept on course to the destination. There was nowhere they could go, it was a single carriage road, and there was only one route to the forest and further north to the next town so obviously plenty of other drivers would be on the same road.
She passed services, a small hotel and restaurant, and hoped the car would pull in. It didn’t and kept the same distance as earlier. By the time she arrived at the abandoned farm house on the side of the steep slope of a hill she had used before, she was agitated and alarmed. Parking her car behind a perimeter wall that obstructed the view, she grabbed her bag and left the car. She hid behind some trees and foliage a few metres away. Listening intently, she stared through the dense leaves as a car pulled behind hers and two men appeared, speaking quietly. She couldn’t decipher what they were saying, but she could see them clearly. Both were tall with blonde hair, and both spoke Italian. She could only make out snippets of the conversation, she had started learning Italian last year when she received all the documents and book from David, her grandmother’s lawyer. She could probably survive as a tourist in Italy, but she was by no means fluent, she was nowhere near able to read the book or papers. Obviously, this was something she needed to correct ASAP, it would really have helped about now.
She watched them check out her car, in and under, and while one scoped out the woods, the other placed something under the car on the driver’s side. She stayed stock still behind a large tree while both men returned to their car. As they did, a ringing began and one of the men answered their phone in English. Lucy strained to hear but it was difficult even with shifter hearing.
“Did you find her?” someone asked, sounding female.
“We tracked her to a forest. She must have gone for a flight. Her car is parked but no sign of her. We put a VBIED on her car. We’re pulling back to watch if it detonates. We will get confirmation. Do you want us to retrieve the body?” the man answered. What the hell was a vee bide? Veeb eyed, what the hell? Lucy didn’t know what it was but there was no mistaking the word “detonate” and “body”. She watched as they left. After waiting for a long time, until it was totally silent, she slowly walked back. What the hell do you do now in that situation? She was out of her depth, there was no way she would get back in that car. No way to try and get rid of the lovely present they left, she had no idea how to disarm something. She couldn’t leave her car here either. Someone might try and move it and get killed in the explosion. Well, there was one way to get rid of it.
She walked clear of the trees and stripped down, packing her stuff into her bag. Looking inwards she pushed her human to the back and brought her dragon out. Her bones and flesh realigned, and blood rushed as she settled into her dragon form. Her limbs ached as she shook off the effects of the change. Looking around, she used her enhanced senses to examine the area and the trees and hills around to confirm she was still alone. Grabbing her bag in her huge clawed talons, she launched herself upwards, causing a massive sweep of air making the long grass flatten beneath her. As she ascended, she let loose a burst of flames from far above the farmhouse, burning the car and path completely, the metal melting and deforming under the heat. When it was a black warped puddle on the ground she stopped and moved her bag and clothes to her mouth, so she had free claws.
She flapped her wings hard, gaining height rapidly. She looked towards the hotel and restaurant she saw earlier, the men were likely there, they would see any explosion from there. Her fire may have looked like it, she hoped, but she was far from inconspicuous, her dragon was massive and colourful, red and purple was sure to stand out against the greens and browns of the forest. So, only one thing for it, she would assume they knew she survived. Time to go home and get packed. She needed a new place to stay while this was going on. Turned out David Edmonson may have had a point.
Chapter 18
By the time she arrived back at the house it was dark, and she changed back swiftly in the park at the end of her street. She changed into clothes quickly and then, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, she weaved in and out of gardens and hid behind gates and doorways until she jumped over her own fence. She entered easily by scaling the windows under the balcony and entering through the upper balcony at the rear. Every door had a high security bio lock mechanism, requiring her thumb print, so she entered easily. Stopping still while her pulse slowed to resting, she opened her senses and tried to detect anyone in the house. Her inner alarm was silent. She walked slowly to her room to pack but kept all the lights off. Spooked as she was, she had no intention of confronting anyone, her dragon was on the defensive and riled up, she would likely force a change and eat any intruders. Plus, it would be a shame to damage the beautiful house. She was pissed at having to leave, she really loved this place.
Lucy pulled her suitcase out of her wardrobe, filling it with essentials in a hurry, she went downstairs and put her laptop and other crucial items in the case. She had no idea where to go, so she googled hotels in the area. If someone was tracking her, they would expect her to go for a posh place, wouldn’t they? So, she could get somewhere cheap. But then, they could expect her to do that too, since she could expect them to check the posh places. Second guessing herself she looked at it from all angles. Somewhere private, low key and secure. Somewhere generic and where she could blend in but was also not a total dive. Ok, she thought, as she looked at the massive list of hotels in the city. Her phone buzzed as she received a message.
Hey, it’s Aris. Are you free tonight?
They had talked every day since that night out, and she was happily getting to know Aris bit by bit. They had agreed to go out on a first date this weekend, but now was not the time for a date, she did like him, she had dreamed of him several times and he felt important somehow. Plus, she didn’t want to be alone right now, and her friends were a no go, she wouldn’t put them in danger. It was 6pm, so in theory she could find a place to lay low and maybe meet him somewhere close. She should stay hidden, but how long for? These people obviously would not go away, and she was annoyed at having to hide. She was a huge strong badass dragon for goodness sake. Her dragon nodded in her head, angry at the day they had had. Eating the enemy was good but playing with the sexy vampire sounded more fun. Horny dragon had no concept of how much danger they could be in. She thought being a dragon and her human having self-defence lessons made her invincible. Dragon didn’t worry over things she couldn’t change, she was not the fretting kind in general, but when she got going she was such a drama queen about it.
Hi, I’m not free earlier, but I could be later tonight I just need to sort a couple of things. We could meet later, maybe about 9pm?
Lucy disabled the rear security lighting, and after checking outside, she left with her suitcase and two smaller bags. After much annoyance including jumping walls and avoiding an overzealous guard dog, she finally emerged from an alley a couple of blocks from her house. She hurried into a restaurant, getting strange looks from customers and staff, leaving by a different exit. She did this several times, trying to mislead anyone following her. She then found the first hotel
she could find and did the same. Her feet were killing her, and her back was aching badly with the weight of carrying the two bags. Her arm ached too, and she felt like she could sit down in the street and cry. After several more weaving in and out of places she jumped in a cab and asked the cabbie which hotel was nice and private.
Apparently, there were several, so she chose one of them and looked it up on her phone. She asked him to go a long way, to cover their tracks, and the driver seemed to take it all in his stride, like it was all routine. She honestly would be lost without her mobile phone. A message came in as she was reading the hotel’s info on the review site.
Hey Lucy, it’s Toni, thanks for last night, I was well overdue some grown up fun. We should do it again soon. Remember I’m here if you need to talk x x
Disappointed it wasn’t Aris, she tapped out a quick reply, asking to meet up next week. She had no time to talk right now and telling Toni about earlier might put her in danger, Toni had a daughter who turned 3 years old last month, and she had enough on her plate being a mother. There was no way she would risk telling her anything if there was any chance someone would hurt her to get information. She might already be in danger if they were followed last night on their night out. Lucy was completely divided, should she tell Toni about today? Would that panic her and make her worry and insist that Lucy came to stay? Toni would want to go to the police, that was the last thing she needed, she had no evidence and no way to corroborate anything David said. They would think she’s crazy and she didn’t want to drag others into this.
That’s the thing about being a strong person, supporting others was such a habit it didn’t occur to them or the strong person that they may need support too. Being strong became such a habit that needing others seemed like a weakness. Admitting you needed others felt like you were losing face, like it cost you to admit it. She just couldn’t face explaining it all and asking for anyone’s help.
