by J. S. Wilder
“That was a mistake, human,” the demon growled and smiled with jagged rows of razor teeth.
She held the barrel of the gun like a baseball bat over her shoulder to swing again. “Go back to hell or wherever you came from.”
The man coughed several times as though his throat was sore from being choked but before she could blink, he launched himself on top of the creature’s back and punched him in the same spot she’d hit.
While naked guy punched the demon, he yelled and Dena scrambled backward to avoid the massive creature’s flailing. It spun to dislodge the man from its back, but he hung on.
“Your kind used to care for these humans,” the demon snarled. “Let's see if you still do.”
Dena felt the blood drain from her face as the giant devil turned to her.
“Get out of here!” the dude yelled.
Dena’s knees unlocked and she raced inside her house. Freaking monsters...demons were real? She panted as she searched her supplies for something that might work against a devil.
With the shotgun tucked under her arm, she snatched the bullets from the shelf then stopped. Naked guy had only a momentary setback from a direct hit to his chest at close range. How much less would a gunshot harm a freaking demon?
Her front door crashed into the wall and she jumped. The demon burst through her doorway.
She stumbled back, her hip hitting her supply cabinet. Sedatives! If they could knock out a Great Dane, surely they'd do something to a demon. She jerked open the drawer and yanked out a shot. With her hands shaking, she stepped forward.
“Get the fuck out of my house!”
It barreled into her, knocking her into her veterinary cabinet. Its weight pinning her down on her back. Shattered glass cuttings pierced her skin. She jammed the needle into its chest and shoved the plunger down.
The needle snapped off into its black hide. It growled then sniffed her like a hound, grabbing her wrist and inhaling her hand with the shot still in it.
“You think you are powerful enough to defeat us?” The demon laughed. “All your weapons are useless and you will defeat the Renjer for us. Next time—" Its red tinted eyes rolled up in the back of its head and it slumped on top of her.
Shit! The sedative had worked. Too bad this thing weighed a ton. She grunted from the effort of trying to push the thing off her when it flew backward and crashed through her wall. Naked man stood before her.
When he turned away from her toward the beast, she stood. “Thanks, but its unconscious.” Relief washed over her, she'd done it. Fought a demon and lived.
He faced her. “We have to burn it before it awakens.” Brushing past her, he opened a drawer then closed it and opened another.
“What are you looking for?” she asked, tiptoeing through the broken glass and shattered wood.
“A flint stone.”
She crossed her arms. “We are not burning it. I told you, with as much medicine as I injected it with, it'll be out for hours.” If she hadn't accidentally killed it. She bit her lip and shuffled to the fallen creature. Science would have a new species to study. Might even make her enough money to pay her student loans off. She reached out a hand to feel for the creature’s pulse when a naked man yanked her back by her elbow.
“Ow!” His grip hadn't hurt just surprised her.
“I told you, we have to burn it.”
Irritation flamed in her chest. “It’s out cold. I know modern medicine isn't holy water, but it did the trick.”
He ran a hand through his reddish-brown hair. “Humans. Always mixing things up and getting them backward. It's not holy water that destroys Tryns, it's what your kind called dragon fire.”
Her friend, Kohl, wasn't here and he was the only dragon she ever met, they were out of luck. “Sorry, I'm fresh out of that type of fire.”
She grabbed a lighter out of one of the drawers and flicked it on.
The man narrowed his eyes. “What spell is this, witch?”
“Stop calling me that. My name is Dena and I'm a veterinarian, not a witch.” Otherwise, she'd have waved her wand and blasted these two out of her yard and into a psych ward and the other to the gates of hell.
“I'm Taurian.” He nodded, then frowned. “What's a vet-rin-arian?”
Was this guy for real? She was having a hard enough time after fighting a demon much less keep eye contact and not stare at Taurian’s junk.
“It’s an animal doctor.”
He snorted. Did he seriously not know that?
“Give me your fire,” he held out his hand, “It’ll have to do while I’m...stuck in this form.”
Great. First naked guy in her house for months and he was crazy. “You are not going to burn that demon in my house.” Once she called...animal control or a paranormal investigator, was there such a thing, then she could claim the discovery and get paid.
“Fine, I’ll drag the Tryn outside if you like, but then it’s turning to ash.”
She couldn’t let him destroy it. “No!” She stepped between him and the creature, palming the lighter.
“Out of my way, human. That creature will bring more of its kind here. And I will not allow it to return to my world and tell others where my family is.” He stalked closer to her until he was a breath away.
His scent filled her with mountain air, musk, and a hint of something spicy and sweet...like smoked cinnamon.
“We’ll call someone to pick it up and study it.” She fought to stand her ground despite his nearness. “Find out where it comes from. Why it’s here—”
“It’s a pestilence that destroys everything it touches.” His pupils turned into serpentine slits. “Now get out of my way or I will move you.”
When she crossed her arms and lifted her chin, he reached out and grasped her arms. She squeaked as he hauled her up into the air as though she weighed nothing and set her down out of the way.
A popping sounded, and she went on her tiptoes to peek around him to what was making that noise. And where was her lighter? She patted her pants pockets.
“How do you work this blasted thing?” Taurian clicked the lighter upside-down and opened and closed the case.
Before she could respond, the demon before them shimmered, then vanished.
“Shit, where did it go?” She shivered and it felt like an ice dagger ran down her spine. Was it waiting to reappear later when she was alone?
Taurian growled. “If you’d given me the fire earlier, it wouldn’t have had time to teleport. Who knows where it went.” He stalked closer, and she backed up until she hit the wall behind her. “If it hurts my family, I will see that you suffer every scratch they endure.”
“S-sorry.” She swallowed. “I-I didn’t know.”
He scoffed. “Too late now.”
When he tossed her lighter back to her, she caught it. Then he went to her door and stepped outside into the night.
“Wait!” Good thing she didn’t have close neighbors or the cops would’ve been here by now. Betsy lived a quarter of a mile away and she was deaf but cooked a mean gumbo. “Y-your wound. Let me tend it and get you clothes.”
He stared at her, then rolled his shoulders back. “My injury is nearly healed, but I will take your offer on…garments.”
Healed? Could he be like Kohl? She dashed to the guest room and yanked out her ex’s camouflage baggy shorts and an army green T-shirt. They were the biggest clothes she could find and they’d probably be very snug on Mr. Crazy Seven-Foot. “Here.” She tossed them at Taurian and waited until he put on the shorts. “Now let me at least sanitize the gunshot, okay.”
With a grunt, he plopped down on her couch. She grabbed antiseptic and gauze from the smashed cabinet then picked her way through the glass to him.
She doused the gauze and wiped at the blood streaked across his shirt.
“That stuff smells like garzalon piss.”
“Whatever that is.” She frowned as the blood wiped off on the pad, but so far she didn’t find any bullet holes. Rather bu
mps like the injury had been months ago rather than hours. He was like Kohl then. Did he know her alien dragon friend? She’d helped heal Kohl when he crashed into the swamp outside her home three years ago. A full-size, real-life dragon. She couldn’t believe it. Then he’d transformed into a man over six feet tall. Not as big as Taurian who was easily seven-feet tall and change. What was it Kohl had said his people were called? Rebiranies? No, Renjer…yes that was their planet. Renjerians. “Are you—?”
He snarled and snapped a hand on her throat and hauled her across the room. Her legs kicked as she tried to pry his fingers off her throat. She gagged as he slammed her against the wall. Her vision darkening.
“My brother’s blood. I smell it despite you trying to mask it with that retched smell.” His silver eyes narrowed. Had she been the one to infect Kohl with so much of the Tryn poison? “Tell me why his blood is here or I’ll crush your throat.”
Chapter Five
Taurian eased his hold on the human woman’s throat enough for her to speak. Instead of trembling in fear, she kicked him in the crotch. Pain shot up his groin and he bent over, gasping. What the fuck? Human bodies were too fragile and weak, which is why he never wanted to be one. He gritted his teeth from the pain as she scrambled away. Shit! If he was in his dragon form her kick would've done nothing.
She returned with a large knife and waved it between them with one hand. “I'm calling the cops, asshole. Better get the hell out of my house and never come back.”
As much as he'd like to do that very thing, he wanted to know why this woman had his brother's blood. On Regner, Kohl was unconscious and with another human woman and both of them smelled of Tryn. Was the female...Isabelle lying? Had she and this one done something to his brother? Perhaps they were working with his enemy and the traitor was on his home world with his brother!
Taurian stood and hissed out a breath as the movement reminded him of his tender groin. Ignoring the knife-wielding female, he sniffed the air to locate the source of his brother's blood here. If his sister, Desmonda, was present, she'd have smelled it from outside. And the human woman’s scent wasn't helping either. Her fear mingled with the sharp order of whatever she rubbed on his chest when cleaning his wounds along with a flora and multiple faint animal smells didn't make it easy.
After he marched past her, she let out a breath and he chuckled. If she thought he wasn't a threat just because she held a weapon then she didn't know who she was dealing with.
The smell of Kohl's blood was stronger closer to a shelf of books and other small items. Then Taurian spotted a jar with red droplets lining the bottom...along with fragments from a Tryn poison-tipped spear. His gut twisted and he clenched his fists as he faced her. “How did you get that?”
She looked past him and paled. “I-I helped a friend.”
His brother had never mentioned her. Then again until he'd shown up with the quasicrystal and tried to get their father to commission a return trip for them back to Earth, no one knew that Kohl had even come here. “What's his name...this friend of yours?”
She narrowed her eyes and didn't lower her blade. “How do you know it was a guy?”
Smiling, he closed the distance between them. The tip of her knife cutting into his chest before she gasped and jumped back.
“I've tolerated you before, but now I am out of patience. Tell me his name and how you know him and I may spare your life.”
“How do I know you're not lying to me?” She lifted her chin but her hand gripping the knife trembled slightly. “To me, you could be one of the bad guys and want to hurt him.”
Fair point. And the fact she seemed to be protective of Kohl raised her level in his mind even more. A warrior’s heart and loyal. “He's my brother.”
Instead of lowering her weapon she scoffed. “Prove it then.”
Was she asking him to turn into his true form? Did she not think he'd tried since crashing here and fighting the Tryn? “I can't. Something happened to me during my...travel here.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Did my brother show you his Renjerian form?” If she was pretending to be on their side, then he'd been vague enough not to give her any more information than Tryns already had.
“Wow, Kohl said his brothers were stubborn and irritating, but I thought he exaggerated.”
At his brother's name, Taurian relaxed his shoulders and rolled them back to ease the tension. If she were an enemy, Kohl wouldn’t have given his name or he’d have used the long version. The fact she knew his nickname made Taurian trust her a tiny bit.
“Care to tell me why you ended up in my front yard and why you can't transform?” She set her knife down and placed a hand on her hip. “Cause if you had shown up as a dragon, we could've avoided all this drama.” She pressed a hand to her throat where he'd choked her.
Guilt sliced into him, but he couldn't risk trusting a stranger much less a human too soon. Her kind, when Renjerians had defeated and drove away the Tryns from Earth had then turned on the dragons. Butchering those they had called friends and comrades. Declaring Renjerians devils and monsters. It was like a madness had taken hold of them that spread through the land. That was why he had vowed never to return. And now the sky and fire gods had mocked him. Took away his Dragon form he was born with and trapped him here. How could he ride the lightning back to Renjer?
“Hey, it's okay.” Her voice soothed him and the words slipped out before he could stop them.
“I've never been anything else but a dragon.”
“What?” She jerked back. “But Kohl can shift. I thought you all could do that.”
“No. Only him until now.”
She plopped down on a stool. “Shit. How do we change you back? And what about the demon?” She shivered. “Will it return?”
He honestly didn't know. If he left, there was a chance it would come back and the thought of her having to fight it alone made his stomach turn. She'd been lucky the first time rendering it unconscious briefly. Best thing to do was stay with her until he could figure out what the hell had happened to him and how to fix it. And she'd said she was an animal doctor.
“It might,” he answered her honestly.
“Great.” She ran a hand through her blonde hair. “Guess I need to keep shots handy.”
“Tell me about this.” He tapped the glass jar, and she grimaced.
“I removed that from Kohl months ago.” She set her bandaged hand down on her lap. “Yesterday, I opened it up to try and figure out why the blood had never coagulated. For my troubles, I got a splinter.”
He paced. “Anything else?” There had to be something to his brother's blood looking fresh and Taurian becoming a human and unable to shift.
“Just that the fragment almost seems to be symbiotic.” She shook her head. “But that's not possible...it's a type of metal.”
What if his brother's blood did that on its own? And Taurian had sucked the venom out of Kohl so there was a chance he'd ingested some of his brother's blood. Was that why Taurian was human now? “Can you check my blood? Compare it to Kohl's and find out if there are similarities?”
Then find a way to change Taurian back into a dragon.
“Sure, I can take a look.” She rose. “Let me sterilize my scalpel and get a slide.”
Her blade was small and thin. Did she really think this thin metal would cut him? “Are you going to use more of that foul smelling potion? ‘Cause I still reek of it. Fire would be better.”
“No, you are not ruining my scalpel.” She picked through the debris then returned with small, white squares. After she wiped the blade, she set it on a silver tray. Then opened another square. “Hold your arm out.”
When he did so, she wiped his forearm on spot, then picked up her blade and sliced a line down his flesh. Red rivulets trickled down. Then she pressed a thin piece of glass to the blood.
“Here, put pressure on that.” She covered his wound with a strip of cloth and pushed his arm up.
; Sliding the glass under a contraption, she peered into a black tube. When she kept turning a knob and not saying anything, he grumbled.
“Well?”
She jumped, then looked abashed.
“Tell me.”
“Your blood is...mutating at a super-fast rate.” She frowned and shook her head. “And I don't know why or what will happen to you once it's finished.”
“Are you saying I'm stuck like this forever? Or I’m going to change into something worse?” Human and no wings or flight? This was torture.
“No.” She laid a hand on his. “At least I don’t think so. It’s too early to tell. I’ll have to do more tests and we might need to consult an expert.”
“Tryns have killed all of our scientist and physicians.”
“That’s awful.” She kept her hand on his and he liked the contact. It soothed him somehow. “We can utilize someone here on Earth.”
And let them put him in a cage or try to kill him? “Absolutely not.”
“Why?” She pulled her hand away and the absence made him draw in a breath. “If they can help yo—”
“I don’t trust your kind.” He glowered.
“Then leave.” She waved him away. “Go back to your planet.”
She was right, without her, he wouldn’t even know what his blood was doing and perhaps she could help him.
Softening his features, he took her hand in his until she looked up at him. “I am making an exception for you. A-and I cannot return home until I get my dragon form back. You said you were an animal doctor…help me, please.” If she couldn’t figure out how to transform him back to his dragon then he was stuck in this body and on this backward planet.
Chapter Six
Dena bent over the microscope to examine Taurian’s blood again. Microscopic organisms were speedily mutating his red blood cells. Why, she didn't know. It was different than the sample of Kohl's blood she’d inspected or the alien fragment of the spear. And she wasn't a specialist to know exactly what was in his blood or what it was doing. If she had some of their father's blood, then she could do better comparisons.
