His father pointed to the cage. “You have made her very mad, Calix. Perhaps you should apologize for turning her into a dragon. Maybe she will not turn you to ashes over what you’ve done.”
Calix lifted his middle finger to the males and they immediately dissolved into full-out laughter. He turned to find Theo studying the dragon in the cage. “Are you happy now?”
Theo turned to Calix slowly. “Are you? I told you that you smelled like her. She smells like you too. You can’t avoid your connection to her. That doesn’t work.”
Calix ran a hand through his hair. “We barely know each other. Lena said the same thing to me.”
“For some, love works like that,” Theo declared. “If you don’t fix this somehow, I’m going to have to send her home with your family.”
“With my…? What the hell do you mean, Theo?” Calix demanded.
Theo grunted. “Humans go missing all the time. She damaged her rental van enough for a cover story.”
“Cover story?” Calix glared.
Theo nodded. “The human known as Dr. Lena Verglas will not be returning to Albuquerque. She’s far too dangerous as a new shifter and her beast is far too powerful and unpredictable for her to resume a life among normal humans.”
“You can’t decide that for her,” Calix protested. “That’s not fair, Theo.”
Theo lifted his chin and tapped the metal attached to his shirt. “I do a lot of things in my work that isn’t fair, Calix. It comes with the badge. Didn’t you learn that from being in the military?”
“I think you need to…” Calix stopped and swung his gaze to his mother and grandmother. “Mama, no! Don’t go near that cage. She’s wild.”
“Calm yourself, Calix. We no harm your female,” Petra said, waving her hand.
Calix jogged to them. “Didn’t you see our wounds? I’m not worried about Lena, Grandmother. I’m worried about you and Mama.”
“Bah,” Petra said, waving away his concern. “You worry for nothing.”
“He fears his woman will turn her anger our way. At least we know Calix loves us,” Calixta said.
“I never doubted it. He loves deeply like my father did,” Petra said.
The women stopped in front of the cage. Petra slapped the bars with her hand. “Listen and do not roar. The roaring makes you wilder. Inside, you are human still—as all dragons are a little. My mother—bless her eternal dragon soul—was turned from human to dragon by my father. Much as Calix turned you. It was for love that my grandson did this. No other reason.”
Calix winced when Lena stood on all four of her sturdy dragon legs, gripped the floor with razor-sharp black talons, and roared so loudly that the lights in what was left of the warehouse all shattered from the sound.
“All that passion. Bet she is fun in bed,” his brother Argus stated as he watched her.
His youngest brother, Damen, draped an arm around his shoulders. The boy was going to be bigger than Calix when he was fully grown. “If you do not want her, Calix, I would take her off your hands. I think I could tame her. I’m very good with passionate females.”
Calix didn’t answer with words. Instead, he picked his younger brother up and threw him the length of the warehouse until Damen crashed into the wall and fell to the floor. The other males in his family laughed hysterically over his jealous reaction.
“That was amazing, Calix. I’ve wanted to do that for months,” Argus said.
“Watch your tongue or you’re next,” Calix warned.
Calix frowned when his Grandmother Petra shook her finger at Lena. He took a step forward then halted. What did he think he was going to do? Stop his grandmother from lecturing? That was never happening.
“Fine. Be angry. I can do no more for you.” Petra turned to her daughter. “Talk to her, Calixta. The female is stubborn. No wonder the boy likes her so much. She will be a challenge for him every day.”
“Thank you for trying, Mama.”
Petra patted her daughter’s shoulder. “You are welcome, Calixta. Despite her temper, I like her. I hope she comes around.”
“Me too,” Calixta said. She turned back to the dragon in the cage as her mother walked across the floor. “Now… we get to real business. Theosophus tells me you’re some brilliant professor of clouds or something. This does not make you wise in matters of love. Are you going to listen to reason or are you going to snort and roar and act like a dragon bitch all evening?”
“Mama—no!” Calix yelled, running to throw himself between Lena and his mother.
Finding her fire at last, Lena blew it through the bars, but luckily it didn’t hurt him. He pushed his mother and made her go across the floor.
Being immune from Lena’s fire could only mean one thing. Lena really was his mate.
“They’re my family, Lena. Please don’t hurt them. It’s me who did this—I did this to you. Be angry at me, not them.”
Calix’s stomach plummeted when the dragon huffed and turned her back on him. Smoke puffed from her nostrils in steady streams. He took some deep breaths, then spoke in soft tones.
“Look—I’m genuinely sorry. I would have stayed away from your bed if I’d known this was going to happen. I thought my great-grandfather was just a senile old man when he warned me about what he’d done to his mate. And he never said how it had happened. How was I to know?”
“Mind your tongue when you speak of your great-grandfather,” his grandmother yelled from across the room.
Calix swung to his family but pointed to Lena. “Well, I obviously don’t think badly about him anymore. I was just explaining myself to the woman I accidentally turned into a freaking dragon. Can’t I get a little peace and quiet while I grovel?”
Ignoring his family’s snickering and giggling, Calix turned back to Lena. Her back was still turned to him. “I’m genuinely sorry for turning you into a dragon, but the truth is that I could never be sorry about anything else. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, or slept with, and that’s why I fell in love with you so quickly. I know it’s too soon to tell you that for certain—or maybe it’s too late—I don’t know. But that’s how I feel, Lena. I don’t want to lose you. Tell me we have a chance.”
Calix gripped the bars when Lena’s head dropped to the cage floor. “Lena?” She looked defeated, and he couldn’t stand seeing her that way. “I know it’s not easy becoming a dragon. It hurt my first time too. I promise if you think hard about becoming human you’ll change back to one. You can kick my ass later for how bad it hurts to shift. I deserve that.”
Calix winced when the female he loved moaned. He’d take this shifting burden from her if he could. Shifting the first time was excruciating. He truly hadn’t minded that Lena was a human. Now as a dragon, she was formidable. He would need all the help he could get from his dragon ancestors once she discovered it.
Maybe his family was right. Maybe he needed to apologize for everything.
“I’m sorry we had to wrestle you from the sky and lock you in a cage. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Please shift back and talk to me. I miss the Lena who teases me.”
Calix bent the bars with his grip when the moaning dragon suddenly morphed back into the human woman he loved. He yanked the cage door open, breaking the lock in his haste to get to her.
Lifting her unconscious body into his arms, Calix saw Lena was out cold. He held her gently in his arms and prayed with everything in him that she was going to live through this.
He walked out of the cage and took her to his grandmother while his whole dragon family held their breath and watched in fear. “What am I supposed to do with her now?”
Petra turned and looked at her son-in-law with a twinkle in her eyes. “Alexander, did you not explain to your eldest son how baby dragons are made? Shame on you.”
“What shame? I have no shame. I told him, Petra, but like your father, Calix hears only what he wants to hear. My other two sons are not as hard-headed.”
“Dad,” Calix said.
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“Stop teasing him—all of you,” Calixta ordered, putting her arm around her worried son. “Can you not see Calix fears the worst?”
“Our son is wise to fear that female. It took five dragon males to bring her in,” Alexander said. He peered at the woman in his son’s arms. “She looks bronzed by the Greek sun and I see she has good breeding hips. She will make strong dragon babies with you Calix. I approve of her.”
Everyone chuckled and nodded in agreement with his father’s statement. His family had strange ideas about being helpful. Calix closed her eyes and swore before glaring at them all.
“Will you be serious for once? I really don’t know what to do. Lena probably hates me now.”
“Did you mean what you said?” Calixta asked, rubbing her son’s tense back. “Do you love her?”
Calix looked at his mother nodded. “Yes, Mama. I love her, but we do not yet know each other.”
“Then you have our blessing to keep learning how to love each other. Now you need to earn her blessing. This will take time, but it is the way of all dragon mates. Attraction is instant, but love takes time.”
Calix nodded again, but his mother’s advice left out all the details about how learning to love was supposed to work.
He looked at Theo. “Put a human bed in the cage. I’ll be back with her later. I’m going to take her to Topper while she’s unconscious. Maybe Topper will know how to keep Lena from shifting again until we can sort this out.”
“Here. We not send your human mate out in world naked.” Petra pulled a blanket from her bag and tucked it around the female in her grandson’s arms. “Things meant to be will always work out, Calix. Go now. Do what you must to protect her. I am happy to have lived long enough to see this day. My mother and father would have loved knowing this happened to you.”
Calix sighed. “Thank you, Grandmother,” he said, walking out the door with Lena in his arms.
Chapter Thirteen
Lena blinked opened her eyes and looked around. How had she ended up asleep in someone’s sunroom?
She scooted upright clutching the cover to her chest when she realized she was lying on a fold-out couch. It wasn’t the first time in her life that she’d awakened and had absolutely no idea how she’d gotten there or even where ‘there’ was. This was like her wild days in college all over again. Being totally naked under the small cover didn’t provide the much needed warm fuzzy about her situation either.
“Mommy! Dr. Very Glad is awake!”
Lena winced. Her head was pounding, and the little girl’s yelling hurt her ears.
“Jessica, I told you to come get me, not yell down the hallway.”
“Dr. Very Glad opened her eyes very wide. I thought she was turning into a dragon again.”
“Good lord,” Lena said, covering her eyes with her hand. “I thought all that was a dream.”
Topper sighed and glared at her noisy daughter. “Go find your father and Deputy Calix. Tell them that Dr. Verglas is awake and seems to be fine. I need to talk to her alone for a few minutes.”
“Are you going to zap her and make her a bunny?”
“No.”
“Good, because I don’t think she’ll be able to make snow if she’s a bunny.”
“Jessica, go now before I zap you and turn you into something,” Topper warned.
“No,” Jessica said, squealing as she ran. “I don’t want to be a bunny. I don’t want to be a bunny.”
Topper came over and eased herself down on the edge of the make-shift bed. It had accommodated its fair share of guests in the last few months. “I promise you I’ve never turned my daughter into anything… at least not yet. I do hope she outgrows her love of drama soon. She’s been tempting me lately.”
Lena stared at the woman. Being so close, she could feel Topper’s power. “I hear witches turning people into animals is a fairly normal occurrence around here. Did I really turn into a dragon?”
Topper chuckled too. “I have to answer yes to that question. What’s the last thing you remember?”
Lena rubbed her eyes. “I can’t tell you. It’s too stupid to repeat.”
“You’d be surprised at what I think is normal. Try me,” Topper ordered.
Lena lowered her hands so she could meet the witch’s direct gaze. “Right after I discovered I had wings, I decided to use them to fly up to the moon. I was going to make it pay for turning me into a dragon. Only when I tried to fly that high, I got dizzy and kept having to drop back down. I was roaring and roaring at the moon for being so far away from me.”
Topper bit her lip and tried her best not to laugh. Lena Verglas was dealing well with her animal side, that was what mattered, but the situation was still funny.
Lena huffed as she continued her story. “Then those government idiots came back and chased me all around the sky. If my fire had been working then, I’d have roasted their nosy asses. I almost roasted Calix’s mother the first time I blew flame. Luckily, the stupid idiot jumped in front of her. Figures my fire wouldn’t work on him. Men suck. Dragons do too.”
At the last part, Topper burst out laughing, then covered her mouth with her hand as she tried to stop. “Sorry. I’m so sorry. I know none of this is funny to you.”
“No, it’s fine. Go ahead and laugh. Why shouldn’t you? Someone with a doctorate turns into an enormous creature and the first thing she does is decide to hate the moon and make it pay. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? I’m sure no one has, not even here in Crazytown. That’s why I’m so disappointed in myself.”
Topper laughed until her laughter ran out. “The state you were in is called first-time shifter madness. It’s like a human getting extremely drunk. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a dragon go through it though. If there hadn’t been other dragons around, I’m not sure what I would have done to get you to stop trying to attack the moon.”
Lena laughed at the woman’s explanation and rolled her eyes. “Knowing all that stuff still doesn’t help my pride much. I feel dumb as a bag of rocks.”
Topper crossed her arms and grinned. “I hear you’re smart enough to make snow.”
Nodding, Lena adjusted her covers. “Fortunately, my brain kept all that knowledge. Guess I should be grateful for that at least.”
“Sounds to me like you’re adjusting fairly well given the enormous transition you’ve made today.”
“Adjusting to being a dragon? Is that even possible?”
Topper shrugged. “If it hadn’t worked out okay the last time it happened, Calix’s grandmother would never have been born… or his mother… or him. Then you would have come to Magic, I would have said no to your offer, and Theo would have run you off. Now you’re living a very different fate and all because some human woman before you adjusted to becoming a dragon too.”
“You sound almost as logical as your husband, but I’m not buying it today. I turned into a dragon and tried to fly to the moon. I had very different goals for myself when I came here to Magic. I still don’t know how I got from those to being naked in your sunroom.”
Topper nodded. “I understand you feel you’ve failed yourself in some way, but that doesn’t have to be true. Now that you’ve become a dragon shifter, you deserve the same consideration we give every paranormal that comes to Magic.”
“You make it sound like I joined a special club.”
“In a way, you did.” Topper tilted her head and smiled. “What if a private investor were to fund the creation of your snow dome in the desert? Would that make this a bit better? There would be a few stipulations of course—as there always is when private funding is involved.”
“Privatization of my experiment? Like what kind of stipulations?” Lena asked.
“One is that you create a functional skating rink inside the dome and allow the citizens of Magic access to it for entertainment purposes. The other is that you only hire people from Magic to help you and that you not bring in full humans except for very brief periods of time. Outside
of those requirements, you can do your research however you want.”
“Those don’t sound too bad. Can Nate be one of the people who helps me?”
Topper shrugged. “If he wants to help you—sure.”
“Can you tell me what kind of creature he is?”
Shaking her head, Topper stared at the floor. “I don’t know for sure but I’m leaning toward some kind of bear which is why he’s living with Abigail. Judging from the remains of his parents, I’m guessing someone was attempting to make polar shifters out of the whole family. Like you, Nate was once a full human. His change is being prompted through genetic manipulation. Apparently, the person working on him didn’t realize a shifter child has to grow up a bit before the body allows the change to happen.”
“Are you saying mad scientists made Nate?”
“I have other names for them. Mad scientist might be the nicest term. More genetic manipulation is happening than humans realize.”
Lena closed her eyes. “You have to know how crazy all this sounds.”
“Oh, I well know it. Sometimes I even think it myself,” Topper said in agreement. “You’ve become like Nate, Dr. Verglas. I’m not surprised you feel a lot of compassion for him.”
“Except my change was produced by sleeping with someone who can turn humans into dragons who never told me that could happen.”
Topper shrugged. “Calix has lived a long time. If that were generically true about him, Calix would have turned a lot of females into dragons. I believe it was the energy of your intimate relationship with him that sparked your change.”
“That’s a pretty serious consequence for indulging in some great sex. Does that kind of thing happen often to people in this town?”
Topper laughed as she shrugged again. “When you have a deep passion for someone, and it finds expression in a sexual relationship, there is always some sort of profound shift in a person—paranormal or not. In my case, I’m far too old to be having children, but Stark’s energy and mine blended to produce a child anyway. I’ve had to accept that it was my destiny to become a mother at sixty just as yours was to become a dragon today.”
Topper's Magical Christmas: My Crazy Alien Romance, Book 4 (Magic, New Mexico 40) Page 12
