Page 14

Avery

“Dad!”

Declan charged out from under the strange dragon’s – it had to be Jacy – legs, galloping toward me. He cannoned into me, laughing, smoke trickling from his nostrils, then reared up against my leg.

“Jacy saved me, Dad,” he exclaimed, still excited. “A man tried to kill us, ran us off the road. Jacy got him when she turned into a dragon. Isn’t she great, Dad? She’s one of us –”

I looked up from Declan’s happy laughter to Jacy. “Thank you for protecting my son.”

The relief I’d felt upon finding them both alive and unharmed still steeped within me. In a near panic, I’d flown from the city, certain they’d both been killed. Instead, I discovered police cruisers, fire trucks, ambulances, and a crowd of onlookers as the flames of some burned vehicle died in the dark. When I saw my own car, wrecked beyond belief, I knew they were dead.

“How’d you find us, Dad?”

Jacy ambled toward me, her green eyes wide with horror, fear. “Avery.”

I craved to smile, to laugh with joy, to entwine my neck with hers, to fly with her, wing to wing. The expression in her eyes, the tension in her neck and shoulders warned me to be careful. She hadn’t yet accepted what she was – a dragon shifter. If I fumbled, I might scare her into never shifting again.

“Jacy,” I said, keeping my tone soft. “Can you tell me what happened?”

She sat, clearly nervous, her tail coiled around her feet. “I’m not sure what to say. The dude ran us off the road, he had a gun. I – I had to protect Declan. The next thing, I’m big and I – you know. I’m sure you saw the truck.”

“I did. Let me see if I can explain a few things.” I sat down, also curling my tail around my feet. Declan happily rolled in the tall dry grass, his wings flapping against the ground. “You’re in danger. Your dragon instincts took over. The dragon within you, the dragon you’ve been since your conception, rose to protect you. She shifted from your human form to this one.”

She dipped her muzzle in agreement. “That makes sense.”

“I won’t make light of your predicament,” I went on. “I know, I can obviously see, that your dragon side scares you.”

“That’s one way of seeing it.”

“Don’t.” I smiled. “Your dragon half is still you. You haven’t left your humanity behind.”

“Haven’t I?” Jacy’s voice shook. “I don’t know how to get back. I can’t get back, the way it was, I was –” She gulped, her body shaking.

“Calm down, Jacy,” I said softly. “You just haven’t learned how to shift yet. Declan, why don’t you show her.”

“Okay.”

Declan rolled onto his feet, then shifted back into his little boy. “See, Jacy? It’s easy.”

Jacy blinked, but her trembling hadn’t ceased. “I still don’t – I don’t see how.”

“Just think of your human half,” I said, my tone soothing. “Imagine your human body as it was before you changed. Then, simply will it to happen.”

“Will? Will it how?”

“Yeah. Think of your human body, your beautiful, lovely body, and make it happen.”

“You can do it, Jacy,” Declan cried.

She closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed. An instant later, she stood on her human two legs, her hair flowing around her shoulders. I noticed she wore one of my jackets.

“Yay,” Declan shouted and ran to her. “See? You can do it.”

Laughing shakily, Jacy bent to hug him. “I did, huh. I did it.”

“Now think of your dragon self,” I said. “Think of her, then will yourself into that form.”

With a bit more confidence, Jacy shut her eyes again, concentrating. Instantly, her huge dragon body dwarfed Declan, who, in his excitement, hugged her leg.

“I did it,” she yelled, all but crowing in triumph. “I did it.”

I laughed, too. “With practice, you can shift with simply a thought. I’ve been teaching Declan since he was old enough to understand. Dragon parents are supposed to teach their children when they’re young. Teach them that what we are must be kept from humans.”

“Declan said something like that,” Jacy replied, bending her neck to touch Declan’s head with her muzzle. “But if I had at least one dragon parent, why wasn’t I taught this? Why didn’t my parents tell me?”

“We may never know, honey,” I replied. “I’m sorry you had to learn in such a desperate fashion.”

I paced close to her and settled my neck over hers. “But I’m also so very glad. If you weren’t a dragon, you and Declan would be dead right now.”

Jacy lifted her muzzle to rub against mine. “I’m glad I’m not alone.”

“You’ll never be alone,” Declan declared.

“Are you afraid to fly?”

“Afraid to fly? Why –” Jacy suddenly gulped and glanced at her folded wings. “Oh. Um. I don’t know.”

“We should get home,” I said quietly. “Now, I can carry both you and Declan. Or you can have a crash course on draconic aviation right now.”

Jacy pondered her options for a time, then said, “I’ll fly. Just tell me how.”

“Spread your wings.”

Jacy obeyed me.

I set Declan on my shoulders. “Hang tight, little man.”

I felt his small hands clutch my neck ridge in a death grip. He’d flown with me before, yet hadn’t quite gotten over his nervousness. “Ready?”

“Yeah, Dad.”

To Jacy, I said, “Crouch low. Gather your haunches under you. Leap into the air and let your dragon instincts take over.”

I crouched to show her how, then jumped for the cloudy sky above. The wind had little effect on my flight as I circled low over the clearing. A swift glance toward the county highway showed all the emergency vehicles and those of the looky loos gone. “Now, Jacy.”

She leaped as I had, her wings spread – then she abruptly fell face first into the grass. “Dammit.”

“Try again. Once you feel the wind under your wings, beat them up and down. They’ll know what to do.”

Crouching, Jacy jumped again, her wings spread, and this time caught the wind beneath them. And headed straight into the copse of trees. I held my breath, fearing she’d crash and lose all potential confidence in flying. Jacy yelled out, then dipped her right wing and swung right. Beating hard, she flew up and over the forest below.

Both Declan and I screamed our joy.

As graceful as a hawk, Jacy banked toward us, her wings floating up and down, her jaws wide in the sheer joy of flying. She’d caught the bug. The dragon bug. The addiction to flying that ran through all dragons’ veins. Never again would she be content with being grounded.

I circled higher and higher, laughing, as Jacy soared upward, her instincts to let the warm thermals assist her guiding her flight. Banking around, she flew past us, dancing the dragon dance of wind and sky and flight. I couldn’t join her in that dance, yet vowed I would at the first opportunity.

“Come on, love,” I called to her. “Let’s go home.”

***

“Thanks for letting me know what happened to my car.”

The uniformed cop nodded. We had beaten him to the house by mere minutes, as he’d been sent to inquire why my car was involved in a wreck on the state highway. Naturally, I expressed my shock that my car had been stolen and I never knew it. And involved in a car chase resulting in a fire.

“Call your insurance company,” he said. “It’s a total loss, I’m sure.”

“Sounds like it. But you didn’t find who’d taken it?”

“No, sir. The culprits were gone before anyone arrived.”

“Hope you catch them.”

He offered a small salute, then stepped off my porch. I shut the door, locked it, and shared a small smile with Jacy. “Hook, line, and sinker.”

“It’s a good thing we were here and apparently had been here all night,” she replied, her cheeks flushed with excitement. “You’d make an awful good crook.”

Hours passed before Declan climbed down from his high in order to sleep. Midnight had come and gone by the time I tucked him into his bed, his kittens, purring, curled up next to him. I kissed his brow before he rolled onto his side and tucked the nearest kitten to the curve of his stomach. After shutting off his light, I left his door open and returned downstairs.

Sipping wine, Jacy, too, came down from her own high since we’d returned to the house. Her cheeks no longer flushed, she’d tucked her legs under her as she sat on the couch, sipping thoughtfully as she stared into the hearth fire I’d built. Coming up behind her, I kissed her throat, and listened as she all but purred like the damn kittens.

“I feel I understand you better,” she murmured as I sat beside her and picked up my own glass.

I, too, gazed into the flickering flames, the room lit by the fire and a single small lamp. Romantic indeed, yet I had other thoughts than romance on my mind just then.

“We have a huge responsibility, Jacy,” I said softly. “We can’t let humans know what we are. Some do, yes. It can’t be helped. We’ve shared this earth with humans for millennia. We protect them, when we can. We don’t want to rule them, either. We could. But it’s against our laws.”

She turned toward me. “You once said you were running, too. What are you running from?”

“My past.”

Jacy waited patiently for me to continue. I did, but only after a large gulp from my glass.

“Elsa, Declan’s mom, wasn’t a dragon,” I said slowly. “She found out the hard way.”

“How?”

I gulped again, draining my wine. “An intruder busted in. He was armed, high on some drug or other. Maybe PCP. Anyway, he attacked us. He’d have killed us all if I hadn’t gone dragon.”

“You killed him?”

“To save my wife and son, yes. In my human form, I tackled him, shoved him out the door.” I chuckled dryly. “If I hadn’t, I’d have brought the roof down. Yeah. I shifted and burned him alive. Now the dragon council wants to put me on trial. Maybe banish me.”

“For defending your family?”

I adored Jacy in her outrage. “Yeah. And for letting Elsa see me as I am. We aren’t encouraged to seek human mates. It complicates things. Elsa left us, too scared to have dragons in the family. I took Declan and ran. Came here. I’m not really Avery Armstrong, you know.”

“So what’s your name?”

I grimaced. “Avery Smith.”

Jacy tilted her head back and laughed. “Keep Armstrong. It suits you so much better.”

“Now the council knows where I am.” I sighed heavily and took the wine bottle from the table. “I vowed to never run again. You came into my life in time to care for Declan.”

Jacy scowled. “What do you mean?”

“If I’m found guilty, I’m banished for life. I can’t take him, or you, with me into exile. It’s an inhospitable island off the coast of Iceland.”

Growling low in her in her throat, Jacy snapped. “No way. That’s self-defense. They can’t condemn you for that.”

“In defending my family,” I went on with a shrug, “I showed a human who I really am. Elsa.”

“That’s so bullshit,” Jacy snapped. “If they’re that worried, then why don’t they outlaw marrying a human?”

“They can’t.” I smiled faintly. “We live among humans. It’s only natural we mate with them.”

“I won’t let them take you,” she said fiercely. “They won’t banish you. I’ll make damn sure of that.”

Lifting her hand, I kissed her knuckles. “My savage warrior,” I murmured. “This is why I can fall headlong in love with you.”

Her fury calmed within moments. “Maybe my being a dragon is why I’m falling in love with you.”

Setting her glass on the table, Jacy spread her legs and sat on my lap facing me. Her hands lightly clasping my neck, she gazed solemnly into my eyes. “Make love to me.”

“Here? On the couch?”

“I don’t care.”

I glanced at Max, sound asleep in front of the fire. With Declan zonked out upstairs, I saw no reason to not indulge Jacy in a bit of hanky panky on the couch. Reaching behind me, I shut the light off. Only the dancing flames illuminated us as we kissed, our tongues tangled, our dragon’s heat growing between us.

I pushed her back onto the sofa and stripped her jeans from her. Jacy’s pussy already dripped her arousal as I plunged two fingers into her. She moaned, arching her back, as I finger fucked her while my cock yearned for her. Too eager, too hepped up on my discovery, their close brush with death, I opened my fly and pounced on her delectable body.