Page 19 of New Nebraska Home (New Nebraska)

Malik

FAMILY IS CLOSE

O nce I was sure the little one was safe with Brock and the handsy Fae, I decided to go on patrol around the area. Partly because I wanted to get away from the Fae woman—I didn’t like the way her eyes traveled over my body like I was a meal. If Brock wanted to deal with being petted by her that was his problem—but mostly because I could feel myself getting stronger. My dragon pushed against my ribs, wanting to be let out to play and explore.

Doing a few laps in the forest looking for prey was the perfect excuse. The second I was beyond the tree line, safe from prying eyes, I stripped and shifted into my dragon form.

I was bigger than before, now closer to the size of a car. My shoulders ached because my wings were too big to be unfurled. I wondered if they were now strong enough to let me actually fly instead of just a glide from tree to tree.

I wondered if Liz would like to ride me. Suppose I could take her on my back and soar between the clouds. Would she let me? Would she be scared or excited?

It didn’t matter, not now. I would want to take her flying, not just gliding and hoping for a smooth landing. A dragon should be her chariot in the clouds, not a three-minute roller coaster.

The trees in this area were too closely packed for me to really stretch out, so I moved deeper into the woods.

My senses seemed sharper, especially my sense of smell. It had never been the sense that I leaned on. I could often hear or sense someone close to me long before I could smell them. But now I felt like I could smell the differences in the surrounding trees, the scents of their wood and leaves varying slightly. Some sweeter, some more earthy. I could even smell the fat little squirrel’s fur as he darted above me and the nuttiness of the acorn he had in his chubby cheeks.

Moving through the trees at a gallop and then a dead run, Iwas amazed at how easy it was to move my new large body gracefully and how I instinctively used my massive tail to counterbalance my new weight. Finally, I found a clearing with enough room. I jumped on a boulder and shot my body up into the air, spreading my wings, and flew! Really flew!

I beat my wings and lifted my body into the air, enjoying the slightly cooler air. It was liberating, even more freeing than riding miles of open road on my bike.

I could take Liz flying and help her beat the midday heat by chasing the clouds. Maybe watch the sunset from the top of the world. Then I would take her down to a private place in the trees where no one could find us. I would spoil her with the most lavish picnic she had ever seen, then ravish her body for hours.

Would she want that? Would she want me?

After a few seconds, I headed back down to the trees, not wanting to be spotted.

I could only imagine what kind of assholes would try to hunt me down if they saw me. For a moment, I wished I could be smaller again, and I really needed to practice changing my size like I figured out I could do now. Sneaking around had its benefits, not to mention being able to rest on Liz’s shoulder.

Before I landed back on the rock, my body started tingling, and I shrank back down to my normal cat-like size.

This was going to be awesome!

I willed myself a little bigger again and started running and jumping through the trees, leaping branch to branch, then deciding to fly between them and zooming throughout the forest.

My body felt light, and I couldn’t help the grin that pulled at my scaled snout and no doubt showed off my fangs.

When I landed, I let out a roar of victory. It just felt good. The torrent of white-hot flames that shot from my mouth scared the hell out of me. The most I could ever muster was a tiny spit of fire. Now I was a pyro’s wet dream. The fire felt cool, rising from my gut until it passed through my teeth. Then I felt the brush of its heat against my face as I accidentally caught a small tree on fire.

Fuck.

This was bad. I shifted back to my human form and tried to figure out what to do. My clothes were lying on a low-hanging branch not too far away. I grabbed them, trying to get dressed as I figured out what excuse I would give Liz for destroying the forest. I felt awful.

Somehow I doubted ‘I’m sorry I got carried away, but I was daydreaming about taking you flying,’ was going to cut it.

“Hubba, Hubba,” Brock said, walking into the forest just as I yanked up my boxer briefs. I would have been mad or offended, but he wasn’t looking me up and down. In fact, he looked disinterested entirely and was just giving me shit. I could live with that.

“I need your help.”

“Sure.”

“But aren’t you supposed to be monitoring the kid with the Fae chick?”

“No, she got a little too close, and I think Cal was about to kill her. So, I left him to watch over Leif’s lessons. I was sent to check the area with you. I had no idea I would be walking in on a show.”

“I just shifted back, but hurry—”

“Is that smoke I smell?”

“I had a slip up…”I took him to the tree that was now completely engulfed in flames. A few leaves floated towards other trees, glowing with bright red embers.

“Stand back,” Brock said, and he raised his hands to the sky, his eyes closed and a bead of sweat running over his brow. The air around me wasn’t as stifling, and it took me a moment to realize he was pulling the water out of it.

A cloud formed above the tree, and it started to rain.

“Holy shit,” I said, not bothering to hide the awe in my voice. It took a few moments, but the cloud continued growing and darkening until the rain extinguished all the flames.

“Fuck, that was harder than it looked.” Brock wiped the sweat from his brow.

“You okay, man?” I asked, not sure how to help him.

“Yeah, I need just to walk it off. Join me?”

“I did kind of want to talk to you for a minute, anyway.”

“Let’s talk and walk,” he said.

I nodded and started heading deeper into the forest.

We didn’t talk for the first several minutes. I used the time to extend my senses to see how far I could hear, how far I could see, and what I could feel. I thought it might have just been my dragon senses that had grown, but the forest was alive around me. This was like nothing I had ever experienced. I’d always been able to sense other living things, as most supernaturals could. But now I felt like I could feel the difference between all the insects and plants around me, which was absolutely incredible.

“So, weird question,” Brock said, making me jump. “But, like, have you gotten stronger since being here?”

“Yes, I think my clutch must be close,” I answered.

“Clutch?”

“Family, coven, pack, whatever you want to call it. I read some myths that said dragons get stronger when they’re around their family. I’ve never known my family, but I assume they would have moved to New Nebraska like everyone else.”

“Why don’t you know your family?”

“Because I don’t.” I knew Brock wanted an explanation, and I was reasonably confident he wouldn’t use it against me if I gave him one. That didn’t mean I enjoyed talking about my past with people.

It was never comfortable explaining to someone that you were stolen as a baby into supernatural trafficking because of your rarity. There were so many myths about what dragon scales, dragon bones, dragon fire, and dragon blood could do. As far as I’d been able to tell, it was all bullshit, but that had never stopped people from trying.

The only good thing about those myths was that they all claimed the dragon had to be an adult. Most people assumed it would be easier to raise a dragon from infancy, break it, and make sure it never knew its strength or abilities—than it would be to actually try to capture it.

So, I was neglected and stored in cages with other rarities until I became of use. I was sold from freak show to collector to hunter over and over until I was twelve. I think I was around twelve, but I was stolen from a poacher who wanted to use my scales as armor and my bones as some type of ED medication, along with two phoenixes. Twin boys, Armand and Anuk, were around my age. They were rare like me. Their bodies valuable like mine, and they were scared like me. They hadn’t been captured at birth. They knew what freedom was like.

The man who took us was a true monster. He wanted to study us, hurt us, and see what made us what we were.

When the phoenixes escaped, they took me with them.

They taught me how to survive, how to fend for myself, and how to fight. I was with them for a time, and it was as close to having a family as I had ever come.

Brock seemed okay, but I didn’t want to share this with him or anyone else—not yet.

“So, you are saying just being close to your own kind is supposed to make you stronger?” Brock sounded confused as he looked up into the trees.

“Supposedly.”

“Interesting. Does it have to be a genetic family?” he asked.

“As opposed to what?” Where was he going with this?

“A found one.” He kept walking, the air around me still feeling comfortably dry. Brock must have still been sucking some of the water out of the air around him. Maybe that was how he recharged his magic? Either way, it was better than air conditioning.

“I don’t know what that means,” I admitted.

He nodded, and we were silent for a bit longer.

“Can I ask you another personal question?” This time, Brock stopped and turned to face me.

I gave him a curt nod. I didn’t know why, but I trusted him. Living rough as long as I did, you learned to trust your instincts, even when you didn’t understand them.

“How do you feel about Liz?”

I’m unsure why, but that wasn’t the question I expected.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because I want her, and so does Cal. We like the idea of sharing her. The only thing we don’t know is if we were to make a move, would you stop us, help us, or just murder us in our sleep?”

I laughed out loud at the absurdity and frankness of his question.

“You’re forgetting something. What does Liz want?”

“See, here’s the thing. We think she wants all of us. Cal and I are prepared to give that to her. But we need to know where you stand.”

“I stand with whatever she wants.” I shrugged as if it was the most straightforward answer ever, and I didn’t just imply that I would be the fourth in some kind of kinky arrangement.

Brock opened his mouth to say something else when Liz’s scream cut through the air.