Page 27 of So I Dared a Dragon (The Mating Game #6)

twenty-seven

. . .

Calista

“I’m surprised something so boxy and beige can move so fast,” Bibi remarked as we sped through the California desert. “Are you trying to hook Darcy up with a handsome police officer? If you keep driving this fast, we’ll probably be able to manifest that for her.”

I let up on the gas, but only a little. It wasn’t the first time my speed had reached the triple digits on this trip. “It feels like we’re not even moving if I slow down.”

“I’m surprised you rented a minivan,” Darcy said. “I see Bibi in a sleek, sparkly sports car.”

“Once we get back to Sunset Springs, I’ll take you for a spin in my vintage Firebird.” Bibi turned to smile at our passenger, and cautioned a glare at me. “As long as we’re not wanted for any moving violations.”

“Since when did you become allergic to a little speed?” I said. “And Darcy, did you see the luggage back there? There’s no way to road trip with Bibi in anything compact.”

“I wouldn’t worry about a ticket. This car is next to invisible.” Darcy laughed. “This road is perfect for crimes. We used to make this trip to Vegas all the time when we were in the mood for a wild weekend.”

Bibi lit up. “Tell us more about these wild weekends.”

“Well, now I’m in a twelve-step program to quit my addiction to dangerous men,” Darcy said with much less enthusiasm than she’d told us about her road trips.

Bibi groaned. “That sounds dreadful. Are you sure you’re ready to go cold turkey?”

Darcy didn’t answer. Our resident fairy dragmother might usually be the expert on getting people to open up, but her latest subject still had a long way to go in her healing process. We’d need to try a slightly different approach if we wanted to get any relevant information from her.

“Define dangerous.” I felt like I was stepping over a major boundary asking her. The last time I saw this woman, a nefarious man had drained her to barely a shell of herself. But time and distance might have changed her perspective.

“Rock stars, dark overlords, guys who’ve been patched into motorcycle gangs.” Darcy let out a long sigh. “Don’t get me wrong, it was so much fun while it lasted, but then I realized my life was absolute chaos twenty-four-seven, and it wasn’t even my disaster. While it’s definitely a thrill to get chosen by the bad boy, it was time to start being the star of my own show.”

Bibi turned to her. “We do have a show, if you’re looking to be a star.”

“I thought my episode was the end of the season?” I gave her some serious side eye. “And you were going to do a special about your time with the Horny Hunks.”

Darcy gasped. “You know the Hunks? I love that show. I know, it’s considered tacky to enjoy a male revue, but I look forward to it every time I’m in Vegas.”

“There’s nothing to apologize about. Everyone in this car enjoys the male form. And the Hunks are so talented.” Bibi never missed an opportunity to gush about the Horny Hunks.

I let the low-level resentment pass through my body. Bibi had gotten heavily involved with the Hunks on what was supposed to be a Vegas weekend getaway, but it had felt a lot like she’d been avoiding me. I realized now that it had all worked out perfectly. Had my episode started on its original timeline, Aarix might not have been able to get here before I’d done something irreversibly stupid.

“Yes, this is the last episode of The Mating Game ,” Bibi continued. “For now. But there can always be new iterations. Side projects. If those forums are any indication, we have a hungry audience that will never get enough of our content. Which is a very good thing.”

“I might be down for a side project.” There was no missing the note of hope in Darcy’s voice.

Bibi turned in her seat. “I’d love to hear more about your life in California. The non-dangerous version.”

The air in the car changed, and just like that, this had gone from an escape mission to a new beginning.

“Everyone encouraged me to go into law,” Darcy said. “My uncle is a big-time lawyer. We saw his face on a couple billboards we passed. I didn’t point it out because they’re a little cringe. My mom manages the office for him. I had a job waiting for the minute I got my degree, but I didn’t want it.”

“This story sounds awfully familiar,” I said.

“Doesn’t it?” Bibi agreed. “You were able to break away from those expectations, since you just decided to become a paralegal.”

“The minute I graduated from high school, I was on the first bus to Hollywood,” Darcy continued. “My drama club teacher insisted that I’d be better behind the scenes—I think that was her way of telling me I wasn’t cute enough to be in the spotlight—so I did her one better. I became a stuntwoman.”

“How badass,” Bibi said.

“It totally was, until a stunt went wrong and I broke my back. As I recovered, music was the thing that got me through. After being on sets all over the world, there was no way I could just settle in my hometown. I craved adventure. My current therapist refers to me as an excitement junkie. Which reminds me I need to reschedule my next appointment with her. Anyway, I hit the road, just wanting to experience live music, but it was never enough. That’s when I met Calista, and I’m sure you know my story from there.”

“I just love hearing a hero’s origin story,” Bibi gushed.

There was a detail she glossed over. “Did you have surgery when you broke your back?” I asked.

“Yes, they had to put rods in my back while I healed. Left me with some nasty scars. When the wings started to form, they were along those lines. It still feels like they’re splitting sometimes.”

“The doctors didn’t notice anything unusual?” No one had ever assumed I was anything other than a wolf.

“Not that they told me,” Darcy said. “But now that you mention it, it seems odd. Unless we just recently acquired these traits.”

I had a strong feeling that it was more like a very strong spell had worn off—but why? How? And why now?

“Tell us why you finally decided to settle down.” Bibi was in her glory, learning what made someone tick. “It seems like such a drastic change from what you’d wanted from your life before.”

“Because shit happens, and it kept happening to me.” Darcy laughed sadly. “I thought the universe was trying to tell me something. You know how it starts as a pebble? It took a boulder to get me to listen. Better late than dead, right? So I’m almost forty, back at home living with my parents, and a full-time student at the local community college. There’s something about it that’s comforting, though. Things here are always the same, no matter how much I changed. My fiancé—ex-fiancé—was my high school sweetheart. He married someone else, but he’s divorced now. He teaches at the junior high—”

“Saint,” Bibi said.

“Right? I don’t know how he has the patience. It all seemed like divine timing. Everything was falling into place. It was time to live a normal life. You’re not gonna be the least bit surprised to learn I sucked at it.”

A cackle escaped me. “Total shock.”

“My mom hired me to do some filing at my uncle’s law firm—I can’t stay focused. I miss half my lectures because I can’t stop daydreaming about literally anything else. And my fiancé—ex, you get the point—was completely scandalized by some of the things I wanted to do in the bedroom.”

“Most guys are excited when you want to try something kinky,” I said.

“You would think.” Darcy sighed. “I was determined to make it work. This was my life now.”

“It must have seemed like a sign when the wings appeared.” The word I really had wanted to use was divine intervention , but Darcy was hanging onto the idea of this vanilla suburban life everyone else wanted for her like it was her favorite pair of skinny jeans from high school.

“It freaked me out.” She leaned forward. “Because where did I go from there?”

Bibi tapped on her chin, a sign that she was cooking up a plan. “Tell us what a day in your perfect life would be. Not what you have now. What would it be like to live life on Darcy’s terms?”

Fairy dragmother mode: activated.

I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the look on Darcy’s face as she melted into her favorite mode of coping—daydreaming—but instead, noticed we had a giant black SUV riding our ass.

“I’d love to have a house on the beach,” Darcy said. “With a pool. And a rock star. Maybe he’s not touring anymore, but he understands the lifestyle. He’s covered in tattoos, of course. Maybe we start the day on the beach with stand-up paddleboard yoga…”

I changed lanes and slowed down, giving the SUV a chance to pass. It didn’t look like a cruiser, but they gave off undercover cop vibes. If we got pulled over, I hoped the officer was a fan of The Mating Game , because Bibi was in full dragmother mode right now and would be able to talk her way out of anything. If it were up to me, I could incinerate them with my fire breath.

I needed to learn to control that before something bad happened.

The SUV slowed and followed me into the new lane. That terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach formed as I prepared for the inevitable flashing lights.

“Maybe I could become a life coach or something,” Darcy continued, oblivious to the impending doom that was unfolding behind her. “Help people who want to bring more excitement into their lives. Do you think that’s something people would be willing to pay for?”

“If you can deliver results, the sky is the absolute limit,” Bibi said.

“Has anyone else noticed this SUV that’s been following us for way too long?” I sucked in another breath. “Sweet moon, there’s a whole caravan of them.”

Darcy gasped. “We’re being followed?”

“Or we’re leading some weird procession through the desert.” But the chances of it being harmless were practically zero.

On the bright side, I might finally meet the person who’d been harassing me for all these months, but this was so off-brand for them. Gripping the steering wheel tighter, I focused on the thin ribbon of road in front of us. Heat danced just above the surface, making my eyes play tricks on me.

“They can’t follow us all the way back to Colorado.” Bibi’s voice held a defiant growl.

“There’s no way we can drive straight through.” The plan was always to take turns driving, go as far as we could manage without stopping. A little no-tell motel on the side of the highway wouldn’t offer any safety. “Eventually we’ll have to stop for gas or a recharge.”

The minivan was a hybrid, but we’d been going fast for a few hours. It would need something soon.

“We’re close to Vegas,” Bibi offered. “I could call the Horny Hunks and we could hide out with them for the night.”

“That would be so epic.” Darcy was not grasping how much danger we were in, and the rest of her story was making a lot more sense.

“Girl, wait until our special comes out—”

Bibi didn’t have a chance to finish before the lead SUV raced passed us. I let out the panicked breath I was holding. I was more than ready to admit I’d been overreacting.

It hit the brakes hard and spun out in front of us, blocking the road. Darcy and Bibi screamed, and I barely managed to stop the minivan before we T-boned them.

My heart pounded, and the rest of my body was incapable of movement as the door of the SUV slid open and wolves bounded out.

“Fuck.” I could barely manage more than a whisper. “Those are Montana wolves.”

“What do we do?” Darcy asked.

“Can you shift?” I asked Darcy.

“Into what? I’m human!”

“You’re not human.” Bibi pulled off her wig. She was ready to show some wolf. “And these wolves aren’t pack unless they prove otherwise. Calista, you might have to do some things you never thought you’d have to. I know you were never called upon to fight, but it doesn’t mean you were born without the instinct.”

“Whoa. Hardcore,” Darcy said softly.

I wouldn’t let these wolves intimidate me, but Bibi was right—I had been sheltered, a move that felt more and more intentional with each new scale. My dragon traits had me feeling pretty ballsy, but I still wasn’t familiar with, much less skilled in, this new body.

Bibi got out of the minivan, and I followed.

“Stay here,” I instructed Darcy. It didn’t feel right, more like I was keeping her in a cage. But she was too valuable to both sides to become a liability.

Bibi had already shifted. She bared her fangs and stalked forward.

But one of the wolves—I was pretty sure it was Declan—it had been a long time since I’d seen him as wolf—had his yellow gaze fixed on me.

“Why don’t you help your bestie, Calista?” he asked. “Shift like the good little she-wolf you are.”

I let rip with a massive gust of fire, singeing his fur and making the rest of his goon wolves jump back.

But the fire only froze everything for too brief a moment, then it fueled the rage, the hatred, all the things that should’ve been said years ago that now couldn’t come out as anything but pure, feral anger.

Bibi grabbed a wolf by the scruff of his neck and flung him across the highway. His body bounced off the Zzyzx Road exit sign. She was taking them down two at a time.

Declan was still all about me.

I pushed up my sleeves, revealing my scales. I braced my arm like a shield. “How long did you know about this?”

Darcy screamed before he had a chance to answer. Chancing a glance to see what was wrong was a risk, leaving me vulnerable to the alpha wolf challenging me. She struggled to get her fully formed wings out of the minivan. Her shirt fell to the pavement in tatters. She covered her bare breasts with one arm, while the other pointed to the sky.

Aarix had come for us.