Skyborn(5)

I took his hand in mine and immediately the heat coiled in my belly,  throbbing. Yanking my hand back, I played with the texture of my jeans  to distract myself.

Logan looked tense, muscles tight and features drawn. He looked  …  like he was in pain.

"Are you okay?" I asked tentatively. Maybe me pulling my hand back so  abruptly offended him. I didn't know what dragon shifter greeting  protocol was.

Inhaling, he took a deep breath and looked more relaxed. "Fine," he grumbled. "Just usually more in control of my dragon."

I nodded, because I understood. I had zero control over mine.

"Speaking of dragons … " He pinned me with a stare. "How the hell are you one?"

I recoiled. "What? You're supposed to tell me that!"

He opened his arms as if to say he was as in the dark as I was. Great. I  groaned. This guy was supposed to have all of my answers.

"I have no idea," I told him. "One second I'm a human hiking along the  rim of the Grand Canyon, and the next I'm falling-my body rips in two  and becomes a dragon freak show." My dragon stirred at that and I got  the sense she didn't like me calling her a freak show. Were we separate?  It felt like we were. Kind of. Wow. Sounded like a multiple personality  disorder. Maybe this was all a part of a massive paranoid delusion? I  thought I was a dragon and now I was having delusions that I met another  hot male dragon. Yikes, I needed to be committed for sure.

Logan stood quickly and began pacing. "Hold on. You were a human for  twenty-one years and only recently transformed for the first time?" His  voice was coated in shock.

I threw my arms up. "Either that or I'm having paranoid delusions!"

He stopped pacing and gave me a look filled with pity. "You're not  crazy. I saw your dragon with my own two eyes  …  but it's not possible.  When dragons are born, they transform right after hatching. They flit  between human and dragon a dozen times a day in their first year as a  youngling. The hunters would have gotten to you then."

At some point I must have grabbed my head, because I was massaging my temples.

"I was born in a hospital, as a baby. A human baby. I have pictures and  all that. Like I told you, I just recently turned, or whatever you call  it."

He was pacing madly around the kitchen, chewing a fingernail and wafting  his yummy scent at me as he passed. "Who's your mother?" he asked  suddenly.

A pang of sadness went through me at the random question. "She's  …  dead. Died of breast cancer when I was sixteen."

He stopped pacing and gave me a look that you would find at the pound  right before an animal was euthanized. "I'm sorry to hear that. She was  …   your real mother?"

I snapped my head back, offended. "Yes! Red hair and all!" I tossed a lock of my crimson hair up in the air.

He put up his hands in defense. "Right. Sorry. And your dad?"

I chewed my bottom lip. This guy was getting awfully personal when he  had yet to answer any of my questions, but I could see where he was  going with this. "He died before I was born. But my mom never mentioned  he was a dragon," I added sarcastically.

Logan chewed on another nail. I wasn't sure he would have any left by the time this conversation was over.

"Even if your father was a dragon, it wouldn't explain why you never  transformed for over twenty years. And it sure as hell wouldn't be  possible without a female dragon to mate with."

I shrugged and stood as well. I didn't like being looked down on. How  was I expected to answer all of these questions? I knew nothing about  this new and terrifying world.                       
       
           



       

"Now you answer some questions for me," I ordered.

He seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts had him captivated, and looked at me with those deep emerald eyes.

"Okay. What do you want to know?" His body turned towards me and I tried  not to remember what he looked like with his shirt off. I don't care  what he smelled, my dragon was still in heat, because these thoughts  weren't mine.

"Who are the hunters and why do they want to kill me?" I folded my arms and my red mane fell in a curtain around my face.

Logan seemed to be considering what to tell me. His eyes had narrowed and he wasn't speaking, he was just  …  looking at me.

"And don't lie!" I jabbed a finger in his direction and was rewarded with a devastatingly handsome smile.

"I wasn't going to lie. I just want to bring you into this slowly. If  you think you're having paranoid delusions now, you won't want to sleep  at night if I tell you everything in one sitting."

Yikes. I recoiled and sat back down. "Okay  …  just tell me what they want with me."

He nodded. "Hunters work for the earthbound, the druids. The druids want  dragons dead because we harness magic for humanity-magic the druids  need to be powerful."

"Huh?" My head was reeling. What the hell was a druid? "Humans don't  need magic. That doesn't even make sense." There was a throbbing at the  base of my skull; I ran a hand over the area, trying to work a knot out  of my neck.

Logan stepped closer, eating up the distance between us, so close now  that I could reach out and touch him. "Listen to me, Sloane, because  this is the greatest lesson I could ever teach you." His voice was  gruff, and the way his eyes pierced into me had me sitting erect,  hanging on his every word.

"The humans need our magic to survive. Without it they get sick. Cancer,  fibromyalgia, arthritis, plagues, it's all from the loss of dragon  magic."

"What the … ? Fibro what?" I was slack-jawed. This guy was officially  loony. "You're telling me I'm a dragon but my mom still died of cancer?  Shouldn't my magic have saved her?"

Logan clenched his jaw in anger as he sensed my doubt. "I know it's hard  to believe, but yes, the humans need dragon magic to survive. It's our  duty to keep them alive and healthy. We are their protectors. We're  bound to them. I have been holding magic for humanity, alone, for so  long. Well, I was  …  now I have you."

Those four words, Now I have you, made my dragon purr, and without  warning I stepped up closer to him, the heat rising in my belly, my  dragon coming forward. I thought it would freak him out but he didn't  move. His eyes went to slits; breathing in and out deeply, he was nearly  panting.

I ached to touch him, to see how those rock-hard muscles would feel in  my hands. What the hell was I doing? I barely knew this guy  …  and yet my  eyes fell to his lips. What would it be like to kiss him? The throbbing  heat in my belly reached critical mass and I knew there was only one  thing that would make it ease. Logan was just standing there frozen,  waiting for me to do something.

I cleared my throat, trying to stay on topic. If I could just keep  talking I would be okay. "Alright, if our brand of magic is so healing  and powerful, then why was I injured for so long?" I indicated my  shoulder.

He looked at the spot where my shoulder had been hurt and reached out to  touch it, but thought better of it, pulling his hand back.

"I don't know." He offered a slight grin. "You're  …  broken."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks."

He chuckled and I nearly reached out to touch his beard, to see how the  scruff would feel under my nails. Damn this guy and his intoxicating  smile.

"I'm kidding," he said. "Sort of. Your dragon magic is different. It  took two blood infusions from me to get your shoulder to heal while you  were sleeping. It's like  …  your magic hasn't awoken yet or something."

Neither of us moved. We were still incredibly close to each other to be  having a normal social conversation, so I stepped back a foot and sat  down on the stool. It took a lot of restraint, and my dragon nearly  roared at me for doing it.

He looked at me as if trying to figure me out. "A redheaded female  skyborn. I'll be damned. Marcus would roll over in his grave."

I fingered my long hair. "Who's Marcus?"

His voice grew solemn. "Marcus was my mentor. Had a thing for redheads.  He and I were the last skyborn alive until … " His face sagged and I knew.

I knew a thing or two about death. People tried to relate and tell their  own stories surrounding their experience with death, but nothing could  soothe that ache. Nothing came close to your own personal story. "I'm  sorry," was all I offered, and he nodded.                       
       
           



       

I ticked off all of the supernatural freaks on my fingers, "Okay, so we have skyborn, AKA Dragons. Earthborn … "