Chapter 16
Liza
Toby slid out of the booth and stepped close to Abby. She backed up a few steps, so he moved forward. I couldn’t see his face, but they were close enough I heard him clearly. “Do not threaten Liza. Ever.”
Abby’s face I could see clearly, and she looked terrified.
She continued backing up, in the direction of the door, but Toby stopped advancing.
He put one hand on my shoulder and waited until Abby ran out.
When the door closed behind her, Toby blew air out of his nose sharply, angrily, and then sat across from me.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have gotten so mad. ”
But I couldn’t form a response. His eyes…
I blinked and rubbed my own eyes, then closed them hard and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath.
When I looked again, nothing had changed.
Toby’s eyes were… wrong. They were the same size as before, but his color had changed.
Most of his eye was taken up with orange, and his pupil was no longer circular.
It was long and skinny, and extended the entire diameter of his eye, top to bottom.
“What?” He furrowed his brow over those crazy eyes and leaned closer.
Pressing my back against the booth, totally freaked out, I pointed. “Your eyes,” I whispered.
Toby’s eyes slammed shut, then he sighed and sucked in a deep breath as he clenched his fists on the table. After a few seconds, he unclenched them and seemed to relax a bit. When he opened them again, they were normal.
“What the fuck,” I hissed. My heart raced, thumping against the inside of my chest like it was going to break free. I wasn’t scared, exactly, but freaked right the hell out. “You tell me what’s going on right now, and you better not even think about lying to me.”
He stared at me with wide eyes—wide and normal eyes— as I tried not to freak out. Something deep inside me told me this was big. Huge, even. I felt it in my bones.
“Okay,” Toby said. “There is something. It’s big. Let’s eat, and we’ll go to where I can show you.”
I looked around to make sure nobody was nearby in the busy diner. Its crowded patrons helped because the din covered up individual conversations pretty well. “Show me? Why don’t you just tell me?”
I sat back and crossed my arms, my food forgotten in front of me.
He gaped, his mouth moving up and down. “Are you going to eat that?”
Shaking my head, I arched my eyebrow and pursed my lips, waiting for an answer.
“Okay, I promise, I’ll tell you everything, but not in public.” He slid out of the booth. “I’ll pay the check and get to-go boxes.”
I supposed that was reasonable. Obviously, the ability to shift the appearance of his eyes was a major thing, and maybe he didn’t want people to know he was some sort of medical weirdo. I quietly wondered if he’d been born with a tail, too, or something else odd.
He walked away and I couldn’t help but stare at his ass and wonder if his parents had cut his tail off when he was born. We’d had sex twice, but I didn’t recall exactly looking at the skin around his ass. There could’ve been a scar there.
We didn’t speak when he returned with the boxes. Each of us packed our untouched food and he threw a twenty down on the table.
Nice tip, but I was too freaked out to appreciate that he was a good tipper.
He opened the passenger door of his car for me with a worried look on his face.
As soon as he got in the car, I spoke first. “I’m not angry at you,” I said.
“Except that you’ve obviously kept something from me.
If you’ve got a medical condition or something, Toby…
Think! I’m a nurse. Of all people, I would understand.
” He stared at me with his mouth slightly open and his eyebrows raised as I tried to reassure him that he didn’t have to feel self-conscious. “I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“Can I ask you to be patient? I want to show you how it works, but it is really very hard to explain. It’s easier to show you.”
Now this was just weird. Maybe he could do it on command, not just when he was upset. “Okay,” I said. It had to be hard for him to admit something like this. He’d probably been teased about it as a child. “I’ll wait.”
Oh, what if that was why he’d had to move away? If he’d lived in his previous town all his life, the people there might have carried on their prejudices from childhood. Here, he’d get a clean start and as long as he kept his eyes from changing, nobody would know.
As we drove, I continued reassuring him. “I’ll help you. We’ll carry sunglasses or hats. Anything to make sure you don’t feel badly about your body. It isn’t a disability, not really, whatever it is. It’s a uniqueness.”
Toby shot me an amused glance, then turned up the road toward the coast, through the forest. “Just stop speculating until we get there.”
Not far up the road, he pulled off onto a tiny lane that ended just inside the tree line. A big clearing spread out in front of us, really beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.
“Come on.” Toby jumped out and ran around the car, catching my door as I opened it.
“Toby, this seems so unnecessary,” I said. “Just tell me what you have. I’ve probably heard of it in my studies.”
He took my hand and pulled me to the edge of the clearing. “Okay, now I have a lot to say, then I’ll show you, and I’m going to ask you to hold your questions until I show you, okay?”
I sighed and nodded. I couldn’t understand why he was being so mysterious. “I’m a—”
He cut me off by holding up one hand. “Medical professional, I know. You’re the best medical professional. But be quiet.”
Snapping my mouth shut, I waited for this big declaration so I could show him how it didn’t matter to me and how I’d still want to date him.
“Okay. So, the talking part. What I have…” He blinked a few times. “What I am, you could say it’s hereditary. And part of the reason I moved here, the main reason, really, is because there are a lot of people here like me.”
How was that possible? Surely the hospital would know if a big group of people with the same medical condition all lived nearby. There’d be specialists, support groups, the whole nine yards, and I’d been all over that hospital for my clinicals. I hadn’t heard anything like that.
“Anthony, Jace…” He sucked in a deep breath. “Porter, Wayne, and many, many others.”
I opened my mouth to ask why Bee would keep something big like that from me, but he held up his hand. “Our original plan was to have Bianca, Skye, Kaylee, and Briana here when I told you. They’ve been through the shock of finding out this big secret, too, and could help you through it.”
I sucked in a deep breath and spoke before he could stop me. “Okay, if they handled it, I’m sure I will.” Probably easier than they did.
He chuckled. “Well, on to the showing you part. You have to remember something. No matter what, no matter how surprised or frightened you may be, I will not hurt you.” He stepped closer and took my hands. “Do you believe me?”
Looking deep in his eyes, his regular eyes, I saw nothing but trust and safety there. “I believe you,” I said. “You’d never hurt me.”
“Okay.” He stepped back into the center of the clearing.
“There are things in this world that don’t have a medical explanation.
Maybe when science advances even further, we’ll know more, but for now we keep away from science as much as possible.
” He backed up a few more steps. “Monsters exist in this world, Liza. But just because we look like beasts doesn’t mean we’re evil or bad.
We’re not even out of control, not really. ”
Monsters. A metaphor for something?
A crackle split through the air, dancing across my skin, and right in front of me, Toby transformed. It didn’t look painful or grotesque. It was more… magical.
Holy shit. Seconds later, a gigantic… lizard thing stood in front of me.
Sounds behind me barely registered until Bee ran around me and blocked my view of the massive dragon.
Was this a medical condition? Sort of like being born with a tail, but a thousand times more complicated.
Bianca was shouting something at me, but I couldn’t process it. I focused on her lips. Breathe.
Oh, I hadn’t been breathing. Odd, I’d never been one to do that.
Nothing shocked me. I sucked in a deep breath.
“I don’t think they can cut that off,” I said weakly as black spots crowded my vision and my chest squeezed.
I was going to faint, but I couldn’t stop it from coming.
Darkness filled my vision and out I went.
Voices drifted through, waking me up. Where was I? Had I fallen asleep at the hospital or something? I opened my eyes and blinked, the dream about Toby turning into a dragon still heavy on my groggy mind.
A woman I’d never seen before was right in my face. “She’s fine. It was just a shock.” She stood and I realized I was on the forest floor with giant trees above me. “What did you expect? She saw a great big dragon. I don’t know how everyone doesn’t faint when they find out.”
The dream sharpened in my mind instead of fading away like dreams normally did and I knew it was no damn dream.
Oh, geez.
I sat up and looked around. Toby was beside me, sitting on his knees, sort of hovering like he was afraid I’d break. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Nodding, I turned to see who else was here.
Wayne and Bee. I remembered Bee showing up after Toby had shifted into… “A dragon?” I asked.
Toby nodded slowly, looking worried out of his mind.
“Well, now I know why you wouldn’t tell me at the diner.”
I rolled my head, feeling for any injuries, but I didn’t seem to be hurt.
“I caught you,” Wayne said. “Toby didn’t shift back in time to do it, or he would’ve.”
Toby snorted. “Damn right.”
A million questions raced through my mind, but none of them would come out.
“Take your time,” Toby said. “It’s a lot to process.”
The strange woman huffed. “You don’t need me. I’m going back to my show.”
Then, she disappeared.
As in, into thin air.
Poof.
Gone.
“Shit,” Toby muttered as my adrenaline spiked again. “I promise, everything will make sense soon. We’re going to go to Wayne’s place, and Bee will get you a glass of water, and you’ll be perfectly safe there with your friend.”
I nodded. I didn’t feel in danger at all. More like I’d walked right into a fantasy novel or something.
Toby stood, then reached out a hand to haul me to my feet. I let him and was just a little surprised when his hand felt normal, just like it had the last time I’d held it, earlier today.
“Do you want to ride with me or Bianca?” he asked.
I hadn’t even considered riding with Bee and Wayne. “Uh, you,” I said in a soft voice. I’d meant what I said before it all happened. I wasn’t scared of him.
As soon as he got me settled in the car and backed out of the small road, I told him. “I’m shocked, but I’m not scared,” I said as we followed Wayne’s truck deeper into the woods.
Toby shot me an appreciative glance as we turned onto another small, gravel road, half grown over with the forest trying to reclaim its space.
Five minutes later, we pulled up in front of a modern log cabin. “This is gorgeous,” I breathed.
“I’m glad you think so,” Toby said. “Because I want to buy something similar soon, and I think there might be one coming open soon. And if we continue on the track we’re on, perhaps one day you might live there with me.”
I laughed uneasily. I trusted him not to hurt me, but I’d just seen him shift into a dragon. “Maybe we wait until I get the whole story about this whole… thing.”
As soon as we sat down in Wayne and Bee’s living room, Toby started talking. “Okay, so yes, I’m a dragon. So is Wayne, so are Jace, Anthony, and Porter. And my parents.”
Blinking, I accepted a glass of water from Bee and sipped it to give myself a second to think. “Dragons.”
“Yes. Shifters. It’s a hereditary thing. And up until recently, we all thought that dragons couldn’t successfully mate with humans, but we’ve found out that it’s not only possible, it’s so far had a wonderful outcome.”
Bee grinned. “At least for us here in Bluewater, it has.”
“We’re a clan. You know how people always say there’s a cult in Bluewater?”
I nodded. “I never put much stock in that,” I said. “People talk in small towns.”
“In a way, they’re right,” Wayne said. “We’re not a cult though. We’re a clan.”
“I still don’t like that word,” Bee muttered.
Wayne squeezed her hand and smiled encouragingly at me. “We’re not wild or anything. More like a big family.”
Toby nodded. “I don’t technically belong to this clan. I haven’t left my home clan in California. But they’ve adopted me as a bit of a foster family.”
“There’s another big thing,” Bee said, poking Toby on the shoulder. “Go ahead and get it all out.”
Toby grimaced. “I was going to save this part for a more private moment.”
Bee snorted. “You can be private later. Spit it out.”
“Dragons have fated mates,” Toby said softly. “Something about fate or magic, I don’t know, figures out that there’s a perfect person out there for us. And we don’t always find that person, or maybe not everyone has that perfect mate, that fated companion, but they exist.”
I expected him to follow it up with the fact that I was his, but he didn’t. Damn. Maybe he was telling me he still wanted to date me, but I might have to be prepared that he could meet his eventually.
And then it hit me—this was the fairy tale he’d waited for. His perfect mate. That was why he’d never seriously dated before.
“Well, it’s a lot to process.” I sipped the water again and watched my best friend smile sympathetically at me.
“You’re damn right it is,” she said. “A whole lot.”
“My fear is that you’ll look at me differently.” Toby looked down at our joined hands.
I studied his face, the sharp jaw, high cheekbones, straight, perfect nose and thought about how sweet he’d been. How he’d supported me, taken me on dates where I had a wonderful time.
We laughed together. Spending time with Toby was becoming a big part of my life.
And the sex was phenomenal.
“Are you going to stop being sweet and charming now that I know you turn into a giant lizard monster?” I asked.
Toby burst out laughing and leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine as he chortled. “Not a chance.”
“What I feel for you hasn’t changed. This is going to take some getting used to, for sure.” I cupped his cheek and looked into his normal, human eyes.
“Take all the time you need,” he whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”