Chapter Twenty-Eight
Laurie
Eb looked at me through the rearview mirror as I tapped my knee indecisively.
“What’s it going to be, Miss?” he asked after a moment, prodding me into making a decision.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly, unable to turn my head to the side to look out the window at Rip.
“Going to have to decide one way or another pretty soon, or we’re going to be covered in a layer of snow.”
“Yeah.” I continued to tap my knee, willing my anxiety to go away. The night was not going how I expected it to. From being attacked by my ex to having sex with Rip again, and now, the newest revelation? How was I supposed to think clearly?
The worst part of it was that everything about Rip, from his tone to the look in his eyes and every bit of body language, suggested he was serious about the dragon business. He legitimately believed what he was saying.
Could he actually be a dragon? I mused, trying to take in all angles of thought. It sounded insane. It was. Dragons didn’t exist. They were creatures from myth and fairy tales.
Right?
So, where did the fairy tales come from? What’s their origin?
Of course, if Rip truly were insane, then he would sound and act like he believed what he was saying. I’d never met anyone that delusional, but I knew they existed.
I frowned at Eb through the mirror. “You’re awfully calm about all this, Eb. How did you take the news that Rip is a dragon?”
Eb chuckled wryly. “Well, Miss, it honestly wasn’t that hard at all.”
“So, you believed him?”
“Of course.”
I stared. Eb was far too relaxed. “But how? Why?”
More laughter. “To tell the truth, Miss, when you’re already a dragon yourself, meeting another one really isn’t too difficult to fathom. I’ve known Rip since he was a boy. I watched him grow into the dragon he is now.”
“Wait. Are you telling me you’re a dragon, too? A what? Weredragon? Like a werewolf?” I shook my head, not sure I believed what I was hearing.
“We call ourselves shifters, Miss, but yes, that is correct.”
“Shifters,” I repeated, mumbling the word several times while trying to work my brain around the concept. “You know you sound crazy, right?”
“Crazy as a dragon,” Eb quipped. “But you won’t simply believe us by our word, will you?”
“No, probably not,” I admitted, wondering what the chances were of two people having the same type of insanity.
It had to be exceedingly rare. Of course, with the internet, people could find someone else like them. So maybe it wasn’t that rare. I had never thought to look for dragon culture before. Mainly because I didn’t think I was a dragon.
“So let Rip show you the truth,” Eb said. “He’s already spilled the beans. You may as well go see if he’s insane or not, so you can stop wondering. Because if you get me to take you home, you will always ask yourself what if you got out of the car.”
I stared steadily at Eb. “Fine. I will.”
Pulling open my door, I looked at Rip, who stood in front of the SUV, waiting calmly as the snow fell heavily.
“Listen,” I called. “Before I go any farther, I’m going to need some real, actual proof that you’re a dr—WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?”
Before I could finish my request, Rip had shifted into a massive aquamarine-scaled dragon. Four legs. Covered in scales. Giant snout at the end of a long sinuous neck. Two yellow cat-like orbs stared down the snout at me through the falling snow.
“How’s this?” asked a voice that was deeper and more powerful but still distinctly Rip.
“Eeep.”
I stared in disbelief for a full minute, trying to take in what I saw. I couldn’t.
Pulling open the SUV door, I sat down abruptly and stared straight ahead at the back of the seat in front of me. “On second thought, I’d like to go home now, please.”
Eb laughed but made no move to start the car. Meanwhile, the green-blue scaled dragon, highlighted by the SUV’s headlights, did nothing but stand patiently.
“I noticed we aren’t moving,” I said after a few seconds, my voice sounding distant and numb to my ears. Like I wasn’t really there but rather was in some sort of dream.
Slowly, Eb turned around so that he could look at me directly. “If you really, truly want me to take you home, Miss, I will,” he said gravely.
I stared into his eyes, then deliberately turned my gaze to look out the front windshield. The dragon noted my movement and dipped his head forward until the giant yellow-orange eye was level with the windshield.
“Okay, that’s enough Jurassic Park for me,” I squeaked, moving across the seats to the other side of the SUV.
The dragon spoke again. “I’m not going to hurt you, Laurie.”
“It really sounds like Rip,” I observed mildly.
“That’s because it is Rip,” Eb countered.
I stared straight ahead, not making eye contact. But still, I noticed out of my periphery that the head abruptly disappeared. A moment later, a shadow outline in the snow approached the door.
A human outline, I saw, sighing in relief.
Eb rolled down his window, letting a blast of cold air and snow in as Rip approached.
“You’re perfectly safe,” he said, speaking to me from the open window.
I struggled for a reply that would encompass everything that had just happened.
“Maybe this was too soon,” Rip said, speaking to Eb. “Maybe she should go home.”
The older dragon grunted. It sounded like an “I told you so” to my ears, though I really didn’t trust any of my senses just then.
My eyes flicked to Rip as the window started to roll up. I wished they hadn’t. The hurt on his face was like a knife stabbing my insides. It cut deep, an ache that almost had me kneeling over in pain.
I wanted to say I was sorry. To tell him that he didn’t need to be sad, that everything would be okay. That I hadn’t meant anything by it. To tell him anything that would replace that look of dejection that simply did not belong on Rip’s face.
Instead, I sat still, facing forward, not saying a word. I couldn’t get over it.
“Very well,” Eb said, starting the vehicle into a U-turn. “Let’s get you home then, Miss.”
I could only nod. My mind was racing.
How did they expect me to react to something like this?
It’s unbelievable. It goes against, well, everything.
Was it even real, or perhaps a magic trick, some sort of sleight of, well, not hand, but deceit or trickery to make it look real?
I don’t know. It had looked plenty real, though.
Did they just expect me to take it in stride like it was no big deal?
It’s not like this is a normal, everyday thing, people changing into dragons!
Except, to them, perhaps it was. Still, there was no need to do it so abruptly, at night, in the middle of a snowstorm. As Rip had said at the end, it was too soon. I needed more of a workup to something like that.
“Why did he show me this?” I asked suddenly. “Why here? Why now?”
Eb was silent for a moment as he finished turning the car around. “Because he wanted you to know the truth about him. And perhaps accompany him.”
“Accompany him where?”
“To our home,” Eb said somberly. “To respond to the goings-on there. That is why he must go.”
“There really was an emergency?”
“Our homeland was attacked. He must defend it,” Eb explained. “Without him there to stop it, some of our defenses have fallen. Rip’s presence will ensure more don’t die.”
I frowned at this. “He’s going to fight?”
“Yes.”
I licked my lips. Rip would fight whoever was attacking. What if things went wrong? What if he didn’t come back? Would I ever have a chance to make things right?
“Stop the car,” I said abruptly, coming to a decision.
Eb slowed the vehicle. “Is everything okay, Miss?”
“No. Take me back.”
Eb glanced over his shoulder at me.
“Please,” I added. “Before he leaves.”
Eb grinned and gunned the SUV, whipping the wheel around and heading back up the driveway toward the house.
I just hoped I wasn’t too late and Rip wasn’t already gone.