Page 9 of The Dragon's Warlock

The girl shook his outstretched hand. Her eyes flashed. “You need to stop fighting the pull.”

“Can you explain what you mean by ‘pull,’?” Diem asked.

The girl giggled and ran off.

Kirin shook his head. “Let’s go inside.” He eyed Diem. “And we’d better get you some food.”

Gideon gripped her hand, and she felt a shock go through her system. “What the hell is going on?”

“I’ll explain in time.”

Time.She would live a lot longer than she would have if she’d remained human. The thought of not aging, she liked. Nobody could explain how long she would live, because they didn’t know much about humans who’d been turned and she’d stopped letting people poke her with needles.

They followed Kirin through the bare home to the kitchen. She’d only met Lucy a few times but had thought the human would make her place feel like home. This house felt cold, and only the bare minimum decorated the walls.

“When was the last time you ate?” Kirin growled. It seemed everything he said to her came out in a growl.

“Yesterday.” If she hadn’t been so hungry, she would have lied, but the thought of food made her stomach growl as loud as her dragon’s roar. “I just need a quick snack.”

“She needs more than a snack. Diem shifted earlier when we were attacked,” Gideon said.

“Who attacked you?” Kia asked as he walked into the kitchen.

“They wore the same emblem Kael used. That’s the reason we’re here,” Gideon said. “Diem thinks we can go to Cassadaga, Florida, and Emma will help us find her sister, but someone is after Diem.”

She was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation. Her eyes kept going to the sizzling steak on the stove. The piece of meat was larger than anything she’d seen at a grocery store. It made her mouth water.

Kirin pulled a couple of beers from the fridge and handed one to Gideon. “How do you know they want her dead?”

“I think they blew up my house. When we fought the men at the escape route, they had loaded silver bullets.”

Diem hadn’t known that. “How do you know they were silver? Can silver kill me?”

Kirin shook his head. “Silver can’t kill a dragon. It hurts like a bitch until you have the bullet taken out. The only way to kill a dragon is to chop off its head.”

After five minutes with Kirin, she’d learned more about herself than she had in the past six months.

Gideon took a sip of his beer. “Two of the men were turned shifters, and the other two were human.”

“I’m guessing you killed them?” Kirin asked.

She glared. “They were trying to kill us.”

“We’re not the enemy, Diem,” Kirin grunted.

He was right, but she was on edge. “Sorry. I want to find my sister and figure out my dragon.”

Kirin placed the large steak in front of her. “You need to learn to keep your dragon fed. Shifters eat a lot more than humans. Our metabolism is ten times faster.”

“Easier said than done. You know how expensive it is to keep my dragon fed?” She took a bite of the delicious steak.

Gideon turned to Kirin, his voice tight. “Have you heard anything else about any labs?”

“No. We’ve also been tracking any shifters who have gone missing.” Kirin pinched his brow.

“How about humans?” Diem asked between bites. “Kayda and I were taken from a bar.”

“It’s not easy to track missing humans. They disappear all the time, and we haven’t seen any spikes on the reports.”

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