Page 2 of Walking in Darkness

This dragon—and Kit was pretty sure thiswasa dragon—had the pointy ears and horns which spiraled up from their upper forehead region just like Hudson. But that was where the similarities ended.

For one thing, this dragon towered over Kit. They even had several feet on Hudson—at least what Kit could remember from the last time he’d seen Hudson in this form.

Whoever this was, they were damn tall. Big time.

They had a humanoid shape, but there wasn’t anything humanoid about them. Whereas Hudson had rope-like strands that were supposed to pass as hair in this form, this being had waves of… well, flames.

Flames that danced in a swirl of oranges, reds, and yellows that cascaded to their shoulders and seemed to blend in with the fucking huge ass flaming wings that sprouted from their back.

Yeah, Hudson certainly didn’t have any ofthat.

Their eyes were a kaleidoscope of color that matched their flaming hair and wings. Instead of a mouth, they had a muzzle. They had two arms and two legs, but the legs were thick and muscular with oversize clawed feet—they had digitigrade legs.

Kit honestly couldn’t tell if the dragon before him was male or female because there were two mounds on their chest which reminded him of breasts, but there was a distinct bulge under the loincloth they wore. They also had a ridiculously long tail that lay quietly next to their oddly shaped, clawed feet.

They wore thick gold bands around their forearms, throat, and ankles. Jeweled earrings hung from their ears. Rings graced their fingers. There was even a piercing in their scaly eyebrow. They were horrifyingly beautiful and completely terrifying.

“I am Gaura, the fire dragon deity. Hello, Kit. Please be at ease. I mean you no harm. You are safe with me, dear one.”

Favorite red suit or not, Kit sat his ass down before he fell down. What the hell was going on here? He’d been having some sort of stupid dream, and now he was having… whatever this was.

But hey, at least he didn’t feel like he was on the verge of passing out any longer.

Maybe.

Gaura. He’d heard Hudson and Connie both mention Gaura. They’d said that was their dragon god. News flash. Apparently, neither one of them had ever seen a drawing of Gaura, because their deity seemed to be neither male nor female, but instead was a combination of both sexes.

“Holy fucking shit.” Horrified at his language, Kit slapped his hand over his mouth.

He wasn’t sure what the protocol for greeting a deity was, but cussing at them probably wasn’t the way to go. “F-forgive my language, please! I, ah, I’m a l-little lost here and a whoooole lot freaked out.” Understatement of the year right there, but what else was new? “Am I d-dreaming? What’s going on?Whyis whatever this is going on? Where am I?”

“You are still asleep, and your body is still in the guest room at Hudson’s compound. I invaded your dream and brought your consciousness to another realm. My realm.”

Kit opened his mouth and closed it. He didn’t know what to do with that information or how to respond. In fact, he couldn’t wrap his mind around such. His consciousness wasout of his body? And wasn’t that just downright terrifying? And invasive. Wasn’t there, like, a name for that?

Who told this being this was okay? Because he wasnotokay with this! He wanted to be back in his body that was back in his realm—and what the ever-loving fuck was up withthat?—arguing with the damn faucet in his dream.

Kit clamped his mouth shut so he didn’t demand just what the hell this being thought they were doing, which was probably an extraordinarily bad idea, since this was the red dragon’s fire god and everything.

Pissing this creature off wasn’t in his best interest, but fuck, he was tired of being ambushed by paranormal beings. He was going to have a heart attack if things kept going like this. Or be in therapy for the rest of his damn life.

Be nice to the fire god. Be nice to the fire god. Be nice to the fire god.“I, ah… why? Can I ask that? I kinda need to ask that.”

“Ah. Why? There’s a question, for sure.” Gaura held out their hand to Kit.

Kit couldn’t stop his instinctual reaction to such a creature looming over him. Kit cringed. It didn’t help that their hand was clawed.

“Oh. I frighten you, don’t I? Of course I do. You’re not used to what I am. You’ve only seen Hudson partially transformed. Oh, but I do believe you’ve seen Connie in his natural form, right?”

Kit’s mouth dropped open. How did theyknowthat? Holy hell, was their deity spying on them? Could they see everything? Yep, Kit was never getting hard again, and Hudson and Connie could kiss sexy fun times goodbye.

Gaura smirked at him, as if they knew what he was thinking. Surely… surely not.

A whirlwind of fire suddenly engulfed Gaura—because fire—a fire Kit was close to as well. Except… there was no heat to melt the skin off his bones. Yay for him. Crispy was not a good look for him.

When the flames dissipated, the being who stood there was much more human looking, thank fuck. Still, Kit’s hand rested against his heart.

Gaura was breathtakingly gorgeous now, but still abnormally tall. Kit had seen humans of this height, at least. Or maybe they just seemed tall since Kit was still sitting on the ground staring up at them.

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