Page 3 of Dallas

“So, we won’t know unless we’re attacked.” My head began to hurt again. “What if I bought an assault rifle and tested it on Hecate?”

Alan tried unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh. “The less we think things like that, the better. You never know if they can…” He tapped the side of his head, then held the same finger over his lips.

I knew what he meant. We never knew if they could read our minds. I’d already heard what Callie was capable of, how she’d helped Alan into Emelie’s consciousness so he could help her process finding out about our existence. The poor girl had knocked herself out in a fall, then gone into a type of shock rather than come to terms with dragons and witches and their presence in the world.

Who was to say what the rest of the coven was capable of?

“Besides,” he added as he stood, “the less we let ourselves think that way, the easier it will be to keep the peace with them. The more we allow negativity to wander into our thoughts…”

“Aye, I understand,” I grunted with a roll of my eyes. While I loved Alan like a brother and respected him as the head of the clan, there was no denying that he loved to drive a point home.

Soon, I was alone again, my gaze traveling over the monitors.

In my heart of hearts, I almost wished something would happen. Something to shake things up and bring an end to this ridiculous, ill-advised sharing of living quarters.

2

“Isuppose we have no choice but to withstand bathing in cold water,” I finished.

Callie yawned for effect, clearly finding me humorous. “It isn’t as tragic as you make it out to be.”

“Do you enjoy taking cold showers?”

“No, but the dragon made a good point. We’ve grown used to only thinking of ourselves and our needs.” Callie stooped to pick a fistful of wild heather as we walked.

I looked up in time to see one of the dragons circling the sky overhead. It mattered not in the least which dragon shifter it was. They were our eyes in the sky, keeping watch over the mountain and over us. Here, over this mountain would they be invisible to humans.

Ancient magic, far older than I was and beyond my understanding. At least the weakening of our relations with the dragons hadn’t affected that—the arrival of more humans meant just as much danger to us as it did to our enemies.

No, not enemies anymore. I had to stop thinking of them as such, at least according to my mother. The one who’d declared them our enemies, to begin with.

“You think we need to stop showering so thoughtlessly, then.”

“I think we need to stop doing everything so thoughtlessly.” She raised the heather to her nose and inhaled, then waved it about in my face, giggling.

“You’re in a good mood,” I observed, ducking away from her.

“What is there to not be in a good mood about?” She opened her arms, tilting her head back at the sky. “It’s a beautiful day, and we’re safer than we’ve been in so long. There’s no need to live solely in a cave anymore. We’re free.”

“We’re not truly free, you know.”

Her face fell. “What is it with you today? It seems as though you’re on a mission to bring down my mood.”

I scowled, though for her sake my face was turned away to keep her from seeing it. I supposed she had a point, and that from her perspective I was determined to rain on her parade. From my point of view, however, that simply wasn’t the case.

“I only want us to remember that any security we’ve found with the dragons might only be superficial. Let us not get ahead of ourselves and take chances we shouldn’t take.” I looked around at the peaceful landscape, at the loch as a breeze from the south cause it to ripple. The grass bent beneath the breeze, and the scent of wildflowers reached me.

It was easy to forget how dangerous a place this could be. How helicopters had landed and how dragons had been murdered, how their blood had soaked into the very soil on which we walked.

“What sort of chances? We weren’t raised to take chances,” Callie reminded me.

“No, we weren’t,” I agreed with a rueful smile. “But even this innocent walk could lead to danger. We don’t know. I wouldn’t want to see this perceived freedom go to our heads, is all.”

“I understand. I do.” She took a deep breath, looking out toward the water. “Just the same, I enjoy this. The fresh air. Seeing the world again.”

She had a point. From where we stood, just at the edge of what quickly dropped off and led down to the banks of the loch, it seemed as though the entire world was laid out before us. It was so green, so fresh, the many streams and rivers looking like silver in the sunlight. They cut paths here and there through the fields and craggy rocks.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy it as well. I lost track of how long we were in hiding.”

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