Page 15 of Licking Fire

“Keren smelled human to me as well. Is your woman a Brandt? I will pray she’s not. They have wicked tempers.” Zarek grunted, and then laughed low and deep. “Ouch, wife, I jest. You are sweet as can be.”

Rayer stared at his bedroom door, knowing Alondra was within, and then touched his chest, an ache starting there. “I think the sickness is taking root in me.”

“I think you found the one,” said Zarek. “Kiss her and see.”

“No. I’m going to have someone I trust come and retrieve her. She cannot remain here,” said Rayer, his words warring with his body and its desires.

Zarek snorted. “Fine then, cousin, I have a friend in the area I can call to come and get her. She can stay with Keren and me until we all know better what danger she is in.”

He wanted to take her away from him? Take her all the way to Pittsburgh? “No!”

Zarek laughed again. “No what?”

“She can remain here. For now.”

“Rayer, trust your instincts. Do what they tell you to do.”

“They tell me to grab hold of her, fuck her until neither of us can move, and then never allow her to leave my line of sight.”

“Perhaps you should start with dinner and a movie,” said Zarek with a chuckle. “Keren says she expects to see you both at our Christmas party. She also wants me to tell you not to be a total dumbass, stubborn alpha-dragon shifter. Pfft. As if we are stubborn.”

Rayer swallowed hard. “May I speak with your mate?”

There was a pause, and then a female voice came on the line. “Hi, Rayer. Are you okay?”

“I do not think so,” he said with all honesty.

“What can I help with? Do you want us to come there? I can sit down and talk with her. I can try to explain what might be going on with you. Sometimes you guys come off as scary when you’re trying to be protective.”

“She laughs at me when my alpha shows through,” he confessed, slightly ashamed, but wanting desperately to know how to keep Alondra for his own.

Keren snorted. “Perfect. Does she know what you are yet?”

“No. But she is not ignorant to supernaturals. She was attacked by an aemaemurousdemon.”

Keren gasped. “Those aren’t very common. They tend to work for the highest bidder. They don’t just attack for fun. They do it for payment.”

Keren would know. She was born from the Brandt line of slayers, going back centuries. She knew a great deal about supernaturals. He’d guess she knew more than most dragon shifters even.

“She is afraid of someone, but will not tell me who. She sought me out to speak with me, arrived on my doorstep, and then wanted to flee. She has agreed to stay within my home for the night while my friend—a male witch—assists in trying to heal her.”

“Rayer, don’t push her too hard. Let her open up to you. Simply be there for her. And if she wants to go, fight your dragon side and let her leave.”

“No!”

She sighed. “Rayer, if you try to take her choices, you’ll lose her. Let her leave if she wants to go.”

“Someone wishes her dead,” he stated clearly.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t follow in the shadows behind her and keep her safe. I said not to make her stay.”

Rayer exhaled. “You are a good match for my cousin.”

“Pfft. I’m the only one who could tolerate him,” she said, laughing softly.

“True.”

“Rayer.”

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