Page 19 of Licking Fire

“And what?” Rayer demanded, his voice reverberating through her.

She shook. “He’s had men attack me before. The first time, they were only trying to scare me. The other times were different. They were different. They weren’t normal.”

Did she dare tell him what she’d seen the men do? That she’d seen them shift forms into something she couldn’t fully explain?

Was he what her grandfather wrote about in his journals? Was he someone she could not only trust, but who also more than understood what she was dealing with?”

He kept hold of her. “They looked much like snakes when they changed, yes?”

She clung to his arm. “Yes.”

“I will track and kill everyone who dared to harm you,” he vowed, his other arm moving around her tenderly. “You’re safe with me, Alondra. I think you know that. I think that is why you came. You felt drawn to me, didn’t you?”

She wanted to deny it, but couldn’t. It was true. She nodded, unable to admit it out loud. It was all too much. Too unreal.

He set her down gently and put his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in place. “I am going to show you something, but I need you to understand that it will still be me, and that I vow to you, I will never harm you.”

She knew what he was going to do before he did it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see the truth of it all.

“Turn around,” he said, his voice sounding off.

“I don’t know that I can,” she confessed.

“Trust me. Please.”

Turning slowly, she closed her eyes and then faced Rayer. It took several long, pregnant seconds before she found the courage to open her eyes and look at him. When she did, her eyes widened.

He was even taller than he had been. His shoulders were wider, and his exposed skin was covered in what looked to be golden scales. His face was a mix between human and lizard almost. The more she looked at him, the more she realized it was true: he was a dragon shifter. From what her grandfather’s journal had said, this was Rayer in a partially shifted state. Fully shifted, he would have needed to be on the roof or outside in an open area—he was that big.

With a shaky hand, she reached for his arm, wanting to feel him. He let her, and she skimmed the tips of her fingers over his scaled arm. They were smooth, yet hard. And she realized they had a pearl-like quality to them, were not just simply plain gold. “Wow.”

He said nothing, standing and letting her continue to pet his arm.

She stepped closer to him. “Does it hurt? When you do this in-between stage?”

“No,” he said, still frozen in place.

“Can you breathe fire this way?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Cool.”

His gaze narrowed slightly. “Are you scared of me?”

“I probably should be. A smart person would, but no,” she said softly, still touching him. “I’m not scared. I think you look magnificent. I kind of have dragon-shifter envy right now.”

He smiled, and she realized his teeth were jagged now.

Her eyes widened, and she reached up to touch one. “That is so friggin’ cool.”

Catching her wrist gently, he held her hand in place right before his face. “Samuel did not take my change into partially shifted form nearly as well as you are, the first time he saw it.”

She smiled and then laughed softly. “He wrote in the journal that he passed out.”

“He did,” said Rayer, shaking his head. Light seemed to shimmer all around him—right before he looked totally normal and totally human once more.

Alondra took a step back, soaking in the sight of him. “That is seriously the coolest thing ever. Whatever the men are who work with the mayor, they aren’t nearly as beautiful shifted. They were hideous. They reminded me of alligators.”

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