Page 7 of No Potions Needed

Electricity from the incoming storm played on my skin when I stepped outside. Gone was the clear blue sky. Grey clouds had crept in around its vibrant edges, dulling its light in patches. I almost turned on my heels to ask Rian if he saw this. I was right. I was always right about storms.

The baby-fine hair on the back of my neck stood up as I looked around. I knew Teddy was technically staying at our B&B and if he hadn’t hung around here to see what Dern wanted my best guess was that he went home. If he wasn’t there, I’d ask around to find out where the Starscale Dragon lived. There was only one of him and his mate’s family ran a moonshine and magic business. Surely, someone could help me find one of the dragons.

I shifted, borrowing my jaguar’s speed, as the clouds crept in, gobbling up the last of the blue sky. They hung like angry white pustules ready to explode. I shook my head to rid myself of the image. Why did it have to storm today? Why couldn’t it have waited until tomorrow or at least until I was denned down for the night?

“We can do it. We can do it,”my inner beast purred to me.

It wasn’t the delighted purr he let out most often but the purr that told me he too would rather be anywhere this storm front wasn’t instead of chasing after angry dragons. Still, I left home to help people and that’s what I was doing. Thunder rolled over the land and my fur. I bit back a yowl and raced quicker until the B&B was in sight again. I hit headfirst into the ‘doggy’ door I hadn’t noticed before and managed to squeeze through as lightning lit up the world. This time the yowl crawled out of me hot and angry.

“May I help you?” A perky man with a beaky nose said from behind the front desk. He smelled like birds, and it took me a moment to realize he was indeed some sort of bird shifter. He wore a name tag too. This one was wooden with the letters of his name, “Erak,” burnt into it. The name suited the dark-haired man. Erak sounded very much like the sound some bird lost in the forest would make.

I tried to shift back but was met with a wall of fur, teeth, and claws. My jaguar wasn’t giving up his control. I stroked his fur from the inside, but he didn’t budge.

“You’re a jaguar,” Erak said, rounding the desk. “You must be Othoni. We took your stuff up to your room. Most guests don’t drop off luggage and then skedaddle, but we took care of it anyway. Guests are encouraged to enjoy themselves in any form they please but if you are Othoni please nod. I’d hate to think I couldn’t tell the difference between a shifter and a wild cat, but stranger things have happened.”

I blinked at him and then nodded. Of course, Erak was a bird. He talked waaaay too much to be any other sort of shifter.

“This way to your room,” he said.

I opened my mouth to inform him despite the cat-eating storm brewing outside that I couldn’t remain here long. I had to find Teddy and get him back to Dern. Doors often showed up during storms and I didn’t travel all this way to let the old wolf down. Except the bird didn’t speak cat. So, I followed him to the room I booked and walked inside. Once he was gone and out of the way, I slunk back out into the hallway. Thunder roared above the house, and I pressed myself to the floor. I wished more than ever that I was home with my pard where I could hide under older, fatter cats.

Nonsense. It was all nonsense. I was the future leader of the pard. I could walk down the hall and sniff out a dragon during a storm. Shit! This all sounded more and more like the start to those horror films that Mori loved more and more with each press of my paws against the soft B&B carpet.

I ignored the pretty white wallpaper plastered with a pink rose pattern as I padded down the hall sniffing Teddy out. I hadn’t smelled him before, but I’d smelled other dragons. Besides, how many lizards were staying here? I breathed with my mouth open in between thunderclaps. Lightning sizzled through the sky, making my fur stand on edge even if I couldn’t see it.

Hundreds of people had walked up and down this hall. Some scents were fresher than others while some lingered in the back as if they passed by once for fun. Then I found HIM. There HE was. He? The dragon! My dragon! Everything inside me exploded as another thunderclap sank its teeth into my nervous system.

Shit in a tree!

Shit in a tree!

Shit in a tree!

His scent was the strongest in front of this door. This is where he’d come back to. Thank the old ones that all the doors had ‘doggy’ doors big enough for me to slip through. I slid into my mate’s room and blinked. If the sky wasn’t threatening to bring about the end of days, I might’ve snooped around. I would’ve felt bad about it, but he’d have forgiven me eventually, right? That’s what true-mates did. Mori was never going to believe this!

“Xenos is never going to believe this!”my jaguar yowled into my thoughts as the thunder smacked against the sky again.

“We’re not bothering him and Barry while they’re on vacation!”I shouted back at him to remind me not to poke them over the pack link.“Don’t poke anyone!”

Lightning lit up the room and together as one we scurried into Teddy’s bed and dove under his blankets. There were piles and piles of pillows and blankets as if he slept with a family of eight by his side every night. I buried myself under them all and rolled in his scent. Perhaps storms overlooked dragons. They were part lightning after all, right?

Shit in a tree!

Shit in a tree!

They were metal too! Shit in a tree!

“Not that sort of metal. They’re insulated against lightning,”my jaguar said but I wasn’t sure where he’d heard that before because I for one had never thought to ask if living dragons were conductors of electricity. In the end, I chose to believe him because it made sense. You didn’t read about dragon shifters being struck down every time a storm passed overhead.

Buried under my true-mate’s bedding, I did my best to ignore the storm. The B&B wouldn’t flood. It wouldn’t be struck by lightning and burn us all up alive. It wouldn’t swirl around like some angry giant until it disturbed the air enough to whip up a twister to toss right at me!

Shit in a big tree!

I let out a long, slow breath and squeezed my eyes shut. If I pretended to sleep the time would pass quicker. Eventually time passed unknown because one can only pretend to sleep so long before actually drifting off even if the sky is threatening to make good on its ancient promise to destroy the world.

Chapter Four

Teddy

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