Authors: Belinda Meyers
Jackie swallowed. “What happened to
him?”
“Well, I was wounded, but the
battle was still going on. He went off to join it while I waited for a medic.”
Matt’s lips quirked grimly. “He never came back.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He inclined his head in a nod. “He
was a good man. He saved my life. Even before the medic showed up, I could feel
myself healing. My flesh and bones knitting back together. And I was ravenous.
Hungrier than I could ever remember being. They brought me back on board the
ship to the medical bay and worked on me for awhile, and I was able to eat.
That shocked them. They said I should rest, not eat. But I was starved. I felt
a strange, primal anger well up inside me, and before I knew it I was a bear.”
“Damn! A bear on a Navy ship?! What
did they do?”
“Well, they screamed a lot. They
shot me a few times. Then I got into the food supplies and started chowing
down. When I was distracted, a soldier was able to shoot me with a tranquilizer
dart. I was brought to a different ship and woke up with a slew of new faces
before me.”
“Let me guess,” Jackie said. “This
wasn’t the first shifter the commanders had seen.”
“Nope. In fact they had a whole,
secret division devoted to shifters. And of turning soldiers who were shifters
into soldier shifters. Trained bears attacking enemies on the front lines! Think
of how shocked the bad guys were.”
“I can imagine. What did you say?”
“At first I said yes. What else was
I going to do? I was a solider, and these guys in the Division were teaching me
about what I was. Who I was. Who I’d become. But slowly I realized that they
twisted the truth, that they were only trying to use me. They told me that my
bear craved violence, that it needed to sate itself with blood in order to be
at peace. They tried to brainwash me into being their killer. When I realized
that, I told them to fuck off. I wanted out.”
“Jeeze. What did they do?”
Matt grinned, a hard, confident
grin. “What else could they do? I didn’t give them much choice. And we do live
in America. Land of the free. They couldn’t
make
me do it if I didn’t want to. As soon as I could, I turned in my papers and got
out of the Navy for good.” He touched an anchor tattoo on his arm, and Jackie
traced it with her finger. “I still love the Navy and consider myself a loyal
soldier, but the Special Projects Division can kiss my ass.”
She kissed the tattoo. For some
reason, she felt very close to Matt all of a sudden. The feeling overcame her
so completely and so shockingly that she felt tears well up behind her eyes.
“What is it?” he said, sounding
alarmed.
“N-nothing.” She kissed him again
and nestled against his chest. “Just hold me.”
He wrapped his arm tighter about
her.
Clomp,
clomp.
Jackie stiffened. A golem was
approaching.
Chapter 6
Matt’s ears pricked as the sounds drew closer, and he held
Jackie tight against him. Could he bring his bear over if he had to? He wasn’t
sure. It had had some time to recover, but that first golem had savaged it badly,
and it needed to heal on that other plane or whatever it was. Matt could feel
it inside him, still sore and wounded. But angry and protective, too. The
Division had pissed him off with its lies, but it had also taught him how to
fight as a bear, and he knew he could kick some serious ass if he had to.
Clomp,
clomp.
The heavy footsteps drew closer,
coming abreast the suite of rooms Matt and Jackie occupied, and for a moment he
thought the creature was going to enter again and do another sweep. If so, he prayed
Jackie would be able to cloak them again, because he didn’t think his bear was
ready.
After a brief pause, though, the
golem continued on, and the sounds slowly diminished, then faded altogether.
Matt let out a sigh of relief. He turned to see Jackie appraising him intently.
“What?” he said, and forced a
chuckle.
“Nothing,” she said, but he knew it
was
something. Was maybe a
lot
of something.
Her dark eyes were serious, but
warm. Staring into them, his bear gave that low, mournful sound again, and he
felt something in his heart swell and flutter inside him. He blinked, feeling a
wave of dizziness come over him, then pass.
Could
it be?
he wondered.
Could it really
be … her?
He didn’t sleep with girls he just
met very often. In fact, he hadn’t for a long time, not since he’d first come
back from the Navy, all raw and broken from his experiences overseas. He’d
drowned out his grief and pain with willing flesh, but eventually that had
passed. He’d found a new place, a new life with a crew of shifters who were all
good men and who took him in like family. Just like Paul had been. Like
brothers. But something had been missing in his life, he knew that now.
Something huge.
Feeling something lurch in his
chest, he glanced away from Jackie and blinked his eyes.
My mate
, he thought wonderingly.
Can it be that I’ve found her at last?
Frowning, he realized that
he couldn’t know, not for sure, not until he knew who she was. She had secrets
she’d been keeping from him. If he was going to allow his heart open to her fully,
he had to know what they were.
But was she willing to share them?
Swallowing, he said, “And … what
about you? You know all about me, but I don’t know anything about you. Except
that you’re a thief and a magic-user. And that you’re willing to die for whatever
you stole from Walsh.”
He turned to her again to see
her
looking away now. Her fingers traced
an absent-minded circle around his left nipple, and she pressed her head
against his chest as if seeking protection. From what? The truth?
He stroked her jaw with a finger,
then tilted her chin up so that her eyes had no choice but to look into his.
“Tell me,” he said, but he made his
words soft. “I need to know if …”
She waited, but when he didn’t
finish she said, “If what?”
If
you’re really going to be my mate
. Instead of saying something like that,
which would probably scare any reasonable girl off, he said, “I just need to
know. And … I want to. I want to know you better, Jackie. What we just did, it
…”
“Yeah?”
“It’s not what I usually do. I mean
… with you it feels different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well … bigger.”
Her eyes widened, and a serious
look came over her, even more serious than before, but somehow that gave him
hope.
“Really?” she said.
He cupped her cheek with his hand.
“Really.”
She brought his palm to her lips
and kissed it. “Okay, then,” she said. “I’ll tell you my story. If you want to
know.”
He made himself nod, feeling as he
did his heart buck against his ribs. Somehow he knew what he was about to hear
was important. Maybe super important. It might—shit, he
knew
it would—change his life forever.
A weak, sad smile hovered at her
lips, then faded. “Matt,” she said softly, “I’m a shifter, too.”
He grunted in surprise. “Really? I
didn't smell anything. Weird. What kind?”
That sad smile came again, then
just as quickly vanished. “Dragon.”
He rocked back.
“Dragon?”
She flipped onto her back and
stared up at the ceiling. Propping himself up on his elbow, he laid himself
sideways to regard her.
“Well, part dragon,” she amended.
“Like, a small part. It was my grandmother who was a full dragon shifter. My
grandfather was human, and he never Turned. And none of their kids were
shifters, either. But one of their kids had me. By that time the blood was
thin, diluted, and I could never shift completely. But I could make wings pop
out on my back, and I could … well, I could breathe fire.”
Matt whooped, then put a hand over
his mouth (in case of a golem) and whooped more softly. “That’s awesome!”
“I’m glad you think so. My father
and mother were horrified, especially after I set the kitchen on fire one day.
I was just trying to toast bread with my breath.” She smiled sheepishly. “It
got toasted, all right.”
“Ha! You go, girl!”
“Anyway, I grew up trying to keep
it a secret. And trying not to scorch Judith Eans’s hair when she called me
Baby No-Breasts. Or sometimes No Bump.”
“Ouch.” Matt grinned and let his
gaze stray to Jackie’s generous bosom. “Well, you showed her eventually.”
Jackie cleared her throat, drawing
his eyes to hers again, but she did it with a pleased-looking smile. “Well, all
the while I knew my grandmother had a terrible enemy. She loved me more than
any of her other grandkids, and she took me deep into her confidence. She told
me all about this evil mage named Walsh and how he’d made war upon her and her
kind for hundreds of years.”
“He’s immortal?”
She winced. “Kind of. See, he uses
his powers to steal the …” Jackie swallowed, and Matt could tell that what she
was about to say next was key. Starting over, she said, “He uses his powers to
steal the fire from dragons. When that happens, it’s like he takes their souls.
He breaks them somehow. In here.” She tapped her chest. “They can never Shift
again. But he can use that fire to lengthen his own life.”
“Like a vampire.”
“Yes. Something like that. Well, he
had a grudge against my grandmother’s clan—my clan—because one of them had
wounded him long ago. Scorched his arm before he could steal that dragon’s
fire. He’s still burned to this day. None of his magic could heal the wound,
and his right arm is twisted and shriveled.”
“Serves him right.”
“My grandmother told me all this
when I was very young, and growing up I would always keep my eyes open for some
sinister figure with a twisted arm lurking around the playgrounds and malls.”
Matt swore under his breath. “He
was your boogeyman.”
“Exactly.” Jackie nodded, satisfied
that he got it. “Well, one day when I was about sixteen and just learning to
control my powers Walsh did find me. I was coming home from a date—my
second-ever date, with Jimmy Gottlieb; he was so cute in that blue blazer—to
find Walsh waiting for me outside my parents’ house. I was coming up the
walkway to the front door—alone, Jimmy had gone—when Walsh just sort of …
materialized. I don’t know if he was hiding behind a bush or using his powers
to cloak himself, but he just appeared. Instantly I knew who he must be. He was
dressed elegantly, but his right arm was in a sling. His left hand was laden
down with fancy rings, all with gleaming jewels in them. It was night, but the
outside lights were on—my parents had left them on for me—so I could see
everything.”
Matt could see the memory of her
fear in Jackie’s face; it had gone still and pale, and moisture gathered at the
corners of her eyes. He reached out and held her hand. She surprised him by
gripping his back fiercely.
“Go on,” he prompted gently. “What
happened next?”
Jackie nodded, gathering her
strength, and said, “He held up his hand and spoke a word—a single word. That’s
all it took. I knew what he was trying to do and started to Shift. My wings
popped out on my back, totally shredding the cute dress I’d bought just for the
date, and I began to gather my fire inside my chest. If I could just burn him
to a cinder before he could cast that spell …” She let out a ragged breath.
“But of course he was too fast, too powerful. The air blurred around his hand,
and the blur moved forward and grew larger. It folded around me and tightened.
Like it was strangling me. At first I thought I couldn’t breathe, but then I
realized it wasn’t my breath he was stealing.”
“It was your fire.”
She nodded. “Yeah. He drew it out
of me, and as he did one of his rings began to glow—a dark gem in a gold band.
I let out a terrible scream and crumpled to the ground. My parents burst out of
the house and saw Walsh there, all triumphant and evil and me weeping on the
ground, my wings gone, my fire gone …
half
of me
gone … and my dad went nuts. He leapt at Walsh, fists flying. Walsh
could have simply vanished, or he could have frozen my dad in time or
something, but he was—is—an utter evil bastard. He used my own fire, which
still glowed in that gem on his finger, to kill my dad. I saw the ring glow
bright, and then the brightness came over my dad. Flames consumed him in a
heartbeat. Only then did Walsh utter a spell and flicker out of existence.”
Rage boiled inside Matt, a furious,
protective anger that someone could have done this to anyone, let alone someone,
he realized, almost to his shock, that he was beginning to care for deeply.
“Damn it all,” Matt said. “He stole
your fire and killed your dad.”
Jackie nodded, her chin trembling,
and tears streamed from her eyes. Matt couldn’t take the pain he saw in her
face, but he wouldn’t let himself look away. He let that pain bore into him and
lodge deep inside.
One day
, he thought,
I’ll give that pain an outlet. I’ll
unleash it on Walsh just like he unleashed Jackie’s fire on her dad.
Jackie’s hand squeezed Matt’s even
tighter, so tight it was painful, but he only gripped hers more firmly in
return, letting her know that he could take it, that he was there for her.
“My mom and I were devastated,”
Jackie said. “She mourned for a long time, and so did I. But we were somehow
separated. The tragedy should have brought us together, but it only drove us
apart. I was in my own little world, a sphere of pain and isolation, and my mom
was in her own place, too. It was like the pain built walls around us. I would
have turned to my grandmother, but she had set off on a mission of revenge to
kill Walsh for slaying her son and stealing my fire. She never did return, and
I learned later that he killed her, too.”
“God damn.”
Jackie sniffed wetly. “I’d had big
plans. College. A career. A huge life I’d planned out for myself. But after
that … I just didn’t have the heart for it. I started wearing dark clothes,
listening to death metal. I guess I kind of went goth. And all the while hate
festered in me, and I knew I had to give it some release. I had to strike back
somehow, if you know what I mean.”
“I get it,” Matt said, nodding.
“I hated Walsh for abusing his
magical abilities like he did. So when I learned of a shifter who was using a
magic amulet to make himself stronger and using that against others, I made it
my business to steal that amulet. Later I learned of a mage doing nasty things
with a seeing stone. And so on. One thing led to another. I learned there were
a lot of bad guys in New York, so I went there. There’s a whole magical
community there, and of course where there’s enough people some of them will be
assholes. I made it my business to take them down a peg. To take away anything
they were using against others, like Walsh used his ring against me and my dad.
I turned it into a career of sorts, selling the magical items to fences in the
community—under the condition that they wouldn’t sell them to bad guys. And I
made damn sure they didn’t.”
Anger sparked in her eyes, and
determination, and Matt liked the strength he saw there. But he also liked the
fact that she’d trusted him enough to be vulnerable in front of him, to open
her secrets to him. Maybe … just maybe …
“And Walsh?” he said. “What about
him?”
Jackie wiped at her eyes
impatiently. “He was always my endgame, my ultimate target. All those jobs I
pulled before were just practice. Building up my skills to one day break into
his lair and steal … it.”
Matt snapped his fingers. “The
ring!”
“He would feed on a dragon’s fire
for decades. He could make one dragon’s fire last him for half a century. So I
knew mine would still be there. Just waiting.” Her toe prodded her purse on the
floor next to her pile of clothes, and Matt suddenly realized what she’d been
protecting. What she’d ferried here from New York.
“You did it,” he breathed. “You
stole the ring!”
Pride showed in her face. “Finally,
last week, I decided I was ready. I was really going to do it. I spent several
days casing his penthouse, then broke in. I deactivated all his alarms and
survived his magical booby-traps. He was asleep, and it was night—my element. I
slipped into his bedroom and took the ring. I was almost out—I could have
escaped without him knowing who took it—but I paused.”
“What for?”
For a moment, doubt entered her
eyes. “I … I wanted to kill him.”
Matt could see that this really
bothered her, that she had never forgiven herself for the impulse to murder the
man that had ruined her life and taken both her father’s and grandmother’s.