Farrah limited herself to one drink, wanting to have her wits about her as she navigated the world of clubbing once again.

She still felt hyper-aware of everything around her, from the loud music to the yelling to the people that occasionally bumped into her group of girls.

She said no to the first few guys who asked to dance with her, but as her friends slowly agreed and faded into the crowd, she found she had less and less excuse to do so.

So when a cute, seemingly friendly guy who’d been dancing nearby put out a hand to her, she decided there was no reason not to say yes.

She started by dancing in front of him, both of them facing each other casually, moving along to the music while he tried to ask questions over the booming music, and she tried to answer as best she could.

It mostly ended in head bobbing and nods, but it seemed to be pleasant enough for the both of them.

And it was normal. It was as far from her life in the lab as could be. It was like every Saturday night for a long time. Familiar people, familiar scene, familiar feelings… for the most part.

Something was missing, and she wasn’t sure what. Something was different.

She looked over to see Arsenic was definitely not holding himself to the same drink limit she was. He appeared to be downing shots at a prodigious rate and was swaying slightly on his stool.

She thought about going over to him, but then he shot a glare at her, pinning her in place, and she had to look back at her dance partner to avoid the intensity between them.

She couldn’t afford to focus on him now.

Her partner was affable, with a nice, fit body, blond hair swept to the side in the way that was fashionable, longer on top and shorter on the sides. He was everything past her would have wanted. Any girl in the club would be lucky to have him.

He reached out politely, putting a hand on her waist and bringing her in a little closer. She waited for fear to take over, but it didn’t. He seemed to only want to be able to hear her better, and as their bodies came closer, she smiled and allowed him to pull her in so they were only a few inches apart.

“How often do you come here? I haven’t seen you before,” he said, still dancing.

“Not that often,” she said. “You?”

“Pretty much all the time. What else is there to do in this town?”

He had a point.

“So what do you do for work?” he asked, still having to shout over the music.

“Nurse,” she said.

“Cool! That’s right, the hospital.” He bobbed his head. “Well, if you’d give me your number, I’d love to go out sometime.”

Her eyes widened. He was the rare man who actually made a move, who wasn’t just trying to fool around and get action on the club floor, but was actually looking for more.

He would have been a nice find in her past life. Now, she found herself unable to get over the fact that he didn’t have wild, untamed black hair and burning green eyes and a sultry pout.

“Um…”

“You don’t have to think about it now,” he said. “We can just dance.” Then he pulled her in closer so their bodies were almost touching.

She gasped, waiting to feel the electric attraction she’d felt with Arsenic. If she was truly feeling better, then she should find that with any attractive man who was touching her, right?

But nothing came. Just the vaguely unpleasant sensation that something was definitely wrong. That he wasn’t the person she wanted in that position. Not that it was his fault.

She cursed the implications of the moment, wondering how to extricate herself from this situation gracefully.

But then a particularly drunk dragon saved her from having to make that decision.

She saw her dance partner shoved roughly to the side as Arsenic staggered into position, glowering down at her, eyes slightly unfocused.

“Hey!” the guy said, but with a look from Arsenic, he quickly put up his hands and backed up. “Plenty of fish in the sea.” He disappeared into the crowd somewhat angrily, leaving her face to face with a drunk, angry dragon.

She expected to have to defend herself, to tell him she hadn’t been doing anything wrong and that her partner had been innocent as well.

But instead of ranting at her, Arsenic simply stepped forward and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against him and turning her so her back was to his chest, his arms wrapped around her shoulder and waist, holding her tight.

Then he began to sway to the music.

All at once, her body lit up like a house at Christmas, and she felt glowing warmth emanating from head to toe as they danced, bodies together, surrounded by pulsing beats, flashing lights, and darkness.

“So dragons can dance,” she murmured for his ears only.

Turned away from him, she couldn’t see his response, but she felt him nod against the top of her head.

“When properly motivated, I can do anything,” he said roughly, pressing his hips into her ass in a way that made her want to melt.

He was ruining her being attracted to anyone else ever again. The problem was she didn’t think he would really see that as a bad thing if she told him.

Instead, she closed her eyes and sank in against him, deciding to relish both the warmth of his touch and the familiar sounds of home.

Perhaps her friends would think it odd, but who cared who was watching? This was her life, and she’d nearly lost it. So now that it was hers, she was going to do what she wanted with it.

Even if it meant dancing with a dragon.

His body was languid and smooth, moving perfectly with her and the music, and she supposed with his physical prowess in every other area, she should have known dancing would be simple for him.

But she never would have been able to picture it before this.

If it was the alcohol doing it, she was grateful for it.

She turned in his arms, looking up at him. His jacket was open, his chest muscled and sexy, his face glowing with sweat, his features calm and intense at the same time. His hands pulled her close, wrapping them together even more intimately as they rocked to the beat.

She’d come here to remind herself she was at home in the human world, but she hadn’t felt safe or at home until she was in his arms.

What was wrong with her now?

She allowed herself to stay out of touch with reality for another song, and then it was too painful to hold on to him, knowing she was probably getting real feelings for him and that was going to hurt in the end.

Somewhere out there, he had a mate. She’d never been more grateful for the ability to forget.

She pulled back from him, taking a deep breath. “I need some air. Stay here.” Then she headed for a side door, hoping he didn’t follow, at least for a bit.

She needed to get her head clear, away from the darkness and pounding music. Perhaps she was just affected by the dance.

She pushed through the crowd, still in a haze of lust and confusion, and was relieved when she walked out into a fairly empty parking lot.

There were a couple of people talking by a car, a man with a couple of women. It seemed friendly enough, and they gave her a nod before going back to what they were doing.

And then she saw what one of them was pulling out.

A thin piece of silver glinted in the moonlight. A needle.

Waves of nausea went through her, images flashing through her mind of seizures and fear. Of violation and helplessness. Of lack of control and the sure knowledge that she would die, alone and in pain… full of needles.

She felt herself stagger back and would have fallen to her knees if not for someone catching her under the arms.

Arsenic.

She could tell vaguely, even though his face was hazy through the memories invading her mind, blurring the past and the present.

“Help, I can’t—” She began shaking and struggling as she fought to get past him, as far away from the needle as possible. Then the music from the club hit her, and she froze, not wanting to go in a crowd when she could barely see for the intense visions flooding her.

Arsenic held her against him, and she began to flail, hitting him, hating that at one moment he felt like her jailer and the next like her hero.

Then he picked her up in his arms, looking at her with reassuring eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Farrah.”

“No, it’s not,” she said, covering her eyes. “It’s never going to be okay. Not ever again. God, how am I going to work? How am I going to cope? I’m not normal. I’m never going to reclaim my life. Who was I ever kidding?” She collapsed against his chest. “I just want to go home.”

He held her tight, walking through the parking lot. As they passed, the man with the needle held it up.

“It’s just my insulin, dude.”

Arsenic only gave him a fierce shake of his head as Farrah burrowed against his chest. He walked with her until they were in a darker part of the street, with no one around. Then he looked down at her gently.

“Look, I’m drunk, and I can barely drive while sober. But I think I can maybe… fly.”

She barely had time to look up at him curiously before she felt him push off the ground. Her stomach dropped abruptly as he took off in the air, and she saw dark shapes like huge tents unfurl above him.

Wings.

“Where are we—”

“I’m not sure yet,” he said, carrying her unsteadily over the rooftops, swaying side to side. “Somewhere safe.”

She just nodded against his chest. If there was somewhere safe and he could find it, that’d be perfect.

* * *

Arsenic cursed himself for drinking as he darted and wove through the sky, looking for a safe place to land with his precious cargo.

Farrah was quiet against him, still shaking and letting out a quiet sob now and then, and he felt he was breaking inside because he couldn’t do anything about it.

He was glad he’d followed her out of the club, glad he’d been there to catch her when she stumbled. Glad he still could use his wings despite the human alcohol thrumming inside him.

He saw a nearby building, a parking garage with a large, flat roof access on top, and landed there with a thump, skidding along the cement which was slick with melting snow.

He looked up to see white flakes falling all around him. Just great.

He set Farrah down and walked to a corner of the roof where he could build a makeshift fire pit out of carefully controlled metal with all poison removed. Then he flew to a tree growing by the garage, pulled off a branch, and broke it in pieces, all while Farrah watched.

When the pieces were broken and deposited in the small, square metal box, he lit a fire there, generating warmth for him and Farrah.

Then he went over to her and picked her up. He walked to the fire and sat cross-legged in front of it with her in his lap. She curled into him and enjoyed the warmth, but then a cold gust blew against them, nearly extinguishing the fire and making Farrah shiver.

Arsenic protectively wrapped his wings around them in a makeshift tent, shielding them from the world, the storm, the cold.

Farrah looked up at his wings in wonder. “You really are from another planet.”

“Well, yes, but there are dragons from yours,” he said quietly.

“I see.”

She rested against him as the fire crackled, and Arsenic waited to feel sober. When she was ready to talk, he was ready to listen, but he didn’t want to push her.

“I suppose I should text my friends,” she said. “Brooke will be worried.”

“I can get us home,” he said. “When my head clears up, I’ll trust myself to fly better.”

“Will people see us?”

“I can cloak,” he said. “If I need to.”

“Ah. I’ve never seen you in dragon form before.”

“Of course not,” he said. “I was supposed to be helping you adjust to the human world. Not giving you more shocks about shifters. And this isn’t my dragon form. I’m still mostly human.”

“I wish I could see your other form,” she said.

“Does it matter?” he asked softly. “You’re going to forget all of this.” He gave her a guilty look. “I know I sound petulant when I say that. I know now why you want to forget. I saw your fear and rage in that parking lot. I don’t know exactly what they did to you, but I can see how reactions like that would hamper your ability to go about your life. Especially if your job involves… those things.”

She nodded. “I was delusional thinking I was somehow getting better.” She sighed. “You should have seen me before I was rescued. I’d given up. When I was first captured, thoughts of fighting, getting back to my world kept me going. But at some point, being stripped, being stabbed at, being controlled, being kept like a piece of equipment and tortured—it slowly ate away at me. ‘Til I wasn’t a human anymore. ‘Til I couldn’t imagine being a person again with a normal life. Before you rescued me, I just wanted to let go.”

“And die?” he asked, looking aghast.

She nodded. “Since I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be allowed to be alive, unless you count being constantly tortured to oblivion life.”

He shook his head. “I don’t. And I’m sorry they did that to you. I hate myself every day for not being there sooner.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said. “I’m not even a dragon heart, so no one was looking for me. They weren’t even supposed to capture me.”

“Then how did they find you?”

“I stopped to help a woman who had just stopped a burglary. She was bleeding, and as a nurse, I thought I could help out.”

“That sounds pretty brave to me.”

“Not compared to saving a bunch of people by stopping an armed robber.”

“Ah,” Arsenic said. “Well, I don’t think we have to compare bravery. And for what it’s worth, you’re the bravest person I’ve met. And I’ve personally met a dragon heart.”

“You have?”

“My friend’s mate.”

“Oh, right, dragons are supposed to mate dragon hearts,” she said. She looked slightly downcast about it.

“I guess so,” he said. “I don’t really know how it works. I don’t know who decides it.”

“I guess I really should be grateful I get to erase all of this.”

He frowned, feeling sorrow wave over him that there wasn’t another choice, another way to free her from the awful things in her past without him losing her from his future.

“Why do you always get that way when I talk about wanting to forget?”

He looked down at her hesitantly, then took a deep, resolute breath. “The truth is… I hate hearing that you want to forget me, because I’ve known from the moment I met you that I would never be able to forget you.”

She was quiet at that, and only the crackling of the dying flames lit the silence.

“But it’s not my life, not my decision. I’ve been through things, but nothing like you experienced when captured,” he said. “So whatever decision you make, I will respect it.”

She huddled against him, and he stroked her hair and wondered what she was thinking.

Then she looked up at him, blue eyes sparkling in the firelight glow beneath his wings. “I don’t know if I wish none of this had happened or if I’m grateful it did because I could meet you. I hope that even after I forget, I still have a memory somewhere in my heart that reminds me that someone like you once existed.”

“I hope so, too,” he said. “As long as it doesn’t hurt you.”

“Dammit, why does everything only feel right when I’m with you? I tried to get into things at the club, but I didn’t enjoy dancing at all, until it was with you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes,” she said, flushing slightly. “I just… I had such a good time with you in bed that I thought maybe I was just doing better in general. When I’m hanging with you, talking with you, doing anything with you, I just feel better. Normal. Better than normal in some ways. But then I know it can’t go anywhere, and I get frustrated.”

“Maybe it’ll be better once your memories are erased.”

“Now that I think about it, the whole thought is kind of scary. Will I just not know what happened in those missing weeks? Won’t I freak out about it?”

“I wish I had more information. I only know the oracle will try to make it right, and she’s very powerful. I would trust her.”

She rested against him again. “I wish we could just have fun together. Just live as if nothing was happening. Just enjoy the time we have without worrying about the future. I wish we could do more of what we did this morning without either of us getting hurt.”

“Well, you won’t get hurt,” he said. “You’ll forget.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m beginning to think that no amount of memory loss could erase someone like you.”

He didn’t know what to say about that. His dragon roared, screaming that this was the signal to claim her, but he knew better. He lived in the real world, the human world now.

So he had to really think. If she was his mate, his only chance at happiness, then wasn’t he better off doing everything he could with her now, before he lost her? Wouldn’t it be better to have something now and hurt than to hold himself back and regret it in the future when he had only their memories to treasure?

“I think we can live like that. The way you said. Moment by moment, without worrying about the ending. I think I do want to experience more things with you. As many as I can, while we have time.”

She nodded against him. “I’d like that, too.” She looked up into his eyes. “Now can you fly us home?”

“Of course,” he said, standing up with her in his arms. With a wave of his hand, the fire was out, the metal turning to dust and dissolving in the wind along with the ashes.

Arsenic took off into the cold night air, cloaking them from the world as his wings unfurled. He was steady now, ready to head in the direction of home.

For her, he could fly anywhere.