Kurt should have been exhausted, but he’d never felt so full of energy. It was six in the morning, and he’d been up since four. He’d also gone to bed at midnight. And yet, here he was, standing in the swirling snow on Chicago’s northernmost boundary, waiting on Natalie to finish checking her supply pack.
He almost laughed as he watched her. She’d always been a little bit on the paranoid side. He remembered more than one occasion in Falcon Cross where she’d insisted on going back to check that her front door was locked, even though they were halfway to a restaurant or movie theater already. Of course, when they returned, the door was always locked. Besides, even if it hadn’t been, there wasn’t much crime in Falcon Cross. The odds of someone waltzing into her apartment and stealing something had been slim. She was just the kind of person who always felt like she was forgetting something. If she wasn’t worrying about leaving the door unlocked, she was worrying about leaving the coffeepot on.
Old habits died hard, it seemed. Now, she was checking her pack for the third time.
The final time, Kurt told himself. He was trying to be patient with her, but he didn’t want to stand out here in this cold much longer. He was ready to shift into dragon form and be warm. This snow would have nothing on the internal heat his dragon produced. Natalie, who didn’t have the benefit of an internal furnace, had every centimeter of skin completely bundled up. Her gloves were off for the moment so that she could easily check on her supplies, but the rest of her looked like a giant black puff. Kurt was pretty sure she was wearing two coats, and probably three scarves. A black ski mask covered her face, and she had on thick snow pants and fur-lined snow boots. Kurt wondered how she was going to be able to see or cast magic spells bundled up like that, but she didn’t seem worried, so he didn’t say anything. She was the expert here, after all.
When she had finally finished checking her pack, she looked up at him and nodded. Before she could change her mind and start double-checking something else, Kurt started stripping down naked. Since this was a planned shift, Kurt would take off all his clothes to avoid ruining them.
The icy cold Chicago wind whipped off Lake Michigan, chilling him nearly instantly. He tore off the last of his clothing and began to shift as quickly as possible, welcoming the warmth. The frigidness in the air seemed to melt away as his dragon took over. His thick hide covered him, as though it was a blanket. He grew larger and larger, his dragon head replacing his human head, and his spiked wings and tail appearing once again. Kurt stretched out those wings, and his neck, before turning back toward Natalie. She had stuffed his clothes in her supply pack, and was pulling on her gloves. Even through her thick layers of clothing, he could see she looked miserable. The weather today was about the worst it could possibly be for a job like this. And it was only going to get worse. The higher Kurt flew up into the air, the colder it would be.
There was nothing to do but get started, though. Kurt knew Natalie didn’t want to delay for another day. He didn’t, either. Every day that passed with no progress on his mission was another day the Dark Warriors had free reign to wreak havoc on the city. The sooner they could be found and stopped, the better. A few moments later, Natalie climbed onto his back and gave him a firm pat on the side of his neck to indicate that she was ready to go. Kurt let out a little huff of smoke, and then began beating his wings against the air.
It felt strange to be rising above such a big city in dragon form. He couldn’t feel the invisibility shield around him, so he had to trust that Natalie was maintaining it well. The fallout if any humans saw him would be huge. Occasionally, shifters messed up and let humans see their animal forms, or wizards accidentally performed magic in front of humans. These sorts of things were strictly prohibited, except in emergencies. The punishment for violating the “emergencies-only” rule was severe. Even when there was an emergency, the chaos left in the wake of a shift or magic spell could be quite difficult to deal with. Humans had to be paid off, or even have their memory wiped. News outlets had to be interfered with, so that “shifter sightings” and other abnormal events were not reported worldwide. It was always a mess.
Kurt didn’t want to be part of a mess like that, so he flew as slowly as possible. He didn’t want Natalie to accidentally drop the invisibility shield around him. They had planned out a course across the city that would crisscross back and forth, first covering the more densely populated areas along the lakeshore and downtown, and then heading west to cover the more sprawling neighborhoods. Their plan was to work for as long as they had daylight, and hope they would cover everything today. Natalie had plenty of food for herself packed in her supply pack. Kurt would just go hungry. He would have to land and shift into human form to eat, and he didn’t want to waste that much time. He promised himself he would have a nice big dinner when their work was done tonight.
He began flying the planned route, but watched the sky warily. The way the weather was looking right now, there was no way they were going to be able to survey the whole city in one day. They had started as early as possible—any earlier and there wouldn’t have been enough light yet for Natalie to work. But they were still unlikely to finish before darkness descended once again.
Unless, of course, they got lucky and found a strong magical presence early on. If they found something that was undeniably a hideout, they would halt the search for the day. Wyatt would want to take a group to check out any potential headquarters as soon as possible. Kurt allowed himself to fantasize about finding something within the first few minutes. A long shot, he knew, but a dragon could dream, couldn’t he?
Those dreams did not come to pass. Five hours passed, and nothing exciting had happened. Kurt was still slowly flying back and forth, his stomach now growling and demanding a lunch it wasn’t going to get. He could feel Natalie up on his back, shifting her weight now and then as she performed the spell to detect simple magical energy. He was glad, at least, that it was her on his back. He liked the feel of her body against his broad dragon back. As he flew, he allowed himself to imagine what it would feel like to have her body against his human body. He had sat beside her on the couch so many times back in Falcon Cross. Why had he never attempted to make a move? If he had, they might have stayed together all of these years, instead of living separate lives. He had told himself back then that it was easier to say goodbye. After all, they both just wanted to blend into the human world, and that was easier to do alone than together. But now, that felt like such a pathetic excuse. Kurt was beginning to admit to himself that he’d been scared. Scared that he’d take a chance and it wouldn’t work out. Scared that she’d reject him. Scared, scared, scared. That wasn’t how a dragon shifter should function. Kurt vowed that he was not going to be scared this time. Before he left Chicago, he was going to find a way to show Natalie that she meant something to him.
Kurt’s thought went around in this cycle for hours. He thought about the Dark Warriors, about Torch Lake, about Natalie, and then about the Dark Warriors again. At first, he had admired the beauty of a snow-covered Chicago from the air. But after hours of staring at it, the city no longer looked impressive. It looked cold, and Kurt wondered how Natalie was faring up on his back. He hoped she was warm enough under her many layers. At least they were almost done. Daylight was fading quickly now, and they had only made it about three quarters of the way through their planned search. Kurt was about to give in and start heading back to the spot where they’d started, and where he could safely shift without drawing attention to himself, when Natalie suddenly gave him five hard taps on the left side of his neck.
Kurt instantly snapped out of his daydreaming to become fully alert. That was the signal to hover. He slowed to a complete stop, and flapped his wings carefully so that he stayed in one place. Above him, he could feel Natalie excitedly moving around. She was pulling out her notebook, or camera, or both. He felt his own heart pounding with excitement in his chest. This meant that she had found something. Perhaps their day would be productive, after all. Maybe, just maybe, she had actually discovered the Dark Warriors headquarters.
He hovered for several minutes while Natalie struggled to make notes and take pictures. He hoped her hands weren’t turning completely blue. The cold had only worsened, and the snow was thickening. But when she finally tapped him again five times—this time on the right side, the signal that they were done—he could feel the excitement in her movements.
Cold or not, she had found something. And he couldn’t wait to hear about it.