Josie
Josie stretched, allowing herself the luxury of a slow return to the waking world.
Every part of her felt utterly relaxed, though the memories of last night still played over the deliciously sore muscles of her thighs and belly. Sighing and smiling, she opened her eyes, watching the way the breeze moved the gauzy curtains of Isaak’s bedroom.
This must be what heaven feels like, she thought, as she reached across the bed for Isaak’s warm, solid body…
… Only to find nothing there.
Sitting up, Josie ran her fingers through the wild tangle of her hair, looking around in mild alarm.
Not that she was worried that Isaak had gone anywhere, but as the other, less pleasant memories from last night came back to her, she began to grow concerned at this absence.
Did Bain somehow find us here? she wondered as she knelt on the bed, straining to hear any sounds coming from elsewhere in the house. After everything else that had happened, it didn’t seem so unlikely that he could track them down. Thinking about it now, it did seem like a rather unlikely coincidence that he was here at the same time as she was, the strange interest he’d shown in her ring, the way he’d suddenly appeared just as Isaak had caught the pan and perhaps inadvertently revealed his powers to anyone who might know what they were looking at…
She didn’t have any other clothes at his villa aside from her now crumpled summer dress, and she smoothed it out as best she could as she stood, before making her way down the short corridor to the living area.
“Isaak?” she called out, her mild alarm now rising to open panic.
“I’m here,” he replied, sounding not in the least bit concerned.
She hurried into the open plan living area and kitchen, to find him putting the finishing touches on what had to be the most sumptuous-looking breakfast she’d ever laid eyes on.
There was olive loaf with melted butter, piles of fresh fruit, creamy yoghurt, and more kinds of cheese than she thought she could name. Isaak was in the process of flipping the fluffiest omelette she’d ever seen onto a plate, before garnishing it with some fresh herbs.
“I’d hoped I’d be able to bring this to you in bed,” he said, somewhat ruefully. “But you beat me to it.”
Josie, eyes wide as she looked over the amazing spread, felt herself a little at a loss for words. “How long have you been up? This must’ve taken a while.”
Isaak merely shrugged. “I got a few hours of sleep. But when I woke up I felt… better.” He shook his head. “No, that’s an understatement. I felt amazing. It was like I didn’t know what being well-rested meant until this morning.”
He pushed the plate of omelette toward her, and she grabbed a fork, tucking in with relish. It was perfect.
“I don’t know what it is,” Isaak said as she ate. “I almost feel like a new man. Like there’s something deep inside me that’s been unlocked. Like this is how I’m supposed to feel.”
Josie nodded slowly, swallowing. “Well, I imagine having some of your questions about yourself answered last night can account for that. Even if the circumstances weren’t what you’d call ideal.”
At that, Isaak’s eyes grew a little harder. “That’s true.” Frowning, he looked away from her, staring out across the ocean. “Josie, there’s a risk that Bain won’t give up,” he said after a long moment of silence. “He seemed very determined. Do you remember what he called himself?”
Josie nodded again. “Yes – he said he was a hunter.” They sat in silence as she finished the omelette, turning the implications of this over in her mind. “I suppose… I suppose that could make sense. If you think about it, every movie that has some kind of supernatural creature in it has someone who wants to hunt them down. Think about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Isaak looked politely blank, and Josie decided to let it pass. No use in trying to explain that now – surely he understood the general idea!
“And I suppose that… well, in legends and stories, where there was a dragon, there was always a knight errant to rescue the maiden fair and slay the… uh…”
Josie trailed off as she realized what she was saying. She didn’t miss the way Isaak blinked suddenly, before dropping his eyes.
“I didn’t mean that,” she said quickly, standing and walking around the kitchen counter to him. “Shit, I’m sorry, that was a horrible thing to say. I wasn’t thinking at all!”
“It’s okay,” Isaak said quietly, resting his hands on hers as she cupped his face in her palms. “In fact… it makes a certain kind of sense. Do you think that’s what he sees when he looks at us? A maiden fair and the beast who has her in his clutches?”
“Well for starters,” Josie said, “I’m no maiden. And second, I’m not so fair either.” She grinned, wriggling her fingers at him to show off her brown skin. “So you can forget that. And last of all, you are not a monster, and I don’t need rescuing from you. The opposite, in fact. Wild pegasi couldn’t drag me away.”
Isaak lifted his eyes to hers, looking at her searchingly. “You really mean that, don’t you,” he said, and it was more of a statement than a question.
Josie nodded. “I really do.”
His mouth was warm against hers as he leaned down to kiss her, his tongue warm and firm as it parted her lips, sweeping inside.
Josie found it took all of her willpower to keep her knees from wobbling as he kissed her, strong and powerful, his hands sliding down her sides to rest on her waist.
She gasped as he pulled back, left utterly breathless by the force of his kiss.
“I don’t think monsters can kiss like that,” she said, when she felt able to speak again.
She saw a glint of amusement in Isaak’s eyes as his hand left her hip to grab a piece of watermelon, before he slid it between her lips.
“Eat your breakfast,” he said, his voice warm with suppressed laughter.
They ate together in companionable silence. Josie didn’t feel the need to speak – and in any case, the food was too good to concentrate on anything except eating.
“Wow,” she said, sitting back on the counter stool as she licked the last delicious morsel of cheese from her fingers. “That was incredible.”
Isaak nodded. “I’m lucky here. Fresh food isn’t hard to come by.”
“Well,” Josie said, “now that we’ve eaten, what should we do?” At Isaak’s quizzical look, she continued, “I mean, we know you’re a dragon. But that only seems like the beginning of the answer. So you’re a dragon… but what does that mean? And aside from not being burned by fire and magically healing bones, what other powers do you have?” She licked her lips, leaning forward. “Can you… can you breathe real fire?”
Isaak shook his head. “I don’t even know how to begin finding these things out. I’ve never met anyone who felt the same way I did. Never.”
“That you know of,” Josie pointed out. “It’s not like they’d go around announcing it. You didn’t. And if there’s dragon hunters, then it stands to reason there’d be dragons. Plural.”
“I suppose so,” Isaak said uneasily. “But by the same token, if there’s dragon hunters, who’s to say that other dragons aren’t the monsters we’ve always been told they are? What if the only reason I’m not is because I was raised by humans?”
Josie bit her lip, thinking. As much as she hated to admit it, Isaak had a point.
They had no way of knowing what other dragons were like – and just because Bain, personally, was a creep, didn’t mean there wasn’t a good reason for dragon hunters to exist.
“Well, I suppose there’s a chance of that,” she said slowly. “But, well… you being raised by humans can’t be the only reason you’re not a bad person… dragon. Maybe there’s good dragons and bad dragons.”
Isaak didn’t look particularly convinced by her reasoning, and Josie herself had to admit it was weak. But the only way they were ever going to find out more was by trying.
“This must be very strange for you,” Isaak said softly as he began to collect their breakfast dishes. “You come out here to find an endangered bird, and you meet a dragon instead. That must be somewhat more than you bargained for.”
Josie burst out laughing, unable to help herself. “Well, that’s true,” she said, grinning widely at him. “And speaking of, I’ll need to email my boss with the good news about the kingfisher we found yesterday. But, y’know… there’s been theories in the past that all those tales of dragons and monsters are really just stories of dinosaurs that somehow didn’t go extinct. And we know now that dinosaurs didn’t really go extinct, anyway. They evolved.”
“Oh?” Isaak said, curiosity in his eyes.
Josie nodded. “Into birds. So watch out, or I might have some pretty intrusive questions for you.”
Isaak laughed, the sound making Josie’s heart soar.
“Anything you like,” he said, leaning across the counter to kiss her. “I’m all yours.”
Josie smiled into the kiss, wanting to do nothing more for the moment than to sink into his arms. This had to be the most extraordinary week of her life: she’d found the white speckled kingfisher after years of searching, she’d met the man of her dreams, the man of her dreams had turned out to be a dragon…
She didn’t know what else could possibly happen to make the week even weirder.
Or any more wonderful, she thought, opening her lips to Isaak’s tongue.
She had just begun to let herself sink into the kiss, warmth gathering in her belly, when a sudden noise made her startle.
It sounded like an enormous whump!, as if something very large and very heavy had landed on the ground not too far away from the villa.
Confused, she pulled back – only to see the beginnings of a look of complete and total horror on Isaak’s face.
“Isaak, what is it?” she asked urgently, fear of her own now beginning to curdle in the pit of her stomach.
He didn’t answer. Desperately turning her head to follow the direction of his stricken gaze, Josie gasped.
Because there, standing on the craggy rocks of the edge of the cliff, was a dragon.
For a moment, Josie’s mind refused to process what she was seeing.
Sure, she’d just spent the morning talking with Isaak about the existence of other dragons, about the possibility of him having other powers, and how they should definitely go looking for more of his kind...
...But seeing one of them here, in the flesh... that was something she realized was going to take some getting used to.
She stared open-mouthed at the enormous creature: its neck was long and thick, its wings stretching up into the sky. Its tail lashed out behind it to keep its balance on its precarious perch. The scales of its body were a deep blue-black, its claws massive and hooked, while defensive spikes and armor ran down its shoulders and back. When it opened its mouth, she could see it was filled with teeth as sharp as sabers.
But even that wasn’t as unwelcome as what she saw when the dragon turned slightly, to show off who was riding on its back.
Bain.
So he had come, after all. He really wasn’t going to let up.
And now, he’d come back with a dragon of his own.
But... that doesn’t make sense, Josie thought, as her head whirled in panic. A dragon that hunts other dragons? And where on earth was it last night??
Josie’s mouth, already hanging open in shock, suddenly snapped closed as realization struck.
Magnus.
She remembered the odd way the man had moved, his arms and legs jerking awkwardly, as if he’d been trying to stop himself. She remembered the way he hadn’t moved a muscle until Bain had commanded him to, and the curiously blank look in his pale blue eyes.
Intuitively, Josie ran her eyes over the dragon’s long neck – and then she saw it.
The collar.
She’d noticed that the man Bain had called Magnus had been wearing it the night before – the strange loop of dark, iridescent metal that hadn’t looked like any kind of male jewelry she’d seen before.
Maybe... the collar... maybe it –
But before she could finish the thought, another popped into her head, derailing it completely.
But if that’s Magnus – then – then –
Last night, Magnus had appeared as completely human-looking. He had been taller and more muscular than most men Josie had seen, but to look at him, she would never have thought he was anything other than a regular guy who went to the gym a lot.
Now, however, there was literally nothing human about him at all. He was a dragon, from the end of his ridged nose to the tip of his lashing tail.
So... so that must mean that Isaak can –
She didn’t have time to finish the thought before Bain’s voice called out from where he sat astride the dragon’s back.
Even from this distance, she could see the smarmy smile on his face.
“Did you think you could hide from me?” he called out, voice filled with cruel laughter. “Did you think you could run? Nobody can run from me! I will always hunt you down!”
Josie’s brain finally began to unfreeze. Fear still held her tightly, but now, she was also aware of another emotion: anger.
How dare he come here and threaten us! In Isaak’s own home!
For a moment, her anger flared so brightly within her that she forgot where she was, forgot that she was facing down a real, live dragon, and began to walk angrily across the living room floor, toward the terrace.
“I don’t know who the hell you think you are –” she began to yell, until she felt Isaak’s hand on her arm, pulling her back, shielding her behind him.
“Josie,” he murmured, not moving his head to look at her, his eyes staying firmly fixed on Bain and the dragon. “Let me deal with this.”
Josie opened her mouth to argue with him, to tell him that there was no way she would let him face this on his own – but something about the firm set of his jaw made her close it again.
Swallowing, she nodded, before raising her arm to squeeze his bicep. As he moved forward, Josie closed her eyes, balling all the love she felt for him – yes, she thought suddenly, love, I love him – into her chest, before, somehow, trying to send it straight to his heart.
She didn’t know what would come of this, but right now, she only wanted Isaak to know one thing: I believe in you.