At night, while the others in the camp slept around him, Kirin stared up at the stars. With his backpack for a pillow and only a blanket separating his body from the hard ground, he was reminded of camping trips he took when he was a boy. When he was sixteen, the year that boys came into their manhood, he’d spent many a night like this one, staring up at the stars and charting their positions in the sky. Only his world had skies that were the deepest magenta at night, a dark blue-green during the day. Here, on this teeming, restless blue planet his people had come to as last resort, the black night skies seemed cold and alien. He could, however, see the shine of a very distant star, his home world as it had been many millennia before. Yet more light years would pass before his home world was visible from Earth as it was on the night his people fled: a cratered planet in the burning throes of death.

Kirin had in fact been drawn to this particular spot on the map because it reminded him of home in some ways; this part of the Northwest still had land that was mostly unspoiled by humans. There were great swaths of wilderness. But what they were looking for was a place without major roads cutting through. This was difficult to find, as most areas were annexed. They needed to find an isolated spot, one as few humans would come near as possible. It was his hope to find somewhere his people could settle in peace. If that option were not available, they would need to resort to force. He hoped it would not come to that. In his experience, violence only brought more violence. But he had certain orders from his superiors which could not be dismissed out of hand.

“Why are you still awake?” Tarik asked.

“Probably for the same reason as you,” Kirin replied. He hadn’t been aware that his comrade was awake but was slightly relieved that he was. “It will be dawn soon. We can head out again.”

“The river is close,” Tarik added. “We’ll get there.”

“I worry about the people we left behind,” Kirin told him. “It’s hard enough being away from home, I just don’t want them to lose hope. We’ve come so far now that it’s within reach, I don’t want anything to go wrong.”

“The men are getting restless,” Tarik admitted. “I guess we all are.”

Kirin wouldn’t say so, but he didn’t blame them. Much had been promised to the people, and it felt like they had not delivered upon many promises made. As things were now, their people were scattered, living in secret, some in groups of ten or fewer. While it was easier to blend in with humans that way, it also made them vulnerable. One directive they had been given was that no one was allowed to shift into their dragon forms. In itself, that was enough to make them anxious. To remain in their humanoid forms for an extended period of time was uncomfortable. Some would even say unnatural.

Kirin had four men with him; Tarik was his right hand. They had been friends since they were boys, roaming the skies of their home world as fledgling dragons. He had requested Tarik as his Co-Commander once they both graduated. They evened each other out; Kirin was impulsive, where Tarik was measured in his decisions. In many ways, Kirin thought of them as brothers in ways that his parent’s other sons could never be.

The other men in their unit: Pol, Jerrod, and Fenn all held the rank of lieutenant. Pol and Jerrod had played cards for most of the night while Fenn occupied himself with a book. These small things were relics of their lives back home. Comforting, but not enough to fill Kirin’s troubled mind. It was good to hear the others chat and laugh with each other, but as soon as they were asleep, Kirin had felt his own worries settle in.

“I will wake them soon,” Kirin said, watching the sun make its slow ascent in the east. “You ever think what life would have been like if home were still there?”

“Are you kidding?” Tarik rolled his eyes. “Constantly. Sometimes it irritates me that I can’t seem to get it out of my head. Once we have a settlement here, I think that will fade. We won’t be in this state of unease, being neither here nor there.”

“I hope you’re right,” Kirin replied. “Don’t we lose part of who we are if we forget?”

“Yeah, if we could forget. Which we won’t. We still have the blood of our people within us.”

“And their fire,” Kirin said, completing the old maxim.

He longed to find a place where he could roam free in the sky, spread his wings and feel the fire burst through his body. There was no feeling like it, the freedom of being one with the elements of fire and air. Back home, it was believed a dragon had entered the last phase of life when they were no longer able to shift into the animal form. It was the beginning of death. As much as Kirin would keep a positive outlook in front of his men, he feared that this was what was already happening to them because they could not allow themselves to shift properly. Not a physical death, but a spiritual one.

Kirin and his men had been in search of a safe place for the better part of a month. While it was important to be selective, Kirin was very aware of the passage of time. Once they were assured they had found a good location for the settlement, there was still the matter of moving everyone there. He could only hope that people were sitting tight and following orders in their various corners of this alien world.

* * *

Not long after they arrived on the planet, Kirin had “convinced” an unassuming human to give them his SUV, and to even show the men how to drive it. The man walked away with a smile and no memory of the exchange. He was thankful to have secured the vehicle.

Kirin’s superiors had told him that some humans would be easier to influence than others; some would follow orders without thinking twice, while others were quite stubborn and were harder to influence through mind control. He’d been shocked at how easy it was to control the man.

“Smoking him still would have been faster,” Pol complained.

“More messy though,” Fenn said.

“You’re complaining because you’d be the one who had to clean up the ashes. The youngest in the unit always gets the dirty work,” Jerrod sneered.

Jerrod and Pol both laughed. Fenn was not amused.

“It’s beside the point,” Kirin said. “We’re not here to kill these people for folly. We’re supposed to work without attracting attention.”

Pol sighed. “Yes, sir.”

There were a grudging agreement and a murmur from the men in the backseat. Kirin smiled. Sometimes he thought to be a good leader was much akin to being a father. There was a need for affection and toughness to make a Commander worthy of the loyalty his charges gave him.

* * *

According to their estimates, the lake they sought was one hundred miles away from their campsite, one of many in this region. It was treacherous land to reach, with mountain passes and lonely stretches of broken road before they dipped down into the valley. It would have been much easier to reach by air, but for the moment they were stuck using manmade modes of transportation.

As the water came into view, sparkling in the bright afternoon sunshine, Kirin felt his heart leap. There were similar reactions from the other men. Though they were silent, he could feel the movement of their emotions. This could be home. It could be a new beginning.

Kirin parked the SUV at the shore, and all the men climbed out and looked around. Before them was a mountain, the remnant of a long-dead volcano. The water was beautiful, reflecting back the blue sky. It was a well defensible space, only accessed by

“It reminds me of Mt. Spaura,” Tarik breathed.

“The home of kings,” Kirin affirmed.

Fenn was the first to toss aside his backpack and shoes, and go running into the water. The other men followed suit, even Tarik. They played and splashed in the water, hollered and screamed in joy, their voices echoing through the canyons. Kirin watched them from the shore, laughing. They needed this release.

He turned away from them a moment, took out his cell phone and placed a call. In lieu of a greeting, he gave his coordinates and last name instead. “I believe we’ve found a place,” he said.

“Remain where you are. We’re coming to your location, Commander.”

Tarik yelled.

The Blackhawk helicopters were silent, flying towards them so fast Kirin barely had time to move. Kirin had seen a white flash before everything went dark.

Rayna Michaels double checked her reflection in the mirror, turning one way and then the other. She had bought a new suit for this day, but when the alarm clock rang at six that morning, the first thing she did was rush to the closet to see if she had anything better to wear. After making three wardrobe changes, she was back in her original pick: a black skirt with matching, fitted blazer and a white, sleeveless blouse with a ruffle down the front. She thought about wearing heels but decided on flats instead. She had no idea how much walking she would need to do on her first day of work, but orientation usually meant being shown around the facility.

DynamicTech was a huge building. She’d read somewhere that it was over ten thousand square feet, with four levels, including a subterranean floor that held most of the company’s research laboratories. Though she was intimately familiar with the building, Rayna reminded herself she couldn’t expect to be treated differently than any other laboratory research assistant the company hired. And frankly, she didn’t want to be. As the daughter of one of the company’s founding members, Ashton Michaels, she had a lot to prove. Already there were rumors floating around about nepotism, and she couldn’t blame people for thinking so. She intended to prove anyone with doubts about her professionalism wrong.

One of the things that made her choice about what to wear even harder was that Rayna was a little shy about her body. She was curvy with generous, breasts, hips, and butt. Often times she felt like dressing for work was a fine line between wearing something close fitting enough to draw attention to the fact that she was voluptuous, or wearing clothing that hid her body under shapeless forms that made her look like a chunky square. Sighing, she decided the current outfit would have to do. She pinned her red-brown hair into a sensible bun, rimmed her green eyes with brown eyeliner, and applied a light pink gloss to her lips. With a nervous, breathless smile, she grabbed her purse and was out of the door.

It was only a twenty minute drive through morning traffic, but when she arrived at the building her hands were shaking. She cracked her knuckles, popped a peppermint into her mouth, and took a deep breath in. When she entered the lobby, her father was standing at the front desk. The receptionist was looking at him nervously.

“Well you’re early, so that’s good,” Ashton said to his daughter. “I hope you know I’m expecting you to do me proud,” he said coolly. Bending down towards her, he whispered in her ear. “Don’t blow this.”

“I won’t,” Rayna replied, with more certainty than she felt. This was her first job post graduate. Up until then, she had worked on a couple of internships at other companies, and a couple summers at the local coffee shop. College students from all over the country applied to DynamicTech for jobs which they were roundly rejected for. She knew exactly the kind of talent she was up against. The company did major work for many contractors, including top secret work for the federal government. Her own security clearance had taken eight weeks to complete.

“Good!” Ashton patted her shoulder. “I’ll leave you to it then. Dr. Edwards will be here to take you on a tour,” he said. Rayna took a breath when he walked away. Rayna looked over at the receptionist. “Hi Tina,” she said.

“Hey Rayna,” Tina smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, he does that with all the new assistants.”

“Good to know,” Rayna admitted.

“Want some coffee while you wait?” Tina asked. “Dr. Edwards always takes longer than expected.

“No, I think I am amped up enough as it is.”

“Water, then?”

“Sure.”

True to form, Dr. Edwards did arrive late.

He whisked her away to a room with three other new employees. A woman gave them a long list of forms to sign, and a speech about confidentiality and how they would soon be privy to sights and information they must not share with anyone. Once this formality was completed, he whisked her away from the others and onto a private tour. He explained that they would all work in different areas, with their own labs, and other staff to show them the ropes.

Rayna had known him since she was a small child, and it was a bit of a comfort to her that he was the one showing her around. He was a gray-haired, mild-mannered man with thick, black-rimmed glasses, which appeared to be the same ones he’d worn since she was five years old. Over the years he seemed not to have aged much, other than his hair, which was chestnut brown when he was younger. She remembered him having dinners at her house. Afterward, he would sit with her father in the den of their home, where they would debate science theories, ethics, and politics. Though she had never called him an uncle, Rayna thought of him that way.

It was Rayna’s understanding that he did orientation for all the newbies, but he spoke with the excitement one would expect from someone doing this for the first time.

He showed her through the upper levels; the administrative offices, marketing and development, and the secretarial pool, before taking her down to the subterranean floor.

“This is where the magic not only happens but is created,” he said as they took the elevator down. Rayna felt her pulse quicken. It was obviously a nerd reaction, but she was excited to see what was down there. She had never been. There were all kinds of stories about what might or might not be in the laboratory, and she wanted to know which were real. Even her father didn’t tell her these things. He always said it was indeed a matter of national security. He always said it with a wink and a grin, but something on gut level told Rayna her father was very serious. He wasn’t the kind of man to kid about anything.

“Your primary job will be to take specimens from the subjects on a daily basis, and to monitor any changes- chemical or behavioral- for each one. You’ll deal with five subjects alone, which is a procedure we have established over years of trial and error. One person will easily spot what several different people will miss.”

“Specimens?” Rayna asked.

“Yes,” Dr. Edwards said with a smile. He slid his key card against a reader attached to the wall, and a pair of steel doors slid open with a mechanical whoosh. This was the lab, the secret heart of the company.

The doctor walked her over to what looked like an aquarium, with a small, octopus-like creature floating inside it. Rayna blinked when she realized the squid was floating in the air, not water. Rayna guessed it couldn’t be longer than five inches in diameter. Its tentacles were pink. The creature swam towards the doctor as he tapped his fingers along the glass casing.

“We’re not encouraged to give our friends here names, but I do anyway. We spend so much time with them, it’s almost impossible not to. This is Johnny. He’s the smallest we have here but don’t be fooled. If he gets out of his casing its hell to get him back in. Last time that happened it took a week to find him, and he’d somehow managed to get into the air conditioning vent. Very slippery little fellow.”

Rayna wasn’t sure what to say to that. Dr. Edwards ushered her through another door.

“We keep each of these creatures in separate rooms,” he explained. “We can’t have them colluding or exciting each other.”

“That would insinuate they’re sentient.”

“Well of course they are!” the doctor exclaimed as if this should be completely obvious.

They came to stand in front of the next glass enclosure. “Umm. Is this alive?” Rayna asked.

The thing inside the glass appeared to be a blue, gelatinous goo, the same blue as window spray or toilet bowl cleaner. No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, the thing began to move, flowing up the glass. It curved into something like a face.

“It’s mimicking you,” Dr. Edwards said. “We don’t know why exactly it does that, but we believe it’s a social adaptation rather than a predatory behavior. This would be its way of saying hello.”

“It?” Rayna echoed.

“Well, we haven’t been able to determine the gender, or of this species even has distinct genders, to be honest. We believe it breaks off in pieces as a form of reproduction. We call it Mimi. You won’t have to open this one’s cage. We have a tube that will allow you to catch its secretions in a cup, and you’ll use that for your daily specimen.”

Rayna frowned. “How dangerous is this job?”

“Not at all if you do it correctly, dear,” the doctor replied.

She braced herself as they went through the next door.

This exhibit contained what looked to be an ordinary gorilla. Until he stood. Primates usually bent, their knuckles dragging the ground. This gorilla stood up straight and tall like any man. Apparently, he was also modest. He’d been supplied with a pair of tan shorts. He slipped his hands into his pockets and nodded congenially. “Dr. Edwards, good afternoon,” he said. “Miss,” he nodded towards Rayna.

“Um, hello sir,” Rayna answered. She couldn’t believe she was talking to a gorilla.

“His name is Poe,” Dr. Edwards informed Rayna. “You’ll find he is the friendliest of our guests. He’s been with us since he was an infant. One of our old research assistants used to read Poe to him regularly, and when he spoke for the first time, he quoted the author. So that’s what we named him. Poe, this is Rayna. She’ll be working with you. I do hope you’ll be nice to her when she attempts to draw your blood.”

“Yes. Pleased to meet you Rayna,” the gorilla said.

“Same here,” Rayna muttered. She pinched herself, just in case she was in bed still sleeping. No such luck.

As they passed into the next room, Rayna couldn’t help but ask. “Where did we get these creatures from?”

“Different parts of the universe. Exactly which planets, I couldn’t tell you. That’s information which the military doesn’t give us.”

“Oh,” Rayna said. “Right.”

“Well, we’ve come to the last of your charges,” Dr. Edwards said. “I know it’s quite a lot to take in at once, but you’ll get used to it, dear.”

The doctor flipped a switch, and the lights came up inside the glass enclosure. This one was huge, the size of an airplane hangar. Rayna’s mouth dropped open. At first, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at. A huge dragon loomed above them, its eyes a brilliant amber. They were close enough to see scales and claws. The dragon opened its mouth, revealing a serpent like tongue and fangs.

“How am I supposed to get a sample from him?” Rayna cried. She trembled.

“Oh, he has a human form. You’ll take a blood draw from him when he’s not so testy. He’s only been here for forty-eight hours, and I suspect it hasn’t been a good couple of days for him. He’ll calm down.”

Rayna could have been imagining it- she highly suspected that she might have imagined the entire last thirty minutes of her life- but the dragon looked her in the eye. She was rooted to the spot as it inhaled, breast heaving, and then exhaled fire.

The glass (which was heat resistant) protected Rayna and Dr. Edwards.

Rayna still felt the heat. The animal’s eyes were angry, but she could have sworn there was something pleading in the look as well. She was reminded of a hysterical, terrified animal at the shelter who understood his number would soon be up, barking and hurling himself at walls and anyone who dared approach him. Begging for attention before his protests were too late.

Only this was no puppy. This was a thing with scales and teeth and fire, at least five stories high, tethered down by chains. A vision from the depths of hell itself.

Rayna felt like the floor beneath her was flipped upside down. She was going down fast but couldn’t do anything to stop herself. She was aware of the doctor’s arms coming around her before she hit the concrete floor.

“Oh my!” he exclaimed. “Rayna, dear…!”

Well, this isn’t a good impression on my first day, she thought, as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Rayna woke up.

She was lying on a couch in a dim room, with a cool compress against her head. She sat up and was relieved to see Dr. Edwards smiling at her.

“How are you feeling?” he asked kindly.

“Better now,” Rayna said. “I am so sorry and embarrassed.”

“No need for that. You handled it well. I have seen others react much worse than you did.”

“My father will be humiliated once he finds out.”

“No, that’s not necessary,” he said. “As soon as you can give it another try, I don’t see any reason he should be told. We don’t say anything about what’s going on in the lab unless it’s something he absolutely must know, and I don’t think this minor mishap qualifies. Agreed?”

Rayna tried for a shaky smile. Even though she didn’t want to go back to the lab, she was aware her father would never let her hear the end of it if she didn’t. “Agreed,” she said.

“I will give you credit Rayna, we don’t usually have dragons in our keeping,” the doctor said as they made their way out of his office and down the hallway. “He is a magnificent beast! I am told he’s calm now. Since he is the one that really scared you, I think we should go back to him first.”

Excellent, Rayna thought. All I need is to fall over again to prove I’m not cut out for this job.

Rayna attempted to brace herself for what she would see when the door opened this time. Pulse racing, she held her breath.

The door opened, and she exhaled.

Standing near the glass was perhaps the most good-looking man she had ever seen. His amber eyes followed her across the room. With some shock, she realized this was the dragon she’d seen, in his human form.

He had black hair which laid in waves across his crown. His skin was tan. He had full lips, and aquiline nose, and a cleft chin. His thick muscles and long body were close to masculine perfection. And his muscular, sculpted form was completely nude. Rayna blushed. The dragon held her eyes. He seemed not at all uncomfortable naked in front of these two strangers.

“I am sorry I frightened you before,” he said. “It was not my intention.”

“You speak English?” Rayna asked.

“Not exactly,” he replied. “I can communicate in a way that allows you to hear my language in your native tongue. And I hear yours the same way. My name is Kirin. What are you called?”

“Rayna,” she said.

“Nice to meet you, Rayna,” he said. His smile slowed her heartbeat to a thump.

Rayna smiled back. She tried with all her might not to let her eyes stray downward to his manhood. While she wasn’t entirely successful in the effort, she hoped she at least was not obvious about it.

Dr. Edwards showed her where she could get the supplies she needed for a blood draw. “I forgot to mention since he’s new we’ll also need to get a cheek swab for a DNA analysis.”

Rayna listened carefully to his instructions. Once she had everything that she needed, he keyed in another code which let her into the enclosure with Kirin.

“I won’t hurt you,” Kirin said gently. He looked into her eyes, and she was actually inclined to believe him. She felt a wave of calm flow over her. She knew he was influencing her somehow, but she couldn’t help it. At least, for now, his influence wasn’t interfering with her job. Who knew what this alien dragon was capable of? She worried that he might want to lull her into a sense of false security, only to do something that harmed her.

“Let’s do the swab first,” she said. He opened his mouth and let her take the swab. He followed her every order, never taking those beautiful eyes off of her. She found herself daydreaming about those sensual lips on hers, his powerful arms wrapped around her. Her hands shook as she took the blood sample but she managed it anyway. She was relieved to see that his blood was actually red, even though she was sure it was composed of different stuff than human blood. It was very thick. She would have found it somehow more upsetting if his blood was green or blue, some other color she didn’t associate with life.

“I was infuriated when I saw you before,” he whispered. “I have been separated from my men, my people. I don’t know what’s happened to them.”

“I’m sorry,” Rayna said. “I didn’t know, but I can only imagine how upsetting that was.” She made a mental note to herself to be as kind as possible. Obviously, upset brought out the primal side of his nature. It wasn’t productive for either of them for him to be angry.

Kirin smiled, seeming to understand her train of thought. “Thank you for the empathy,” he said. “It appears to be lacking here.”

After she was done with Kirin, Poe was next. Rayna realized she felt better to those she could speak with. She could talk herself into believing Poe was actually a man in an ape suit, and she could even tell herself the beautiful dragon would not hurt her. The gelatinous goo (Mimi) and the octopus creature (Johnny) bothered her more. In fact, Johnny was the most difficult. He floated in the opposite direction whenever her hand came near him in the tank. By the time she got her sample from him, she was sweating.

“Good job,” Dr. Edwards said when they were done. “Just so you know, your boss will be Dr. Sidell. I won’t mention today’s bit of confusion to him, but he’s very exacting. Mind your P’s and Q’s, because he would not have tolerated what happened. But this is a job like any other, I understand you have to learn. When you do samples tomorrow there may be added protocols, so make sure to check your email before you come in. Mind yourself around all of them. Especially our young dragon because he hasn’t been here long enough for us to know his behaviors yet.”

It was a stressful day. Rayna showered as soon as she got home, put on pajamas and climbed into bed. The sun was still out, but she didn’t care. She was frazzled and worried about what the coming days and weeks held for her. She’d left home thinking she was starting work at a relatively normal job. Now, barely eight hours later, she was coming to grips with the realization that not only were humans not alone in the universe—but the cosmos was peopled with all kinds of sentient beings, with all kinds of powers…

Even as she drifted to sleep, she thought of the beautiful Kirin, and how he captivated her. She could not understand the strange attraction she had to him. She only knew the way he looked at her created a surge of warmth beneath her skin. And though she knew the power of the dragon he could become, she wanted to know the man.

The next morning, Rayna took Dr. Edward’s advice and logged into her work computer to find several long, detailed emails from her new boss, Dr. Sidell. She was surprised he was expecting her to take and prepare all the samples on her own, without anyone watching. She would have hoped someone would be in the room with her until she became more comfortable with the procedure. But that was not the case. To make the entire thing more challenging, there was an added list of procedures to be done on Kirin. The only explanation Sidell gave for this was Kirin’s profile was “limited” and they needed to gather further “pertinent information.”

Rayna took this to mean they had never studied a being like Kirin before, and they needed him poked and prodded as much as possible in order to try and figure out what his species’ version of DNA looked like. Brilliant.

She scribbled the long list of requested tests onto a notepad and sighed. It took nearly twenty minutes to procure the items she needed from the supply cabinet. Once she was done there, Rayna keyed herself into the room where Kirin was being kept.

“Hello,” he said.

The man was standing there, back against the wall, arms crossed, still naked. And though he didn’t seem to mind, it would have helped her concentration immensely if he had a pair of shorts like Poe’s. Seriously, she wouldn’t mind a shirt either. Maybe it would be worth it to buy him some herself. “If I brought you some clothes, would you wear them?”

He cocked his head in her direction, seeming to listen to something more than the handful of words which were spoken. “On my home world, the climate is generally warm, and we don’t feel the need for clothing, except for certain occasions. It gets ruined when we phase into our other form. But since it’s local custom, and more so, to make sure you’re comfortable, I wouldn’t mind it. I was wearing clothes when they captured me. I assume they were destroyed.”

“You read minds,” Rayna said.

“When it suits me,” Kirin’s amber eyes sparkled.

“Clever,” Rayna replied. She couldn’t help but smile.

What was worse, she wasn’t sure; letting her eyes roam his body or looking into those eyes, which made her body go still while her heart beat frantically. She was sure that when the ancient Greeks chiseled their statues, this man would have been the prototype for their gods. Knowing he could hear her inappropriate thoughts didn’t help her cause. She blushed, and he smiled knowingly. I must be stroking his ego right about now.

Either way, she wasn't productive by just standing there, staring. She rolled a tray with wheels into his space so she could lay out all the objects the samples she needed to take.

“I’m afraid they want me to do a battery of tests, different than the ones I performed yesterday. Some of these will hurt.”

“We should get it over then,” he said.

Rayna thought it best to get the easier of the testing done first. Two more cheek swabs were requested, along with more blood. She had to clip a bit of his hair as a sample.

“I’m surprised they don’t ask you to take these samples after I have phased into my dragon,” Kirin said. “Might be interesting to see you remove a scale or two.”

Rayna raised an eyebrow. “Please don’t give them any ideas.”

He chuckled.

“You find me amusing?” she asked.

“Yes and no.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I find you intriguing,” he said softly.

Rather than get into what that meant, Rayna tried to focus. He was distracting enough without being charming on top of it. She feared he was amused by her inner thoughts, which was all about how hot he was. She had no control over it. She blushed.

“These next few are going to hurt,” Rayna said.

He only nodded this time. Dr. Sidell wanted skin samples, and these were not the regular. She was instructed to actually cut a bit of skin away. She decided to take the skin from his back.

He groaned when she cut him the first time. He bit down on his lip. She also took skin samples from his arm and leg.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. She found herself patting his shoulder to comfort him.

“It’s not your fault,” he grimaced. “But your superiors and all of the people in this place are going to be sorry when my people get here.”

Rayna took a step back from him, placing his sample into a vial. “What do you mean?”

“My unit and I were sent here on a mission, to find a new planet to live on. Our own was destroyed when our sun imploded. We set out across the universe to find similar planets. And we found yours. The plan was to locate a few specific regions on the planet where we could make settlements, and live in secret. Earth is very similar in climate. There aren’t many which would support us, at least not without traveling many more light years. We didn’t want to interfere with your people. There are groups of us here scattered around the world. In a few weeks’ time, the rest will come down on our ships. If they don’t find us free and safe, they will fight to extricate us. There will be carnage. At this point, I don’t even know where my unit is, or if my men are still alive.”

Rayna didn’t know what to say. “You can’t hear them, wherever they are?” she asked.

“Not if they’re far from me,” Kirin replied. “They’re not in this building. That much I know. I wouldn’t begin to know where to look for them.”

Rayna felt sorry for him. But what could she do? She had barely even started working at this job, she couldn’t concern herself with trying to help him. The best she could do was keep her head down and do her work. If an opportunity presented itself, maybe she would consider appealing to someone else. Except for the first time she met him, Kirin had controlled himself. Maybe he and his people deserved a chance to find somewhere safe to live on Earth.

She couldn’t imagine the government allowing dragons to live freely without some kind of process to make sure they didn’t endanger humans. And though Kirin seemed calm and surprisingly gentle, she didn’t know what his other people were like. What if they weren’t all to be trusted?

Rayna packed up her equipment and left him, somehow feeling sadder than before she saw him. His amber eyes lit upon her, and though he was no doubt missing those he left behind, he attempted a smile for her.

The first week of Rayna’s job was bad enough, but the second was far worse.

Rayna got called into the office by her father. She was hoping he just wanted to chat and catch up with her. The moment she saw his serious expression she knew it was all business.

“Close the door behind you, and have a seat,” he said.

Rayna did as she was told. “What’s wrong?”

“Dr. Sidell is very unhappy. I just got off the phone with him after a very long and unpleasant conversation.”

“Does he ever meet with anyone in person? I have yet to see him. I wouldn’t know who he is if I bumped into him in the hallway.”

“Well you might not if things continue this way,” he snapped. “Are you unclear about the channels I had to go through to get you this position?”

Rayna shook her head. “You’ve made it abundantly clear, Dad. What’s the problem?”

Ashton sighed at her. “Rayna. He’s saying that after reviewing the samples you took last week, all of them need to be redone. He told me you’re so bad he can’t fathom how you graduated.”

“What’s he comparing the samples to? That’s the question I’d like answered. These are extra-terrestrial beings. Nothing we get from them is going to chart in the range of what we consider normal. And you’re the CEO so don’t pretend like this is information you’re shocked to hear from me.”

Rayna didn’t usually stand up to her father, but she was just too angry not to. Her father had been the one who encouraged her to go into science so she could work for the company one day. Now that she had made it through school she refused to be talked down to. When he stared at her in surprise, Rayna continued.

“If anything, the company has put me in a position working with some dangerous species. I can handle myself, but a little slack on my first week doesn’t seem like a lot to ask.”

“Be that as it may, even a CEO has to answer to a board,” he snapped. “The last thing I need is my daughter making me look bad in front of people I admire.”

“Oh, you mean because you admire them, but you don’t respect my opinion? If Dr. Sidell is upset about my performance then maybe he could have spent a moment to at least meet me and make sure I understand exactly what his preferred protocols are.”

“Dr. Sidell has other responsibilities. He doesn’t have time to babysit you! If you don’t show marked improvement by the end of the week, then you’ll have to leave the company. That includes re-doing the samples from last week and staying on top of those ordered for this week.”

* * *

After the unpleasant meeting with her father, the next business for the day was to go over the old lab results and see that Dr. Sidell was upset about. There were a couple which came back with skewed levels for Poe, but the ones for Kirin were a total loss. She was surprised to find that Johnny and Mimi’s results were fine. No one told her that. If she hadn’t double checked she’d have ended up doing their tests again too.

Rayna’s theory was that Poe’s results were being tested against a regular earth primate, and a pattern of his own old tests. The ape-like creature’s records went back seven years. So what were Kirin’s results compared to? Was there was another dragon in Dynamic Tech’s keeping? She didn’t have the kind of clearance she would need to find out but it was food for thought.

Rayna didn’t have time to mull over that mystery. There was other work to be done. Working late into the evening, she decided to take Poe’s samples first, and then go in to see Kirin. As much as she looked forward to seeing him, she felt bad because she needed to extract another painful skin sample. She decided it was best to delay his discomfort.

She had a hard time remembering that Poe was indeed an ape and not a man in a suit. He asked how she was and commented that she looked tired. Noticing this demanded an amount of emotional intelligence she would not have expected from the primate. After she took what she needed from him, she closed the door, and paid attention to checking off items on her chart.

Rayna felt a whoosh of movement from behind. She was almost on her tenth hour of work, and she hadn’t taken a break. If she had been thinking straight, she would have realized what she’d just done; she closed the door on Poe’s cage but had forgotten to secure the lock.

Rayna was pushed to the ground. She fell face down. Poe grabbed her by the ponytail and smashed her face against the floor. She tried to crawl away, but he pulled her backwards and turned her on her back. She clawed at his face but it did no good. His hands were at her throat, strangling her. Looking towards the ceiling, she felt her body grow numb. She stopped struggling against him. She couldn’t breathe anymore, and everything was going blurry. This is not good, she thought, trying to summon up the energy to fight back. Her arms went slack and fell to her sides with a thump.

There was a booming noise that shook the entire building. Rayna thought of an earthquake, but the movement wasn’t beneath them. It was coming from the opposite wall. Poe looked over his shoulder. He cussed. If she had any air left in her lungs, she would have laughed. One of her predecessors at the lab had taught him to swear along with his obsessive memorization of his namesake’s works.

This is how it ends, Rayna thought as her vision began to shrink. As she slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing she was aware of was a rattling noise and the feeling of heat.

Rayna woke to the blaring of alarms. She was lying on the floor. Coughing, she rolled onto her side. She put a hand to her throat, which still burned. She bled from a gash above her right eyebrow. She had to move slowly because she was nauseous. She tried to sit up and found that for the moment it was no use. The room was filled with smoke.

She saw a pair of bare feet approaching her through the gloom.

“Rayna, don’t get up yet,” Kirin said. “I shouldn’t have moved you in the first place, but I had no choice,” he bent near her. He dabbed at her forehead with bandages retrieved from her cart. It was a few feet away, overturned. Tears came to her eyes when she realized all the samples she had taken were very likely destroyed.

Not far from the cart was a burned, smoldering heap in the form of a body. Then she remembered. Poe had tried to kill her. The smoking mess of cinder was all that remained of him.

“You saved me!” Rayna turned to Kirin. “How did you get out of your cage?”

“I could have gotten out anytime I wanted,” he replied. “But it’s a question of how many people I’d have to kill to leave this place. I heard you were in trouble, and I came. I only wish I had known sooner what he was planning to do. Poe’s brainwaves are not the same as a human’s, or those of my race. I couldn’t read him, but I heard you cry out the moment he hit you.”

Rayna saw the concern in his eyes. He bent over her, wiping her blood away. Through the smoke, she could only see half his body. She was still aware of his nudity, his closeness, and the quickening of her pulse. She was so embarrassed to know he could hear her thoughts and she still couldn’t stop the flow of them. “Thank you for helping me,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Ah,” he said, caressing her cheek. “I would never let anyone hurt you. But this shame you feel. There’s no reason for it,” he said, leaning closer. “When I feel all the same things about you.”

Kirin wrapped his arms around her, and they kissed.

It was just a gentle touch, a brush of his lips against hers. And then he parted her lips with his tongue. She opened her mouth to him, let her tongue stroke his. He took her breath into him. She moved, pulling him more firmly into her arms, and bringing his body on top of hers.

Rayna heard a bang and screaming. Security guards rushed through the doorway. They pulled Kirin off of her and dragged him to the middle of the room. Two guards threw him to the floor and beat him with clubs while the others pointed their guns at him.

“No! Stop!” Rayna pleaded. She got to her feet, but two of the men held her down while they others circled Kirin, guns were drawn. “Poe attacked me! He saved me! Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing! Please!”

Kirin was surrounded. He lifted his hands in surrender, getting to his knees. The guards trained their guns on him. The air began to fill with heat. Sweat gathered on his face, and he shivered, trying hard to control himself. Rayna knew his change could be prompted involuntarily by anger or fear. Being threatened at gunpoint was enough of a stress to bring on his change. Tears streamed down her face as she continued to beg for Kirin’s life. No one was listening to her.

“Stop!”

A booming male voice stopped the men. Rayna’s father, Ashton, came through the doorway, red-faced, apoplectic with anger.

“Stand down now you fools before he burns the entire building down! How did this happen? Does anybody know?”

“Poe got out of his cage. He tried to kill me. Kirin stopped him.”

“And how did he get out of his cage?” Ashton asked. “You can let go of my daughter now!”

The men that were holding Rayna dropped her arms abruptly. She was surprised that she was able to stand on her own, despite the ringing in her ears and the pounding in her head. Kirin slowly got to his feet, but the men didn’t move away from him. Rayna realized they were poised for her father’s next orders.

“What she’s saying is the truth,” Kirin affirmed.

“No one was speaking to you, Dragon,” Ashton huffed. “Answer my question, Rayna!”

“I must not have locked the door to his cage properly,” she replied.

“Take him away,” he made a dismissive wave towards Kirin.

The men grabbed Kirin’s arms. He gazed over his shoulder at Rayna with a look of concern as the men pushed him through the doorway.

Once he was gone, another guard shut the door behind them.

“I made a mistake, I will admit that,” Rayna said. “But Kirin could have sat by and did nothing. He knew that Poe was hurting me, and he came to help. He doesn’t deserve to be held here like an animal. He’s not less of a danger here than he is anyplace else. Holding him captive is just making the entire situation worse. He told me about his people and how they were only looking for a new home after their planet was destroyed. They never meant to wage war, but if pushed they’ll have no choice but to fight back!”

“I told you before I’m not the only person here to make the decision about whether he stays here or is let go free.”

“Dad that’s bullshit! You’re the CEO. These people wake up and go to bed on your orders. You don’t want to do anything about it so it’s easier to blame the board. Otherwise, you have to admit to me and yourself you’re a coward.”

Ashton slapped his daughter’s face. Even the guards winced. “I don’t know what’s happened to you lately. You never used to be so…mouthy,” he snarled.

Despite the pain, Rayna refused to cry out. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. He was used to his kind, submissive little daughter who fell into line with whatever he wanted. Not this time. It was too important. Kirin and the future of his people were too entwined with their own fate. For once, she intended to stand up for something that mattered.

“You can hit me all you want, the truth is the truth,” Rayna said. “Kirin and his people are peaceful. What happened just now is proof of that. He didn’t have to protect me to begin with, much less allow your men to point their guns at him. He could have killed us all.”

“We will discuss this further, in private,” Ashton hissed under his breath. “I knew you weren’t cut out for this job.”

Over the next two weeks, Rayna started spending more time with Kirin. Since Poe was no longer part of her rounds, she was able to spare a few extra minutes with him in the mornings. She also came to visit him after hours each day. Though her excuse was that she was there to tend to his wounds and keep him calm, she was really there just to get closer to him. After he put himself in danger to protect her an unspoken bond was forged between the two.

Kirin’s situation was both better and worse. Because of Rayna’s complaints, someone at the facility saw to it that Kirin was provided with clothes. They were plain- white shirts and beige pants, not much better than clothes of a jailed prisoner, but they were something. Also, he was no longer chained. He’d broke the chains and decimated the barriers that held him in before. His new enclosure was built of stone, like a small house within an outer Plexi glass shell. It would be harder for him to destroy. The positive thing was it provided some privacy for him. There was a private bath and toilet. A bed and a small table with two chairs were also provided. Before, he’d only had a toilet and sink with a small screen in front of it, and no bunk or bed to sleep in. Rayna was satisfied to know she had convinced her father to make Kirin’s accommodations a bit more humane.

Kirin told her stories about his home world every day. He described to her the night skies which were the color of magenta, the deep green-blue skies of daylight, and the sun and moon which were both visible during all hours of the day. He told her how the climate was very much like California- mild through most of the year, with lands in the north that had rain or snow in the winter. He explained that his particular tribe of dragons lived in a mountainous area. Their homes were built into the rock face of the mountains. In the morning the fledgling dragons would leave their homes to fly together, returning at sundown. It sounded like a beautiful life, a dream rather than reality. Rayna tried to imagine what it would be like to fly. She imagined it was the most awesome feeling of freedom.

Kirin had cuts and bruises on his body from being beaten by the guards, mostly on his limbs, but there was a very nasty cut on his left side, below his second rib. Rayna made sure his bandages were changed twice a day.“I feel bad because I’m using this ointment on you and I don’t know if it even works,” she told him.

Kirin smiled. “Don’t worry about it. We tend to heal well. Back home, kids try to see how many cuts and bruises they can get and still pretend it doesn’t hurt. You’re keeping it clean and covered at least which is the important thing.”

“So dragons don’t like to admit to their vulnerabilities?” Rayna teased.

“We sure don’t,” he agreed.

“I can’t blame you. We all have them. Sometimes it feels like if you can pretend you don’t, you become impervious.”

On this particular evening, they were sitting together at his table. They had gotten into the habit of eating dinner together. She’d sneaked in Thai food on this occasion. One of the things she noticed was that Kirin liked anything spicy. He rolled noodles over chopsticks with ease. There was really nothing he seemed unable to master without the slightest of effort.

“What’s your vulnerability?” he asked, fixing her with those amber eyes of his.

“My father,” she said quickly. “He’s my weak spot.”

“How so?”

“You probably don’t want to hear about it.”

“Yes, I do,” Kirin urged gently. “I want to know all I can about you.”

Rayna sighed. “Well, my father’s very domineering. I suppose it’s worked for him in business, but not so much in our personal lives. My mother died when I was very little, so it was just the two of us….”

“I’m sorry,” Kirin said.

“Thank you. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I guess I always wanted to impress my father. He spent so much time working, and he always told me Dynamic Tech would do things to change the world for the better. He encouraged me to go into science from the time I was old enough to go to school. I excelled in all my courses. But good was never good enough. Even when I was making straight A’s, he always managed to put me down. If it wasn’t something about my school work, it was always about my body. I was never thin enough. I wasn’t going to have a husband or a man in my life who cared for me because of the way I looked. He used to tell me I was big as a side of a barn, and it was a good thing I was smart. I needed to take care of myself because obviously, who else would want to? It didn’t help that when I hit puberty, I gained a few extra pounds, and I had to wear glasses. It was like I was proving everything he’d ever said about me. I was the nerdy, chubby kid no one wanted to go to the dance with.”

Kirin reached for her hand. “How could anyone think that? You’re a beautiful woman. We all grow through phases as we grow. When I was a boy, I was scrawny. What humans would call a ninety-nine-pound weakling?”

Rayna laughed. “I can’t imagine.”

He shrugged. “It’s true. Does your father think differently now?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Rayna said. “To be honest, I’m surprised he allows me to still work here. After the incident with Poe, we had a really bad argument about why he’s keeping you here and how it’s not helping anything. I finally stood up to him. He was shocked. He’s come to expect me to agree with him or at least to be silent about my opinions. We haven’t spoken to each other since. But apparently, Dr. Sidell is off my back for the time being. I haven’t heard anything from him either.”

“I’m sorry my presence here has caused you trouble,” he said. “I don’t understand how your father feels the way he does. You’re a beautiful woman in every way. He should be so proud to have raised you, especially since he did it alone.”

Rayna blushed. “It’s sweet of you to say so.”

“No, it’s not,” Kirin said. He stood up. “It’s the truth and obviously something you don’t hear very often. I know how you think and how very hard you are on yourself,” he touched her cheek. I find it disturbing. You’re such a kind woman to me and everyone else but the things you think about yourself are absolutely cruel.”

Rayna stood. She didn’t know what to say to him. What he was telling her was true. There was no way she would ever call anyone else the things she routinely said to herself: fat, ugly, stupid, un-loveable. Her father had said those words to her first, and she had clung to them as if they were true. Those words were her defense. If she failed at anything at all in life, how could she be surprised when she knew and “acknowledged” all of her faults?

The spot on her cheek where Kirin touched her was wonderfully warm. The heat radiated all over her body in much the same way it felt to step into a pool of warm water. She had touched his skin often (when taking samples and bandaging his wounds) and felt nothing akin to this before.

And then he kissed her.

Kirin placed both hands on the side of her face, drawing her to him. From the moment his tongue touched hers his warmth spilled into her, and exchange of energy. He moved his hands to caress her shoulders and then to put his arms around her.

Neither of them had spoken of the kiss they shared the day Poe died. That had been so quick and had ended quickly when he was pulled away from her. Other than the firmness of his lips and tongue, she couldn’t remember very much about the sense of it. This was something completely different. This kiss was not meant to comfort as their first kiss was. It was a touch of his desire, his need. She moaned, her own need echoed back into him.

Kirin moved her backward to the little bed. Rayna was very aware of what was about to happen between them. She knew she didn’t want him to stop. He watched her with those amber eyes and she felt a quiver of excitement. His hands went to her blouse. Pulling at it, he managed to get it off of her body. The top of her breasts swelled over her bra, and he kissed her there, taking his time. He took a nipple into his mouth and sucked, never looking away from her eyes as he did it.

He only stopped long enough to take off his clothes, and Rayna did the same. Seeing him naked again, she realized that she had missed the sight of him this way over the last few weeks. She smiled. Kirin’s body was beautiful as always, perfect in every way she could think of.

He leaned over, running his hands along the curves of her body: breasts, hips, and legs.

“What part of you do you think should not be loved?” he whispered, kissing her neck. “Is it here?” He asked, and dipped to kiss the sensitive skin between her breasts. “Or maybe here,” he said, tracing a line down to her belly button. He kissed it, causing Rayna to moan with anticipation. “It better not be here,” he said, rubbing the skin of her thigh. He kissed her there too, sucking her skin between his lips. This time, she giggled.

His hands continued to travel her skin, dipping between her thighs. Stroking her delicate skin with his finger, his voice took a deeper tone. “I know you deserve love, and I want you to believe it too.”

“Ah, Kirin,” she whispered. She rested her hands on his shoulders.

Lying on top of her, he moved, putting one hand on either side of the pillow. He stared into her eyes. “Let me show you.”

A week passed, and Rayna found herself in a sort of romantic bliss. She had her own worries about Kirin; what would happen in the near future, if he would ever gain his freedom and under what circumstances. Every day she went to see him, he reminded her to focus on the present. The rest was completely out of their control. They subsisted on stolen kisses and secret lovemaking. Sometimes they just held each other’s hands and talked. Rayna’s visits to see him in the evening grew progressively longer until she was leaving long after nightfall each night. She wanted every crumb of time she could get with him.

She found him in a fairly good mood on Thursday evening. By the time she came back to see him shortly after five the next morning, he was visibly upset.

“What’s happened?” she whispered, closing the door of the enclosure behind her. When he wouldn’t look up at her, she tilted his chin up with her forefinger. His eyes had turned red. Shocked by the change, she took a step back. Tears streaked down his face, and he wiped them away.

“My people are coming. They’re very close by. And they are angry! They will tear this place apart and everyone in it looking for me. Promise me,” he stepped forward, taking her hands in his own. “Please promise you’ll get away from here! I can’t let them hurt you. But if I stay locked in this place they will come for me.”

“I can’t just leave you! And allow everyone else to be hurt? Is there anything that we can do to appease them?”

“If I phased into my dragon form, I could escape. But it would mean taking out everything and anyone in my way.”

“What if I helped you escape?”

“Rayna. That could put you in danger.”

“If what you’re telling me is true,” she replied, “I am already in danger. We all are. Let me do what I can to help. My father may not approve of me but he won’t allow his guards to harm me. Meanwhile… we can’t be sure of anything that the others would do, right?”

“They will stand down if I am unharmed. I don’t know what happened to my unit. If they have been hurt or killed, it may not matter.”

Rayna moved closer, whispering in Kirin’s ear. “I don’t know for sure. They might be held elsewhere. There are many Dynamic Tech locations scattered across the world. And there are six of them in California. What are the chances that they’re not at different facilities within the state? All of these test samples from your body are being compared to something. I don’t think they’d have needed more than one to compare to human biology. What if they are testing you to compare the results to the others?”

The idea calmed him. She watched Kirin’s eyes change back to their regular gold-brown color. “It’s a possibility. It makes sense.”

“It takes a lot to hold you, and I can’t imagine they would want more than one dragon at any facility. It’s always a possibility that some of them could be out of state or in one of our international hubs, but I can’t imagine anyone would want to transport them so far, even in their weakened, human condition. If they were a few hundred miles apart from you, would you be able to sense them?”

“No,” he said. “If we were outside, I might be able to, but with all the miles and walls between us, it would be too far.”

“I have an idea,” she told him. “I will come back later. Just have faith. Don’t give up yet.”

He kissed her goodbye, and she hurried away. Rayna’s heart raced. If they were lucky, there might be a way to avert war. It wouldn’t end well for her personally. If Kirin escaped successfully, she would never see him again.

She already knew that she loved him.

* * *

The day dragged by horribly.

Rayna went through her usual morning routine. Before he attacked her, she’d enjoyed her little exchanges with Poe. He had not been replaced, and as she passed the door to his empty enclosure, she always felt a pang of sadness. He’d seen a route for escape, and his animal nature took over. The whole episode was terrifying. Kirin had acted correctly in taking him out. But she didn’t blame the primate for his actions. The blame for that rested squarely with her father and all the rest who had allowed the captivity and experimentation of the primate for all these years.

Rayna realized with some sadness that she too had allowed herself to become a cog in the wheel of Dynamic Tech’s machinations. Not anymore.

Mimi, the gelatinous creature, greeted her as usual by replicating Rayna’s face on its surface. There was even the expression of a scowl, executed perfectly.

“Thanks Mimi, I’ll try not to frown at you,” Rayna said. She placed her palm against the glass.

Mimi shook, making a sound. Rayna had been told this was the creature’s pleasurable response; akin to a cat’s purr when it was pleased. The sound was a gentle sloshing as Mimi moved along the glass. Rayna hoped that was true, and not some sort of fear response. She didn’t think so. But lately, she was questioning many things she might not have taken time to notice before.

Johnny gave her the usual trouble, scooting frantically around his tank to avoid her before she caught him. She had grown so accustomed to it that it didn’t bother her anymore. She was able to get what she needed from him with very little effort.

This left her with three hours to fill before her lunch break. She went back to her office to kill time. After entering her latest test results, she looked around the company website, trying to find tidbits of information about the other Dynamic Tech locations. The four closest ones to her office were each about a hundred miles from each other. It was far away enough for Kirin not to sense his men, but only a few hours’ drive in either direction.

At 11:30, Rayna couldn’t stand the waiting any longer. She clocked out for lunch and got into her car.

Traffic heading across town was thick. It took almost thirty minutes before she was able to exit the freeway. All things considered, it didn’t take as long she feared it would. She had been taking long lunch breaks for the last couple of weeks or so, which she more than made up for by staying late. Since this was her usual pattern, she could only hope no one would think it was odd for her to be away from the office. It was a risk she had to take.

Crowded surface streets soon gave way to the tree lined avenues of the suburbs. Rayna swallowed over a lump in her throat. She hadn’t been here in a long while. The sight of the white house with its red roof and shutters always elicited sadness. She parked a few houses down the block. She looked over her shoulder, and didn’t notice anyone paying attention to her movements. Unless her father had recently changed the locks, her key should still work.

She breathed a sigh of relief when her key opened the door. This was the house she grew up in but she still felt like an intruder. She went directly to the back of the house.

Father’s office had not changed. He had an old fashioned mahogany desk which took up most of the back all. The monstrosity was as wide as a sedan. On the top of the desk was a computer, a closed laptop, a paper tray and a cup filled with pens. She had always known her Dad to keep a lot of sensitive information on his home computer, despite the fact it was against protocol. She had no access to the security level she needed to get answers at work, but she hoped to be able to find something here.

The password to the computer was Belinda: Rayna’s mother’s name.

Rayna took a seat. She bit one of her nails as she looked back through his emails. He copied all of his work emails to his personal email address, supposedly so he could work on items on his agenda at home. This had been a habit with Ashton as far back as she could remember. She made quick work of the ones she needed to see. It was easy to backtrack and see the succession of events, following the time stamps between conversations. All she had to do was follow the path to the logical conclusions.

She jotted a few quick notes into the notepad function on her cell phone. It was nearly one o’clock. If she hurried, she could get back to the office within the half hour. She logged off of the computer, stuck her phone in her pocket, and headed out of the house. As she drove back towards work, she dabbed tears from her eyes. Ashton could be greedy and cruel, but she had not expected the lengths he would go to for money. Her brief search told her things she never knew. Rayna could only hope it wasn’t too late to reverse the damage he’d wrought.

“Rayna, I need to speak with you.”

Ashton was standing in the lobby, leaning against the reception desk much the same way he did on the first day she came to work at Dynamic Tech. She swallowed over the lump in her throat and took a deep breath to calm her erratic heartbeat.

“I do have a lot of work to do today. Could we meet an hour from now?”

It was a bold request. He was the CEO after all. But she didn’t trust that he hadn’t somehow found her out, and there were some things he should be willing to grant her as his daughter. A few minutes to get her wits together before he disciplined or fired her shouldn’t be too much to ask.

“No, this conversation has taken far too long as it is. Come with me, please.”

Instead of taking the elevator up to his office, he ushered her into one of the empty conference rooms on the first floor. This is a very bad sign, she thought. No one from Human Resources was present. But maybe he’d decided to reserve the satisfaction of firing her all for himself.

Rayna took a seat at the table. There was a minibar beneath the counter at the front of the room. Without asking, Ashton pulled out two bottles of water and gave her one. She opened hers and took a long drink. Under normal circumstances, she would have thanked him. But she was pretty sure he was about to tell her something unpleasant.

Ashton did the same. He looked worried. It seemed he was trying to weigh his words before he spoke. This was something Rayna found highly uncharacteristic of him.

“I want to apologize for the argument we had last week, Rayna. No matter how angry I got, it should never have come to blows. I am ashamed of myself for my behavior. “

She was floored.

“Dad. I appreciate that had to be hard for you to say, but I am not looking for apologies so much as I’d like to see a change in your actions.”

Ashton sighed. “If this is about the Dragon, I am not changing my stance about him. There are protocols, and there are reasons we’re keeping him here. I am aware of your… fondness for him. I’ve made changed to his living arrangements to make him more comfortable. I don’t know what you expect me to do.”

“Let him go!” Rayna cried in exasperation. “His people are going to raise all hell if they find him imprisoned here.”

“Let’s say I believe the fairy tale this man has told you, which sounds to me as if it were tailor-made to gain your sympathy,” Ashton said. “How do we know we’re not in danger anyhow? Certainly, all of the aliens aren’t going to be like him? When have you ever heard of any species in nature that is most comfortable being at peace? What species will not kill, or war, and do whatever is necessary to ensure their own survival? As a biologist, I know you’re aware such a thing does not exist.”

“You’re talking about lower animals,” Rayna said. “Dragons are an intelligent species. They could be reasoned with. Just like we can, supposedly, when we're not absolutely stubborn for no reason.”

Ashton sat back in his chair. And he laughed. A long, shuddering laugh that shook his shoulders. Rayna stared at him, fuming.

“I have been wondering what it is, all this bravado that’s come out of you all of a sudden. You’re really very much like your mother. Sweet and retiring until she was pissed off about something. You’re more like her every day.”

Rayna knew how much he loved her mother. She sometimes believed he never got over losing her. His coldness, his single-minded determination to have more money and success than those around him was the pursuit he used to fill the emptiness he felt. While she would always have sympathy for him, she could not condone his actions.

Before she could tell him what was in her heart and mind to say, an alarm went off.

They both stood up as several men burst into the room. One of them held a machine gun, pointed directly at Ashton. He put his hands in the air.

“This is their leader, and his daughter,” one of them said. “Take them both.”

* * *

The men pushed them past empty offices and down the elevator to the basement. There were four men in all. Rayna, though terrified, tried to speak with them. “Are you Kirin’s men?” she asked. “I am his friend. He told me all about you.”

It was only a guess, but she knew she had hit pay dirt when one of them men turned and gave her a suspicious glare.

“Which one of you is Tarik? His Co-Commander?”

“I am,” a soldier turned to her, a brown-skinned man with a shaved head. “Did he tell you these things after your people tortured him?”

“No! I am his friend.”

The door opened. Rayna and Ashton were shoved forward into the dim basement, ending chances for a conversation with their captors. Rayna was shocked to see coworkers and staff had been bound and gagged. They sat silently, eyes pleading, backs against the walls. No wonder the offices upstairs had been empty. Somehow, the men had managed to get into the building and subdue all of these people. At first guess, Rayna estimated there were thirty people: scientists, clinical staff, and administrative personnel. There couldn’t be too many others left in the building, except security.

“Pol. I don’t really care about these others, but him,” the youngest of Kirin’s men motioned towards Ashton. “We should do him. He’s the one responsible.”

“We’re waiting until we know about Kirin,” Tarik said. “We wait until we know for sure.”

“Please, no!” Rayna cried. “My father is the only family I have.”

Ashton’s eyes filled with tears at the terror in his daughter’s voice. He did not speak but looked at his captors beseechingly.

“Oh don’t worry about it,” Pol snapped. He was a burly man with blond hair and thick arms. “We’re not getting rid of him without dispatching his next of kin.”

“I say we get it over with,” the young soldier said, pointing the tip of his gun at Ashton’s head. Rayna searched her mind for the name Kirin had mentioned. Fenn. Kirin said he was given to emotionalism and unwise choices.

“Fenn, please,” she muttered.

“Bitch, how do you know my name?” he turned the gun on Rayna. The dragon’s eyes glowed red with anger.

“Stand down soldier!” a voice from behind them boomed. “Don’t make me tell you again.”

Rayna breathed a sigh of relief. Kirin approached them from the stairwell, followed by another group of men. When he reached Rayna, he wrapped a protective arm around her waist. “She’s with us! None of you will harm her for any reason.”

“Yes sir,” Fenn lowered his weapon.

“What about her father then?” Tarik asked.

Kirin never had a chance to answer his question. A loud boom shook the building. One entire wall of the basement disintegrated, leaving a gaping hole which let in the sunlight. In the blaze of light and sound, military security pushed their way into the building with guns and tear gas.

Kirin took one of the first shots in the volley of gunfire.

He fell to the floor, and she crouched beside him. “Can you stand?” she asked, pressing her lips against his ear. She had one hand on his leg, trying to stem the flow of blood. He nodded.

The smoke and chaos around them were their only protection as she helped pull Kirin to safety.

Rayna sat quietly, listening to the sounds above. Things had gone partially quiet, after hours of reverberating gunshots, screaming, and the sound of heavy machinery circling the building. She was fairly sure she even heard the sound of helicopters at one point. The conflagration spilled out of the building. The dragons were expecting a fight, and they had not given in easily. How far things had gone, and if the public had knowledge of the events at Dynamic Tech, was another issue. Even if people caught video of fire-breathing dragons, anyone who saw it would most likely believe it was a movie being filmed. Anyone brave enough to say they’d seen real dragons would get laughed at.

Rayna was one of only a handful of people who knew about the bomb shelter which they were hiding in, another one being Ashton. It was constructed in the 1950’s when Cold War paranoia assured that every science research facility, Army installation, and some homes had a shelter to protect workers and dwellers from the threat nuclear bombs from the Soviet Union. When the military smashed in, Rayna and Kirin were standing thirty feet away from the trap door that leads downwards to safety. In the smoke and chaos, Rayna was laser focused, pulling him with her.

The room was stocked with food, blankets, and first aid supplies. She cleaned and wrapped his wound. Fortunately, the bullet wound had been through and through and had not hit a vital artery in his leg. He would need at least a day or so to recover. They could only hope no one would find them in the meantime.

Rayna sat on a bunk with Kirin. He laid his head in her lap. Both were stock still. Now that the confusion had lapsed into quiet, she was afraid of what would come next.

“What do you think has happened?” she whispered.

“Heavy casualties on both sides,” he replied. “I felt my brothers out there. Some were shot before they could turn, others phased into their dragon. I wish it would not have come to this.”

“I know,” Rayna soothed. She ran her hand through his dark hair.

The first hours after he was wounded were the most frightening; the fighting raged above, while Kirin slipped in and out of consciousness. He was feverish and delirious for a while. Hours had passed before he was awake. Once fully conscious the fever broke. He was clear-eyed and aware. Rayna had suffered all sorts of horrors in her imagining in between. What if Kirin died? What was going to happen to her father? What if this was truly the end of the world, and she and Kirin were among the people fated to see it happen? Perhaps the dragon’s fire and the arsenal of human weaponry were all that was needed to finish humankind.

Once Kirin was awake, Rayna was able to breathe again. It was with a heavy heart that she listened to him tell how some of the people above had died, that he felt some of his brethren slip away. Rayna wondered what the world would be like if humans felt such bonds between each other, mourning collectively in death and rejoicing in life. If humans could feel that way, maybe they would not be so quick to go to war.

“I don’t trust this quiet,” Kirin said. “When dark falls, we should go out. My people are waiting for us in the desert, with a ship, to take all of us who can make it to the meeting point. I was able to reach out with my mind to them while I slept. They are sixty miles north of us.”

“The Mojave?” Rayna asked.

“Yes,” Kirin said.

“You’re still groggy, aren’t you?”

“I am better than I was,” he said, sitting up. “How are you?”

“I wish I could tell you all the things I am feeling right now,” Rayna admitted.

He smoothed her hair back with a gentle touch if his hand. “You know, when we were out there, being fired upon, and then later, after you got me to safety, I felt every emotion inside of you. Your fear, and your love,” he said.

Rayna felt her breath hitch in her chest. Tears came to her eyes. It was hard enough to admit her feelings to herself and having her tender emotions exposed to him this way was unexpected. She hadn’t had time to think that he would know, especially in all the commotion around them.

“My people are not like yours,” he said gently. “Where I come from, you would be loved simply for who you are. You would be accepted,” he took her hand and squeezed it. “Darling, look at me.”

Rayna had been staring at her feet. Her eyes were filled with tears. It was painful thinking about him leaving her. She would feel truly alone without him. How would she ever go back to the world as she saw it before, knowing what she did now about herself and the world? Extra-terrestrial, intelligent life did exist, and she was here to watch the first new species come into contact with man. The government conspiracy to cover up proof of intelligent life had gone on for many years; it had involved her father since Rayna was a child.

On a personal level, Kirin taught Rayna a valuable lesson about how deeply she was capable of loving. Never having fallen in love before, she feared that maybe she wouldn’t recognize it when it happened. Every part of her longed for Kirin, in ways she wouldn’t have believed possible a few weeks ago.

“Come with me,” Kirin said. “I want us to be together. I love you.”

He kissed her mouth. Rayna gave over to his warm embrace, reaching up to run her hands through his hair.

“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered. “To leave everything behind. Literally, everything I have ever known.”

“Don’t make a decision now,” he said. “But know the invitation is waiting for you. Will you come with me to the ship?”

“Yes, that much I can do.”

He kissed her again, with an urgency that made a tingle move up her spine. She kissed back, barely able to keep up with him. When he touched, there was always a slow building heat flowing through her whole body. He traced every part of her skin.

Standing, she pulled away from him long enough to pull her dress over her head. He pulled her to him and kissed her belly button. Rayna could remember always being shy about her body in front of other men, but not Kirin. She felt adored in his arms. His amber eyes followed her. Even as he kissed, he looked up at her. As Rayna eased down onto the small bed beside him, Kirin took off his clothes. They lay facing each other, chests pressed together, arms locked around each other. Pressing his lips against her breasts, his hands wandered down to cup her derrière.

“The best thing about coming here has been finding you,” he said. “And loving you.”

It was such a sweet thing to say that Rayna was speechless. But words weren’t needed.

It was hard to negotiate such a small space, but somehow they did; her leg above his hip, his body pressed into her own. As their bodies moved together, she closed her eyes. Rayna bit her lip the moment he entered her. She had never experienced anything quite like him. His heat made her warm, but it also calmed her, made her body feel more one with his. As he thrust into her, she moved with him like a tide drawn in by the force of the moon.

She moaned against his neck, let her hands caress his back. As he moved deeper, harder, she bit into his shoulder.

“Ah, darling,” Kirin groaned. His hands twined through her hair. She looked into his eyes and saw his focus, his need. All of this time she had been worried about what was in her own head. He had never really tried to hide his attraction for her. Though they had made love before, something was different this time. The connection was deeper. Their desire for each other was amplified by each touch.

Moving, Kirin sat up and drew Rayna against him. She straddled him, moving slowly, up and down as he kissed her mouth. He licked and kissed her neck, drew his lips against her shoulders. The heat built slower, but Rayna felt it—her body’s progression towards climax. The beginning of it was there. She felt her body tighten around him, her heartbeat growing slower but beating harder. Her lips dropped open as she took her breath.

Shivers took hold of Rayna’s body, her breath caught in her throat. She came, and a few moments later, felt the burst of his cum inside her. Closing her eyes, she could dream of what it would be like to be with him always, sharing his affection and his heat.

A single tear fell down her cheek as she considered the possibility that this could be their last time together.

Another day passed, and when night came, Rayna and Kirin climbed out of the bomb shelter.

Kirin insisted on going first. Rayna waited behind him breathlessly. She could feel air flowing through the opening.

“What is it?” she whispered. He stood there for nearly a full minute. Goosebumps raised the skin on her arms and the back of her neck.

“Come,” Kirin said, reaching back for her. “You have to see for yourself.”

She climbed up the last two rungs to the basement floor of DynamicTech.

Where there should have been a roof was nothing but open sky. The building was decimated. They stood among blackened remains of the building. All that was around them was ash and soot, remnants of the building’s frame. Shattered glass was scattered everywhere. For a while they stood shoulder to shoulder, neither able to speak. The glow of the moon cast an eerie glow over the destruction.

Rayna cleared her throat. “Um. Well. I guess we know the bomb shelter works.”

* * *

It took nearly a half hour to pick their way out of the wreckage of what was Dynamic Tech. Rayna couldn’t help but feel sadness. She thought of her poor little alien subjects: Johnny and Mimi. Unless her father managed to have them evacuated before the dragons leveled the place, they were surely dead. She doubted it would have even occurred to him. Gone was all of the information and technology which was under development at the site. The totality of the destruction was incredible. Much of what was made at the company was created out of research on aliens, from testing which was inhumane.

As a scientist, she wasn’t sure if she should consider it a loss, or a good thing that those projects were now gone. She was saddened that any sentient being had to suffer for the progress of science.

The destruction hand continued outside. Some of the cars were crushed, probably caught underfoot as the dragons walked. Other vehicles were burned into blackened shells. The cars at the perimeter of the lot had the least damage: singed paint and busted windows. Sagging yellow police tape was strung between light posts out on the street.

“I wonder why there are no authorities around,” Kirin said.

“My father has thought up some story to keep them away,” Rayna said. “They were here, but they left.”

He nodded in agreement but didn’t reply. Rayna felt chilled despite the warm night air. Many cars remained, and she wondered which of their owners were perhaps in hospitals, or were dead in the twisted remains of the building. Kirin walked among the rows of cars until he found what he was looking for: a sedan with the keys still in the ignition. The driver’s side window was broken, but the rest were intact.

“I think this is it,” he said. “Let’s hope we can make it up to the desert.”

They slipped into the car. After he maneuvered out of the lot and onto the street. He reached for her, and Rayna slipped her hand into his. In the rearview, she watched the heap of black, twisted metal and wood that used to be her workplace, and the most important thing in her father’s life, disappear from view.

* * *

Because they didn’t know if the police might be looking for them, or their vehicle, Kirin didn’t drive above the speed limit. Once they were on the freeway, they were stuck in traffic. Rayna had a growing sense of fear. She daydreamed about dragons crushing the cars ahead of them, while they were stuck among other cars. Or circling in black hawk helicopters, with snipers aiming for Kirin. He had told her about the day he was captured, and the image was impressed into her mind. She’d only slept a few hours during their time in the shelter, but when she did, she had nightmares of black hawks descending upon them like locusts.

Finally, they were out of the great hum of traffic and continuing the drive towards the desert. Lights dimmed. Cars drifted away as drivers took various exits. Soon they were on a nearly abandoned stretch of highway. They continued to hold hands. When her hand began to shake, Kirin raised it to his lips for a kiss, never looking away from the road.

After an hour of driving, Rayna was aware of lights.

These were different than the distant city lights. Floating above the desert floor, these seemed not to be connected to anything. They could have been stars if it weren’t for the perfection in form and alignment. Kirin turned the car onto a country road and turned off the ignition.

“We’re here,” he said softly.

Rayna looked up again and realized that they were only a few yards away from the ship. Now that they were so close she could see it clearly. The saucer shaped object could probably house an entire city full of people. It hovered above the ground. The lights on the surface gleamed like diamonds.

“I have a question to ask you,” Rayna said.

“Yes,” Kirin said.

“I love you,” Rayna told him. “I want to come with you! There’s nothing holding me here…”

“Yes, baby of course you can come,” he said and kissed her. “That’s all I have wanted to hear you say!”

They got out of the car. It seemed as they walked to the craft it felt further away. As they approached Rayna was able to make out four figures: it was Kirin’s unit. He ran to them and in turn embraced each of his brothers. And then he put an arm around Rayna. “What was before is gone now,” he said with relief. “Whatever happens now, Rayna is with us.”

“Commander,” Pol interrupted. “There’s movement on the road.”

They all turned to see tanks moving in. Above, helicopters appeared, seemingly from nowhere.

In front of the brigade of military vehicles was Ashton. He saw his daughter and cried out for her, but Rayna refused to budge.

“Get behind me,” Kirin ordered. She did. Pol and Tarik flanked him on either side. Fenn and Jerrod readied their guns and trained them on the approaching vehicles.

As in Rayna’s daydream, the first shots which rained down were from the helicopters. The men started phasing into their dragon forms, a shivering flurry of movement that made Rayna feel dizzy to watch. Gunshots rang out, and Rayna felt her knees crumpled beneath her.

The last thing she was aware of was Kirin’s scream.

Rayna woke in a hospital room.

She looked up and saw a nurse standing to her left at the bedside.

“What happened? Where am I?”

The woman smiled at her and patted her shoulder. Without speaking, she crossed over to the other side of the bed. The nurse inserted and IV into her right arm, humming a melody under her breath.

“Where’s Kirin?” Rayna demanded, growing agitated. “Why won’t you speak to me?”

The nurse met her gaze, shook her head, and turned away. She left the room. A moment later she came back and opened the door. Kirin came into the room.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said quietly.

“Thank goodness,” Rayna said. “I was beginning to think something had happened to you!”

“No, I asked the staff not to say anything to you, but to get me as soon as you were awake. I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” she asked.

“You were injured,” he said softly. He took her hand. “It was shrapnel from a gunshot. It hit you in the stomach. You’ve been medicated and sedated while the medications heal you. If not for our interventions, it most probably would have been a fatal wound. I see you’re feeling better.”

“I do. There was a moment there I thought my life was over… thank you.”

“No. I am sorry you’ve had to endure any pain.”

“So where are we?”

He sat down on the bed beside her. Leaning close, he tipped her chin upwards and kissed her. “We’re on the ship, and we’re safe.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, the thrill of expectation growing. Not only had she managed to remain with Kirin, but she was inside an alien ship! She wanted to learn everything there was to know. She wasn’t sure she could contain her enthusiasm.

“We found another planet, one where we will be able to live. I’m told it’s beautiful there, with blue oceans and bright blue skies like Earth. There will be new things to learn, and adventures to be had.”

“I can’t wait!” Rayna said, and drew him to her for another kiss. “I can’t wait for our brand new life to begin.”