Taurian jumped off the bed, leaving Dena alone on the mattress. For the moment, her seizure had passed, but she was still unconscious. He needed to use his blood to help her. He scrounged on the floor for one of the blades she’d attacked him with. His dragon form surged against his chest, but he concentrated to cage the beast. His muscles tensed and he drove it back deep within him. Strangeness settled over him. Before returning to Earth, he'd never been anything other than a Renjerian. Now he was both human and a dragon. Like Kohl.

He clenched his fists. Kohl’s blood…was that the answer to what had happened to him, making him human when he never had been before?

Back on Renjer, he'd sucked out the Tryn venom and parasites from his half-blood brother. Then lightning took him and the Tryn to Earth moments later.

Was that how Taurian had shifted? The electricity activating his brother's blood he'd ingested?

The desire to share his theory with Dena burned on his mind so he could ask her opinion. But he had to cure her first.

He snatched up a silver blade from the wooden floor. After he cut the cord binding her hands above her head, he called his dragon form enough to feel the fire burning in his throat, but not enough to allow his Renjer body to manifest completely. Letting out a small stream of fire directed at the weapon that turned the metal red-hot, he sliced the blade across his palm. Blood coated the weapon and cauterized the wound.

“My fire, my blood,” he whispered looking at Dena still and pale on the bed. The thought of her dead and no longer able to talk with her, share with her and watch her eyes light up when he spoke of his homeworld made a crater open in his heart that would never be filled. This ritual might bring her back and save her life. It would link them forever, a price he was willing to pay, but was she?

He didn’t care if she hated him, as long as she was alive. If this worked, she’d no longer be human…at least in part. How could he do this without knowing her wishes? He ground his teeth, searching her pale face for an answer. His breath hiccupped. No, he couldn’t let her go. Couldn’t allow her to die and never see the spark of life inside her. If she hated him, then so be it. A tear trailed down his cheek and he added it to the blade. “I add a dragon’s tear of heartache and longing. I pledge my life to yours. Entwining us for all time.”

He grasped her injured hand and pressed the bloody blade to the wound. Her skin puckered, the parasites smoking. Then Taurian placed his palm to hers with the blade between them. He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.

“Come back to me, fair-maiden. I will show you how to fly to the stars.”

She didn't move...didn't breathe...nothing.

“Please, Dena, I want to share my world with you.” He laid next to her, brushing her curly hair from her face with his free hand. “I need you in my life. Never realized what I was missing until you.”

His chest constricted and he couldn't take a deep enough breath. Burning ache lanced through his middle. Dizziness smacked into him as he felt his life force draining from him into Dena, but would it be enough to bring her back? Another white-hot pain shot through him. He gasped to breathe, but couldn't. Blackness swirled around him.

* * *

Moonlight filtered through the window, and Taurian blinked, his mouth as dry as the Amrix Desert. Reality slammed into him. Dena! He pushed up, his muscles cramping like he had been crushed underneath a bazillion boulders. How long had he and Dena been out? A day or more?

He brushed aside her hair, his heart hammering against his chest. His ritual had to have worked. He'd felt it. Half his power and life was gone because of the ritual like it was supposed to. So why wasn't she awake?

His chest constricted, and he trembled inside. “Dena.” Kissing her forehead, he pulled his hand from hers.

With a gasp that lifted all the hairs on his neck, she opened her eyes.

“Wh-what?” She pushed up, but then flopped back down on the pillow. “Am I sick? I feel like I have the flu…no a mega flu with a nasty taste in my mouth.”

He laughed and hauled her against him. Lightly, she pushed at his shoulders, gazing up at him.

“Uh, why are you in my bed?” Her brow pinched. “Oh my God, was I drunk? Did you—did we—tell me we didn’t have sex and I don’t remember any of it.”

“No,” he chuckled. Joy bursting inside his heart. “If we had mated, believe me, little Earthling, you’d never forget it.”

“Arrogant as always.” She slapped his shoulder. “But seriously, what the hell happened? I feel like I got ran over twice.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the Tryn bit you?” He pulled her injured hand up between them, the wound already closing up thanks to his blood. “You told me you cut yourself.”

“I-I did.” She frowned at her palm. “I was examining one of the fragments I pulled from Kohl when he was here last. The damn think sliced into my hand.” Her breaths quickened. “Taurian, why is my hand doing that? Healing?”

He tucked his finger under her chin and lifted her face until she met his stare. “The Tryn has parasites that got into your bloodstream.”

“Meaning? Like you had to use leeches as in medieval times and bleed me? Is that why I feel so weak and weird?”

“No.” He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Would she be okay knowing he’d altered her life forever? That she was no longer fully human. “You were possessed. Do you remember anything before the Tryn’s parasites took over your body and mind?”

She bit her lip, looking away as though to think. “Oh, I attacked you.” Her cheeks paled and her hand flew to her mouth. “Are you okay? Do you need a doctor? I cut you several times.”

“I’m all right.” He took a breath. “But in order to reverse the damage done and eradicate the vermin in your system, I had to do a forbidden ritual. One that hasn’t been completed on any planet for twenty years.” And killed Kohl’s mother. He captured her hands in his, unsure if she’d ever let him touch her again after she learned the truth. For the memory to take back with him to Renjer, he brushed his lips across hers. Savoring the taste of her mouth when she returned the kiss.

When he pulled back, they were both panting. Her hands tightening inside his.

“Why did that feel like a goodbye kiss?” Her voice shook slightly.

“Only if you desire it to be.” He met her stare despite his gut clenching. All braveness he had as a Renjer…a dragon fleeing in the presence of this one woman. Would she hate him? Tell him to leave and never return despite the growing love he felt between them. “The ritual binds us together. My life is now your life and vice versa.”

She slid her hands from his and wrapped them around herself as she sat up on her bed. “What exactly does that mean? Like we’re married or something?”

“Not exactly.” He shook his head. “It means I sacrificed part of my lifeforce to heal you.” No need to tell her she was dead. Humans he’d dealt with in the past got queasy on that kind of thing. “Unless you are killed, you’ll live as long as I do.”

Her eyebrows rose. “And how long is that?”

“Five thousand years…give or take.”

She jerked back, looking away and blinking fast. “There’s more, right?” She took a shuddering breath. “You wouldn’t look like you’re about to give someone bad news if there was all there was to it. Spill.”

“You’re not human anymore.” He held out his hands as her face shifted to purple. “When I gave you my blood and did the ritual, it changed your body chemistry. Next full moon, you’ll be able to transform into a Renjerian…a dragon like my brother Kohl. You’ll just be a lot smaller as you’re not truly a half-blood as he is.”

Her body trembled. “What are you saying?”

He reached for her, pulling her into his embrace and rubbing her arms, but she pushed him away.

“Tell me,” she said with her chin quivering.

“In order to save your life, I had to alter you.”

“You already told me that I-I’m not human anymore, so what am I?” She folded her arms across her stomach, her skin taking on an ashy-green color. “What exactly did you do to me?”

“You can no longer live on Earth.”

Her jaw opened and her eyes widened, then she shook her head. “No, that’s not true. I’m fine here.” She waved a hand in his direction. “You’re here and okay, so I don’t understand why you would say that.”

“I’m not living here, I’m visiting. Every thirty days for a moon cycle, Renjerians must return to our planet. When the change over-takes you and shifts you into a Renjerian like me, you’ll need to be on my planet. To let the soil cover your scales and—”

“Get out!” Tears streamed down her face. “You’ve taken away my humanity and home. I never want to see you again.”

“Dena, I—”

“Go!” Her body shook as she turned away.

“It was the only way to save y—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she screeched. “You did something to me…changed me without my permission. I don’t care why, it was wrong. If I was possessed, you should’ve called a priest. Now I’m not even human anymore and have to leave my freaking planet? How could you do this to me?”

He knelt beside the bed, reaching for her, but she jerked away. “Dena, please listen. Let me explain.”

“No. I don’t want to hear another word from you. Get the hell out of my house and fuck off!” She leaped from the bed and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.