Taurian detected Dena near him, but he couldn't reach her. Darkness surrounded him. His body weightless and shifting from Renjerian to human faster than possible. He wanted to be with Dena. He couldn't make out her words exactly, but their meaning was clear. She was crying over him.

He yearned to comfort her and tell her everything was okay. Except, it wasn’t. He couldn’t even work out where he was. Had he teleported to another planet?

He shook his head. No, last thing he remembered was shielding Dena from the explosion when he had released his dragonfire.

Was Dena okay? He felt around for her, but only found a void.

If he died and she wasn't with him then that meant that she survived. Elation filled his heart. He'd done it! He'd protected her from the blast and if that much power had killed him, then the scorpions should be destroyed as well. He would be reborn as lava in the great southern mountains of Renjer.

He would gladly do it all again to save Dena. And his feelings for her had poured out of him. At least he was able to tell her that he loved her.

But what had been her response? Had she scoffed or told him she loved him too?

The need to hear her say those words or to know if she spurned his affection. Not knowing burned a crater in his chest. He had to know. One way or another if she cared for him.

A tugging in his middle sent him spiraling downward. Where was Earth? There weren’t any stars in this empty space to guide his way either.

He had to get to Dena. His body convulsed, but he kept the image of her smile and bright eyes locked in his mind.

His legs and arms were tangled in netting that stuck to him. The more he thrashed to get away, the more he became ensnared in the strands. Nothing and no one was around except darkness.

Dena's voice sounded further away each second.

No, he had to reach her. He punched and twisted to break free. When his body morphed into a dragon, he shot out dragonfire, but the strands increased and wrapped him in a cocoon with only his head poking free. They looked like a cosmic web of some sort.

In his Renjerian body, he stretched and pushed against the confinement.

“Dena!” he bellowed, shoving all the sides of the sticky cocoon and filling it with his dragonfire.

Her voice had faded and everything in him wanted to find her again. Hold her in his arms and never let go. He wanted to share her day and laugh with her. For her to be the first thing he saw when he woke up and the last sweet fragrance he smelled at night.

When the cocoon stretched as far as he could make it, he forced his body to shrink down to a man. The fibers of his muscles cramped. His bones broke. Agony twisted his stomach. His head swam. He took gasping breaths until the pain eased.

His imprisonment heated like he was in an oven. Sweat poured off him and every breath burned his lungs as heat continued to pumel him. He had to get out of here before he was roasted. He tore through the fibers with his bare hands.

He tumbled through blackness to a smoking floor.

Dena let out a gasp. “Taurian? How?”

He glanced up at her, then drew her into his arms and looked back over his shoulder. A blackened husk of his Renjerian form stood there with a gaping hole that he'd climbed out of.

What in Renjer did that mean? He was in his human body now and called forth his dragon, but it was silent. Did that mean he'd lost it forever? How would he ever reach his homeworld now? He couldn’t, not unless one of his kind came and brought him over. Sorrow slammed into him and he blinked. He might never see his family again. What if his absence swayed the war in the Tryns favor? No, his brothers would search for him. They’d figure out a way to bring his Renjerian body back.

For now, he was with Dena. They'd escaped, that was what mattered for now. He'd figure out the rest later.

Dena's face was covered with soot and tears streaking down her face. He wiped at them and kissed her cheek.

“Miss me?” he asked.

She laughed and he cherished the sound, locking it away in his heart. “How did you... nevermind... I'm just so happy you're here.” She threw her arms around his neck, squeezing him so hard, he tapped her shoulder.

“I'll take your response as an affirmation that you did miss me or you're trying to choke me to death.”

Her grip eased and she scrubbed a hand down her face. A loud wailing pierced the early morning air. It reminded him of Officer Johnson.

“Right, right.” She looked down and her face colored pink. “Um...we need to get some clothes. And get the hell away from here. I can't get arrested for arson even if we did kick alien monster ass.”

Her smile was contagious.

“I suppose we shouldn't leave behind a dragon corpse shell either then?” he asked.

“It's too big to take.” She bit her lip.

What if he never became a dragon again? But she was right. “Here.” He smashed the dragon shell and she joined in helping him until it was a pile of unrecognizable rubble. Heartache felt as if lead filled his chest. Somehow, he’d find a way back to his people and his true form.

Their hands and bodies were covered with ash and soot.

She grabbed his hand. “Hurry, the firetrucks are almost here.”

Together they ran in the predawn light to her car. Once he was in the passenger seat, she slammed on the gas and the car weaved along the road. She took a dirt path off the street.

“What are you doing?” Why was she going this way in what looked like a walking path not a road?

“It's a shortcut and I don't want the firemen to see us.”

Taurian glanced over his shoulder. The red fire trucks lights flashed through the trees. Men in brown and yellow suits dashed to the smoldering building that only two and half outside walls remained standing. Fire chewed across a partial roof and along the wood paneling along the interior of the complex.

“How are you alive?” Dena whispered under her breath. “I'm ecstatic, but it would've saved my sanity if you had hinted that you could do that.” She swerved around a large tree.

He placed his hand over hers. “I've no idea how I did that or what it means.”

At her frown and sadness in her eyes, he brought her hand to his mouth and lightly kissed her knuckles. Inside, his loss was still numb and raw. There would be time to mourn later whenever he was alone. Maybe he’d visit Ash’s grandmother…she might know a way to fix him.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He forced a smile. “I’d rather be alive and human with you than a dead Renjerian.”

“Is it like you're related to snakes and how they shed their skin? Or you went from a dragon husk to a man,” she shook her head, “more like a moth or something, but in reverse. ‘Cause humans don't have wings.”

She pulled into her driveway and Taurian touched her shoulder.

“Dena, it's okay.” He leaned toward her and she sighed into him. “Unless you're saying you're attracted to my Renjerian form more than this one?”

She clasped his face in her hands and kissed him hard and long. Her tongue sweeping inside his mouth and gliding with his.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. “Somehow we’ll find a way to get you back home…get your dragon form back…everything.” Tears spilled down her cheeks.

He pushed aside his misery and brushed her tears away with his thumb. “Hey now, we’re alive. We survived demon spawn and are together. The rest of the stuff will work out. This is love, remember? Not everyone finds it, but we succeeded. Regaining my dragon form is the easy part.” He hated lying to her, but he couldn’t stand to see her so upset. And he’d meant what he’d said, he’d rather be any form and be with her than live with the absence of her in his life.

He kissed her again. This time, softly, taking his time to taste her lips. When he rumbled his pleasure against her lips, she smiled.

“How about we go get cleaned up?” She slid out of the car.

He wrestled with the door, falling back into his seat when the car's belt snatched him back. The click unlocked after he pushed it three times and he finally got out of the car. Dena stood in the doorway of her house shaking her head, a smile on her face. She crooked her finger at him and he raced up the stairs to her.

Behind him, he kicked the door closed.

She stared past him to the line of trees on the edge of her property and he tensed, readying for a fight. But it was three small coyotes dashing off.

“Friends of yours?” he asked.

“Maybe.” She smiled picking up an empty bowl beside a water one. “I think they belong to the coyote you saved from the trap the other day.” She swallowed and blinked back tears. “The one that attacked the demon—”

“And looks like they’ve accepted your offering.” He grinned. “Give it some time and we might have three coyotes to raise.”

She lifted her chin at him. “You up for the task?”

In answer, he scooped her up in his arms, and the plastic bowl she was holding clattered against the wood porch. He kissed her. His soul hungry for her. He carried her to her bedroom never stopping his kissing her.

She pulled away and slapped his shoulder lightly.

“We need to get cleaned up,” she panted. “I'm a mess.”

Her hair was coated with ash, her body and clothes smeared with soot.

“You've never looked more beautiful to me.” He bent down to her, but she placed a finger against his mouth. Her eyes glistening.

Had he misread her? Every time he'd kissed or tried to, she had ended up pushing him away. Had he misread her in the car and here in her bedroom?

“Did you mean what you said?” she whispered, her voice hoarse. Her eyes staring into his very heart and soul. “Before you set off the blast?”

“Yes. I love you, Dena.” He smiled against her lips despite his pulse speeding up at not knowing what she was thinking or what she'd do. Would she pushed him away again? Tell him that he was ridiculous and make him leave? “I started falling for you the moment you shot me.”

Her lower lip trembled, but she didn't flinch away from him either. “I need you to know something too. You didn't give me enough time earlier to tell you how I feel.”

His heart clenched. She didn't care for him. Not in the same way he did here. “Tell me. It doesn't matter what you say, I will always love and cherish you.”

“Will you let me finish?” she asked and glanced away. “Since my divorce, I hardened my heart against relationships. That's why I loved my work, animals don't lie or cheat or break your heart.”

Taurian kissed her knuckles. “If your ex were still alive, I'd drag him here to beg for your forgiveness then drop him at the North Pole to find his way back.”

“I know you would have. But Dave is dead...that Tryn thing killed him. We have to find a way to fight them, to stop them from ever doing that to anyone else.”

“Yes. That is why Kohl came to Earth.” Taurian nodded. “He thinks the quasicrystals will help sway the war. Do you know where your people store them?”

“I already told Kohl where one was and he stole it. The newspaper ran the story of how a friend of mine’s safe was robbed and the only thing taken was the quasicrystal. Later, there was a retraction, but I know it was him.”

“Then we have to get more.”

She traced her hand down his chest. “Then I guess we don't have time for this.”

“One thing I’ve learned living through a war, making time for love is always the answer.” He pressed his body over hers and kissed her with all the yearning and passion he could.