Dena gasped and tossed down the shotgun. How the hell had it gone off? She'd only meant to scare the naked guy off, not kill him. But her bandaged hand had somehow hit the trigger and hit him in the chest. The man laid unmoving on the ground with blood blooming from his chest.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” she whispered. Was he dead? She'd killed someone in her yard! So what if he was a naked, crazy man...he had been too far from her to claim self-defense. Shit, she was a doctor, not an assassin. Her job was to save lives, not murder someone.

She ran to the body and fell to her knees in the mud. Her uninjured hand felt for a pulse along his neck. Blood coated the front of his chest. Why was she bothering to see if he was still alive? No one could survive a shotgun blast to the chest at fifty yards away.

His hand shot up and snatched her wrist. She let out a squeaky scream.

“Stay away from me, witch.” His words were soft, but staccato.

“I'm not a witch, but we need to get you to a hospital.” If he lived, then she wouldn't have a dead man on her conscious. “I'll call an ambulance.” She eased herself from his grip and pulled out her cellphone.

“No spells or charlatans.” He grimaced as he tried to sit up, but she pushed a hand on his shoulder. “I don't want to lose any more blood while your kind bleeds me to cure whatever curse you've shot me with.”

“You need medical attention. The bullets have to come out and you have to receive medicine against infection until you heal.” And a possible skin graft and plastic surgery to cover the scars. God, she was going to have to take out a loan to pay for his medical expenses.

“A Renjerian doesn't need human physicians for puny weapons.”

She shook her head and dialed the local hospital. “Whatever dude, but I'm not taking the rap for a shot and run if you die in my yard.”

“Hello,” she said when the operator answered. “I need an am—"

The injured man yanked her phone out of her hand and crushed it.

“Hey! That's mine.” She grappled with the phone, but it had been snapped into pieces. So insane and super strong. “You owe me a new phone.” She eased out of his reach in case he tried to crush her windpipe like he'd done to her cell.

She dug into her pocket for her mini-flashlight on her keyring. Maybe the guy was on drugs? Another reason she loved helping animals and got along better with the nonhuman species better than homo-sapiens. Animals were easy while humans were nuts.

“Let me see if your eyes are dilated.” That would at least tell her he was on certain drugs if his pupils were pinpricks. She bent closer and flicked the light on. Serpentine slanted eyes blinked at her. Impossible! She looked again, then fell back on her ass seeing the same thing.

“Wha-What are you?” The question sounded ludicrous out loud, but the dude had reptilian-freaking eyes!

Before he could answer a shadow fell over her. “Thank you for detaining my enemy for me, human.”

A giant…demon stood over her and the injured man. It was nine-feet tall with black leather wings, rows of sharp teeth, and short black fur. It looked exactly like the devils portrayed in medieval paintings. A smashed snout with beady red glowing eyes and freaking long, twisted horns protruding out of the top of its head.

She scrambled for her shotgun, but the demon kicked her side and sent her flying into her mailbox. The wooden post splintered on impact and Dena’s breath whooshed out of her mouth. Pain vibrated down her spine. Laying on her side, she watched the demon stalk toward the naked man.

The monster picked up the guy by the throat and slung him around, speaking in some garbled language she’d never heard before. He choked the man, and if she didn’t do something it was going to kill him.

Ignoring the pain shooting down her legs, she crawled toward her shotgun. It lay on the other side of the demon. The injured man punched the creature again and again in the face, but it didn’t loosen its hold, and his eyes bulged.

Shit, shit, shit! Dena stumbled into a crouch and rushed toward her weapon. Pain screaming at her back and legs with each step. She grabbed the gun. Cocking it, she pulled the trigger. Nothing. Out of bullets! If she didn’t do something, this thing was going to suffocate the weirdo.

Using the brunt of the shotgun, she whacked the demon in his kidney with it. Or at least where she thought the organ would be located. The creature fell to a knee. His clawed hand slipping away from the naked guy.

“That was a mistake, human,” the demon growled and smiled with jagged rows of razor teeth.

She held the barrel of the gun like a baseball bat over her shoulder to swing again. “Go back to hell or wherever you came from.”

The man coughed several times as though his throat was sore from being choked but before she could blink, he launched himself on top of the creature’s back and punched him in the same spot she’d hit.

While naked guy punched the demon, he yelled and Dena scrambled backward to avoid the massive creature’s flailing. It spun to dislodge the man from its back, but he hung on.

“Your kind used to care for these humans,” the demon snarled. “Let's see if you still do.”

Dena felt the blood drain from her face as the giant devil turned to her.

“Get out of here!” the dude yelled.

Dena’s knees unlocked and she raced inside her house. Freaking monsters...demons were real? She panted as she searched her supplies for something that might work against a devil.

With the shotgun tucked under her arm, she snatched the bullets from the shelf then stopped. Naked guy had only a momentary setback from a direct hit to his chest at close range. How much less would a gunshot harm a freaking demon?

Her front door crashed into the wall and she jumped. The demon burst through her doorway.

She stumbled back, her hip hitting her supply cabinet. Sedatives! If they could knock out a Great Dane, surely they'd do something to a demon. She jerked open the drawer and yanked out a shot. With her hands shaking, she stepped forward.

“Get the fuck out of my house!”

It barreled into her, knocking her into her veterinary cabinet. Its weight pinning her down on her back. Shattered glass cuttings pierced her skin. She jammed the needle into its chest and shoved the plunger down.

The needle snapped off into its black hide. It growled then sniffed her like a hound, grabbing her wrist and inhaling her hand with the shot still in it.

“You think you are powerful enough to defeat us?” The demon laughed. “All your weapons are useless and you will defeat the Renjer for us. Next time—" Its red tinted eyes rolled up in the back of its head and it slumped on top of her.

Shit! The sedative had worked. Too bad this thing weighed a ton. She grunted from the effort of trying to push the thing off her when it flew backward and crashed through her wall. Naked man stood before her.

When he turned away from her toward the beast, she stood. “Thanks, but its unconscious.” Relief washed over her, she'd done it. Fought a demon and lived.

He faced her. “We have to burn it before it awakens.” Brushing past her, he opened a drawer then closed it and opened another.

“What are you looking for?” she asked, tiptoeing through the broken glass and shattered wood.

“A flint stone.”

She crossed her arms. “We are not burning it. I told you, with as much medicine as I injected it with, it'll be out for hours.” If she hadn't accidentally killed it. She bit her lip and shuffled to the fallen creature. Science would have a new species to study. Might even make her enough money to pay her student loans off. She reached out a hand to feel for the creature’s pulse when a naked man yanked her back by her elbow.

“Ow!” His grip hadn't hurt just surprised her.

“I told you, we have to burn it.”

Irritation flamed in her chest. “It’s out cold. I know modern medicine isn't holy water, but it did the trick.”

He ran a hand through his reddish-brown hair. “Humans. Always mixing things up and getting them backward. It's not holy water that destroys Tryns, it's what your kind called dragon fire.”

Her friend, Kohl, wasn't here and he was the only dragon she ever met, they were out of luck. “Sorry, I'm fresh out of that type of fire.”

She grabbed a lighter out of one of the drawers and flicked it on.

The man narrowed his eyes. “What spell is this, witch?”

“Stop calling me that. My name is Dena and I'm a veterinarian, not a witch.” Otherwise, she'd have waved her wand and blasted these two out of her yard and into a psych ward and the other to the gates of hell.

“I'm Taurian.” He nodded, then frowned. “What's a vet-rin-arian?”

Was this guy for real? She was having a hard enough time after fighting a demon much less keep eye contact and not stare at Taurian’s junk.

“It’s an animal doctor.”

He snorted. Did he seriously not know that?

“Give me your fire,” he held out his hand, “It’ll have to do while I’m...stuck in this form.”

Great. First naked guy in her house for months and he was crazy. “You are not going to burn that demon in my house.” Once she called...animal control or a paranormal investigator, was there such a thing, then she could claim the discovery and get paid.

“Fine, I’ll drag the Tryn outside if you like, but then it’s turning to ash.”

She couldn’t let him destroy it. “No!” She stepped between him and the creature, palming the lighter.

“Out of my way, human. That creature will bring more of its kind here. And I will not allow it to return to my world and tell others where my family is.” He stalked closer to her until he was a breath away.

His scent filled her with mountain air, musk, and a hint of something spicy and sweet...like smoked cinnamon.

“We’ll call someone to pick it up and study it.” She fought to stand her ground despite his nearness. “Find out where it comes from. Why it’s here—”

“It’s a pestilence that destroys everything it touches.” His pupils turned into serpentine slits. “Now get out of my way or I will move you.”

When she crossed her arms and lifted her chin, he reached out and grasped her arms. She squeaked as he hauled her up into the air as though she weighed nothing and set her down out of the way.

A popping sounded, and she went on her tiptoes to peek around him to what was making that noise. And where was her lighter? She patted her pants pockets.

“How do you work this blasted thing?” Taurian clicked the lighter upside-down and opened and closed the case.

Before she could respond, the demon before them shimmered, then vanished.

“Shit, where did it go?” She shivered and it felt like an ice dagger ran down her spine. Was it waiting to reappear later when she was alone?

Taurian growled. “If you’d given me the fire earlier, it wouldn’t have had time to teleport. Who knows where it went.” He stalked closer, and she backed up until she hit the wall behind her. “If it hurts my family, I will see that you suffer every scratch they endure.”

“S-sorry.” She swallowed. “I-I didn’t know.”

He scoffed. “Too late now.”

When he tossed her lighter back to her, she caught it. Then he went to her door and stepped outside into the night.

“Wait!” Good thing she didn’t have close neighbors or the cops would’ve been here by now. Betsy lived a quarter of a mile away and she was deaf but cooked a mean gumbo. “Y-your wound. Let me tend it and get you clothes.”

He stared at her, then rolled his shoulders back. “My injury is nearly healed, but I will take your offer on…garments.”

Healed? Could he be like Kohl? She dashed to the guest room and yanked out her ex’s camouflage baggy shorts and an army green T-shirt. They were the biggest clothes she could find and they’d probably be very snug on Mr. Crazy Seven-Foot. “Here.” She tossed them at Taurian and waited until he put on the shorts. “Now let me at least sanitize the gunshot, okay.”

With a grunt, he plopped down on her couch. She grabbed antiseptic and gauze from the smashed cabinet then picked her way through the glass to him.

She doused the gauze and wiped at the blood streaked across his shirt.

“That stuff smells like garzalon piss.”

“Whatever that is.” She frowned as the blood wiped off on the pad, but so far she didn’t find any bullet holes. Rather bumps like the injury had been months ago rather than hours. He was like Kohl then. Did he know her alien dragon friend? She’d helped heal Kohl when he crashed into the swamp outside her home three years ago. A full-size, real-life dragon. She couldn’t believe it. Then he’d transformed into a man over six feet tall. Not as big as Taurian who was easily seven-feet tall and change. What was it Kohl had said his people were called? Rebiranies? No, Renjer…yes that was their planet. Renjerians. “Are you—?”

He snarled and snapped a hand on her throat and hauled her across the room. Her legs kicked as she tried to pry his fingers off her throat. She gagged as he slammed her against the wall. Her vision darkening.

“My brother’s blood. I smell it despite you trying to mask it with that retched smell.” His silver eyes narrowed. Had she been the one to infect Kohl with so much of the Tryn poison? “Tell me why his blood is here or I’ll crush your throat.”