Taurian eased his hold on the human woman’s throat enough for her to speak. Instead of trembling in fear, she kicked him in the crotch. Pain shot up his groin and he bent over, gasping. What the fuck? Human bodies were too fragile and weak, which is why he never wanted to be one. He gritted his teeth from the pain as she scrambled away. Shit! If he was in his dragon form her kick would've done nothing.

She returned with a large knife and waved it between them with one hand. “I'm calling the cops, asshole. Better get the hell out of my house and never come back.”

As much as he'd like to do that very thing, he wanted to know why this woman had his brother's blood. On Regner, Kohl was unconscious and with another human woman and both of them smelled of Tryn. Was the female...Isabelle lying? Had she and this one done something to his brother? Perhaps they were working with his enemy and the traitor was on his home world with his brother!

Taurian stood and hissed out a breath as the movement reminded him of his tender groin. Ignoring the knife-wielding female, he sniffed the air to locate the source of his brother's blood here. If his sister, Desmonda, was present, she'd have smelled it from outside. And the human woman’s scent wasn't helping either. Her fear mingled with the sharp order of whatever she rubbed on his chest when cleaning his wounds along with a flora and multiple faint animal smells didn't make it easy.

After he marched past her, she let out a breath and he chuckled. If she thought he wasn't a threat just because she held a weapon then she didn't know who she was dealing with.

The smell of Kohl's blood was stronger closer to a shelf of books and other small items. Then Taurian spotted a jar with red droplets lining the bottom...along with fragments from a Tryn poison-tipped spear. His gut twisted and he clenched his fists as he faced her. “How did you get that?”

She looked past him and paled. “I-I helped a friend.”

His brother had never mentioned her. Then again until he'd shown up with the quasicrystal and tried to get their father to commission a return trip for them back to Earth, no one knew that Kohl had even come here. “What's his name...this friend of yours?”

She narrowed her eyes and didn't lower her blade. “How do you know it was a guy?”

Smiling, he closed the distance between them. The tip of her knife cutting into his chest before she gasped and jumped back.

“I've tolerated you before, but now I am out of patience. Tell me his name and how you know him and I may spare your life.”

“How do I know you're not lying to me?” She lifted her chin but her hand gripping the knife trembled slightly. “To me, you could be one of the bad guys and want to hurt him.”

Fair point. And the fact she seemed to be protective of Kohl raised her level in his mind even more. A warrior’s heart and loyal. “He's my brother.”

Instead of lowering her weapon she scoffed. “Prove it then.”

Was she asking him to turn into his true form? Did she not think he'd tried since crashing here and fighting the Tryn? “I can't. Something happened to me during my...travel here.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Did my brother show you his Renjerian form?” If she was pretending to be on their side, then he'd been vague enough not to give her any more information than Tryns already had.

“Wow, Kohl said his brothers were stubborn and irritating, but I thought he exaggerated.”

At his brother's name, Taurian relaxed his shoulders and rolled them back to ease the tension. If she were an enemy, Kohl wouldn’t have given his name or he’d have used the long version. The fact she knew his nickname made Taurian trust her a tiny bit.

“Care to tell me why you ended up in my front yard and why you can't transform?” She set her knife down and placed a hand on her hip. “Cause if you had shown up as a dragon, we could've avoided all this drama.” She pressed a hand to her throat where he'd choked her.

Guilt sliced into him, but he couldn't risk trusting a stranger much less a human too soon. Her kind, when Renjerians had defeated and drove away the Tryns from Earth had then turned on the dragons. Butchering those they had called friends and comrades. Declaring Renjerians devils and monsters. It was like a madness had taken hold of them that spread through the land. That was why he had vowed never to return. And now the sky and fire gods had mocked him. Took away his Dragon form he was born with and trapped him here. How could he ride the lightning back to Renjer?

“Hey, it's okay.” Her voice soothed him and the words slipped out before he could stop them.

“I've never been anything else but a dragon.”

“What?” She jerked back. “But Kohl can shift. I thought you all could do that.”

“No. Only him until now.”

She plopped down on a stool. “Shit. How do we change you back? And what about the demon?” She shivered. “Will it return?”

He honestly didn't know. If he left, there was a chance it would come back and the thought of her having to fight it alone made his stomach turn. She'd been lucky the first time rendering it unconscious briefly. Best thing to do was stay with her until he could figure out what the hell had happened to him and how to fix it. And she'd said she was an animal doctor.

“It might,” he answered her honestly.

“Great.” She ran a hand through her blonde hair. “Guess I need to keep shots handy.”

“Tell me about this.” He tapped the glass jar, and she grimaced.

“I removed that from Kohl months ago.” She set her bandaged hand down on her lap. “Yesterday, I opened it up to try and figure out why the blood had never coagulated. For my troubles, I got a splinter.”

He paced. “Anything else?” There had to be something to his brother's blood looking fresh and Taurian becoming a human and unable to shift.

“Just that the fragment almost seems to be symbiotic.” She shook her head. “But that's not possible...it's a type of metal.”

What if his brother's blood did that on its own? And Taurian had sucked the venom out of Kohl so there was a chance he'd ingested some of his brother's blood. Was that why Taurian was human now? “Can you check my blood? Compare it to Kohl's and find out if there are similarities?”

Then find a way to change Taurian back into a dragon.

“Sure, I can take a look.” She rose. “Let me sterilize my scalpel and get a slide.”

Her blade was small and thin. Did she really think this thin metal would cut him? “Are you going to use more of that foul smelling potion? ‘Cause I still reek of it. Fire would be better.”

“No, you are not ruining my scalpel.” She picked through the debris then returned with small, white squares. After she wiped the blade, she set it on a silver tray. Then opened another square. “Hold your arm out.”

When he did so, she wiped his forearm on spot, then picked up her blade and sliced a line down his flesh. Red rivulets trickled down. Then she pressed a thin piece of glass to the blood.

“Here, put pressure on that.” She covered his wound with a strip of cloth and pushed his arm up.

Sliding the glass under a contraption, she peered into a black tube. When she kept turning a knob and not saying anything, he grumbled.

“Well?”

She jumped, then looked abashed.

“Tell me.”

“Your blood is...mutating at a super-fast rate.” She frowned and shook her head. “And I don't know why or what will happen to you once it's finished.”

“Are you saying I'm stuck like this forever? Or I’m going to change into something worse?” Human and no wings or flight? This was torture.

“No.” She laid a hand on his. “At least I don’t think so. It’s too early to tell. I’ll have to do more tests and we might need to consult an expert.”

“Tryns have killed all of our scientist and physicians.”

“That’s awful.” She kept her hand on his and he liked the contact. It soothed him somehow. “We can utilize someone here on Earth.”

And let them put him in a cage or try to kill him? “Absolutely not.”

“Why?” She pulled her hand away and the absence made him draw in a breath. “If they can help yo—”

“I don’t trust your kind.” He glowered.

“Then leave.” She waved him away. “Go back to your planet.”

She was right, without her, he wouldn’t even know what his blood was doing and perhaps she could help him.

Softening his features, he took her hand in his until she looked up at him. “I am making an exception for you. A-and I cannot return home until I get my dragon form back. You said you were an animal doctor…help me, please.” If she couldn’t figure out how to transform him back to his dragon then he was stuck in this body and on this backward planet.