Orion Silverdrake, the man wearing a leather jacket and sporting a rugged five o’clock shadow, had just shapeshifted into a massive silver dragon right in front of Lucia’s eyes. Before she could even catch her breath from the shock, he’d grabbed her in his huge talons and carried her into the dark sky.

Lucia had watched in horror as the ground fell away below her. Felix meowed at the top of his lungs, screaming and hissing hysterically until even he managed to calm down.

Lucia stared at the night sky through the space between Orion’s talons. The stars still shone over the dying world. She wanted to forget the screams of her city and believe that this dragon man could somehow make everything alright.

He did say he had a fortress with technology better than her laptop. In this dreamlike reality, anything was possible, she decided. Or maybe she should have shot him. She might have if she actually owned a shotgun. But she didn’t have one. All she had was her cat, and they both needed a safe harbor.

Ever since the sun had gone dark and her heart had gone berserk, she’d been having visions of this man…this dragon. She knew him somehow and he claimed to be her long lost husband. What were the odds that this was all a big coincidence? In her old life, she would have looked for rational explanations. But now, believing he was her soulmate was just as likely as anything.

It filled her with a kind of longing she’d never experienced. When he finally landed deep within the heart of the Northern California coastal mountains, she finally decided it was alright that she’d gone with him rather than shooting him in the face with her imaginary shotgun.

He let her down gently before landing and shifting beside her. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could make out the walls around her from the light of the stars alone. As soon as Orion shifted, the house lights came on. She gasped as she took in the marvel of what she found around her.

Immaculately kept grounds. A statue of a goddess holding a bowl that spilled water down into a gazing pool. The twenty foot concrete walls around the wide expanse of the courtyard truly did make it seem like a fortress.

She turned to Orion who was holding a clear glass tablet that he flicked and clicked on.

“What is that? And how do you have electricity?”

“Xander’s particle beam can’t interfere with our technology. Only human technology. I’m sure he would have tried, if he had more advanced technology than we have. He’s used all his resources to put out the sun and destroy mankind. You can’t conquer everyone at once. Not even Xander has that much power.”

“Who is Xander?” Lucia asked, leaning over to inspect his tablet. The screen seemed holographic, but it was also very similar to the digital touch screens she was used to.

“Xander Valdis. He’s the leader of The Surge. The grandson of the vampire god Tartarus. He wants nothing more than to enslave humanity and all immortals who oppose him.”

“You lost me a long time ago.”

“Come inside, beloved, you are freezing cold and your cat is having fits.”

He put his arm around her waist and walked with her toward the entrance of the grand house in the distance. There was a long drive framed by well-kept gardens. Beside the house sat a massive garage with five different sliding doors.

The front entrance of the four-story mansion was on the second floor, up a grand staircase. Orion took Lucia’s cat carrier before they started up the stairs. He walked with his arm around her waist the entire time. She was glad to have the physical support because the events of the day had left her shaken up. But being so close to this stranger was giving her body all kinds of strange feelings.

Lucia wasn’t in the habit of flying off with men who broke into her apartment, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She just hoped this wasn’t an elaborate scheme to take her to his lair and eat her brain, or worse.

When they reached the front entrance of the mansion, the door opened and they were greeted by a butler who looked more like a goblin than a man. Lucia gasped and stepped back, terrified of the small green creature. Felix hissed in his cat carrier. The butler bowed and backed out of the doorway.

“Please, this is just Benny. He’s worked for me for ages.”

“What is he?” Lucia stammered as Orion guided her past the bowing green midget.

“He’s my butler. The Goudy tend my fortress. Their kind have a long history of service to the immortals since the veiling. They cannot be seen by humans, so they must find other means of employment.”

“Why can’t they be seen?” Lucia asked.

She still had no idea what Orion was going on about. Not a single word had made sense since they’d landed. And he still seemed to believe she was his dead wife.

“It is part of Gama’s last spell. After the veil, all non-human entities from the center of the Earth and from space were banished or weakened. Most cannot be seen by human eyes or they vanish from existence.”

“They vanish? That’s horrible.”

“Please, come inside, my beloved.”

Lucia followed Orion through his mansion. Everything was luxurious and expensive looking. Antiques that should have been in a museum were mixed with ultra-modern pieces straight from the gallery showroom floor.

The twenty-foot-tall ceiling stretched overhead and the creamy gold walls were covered in masterpiece paintings from the last ten centuries.

Orion led her into a cozy parlor down the hall and around the corner from the front door. It was less grand than the other rooms they’d passed, but far more comfortable for a girl who lived in a one bedroom apartment. The modern rustic furnishings directed the focus to the grand stone fireplace that was blazing with a roaring fire. It was exactly what she needed to warm her chilled blood. She walked past a bank of windows on the way to the sitting area in front of the hearth. She imagined that, when the sun shined, the view must be breathtaking.

“This place is amazing,” she said, warming her hands by the fire.

Orion set Felix’s crate near the glowing warmth and Lucia knelt to open his cage.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” she said, reaching for her traumatized pet.

She pulled him out and stood, holding him to her chest in front of the fire. He struggled at first but was soon purring with contentment. The poor thing had been scared out of his mind, but she was glad she’d brought him. Leaving him alone to starve wasn’t an option.

Lucia set Felix down and let him run off to find a cozy place to lick himself. She’d have to find him food and litter before she went to bed. If she could ever sleep again with a man like Orion so close.

She couldn’t help but notice the tingle of arousal that swept through her whenever he spoke, or touched her, or pretty much any time he did anything. It didn’t make her angry, it just confused the hell out of her.

He stepped in front of the fire and offered her a cup of steaming hot tea in a pretty porcelain cup. She accepted the offering and sat down in an armchair beside the fire. Orion sat across from her, giving her the space she desperately needed.

All the information coming at her from every side was just too much. She couldn’t process it, even if she wanted to. Everything in her was telling her to grab onto Orion with both hands and never let him go. He had a lot of stories she was sure he believed, but that didn’t mean any of it was true. How could she even trust her strange foreign memories? It was all so absurd, no matter how much she felt for Orion.

Supposedly, she was an immortal priestess or a witch or something. She’d never had any indication that she was a supernatural creature from some godly lineage until today. The suggestion was insane.

Although, her mother always said that her own great grandmother was a psychic back in Spain. She had to hide it because of religious superstition, but that didn’t keep the people of her village from coming to her for advice back then.

“You said a vampire named Xander caused the sun to go out? He did that to bring magic back into the world?”

“Yes,” said Orion, sipping his tea.

“Can the sun come back?”

“Undoubtedly. The sun hasn’t gone out. It’s being cooled due to a chemical reaction created by his particle beam.”

“If the sun can come back, can the electricity?” she asked, trying desperately to keep up.

“Yes. The particle beam is currently interfering with human technology. Without it, normal electrical function returns. I’m sure the solar flare burned out most of the grid, though. No matter what, the world will never be the same.”

“How can the sun come back?”

“My brother Titus is gathering our forces to hit Xander at his underground laboratory in Denver. Now that we know where his beam is located, we can strike him there. Rest assured, the Silverdrake clan will not allow The Surge to destroy humanity. There are many other immortals who agree.”

“You are going to fight him?” she asked, suddenly feeling terrified to lose him.

She barely knew him, yet the thought that he might die in battle ripped her apart. What would happen to her in this strange place? Her heart flip-flopped in her chest, just as it had when the sun went dark.

“I will stay until you are settled, Selene. My greatest priority is to you.”

“Please call me Lucia, Orion. I don’t know who Selene is.”

“I’m sorry. That was your name when you were my wife. A long time ago, in another world.”