Ana

Her instincts were screaming at her to turn and run, to make sure that she was anywhere but where she was. All she could sense was danger closing in on every side. It loomed large, ready to pounce upon her if she should ever let her guard down.

But it would never get close. Although he wore no armor, was not astride a horse, and didn’t hold aloft a magic sword to banish the darkness, there was no doubt in her mind that Ferro was her knight protector. Her warden against the dark, his heavy boots crushing any protests as they made their way across the stone square.

“How do you know where we’re going?” she asked. His steps were so sure, so confident, that it seemed like he’d been here before.

Ferro shrugged. “Making an educated guess, really. Center of town, big square. Go to the building with the hitching post in front of it. It is either a bar or a tavern really. Either or, we should be able to get a room.”

“A hitching post,” she echoed, shaking her head. “Of course. You don’t see many of those around here anymore.”

“You do not see them much of anywhere, really. Shows you just how backward this town really is.” There was a tinge of anger in his voice as he spoke. Ferro was obviously still upset at the way the villagers had treated her. Part of her warmed to his protectiveness. She knew there were few cases where he would ever truly have to help her out. Even the night before, she could likely have escaped without his help.

Perhaps you could have gotten away, but that infection would have done you in, because you were too stubborn to acknowledge such a thing was possible.

She shrugged mentally, knowing that was the truth. Okay, so having Ferro around is good for more than just something to look at. That was selling him far short, but she had to admit he was rather easy on the eyes. Without thinking, she slipped her arm through his again, leaning into him as they approached the building.

“Someone’s awake,” she said suddenly, jerking upright.

The sky was still an hour or so away from beginning to brighten with the sun’s rays, which made it unusual for someone to still be up.

“Perhaps they have an overnight innkeeper?” Ferro suggested as they climbed the two wooden steps to the door.

“Maybe,” she said, though they both knew she didn’t believe that.

The door was unlocked, and she followed him inside with only the slightest hesitation. A lamp hanging from the ceiling lit the interior. It had been that light which had told them someone was awake.

As it turned out, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The innkeeper, she assumed, was stretched out in a hammock behind a desk. The sound of the door stirred him to life, and he exited the slowly swinging netting with practiced ease and came to stand at the counter. He was short, with finger-length black hair pulled into a terrible comb-over. Small beady black eyes blinked rapidly as he woke himself up. He eyed Ferro up and down for a second before his attention swung to her.

“No,” he said quickly in heavily accented English. “No her.” He pointed at Ferro. “You okay. No her.”

Ferro bristled and she tried to hold him back, but he slipped from her grasp and approached the counter. The size difference between the two became more apparent as Ferro towered over the man even as he leaned across the counter.

She didn’t want anymore violence. There had been enough for that night. All she wanted to do was sleep.

But Ferro didn’t do anything more than physically intimidate the man. He shoved his hand into a pocket, removing a wallet stuffed with bills. The innkeeper’s eyes bulged at the sight of so many green and white bills. Ferro removed several marked $100 and laid them out in a row in front of the man.

“She okay.” Ferro didn’t ask a question, but instead stated the obvious. If the man wanted the money, he had to let Ana stay.

The man nodded and went for the money. Ferro’s hand slapped down on the counter faster than she could blink.

“She. Okay,” he repeated again, his voice pure unyielding steel.

“She okay,” the innkeeper said jerkily in his broken English.

Ferro removed his hand and the money disappeared even faster than Ferro had moved. She blinked at the greediness, trying to stifle a smile. Ferro had likely given him several years’ worth of income in the local currency for one night.

He looks angry, but really he’s a big softy at heart. She smiled, moving next to him as they followed the man upstairs. Ferro hadn’t needed to give the man nearly as much money as he had to secure themselves a room for the evening. But he had.

There were two doors per side. He led them to the first door on the right. Ferro stopped him as he pulled out a key-ring.

“No. This one,” he said, pointing to the next door.

The innkeeper started to protest, but Ferro simply held out another crisp bill. The small man hesitated for a second, then nodded and snatched the currency, moving to the door Ferro had pointed at.

“Why did you do that?” she murmured, her voice pitched so low that only Ferro with his excellent shifter hearing would pick it up.

“I have seen more violence than I care to,” he said heavily. “I would rather make someone happy to get my way, if possible.”

She sensed that he wasn’t just talking about the events of the past little while. There was more to it than that. She knew he’d had some troubles with his son Luthor before even showing up that night. Yet that didn’t account for everything she was picking up.

The innkeeper pushed the door open and ushered them in. He said something fast in the local language, bowed his head, and backed out into the hallway beyond, closing the door as he went.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re talking about more than just tonight when you say that?” she asked, resuming their line of conversation.

“Did I sound that bad?” he asked, exploring their little room.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, glancing around their accommodations for the night.

The room was small. The roof slanted downward away from the door, ending only four or so feet from the floor. The bed was on that side, a small affair that would be very cozy for whichever one of them ended up on it. She had a feeling Ferro would try to sleep on the floor, but she had every intent of fighting him on that.

To the left of the door was the adjoining wall, though she could hear no sounds of anyone occupying it. There was a table up against the wall to on her right, and an open closet with drawers occupied the end wall past the bed. Overall, it wasn’t worth a fraction of what they had paid, but it would do.

“I have…seen things,” Ferro said after a moment of pause. He settled into the chair in front of the table and gestured her toward the bed.

Ana wanted to fight, but she wanted to hear what he had to say more, so she accepted his offer and went to sit on the edge of the bed.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she began, but he waved her off.

“I know. But there is something about you. I will tell you because I want to tell you.”

She didn’t blush outwardly, but her soul stirred at the way he said there was something about her. As if he liked whatever that “something” was. She hoped he would want to find out more about it. Ana certainly did.

“I am not sure if you are aware, because the legends—the ones I have heard at least—focus so much on me being the first dragon shifter, but to my knowledge, I am the first shifter.”

Period. Hard stop. Not just the first dragon shifter. But the first shifter ever. She swallowed hard at that revelation.

“I did not know that,” she said at last, not sure what else to say. “How—how did it happen?” she said, having to force the question out.

Ferro shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I cannot recall an incident that occurred to cause it, and I certainly poured over every minute of my life after I realized what had happened. I can only guess that something happened to my father, or mother, that lay dormant within them, but was activated in me as I went through puberty.”

“That must have been horrifying.” It may have happened eight thousand years ago, but Ana was just learning about it for the first time, and she desperately wanted to reach out and hold Ferro.

She didn’t tell him then, but having gone through the same thing herself many years before, she knew how hard it would have been. Nobody could know exactly what it had been like for him, but when she first turned, there had been no support system for her either. Shifters weren’t widely acknowledged as being real, and unless you were born into a family of them, you would never know that there were others like you. For Ana, she now knew it would have made no difference. There were no others like her.

“It was hard,” he acknowledged. “But what happened next was worse.”

Ana frowned in confusion. “What do you mean? What happened next?”

He gave her an apologetic look. “I was a teenage boy, with a strength no man could match, and I could shift into a massive dragon. The weapons of the time could not hurt me, not to the point I could not heal, at least.”

Ana had a feeling she wasn’t going to like where he was going with this.

“I did not know how to control myself. Every teenage boy feels like they are invincible, but they know deep down inside they are not, that even they have a limit.” He shook his head. “Except me. I was invincible. I could do anything I wanted. Nobody could stop me.”

“You didn’t know any better,” she began, but he cut her off with a curt chop of his hand.

“I appreciate your attempt,” he said calmly, “but I did what I did. If I had done it for six months, or a year, then maybe.” He closed his eyes, letting out a big sigh. “But it was more than just months. More than years.”

She felt a small sliver of horror grow within her. “How long?” She needed to know.

“Centuries.”

Her jaw dropped open. “Oh.” It was such a small word for such a mind-numbing revelation.

Ferro shook his head. “For nearly five hundred years, I did whatever I wanted. Went wherever I pleased, ate whatever I desired. You get the picture. I was a terrible person. I still have nightmares to this day about the wanton destruction, and I am sorry to say death, that resulted.”

“What happened? Why did you stop?”

“Life,” he said simply, holding out his hands.

All of a sudden, she understood. “The first dragons.”

Ferro nodded. “My children. Only three of them were born in that time. The eldest three. Luthor. Karthorax—whose son you already met—and Parlanah, a daughter. The rest were born over the course of the next millennia, as I tried to right the wrongs I had committed.”

“The Dragon Council,” she supplied.

“Exactly. I am not proud of who I was, and what I did. I will have to live with that shame until the end of my days, however long that may be.” His eyes snapped up, burning bright and silver once more. “But I strongly believe that the Dragon Council has stopped far worse from happening. They kept themselves, and me, in check for thousands of years. It saved millions of lives in the process, I am sure.”

He stood from his chair in front of the table so violently the chair skidded backward and tipped over. “That is why the Order must not be allowed to win.” He focused on her. “You cannot imagine the havoc and death that would be visited upon this world if dragons are left unchecked.” He frowned. “The Black Death, the Bubonic Plague, whatever you want to call it. You are familiar with it, yes?”

She nodded.

“That was a dragon’s doing. He spread it far faster than it should have, flying from continent to continent, infecting hundreds of thousands, if not millions. It wiped out over a third of the earth’s population before the rest of us could stop him. That was an oversight, brought about because dragons were not aware of what was going on for five years. Five years, one dragon.” He bowed his head. “Imagine what twenty could do. Or fifty.”

She shivered. “I would much rather prefer to think of things the way they are,” she said, her voice more unsteady than she had expected.

Ferro swiveled to look at her, picking up on the fact that he was disturbing her.

“Ana,” he said, coming to her side by the bed. “I am sorry. I did not mean to cause you any distress.” He sighed again. “It has been a long time since I have talked so much. I often forget that what I have come to terms with, they might not.”

He made to wrap his arm around her, then seemed to think better of it.

“Why did you stop?” she asked, looking up at him.

He hesitated. “I... I did not think you would want comfort from one such as me. Not after what I have told you.”

Ana reached down and took his arm, bringing it up around her shoulders.

“Whatever you may have done, whoever you may have been, I think it is clear that you are no longer that person,” she told him seriously. “You have changed. Matured. Realized the errors of your past, and done the best you can to atone for them.” She shrugged. “Everyone makes mistakes. Even dragons,” she said, looking up at him.

He refused to meet her gaze, shame written on his face.

“No,” she said firmly, reaching up and taking his chin, feeling his facial hair under her touch. “Look at me.”

Reluctantly he turned his head, giving in to her command. His eyes were dull gray-brown, without any shine.

Without realizing it, she found her hand creeping up his face, caressing him. “Tell me something,” she whispered throatily.

“Anything,” came the reply, fraught with tension.

“Do your eyes only light up when you’re mad? Or will any strong, ah, emotion, do?”

She saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed. “I am unsure.”

Feeling both bold and slightly curious as to just what had brought them together, she took a leap and went to kiss him again.