Chapter Five
They rode to town in silence, which was just as well. Gillian’s mind raced with all that she’d learned in the past twelve hours, churning with a mixture of fear, excitement, and regret. The fear was fading, thank goodness.
No, thank Aiden.
After what had happened with the lamp and remote, she’d been terrified to go near her van, let alone drive it. The van ran on gasoline and battery power, so she hypothesized that it would be susceptible to her magic. She’d been shocked to find it parked outside of Aiden’s house. But apparently the shapeshifting dragon man from another dimension—a concept entirely too weird to dwell on—had been sensible enough to retrieve it along with her equipment in order to convince her to trust him.
Then he’d insisted that she drive.
When she balked about what might happen if she accidentally used her magic to blow up the van or weaponize her gear, he’d hopped into the back and started tossing out all of her custom detectors, traps, and computer equipment one by one, forcing her to catch them rather than let them fall, yelling at him all the while. This was expensive stuff, and he was treating it like garbage. The strange electrical sensations vibrated through her body when she handled each piece, but nothing bad happened.
After proving his point, he’d tossed her the keys, jumped in the passenger seat, and instructed her to keep calm and drive them into Magic so they could go see some supernatural lawyer named Rocky. Once she was ‘debriefed’ and signed a confidentiality agreement, she’d be free to go.
Trouble was, she had nowhere to go and no idea what to do with her life now that she’d learned the truth. Freelancing as a specialized tech engineer just didn’t have the same appeal that it did before, a job she’d used to fund her hobby. Her hobby that had just turned out to be an enormous waste of time and a giant lie.
Ignoring that sad bit of reality, she’d barraged Aiden with a series of questions related to the biological basis of shapeshifting. Conservation of mass seemed to be irrelevant per his description. When she didn’t buy it, he threw out some nonsense about how his molecular structure in human form was more compact than when he took the form of a dragon. According to his ‘theory,’ expansion of the distance between molecules made it possible for his body to morph from large man into gargantuan dragon.
He’d shut her down when she asked about what happened to his clothing during a shift. But come on, his clothes weren’t a part of the molecular structure of his body. They should tear and rip when he shifted, like the Incredible Hulk. And when he shifted back, logic dictated that he’d be naked.
The thought of this incredible creature naked, with his godlike body and the mesmerizing tracery swirling beneath his skin, made heat pool low in her belly and left her hot and aching. The attraction that filled her was more than pure lust. It was, she could admit, strengthened by her marked fascination with the strange, kind man behind the dragon and empathy for all he’d endured.
Of course, he’d shut her down when she’d asked for more details about his life on Tarakona. Not that she blamed him. She couldn’t even imagine the horrors of slavery or the guilt he must carry over his sister’s captivity. Thank goodness he’d been able to get Nadia out of there recently, which was why he’d been visiting the other dimension in the first place.
But you put him in a cage.
Damn her inner voice. It was true, though. She’d falsely imprisoned him. And speaking of guilt, she owed her sister and aunts a thousand apologies for what she’d put them through. All the years of disbelief, ridicule, and distance she’d inserted between the only family she had left came crashing down on her as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.
The road began to blur. A large hand gently landed on hers and gave it a light squeeze. “We’re almost there,” he said. “You’re doing great, by the way. Better than I would have expected.”
Her first impulse was to scoff and scold him for patronizing her, but she bit it back. He’d been kinder to her than she deserved. The least she could do was to remain civil. Later, she’d work her way up to thanking him. The thought sent another delicious shiver of desire through her body.
“I haven’t turned my van into a weapon of mass destruction, at least,” she joked, before realizing it wasn’t that much of a joke. She had to get her emotions under control now that she knew the damage her magic could do when she became angry or scared. It was a wonder she hadn’t blown something up before now.
In fact, why hadn’t she blown up anything before now? She’d been angry before in her life and she’d been around electronic devices since the moment her father had put a calculator in her chubby infant hands.
Instead of laughing at her not-joke, Aiden squeezed her hand again. She risked a glance at him, struck once more by his masculine beauty. His disheveled hair and stubble made him look roguishly handsome, like a rake from some Victorian romance novel. Add in his size and intensity and it would be easy to write him off as trouble. Had she met him on the street, she’d have given him a wide berth, and she doubted he would mind. He lived alone, and she got the feeling that he didn’t have many friends.
It was a shame. Beneath those scars was man with uncommon compassion—how many men would offer comfort to a crazed woman who’d trapped them in a cage and nearly taken them out with an enchanted lamp? He had a wicked sense of humor, and he wasn’t a half-bad cook. And the carvings and furniture in his home? He’d created them. Apparently that’s how he made a living on Earth. She’d seen the art galleries and fine furniture shops in Santa Fe. His work no doubt fetched a pretty penny. The man was more than a craftsman. He was a true artist.
A man who was good with his hands…
Another tingle caressed her body and she found herself wondering what else he might do with those hands.
Wow, the stress must be getting to her. Still, she hadn’t missed the sidelong glances and encouraging smiles he’d flashed when she caught him looking. She might be a geek, but she was still a woman, no stranger to male interest. He was definitely attracted to her. Question was, what did she want to do about it?
She had no idea. She’d been in denial for so long about the most important thing in her life—her magical abilities—but was self-aware enough accept her attraction to Aiden. More than that, she was willing to sign this non-disclosure agreement because she wanted to stick around long enough to get to know him.
Not to mention the town.
“We’re here,” he said, pointing to one of the parking spaces that lined the town square. “Rocky’s office is the second door to the left.”
She pulled into the space and took a deep breath. God, she’d made such a fool out of herself during her first few visits to Magic. She should really apologize, but she still had a big problem. It had been bugging her ever since was Aiden had cruelly tossed her gear out of her van, actually, and she should deal with it before meeting the lawyer.
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked.
“They say seeing is believing, but I can’t see it now.”
He gave her a quizzical look and waited for her to explain. “Can’t see what?”
“I can’t see the town, the real town. I can’t get past the cloaking device, or what I thought was a cloaking device, without my glasses. I can’t see the magic. But that doesn’t make sense.”
He shrugged. “I can’t see through the concealment charm most of the time, either. It’s powerful magic. We only get to see what the wards and spell-casters let us see.”
Wait, what?
“You can’t see it? But you’re a magical…person.”
He gave her a smirk that didn’t quite mask the flash of pain in his gaze. “I carry a lot of magic, but I can’t access it. Only a wizard can do that. It’s why they indenture dragons in my dimension.”
But that made no sense. Then again, the rules of Earth apparently didn’t apply to Tarakona. Good grief, the rules of Earth apparently didn’t apply to Earth when one factored in magic. Or perhaps she simply hadn’t discovered the rules of magic. Surely there were rules for magic no matter where it existed.
“So how do wizards access dragon magic? And how do they convince dragons to do it? I can’t imagine such powerful creatures giving it up willingly.”
“We don’t. They subdue us with thrall crystals implanted into our bodies. We can’t see them and only the wizard who puts them inside us knows where they are. The wizard to whom we are indentured controls the crystal.”
“Wow,” she said, trying to wrap her mind around such an insidious form of mind control. “That’s so horrible. Did they do that to you?”
He grimaced. “I escaped before they could.”
That must have been no small feat. He told her he’d been young when he came to Earth, a boy on the cusp of manhood. That had taken grit, resourcefulness, and great courage.
His gaze grew hard and she realized she’d been staring at him in gape-jawed amazement. Gah, could she do nothing right? She opened her mouth to apologize—again—but he cut her off. “Anyway, why are you making such a big deal about your tech stuff? If using your glasses lets you see what you need, then use them.”
His words stung more than they should have, and she supposed she had it coming, but she couldn’t hide the slight quiver in her voice when she spoke. “The glasses are part of the lie. It wasn’t my design that showed me what the town was hiding. It was magic.”
There, she’d said it. Her shame at dismissing magic was only exceeded by her shame in realizing that her engineering “skills” were a lie, too. She’d come to that conclusion after her experiment in his living room, using a simple lamp as a weapon and a remote control to manifest her powers. Those observations proved that her equipment wasn’t special. It had been her magic all along. She was a scientific fraud.
Aiden sighed, unbuckled his seat belt, climbed in the back of the van, and started rummaging through her equipment.
A wave of irrational fury surged within her. This again? No one messed with her gear, especially quasi-strangers with boundary issues. Aiden might be hot, but that didn’t give him license to wreak havoc, especially after throwing several valuable pieces of equipment at her before they left.
“I warned you already,” she fussed. “What are you doing? Don’t mess with my stuff.”
“Why not? If it’s magical and not mechanical, then it doesn’t matter what I do with it.”
“Ugh!” She realized what he was trying to prove, but it didn’t help her mood or blood pressure. “Fine, you’ve made your point. You can stop now.”
His head popped up and he met her gaze, sporting an ear-to-ear grin and wearing her specialized glasses. She was about to go off on him again when his expression went from amusement to open-mouthed shock.
“What?” she asked.
He turned his head, gaze most likely focused on the eye-tracking interface as he scrolled through the menu of options. Heat filled her cheeks. She’d been particularly proud of the glasses. It had taken months of free labor in trade for access to a 3D printer and materials for the nanosensors, but it had been worth it—or so she’d thought at the time. Up until last night, that particular piece of technology had represented a breakthrough and the culmination of her life’s work. Not even her thesis project had come close to its elegance and harmony of form and function.
His head stopped moving and he focused on her, his magnified gaze wide in apparent awe and wonder. Before she could stop him, he threw open the side door of the van, jumped out, and jogged to the middle of the square, turning his head in all directions. At a loss for what else to do, she followed. Curious onlookers gathered as Aiden spun in a slow circle, gaze darting everywhere.
When she caught up, she grabbed his arm and tugged it to get his attention. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
His gaze locked on her and he froze. “I can see it,” he whispered.
“See what?”
A broad smile spread slowly across his face, transforming him in an instant from surly loner to kid at Christmas who’s just found the motherlode of presents. He lifted his arms and spread them wide, gesturing all around them. “I can see the magic! It’s everywhere, in everything, and it’s so clear. I can sometimes feel it, but I’ve never been able to see it like this. I can see the wards, I can see past the disguises of shifters and aliens, and…and witches!”
He grabbed her shoulders and held her at arm’s length, staring. “I can see it in you. It’s amazing.” Gesturing to the glasses, he said, “You made this. You’re amazing!”
Heat rose in her cheeks and she looked away, embarrassed by praise she clearly didn’t deserve. “The glasses are enchanted. Apparently I enchanted them without even knowing it and they only work because I happen to have been born with magical abilities. All those years studying and designing and building, thinking I had something special, some real skills. I’m still a fraud. I—”
“Stop!”
His tone shocked her almost as much as the command. When she met his gaze, his was blazing with anger that the glasses seemed to amplify.
A strange, electrical sensation shot through her as his grip on her shoulders tightened. It was almost like the magic in the glasses was responding to his emotions, his mood. He claimed he couldn’t access his own magic. Was he channeling hers? Could the glasses do that?
His voice brought her out of her musings and back to reality. “You are not a fraud. I’m no expert, but I’m fairly certain a fraud couldn’t have made these James Bond, tricked-out glasses complete with night vision, heat sensors, and some kind of retinal tracking device that lets me scroll through a virtual menu.”
Sound logic, but that dreadful voice in her head kept screaming, “Fraud!”
“I’ll bet you have a camera in here, too, right?”
“Yes,” she said. It was high resolution, and she’d worked for nearly a year to scale the design so it fit unobtrusively into the frame of the glasses. Shatterproof polymers protected the internal workings and were able to withstand desert heat, high winds, and grit, not to mention subzero temperatures, ice, and…
“Do they work underwater?”
“Yes,” she said, fighting a grin. “I’m working on a way to incorporate them seamlessly into a dive mask, but they’re good in salt and freshwater up to a depth of one hundred meters.”
“See, that’s pretty incredible even without the magic detection.”
Wow, how did he do that? With a few simple words, he’d unearthed her pride from the rubble left in the wake of her shaken worldview. He was a shapeshifting dragon, for goodness sake, one who lived in a town full of otherworldly beings. He’d seen feats of magic and mystery she couldn’t begin to imagine. If she could impress him with her engineering prowess, maybe she had a little skill after all.
“Add in the magic detection,” he continued, staring down at his arms in amazement, “And it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I can see my own magic.” He looked back up at her. “You gave that to me. It’s a gift more precious than all of the enchanted crystals in Tarakona and all of the diamonds and gold on Earth. Thank you.”
His intense gaze focused on her face, lowering to her lips. Her heart raced and she felt incredibly light, as if floating on a cloud. Slowly, and reluctantly, he removed the glasses and stepped closer, his big body so inviting. God, he smelled good, like wintergreen and man. He’d worked up a little sweat handling the equipment, so some of the scent must be his own.
Whatever pheromones he was making, they ignited a fire in her belly and had her hungry for his kiss.
He didn’t disappoint. Closing the gap between then, he leaned down and placed his full, sensual lips on her mouth, gifting her with a taste of the joy and passion that filled him. She ran her fingers through his hair, tugging at the nape of his neck. He responded by deepening the kiss, coaxing her to open and brushing his tongue lightly over her lips. Hungry for more, she explored his mouth and pressed against his hard body. Then he cupped her face with his hands and the glasses brushed against her cheek.
“Careful,” she said, reluctantly pulling away to catch her breath. “Those are a prototype. One of a kind.”
Instead of being annoyed with her, he laughed. “They are, huh? Makes sense. They’re just like their creator.”
His words of praise and the affection in his gaze washed over her, and she ducked her head, suddenly shy. Then she caught sight of the townsfolk in the periphery and gave a little shriek. They’d apparently attracted a sizable audience.
Aiden spotted them, too, and his cheeks reddened to match the color of his lush, swollen lips. He lifted a hand and waved to the crowd. “It’s…ah, it’s good to see everyone. I think most of you know who I am, or have at least heard of me. For those who don’t, I’m Aiden Silver, and I’m…I’m a dragon.”
Murmurs ran through the crowd, but they appeared to be more curious and excited than hostile. Most of them appeared unsurprised. He’d mentioned that the townsfolk knew what he was, even if he didn’t get out much. Not really big news.
It was only then that it dawned on her that the curiosity and excitement weren’t directed at Aiden.
Gillian froze when their gazes turned to her. Gah, she hated being in the spotlight, but if Aiden could muster his courage, she supposed she could as well.
“Hello,” she said, offering a small wave. “My name is Gillian Hohenwald, and I’m a witch.”
She braced for ridicule, eye rolls, and annoyance at best—anger at worst. She’d not exactly endeared herself to the town during her “investigation” into supposed government secrets. To her surprise and delight, the crowd erupted into a symphony of applause and wolf-whistles. Some of the folks in the crowd actually howled. In an instant they were surrounded by smiling faces offering congratulations, handshakes, and slaps on the back for Aiden. Thankfully, Aiden tucked the glasses in their protective case and attached it to his belt loop before accepting proffered hands and bro hugs.
She tried not to begrudge him a few…personal hugs from the ladies in the crowd.
As the flock of well-wishers dispersed, Gillian spotted a bearded man. The man leaned against an adobe wall outside a set of buildings that flanked the town square. He wore a weathered Panama hat, button down, and shorts that paired perfectly with his casual flip flop sandals. He also sported an ear-to-ear grin that Aiden returned after spotting him.
Taking Gillian’s hand, a casual gesture that gave her more than a little thrill, Aiden walked over to the man. He let go of her long enough to share an embrace with the man. “Good to see you, Rocky. Thanks for coming. This is Gillian Hohenwald.”
Turning to her, Aiden said, “Gillian, meet John Rocco, Attorney at Law, Magician extraordinaire, and notorious ladies man. Oh, and he’s also my Earth dad.”
The man’s deep brown eyes twinkled as he bowed over her hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles. “Enchanted, my dear,” he said. “It’s almost lunch time. How about we head over to Kokopelli and grab some tacos? We can go over the standard non-disclosure agreement and get your signature after.”
Aiden seemed hesitant, but Gillian’s stomach settled the issue by growling loudly for the second time that day. Rocky pretended not to notice while Aiden fought a chuckle. Rocky looked Aiden up and down and nodded as if satisfied. It seemed a bit strange to her, but she had no idea about their relationship dynamics. She could tell that there was a deep affection between the two, which made sense for a father and son.
As such, she really wanted Rocky to like her.
Aiden seemed puzzled for a moment but then glanced down at his arms. The strange, magical patterns beneath his skin, which he called tracery, were visible and casting a metallic sheen in the midday sun. His gaze went wide and he stepped into the shadows as if to hide.
Oh, my God, he’s self-conscious about his gorgeous markings.
Rocky put a hand on Aiden’s shoulder, tugging lightly to pull him out into the daylight. “No more hiding.”
Aiden’s shoulders tensed, but he stepped back into the light. Gillian took his hand and said, “Rocky’s right. You shouldn’t hide. You’re magnificent.”
He smiled and shrugged as if embarrassed by the praise, but she meant it. Of course he was beautiful. How could he not know that? Tall, well-built, with golden hair and brilliant blue-grey eyes, he was a straight woman’s dream. Good grief, give the man a giant hammer and he could pass for Thor, but there was so much more beneath the surface. He claimed she’d given him a gift—his first glimpse of magic—but he’d given her the gift of acceptance. He’d accepted her, and the town had accepted her. Once she made amends with her family, maybe she could finally accept herself and who she was.
Perhaps she could be both witch and scientist after all.