Kai took Coral to the dining room, where are large glass table sat in the center of the room. He pulled out her chair, and she sat down.

“Ah, a gentleman,” she said.

“Only for a lady,” he replied and took a seat beside her.

“So,” Coral began, “what’s the plan?”

“I’ll take care of it. For now, we can just relax here until they come back. Besides, I know you have a lot of questions, so I want to give you the opportunity to ask if you would like.”

“Just a few questions...” She snorted. “I don’t even know where to start. The rain seems to respond to your feelings. And the tree…was that even real? Your strength is super human and you were shot multiple times, yet you’re acting like you’re fine.”

“I am fine,” he told her.

“And I was shot, and now I am fine. What is happening?”

He smiled. “It’s all complicated, and I don’t want to scare you.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “I can handle it.”

He bit his lip and appeared to contemplate what he would say next. “I’ll tell you as much as I can for now. Do you believe that humans are the only sentient creatures on earth?”

“I feel like this is a trick question.”

“It’s not,” Kai assured her.

“I think all animals are sentient beings.”

He nodded understandingly. “That’s admirable. What I’m trying to tell you is that creatures, or beings, exist that you might believe are only myths or legends.”

“Like what? Unicorns?”

“Well, yes, actually, but…” He took a deep breath.

“Unicorns do exist, but other creatures, like me, exist also.”

“You’re calling yourself a legend?” Coral asked. “Even though I’d have to agree, that’s a little arrogant,” she said playfully. “Besides, you look like a human to me.”

Kai smiled, almost self-consciously. “Not so much.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You watched me rip a door off a car and live through multiple gunshot wounds. How do you not believe me? What more proof do you need?”

Coral faltered. Part of her still hoped that she had been dreaming or hallucinating, that this was all something her mind had conjured up to deal with what had happened tonight. Now, though, she didn’t know what to believe, what to even think.

“I don’t know. Okay, let’s say I take your word for it. You’re not human. What are you, then?”

Kai looked like he wanted to reply and let loose whatever secret he was holding back, but instead he just groaned. “For now, just accept that I’m very old and very important.”

Well, that wasn’t what Coral had thought he was going to say. She had hoped he would be more specific, but it looked like she was just going to get vague answers from him for the time being.

“I still don’t believe you.”

He nodded. “This is going to be a problem for you. Watch this. Can I borrow your phone for a second?” Coral took her phone from her purse and unlocked it, handing it to him afterwards. What was he going to do? She looked over his shoulder as he looked up a live news stream.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Just looking for some news. Here. This is exactly what I was looking for.”

He clicked on a live video of an attempted sea rescue. Several helicopters were trying to rescue some sailors from a downed ship that was quickly sinking into the water. It didn’t look like they were going to make it. The sea was angry, as the deep sea tends to be, thrashing around and ripping sailors from the deck. The Coast Guard was trying hard to save them, dropping on ropes with orange life-vests as they tried to rescue the sailors. Someone was filming it from a helicopter, which was being tossed around by the wind.

“I think I might be missing this point,” she said. Her eyes were locked on one particular man who was hanging onto the bars of the sinking ship. He was yelling something. “Why am I seeing this, exactly?”

Kai handed her phone back to her and then stood up from his seat. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. He tightened up, like he was straining with exertion despite standing in an isolated room with nobody and nothing around besides Coral and some chairs.

Her eyes drifted back to the live news feed. The angry sea, so dark and powerful, slowed. Kai let out a growl. She glanced at him. He was slick with sweat. Back on the live news stream on the screen of her phone, the ship stopped sinking and appeared to be moving upwards. The sailors, who had been about to fall off the deck, were all standing back on the boat, where the Coast Guard easily could swoop down and save them. The ocean was completely flat—calm. Though the storm still raged, the sea was as still as a swimming pool.

After all the men had been dragged aboard the helicopters, the sea swarmed back with full force. Kai released the breath he was holding and tried to breathe normally again, but he was having trouble getting his breathing back to normal.

“That’s why I’m important,” he said, the almost self-conscious smile back on his face.

Coral gaped at him. “You mean… you did that?”

Kai didn’t answer her. He didn’t need to.

“Holy fuck.” Coral pressed a hand to her head, feeling like she was going to faint. “Are…” She took a deep breath to steady her pounding heart. “Are you a god?”

His smile wilted. “No. Not quite.”

“‘Not quite’? You just…” She moved her hands towards the screen. “You just stopped the ocean! You just stopped a storm! How the hell are you so calm?”

“I guess it’s more surprising the first time you see it,” he stated. “You could say I have a way with water.”

That was an understatement that made Coral scoff. Understanding dawned on her. “So, the storms from earlier did manifest from you.”

“Exactly.”

“But how?”

“It was a gift from my mother, Gaia. Others call her Mother Earth.”

Coral was at a loss for words. Is he crazy? Then again, how could she deny what she had seen? What other explanation could there be for what she had just witnessed? And not only these recent events, but the events that had occurred throughout the night, too.

She changed the subject. “Do you really think they’re coming back?” she asked, remembering Earl and Josh.

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “Absolutely.”

Coral shook her head. “So, what’s the plan? How will you keep us safe?”

Kai asked, “Why are they after you anyway?”

“Long story short…my ex-boyfriend stole from their boss. They can’t find him, so they’re after me.”

“Shitty boyfriend to let them come after you.”

Coral shrugged her shoulders. It wasn’t like she could do anything about it. “He’s an ex-boyfriend. Although, even if he were my boyfriend, I’m sure he still wouldn’t own up to his mistakes.” Chase had never owned up to any of his mistakes in the past, and this wouldn’t have been any different, even under other circumstances. “Anyway,” she said, “what are we going to do? Are you planning to stand up to them on your own?”

He snickered.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Kai said. “It’s just funny how you still think I’m incapable of protecting you.”

“I never said you were incapable,” Coral protested. “I'm saying they have more people than we do. And if they’re really coming back, then we are in some real trouble.”

“We’ll be fine.”

“I feel like you really enjoy dropping mysterious one-liners.”

Kai didn’t respond, though he was meeting her eyes intently. He laid his hands on top of hers. “Do you mind if I’m perfectly honest with you?”

She turned her hands to hold his. Intense passion burned in her veins. She hungered for him. “Please do.”

It would be a nice change, to hear him actually be honest with her after all of his previous answers had been nothing but vague.

“I’ve been with many women,” he told her. “And when I saw you at the bar, I thought it would be one more.” He laughed, like he was amazed at his own stupidity. “How wrong I was.”

Kai stood and came around behind her. His scent was intoxicating: a mix between the ocean air, coconuts, and a fresh rainstorm. He put his hands on Coral’s shoulders and gently began to massage her. He slid the straps of her dress down her arms. Her dress pooled around her waist, and her nipples hardened when exposed to the cool air.

His powerful hands sank deep into her body, alleviating years of stress. She felt…relaxed.

Kai said, “The more I look at you and touch you, the more I need you. Around you, I simply feel at peace. I don’t know what’s happening to me. You…” He paused to think about what he was saying. “You’re gorgeous, and yet your physical beauty is the least attractive part of you.”

“I bet you tell all the girls this,” Coral moaned as Kai continued massaging her shoulders.

“Never,” he assured her. He pulled his hands away from her arms and moved to her side. He extended a hand. “Come with me.”

She took it after sliding her dress straps back up. “Where are we going?”

“I’m going to show you what I am.”

He led her out of his home and into the backyard. The moon was high above, barely hidden by slowly shifting clouds. The temperature was perfect. Cold enough to make Coral feel alive, but warm enough so she wasn’t shivering. Kai’s eyes were passionate, but almost… afraid. A man who was capable of incredible feats was afraid of showing her what he was so used to hiding. She recognized that look. He was afraid that she would reject him. This was not easy for him to reveal, unlike his apparent control over water.

“What I’m going to show you,” he told her, “is just another form. I’m still me.”

She smiled at him encouragingly.

Kai stepped back until he was about ten feet away from her. They were hidden from the street by the tall concrete wall surrounding his home.

Millions of possibilities ran through Coral’s mind. What was he going to show her? Was it truly as unbelievable as to make him so nervous? What could possibly be more unbelievable than him being able to somehow control water?

“It’s still me,” he assured again.

With that, Kai started to shift. It was like watching something from a dream, some impossible and incredible. His limbs grew longer and his face shape changed. A tail emerged from nothingness and shimmered into existence. In the period of about five seconds, gone was the man. In his place, standing ten feet away from Coral, was a beast.

A dragon.

He was enormous! Coral took one step back out of shock. The creature was covered in shimmering scales as blue as the clearest part of the ocean. His eyes... She recognized them as Kai’s, as impossible as it seemed to be.

It’s still me, she remembered him saying.

“Kai?” Coral asked in disbelief.

The dragon opened his mouth. “Yes, Coral,” he replied, and his voice hadn’t changed one bit, it was still Kai’s. “It’s me.”

“You’re…you’re a dragon,” she gasped. “I don’t understand how this is even possible.”

Her heart pounded in her chest. The man from earlier was an entirely different species—one she thought only existed in books and fairytales. He had said that he was a legend. Now she understood.

She’d heard about people like him before, but only in mythology. She had never once believed they were true: men that could transform into other creatures and back. A shifter. A dragon shifter.

Kai lumbered towards her. His claws alone were the size of steak knives.

“I won’t hurt you,” he told her. Smoke emanated from his nostrils. She kept looking at his familiar eyes. “I just needed to show you my true form.”

She reached out to touch his scales, but stopped a moment before she did, not knowing if he would allow her to do so.

“Go ahead,” he told her. He leaned his head down so that Coral could reach it.

She touched his body, running her hand across his powerful neck, depressing the scales slightly as she went by. They reflected the moonlight beautifully. They were slightly cold to the touch, like a reptile’s, but with the hint of heat from inside.

Kai began to explain. “Humans are not the only creatures out here, Coral. Not even close.”

“Are there many of you?”

“There are many dragons,” he responded. “However, there are only three other dragons shifters like me. My brothers and I were each given a gift. I have control over water, and am called Keeper of the Sea. My brothers are in charge of fire, earth, and wind.”

“How old are you?”

“The same number as my gate code: 5062.”

The gravity of what he said hit Coral. “You never die,” she murmured.

“Not by age,” he told her.

The dragon vibrated. She backed away as he shifted back to his human form, standing shirtless in the yard.