Hayley closed her eyes, her mouth tightening slightly. “Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t get you. Damon and Fiona hoped to shoot me, but missed. The bullet was meant for me.”
“You changed, Alaric.”
She opened her eyes, a hint of anger, of fear, gleaming with their depths. “What are you? I saw – something.”
“Oh.”
Looking away, I caressed her hand, grimacing. I owed her the truth. I once thought she’d never find out about my other half, of what Willow and I, as well as our people, are. Nor did I think she was conscious enough last night to remember seeing me after I shifted.
“Tell me.”
“I – I’m not human, Hayley,” I said slowly. “Wearen’t human.”
I glanced back in time to see Hayley’s eyes widen in terror. “Monsters,” she whispered.
“No.” I chuckled. “We’re dragons.”
Chapter Eleven
Hayley
Dragons?
“That’s impossible.”
I shut my eyes, too weak and in too much pain for fairy tales. Whatever it was I saw, I’m sure it arrived on the heels of the shock of being shot. Why Alaric sat there and lied to me, I have no idea.I should tell him to just leave. Divorce me and go.
“It’s not impossible,” Alaric said, his hand warm, strong, on mine. “We are indeed dragons. Dragon shifters to be quite accurate.”
I removed my hand from his and flapped it. “I don’t need this shit. Please go away.”
“You’re the first human to know of us in over a thousand years,” he went on, his voice soft, soothing. “In my land, we fly without worry that a human might see us.”
“And you breathe fire, too.”
“Yes. You saw that.”
I opened my eyes to find Alaric’s face – vulnerable. Almost scared. “We fly at night, only at night, when we’re among human kind. We must not be seen in our dragon bodies. Only in human form can we walk among you.”
“I can’t handle this.”
Nearly crying from the frustration of Alaric boldly lying to me, the fierce and savage pain, I thumbed the morphine drip.Within seconds, calm and peace drifted over me. The pain was there, but very far away. As though it hung out in a distant zip code.
It would be back, however.
I faced weeks of this agony and can have only enough morphine for a few days of peace.
“Go away, Alaric.”
Too weak to stay awake for long, I drifted on the chemical tides. Only when Alaric bent to kiss me did I startle awake.
“Willow will come in to see you later,” he murmured, his lips brushing my cheek. “Get your rest.”
I didn’t hear him leave.
***
