“How much do you already know?” And then, when he spotted a tightness in Conrad’s jaw, Kylo added, “I’m not unwilling to answer or share information with you. I just don’t want to waste your time telling you stuff you know already.”
“Thank you.” Conrad’s smile warmed Kylo from his hair to his toes. “Tell me everything, regardless. Anything I’ve heard is third hand at best. You’re a lot closer to the situation, and I want to see things through your eyes.”
Damn.The approval shouldn’t make Kylo want to puff out his chest, or make his cat want to stretch and flex under the verbal caress, but it did. Instead of heading to the jeep, he wandered over to the log he’d sat on before, only this time Conrad sat beside him.
“Until very recently, Selina had always proven to be a family friend. She is not able to communicate verbally and apparently hasn’t been able to since birth. She has magic, as you’ve probably guessed…” Kylo went on, explaining her back story as best he knew it. He spoke about the death of Roiu, and how they’d learned Selina had three brothers that had perished in the death house. “It was a shock, after all this time hunting Devil, to find out he is Selina’s father, or at least the man Selina sees as her father figure.”
Conrad chuckled. “I guess that makes Wyatt a stepdad. I wonder if he knows that. Still, that’s not important in the scheme of things.”
“It kinda is,” Kylo insisted. His feelings of anger had mellowed—the heat of the sun and sitting next to his mate probably caused that. “Selina knows Devil isn’t dead and she’s raising hell for him to be found.”
“The question I have for her is why?” Conrad looked around at the mass of foliage and Kylo’s cat perked up.
“I suppose it’s for any normal reason,” Kylo said. “A daughter’s love for a parent. She’s worried about him, concerned about him, and apparently her magic isn’t able to find him.”
Conrad gave another chuckle and Kylo was just about to ask why his mate thought that was funny when he heard a click. Acting purely on instinct, he flung himself at Conrad’s body, toppling them both off the log as a shot rang out. A searing pain flared in Kylo’s back, and then he knew no more.
Chapter Seven
Conrad
So engrossed in both his mate and trying to figure out why his senses were shouting at him about the inside of the house, Conrad was a split second too late. The sound of the gun came with a shocking truth. Kylo could derail all his training just by existing.
He hit the ground with Kylo on top of him. His mate’s instincts, which had saved Conrad from healing a nasty wound, weren’t at the top of his list of thoughts. Instead, all he could focus on was the scent of his mate’s blood.
“Kylo,” he hissed in panic for the first time in two decades. “Kylo, answer me.” He rolled them until the trees shielded them, his body morphing so his animals could keep Kylo from further harm. His clothes tore from his deformed limbs that encased Kylo in a protective hold.A little too damn late!
His dragon snarled and spat fire, ready to burn whoever dared to hurt their mate to ashes and dust.
Why didn’t one of you alert me to the fucking danger?
Voices battled in his head—all of them confusing the matter—as he looked down at Kylo’s ashen face and the blood stain growing over the left shoulder. Conrad could control his body and make it do what he wanted at will, only he couldn’t get his pulse to stop hammering against his throat like a damn jackhammer.
The bullet, from what he could see, had cut right through Kylo’s flesh, causing maximum damage as it exited the front of his chest. Conrad took a breath, working on calming himself as he’d been trained, and put a hand over the wound, pressing hard on the wet, gaping hole.
He scanned the tree line, looking for the threat. His dragon easily spotted the two shifters’ outlines, masked by a magic shield. The witch, Selina. Conrad would bet his last dollar that she was responsible for it. It was too much of a coincidence for Conrad’s liking, especially when he’d felt the house repelling them. Why hadn’t he just insisted they left the area completely until Conrad could figure it out?
His dragon scented the air, watching the color shimmer around the two figures. Conrad’s dragon had many attributes, courtesy of Urt, the old lead of the council, who it turned out was a madman. But the madman had desperately wanted to shift into a dragon form, and that desperation had led to the experiments Conrad had been subjected to.
It was his dragon Conrad addressed first.We need to give Kylo our dragon fire to help him heal. He’s out cold, so won’t be able to shift to help with that.
Place your mouth over the wound. I will heal it, then force the cat to shift.His dragon rarely spoke to him, so when he did Conrad listened. He ripped Kylo’s bloodied shirt away from the torn skin and placed his lips over the flesh where his hand had been. The skin tasted of blood and of metal from the bullet. There was also a nasty tang of magic through the wound.
Did that come from the bullet? Was the bullet imbued with magic?
Conrad had heard of such things. Whether it was or wasn’t became irrelevant as his dragon took control and his lips became a long, scaly snout. His face distorted, and Conrad kept his eyes open, seeing through his dragon whose gaze became fixed on the two who remained concealed by the house.
Kylo’s body jerked as the fire traveled through the wound, cauterizing the damage, and getting rid of any magic the bullet might have held. It took but a few seconds, only for Conrad it felt like forever, especially as he was desperately trying to hold back his other animals who were all pushing to get to those who had dared to hurt their mate.
The strength of his dragon came to the fore as he murmured,shift.
Their mate did, and a sleek black cat lay on the ground before them, eyes shut. The wound scaring shrank right before Conrad’s eyes and pleased his dragon.
At seeing the danger to their mate had passed, his lion roared his fury, forcing Conrad’s head back to release the sound. The shift was fast, clothes fell to the ground, as his cheetah aided the lion to chase down those who’d been stupid enough to stay close by.
Wards pushed against his animal’s spirits, only they didn’t repel them. Together, his animals had the strength to battle through most magic. On days like this, Conrad could almost be grateful for those who had used his body as a petri dish to make him different.
He roared again as he cornered the two shifters while Conrad’s body rippled with more animals. The scent of the shifters gave them away. They smelled like reptiles to Conrad’s animals.
