“Don’t you dare go anywhere. I’ll be right back, Finn,” I tell him, my voice more than a little watery. I squeeze Soren’s hand for a second before transporting myself out of the garden. There’s only one person I know who can heal people up and I focus on my memory of her, even though I’ve only met her a few times, and let those thoughts guide me to where I need to go.
My feet meet a marble floor, and I blink a few times to reorient myself. There’s a gasp from somewhere behind me and I turn around.
“Jesus, fuck, Echo. What happened to you?”
Ah, yeah. Turning up at someone’s house uninvited, covered in blood, is probably a little dramatic, even for me.
“Manon? I need your help, please. I need you to heal my mate.” My voice is shaking and I realize belatedly that I’ve got tears running down my cheeks, tears I try to wipe away with blood-covered hands. Yeah, I’m a total mess. But rather than screaming or chucking me out on my behind, the woman I’ve come to find, Manon the healer, takes one look at me and nods firmly.
“Okay, let’s go.”
That’s it, no questions asked. I knew that coming to her was the right thing to do.
“Not alone, sweetheart.” The biggest of her boyfriends… mates? Husbands? says with a frown on his scary-looking face. The guy is just as tall as my Finn and it makes my heart clench to see him and think of my dragon’s prone form lying bleeding on the floor of his den.
“Come on then, you’ll come with me and keep me safe,” Manon tells him.
“Thank you.” I’m sure I look like a weepy mess right now, not at all like the badass lady in front of me who I’ve seen in some pretty tough situations and she’s never been close to losing her cool.
I grab onto the big guy’s meaty wrist with one hand, taking hold of Manon’s with the other, apologizing for the fact I’m getting blood all over them, and then take us all back to the garden. Finn’s exactly where I left him, still passed out with Soren and Brogan both hovering over him, trying to stem the bleeding with a bunch of towels.
“My mate, Finn, he got stabbed. I don’t know… I didn’t know who else to go to. He’s lost a load of blood and—”
Manon puts her hand on my arm and says soothingly, “It’s okay. He’ll be okay.”
I stand back slightly as she crouches beside Finn and puts her hand on his scales.
“What—” Soren starts, instantly on the defensive and ready to jump between Manon and Finn.
“It’s okay, she’s a healer,” I tell him. He nods and pulls me into a hug and I bury my face in his chest as we wait for Manon to do her thing. I become aware that both Soren and I are shaking like leaves and I take a few deep breaths, trying to keep my panic on a firm leash inside of me.
When I open my eyes again, I can see that Manon has focused all her attention on Finn and before our eyes, his wounds heal, his flesh knitting back together. It takes maybe ten minutes of excruciating silence and tension before she stands up and wipes her forehead.
“You okay, sweetheart?” the big guy asks her, instantly at her side and holding her close to his chest.
“I’m fine. I’m still pretty juiced up, so that was nothing really. He’ll need rest to recover and I’m guessing that would be better in his other form? Assuming he has one and you’re not actually mated to a dragon.” She holds her hands up. “Not that I’m judging or anything.”
I snort and drop beside Finn, running my hand over his dark scales. He groans slightly but doesn’t stir from his unconscious state, so I lean in close to his face and the tiny ears he has which are so at odds with the rest of his massive features.
“Hey, my sweet dragon, you need to shift back to your other form for me. Come on, Finn, shift back for me.”
Nothing happens.
“Maybe we should just let him rest?” Soren says.
“No. She’s right. We always heal better after the shift,” Brogan says. “I don’t think I’m alpha enough to force a dragon to shift back, though.”
“I could try,” the big guy grunts. I know he’s not a shifter, but he has a weird vibe to him, like there’s another part of him lurking behind the surface, ready to peer out at you.
He waits for my nod, because apparently I’ve become the one in charge here. Once I’ve agreed, he squats down beside Finn’s face, the other side of his body to me. I want to warn him he’s in danger of getting a faceful of smoke if he’s not careful, but he’s already commanding Finn to shift.
“Shift.” I can feel the power behind the word. It spreads through the air in the room until it’s surrounding us all. Finn twitches slightly, but that’s all that happens.
“Shift.” Even more power, an even firmer tone, and I can feel my own body tingling.
This time, it takes. Finn’s body shimmers with black glitter as he morphs and shrinks until he’s a man again.
My dragon.
