I waited for him to explain, but he didn’t continue. “Not to sound arrogant or anything, but you’re going to have to expand on that a little.”
Alex rolled his eyes, but it got a tiny smile out of him and some of the strain in his eyes seemed to ease.
“I think you were right about telling her. Chief Cornell. About me.” His grip on my hand tightened and there was a faint tremor to his quiet words. “I can’t stop finding people and she’s already suspicious of me, so telling her before she figures it out on her own would be smart. Not to mention, the chimera got away and it’s obviously dangerous, so she should know about things like this, right?” His voice had fallen to nearly a whisper by the end.
“I agree, but only if it’s something you really want. You don’t sound too sure.”
“I know Ori doesn’t want me to tell anyone, but our friends already know now. And you trust your boss, right? I only know her as a customer, but you seem to like her.”
“Yeah, I trust her,” I assured him, stopping him before he could pick up steam on his anxious rambling. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, though. I’d never force that on you just to protect my job. I know it’s a small town, but there are other jobs.”
“You love what you do, though,” he whispered and I could tell I’d surprised him.
“I love you more.”
He blinked, struggling to process that. “I can’t take that away from you. If you think it’s safe to tell her what I can, then I trust you.”
I gently squeezed his hand. “I think it’s safe, but more importantly, I really think this will be a good thing for you. You don’t have to be scared or stressed about hiding to protect yourself. You won’t have to deal with the worst parts of what you can do.”
He sagged forward, resting his head on the pillow beside mine. “I really freaking love you.”
“I really love you, too.”
Alex was close enough that I could brush a soft kiss across his forehead, the only part of him I could reach in this position.
“I don’t want to work for the police, though. I mean, I’ll help if someone is in danger or something, but I want to try to keep my life as normal as possible.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I’m sorry if I ever I made you think any different.”
“Nope. That fight is done and we forgave each other, remember?”
“I remember.” Just like I remembered spreading him out across the bed and showing him just how much I adored him afterward.
“No thinking dirty thoughts in a stranger’s kitchen, Donovan Parker.”
“It’s that or talk about the chimera.”
“Okay then, sounds like we’re talking about our dirty fantasies in a stranger’s kitchen.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on, Alex. We have to talk about it eventually. I have questions.”
“So do I. I really don’t know much more than we knew when it attacked us, which was nothing.”
“You at least know what it is, though.”
“Ori made some calls and they thought it might be a manticore, at first, because of the scorpion tail, but I really think it’s a chimera.” He chuckled, low and humorless. “Thankfully, I went through a massive ancient mythology phase as a kid.”
“I didn’t, so I’m going to need you to fill me in,” I said. I had to stay focused on the here and now, otherwise I’d spend hours just laying here wondering how my life had gone from solving petty crimes in a small town to dealing with ghosts and shapeshifters and monsters.
Alex leaned in and brushed his lips across mine, then sat back in the chair, letting go of my hand so he could pull his phone out of his pocket. “I couldn’t remember much, so I did some research while you were asleep. According to Greek myths, the chimera was a creature made up of different animals, like a lion and a goat. In some stories, it had wings like a dragon.”
He swallowed, tripping over that last word. I distinctly remembered the giant wings on the thing’s back, but those had to be bat wings. Dragons didn’t exist. I simply was not equipped to think otherwise at this moment.
“I remember the wings,” I nodded. “The rest didn’t look like any lion or goat I’ve ever seen. It looked more like a giant panther. I definitely remember the scorpion tail.”
“It almost makes me think this thing was created based on the legends of the manticore, but then other things were added to make it more dangerous.”
“Hold on a second,” I interrupted, lifting my head as much as I could. “You think someone created this thing?”
