“Before who and what?”
Urian groaned under his breath. “One day we’ve got to do an all-day movie marathon to catch you up on my references.” And with that, he pulled her toward the stairs.
But Medea couldn’t resist one quick glance back at the stranger whose presence still haunted her. Worse? He continued to watch after her with that penetrating stare like she was a hare he was planning to devour as lunch.
“What are they?” she asked Urian as he led her upstairs to the less crowded area of the bar.
“Blaise is a mandrake. Falcyn… hell if I know. He’s one of the dragon breeds, but not a Were-Hunter.”
“If they’re brothers, he’d be a mandrake, too. Right?”
Urian hesitated. “I don’t think they’re really related. The dragons have an even more peculiar idea of what constitutes family than we do.”
She was so perplexed by that. “But if he’s a dragon and he’s not a mandrake or Were-Hunter, how can he be human?” Those were the only two kinds of pureblood dragons who could take human form.
At least that she knew of, and given the fact she’d walked this earth for more than eleven thousand years, she knew quite a bit about shapeshifters and the preternatural world that had birthed her.
And them.
Especially since her father was one. But his dragon form came from the fact that he was a demigod, not a true shapeshifter. Unlike them, he couldn’t hold his form for long, or live in it.
Urian paused to look from her to the two dragons in the crowd below. “That,Medea, is the question we’ve all asked and no one will answer. All we know is that he’s a bloodthirsty beast who’s best avoided.”
2
“So what is your trauma?”
Blaise snorted derisively at Falcyn’s growled question. “Lack of parental support. Failure to bond. Kerrigan knocking me into one too many walls for lipping off whenever he was in a foul mood, which was pretty much always. Fear of fluffy bunnies, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Fluffy bunnies?” Falcyn wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to that question, but it was so out of place for this audacious, lunatic mandrake that he just felt compelled to hear his explanation, even against all common sense.
“Ever seen the movieBambi? Those little bastards are some strange brew. And don’t get me started on Monty Python’sHoly Grailandthathare-y nightmare.” Blaise visibly shook. “It’s to the point I don’t even want to see that stuffed pink thing Nim carries.”
At the mention of the harmless slug demon, Falcyn rolled his eyes so hard back in his skull, it actually burned. “You’re so effing weird.”
“Oh yeah, ’cause you’re hogging all the normality. Have you ever bothered to look into that abyss, my friend? I promise the pot is calling the kettle twin.”
“Have you a point to this mission, other than to piss me off and insult me? In which case, mission accomplished, but your life is drawing perilously close to its end as a result.”
“Wow, that’s some serious hostility you got going there, buddy. Need to chillax.”
Falcyn arched a brow at the uncharacteristic word.Chillax?“Who have you been around that you’ve picked up this all new vocabulary?”
Blaise grinned. “Morgen’s new toy. He’s addicted to all sorts of peculiar things.… And not just porn. Which is why I’m here.”
“What? For porn? Sorry. Not a pimp. Don’t need a pimp. Don’t want a pimp.”
“Wasn’t planning to act as such. Nor did I know you were into guys.”
Falcyn grimaced. “Talking to you always gives me a brain tumor. Explain to me how it is that no one’s murdered you to date?”
“Not from lack of trying on their part, I assure you. Let me revisit the whole Kerrigan slamming me into walls. But I’m just that fast with my reflexes. And lucky for me, you’re an old dragon. Decrepit.”
“You really want to test that theory?”
“Not without backup. So to the point of my visit…”
More agitated than he wanted to be, Falcyn crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for Blaise to finish that sentence. “Have you lost your thought, your mind… or just your nerve?”
