Erin stumbled forward and drew to a halt right beside him, staring in bafflement at the pictures. There were hundreds of them, all of her face. It was slimmer, and her eyes looked more gray than green. Her freckles were lighter, and her hair was perhaps a shade darker, more auburn than fiery red, but they were of her, no doubt.
“Did you paint these?”
“Yes,” Julian said, his voice sounding as hollow as a well without water. “Erin, I heard you.”
“Heard me what?”
Julian stood beside her and dusted the seat of his dress pants. He turned an angry silver glare on her and said, “I watched you while you slept, and you said, ‘I am a Blackwing. What can I do other than to obey the king’s rule?’” Julian took a slow, dangerous step toward her. “I saw you. You died in my arms. He’d cut your eggs from you and burned you with dragon’s fire and vampire blood, and then he left you in front of that cave full of my murdered people so that I could find you on your dying breath. You. Died. Tell me you died, Chlorine!”
“Don’t you dare call my by her name,” Erin gritted out. “Don’t you dare. It was a dream. I’ve been having her memories for years, only I didn’t know what they were. They didn’t make any sense until I met you. I’m not Chlorine, and I don’t answer to No king. I am no Blackwing or witch. I’m Erin Dexter, a young intern who moved to New York to start a new quiet life. I would never hurt you like she did.”
“You have the fucking Blackwing crest tattooed into your shoulder!”
Julian's middle made a clicking sound, and an instant too late, she realized what it was. Julian hunched into himself and exploded into a massive dragon. She stared in horror as his gigantic body filled most of the cavernous room, felling all of those canvases under his shifting weight. His blue scales shimmered in the candlelight. She would’ve thought him beautiful if she didn’t see the danger of his glare. Chest heaving, she raced away from his clawed feet that pounded on the stone floor. Rocks and dust rained down from the ceiling, and a heavy boulder struck her in the shoulder as she struggled to escape. She cried out in pain as she gripped her arm, pinning it to her side to keep it from hurting worse as she ran for the stairs. A wall of fire sprayed in front of her, and she skidded to a stop, barely able to avoid the flames.
A low, menacing rumble filled the room and shook the walls. The paintings around him toppled and fell, but Julian's silver, serpentine eyes were focused on her.
“You. Asshole,” she said through clenched teeth. If she was going out in the dungeon of the last immortal dragon, she was going out fighting, and she was going out furred. With a battle scream, she let her the raging darkness fill up her body. She didn't know how it happened but she knew it was because she was a witch. Red fury pounded through her veins as she charged, but Julian had gone still, and the clicking sound in his throat had stopped. With a roar, she leapt at him and clung to his neck, biting and slashing against his stony scales. Her hands were raised towards him and the ice and fire shot out of her straight into his hard skin. She could see the fangs showing out of enormous mouth. A dragon that was also a vampire? She still couldn’t understand how and why he was this powerful.
Julian stood, human and naked, thirty feet away by the paintings, crouched down with his eyes gone round. He looked so shocked, she would’ve found it funny if she wasn’t about to murder his ass.
She charged again, ignoring the pain from the injury caused by the falling rock. Stupid fucker dragon calling her by another woman’s name and then blasting fire at her. He’d singed her!
He’d stopped fighting her and was now cowering to the other side of the room. It was almost too funny to comprehend. Erin couldn’t manage to laugh because of how furious she was.
“Erin, stop. Stop!” Julian yelled, his hands out.
She skidded across the dusty rock floor and came to a sliding halt right before her snout touched his outstretched hands. But just for good measure, she reached out and bit the shit out of his arm. Or at least she meant to bite the shit out of him, but munching on Julian's skin was a lot like taking a bite out of a thick sheet of granite. She was pretty sure she nearly broke a tooth, which pissed her off more.
She bunched her muscles to attack again, but he said, “Erin, I’m sorry.”
His unexpected apology and the regret that swam in his eyes drew her up short. Huffing in pain, she took her weight off her bad leg and limped back away from him slowly. With one last lingering look, she turned and made her way toward the stairs. And by the time she’d made her way to the top of the spiral case, she was groaning in pain. Her shoulder was dislocated and healing out of place. She Changed back in the hallway with a cry of agony and ran for the guest bedroom with her arm clutched to her side.
Stupid man. She was so pissed off at him she couldn’t see straight. Couldn’t think straight. She rushed down the winding hallways and through the guest bedroom door, where she slammed it as best she could behind her, then made her way into the bathroom and ran the shower water as hot as she could stand it. She needed her muscles as loose as possible if she was going to set her shoulder back into its socket on her own. Stupid, stupid man. And why was she crying? The combination of adrenaline, anger, and pain were making her light-headed.
She pressed her back against the shower wall and slid down, her shoulders shaking with her sobbing.
And then Julian was there, looking at her with his dark eyes gone soft. He stepped into the oversize shower and knelt down beside her. “Shhh,” he cooed, wiping her wet tresses from her face. “I’ll fix it.” He felt her shoulder, dug into the muscle with an expert touch, and snapped it back into place.
She screamed and huddled into herself at the blast of pain, but he’d done well. The bone was back in its socket, and she could use her arm again. It ached something fierce, but at least it wasn’t the blinding, excruciating pain anymore.
Julian sat beside her and dragged her into his lap under the rain shower. “Erin, I’m so sorry. I thought you were her for a minute. I thought I’d been tricked all this time. You said her words in your sleep, and I thought I hadn’t remembered her death right. Like maybe she’d lived and was back to torture me again.”
“I’m not her. I don’t know what is happening to me with the dreams or visions or whatever they are, but I’m me. I’m Erin.” She was desperate to hang onto the belief that she wasn’t somehow the reincarnation of that woman in the paintings. She didn’t want to be Chlorine. Chlorine had betrayed Julian.
“I know you aren’t her. I shouldn’t have questioned it. I got confused, and I reacted poorly.” He rubbed her back, over and over, his touch slick with the hot water. “You’re self-assertive and funny. You speak easily with others and can hold my gaze. You’re brave and strong. And shit, if you hadn’t proven you weren’t a dragon by turning into that beautiful grizzly of yours, I would have known you weren’t chlorine by the way you attacked me without hesitation. Chlorine couldn’t do any of those things. She was shy and submissive, and it was endearing until she let it turn into weakness instead. You aren’t weak, and you aren’t anything like her.”
“Other than my face.”
“My guess is that came along because you are descended from her family’s bloodline. Her brother’s, in fact. They liked mixing with humans and other shifters. He created some of the first dragon hybrids. A very powerful man. I’ve been off balance since the first time I saw you. It feels like something I don’t understand is happening, and it’s bigger than you, and it’s bigger than me. It feels like this storm is churning over our heads and, at any moment, it’s going to rain down on us. This can’t be fate giving me a second chance at a true mate. Fate doesn’t work like that for me. She takes more than she gives. Always has.”
“Why do I have her memories, Julian? What’s happening to me?”
Julian shook his head and stared at the shower door with a troubled expression as little drops of water fell from the damp ends of his black hair. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out together, okay?”
Erin nodded, but Julian wasn’t off the hook yet. “You blew fire at me.”
“You bit me, and technically, I didn’t blow it at you. I have good aim. I blew it at your exit. I wanted you to Change so I could tell for sure. I had it in my head you would Change into Chlorine's dragon out of fear, but you turned into a pissed off powerful witch with immense powers instead.”
“Damn straight I was pissed off.”
“You were magnificent,” he growled out, nipping at her neck. “It was so fucking sexy seeing your animal for the first time. Red hair, red eyes. That’s where your crew’s name came from, isn’t it? The Red Claws? And watching you set your angry glare on me and charging to battle at a dead sprint? I’m so damned proud you’re mine. If our child turns out to be a vampire or dragon cub, I hope he’s as red-hided as you.”
“You still want to have a baby with me?”
Julian chuckled and leaned his head back on the tile wall. “I do.”
*****