Missi pushed a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon under my nose. “So, Miss Wandering Off To Beacon Fucking Hill With Three Strange Men…”
“Four.” I dug in eagerly. Lack of sleep makes me ravenous.
“Wha…” She blew a curly lock of hair out of her face in exasperation. “Woman. You will be the death of me.”
I snorted and chomped into a slice of bacon.
“Seriously, though. What did they have to say that was so important that it couldn’t wait until a sane hour of the day? And what happened at the pub that you couldn’t go home afterward?” Missi sipped at her coffee and her eyes bored into my soul.
The bacon lost its flavor. I set it back down.
“Missi. You know I don’t come from the most stable background…” I started.
She set her coffee down. “Girl, our backgrounds aren’t that different. You had more foster homes than I did, but we were both in the system, remember?” Her eyes softened. “Yeah, I still have bio parents, but they’re both back in their drug-addled hazes and they’re both abusive fucks, so they might as well be dead to me.” She perked up. “But you… your parents. You said they knew about your parents! Were they cool? Were they rich? Are you loaded now?”
I gave a short laugh, then focused my eyes back on my plate. I fluffed my eggs idly. My appetite abandoned me. How the hell am I going to explain this? Suddenly, I really felt for the guys, when they were faced with explaining it all to me.
“This is all going to sound absolutely batshit insane.”
“Try me.”
I took a sip of coffee. My mouth was Serengeti dry. “So, apparently my parents were some sort of royalty.”
“FUCK YES! You ARE loaded! Buy me a tiger!” Missi bounced in her chair.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, amused and exasperated. “I don’t know if it’s that kind of royalty. It’s… like that wasn’t crazy enough.”
“What?” Missi dropped her slice of bacon and caught my hand in her slightly greasy one. “Okay. I’ll behave. Tell me what is going on.”
There was no sane way to tell her, and I, to my knowledge, wasn’t about to pop out scales and claws. But there was one thing I could do. I pushed back from the table and stood up against her wall.
You may lose your friend forever if you don’t pull this off. You’ll look crazy. I felt my heart racing. Good. I willed myself to blend in. Time to hide.
I heard a splash as Missi dropped her coffee mug. “Fuck’s sake. Where… Sia! What in the name of all…”
I stepped away from the wall. Missi gaped at me.
“WhatthehowthehelldidyouDOthat?!”
I walked over and sat next to her. She didn’t flinch away. Instead, she grabbed my arm and squeezed it. Good.
“So, apparently, I’m a dragon,” I blurted. Better out than in.
Missi continued to gape.
“And, apparently, dragons can blend into walls. At least, shadow dragons can. Which I am. The last of. And they rule over the four other kinds of dragons. And I sound absolutely balls to the wall insane, but I swear I saw one of the guys change into a scaly green dragon and I promise that’s the truth. Please don’t freak out and hate me or put me in the psych ward.” I remembered I had to breathe and took a long breath, then held it.
Missi continued to gape.
Fuck. I broke her.
“Well, damn, girl,” she said at last. “I knew you were something special, even back in high school. But… seriously? A dragon? Like, fire-breathing and scales?”
“I don’t think I can breathe fire. But Chase can.”
“Chase. That’s one of the guys you were with last night.” She smacked her head. “I forgot one very important question about these guys!”
“Really? Just one?”
She clasped my hands in hers and looked me deep in the eyes. “Are they hot?”
It was my turn to gape.
“It’s important!”
I threw my head back and laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks. “Missi, you are a piece of work.” I sniffled and rubbed my cheek on my shoulder. Then I grinned at her. “And yes. All four of them were very, very hot.” I chewed my upper lip. “Okay, one of them was an asshole. But the other three… it was insane. A very real part of me wanted to just throw myself at them and damn the consequences.”
“My girl has become a woman!” She beamed proudly, then her eyes narrowed. “Individually or as a group?”
I blushed. It was a fair question, and one that evoked some really interesting mental images. All four of them. The mind boggled. “I…don’t know if I’m quite ready for a man-pile just yet.”
“You never know until you try,” she teased.
“Incorrigible.” I squeezed her hands, then released them. “But, yeah. I went from thinking I’d never want a man in my life to wanting to jump every man I saw. Or, at least every dragon I saw.” I blushed again. “Oh god, am I a dragon slut? Am I going to want to jump every dragon I see?”
Missi reclaimed her coffee and gestured with the mug. “Hey! No slut-shaming yourself. You do you. And them. All of them, if you want. No judgement here.” She grinned. “You’re overdue for some fun, Sia girl.”
I took a long sip of my coffee. “That just seems like an invitation to a lot of drama. Potentially with guys who can breathe fire. There’s this strange…chemistry… going on with all of them. But I dunno.”
“Life is drama, kiddo.” Missi drained her cup and set it down. “You have to take the stage and be your own star. You’ve been hiding backstage all your life. Time to shine.” She winked. “And four leading men would be one hell of a show.”
“Jeez, you’re a horndog.” I snorted into my cup. “I haven’t even been with one guy and you want me crowdsurfing into bed with all of them.”
“Go big or go home.” She paused with a slice of bacon halfway to her mouth. “Speaking of going home, what happened last night at the pub?”
I rolled the cup between my palms. “Some guys broke into the pub. Weird guys, with a lot of tattoos. Tattoos that moved.” I looked up at her. She was horrified, but not looking at me like I was crazy. I guess after the dragon thing, I wasn’t going to faze her. “They said they were there for me. One of them started to turn into a giant snake…thing. Then, I blacked out. When I came to, Galen was holding me and the pub was in shambles. Bodies everywhere.”
“Oh my god.” Missi leaned forward. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you did they?”
“I don’t think they touched me.” I swallowed hard. “I think I may have hurt them, though. The guys didn’t say it directly, but they said that shadow dragons breathe life and death. I think I may have…” A wave of nausea overtook me. “Oh god. Did I kill all those people?”
Missi took my hands again. “Honey, if you did, you were protecting yourself. You’re okay. We’re okay. I’m sure Kitty took care of it with the cops.”
The nausea got worse. “She didn’t go to the cops. She went to Kiernan Donovan.”
Missi blanched. “Oh shit.”
I looked her in the eye. “You knew about him?”
She shook her head. “I… suspected. They always get really quiet when I bring them their drinks.” She looked away. “The mob. Shit. Shitfuckdamn. I know Kitty’s never been a fan of the mob, but she was such good friends with Kiernan, it threw me off.”
“Me too. And now Kitty’s called in a favor from them. For me.” I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn’t come. I felt dead inside. The people I loved most were in trouble, and it was all my fault.
“Don’t you start blaming yourself…” she began. Her phone buzzed on the table. “It’s Kitty.” She looked at the clock. “Shit, are we late?” She grabbed the phone and set it to her ear. “Hey, boss lady!”
I set my coffee mug down and went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. My stomach was still knotted up. I looked miserable and sick. The late night, the guilt, the lack of food… none of it was a good look on me.
Missi rapped on the door. “Donovan’s at the pub.” The way she said it made me grip the sink with white knuckles. “She needs us.”