Damn it, woman!
Alex wiggled around in the comforter, trying to find a way out. That crazy woman had snatched him up, wrapped him in a blanket, and now expected him to be still. And where did she come off calling him Cookie? Now they were God knows where, doing God knows what, at God knows what speed. When he got out of this blanket, he was going to give her a piece of his mind!
Light leaked in around the edges of his prison, and he poked his head towards it. Finally! Air!
“Crazy woman!” he chirped in dragon.
She reached her hand down and patted his back. “It’s okay, Cookie.”
Cookie!
“My name is not Cookie!” he snarled at her.
She looked down at him, shocked. “Someone woke up grumpy.”
“Of course I’m grumpy. You would be, too, if someone wrapped you in a blanket and tossed you around.” He growled and chirped complaints at her.
Struggling, he finally extracted himself from the blanket. That thing was hot! He kicked it to the floor, disgusted.
She let out a loud huff. “See if I save your ass again. I could have let those men have you.”
Alex stopped and looked at her. “Men?” he chirped. “What men?” When Terra didn’t answer him, he put his front foot on her leg. “What men?” He pushed down, trying to get her to answer.
“Hey!” Terra yanked his foot off her leg. “Those things are sharp.”
“What men?” His wings ruffled in agitation. Damn it, this was important.
Terra glanced at him before turning her attention back to the road.
“What men!” he barked. Can’t this woman answer a simple question?
She glared at him. “Go ahead and keep yelling at me.” She turned her attention back to the road. “It won’t do you any good. I don’t understand ‘squeak squeak squeakity squeak’.”
Aarrrgggg! Of all the crazy, irritating women!
He paced in the car, aggravated. Couldn’t she see this was important? If she wanted yelling, he would give her yelling! Closing his eyes, he turned his mind towards human and let go. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he took a deep breath and tried again. Still, he remained a dragon.
Crap! Of all the times to get stuck in dragon form, why now?
He circled on the seat, irritated. A hand came down on his back, knocking him off balance.
“Sit!” Terra barked and forced him down on the seat. “You’re going to make me wreck.”
Growling, he settled on the seat. Fine! He would sit. He wiggled around, stretching out on the seat. It was really too small for him, so he squirmed closer to her and laid his head in her lap. Oh, yes. That gave him the space he needed.
Closing his eyes, he turned his mind to the problem at hand. Why couldn’t he shift? Memories filtered in. Other times he had gotten stuck in dragon form, so this problem wasn’t anything new. He worked on those memories and came up with an answer he could use—his dragon half had gotten stubborn and taken over. He wasn’t listening to it properly, or he was missing something important. Yeah, he was missing something important right now—his memory! Fine. If his dragon wanted to speak, he would listen.
Drawing in a deep breath, Alex relaxed. First, he had to deal with the irritation. A few quick breathing exercises calmed his heart and eased the anger away. Relaxing more, he let go of all thought and reveled in being a dragon. His senses sharpened, and he took note of the things around him. The gentle rocking of the car. The hum of road noise. The rub of the steering wheel against one of his horns. He rolled his head away from the wheel so Terra could drive without that interference. The movement pressed his head into her body. She was warm and soft. And smelled nice. Like woman and flowers.
He slowly became aware of soft fingers gliding back and forth over his scales. She was petting him. Usually that irritated him, but this felt nice. His dragon was content with her touch. Now that was odd—usually his dragon was cranky. He stopped and thought about that. So his dragon did remember. Turning to that piece of him, he asked the question he needed to know. Who am I?
A torrent of memories flooded him, all from the viewpoint of a dragon. The feel of air over scales. The taste of smoke and flame. The sting of another dragon’s claws as they were wrapped together in passion. He lingered on that memory for a moment and was able to remember the girl. She was a passing fancy that his dragon had tolerated. Going on, more images flooded his brain. Training. Lots and lots of training. The bite of claws. The sting of flames. His buddies congratulating him when he made his goal. He had earned the right to wear that tattoo on his shoulder. The one human memory he recalled was the sting of the needle as it embedded the ink into his skin. Everything came to him in flashes of sensation, but no sound. It gave him a sense of what he was—he was an Elite—but he still had no idea who he was.
The soft scratching of Terra’s nails over his scales stopped as she turned the car in somewhere and shut it off. They had arrived at wherever they were going.
Good. It was high time they both got some answers.
4
Safe. Terra turned off the car and looked down at the dragon in her lap. At least he wasn’t growling and chirping at her anymore. Damn, was he grumpy. She rested her hand back down on him. He was also warm and smooth. Something she could really get used to. Terra shook her head, driving the silly thought out. He may look like a pet, but he was really a man. Something she should remember.
She patted him gently on the shoulder. “Wake up.”
The dragon cracked his eye and looked up at her.
Wow! His eyes were gorgeous.
“I think it’s time we talked.” Terra patted him again.
He lifted his head up and chirped at her.
Terra just shook her head. “We’re going to have to work on your communication skills, buddy.”
The dragon snickered and nodded his head.
“Can you change back?” Terra looked at him, calculating how big he would be in human form. He might fit, lying in the seat like that. It would be entertaining to see him try. A chirp interrupted her musing.
Turning around, the dragon caught hold of the door with his teeth and tried to pull it open. So cute!
“Here.” Terra leaned over him and yanked on the handle. The door popped open.
The dragon gave her another chirp and hopped out onto the floor of the barn.
Grabbing her door, she pushed it open and looked around the barn. This was the perfect place to talk with him. A twinkling of glass shone in the corner—the only evidence that this barn had surveillance in it.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
Terra turned around and saw that her dragon had turned back into a man. “As well you should be.” She slammed the door and started around the car. “I just saved your ass back there, buddy. You should be at least a little grateful.”
She stopped as soon as she got around the front of the car. He was standing there, buck naked. Again.
“Don’t you have any sense of decency?” She stormed over and pushed past him. “Geez.” Pulling her quilt out of the car, she thrust it at him. “Cover that thing up. A girl can only take so much.” Turning her head away from him, she tried to find something interesting to look at on the floor.