He gave an exasperated look heavenward as he got into the car. I let him think whatever thoughts were possessing him, my own attention focused on driving while trying to sort through the thousands of questions zipping through my mind.

It wasn’t until fifteen minutes had passed that I thought to ask the obvious. “What were you doing unconscious on the beach outside of my house? Was some… I don’t know… dragon killer after you? Is there such a thing? St. George and all that?”

“St. George was an asshat.”

I blinked at him in outright surprise.

“Is that not the right word?” His brow wrinkled. “I read it online. Should it be asscap?”

“No, asshat is the correct word. I’m just… I don’t know, kind of surprised that a dragon knows about asshats. And the Internet, for that matter.”

“Of course I know about the Internet.” The look he hefted my way was filled with scorn. “I may have been held captive for more than forty years, but I am not an imbecile. Once my brother freed me, I learned what advances had been made in society. I have a laptop, and a tablet computer, and an intelligent phone.”

“Smartphone.”

“I can send texts. I am extremely wired,” he added with a sense of pride that I didn’t want to squash by giggling again.

“Clearly, I was wrong, and you are Mr. Technology. So tell me, why do you go around looking like a hunky man if you’re a dragon?”

“Human form is easier to fit into cars. Not to mention sitting upon chairs,” he said complacently, his gaze once again turned to the window at his side. “Dragon form is generally reserved for mating and fighting. We found over the years that it was simply easier to blend in—physically speaking—if we resembled those around us. Do you wish to mate with me?”

The car jerked again, but this time either my reaction had improved or such surprises were getting to be old hat, because I continued on regardless of the squawk from the backseat. “Is that an offer or a question?” I finally managed to ask Kostya.

He flexed first one shoulder, then the other, followed by a stretching of his neck to the left and right before he leaned back in the seat, his eyes closed as he answered. “Which would you like it to be?”

“You know, I think I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever been propositioned so quickly after meeting a man. I don’t want either, and no, as I said a few minutes ago, I have zero interest in mating with you, assuming dragons do that the same way we do.”

“We are flexible. We can do it either as mortals or as dragons. The latter is much more pleasing but requires a bigger space, as well as grounds for the chase.” His voice sounded drowsy now, as if the fatigue of the evening’s events had finally caught up to him. I knew just how he felt, with the added bonus of all the stress that I’d gone through. “That is so… I mean, they have a word for sex that way, assuming you are talking about doing it while looking like a tiny T. rex, and while I’m saying that, ew.”

“Dragons do not look like tiny T. rexes. We have excellent forms that none can duplicate.” He lifted a hand in a vague gesture. “You would not say ew if you knew the pleasures to be found in dragon form. Is it far to your home?”

“About forty minutes. You can take a nap if you like. I’ll wake you when we get to town.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

He sounded very tired now, and it didn’t take much longer for him to drift off to sleep. Jim was soon snoring from the backseat as well, leaving me the rest of the way home to think about the way my life had suddenly changed.

What on earth was I going to do with a large black demon dog? How was I going to break it to my sister and brother that I was now a demon lord? Would they even believe me when I did tell them, or would they try to stuff me back in the loony bin?

More worryingly, would I be able to survive the rest of the night with Kostya so temptingly close in my house without succumbing to the lure of his lips?

I sighed to myself and drove northward, my thoughts tangled, but at least there was one thing I knew for certain: “I’m so going to call up Dr. Barlind and tell her that I’m not crazy after all. And then I’m going to send my demon squad to break that electroshock machine.”

Six

The scream ripped through my dream, bringing me instantly to full consciousness, if a little confused and dazed by the sudden waking. I sat up in bed, no stranger to the sound of distant screaming. The occupants of the Arvidsjaur Center sometimes vocalized their issues in ways that were at first frightening and later just became part of the background noise.

But I wasn’t at Arvidsjaur. The sunlight that streamed around the partially closed curtains wasn’t that of the Center, but my own home. The echo of the noise still bounced around my head, but I didn’t know if its origins were from a dream or something external.

A black shadow moved, then stretched and resolved itself into the shape of a large black dog. I stared at it for a few seconds, my brain still muzzy enough that it took until the count of eight before I remembered.

“Jim!”

“Hiya.” Jim stretched again and shook his whole body. “What’s up with Kostya?”

It was on my lips to ask who when the vision of the handsome man rose before my eyes. I was on my feet and wrapping myself in my bathrobe when another scream sounded, this one hoarse and ragged.

“Sweet simmering sauceboats!” I sprinted down the hallway to my brother Rowan’s room. With Jim hot on my heels, I flung open the door and plunged into the semidarkness of the room, half expecting it to be filled with… well, I wasn’t quite sure what. Something bad, that’s all I knew.

Kostya lay tangled in the sheets on Rowan’s bed, his chest and belly exposed, along with one naked leg. He was on his back, one arm flung out, his chest glistening with perspiration. I flipped on the bedside lamp, looking around to make sure something or someone wasn’t hiding, but it was just Kostya in the room.

He moaned and said something unintelligible, his brows pulled down into a fierce scowl. Beneath his eyelids, his eyes were moving, his fingers flexing in an odd rhythm.

“Dreaming, huh?” Jim said, coming over to the bed to stare at Kostya. “I wonder if dragons run in their sleep like dogs do?”

I gave him a look. “He’s not an animal, silly. And yes, I think he’s having a nightmare. A very intense one if the fact that we are standing here talking without waking him is anything to go by. Kostya?” I eased myself onto the edge of the bed, told myself it was not polite to ogle a guest, no matter how tempting, and put my hand on his arm to gently shake him awake. “Kostya, you’re drea—”