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  As it was, she felt just right. Floating along on the dr’gin was like riding in a warm car on a crisp fall day and putting down the windows to enjoy the cool autumn air in her face.

  Well, no, it’s not exactly like a car ride, Tess corrected herself. It was more like what she imagined a magic carpet ride would be like. The smooth, flowing of the dr’gin beneath her, the panoramic view of the natural beauty all around, the soft whistling of the wind…despite her continued anxiety about her fate, Tess found it enchanting. Seduced by the beauty of the moment, she almost felt like if she had to die, she was glad to have this as her last memory.

  Then the dr’gin made for a dark opening in the side of the mountain. Tess ducked her head just in time as they soared over the steep lip of a cliff and then went directly into a very big, very black cave.

  The dr’gin came to a halt at last, his long claws scrabbling against the rocky cave floor. Then it just sat there.

  “Um…” Tess wasn’t sure what to do. Should she thank him? Could he understand her? And when had she started thinking of the dr’gin as “he” instead of “it?” She didn’t know but it seemed right, somehow.

  The dr’gin shook impatiently, like a horse twitching to get rid of a fly.

  Oh right—and I’m the fly.

  Tess took the hint and got off quickly. It was easy since the dr’gin was low to the ground. It wasn’t like sliding off a horse—more like simply standing up and stepping over his broad back to stand on the stone floor beside him.

  “Thanks for the ride,” she said and winced when her own voice echoed unnaturally in the stone space. How big was this cave anyway? She’d been to Natural Caverns in Virginia and she knew that some cave systems could extend for miles and miles of convoluted, twisting tunnels and vast grottos inside the mountain. Just the idea of all that black, empty space at her back made Tess extremely nervous.

  She looked around but the light of the setting sun was almost completely gone and the darkness gathering around her was thick and impenetrable. In fact, she realized, she couldn’t see much of anything except the dr’gin’s eyes glowing hungrily right beside her.

  The euphoria she’d felt during the beautiful, silent ride abruptly leaked away to be replaced by a numbing fear. The dr’gin took a step towards her, its claws scratching on the stones, its eyes wide and glowing a brilliant turquoise.

  “Please…” Tess took a step back. “If you brought me here just to eat me…”

  The dr’gin cocked its head to one side, for all the world like someone trying to understand something spoken in a foreign language. Then it started to come toward her again.

  “Please…” Tess took another step back and nearly fell. Her breath was coming short now as panic took over. Maybe the dr’gin had brought her here just to eat her. She’d thought he was rescuing her from the wolves but maybe he was just making sure his dinner didn’t have any pieces out of it. “Don’t!” she begged as the huge beast flowed toward her. “Please, don’t.”

  The dr’gin gave her a long look and then, to Tess’s confusion and relief, he retreated swiftly to the opposite side of the cave. There he curled into a circle and turned his face to the stone wall. The gesture was strangely familiar and suddenly she realized that the dr’gin was very deliberately giving her space.

  Tess watched him for a while uncertainly. What was going on? Why had he stopped moving in on her and left so abruptly? Was he trying to tell her something? Was he really giving her space the way a person would or was he simply saving his supper for later?

  It was all too confusing to understand. Sighing, she sat down and leaned back against the opposite wall of the cave. A cold wind whistled in through the cave mouth but she drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to ignore it. After awhile she closed her eyes and fell into a light, uneasy sleep.

  She was wakened an unknowable period of time later by a chorus of high, mournful howling coming from just outside the cave. Gasping, she sat bolt upright, her hands clutched to her chest. How had the wolves managed to find her way up here on the side of the mountain? Was the whole pack out there? Were they—?

  Suddenly a long, lithe white shadow flowed past her and out the cave mouth. Tess got a brief glimpse of the moonlight sparkling on its flowing fur and then the dr’gin’s unearthly claxon alarm-roar split the night air.

  Tess clapped her hands over her ears but not before she noticed that the howling had abruptly stopped. Had Garron’s dr’gin chased away the pack? Had he killed any more of them? Would he be in a mood for more killing when he came back into the cave?

  The screaming roar was not repeated but her heart was still pounding minutes later when the dr’gin came back into the cave. He took a look at Tess, shivering with a combination of fear and cold, started to go back to his place on the opposite wall, and then stopped.

  “H-hey,” Tess whispered, her voice breaking on the word no matter how hard she tried to keep it steady. “Uh, did you scare them all off? Are they gone?”

  The dr’gin gave her another look and came towards her purposefully, flowing over the ground like a river of white silk.

  “No,” Tess begged softly, as she had before. “No, please…”

  But this time the dr’gin didn’t stop. Instead, he flowed around her, encircling her body with his own long form and nestled her securely in the curve of his side.

  At first she didn’t dare to move or even breathe. But the dr’gin didn’t seem to be offering her any harm—it was more like he was protecting her. Keeping her warm. His actions reminded her of what Garron had told her several times—that his dr’gin liked her and felt protective of her. Maybe he wasn’t saving her to eat later. Maybe he genuinely wanted to keep her safe.

  “Okay,” Tess murmured. “Okay, I guess this is all right.”

  Little by little, she allowed herself to relax. The dr’gin’s side was surprisingly comfortable and very warm. It molded itself to the shape of her body, reminding her of a high end armchair filled with memory foam or some similar material. Only memory foam didn’t breathe and it wasn’t covered in silky fur.

  Tess sighed and turned on her side, pressing her cold cheek to the warm hide beneath her. Unfortunately, it was the cheek Pierce had sliced open with his knife. Rubbing it against the dr’gin’s hard scales reopened the wound and shot a bolt of pain through her face.

  “Ouch!” She winced and sat up, her fingers going to her hurt cheek. They came away warm and wet. Was she bleeding again?

  Suddenly she became aware that the dr’gin had curved around to face her, so close that his huge head was almost in her lap. He sniffed her bloody fingers, his hot breath blowing across her hand. Then he licked her, his long tongue curling around each digit in turn, as though it was trying to get every last trace of blood from her hand.

  Tess froze.

  Oh my God, I’ve done it now. Now he’s tasted my blood he’ll eat me for sure!

  Sure enough, the huge, leonine head rose up, drawing close to her own until they were eye-to-eye.

  “Garron,” she whispered, looking into those glowing, turquoise orbs. “Garron, please…please, no.”

  The huge mouth opened and she closed her eyes tight, not wanting to see when the final bite was going to happen. Please, she prayed silently. Please, just let it be quick! Don’t make it long and drawn out and painful like it was with Pierce. Let it be qu—

  Her prayer was cut off when the dr’gin’s hot, wet tongue swiped over the side of her face. Oh God, it was tasting her! Getting the blood right from the source. The next thing she would feel was those massive jaws closing over her head and his fangs sinking into her neck, severing her carotids…

  But there was no final, fatal bite. Instead, the dr’gin just kept gently licking, bathing her face with its tongue.

  Gradually, her heart stopped pounding so frantically and the tension left her body. The dr’gin’s breath had the same wild, almost-cinnamon scent that Garron’s had. As it licked her, she fel