‘‘If you say a single word about not having foreplay, I swear I’m going to deck you,’’ I said, turning my head to look at the man who still lay prone on his seat. I mused again how beautiful he was, his body taut and lean, but not gaunt, not sparse in any way.

Gabriel chuckled, a rich, sensual sound that made me shiver as the cooling air pricked at the tiny drops of perspiration that still clung to me.

‘‘I wasn’t going to, but now that you mention it . . .’’

I curled up one fist and waved it in the direction of his face. He laughed again, pulling his seat upright, grimacing briefly as he looked down at his side.

The stripes left by my claws were still visible.

‘‘Agathos daimon. Tell me I didn’t do that to you,’’ I said, leaning over to examine the wounds. They were red and raised, but not bleeding.

‘‘It’s all right, little bird. You don’t have to look so stricken. They don’t hurt. Much.’’

‘‘Oh, Gabriel, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. It was just . . . it was just . . . suddenly you looked so good to me. Not that you don’t always look good, but this was different. This was very different. And those claws . . . I had no idea that I would hurt you, though. What can I do to heal them?’’

Gabriel took my hands, which were fluttering around the stripes on his ribs, pulling them to his mouth. ‘‘They are mating marks, little bird. They are common with mating pairs of dragons, and I assure you, I would much prefer to bear the slight discomfort they bring than have you forgo making them.’’

‘‘But why aren’t they healing?’’ I frowned at the marks. ‘‘They should be healed by now. Enough time has passed.’’

‘‘Mating marks heal slower than other injuries. Don’t worry about them, May,’’ he said with a smile. ‘‘You gave me much pleasure when you embraced the shard.’’

I looked back at my hands, my emotions conflicted. I couldn’t deny that the experience we’d just shared had been beyond anything I’d ever imagined, but I didn’t like the strange feelings that possessed me. ‘‘It was the shard that changed my hands? It wasn’t just something that happens to wyvern mates?’’

He watched me for a moment, kissing the tips of my fingers before releasing them. ‘‘I’m sorry you were frightened, May. I would like to assure you that being the vessel to the shard will change nothing about you, but I can’t. It is part of you now, and until such time as it is removed, you will experience some of the sensations of what it is to be a dragon.’’

I shivered, cold despite the relative balminess of the night air. I suddenly realized that I was naked, my clothing in shreds around us. A little noise of distress slipped out of me as I sorted through the torn fabric, trying to find something wearable.

‘‘Take this,’’ Gabriel said as I clutched the wad of useless clothing.

I took the shirt he had pulled off, fortunately still whole since Gabriel had had the presence of mind earlier to unbutton it while I was struggling to get out of my clothing.

‘‘It’s lucky you are so small,’’ he said after a quick search in the backseat of the car. ‘‘There’s nothing else here. I’m sorry I can’t offer you my pants, but they would not fit. I had not expected that we would need a change of clothing, or I would not have sent Maata and Tipene off with our things.’’

‘‘This’ll do,’’ I said, buttoning the shirt all the way down. The tails reached to my knees, and I had to roll the sleeves up several inches, but at least it was a covering. ‘‘I hate to think what we’re going to tell your mother, though. She’s going to know just exactly what we were doing.’’

‘‘I think everyone within a hundred-mile radius knew what we were doing,’’ he answered, amusement in his beautiful eyes. ‘‘You yelled your pleasure loud enough to wake the sleeping animals.’’

I made a face at him.

He pulled me to him, kissing the tip of my nose. ‘‘It pleased me to know you were so affected.’’

I rubbed my cheek against his chest, saying nothing, troubled by the remembered feelings that had possessed me. I didn’t want to be slowly taken over by a dragon essence so potent it could change me into something alien. I was happy being myself, troubles and all.

The question was, did I have a choice in the matter?

Chapter Twelve

‘‘We should get moving. My mother will no doubt know we are near and come looking for us if we do not arrive in a reasonable time.’’

‘‘Does she know you’re here because she’s your mother, a dragon expert, or a shaman?’’ I asked a few minutes later as we were once again bouncing our way across the arid near desert of the region.

‘‘The answer is probably all of them. As a shaman, she knows who enters the area. She senses their beings and keeps track of those who belong to her. But she’s also my mother, and I have no doubt that word reached her of our arrival in Lajamanu.’’

I thought about that for a few minutes, arguing with myself about whether or not I should ask the question that was uppermost. I decided that it was better to ask now, before I met Gabriel’s mother. ‘‘You mentioned your father to me once but haven’t said anything about him since. He’s not dead, is he?’’

‘‘Dead?’’ Gabriel looked surprised. ‘‘What gave you that idea?’’

‘‘Well, you’ve talked a lot about your mother, but not so much about your father. I just figured they wouldn’t be separated unless one of them was . . . well, dead.’’

‘‘He’s not dead.’’

‘‘Oh. Good. He’s here with your mother, then?’’

‘‘No.’’ Gabriel kept his eyes on the nonexistent road, avoiding breaking the axle on rocks and bits of dead vegetation, driving carefully through the deepening light, occasional flashes of animals in the headlights making me jump. ‘‘You know of the curse, Mayling. You know that no mate is born to a silver dragon. That includes my parents.’’

‘‘I know about it. I just thought . . .’’ I made a vague gesture. ‘‘I just assumed they must be mated in everything but name.’’