Throwing back my head and bugling a warning to Nigel Seagrave's retreating figure, I heard a scuffling noise. Peering into the shadows, I made out the silhouette of a very familiar and beloved human male, one I hadn't thought to see in this godforsaken place.
I was in my other form—a fifty-foot female aubergine Dragon—one of the oldest and rarest of Dragonkind. I hadn't gotten to be as old as I am by being careless. Caught up in the triumph of kicking my nemesis’s ass, I hadn't noticed my unwelcome audience. If it had been another human, I would've erased his memories, not allowing him to remember or report to the authorities what he had witnessed.
Holding his Glock in a two handed grip, Nicodemus Foster aimed at my chest. He was a member of a Special Forces group and had a powerful presence. That is why, after knowing him for six months, I had taken him as my lover.
"I don't know what y'all are doing here but if you attack me, I'll shoot," he said.
Rumbling with dragon laughter, I shook my head. Bullets only bounce off my tough hide and annoy me, much as gnats do a human.
Slapping his forehead with his right hand, and holding his gun in his left, Nic muttered to himself.
"Why am I talking to a big, scaly, lizard? I am gombee kicking that bartender’s ass for putting a mickey in my drink."
Taking pity on him, knowing the conversation was unavoidable if we were still to be together, I did the forbidden. I changed shape right before my stunned lover’s eyes.
"You're that big, ugly, lizard thing?" he choked. Alright, Elizabeth Stephens, where are the mirrors? You have to done that with a hologram or something, so where is the projector?"
"No mirrors, projectors or anything; that big, ugly, lizard thing as you call it, is me, and by the way, I am a Dragon not a lizard."
"I have been having sex with a lizard? I have been kissing, hugging and having sex with a slimy reptile?" Nic shuddered with horrified disbelief, backing slowly away from me.
"No, Nic, you haven't been hugging, kissing or having sex with a slimy reptile. You have been doing all those things with a dragon, one who has a human appearance, and I could be in deep trouble for even telling you that much."
Taking a slow step towards him, I stopped as Nicodemus had his gun pointed at my head.
Nic, I still am the same...
Nicodemus warned me in a low voice that was as dangerous as a pissed off rattler.
"No, don't come any closer or I'll shoot and at this distance I won't miss."
"I need to explain", I tried again.
Nicodemus growled.
"I don't care what you need to explain, I don't want to hear it! Don't come after me. I need some time to think what to do, if there is even gombee an us."
