misty hollow 00 - 01 to 03 by H P Mallory

Author:H P Mallory [H P Mallory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: MOBI
Publisher: Rain Press
Published: 2025-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

It took me the better part of a half hour to drag myself back to Smith’s couch.

I hadn’t realized I was shaking until I was sitting still. The blanket Smith had provided me didn’t ease the shivers. It was more than a bone-deep cold. Alistair Beaumont hadn’t just spooked me, the way most vampires were capable of. He was actively terrifying, and I had no idea what to do about it. I couldn’t leave, even if I wanted to. At the very least, I wouldn’t be able to drive for at least a week, and I wouldn’t be upright and work-capable for even longer than that. And that meant I wouldn’t be able to take care of Luna’s magical messes. I was stuck. I couldn’t leave even if wanted to.

The shivers finally died down when Burns hopped onto the couch and curled on my lap, tucking his head beneath one wing as he settled in to sleep. The tiny dragon was hot enough to heat a corner of the room, and having him pressed against me was like hugging a space heater. It gave me something to focus on, other than the memory of Beaumont’s sharp, sadistic smile.

I was warming up to the beast.

Just a little.

Smith found me sitting cross-legged on his sofa, absently stroking the tiny dragon’s back. His shadow fell across the floor, and I paused. Burns lifted his head to give me a half-hearted glower when I stopped touching him. I returned the look with a scowl.

“What, an hour of petting you wasn’t enough?” I demanded, shaking my head. “You’re worse than a cat and given our history, you’re lucky I let you sit on my lap at all.”

Burns huffed out a breath, smoke curling from his nostrils before he tucked his head beneath his wing once more. It didn’t fool me. His tail was still twitching back and forth. He really was like a cat.

Smith stooped to retrieve some of the bricks I’d enchanted. It was mesmerizing to watch the corded muscles in his arms bunch as he loaded them up. I may not have liked him, but I could still appreciate a beautiful man when I saw one. And Smith was beautiful—well, maybe a little too masculine for the word, but he was definitely a handsome example of a man.

“I met a pixie shrink in a bar once,” he started.

I frowned up at him. “Is this the lead-in to a joke?”

He shook his head and motioned with his chin to Burns. “She said he has an anxious attachment style.”

I looked at the sleeping dragon in my lap and felt a strange sort of pity for him. “Oh.”

“His mother was hunted down and killed a few decades ago, and he’s only one of about a dozen fairy dragons left in the world. It makes him clingy.”

“Fairy dragons?”

He nodded. “His species is almost extinct.”

I’d never even heard of a fairy dragon, much less seen one. And given how rare they were, I guessed that made sense.

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