Shadow Dragon (Shifter Agents) by Lauren Esker

Author:Lauren Esker [Esker, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

This was what he got for having conversations while tired and rattled, Caine thought.

He was starting to be able to see Gilly’s face as a vague blur without much nuance of expression. He could tell she was staring at him.

“So, about you and your mom being the only ones of your kind, it’s not just the shadow—thing.”

“No. I would show you, but shifting takes it out of me when I’ve just shadow-walked. Also, Morgan knows about the shadow-walking, but she doesn’t know that part. One of these days.”

“One of these days,” Gilly repeated faintly. She shook her head. “Look, I think I’m going to need to absorb this for a while. Morgan’s going to be done talking to her mom soon, so I guess our time for private conversation is ending.” She touched his hand lightly. Her fingers were warm. “Do you think there’s any danger here? That—that someone might follow you back?”

That must have weighed on her mind, Caine thought; it struck to the heart of what she feared most. “No,” he said firmly. “No, not even slightly. The one thing I can tell you for sure is that shadow-shifting is completely untraceable. I don’t even think I could follow myself. And I wouldn’t reassure you if it wasn’t true, trust me.”

He was able to tell that she smiled, even if he couldn’t make out more than the broad strokes of it. “I do,” she said. “Trust you.”

She still had her hand on his. Caine swallowed.

“You asked who Morgan was. She’s the daughter of my cowork—” He cleared his throat. “My partner. My friend. Her dad was a close friend of mine. He was killed in the line of duty a few months ago. Morgan and her mother are still grieving, and I’ve stepped in—” He stopped again, forced himself to be more truthful. “That is, Morgan seems to have singled me out as a kind of—adult in her life. She likes hanging out with me, I’m not sure why.”

“Oh, I can tell you that easily,” Gilly said immediately. “I mean, besides just that kids of all types absolutely love having an adult pay a lot of one-on-one attention to them. But I understand why she would feel that way about you. You’re patient and protective and kind.”

Caine had to smile a little. No one else would ever describe him like that. “You don’t know me very well.”

“Maybe it’s other people who don’t know you well.” As if realizing where her hand was, Gilly jerked it back swiftly and rose to her feet. “I’m going to go make something hot—tea or cocoa, something that won’t be too likely to keep us all awake.”

“The cocoa was good the other time.”

“Then I’ll make that.” He heard her smile in her voice this time, rather than seeing it.

He sprawled on the couch for a little while longer, too exhausted to raise his head. Repeated shadow-walking while still healing was, it turned out, not a good idea, especially when he’d added yet another thing to heal from.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.