Ember's Kiss (19 page)

No. She had to face her test alone and pass it. She had to leave Brandon to ensure that he wasn't at risk. That was the only way to keep him safe and to guarantee that they even had a chance at a future.

Liz became aware of someone watching her and looked around. There was a dark-haired guy across the street, sitting on the steps of a porch. He had his elbows braced on his knees and his fingers steepled together as he watched.

Without blinking.

There was a knowing smile on his lips.

He could have been a statue, he was so still.

Liz turned her back on him and tried to ignore the weight of his gaze. Curious strangers weren't her problem right now.

“Brandon! We thought you were a goner!” one of Brandon's friends said with obvious relief. “You okay?”

“What about the dragon?” the blond friend who'd
been with Brandon the night before asked. “Did he kick your ass?”

Brandon shook his head. “I don't know about a dragon. I don't remember much. Just water.”

Despite her dismay, Liz almost smiled. He was as terrible a liar as she'd expected. He was genuine, right to the heart. She ached a bit with the certainty that she had to walk away from him, even for a short period of time. Her mother's test had occurred within three days of the mark's appearance. Would Liz's come that soon? In a way, she hoped so. In another, she was terrified of failure.

Maybe she could help Brandon before she left him.

Brandon shuddered as his friends looked on. “Lots of water.” He straightened and ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't look any of them in the eye as he told his false story. “Then I got hauled underwater. Thank goodness Liz found me.” He gestured to her, and his friends nodded acknowledgment of her.

“Liz, this is Dylan,” he indicated the blond friend. “And Matt.” This was the dark-haired guy who'd tried to buy her a drink. “Rick.” This was the guy with dreadlocks who had talked to Liz at the beach. “And Kira.” The petite woman was striking, with silky dark hair that hung to her hips and bright green eyes. They were all stunningly attractive people, toned and tanned. Liz felt pale and out of shape.

“You were at the beach,” Dylan said.

Liz nodded. “Looking for Brandon.” She smiled at him but knew her smile didn't reach her eyes. “I didn't
think he'd be trying to drown.” He watched her, his intensity reminding her of the truth of his nature. There were moments when his dragon nature seemed so obvious.

“It must have been the dragon that pulled you underwater,” Matt said with conviction.

“Or a riptide,” Kira interjected, her skepticism clear. “You better not have damaged that wet suit.”

“It's got some blood on it, but I think I can wash it out.” Brandon straightened and turned, letting Kira check it out. “Kira had the wet suit made for me, to advertise her new line of gear,” he told Liz, then he grinned at Kira. “I thought I just had to keep from dying in it,” he teased her.

“You could have been killed out there today!” Kira punctuated her words with a punch on his shoulder. “What a dumb-ass thing to do.” Matt started to say something, but Kira turned on him. “And you're no better. You're both stupid, maybe too stupid to live.” She turned and walked away, anger in every line of her body.

Matt fluttered his hand against his chest. “I can tell you love me, Kira!”

“Dream on!” she shouted at him, her lips curling in a reluctant smile.

“Oh, I do, Banzai Baby. I do!” Matt shouted, and Kira blushed. She made a dismissive wave and got into her car, then drove away.

Brandon took Liz's hand in his and gave her a smile. She fought her instinctive urge to respond to
him. Maybe it would be easier for him to let her go if he thought she didn't care. He had a persistence about him that meant he wouldn't take no for an answer.

And Liz loved that.

“You should have been a goner,” Dylan said. “I mean, you never came up for air.”

“Like I said, it was a blue crush,” Brandon insisted. “I managed to get the leash off, then was pulled under by the water.” Liz had a feeling that his explanation wasn't going to fly.

“Or the dragon,” Rick said.

Brandon's expression changed slightly, and Liz sensed his fear that his story wouldn't hold together. She couldn't think of what to say. Sadly, they were both lousy liars.

To Liz's surprise, it was Matt who gave credence to the story.

“Brandon can always hold his breath the longest,” Matt reminded them. “Don't you remember the last time we swam underwater with rocks? He went three times farther than any of us.”

“You're right,” Rick said. “It's eerie how long you can hold your breath. I'd forgotten that you were superhuman.” They laughed together and teased Brandon a bit.

“Like Kira said, it must have been a riptide,” Liz said, trying to encourage this acceptance. “Aren't there a lot of them around here?” The guys nodded agreement and their skepticism visibly faded. “I found
him down the coast, washed up on the beach like old seaweed.”

The guys laughed at that and nudged Brandon.

“Puking salt water, probably,” Matt teased with a grin.

“Always a good opener,” Dylan said, flicking Liz a significant glance.

Brandon grinned back at Matt. “You have words with a rock or something?” he asked, indicating the gash on Matt's temple.

“An argument with the reef. I lost.” Matt shrugged. “My leash was snagged on the reef and I couldn't get to the surface. I couldn't reach my ankle to unfasten it, either. If it hadn't been for that dragon, I would have been a goner.”

“Did you really see a dragon?” Brandon asked, feigning skepticism. “Because I never did.” The assertion rang with such insincerity that Liz winced.

And the tone of the conversation changed again.

“How could you not remember the dragon?” Rick demanded. “He was right there, and huge.” He lifted his hands, mocking a dragon's pose. “Didn't you feel him pull you under?”

“It was the wave that took me under.” Brandon scoffed. “What have you guys been smoking? You're seeing
dragons
?”

Dylan, meanwhile, roared back at Rick. “He could fly, too. Freaking awesome.” He turned to Liz. “You're the one who followed the dragon. You saw him.”

They all turned to face Liz, and she knew she'd
never be able to lie her way out of this corner. “I did,” she admitted quietly, feeling Brandon's disapproval.

“Where'd he go?” Dylan asked.

“I don't know,” she lied. “As soon as I saw Brandon, I pulled over. I lost sight of him then.” She gestured vaguely. “He was headed toward that point.”

To her dismay, they locked on to that detail.

“Ka‘ena Point,” Rick said. “It'd be a good place to hide out for a dragon. It's not very popular, and it's a bit wild.”

“We should head out there,” Dylan suggested, his eyes alight with the idea. “See if we can find him, get a closer look.”

“I don't think that's a good plan,” Brandon said. “You don't even know if there is a dragon.”

“I do.” Matt gave him a look.

“Be serious,” Rick said. “We saw him. Just because you were too busy trying to die doesn't mean he wasn't there.”

“But…” Brandon protested.

“I'm in,” Matt said. “I want to see the dragon that saved my butt.”

“Excellent!” Dylan said. “Let's go.”

“But you took the Jeep in for repairs today,” Matt said, and Dylan winced.

“Hey, can we use your car?” Rick asked Liz.

She shook her head. “No, sorry. It's not mine. I've got to get it back, actually.” She glanced at her watch, thinking that would be the end of it. They wouldn't walk to the point.

“But we've got to find that dragon while we can,” Matt insisted. “He might not stay there long.”

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Brandon said again. “I mean, if there is a dragon, he might breathe fire on you or something.”

The guys laughed at this and ignored him. “You think he has treasure?” Rick asked. “Dragons are supposed to.”

“Hey, you should ask that old guy you're always talking to,” Dylan said to Brandon. “He goes on and on about dragons. He might know something more.”

“He might give us some clues,” Matt said. “Wasn't he here today?”

“Hey, hey!” Brandon interjected, his tone taking on a tinge of desperation. “Leave it alone. Let's focus on the competition, get a beer, celebrate our survival.”

The guys looked at each other, then shook their heads as one. “I say we find a dragon instead,” Dylan said, and the other two nodded vigorously. “Come on. We'll go borrow Kira's car.”

Brandon flung Liz a panicked look. “They'll never give it up,” he muttered, and she recognized that the competitive spirit that drove these surfers would manifest in other parts of their lives, too.

“You won't find a dragon at Ka‘ena Point,” a guy with a deep voice said, speaking with authority. Liz glanced up to find a muscled guy with dark hair and dark eyes leaning against the doorway to the bar. He was a bit shorter than Brandon, and older, too. She looked, but the guy who had been watching from the
other side of the road had disappeared. This was a different guy.

Brandon bristled visibly, and when Liz glanced his way in confusion, she saw that his eye had changed to a red reptile eye. There was a shimmer of pale blue light silhouetting his body, competing with the indigo of his aura.

What was wrong?

Liz looked at the new arrival and guessed. He, too, was shimmering pale blue around his perimeter, on the cusp of change.

This guy was another
Pyr
.

Liz had wanted to find another dragon shape shifter so Brandon could ask for advice, but it looked like the dragon shape shifters had found Brandon.

She could only be glad of that. Maybe he'd get the help he needed.

But Brandon looked both livid and unwilling to accept help from this
Pyr
.

Brandon was startled by the new arrival's words. What made him think the dragon was his business? Or that he could interfere in their conversation?

When had he turned up? And why hadn't Brandon heard him coming or noticed him sooner? His dragon senses were sharper than human senses and he wasn't used to being surprised.

His dragon exhaled, a long, slow hiss of irritation, and Brandon guessed the truth.

He was
Pyr
.

He took a deep breath and smelled the truth of this
Pyr
's nature, now that he was paying attention. What did he want? Nothing good, Brandon was sure. His dragon snarled, ready to rumble.

“What do you mean?” Dylan asked the new arrival. “Do you know where he went?”

“There was no dragon,” the guy said, his voice low and melodic. There was something compelling about the way he spoke, and Brandon noticed that there were flames dancing in the pupils of his eyes.

Liz swore softly under her breath and turned her back on him.

Brandon looked between the two of them in confusion. What did those flames mean?

“What's with your eyes?” Dylan asked, stepping closer to the guy.

As if he were fascinated.

Or hypnotized.

The guy looked deeply into Dylan's eyes. He seemed to open his eyes even wider and he didn't blink, giving Dylan a clear view of those weird flames. “There was no dragon. You saw no dragon because there was no dragon.”

Dylan shuddered. He swallowed, then touched his own forehead. He kept staring into the guy's eyes. “No dragon,” he said softly, but his words lacked conviction.

“There's no such thing as a dragon,” the guy insisted, that deep voice winding into Brandon's ears
with persuasive power. He noticed that all three guys were staring at this new arrival, seeming to hang on his words. The flames in the guy's eyes grew brighter. They leaned closer to stare.

“No dragon,” the new guy said.

“No dragon,” the guys murmured in unison.

“No reason to go to Ka‘ena Point,” the new arrival said.

“No reason to go to Ka‘ena Point,” the guys agreed in a quiet chorus.

“Brandon was caught by a riptide,” the guy said, and Brandon's friends repeated the statement. They sounded like zombies. In fact, they looked like zombies, staring at this new guy with such intensity. It was like he was hypnotizing them or something.

Liz was looking determinedly across the street. The line of her shoulders was stiff, though, and she was drumming her fingers on her elbow.

“Matt got lucky,” the guy said, still speaking with deliberation. The guys repeated that, as well, heaving a collective sigh of relief. “Might as well have a beer,” this new dragon suggested, and Brandon's friends agreed with that. The guy gestured to the bar and said the magic words that would get them moving. “I'll buy the first round.”

Matt, Dylan, and Rick lunged into the bar like they hadn't had a beer in weeks. The dark-haired dragon nodded to the bartender, then turned back to Brandon.

“You're
Pyr
,” Brandon accused.

He didn't answer, just stepped closer with deliberation. “You're supposed to beguile anyone who sees you shift,” the guy said. His voice was soft, but there was power in it. He might not have been yelling, but Brandon knew he was getting shit.

“I don't know how to beguile,” Brandon insisted.

“That's stupid. We all know how to do it….”

“I don't want to know how to do it! Convincing people to believe things they don't want to believe is just wrong.”

“Spellcasting,” Liz said flatly. The guy flicked a look at her, and Brandon knew he saw the radiance in her eyes, too. He considered her for a moment, then looked back at Brandon.

“Not exactly,” he said. “More like hypnosis. It works best if the person already wants to believe your suggestion.”