Nikolai took a deep breath, and stepped through.
* * *
Lucas rubbed his fingers through his damp, spiky hair as he descended the stairs.
He found Aria in the kitchen with Betsy, who had ordered Greek. A plate of gyros sat on the table. Lucas’s mouth watered at the spicy aroma.
Aria picked at hers, her expression distant, as though she were only half-listening to Betsy’s continual chatter. The bed-and-breakfast owner loved nothing more than chatting. Lucas was quite sure that had a lot to do with her opening her house to strangers.
Lucas’s stomach growled loudly enough that both women looked up at him.
“Wow. Thought that was thunder,” Betsy commented with a smile. “Hope you like Greek.”
Lucas nabbed a gyro and took a huge bite. Both women watched with wide eyes as he wolfed it down in record time.
Betsy lifted the plate and offered him another. “Feeling a bit depleted, Lucas?” she asked.
He nodded while he chewed. Depleted was an understatement. His body screamed at him to eat.
The leisure wear had vanished, and Betsy now seemed dressed for success. An impression confirmed when she picked her purse up off the counter. “Got a date tonight,” she declared. “Put the leftovers in the fridge. If there are any.” She waved airily at them. “See you in the morning. If I’m not back for breakfast, there are bagels in the bread box.”
She breezed out the door.
Aria seemed focused on her gyro, although she’d barely nibbled at it. Lucas had a pretty good idea as to why. “He’s where he needs to be.”
Her gaze snapped to his and flared amber. “He doesn’t deserve to be locked up.”
“Deserve, no. But maybe, for now, it isn’t a bad idea.”
When she glowered at him, he sighed and relented. “He saved me. Three times now. I owe him, okay? But he can’t control what he does, and the collateral damage—he’s dangerous, like this.”
The stare softened ever so slightly. “I know,” she admitted. “But it still isn’t right. He requires training, not confinement.”
“He needs both until he has control,” Lucas amended.
She didn’t answer, but she set her gyro back down on the plate.
“Not eating won’t help him,” Lucas pointed out. “You haven’t eaten much over the last few days.” He took another bite himself.
“Yeah.” She lowered her eyes to her plate and poked at the wrap with a finger. Something moved from beneath her hair, and Mai scampered out, bouncing down her arm to land on the table. The shrew shook her fur into place and blinked bright-blue eyes at him.
“Are you hungry?” Aria asked. “I don’t have any bugs. Not going to hunt for any, either. Do you like Greek?” She pulled a chunk of meat out of her gyro and dangled it in front of the shrew.
The elongated snout twitched.
“I think it’s too big,” Lucas noted. “Her mouth is pretty tiny.”
Aria tore the meat up into crumb-sized pieces. Mai squeaked at her and nibbled at one. Her ears twitched. Then she began inhaling all the little bits.
Aria smiled at the shrew’s enthusiasm. Lucas hesitated in his own eating as he noted the dark circles around her eyes. Were her cheekbones more prominent, and skin a shade or two paler than normal?
He mentally kicked himself. Unlike Morphs, Dragon shifters required more than just food to survive. “When was your last crystal fix?” he asked.
She shrugged. “At Udo’s.”
“How long can you go without?”
Her eyes rose to his. “I don’t know. I usually have some every day.”
