Aria closed her eyes and tried to sense what he spoke of. Nikolai’s efforts to help Lucas had revived her, almost as though he’d infused her with crystal dust, but not quite the same. Still, if she concentrated, she could feel the life energies too. Only a handful of signatures, where she would have expected multitudes.
Something pinched her at the temple and she swatted away the inch-long insect. They were the most noticeable forms of life—and they came in clouds. Or swarms. Whatever the correct term, many kinds clustered around them as they moved through the forest. And they all seemed to want Dragon blood.
A few larger animals crashed away into the bush as they advanced. After a close encounter with something the size of her head that hissed and scampered away on multiple legs, Aria watched where she placed her hands.
She batted the bugs away from her face and grew her scales to cover as much as possible, but some still found bare spots. When she slid down a trunk, she noted that none of the winged tormentors hovered around Nikolai.
It exasperated her. With her scales at full coverage, she was sweating like mad, which only attracted more critters. “You wearing insect repellent?” she finally challenged.
He glanced back at her, and she swore his lips twitched. “Use your life essence to push them away,” he suggested.
What? She’d never done anything like that, but then, she’d always been a city gal. Emboldened by his obvious success, she tried it now.
“Nothing to see here, buggies,” Aria muttered as she visualized extending it outward.
The bugs continued to bite. Then a sudden surge from Nikolai swept over her, and they departed in a hurry.
“How the sharding hell do you do that?”
He shrugged broad shoulders. “I just can. Thought you might be able to as well.”
“Apparently not.” Which annoyed her more than she wished to admit. It translated to a glare that would have warned most to tread lightly.
Nikolai’s lips merely twitched upward as he turned to climb over another trunk. “Well, stay close, then. I’ll do it for you.”
The casual display of power renewed her interest in figuring out just who and what the big man really was. He hesitated before dropping off a horizontal limb that must have measured twelve feet around. She followed him, approaching two large leaves that folded together—and they bulged, as though they’d closed around something.
Then she saw the limb hanging out—fully furred, the toes tipped in claws. A Dire. Wrapped up in what? A predatory plant? She edged farther away.
“Did it kill the Dire?” When he frowned at her, she added, “The shapeshifter. You know, part human, part beast.”
Nikolai stared at her. “They can be human, too?”
“Yeah. Shapeshifter, like me. Only their beasty half is fuzzy rather than scaly.”
His eyes merely widened.
She planted her hands on her hips. “Talk about a sharding virgin.”
His brows drew down. “What? What does that have to do with anything?”
“You’ve never met a shapeshifter before me?”
The look he shot her was pure confusion. “Should I have?”
She regarded him with no small amount of awe. “Where have you been all your life?”
He turned away. “The Kalahari.” When she stared at him, he added. “It’s a desert.”
So he’d said. “That’s it? You never left the desert?”
“I did go to school. But they didn’t teach me anything about shapeshifters.” He glanced down to the exposed Dire limb. “They really can change to a human form?”
Aria examined the predatory plant, taking care to stay well away from the innocent appearing fronds lying on the ground. “Yeah. Dires can be either. Their choice. But they’re pretty fierce as an animal. Not sure any plant can take them on and win.” She peered closely at the leaves. “Not even a big one.”
Nikolai continued on, reaching for another branch to climb. “I think he was sick. Drained.”
Aria swallowed. Another casualty of what had happened in Demeti’s lair? She skittered past the plant. Dragons didn’t spend a lot of time rooting through undergrowth. She was starting to appreciate the merits of flying in an entirely new light.
