Braxton didn’t move, but his voice lowered and started to caress my senses. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Nothing will hurt you now. You need to shift back, find Jessa inside.”
I stepped closer, more sure on the clawed feet. Then his scent hit me; it was that of family, kin. He was me and I was him. We were not enemies, but friend. I opened my jaw and a loud, echoing roar emerged. In that moment I found myself again. If I didn’t have so much experience controlling my wolf, I think the dragon would have taken me over forever. But I could fight it and I did. My demon was a dragon. I was a dragon and a wolf somehow.
Dual shifter? I’d never heard of anything like that in my life. I knew the demon … dragon, would not go back into its cage. So now it was about learning how to live with her. Already the wolf had accepted the third part of me. Human, wolf, and dragon. It was not natural and I wasn’t sure how to control it. The only thing I had working for me was the fact that I’d been dealing with the wolf and demon energy my entire life. It was this strength I drew on, pulling the dragon energy back far enough to trigger the shift to my human form.
After my change I lay on the freezing floor, unable to lift my head. Shudders continued to flow over me. The dragon settled back inside, almost voluntarily moving into her cage. It was as if now that she’d been free once, she was more confident in her place within me, no longer fighting me but coexisting, like my wolf.
Warmth draped over me, and I was gathered into strong arms. “You’re safe, Jessa.” The deep voice wrapped around me as warm as the shirt he’d laid over me. I could scent Braxton all over the material, so it was probably his own shirt he’d removed. “We’re getting out of the prison.”
I wasn’t in pain any longer, but a deep seated exhaustion had taken hold and didn’t seem to be letting go. It was strange. The first time I’d shifted to wolf I’d been energized, but now I felt drained.
“What color was I?” My slurred question was unexpected. Of everything I could have asked, like where had he been, was he okay, or even how we were getting out of the prison, I’d asked about my color. But I was trying to picture the dragon in my head.
“Blue and silver,” he said. “Like an iridescent wash of rainbow but in those hues.” He hesitated. I felt his chest heave.
“What?” I mumbled.
“I’ve never seen this on a dragon before, and there’s no reference in the history books, but … well, you had fur.”
I squinted one eye, trying to figure out if I’d understood him correctly.
“Fur?”
He pulled me closer into his chest. “Yes, in most ways you look like me, only smaller and more delicate. But then, sort of in the same places as a horse mane, you had this strip of black hair or fur, and the rest of your body looked like it was … furry. It was almost as if some of your wolf had bled into the dragon.”
“How is this possible, Brax?” My shivers had subsided a little as we continued our journey through the prison. “Dual shifter.”
For the first time since he’d found me, some of the confidence fled his voice. “I don’t know, Jessa. But for now I think we should keep this discovery to ourselves.”
I nodded into his chest. That sounded like a good idea to me.
“Where were you and how are we getting out of the prison?”
I also wondered what had happened to Vlad. I really hoped I hadn’t eaten him, I’d be picking vamp from my teeth for weeks.
His chest rumbled. “Someone hit me with a dart when I was climbing out of shower. It didn’t last long in my system, but it was still enough time for them to disappear with you. When I woke there was a shifter in the room. She helped me get word to Jeremy, the head guard. Jeremy ferried my call for help to your father. Word came back almost immediately; we’re free to leave, Jonathon pushed for an early trial. We’re on our way there now.”
Clearly it was easier getting information out of the prison than in.
Braxton lowered his head; his fierce blue eyes met mine. “They know you’re most probably injured. It should … if Louis has done his job, be dismissed immediately.”
I hoped so. I needed this nightmare to be over so I could move on to the next problem. Dragon marked and dual shifting. I was one special cupcake. Special enough to be dead real fast.
“Vlad was not in the best state when you finished with him. You smashed him with your tail when you turned around.”
I totally did not remember that.
Braxton’s voice was hard when he spoke again. “I couldn’t find you, Jessa, I was going crazy, trying not to panic, but thinking I wasn’t going to make it in time. Then … it must have been when you called the dragon energy.” Reverence crept in. “I could feel you … like we were connected. There was almost this string that emerged from my chest and I followed it straight to you. I made my way into that room just as you started to shift. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”