Page 23 of Dragon Tempted

Tessa reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a square piece of paper. She unfolded it and held it out to him. He took it and looked at the crayon drawing. It was of a cabin with flames shooting out of the windows and roof.

“She gave me that minutes after Sienna called Adam and let him know that you’d been hurt and she was coming back to the house. And before you ask, Lily didn’t hear the conversation, and even if she had, Sienna didn’t mention the explosion over the phone.”

He swallowed and looked up at Tessa and then over at Megan, who had scooped up Bella into her arms.

“What about…?” He tilted his head toward Bella.

Megan sighed. “She knows when Lily is coming, but other than that, she hasn’t said or done anything that leads us to believe her powers are developing.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. What to say to anything, really.

Megan kissed her daughter’s curls as she headed toward the door. “We’ll leave you to rest. This is a lot for someone who likes to be alone.”

Tessa stood and picked up the tray and followed her. “Yeah, get some rest, Unka Gumpy.”

He shook his head as they closed the door. He could hear Tessa laughing all the way down the hall. What amazing children. He hadn’t interacted with kids in, well, he couldn’t remember how long.

Those beautiful little girls and their mothers deserved a life free of fear. He needed to find a way to end the curse for all their sakes.

Chapter 9

Sienna pulled in a deep breath before knocking on the bedroom door. It only took a few moments before it opened and John stared back at her. He’d cleaned up except for the serious scruff that was taking shape on his face. It would soon be a beard if he left it alone. It was giving him serious lumberjack vibes. Thankfully he was starting to get color back in his face, which meant he was feeling better. Which also meant she was running out of time.

“Glad to see you’re up.”

His brows lifted. “I would think you would rather have me in bed.”

“What…” Sienna’s outer voice came to a stutter stop. Even though her inner voice had no issue with voicing, Yes, please, before she shut it down.

He frowned. “Because you don’t want me to leave, I mean.”

Did his ears just turn red? “Not at the expense of your health. Besides, you already said you’re leaving tomorrow, right? So I was wondering if you felt up to sitting in on a meeting.”

“What kind of meeting?” he asked, his eyes taking on the look of a cornered animal.

“Nothing surprising. Before you leave, we want to talk through everything you know about the curse so we can keep working to break it and protect Bella and Lily.”

“Who would be in this meeting?” he countered.

“Me, Adam, Eric, Tessa, and Megan. I would have Marcus there too, and Ryan, who helps me run the clan.”

His frown changed to a scowl the more people she named.

“I know you aren’t a people person.” (Un-der-state-ment, her inner voice announced.) “But I would like all hands on deck so that we can talk through our next steps once you leave.”

He stared for a drawn-out moment. “Fine.”

Except his tone was anything but fine, and she chose to ignore it. “Great. I thought you might be more comfortable if we met here. Is that all right?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s big enough,” he grumbled.

She chuckled. “It is. Father felt that bigger was always better and built the house to show that.”

He watched her. “You don’t like it?”

She thought for a second before answering. “I like that my family is here, but I don’t need all of this to be happy.”

“Did it make your father happy?”