Page 38 of Brock’s Mate

He bent down and pulled a stray piece of paper out of his box. When he straightened up, his eyes were glowy and slit-pupilled again. He took a deep breath, and… he blew a fucking flame out of his mouth, setting the paper on fire. He let it burn for a minute, and then as she watched, his hand freaking turned into a scaled, taloned forepaw. He tilted his head back and held the burning paper above his face. His nose and mouth elongated into a scaly snout, and he opened his mouth wide and drew in his breath.

The burning paper was sucked into his mouth, flame and all, and he swallowed.

And it was gone, leaving only a wisp of smoke. All his parts turned human again, and he looked pleased with himself. “Cool, huh?”

Desi sat down on the bed, her knees feeling suddenly weak. “Holy fuck. What kind of shifter are you?”

“Dragon,” he said, sounding surprised. “Couldn’t you tell?”

Desi swallowed. “Maybe I could have, if I’d known dragons existed. How many kinds of shifters are there?”

DB came over to the bed and sat down on the other end, bouncing a little. “All kinds. Lots of regular animals, mostly predators, plus some magical ones like me.”

“Wow.” She paused to let that sink in. “So what are teenage dragons into?”

He glanced down at his t-shirt. “Metal bands. Soccer. Twinkies.” He glanced sideways at her, mischief glinting in his eyes. “Porn.”

Desi burst out laughing. She was starting to like this kid. He was trouble, but in a good way. A survivor, with a sense of humor.

She said, “So where’s Brock, that he didn’t see you come in?”

“Oh. He’s downstairs talking to Nick.” He caught Desi’s frown—she’d thought Brock wasn’t going to tell anyone about her—and interpreted it correctly. “Nick’s okay,” he assured her. “He’s in our—in Brock’s crew. They’re worried because Brock took off and didn’t come back, and his phone is offline.”

Desi said, “I would have thought Brock could take care of himself.”

“Oh, yeah, he can kick ass with the best of them. But…” He ducked his head, and a slight flush stained his cheeks. “He’s had kind of a hard time lately, and it makes his wolf kinda wonky, so…” He broke off. “Anyway. This house used to be Nick’s, when he was alive. No one else in the crew knows about it, so we had to check it out ourselves.”

Wait, what? “When Nick was alive? What the hell is he, a vampire?”

DB laughed. “That would be funny as fuck.” In a fake deep voice with a Slavic accent, he said, ‘I am Drrracula. I vant to suck your blood.’” He shook his head. “Nah, he’s a ghost.”

“Excuse me?” Desi’s head was spinning. First werewolves, and now dragons and ghosts? What the fuck alternate reality had she fallen into?

Suddenly a strange voice came from downstairs. “DB! Where the hell are you?”

DB yelled back, “Upstairs.”

There was a muttered “Fuck” that Desi could barely hear, and then, “You’re not perving on that poor girl in the shower, are you?”

“Yes!” DB yelled back. He rolled his eyes at Desi. “Yeesh. They have no faith in me.”

Desi said, “You’re a thirteen-year-old boy. And then there’s the porn thing.”

He grinned.

“Come on,” Desi said. “Let’s go down. I want to meet this vampire ghost.”

DB bounded down the stairs, sounding more like a herd of rhinoceroses than a single dragon. Desi followed more slowly.

She heard Brock say, “I hope you didn’t scare Desi.”

DB said, “Nope. She had a knife.” She could hear Brock’s snort halfway up the stairs.

She called down, “Don’t give the kid a hard time. He was a perfect gentleman.” Then she got further down the stairs, and… whoa.

Nick really was a ghost. She could see through him and everything.

She got her legs moving again and walked the rest of the way down. Brock was giving DB a mock glare. “A gentleman? I’ll believe that when I see it.”