Page 26 of Cash

11

Cash

“I oughtto tell you something before I try this.” I looked up, all around, judging the height of the ceiling and width of the room. If the antidote worked on the first try—which I doubted, but stranger things had happened—I didn’t want my head shooting up through the tiles and into the ductwork.

Carissa checked the shackles, tested the locks. “What’s that?” she asked, distracted. Only partly listening.

“We’ve never talked about what I shift into when the change comes over me.”

That stopped her. She froze, small hands around my much larger wrists. I didn’t mind the contact.

“That’s right. We haven’t.”

“Would you like to know, so you aren’t terribly surprised if it should happen in front of you?” And bless her, she thought it over. That analytical mind.

“I had assumed you were a wolf, or tiger. Or a bear, even.” Her eyes searched my face for a hint of the truth. “Is that it?”

“No.”

“None of those things?”

“None of those things.”

She chewed the inside of her mouth, thinking it over. “A lion.”

“No.”

“A giraffe.”

I threw my head back as my laughter filled the large space. “What makes you think of that?”

“I noticed the way you’ve been looking around, like you were judging the ceiling’s height.”

“Fair enough. But no. And not an elephant,” I added when she opened her mouth.

It snapped shut again.

“I’m out of ideas, then.”

“Perhaps it’s for the best.” I didn’t want to frighten her. No one knew of us, saving Mary and the girls back at the cave—not just of us, my family, but of dragons on the whole. We were thought to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Some doubted we’d ever existed at all.

We hadn’t died out. We’d only gone into hiding.

“You’re not going to tell me?” she asked, and I could’ve sworn I saw the hint of a pout.

Was she flirting? No, it couldn’t be. Whatever unspoken thing had come between us still sat there, as unyielding as ever. But a ghost of a smile danced around the corners of her mouth.

“It’ll be better as a surprise,” I decided with a lighthearted wink.

Better to keep things light, when the reality was much darker. I still wasn’t sure whether or not I trusted her. If she weren’t always giving me furtive looks from the corner of her eye. If she didn’t look away the moment our eyes met. If she’d answer questions with more than one or two words.

If she didn’t look as though she were about to shatter like a piece of fine crystal at the slightest touch.

What was it about her that nagged me so? It wasn’t as though she’d threatened me or given me a reason to doubt her sincerity. She was never anything but courteous, saving that one dust-up we had when I made the mistake of asking if she felt well.

I had kept my questions to myself after that, which was against my nature. If any member of my family had acted so unpredictably, I’d have given them hell for it and wouldn’t stop nagging until I got an answer which satisfied me.

So what was it about her that tied my tongue? I wondered as I watched her inject a syringe filled with what she said was an antidote. She could kill me at any moment, or render serious harm. The thought did little more than flit around the corners of my mind before it was gone. I couldn’t believe she was capable of such a thing. I wouldn’t believe it.

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