Page 25 of Klaus

“I haven’t wanted to,” she whispered, tearing up. “What else could I do?”

“I don’t know that I would’ve behaved any differently.” I leaned against one of the stones, smooth and warm from a day in the sun, and she did the same. We were side by side, staring out at the slowly setting sun through a gap between two of the stones opposite us. It seemed we always met outside while the sun was beginning its descent.

“None of them know?” I asked, glancing at her from the corner of my eye.

She slid to the ground, pulling her knees to her chest before shaking her head. “Not that I’m aware of. I doubt any of them could keep it a secret for this long if they did.” She chuckled without humor, looking up at me from beneath thick lashes. “I know them, remember.”

“Of course.” I sat down, too, making sure to maintain the space between us. “What about at the resort? That day. When the men invaded the place. You were there; I saw you come in with the others.”

She nodded with a sigh. “I slipped away while the others were shifting—yourself included, I suppose.”

I thought back as hard as I could, going back to that day at the resort. I could still smell the blood of those men, men I enjoyed tearing to pieces. I enjoyed hearing their screams of horror, surprise, pain. It wasn’t often I got to participate in meting out punishment, not at that level, and these men had certainly deserved it.

“The storm raged outside,” I recalled. “It all happened rather fast. Much of it is mixed up in my head. I admit, I wasn’t so much looking for you as I was looking to rid us of a few murderous thugs.”

She nodded, a rueful smile spreading across her lips. “Which was why I had an easier time getting away, hiding myself, than I would have otherwise. Once the shifting began and the gangsters looked as though they were about to soil themselves, no one was paying attention to me.”

She looked down at her hands, suddenly very interested in the way her fingers laced together. Embarrassed, her cheeks turning roughly the color of a sunset.

“And you’re certain no one else knows about this?” I murmured, careful to keep my voice soft.

“Not that I’m aware of.” She turned her head a bit, almost looking at me but not quite. As though she didn’t want to meet my eyes. “Then again, as far as they know, I was never treated with any serum. Perhaps one of the others is keeping a secret from the rest of us, just as I am. Can you think of anyone who hasn’t shifted recently? Anyone who seems to be making a point of keeping to themselves?”

“Why would I know better than you would?”

“Because I’ve taken pains to avoid everyone else. You’ve noticed. Don’t pretend as though you haven’t.”

It was my turn to be embarrassed by her frankness. “I knew you were keeping to yourself, yes.”

She smiled softly, turning her face to the setting sun once again. “I don’t know whether I want one of them to be like me, or if I’m praying I’m the only one who was changed. I certainly wouldn’t wish this on any of the others, or anyone else.”

“Perhaps it’s something that only lasts but so long,” I reasoned. “Sort of like the injections Miles and Gate gave you all, to make you immune to iron. It doesn’t last forever, a month, at most, if I remember correctly.”

“Yes, that’s what they told us,” she agreed. “They’re currently trying to find a way to extend the potency.”

“Well? Who’s to say the same isn’t true of what those so-called doctors gave you?”

“Who’s to say it’s not?” Her voice sounded strange, as though her throat was clogged with tears. “I had no way of knowing. They told me nothing of what to expect, nothing even of what they were injecting into my body. Can you understand how that might affect a person?”

She was on her feet before I had the chance to respond, fists clenched at her sides and something close to a growl coming from her lips. “Do you know what it means to have something put in your body without your control? Without your consent? To feel half of you… simply go away?”

“That part of you isn’t gone.”

“It sure as hell feels gone to me.”

“I see it right now.”

She stopped, mouth falling slightly open. I could tell my observation rocked her quite a bit.

“I do,” I continued, nodding in spite of her obvious confusion. “I see it in you, the dragon. I hear it in your voice. You pulled away from me earlier, wrenched yourself free, perhaps because you weren’t thinking about it before you acted, you had no time to second-guess yourself. You are no weak, shy, retiring thing, Ainsley. You still have that fire the rest of them have. It hasn’t left you.”

She pressed her hands to her chest, one on top of the other. “But I don’t feel it. I don’t hear my dragon anymore; it’s like I’ve lost myself. It’s all quiet in my head now. For a thousand years, I don’t think I ever heard such quiet.”

I knew of what she described, as I’d been listening to my lion all my life. Even when I was too young to understand what was going on in my head, I heard him.

I’d thought I was crazy. That I had a secret which set me apart. That they might lock me away somewhere if they ever found out about the voice which seemed to be constantly striving to control my actions.

“I’m certain it’s still in there. Somewhere. Think about it.” I got to my feet, taking her by the arms, holding her still and steady in front of me and perhaps trying to comfort her at the same time. “They couldn’t possibly take your dragon from you with mere injections. The dragon has been inside you for over a thousand years, it’s who you are. Perhaps what they gave you was only a means to forget that, to lose the connection. To silence the other side of yourself.”

---