Page 22 of Saving the Last Heir
“What you need to understand is that there is a world hidden inside yours. Humans occupy about ninety-nine percent of the physical world. You guys have spent centuries confirming what youwantto believe, and turning a blind eye to what youdon’twant to believe. Science, as humans wield it, can’t really explain or detect us. Sit down, this will take a minute,” he said, patting the sofa.
Heaving a sigh, I walked over and sat, though I made sure to put as much space between us as possible. “Go on,” I said, my curiosity outweighing my fear and confusion.
“There are beings in the world, beings like me, that can look like humans whenever they wish, but they are able to transform—we call it shifting—into animals or other creatures. That’s where we get our name. Shifters.”
“So there are a bunch of these dragon-people-things like you running around?”
“More than that. There are a lot of types. Wolf shifters, lion shifters, even pegasus shifters?—”
“Bullshit,” I scoffed. “Flying horse men? No way.”
There was only so much I was willing to believe. The more he said, the more confused I became. He said science couldn’t explain them, but why? Science could tell us what the temperature was on a distant planet, or that there were invisible spectrums of light all around us, we couldn’t see. Why couldn’t they see these things standing right in front of us?
He grinned and pointed at the door. “Did you, or did younotsee a dragon outside? Is a pegasus shifter too much to believe after that?”
I frowned. “Why can’t science explain you or find you?”
“You all have no real understanding of magic. You did thousands of years ago, but you’ve lost your connection to it. Humans have chosen the singular route of technology rather than pairing with the mystical as we have. Magic isn’t something that can be quantified by human science because it’s a complete and total secondary thing that stands apart. The two never intersect. Maybe in a few centuries, you all will come back around to rediscover it, but for now, you all look right past us.”
“But…” I shook my head, unsure what to say.
Jackson gave me a wry smile. “Shyanne, they have the phrase ‘seeing is believing’ for a reason. You’ve seen it,” he said, gesturing outside. “You’ve flown through the air with a dragon.”
My shoulders sagged. The weight of all this information threatened to crush me. “You’re serious? Shifters are real. And there are other kinds?”
“I am serious. There are other shifters that are region-specific. Japan has fox shifters. There are stories of sphinx shifters in Northern Africa, and so on. As for dragons like me?” Hisexpression turned so forlorn that my heart ached with it. “There aren’t many of us left.”
“What? Are you guys dying out or something?”
“Something like that. “It’s a long story, but a few decades ago, some of our kind thought they could gain an edge over the other breeds of dragon. Instead, they cursed us with a plague of sorts. We’ve been dying out ever since.”
“Otherbreedsof dragon? How many are there?”
“Three. Winged dragons like myself have always been considered the—for want of a better word—elite of the dragon world. The other two breeds are the drakes—flightless dragons that walk on four legs—and the wyrms, which are dragons, but look more like massive snakes.”
“Nope. Don’t likethat.” I shuddered as I imagined a forty-foot-long snake with the head of a dinosaur.
He grimaced. “I suppose you could say there arefourbreeds. Sea serpents are like wyrms, but water-based. In their human form, they live on land, so it’s kinda complicated.”
“Complicated?” I gaped at him. “Complicated?No shit. All this talk about nasty giant snakes, and all you can say is, ‘it’s kinda complicated’?”
“Easy there,” Jackson said. “My best friend is a wyrm. He was with me tonight when we stole that car. I texted him right before I knocked on your garage, so he could let my family know I was okay. He’s a good guy. Wyrms have, for the most part, always been friendly with the winged dragons. The drakes? Not so much. There’s been tension between the two factions for centuries. That’s partly why I stole the car. There are somedrakes who…well, they’ve taken something Ihaveto get back. They said if I didn’t steal it and give it to them in mint condition, someone I love very much would be hurt.”
While he spoke, I looked into his eyes, doing my best to see if there was even ahintof a lie, but there was nothing but truth in his gaze. Every word that spilled from him was real and from his heart. I’d always prided myself on knowing when people were full of shit. This guy wasn’t, which made everything that much more crazy.
“I’ve been forced into this situation.” Jackson shook his head, looking pained. “And that caused me to drag you into it. For that, I’m sorry. You can’t begin to know how sorry I am. I’ll pay for all the damage to your shop, and I’ll pay you what I said I would. I need that car fixed, and I don’t have much time. Can you forgive me for barging into your life and turning your world upside down?”
I nodded slowly. I understood doing everything you could to help someone you loved. I’d have done anything for my father—blood or not—and I did everything in my power to take care of my employees and the people in the neighborhood I cared for.
“How can I help?” The words leaped off my tongue before I realized I was going to say them.
Jackson blinked at me. “You don’t have to help me. I’ve put you through enough. If you could just tell me who might be willing, I’ll go to them. I’ll leave tonight. You can stay here, get some sleep, and call a taxi to take you home. My treat, of course, and?—”
“Jackson, stop. I want to help. I believe you. I…well, I like helping people, and if I can help you and whoever is in trouble, it would make me happy.”
He simply gazed back at me, a hesitant smile playing at his lips. The way he looked at me, those strange yet magnetic eyes drinking me in, sent a pleasurable shiver up my spine. I recalled what I’d thought the moment I opened the door for him at the garage. He really was a gorgeous man, and now that I knew more about him, his mystery and passion for his loved ones made him even more attractive. I shoved those random thoughts away and tried to focus on him.
“You surprise me, Shyanne Witmer,” he said at last. “I’ll take all the help I can get,” he added, and put his hand out to shake.
