Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(43)

The orange misty magic crept back down my arm and into the hybrid druid’s hand then and he let go, looking at the king of steroids.

“She ain’t a dragon. I dun know what she is, but she ain’t skyborn.” He concluded.

I released the breath I had been holding, but Steven was still eyeing me with speculation.

“She a mutt?” Steven asked, and I tried to suppress a growl.

The smaller man shrugged. “She ain’t pureblood. Les go.”

Keegan was back at the doorway with Gear, both holding guns. Keegan looked to be masking his pain, but I could see sweat beading his brow.

“Have a nice day,” Keegan called out as the men retreated into their black sedan and peeled out of the driveway.

We all sighed then, taking a moment to just breathe.

“Keegan, are you alright?” Logan asked.

Danny stepped up to the porch and Keegan waved everyone off. “He broke my collarbone. It will heal.”

Danny put on hand on his hip and glared Keegan down. Finally, Keegan walked out from the doorway and I noticed he had a slight limp. “I wouldn’t say no to some of that healing magic.”

Danny made a humph noise. “Well, I am your employee now.”

Keegan growled lightly. “It’s not like that,” he whispered to Danny, but Danny just ignored him and rubbed his palms together, making some yellow misty magic rise up, before laying it on Keegan’s chest.

The moment Danny’s palms touched Keegan’s chest, his face relaxed and he sighed in relief.

“Won’t he need to see Eva? To take a scale for healing like Nadine?” I whispered to Logan. I had remembered Logan telling me in Nadine’s loft that she would die without a healing.

Keegan had excellent hearing, because he was the one who answered: “He didn’t hit me with magic intended to kill. It was more of a shock, a slap in the face for cocking my gun. I’m not wasting a scale on this, and neither of you can shift to get a scale with druids in town. I’ll be fine. A bit of pain won’t kill me.”

“It might knock some sense into you,” Danny muttered.

Keegan just grinned. “So you’re staying with me for the sex? Guess we better start having sex.”

Danny smacked his collarbone lightly and Keegan winced. “Please. You know I just said that to get that big homo hater’s panties in a bunch.”

I laughed at “homo hater.” I liked Danny; he was a breath of fresh air.

Logan shook his head in disbelief. “They had a hybrid.”

Danny chuckled and left Keegan on the porch, waving a hand at Logan. “That old thing. Oh, honey, he wouldn’t know a donkey from his own ass. He didn’t even notice that when I clapped loudly I set off a counter spell. He’s harmless.”

I grinned and I looked over at Keegan to see that he was staring at his ex-lover longingly.

“Thank you for that,” Logan told him, and Danny simply nodded.

“Do you think they know anything?” I asked the group. Sophie and Nadine must have gone into town, because they were nowhere in sight.

Dom was the one to speak: “The big guy wasn’t completely sold, but he didn’t want to start a fight on a hunch. They make me sick. Every single last druid needs to be hunted and burned.”

Logan and Keegan nodded their agreement, and I found myself shrinking back.

Dom’s declaration was like ice to my heart. I mean, I understood. Hell, I agreed. They were racist murdering assholes, but … I think I was one of them. What if I … turned dark and attacked Logan or something? At that thought, I realized we were still holding hands, so I pulled mine out of his grasp.

“I’m tired, I think I’m just going to shower and take a nap,” I told the group.

Keegan and Logan shared a look, and then Keegan nodded. “Of course. There’s pizza inside. Help yourself. Nadine and Sophie are shopping in town, but I want everyone back for dinner, because the two new packmates are coming to meet everyone. I think you’re going to like them.”

I nodded and started walking inside. As I passed, Danny’s arm snaked out and caught my wrist lightly, forcing me to turn and look at him. “It was really nice to meet you today, Sloane.”

My heart was beating like crazy because I was ninety-nine percent sure Danny knew my deep dark secret. But damn I had a good feeling about him, that he wouldn’t rat me out. “You too, Danny.”

He released my hand, and with one last look I walked inside, grabbing a slice of pizza on my way up the stairs. Those men were awful, the way they spoke about my friends as if they were less than them because of their magical lineage. It made me feel dirty. And to think I might be one of them … it made my skin crawl.

I didn’t really want to nap, I just needed to think, to wrap my head around everything that had happened the past few days. After closing the door to my room, I plopped on my bed, and at the same time Mittens shot out from underneath it and jumped on my lap. She coaxed a smile from me with her incessant purring as I rubbed the length of her back and got lost in my thoughts. The fingers of my free hand curled into a fist as I absent-mindedly rubbed my palm where the knife had singed it. Clearly, I wasn’t even dragon enough to touch the knife, wasn’t full of enough good. A horrifying thought came to me then—what if I touched a red druid’s knife? Would it not harm me? Would I be able to kill a dragon with it? Kill Logan with it? No—that thought was too much. I collapsed back into the pillows and raised both arms above my head to block out the stupid smiling unicorn that was looking down on me. Mittens was massaging my thigh as I started to feel the pull of sleep take me down.