Page 50 of Red Dragon’s Heart

Unless… could he possibly be affecting energy on the quantum level? Damn. Even with a physicist to assist her, the magic alone would probably be a lifetime’s study, let alone how it interacted with chemistry.

And she couldn’t let herself be distracted—she had to concentrate on trying to understand the particular magic that had been used in the serum. That meant figuring out what the chemicals were doing and what effect they had. Whatever was left, that’s what the magic was doing.

Then they’d have to figure out if Zak was capable of replicating the magic, or if it needed a more experienced sorcerer. That could complicate things—it might mean bringing in the Shifter Council, and there was a chance they’d want to arrest Maddie before she finished her work.

Neither of them wanted that to happen.

Zak himself was encouraging Maddie to focus on the healing angle, trying to help Troy. His unselfishness warmed her heart, but the idea terrified her. He was on borrowed time just as much as Troy was. She’d managed to worm out of him that he never went more than a few weeks without a monster attack—sometimes less.

She didn’t know if she could stand seeing him the way he’d been their first night. And what if the monster finally wore him down and took him over entirely, while she was busy trying to save her brother?

To complicate things, she was falling for him harder and harder. He was letting down his guard, bit by bit, and as she’d suspected, under his snarky, obnoxious exterior he had a sweet, caring side that was impossible to resist.

It showed in a million ways—a large number of which involved spending King Emon’s money.

Every day, deliveries arrived at the warehouse. A bigger bed. A bigger couch, with power reclining seats, where they could snuggle together watching streaming TV whenever Zak dragged her out of the lab and made her relax.

At least, they relaxed until their mind-bending lust got the better of them and they ended up having incredibly hot, tender sex on the recliner couch. Or the floor, on the thick, well-padded rug Zak had also bought.

He bought a massage table, too, for when Maddie was stiff from bending over her work for hours without a break. Although the massages also ended up with them in bed. Or on the floor. Or on the couch.

And, most adorable, he bought an obscene number of cat toys. It got to the point where they could barely walk across the lair without stepping on squishy toys and floppy toys and toys that squeaked.

After two weeks, though, Maddie had to declare a moratorium on catnip toys.

“You have to stop getting them high,” she said severely to Zak, catching Grayson as he wandered off the top level of the cat tree in a catnip-induced stupor and plunged toward the hard floor, six feet below.

Diana had forgotten how to drink milk, and just lowered her head into the bowl up to her eyes and stared at them. “They’re probably getting brain damage.”

Zak picked Diana up, wiped off her muzzle and put her on his shoulder. She promptly fell off, and he had to catch her.

“It’s not my fault!” he protested. “I put all the catnip toys away on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard!”

“After they got addicted.”

He glared at her. “Diana must have gotten up on top of the fridge somehow, jumped to the top of the cupboard and opened the damn door from above. Then she must have crawled onto the shelf and shoved all the toys out onto the floor.”

He was probably right—there were catnip toys littering the countertop and the floor in the kitchen, and Grayson wasn’t adventurous enough to have done all that.

Zak held Diana up in front of his face, cupped in the palm of his hand, her little paws in the air. “You are a junkie,” he informed her. “This is an intervention. It’s cold turkey for you, my fluffy friend.”

Diana noticed her tail, decided it was an enemy, captured it between her front paws, and bit it. Her startled squawk made Zak crack up.

Maddie watched his face, thinking about the contrast between this Zak, his face lit up with laughter, and the grumpy, guarded version she’d met in the coffee shop. He had a big, squishy heart that needed people—and animals—to fill it. He’d never gotten the love he craved, not even when he was with his clan. It made him open like a sunflower.

Impulsively, she went over, pulled his head down and kissed him.

“What was that for?” he asked, looking confused. “I thought you were pissed about the catnip.”

She couldn’t explain, so she just shrugged. “I need a reason to kiss you?”

“I guess not.” But his gaze kept following her as they cleared up the catnip toys and took them out to the dumpster.

Zak loved having Maddie in the lair. And the more he loved it, the more he worried.

Happiness didn’t last. He knew that better than anyone. And since he’d never been this happy, that meant that whatever was coming had to be a total disaster.

He did his best to keep it from happening.