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His fingers dragged through his hair again as he turned to face me. "Fine, let's go now. I have to be done before nightfall."
"For our little killer?"
"She is not our anything. You need to stay away from her." The puff of smoke was accompanied by fire this time, and I laughed. If he thought a little fire would scare me, he was mistaken. My home bordered a flaming forest full of tortured souls.
"I do not have time for childish games. She is more than enough woman for the both of us." Finding my feet, I brushed past him, calling Cerberus as I went. I didn't look back, expecting both of them to follow me. His footsteps trailed me down the street and toward the dense tree-line close to there. "You know, if you just shifted, we would be there in a mere three minutes by air."
"It is the middle of the day." His tone said that he thought I was stupid. "I'm not taking on my dragon in the mortal world in broad daylight."
"The long way it is," I replied with a shrug.
“Can’t we portal?” he asked.
“Not if we want to catch them by surprise.” I shot a look at him before continuing on.
At least if the demons had returned to the clearing, I'd have the dragon with me. He might be a murderer in his own right, his whole family was dead after all, but at the moment, we were on the same side. We walked in silence, the only sounds around us were the crackling of the leaves beneath our heavy feet and the small forest animals scurrying away from Cerberus as he sniffed the ground to catch their scent. A few times, he bounded into the trees after the prey. He'd come back, he always did. We followed the trail until the fork that branched off in two directions, and choosing the one that led away from campus, we headed down that one.
"Did you kill your entire family like they say?" I glanced over at him. His jaw clenched, and the tendon along his neck popped out.
"No," he said between clenched teeth.
Interesting. The stories say that he went mad and killed them while they slept in their beds. His mother, father, and two sisters were all found in pools of their own blood. He had been missing. Probably running for his life and ended up in the mortal world. Choosing to drop the conversation until later, I focused back on the surrounding woods. The portal was nearby, I could feel the power. Cerberus sniffed the air and sprinted off to the left. This time I followed him.
"The portal is this way," I said.
We didn't have to walk long before the small clearing appeared through the trees. It was empty. The demons we scared away earlier hadn't returned. The shimmering surface of the portal swirled with views of the mountains the dragon-kin called home in Tartus. His breath caught in his chest, and he came to a complete stop. We could see dragons that looked to be the size of birds flying around the snowy visages in the distance. Painted across his face was a longing for a place he hadn't been in years.
"You could go back, close it from the other side," I suggested.
He shook himself out of whatever feelings that had gripped him and faced me. "How do I close it?"
My fingers curled around the small blade I strapped beneath my jacket. Pulling it out, I opened my palm face up for him to take it from me. "I imagine you will need to spread blood along the edges."
"You imagine? You don't know how to close it?"
"Do you think I deal with portals?" I asked dryly.
"More than I have," he shot back. He held the knife over his palm, ready to slice it open.
"What are you doing?" I stopped him a moment before he cut his skin.
"You said blood will close it, my blood." He gave me a drool stare as I snagged the blade from his grip.
"Not like that. Do you know how many tendons are in your hand? I can't heal you. Do you want to use it again in your life?"
"What do you know of the dragons?" He plucked the dagger back, slicing his palm open in one smooth slice. A hiss fell from his lips as blood pooled in his hand. Then he lifted it and smeared the lifeblood along the sides of the portal. When he pulled his hand away, the blood was only a light streak on his skin, the wound completely closed beneath it.
"You can heal yourself?" Obviously, the stupid question slipped free before I could stop it.
He snorted as he watched the swirling of the portal. It seemed to crackle and try to close before it snapped back open. Damn. It didn't work.
"What is supposed to happen?" He nudged his chin toward the calm surface.
"Not that." My hand flexed into a fist, and my shoulders wilted like a dying flower. "Come on, we have to go. We'll figure something else out."
CHAPTER 21
Samantha
