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Zen’s powerful body slid through the air as he flew us away, and my hair tangled in the wind.
I was too exhausted to keep screaming and keep fighting, and at some point, I passed out, because when I became aware of my surroundings, I was dying of heat and surrounded by nothing but desert.
Zen’s dragon lowered me to the hot sand, and he let go of me. I scrambled to my feet, trying to keep my balance, but I fell to my knees again.
Zen shifted into human form and grabbed me by the arm. Now that we were far away from Wesley’s penthouse and his rule, Zen was a lot harder with me. He yanked me around and dragged me across the sand to a rock stack. When we got closer, I realized there was a dark opening.
We headed toward the opening, and Zen pulled us into a cave where the shade only offered a slight reprieve from the oppressive heat.
I collapsed on the rocky floor, gasping for air. I was out of breath, and my skin felt like it was on fire all over again. I was burning up. I was sure I had a fever, and if I had to have a thermometer in my mouth, the count would be dangerously high.
“What do you want?” I asked.
Zen ignored me, walking to a suitcase. He pulled on clothes, making himself more decent before he walked to a cooler box in the corner. He collapsed on a camping chair and sucked on the beer bottle before he let out a contented sigh. As if we were on holiday and he hadn’t just taken me.
“What do you want?!” I asked, more demanding this time. “What am I doing here? You know if Wesley finds out—”
“By the time he finds out, it will be too late,” Zen said with a shrug.
“Too late for what?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“To do anything about the storm that’s going to rain down on him.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about. My ears rang, and blood rushed faster and faster in my veins. I felt lightheaded. When I pressed my hand against my forehead, my skin was on fire. It was so hot, I nearly branded myself.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
I wanted him to keep talking, a distraction from the furnace I was currently in. Was it because of the desert weather? Was it because it was so inhumanly hot out here? Something told me that it wasn’t that, but I didn’t know what itwas. I just knew that something wasn’t the way it should be. At least, not the way it had been before, when I’d just been human. Now that I was apparentlynothuman, everything was spiraling out of the norm, and I had no idea what was going on.
Zen said nothing. He just sucked on his beer bottle.
My head hurt, throbbing painfully between my temples, and the world around me spun. I felt sick from the motion and pressed my hands flat onto the ground to try to keep my balance.
It didn’t work. My vision blurred and went black, and I passed out again. The last thing I thought before I passed out… was that I was so damn sick of passing out.
22
DANNA
When I came to again, it was dark outside. The light in the cave flickered like a flame, and when I lifted my head from where I still lay on the bare rock floor, I realized itwasflames that made the light seem so strange.
Zen had built a fire in the middle of the cave.
I sat up and moved so I could prop myself up against the rocky wall of the cave. I was a lot stronger than I’d thought I would be. Alotstronger. I wasn’t going to give that part away. The less Zen knew right now about what I was capable of, the better. I just had to wait until I could escape, and then I would get out of the cave. I wasn’t sure where I would go once I got away from Zen, but the plans had already started.
Zen didn’t seem to notice that I was awake. He sat on his haunches, elbows resting on his knees, and he stared into the flames.
“So, what’s the game plan?” I asked.
Zen snapped his head around and glared at me with bright yellow eyes. The twins usually had blue eyes, so the yellow dragon eyes in his human face were disconcerting.
“You’re awake,” he said and sniffed, straightening.
“Are you going to keep me in this cave forever?” I asked.
“Just for now,” Zen said. “This isn’t much of a home.”
“A home?” I asked.
