“You don’t want to stick around and say hi?” I stopped the Jeep on the shoulder.
Tall evergreens rose up to either side of the road and hemmed it in, until a hint of magic plucked at my senses, and the trunks leaned away from the pavement. In his native form, Zav landed in front of the Jeep, wings furled to his side, powerful muscles standing out under his sleek black scales. He lowered his head to peer through the windshield with violet eyes that weren’t quite reptilian but were distinctively alien to someone who wasn’t familiar with him.
The power emanating from him made the auras of the deceased rocs seem puny in comparison. The rain pounding down on the pavement all around him didn’t land on his scales, as if weather wouldn’t dare pester a dragon.
That is not necessary, Sindari replied. You have a tendency to engage in mating foreplay when he is in the conveyance with you, and I believe you forget that I’m back here.
“We’re not going to have mating foreplay while I’m driving.” I waved at Zav and grinned, happy to see him. It had been over a week, so I would have been happy regardless of my current predicament, but with his power, he might be able to flick a finger and remove the magical plague afflicting my sword.
You have done so before.
“Only once, and that was late at night in the long line for an extremely slow drive-thru restaurant. You could hardly count that as driving. And it’s not like we had sex. We just kissed.”
Admittedly with some vigor.
Being stuck back here while you did it was as unpleasant as that cardboard tree oozing noxious odors at me. As Sindari spoke, Zav shifted into his human form, a handsome olive-skinned man with short black hair and a short, neatly trimmed mustache and beard. Summon me again if you are preparing to enter a battle.
“I will. It would be a shame to miss your grumpiness.”
Hmmph. Sindari turned into silver mist, then disappeared back to his own realm.
Zav opened the door, the crackling power of his aura engulfing me and making my nerves tingle, as it always did when we were close.
“What happened to your sword?” were his first words.
Usually, we greeted each other with a kiss—whether there were witnesses or not—so his focus on the sword attested to the gravity of the situation.
“I used it to destroy an artifact that was poisoning wildlife, and now it’s pulsing with magic.” I moved my pistol and sword harness out of the front seat to make room for him but left Chopper within reach in case he wanted to examine it.
“I felt the pulses of magical energy as soon as I arrived in your world.” Zav sat down and picked up the sword.
“I’m hoping you arrived only a couple of miles from here and not a hundred miles away.”
“I opened a portal over your domicile.”
Oh, good. Only eighty miles.
“That’s problematic. A couple of rocs already attacked me, presumably because they sensed its call and wanted it for themselves.”
“That is likely. This is a desirable weapon, and now it is radiating its brilliance for all with magical ability to sense.” He turned his gaze toward mine and rested a hand on my shoulder. “I am concerned you will be in danger.”
“I have that concern too. Any chance you can make it stop?”
He started to turn his attention back to the sword, but he ended up focusing on the glove compartment. No, on the air freshener.
“What is that odor?”
“My air freshener. You don’t like the scent either? Sindari isn’t a fan.”
“I do not. What is its purpose?”
“I’ve been taking Mom and Rocket on weekend hikes. He likes to fling himself in lakes. On the drive back, his wet-dogness permeates the Jeep and stays in the seats. My air freshener overrides that smell.”
Zav squinted at me, as if he thought I was teasing him. “This odor is more unpleasant than the scent of a wet animal.”
“That’s debatable.”
With a poof of flame, the air freshener went up in smoke. Tiny blackberry-clove scented ashes trickled to the floor.
“It is not.” Zav returned his attention to the sword.
“Sindari may kiss you the next time he sees you.”
“That is unacceptable. Only my mate may kiss me.” Zav looked at me again, his lashes lowered and his gaze sultrier this time.
Before I could decide to lean in for that kiss, his attention returned to the sword.
“This is problematic. There is an overlay of magic atop the dwarven magic imbued in the blade. It may affect the sword’s powers.”
I hadn’t wanted to hear that.
“I believe it is fae magic.”
“Sindari found a fairy ring near the cranberry bog where someone had planted the artifact.” Maybe I’d been wrong and the mushrooms had marked a doorway to another realm. The fae realm.
“It is more than an overlay.” Zav rotated the sword, gazing at its length with his senses, not merely his eyes. “The strands of old and new magic are entwined. Interesting.”
“Can you unentwine it?”
“Unentwine is not in your dictionary. Unentangle is the correct word.”
“I know. I was using wordplay for humorous effect.”
He didn’t appear humored. He appeared… concerned. That worried me. Since dragons were so powerful, few things concerned them.
“Can the magic be unentangled?” I asked.
He studied the sword for a few more seconds, then noticed the bandage on my hand. “You are injured?”
“I cut myself on the artifact.”
“You will let me heal it.” He rested his hand lightly on mine.
I thought about pointing out that he needn’t make things orders, but how could I object to being healed? “Gladly. Thanks.”
The usual warm tingle of his healing magic flowed through me, but he frowned as he focused on my hand. “This is not a typical wound.”
“I know.”
He peeled back the bandage to reveal the gash as bad as it had been when I’d dressed it. “Something is driving away your white blood cells and not permitting them to repair the tissue. It is also forming a barrier against my own regenerative power. I don’t sense fae magic tainting your blood, but there is something…” He kept scrutinizing my hand, making me feel like a science experiment in a Petri dish.
“I’m not going to turn into a zombie, am I?” I smiled, though fresh worry blossomed in my chest.
If Zav, the powerful dragon who could heal almost anything, couldn’t fix it, who could? He had incinerated bullets lodged in my hip before, healed the damage within seconds, and left me without even a scar.
For some reason, I thought of the deer keeling over dead after a mere drink from the bog. What would happen if I couldn’t figure out a way to heal this? Would it get worse and spread to the rest of my body?
“I may need to consult Zondia’qareshi, but I will come up with a way to heal it.”
“Zondia? Your sister who hates me?”
“She is training to become a healer and has a great deal of aptitude and power despite her young age.”
I thought of the lilac-scaled dragon in her human form, complete with black leather jacket and nose piercings, as she rolled her eyes at me. It was hard to imagine her handing me a Band-Aid, much less deigning to heal me.