Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled) Read Free

when they would arrive.
But now that our guests are here, including your cousin, by the way, I’ll go
see to their accommodations while you both walk back to the lodge. Consider
that the end of your training for the day. But I would hurry. Your playmate
looks cold and…he is only human.”
    Kyle made a sound of distress that almost distracted
Sheridan from her own panic at Raj’s announcement. Meru was here?
    “Dude, I’m sorry. I really am. Sheridan, tell him I’m sorry.
Obviously the lack of oxygen is already messing with my brain. You aren’t
really going to make us walk in this, are you? Can’t you just,” Kyle made a
waving motion with his gloved hands, “you know… flash us there?”
    Raj grinned with wicked satisfaction. “Oh I rarely travel
that way here. Why flash when you can fly?”
    Sheridan couldn’t help but smile as she watched the
gold-and-red mist form around him. She forced Kyle to take more than a few
steps back. This was a transformation she’d seen before and she knew what to
expect.
    Sparkling scales reminiscent of diamond-shaped lotus petals appeared
on his skin, his body not expanding so much as disappearing into the large
impossible creature that was forming around him. Within a few heartbeats, his
beautiful features had been replaced by a red-and-gold snout and a mouth full
of pearl-like teeth. Sharp and gleaming.
    Raj was a fiercely stunning shifter. Not cursed, but born as
a dragon. An honest-to-goodness fire-breathing dragon.
    Evil. They are all evil. Just like—
    No. Raj wasn’t evil. Despite her recent lapse, she could
never truly believe that. As she watched him take off, his great wingspan
nearly blotting out the sun and sending a blast of heated air their way from
his body’s warmth, she knew she was right. As a man or as a dragon, he would
never hurt her.
    He’d treated her with respect since she arrived. With
compassion. He’d never asked her about what happened or why she wasn’t
contacting her family. He gave her space. Shifts and fireballs notwithstanding,
he often seemed the most human of them all.
    Kyle’s muttering brought her attention back down to earth. “I
have got to learn when to keep my mouth shut around these guys. You
never know what you’ll be in for.”
    Sheridan felt the loss of Raj’s body heat and yanked up the
collar of her jacket. “Tell your story walking, my friend. The lodge isn’t too
far away, but it’s far enough.” She strode to her dropped staff and leaned down
to pick it up before laying it over her left shoulder. When Kyle was finally
beside her, she looped her other arm through his. “To Oz, Toto.”
    “Son of a bitch.” He trudged through the snow beside her,
surprising her with the depth of his steps. She hadn’t realized the snow was so
thick. Why hadn’t she noticed? Each step Kyle took sank him up to his calves. Slowed
him down.
    Her poor partner was completely out of his element. A Texas
cop in the Himalayas. A man who got so chilly in an air-conditioned movie
theater he had to bring a sweater. Why hadn’t Finn flashed him to the lodge?
    She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t help it. She
laughed. Not at Kyle, but at the normalcy of it. Of him. The sheer relief of
his humanity—warts and all. Laughing. When was the last time she’d done that
and meant it?
    October. The Texas Renaissance Faire. Before the Horde came.
    “Sure, yuck it up, Sher.” Kyle was smiling as he grumbled. “You’ve
been up here enjoying your Rocky montage while I’ve been stuck in the
real world. I didn’t sign up for a hike to Shangri-fucking-La.”
    “Shambhala.” Sheridan smirked as she corrected him, tugging
him along. “Good thing too, since we’re not going there. Apparently no one is allowed in that place, even if you know the royal family.”
    She wasn’t kidding. Everyone, human or Other, was shut out
of Raj’s sacred city. He hadn’t told her why. Perhaps it was to protect them
from what he faced in the outside world.