“You saved me,” she said, putting her unhurt arm around his neck as he bent down to see the kids. “You turned into a dragon and saved me. Thank you, Daddy-Raze.”
“Yes, I did and I’ll always protect you, Frannie,” Raze told her. “Because your mother and I are going to stay together forever now. Is that okay with you?”
“Yay!” Frannie and the twins erupted into shouts of joy. The twins danced around like crazy and Frannie said,
“We missed you!”
“I missed you too,” Raze told her gently. “I love you and your brothers and your mom and your Abuela and I want you all to be my family now. Would that be okay?”
Frannie nodded solemnly.
“Yes—that would be perfect,” she said. “Just perfect, Daddy Raze.”
“Good.” Raze smiled at her. “Well, the first thing I want to do is to heal your arm. Or at least, I want to let my Drake—my dragon—heal it. Do you think you can let him do that?”
“Dios!” Luci exclaimed, feeling slightly nervous. “Raze, do you think there’s room in here for him? And how can he heal Frannie?”
“I can take a smaller form than the one I displayed outside,” she heard the Drake answer before Raze could say anything. “And my breath is capable of making the healing warmth—if I breathe on them, I will be able to heal their injuries.”
“Even Lady?” Luci looked down at her dog with concern. Her mom had told her how brave Lady had been—rushing Tony and biting him to try and keep him from taking Frannie.
“I can heal all of my family,” the Drake sent with such certainty that she didn’t question anymore.
“All right,” she told him. “But let me prepare them first. My mom is going to be a lot more scared than Frannie was, I bet.”
“Scared of what, mija?” Her mom looked up from her place on the couch where she was clutching her obviously broken arm. Tony had gone after her with the bat too, that hijo de puta!
“Don’t worry, Lucia—he will never hurt any of you again. I made certain of that.”
There was a finality in the Drake’s mental tone that let Luci know her ex was never going to be bothering anyone ever again. For a moment she felt sorrow—not for the loss of Tony—who definitely wasn’t worth it—but for the loss of the years she had spent with him.
“But you got the twins and Frannie out of it,” Raze reminded her through their link. “Don’t mourn for the past, sweetheart—look towards the future.”
“You’re right,” Luci sent back. “I love you, Raze.”
“And I love you, but right now we need to get your mom and Frannie and Lady all healed up.”
“Scared of what?” Luci’s mom repeated and Luci realized she had never answered her question.
“Mira, Mami,” she said, going to sit by her mom on the couch. “You know Raze here is a Kindred, right?”
“Of course I know that.” her mom frowned. “Why would I be scared of him for that?”
“That’s not the scary part,” Luci told her. “Well, really, none of it is scary when you really understand it. See—”
“Daddy Raze can turn into a dragon,” Frannie piped up, speaking to her grandmother. “It’s true, Abuela—I saw it happen! He turns into a big green dragon and he can breathe fire and smoke and everything!”
“Only this time my Drake would like to use his healing warmth on you,” Raze explained. “If you would allow it, Abuelita.” He nodded respectfully at Luci’s mom who stared back at him disbelievingly.
“I don’t understand,” she said at last, looking at Luci. “What in the world is he talking about, mija?”
“Just watch,” Luci told her. “And please, Mami, don’t be afraid. Nothing is going to hurt you.”
She went to sit on the couch between her mom and Frannie and put an arm around both of them. Then she nodded at Raze.
“Okay—do it.”
“Do wha—?” her mom started to ask, but the words died on her lips as Raze began to change again.
This time the transformation was on a smaller scale, though no less dramatic for all of that. They all watched in awe as her new mate became a dragon. This time, though, he was the size of a large dog—a Great Dane maybe, Luci thought. The Drake was still plenty big in the tiny, tight confines of her living room, but he wasn’t nearly the size of a house, which he had been down in the alley when he dealt with Tony.
Luci wondered briefly exactly how he had dealt with her ex. She hoped he hadn’t eaten him. Not that Tony didn’t deserve to be eaten by a hungry dragon, but the thought of chunks of him digesting in the stomach of the man she loved was awful. Also, if he had left anything behind for the police to find, there might be awkward questions…