Dirty Lying Dragons

5. An Agreement of Sorts

free chapter 5/7

Dani

I ate most of my breakfast, whatever it was. It tasted like some kind of wild game and had no seasoning to it but the little bit of salt I found in a cabinet. I stared Ryker down the whole time, but he seemed almost amused by my scrutiny which just pissed me off more.

"Are you not going to finish that?" he asked, pointing to my plate.

"All yours." I scooted it across the table, and finished off my glass of cold water.

Ryker happily grabbed the last third of my breakfast and ate it in two bites.

"Well, I made you breakfast. Are you going to tell me what you are?" I asked.

"Hmm." He scratched his rough chin, staring off at the ceiling in thought. "Nope."

"What?" I stood suddenly, my chair scraping behind me against the wood floors. "You said you'd tell me."

"I said I might tell you. I've decided against it. There is a difference, little witch." He smirked and stood up, turning his back to me and walking across the room.

"Are you serious right now?" I followed, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

"Yup."

Ryker stopped in front of a closet next to the bathroom. He opened it with a creaking sound that irritated the senses like nails on a chalkboard. Then he crouched over something in the bottom of the dark space.

"Here we go," he said, pulling a crate into the light.

He rummaged through a few layers of fabric, all different colors until he pulled something out of the pile. "Try this on."

He threw a big green sweater at me. It looked warm but smelled of moth balls. "Clothes?"

"You don't have anything warm enough to wear, right? I wear this stuff when I'm blending in with the humans."

I rolled my eyes. He probably blended in with humans like I blended in with an all-boys church choir.

He looked at me over his shoulder, still sifting through the crate. "You can strike human off your list too, by the way."

"Oh, thank you so much. That was going to be my next guess." I sighed and pulled the sweater over my head. It was thick and definitely took the cold bite out of the air around me. I eyed him in his bare feet and jeans.

"Why don't you wear shirts?" I asked.

"Hate 'em. Too restricting." He pulled another sweater from the crate and tossed it onto the couch.

"But jeans aren't?" I asked.

"Guess not. They keep annoying plants off my legs when I'm out walking at least." He stood tossing two more sweaters on the couch. "There, that's all I have for cold weather. That should help until we get to Moscow."

"We?" I asked. "I thought you were passing me off to your traveling friend."

"I'm coming too," he said. "Got some business to take care of that got dropped on me recently."

"And we're not leaving until..."

"Tomorrow probably."

"Probably?" I felt panic rise in my throat. "Why probably? I need to get back!"

"Well, he passed through yesterday. He usually comes by on his way back. So, he'll be here tomorrow. Probably," Ryker said.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.