becoming puzzled, and Rhys strode ahead, keeping his secret to himself.
“I never thought I’d see the day that you came into a city for anything,” Nyssa said. “Never mind leaving North Rona in the fall. Don’t you have seal pups to count?”
Lila felt her fellow-selkie studying her and didn’t meet her gaze. She was too busy trying to hide the faint golden glow that had brightened around her fingertips since landing at JFK. The heat of the firestorm had definitely increased since she had reached the U.S., which made it harder to concentrate on her mission.
She was burning up and only one thing would satisfy her.
She hoped the brighter light meant her dragon shifter was close, because she’d found it impossible to think about anything other than sex since they’d met. She’d been skeptical of his claims about the firestorm, but this constant glow fed her desire and kept her awake at night. She wasn’t exactly chaste, but she’d never thought so obsessively about sex before. She’d relived that kiss a thousand times, if not more, and literally burned for his touch. The firestorm clearly didn’t take no for an answer.
Why hadn’t he come to her? He could have followed the spark as easily as Lila had. It was the mark of his kind in finding their destined mate, after all. Wasn’t the feeling mutual? Didn’t he find her attractive? He was mortal, after all, and mortals usually felt an urgency to ensure that their lineage survived.
But she hadn’t seen him since she’d fled into the depths, hoping to escape Maeve. Had the Dark Queen captured him after all? As soon as Lila thought of that, she’d decided to seek him out immediately.
She’d ensure that he was okay, seduce him, then go back to her work.
Nyssa had told her ages ago that she’d moved to Manhattan because there were many Others in the city. It had seemed like a good place to start to hunt her dragon, and Lila was relieved that the glow of the firestorm had brightened in the airport.
She must have made a good guess.
Lila could see him in her memory, his dark hair and dark eyes, his muscled build. His aura had been brilliant, all fiery red and yellow, an indication of his vitality and his confidence. There had been a shadow upon it, not the kind that indicated a physical wound but one that hinted he grieved a loss. Even though she could seldom heal that kind of injury, Lila found those shadows appealing. They meant that he had a heart.
He was beautiful in his dragon form—majestic, even—and obviously powerful, with scales as red as garnets, seemingly bordered in silver. He’d glittered and shone, like a jeweled treasure as he flew through the sky. Yet he was powerful, too, and clearly a warrior. When his bright gaze met hers, Lila had felt warm right to her toes.
And that kiss had been the stuff of fantasies. She was looking forward to another one, and a whole lot more. One night should be enough—a very active night—then she could get back to work.
It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, a sunny day that had warmed the air a bit. It was still chilly and Lila was glad of her down-filled coat. She was trudging through a concrete wasteland with Nyssa, and totally out of her element. There wasn’t a drop of water in sight, except the glimpses she caught of the Hudson River between the buildings. Lila lived on a remote island, with her own company and sometimes that of the seals: Manhattan didn’t even feel like an island to her and it was jam-packed with humanity. How did Nyssa survive in such a place?
“Time for a change,” Lila said lightly, choosing not to tell Nyssa all of the truth. Her sister-selkie was notoriously indiscrete, as well as in possession of passionate urges of her own. “Plus most of the seal pups have been delivered by now, and the count is even higher than last year.”
Lila was a marine biologist in human society, which gave her the perfect excuse to remain on a remote windswept island in the middle of the sea and study her distant cousins, the grey seals. Each fall, the seals came ashore at North Rona Island to bear their young and she managed the count of new pups. Nyssa was right: Lila never left the ocean without good cause, but too many nights of burning with unsatisfied desire counted as