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passing through them that gave me pause.
    “Nightmares?”
    I shrugged and he let me have my privacy.
    “Maddy, dreams or no dreams, you could have gone anywhere in the world but you chose to come here.” He stared at me, and I shrugged stiffly again.
    “So?” I asked a little belligerently.
    “Back to the point. You must realize that much mythology is actually based in  

fact—”
    “Right,” I said, my voice quavering but the sarcasm still crystal clear.
    “Do you think I’d lie to you?” He looked incredulous.
    “I don’t know you,” I said through gritted teeth, and I pushed myself to standing, using the wall for support. I was thrown by all the what ifs in my life. What if I’d never come here? What if my reality had been changed with a wish? What if I was related to one of the greatest sleuths of all time? What if there was truth behind a lot of fictional tales? What if—
    Bahlin interrupted my mental wanderings again. He was really good at the interrupting thing. “Maddy, I want you to sit on the bed. I’m going to prove a point.”
    “Uh, no. I don’t think I’ll get any closer to the bed, but thanks for the offer.”
    He rolled his eyes and stood.
    “Don’t take a step closer to me,” I ordered, pushing away from the wall and fisting my hands at my sides and doing my best to ignore my watery knees.
    “I won’t have to touch you in order to prove my point,” he said. His eyes flashed, pupils becoming elongated and the irises turning an icy blue nearly devoid of color.
    There was a buzzing in my brain. What the—? I didn’t manage to finish the thought.
    The bones in his face seemed to shift and elongate, his head getting larger and his shoulders widening, his fingers curling into claws. Muscles moved in ways that no human body would allow. He grinned a huge grin, showing me sharp white teeth.
    “Take a good look, Maddy,” he said in a voice approaching a difficult-to-understand growl.
    And I did, too…right before I passed out. Again. Crap.

Chapter Three
    “I told you to sit on the bed,” Bahlin muttered. My eyelids were fluttering, trying to grab hold of a good opportunity to open. “Bloody woman, crashing to floor with every shock. You’ll never survive this…”
    “Yes, I will,” I whispered in an obstinate voice. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t manage. You don’t know me.” I focused on his face, seeing the dark blue of his eyes once again.
    He grinned down at me. It was then that I realized I was lying in his arms and across his lap. I started to make efforts to get up, but he held me down easily.
    “Rest a moment, Maddy.”
    His skin was firm and hot, but not scaly like I would have expected following that little conversational sideshow. He was tanned, though, in a country where the sun only showed its face every fourth day. His eyes shown with a faint inner light that made me a little dizzy, and I wondered what he was trying to do.
    “No mind games,” I said, my voice sounding disturbingly far away.
    “So you know a bit about dragons,” he said, smiling. “Remind me to send Laurell K. Hamilton a thank-you note. Look, you’ve had a great many shocks in twenty-four hours, sweetheart. I can ease some of the stress if you’ll only relax and let me in your mind.” He stroked my forehead with two fingertips and my headache was almost instantly gone. Now that was a handy trick.
    “Laurell K. doesn’t write about dragons.” I held up a hand weakly. “Question?”
    He inclined his head, still grinning albeit less toothy than before my recent lights out episode.
    “How can you be a dragon and a regular man?”
    “Don’t ever mistake me for a regular man,” he said seriously. “I am a dragon first and always, but all dragons have an alternate human form.”
    “If you say so. What do you mean I need to relax my mind?” My breathing was still shallow, so I made a concerted effort to slow down and take deeper breaths. He hadn’t hurt me yet. I was