Me and My Shadow by Katie MacAlister

upon.”
    I was about to agree with him when it struck me that perhaps he didn’t mean it in the way I thought. “Aisling is putting up with a lot from him, too, you know. That overprotective act can be wearing to the nerves, and I can only imagine how annoying it would be to be treated as if one was made of glass.”
    â€œAnd just how would you like to be treated?” Gabriel asked, walking behind me. His voice was rich with innuendo, causing my back to stiffen with sudden arousal. The dragon shard in me knew exactly what he was doing—he was flirting, teasing me, fulfilling a dragon’s need to play with its prey. He walked in a circle, not touching me, but his eyes glittered with a quicksilver heat that left me short of breath.
    â€œHow do I want to be treated?” I asked, struggling to hold on to myself, the true part of me, not the dragon-tainted bits that were slowly, insidiously taking over my sense of self.
    â€œYes.” He pathed around behind me again, causing me to shiver with anticipation. The dragon shard stopped insisting I pay attention to it, and simply took over, allowing my body to shift and stretch and transform into a silver-scaled form that was so foreign to me, and yet so familiar.
    â€œI want to be treated like this,” I said in a sultry voice I almost didn’t recognize, and whipped my tail around one of his legs, jerking it toward me so he fell backwards onto the floor. Before he could protest, I was on top of him, licking him with fire, tasting him, wanting him, needing him to complete the self that waited so impatiently.
    He growled deep in his chest, a mating sound that skittered along my body like a static charge. He, too, started to shift, but a noise at the door was followed by a soft voice saying in French-inflected English, “I have returned, although I could not find the pickle-flavored crisps you . . .”
    I struggled to my feet at the sight of the man in the doorway who held a shopping bag from a prestigious store. “Er . . . hello.”
    â€œRené, is it not?” Gabriel asked, completely composed despite the fact that a strange man walked in just as I was about to have my dragonly way with him. I fought the dragon shard for control, slowly, inch by inch returning my body to normal. The man named René greeted Gabriel pleasantly enough, but he watched me with a decidedly wary look as the last of the silver scales shimmered into my normal skin color.
    â€œIt is a pleasure to see you again,” René said, his eyes flickering to me again.
    â€œThis is my mate, May. Little bird, this is an old friend of Aisling’s, a daimon who has been of much assistance to her.”
    Daimons were fates, I knew. I’d never actually met one before, although I thought it was interesting that they were occasionally assigned to individuals who they felt needed a little help.
    â€œIncluding as a purveyor of hard-to-find delectables,” René answered, holding up his bag with a grin. “Drake, he refuses to leave her side, so it is up to me to bring the so-charming Aisling the food she craves most.”
    â€œI thought pregnancy cravings were over by the time birth was imminent?”
    He shrugged, a loose-shouldered gesture that made me think of smoky bars in Marseille filled with slinky women in loud-print dresses. “It depends on the woman, hein ? I have seven little ones myself, and when the maman desires something, it is better to humor her, I have found. With my wife, it was macaroons. Always the macaroons. At all hours, she must have macaroons. Aisling, she has a passion for crisps of the most repulsive flavors, but it is not for me to deny her when she most desires them. I find the crisps just as I found the macaroons for my Brigitte. Did you say ‘mate’?”
    Gabriel grinned as René gave me a thorough visual inspection. “Despite the curse, yes, she is.”
    â€œBut I thought . . . you are