The second thought that occurred to her was, Oh, he's coming in pretty fast, and then Oh Val ...
She couldn't say how she knew, but she knew where she knew. It was in her heart, in that same place that had looked at Val just the day before and said where have you been? What took you so long? I've missed you.
She had had absolutely no sense of fear at all when she had walked up to keep Val from tearing that idiot thief to bits, but when they got back to her archive, she was shaking.
"Norah, are you all right?" asked Val anxiously, and she gave him a quick smile.
"Just need to send this all to Sayeed," she said. "He's going to go nuts that I got such a good picture. You know, he was the one saying that I took a great picture of my thumb when I had to take pictures at the last holiday party."
She sent the pictures of the license plate off to Sayeed, and then she heaved herself up to sit on the worktable.
"Oh my God. You're a dragon. And you almost ate a book thief. What if he talks and someone listens and, like, will a circus or the government come for you, or –
“I'm not worried. It was one man and if he doesn't want to add public intoxication to his list of crimes, he'll keep it to himself. This kind of thing happens from time to time, and it doesn't change much of anything.”
“Good,” Norah said with feeling. “I would hate to have to bust you out of jail or a circus or a top-secret government facility, but I would do it.”
"You're taking this pretty well," Val said hopefully, and she smiled.
"It's the coolest thing in the world," she assured him. "And I want to know everything. I want to know where you're from, if there are more like you, if you can turn into a dragon on command, all of it."
Val tilted his head at her, coming a little closer and offering her his hand.
"Ukraine originally, there are too many of us as far as I'm concerned, and it depends on who's commanding."
“What if it were me?”
Val looked around, dubiously.
“I don't think I would really fit in this room ...”
“But you'd do it for me?”
“Norah, I don't think there's a lot I wouldn't do for you. That's what being my true mate means.”
“I'm your true mate.”
It wasn't a question, and she knew it was true the same way she knew the sun was hot and water was wet.
“You are. I'm yours. That means that whatever you need, I'll get it for you. It means that I would tear down the world if you got hurt.”
She realized with a deep shiver what kind of responsibility Val was implying, and then she got a different kind of shiver when she thought about the possibilities.
“I think that would be a lot more scary if I didn't want to do the same for you,” she admitted, and Val blinked.
“Really?”
“Oh God, yeah. I mean, do you know how hard it is to say no to you? It's like having to turn down chocolate truffles wrapped up in hundred dollar bills.”
“You nearly bit my head off when I first showed up with money.”
“Because this is an academic- Oh. Right.”
She made a face, hopping down off the desk. Despite everything that had just happened, there was one increasingly clarion call in her head. She knew that she had done wrong before, and if they were going to move forward like she was so very much hoping they would, she had to fix things before they got any further.
Val gave her a puzzled look as she went to a certain box in the tall stack against the wall. The small stack of letters was right where she had left it, and with a small sigh, she handed them over to Val.
“Here you go,” she said with a wince. “I promise. I found these today. It's not like I knew where they were and just kept them from you.”
Val took the letters, but he didn't look at them. Instead he looked at her, his eyes as black as night.
“Norah, why?”
“Because … I don't know. Because I thought that if you got your letters, you would go. Things were happening so fast, and I couldn't stand the thought of you leaving. That sounds really dumb now when I say it, but I wasn't really thinking much. I just knew I didn't want you to go.”
She was getting steadily more miserable the longer she talked, but then Val reached out to cup her cheek in the palm of his hand, the expression his face incredibly tender.
“I'm not going anywhere,” he said, and he leaned in to kiss her.
His lips on hers were so terribly gentle, and Norah leaned into him as if she were drowning. Her hands came up to to cling to his jacket, and she could feel how hot his mouth was underneath hers. The kiss might have started out comforting, but it grew abruptly more intense as Norah leaned back against the steel rack behind her and pulled Val firmly against her body.
“Oh, this feels so good it should be illegal,” Norah moaned, and Val laughed without quite pulling away. He pushed his fingers through her hair, tangling them through to hold her still as he deepened their kiss. His tongue slid into her mouth, and Norah sucked on it shamelessly, drawing a gasp from her true mate. He shook for her, and she was just thinking that she was going to get the better of him before he stooped down and scooped her up with his hands under her thighs and her chest pressed hard to his.
“You're dangerous,” Val murmured even as she yelped in surprise. “You ought to be secured.”
“Like a criminal?” she asked breathlessly, and Val laughed, carrying her back to the worktable. They had cleared it before
