Free Chaos Burning by Lauren Dane Page A

tattoo on my hip? Hurt so much that for a while every time I even heard the whine of a tattoo needle I wanted to jump up and run away.”
    “These are hand done in the old way. Hand dipped into ink, a row of needles tapped into the skin with wooden sticks. My father’s generation had them done with tools made of the bones of their ancestors.”
    “Really? That’s sort of awesome. Also, ouch.”
    “Most people are horrified by that. I should have known you’d get it.”
    She looked up at him as he looked down and something passed between them. Something new.
    “That’s a compliment.”
    He snorted and stepped back to try to get a breath not filled with her. That’s what was most likely getting to him. “Ofcourse it’s a compliment. You think like a Lycian. More than any other witch I’ve known.”
    He jumped back into the water and began some hard, fast laps. He clearly needed to be working out more to get rid of all his pent-up energy.
    LATER that night she walked out with him to the rise beyond the lowest level of decking behind the house. The air was cold, but so clean. The night was quiet enough to hear the whisper of the wind through the trees, to hear the magick of everything all around her.
    “I love this place.” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but once it was out she turned to Simon, who was busily taking his shirt off so she had to look.
    He paused and focused on her. “Thank you. Shall we run?”
    She’d never seen him change and while the idea of seeing the man naked was a very appealing one, the idea of seeing his beast was even more appealing. She was just that weird, she guessed.
    “Yes. Is it all right if I watch? You change, I mean. Um, change into your beast, not your clothes.” She mentally rolled her eyes at how clumsy she was sometimes.
    He dropped his pants and shorts and stepped from them, utterly and beguilingly naked. She tried not to think of that part. Ha. Much .
    “Of course.” And then his magick boiled from him, washing over her and the space around them in warmth, the scent of it heady, the forest, the trees, that scent of fur and beast. The air sort of shimmered, as if he were under water and moved and she couldn’t quite focus on it. And then there stood the biggest freaking werewolf she’d ever seen.
    “Holy cow, you’re gigantic.” And beautiful. Honey-colored with some black and deep auburn on his legs.
    His eyes shone with intelligence. He’d told her that even in his shifted form he still thought and understood things as a man did, though he shared his consciousness with his beast, who took things in a far more elemental way.
    “Can I?” She held her hand out, not quite touching, but really yearning to know what that fur would feel like.
    He leaned into her, nearly knocking her over, which she guessed was his okay to touch. So she did. Soft. She pressed her face to his neck and breathed his magick in as her hands tunneled through his fur. He stayed still as she explored him and when she stepped back she had to catch her breath.
    “Awesome. Let’s run.”
    They took off into the forest, the wolf leading the way as she followed. Her eyesight was that of a hunter, keen and good in the dark. She knew the path well enough to avoid tripping or falling, though she had a few times when she’d first started running out here.
    She knew he would be capable of far greater speed and stamina, but he kept pace with her, though he didn’t take it too easy. She knew she’d be wiped out when they finished. But until then she simply enjoyed the night, took in the world when it was dark as they ran.
    At night she heard animals she didn’t during the day, especially birds. This far out from the city, unimpeded by the lights, the stars overhead glittered brilliantly. The air was clean and crisp, absent a lot of pollution. Lark loved it out there for this very reason. It always felt to her as if she simply breathed in all that excess magick floating around so that when she