Jordan by Susan Kearney Read Free Book Online

joy.
    Just reliving her happy memory had made him want to know the adult Vivianne much better. He groaned. Like the recollection
     of how soft her skin had felt under his fingertips wasn’t tempting enough?
    Their lust had caused a savage meltdown. One taste of her had only whetted his appetite for more. Being with her had been
     one of the most memorable moments in his long life. Vivianne Blackstone was too smart, too bossy, and much too damn sexy for
     him not to like her, but he couldn’t afford the distraction.
    He’d made a solemn vow to stop the Tribes from doing to any other world what they had done to Dominus. While he hadn’t expected
     that losing the Staff would delay him fifteen centuries, his resolve to stop the Tribes had never faltered. He wouldn’t allow
     himself to get sidetracked.
    Not even by Vi.
    Although he’d love to know more about her, what made her laugh, what made her happy, what drove her to be such a successful
     businesswoman, he could not afford to indulge his curiosity.
    Floating through the corridor, he headed toward the galley. Holding the dog under her arm, Vi had no difficulty keeping up.
     Yet her voice was breathless, no doubt because of the Staff’s effects.
    “So that Staff is responsible for what happened between us?” she asked.
    “The Staff’s more than an energy source.”
    “And?” she prodded as if she sensed his reluctance.
    “It can nourish all kinds of energy. Electric. Magnetic. Cosmic.”
    “Sexual?” Her green eyes darkened with intensity, yet her voice remained calm and contained. Still, she couldn’t totally suppress
     a hint of yearning that was the Staff filling her with desire.
    “Sexual energy? Yes. But it can be
any
kind of energy. For example, when I live in a dragon’s shape it takes tremendous energy. Living as a human takes less. When
     I don’t have enough to maintain human form, I can morph into a creature that needs even less energy to survive.”
    “You can shapeshift because of the Staff.” A delighted grin lit up her face. “Are you saying you’re a dragonshaper, even though
     you don’t have scales in human form? And you also can change to…?”
    “An owl.” He damn well wasn’t going to tell her he couldn’t morph without the Staff nearby. But if she thought she could cleverly
     pull a secret from him, she might go along with his plans more easily.
    “Prove it,” she said.
    “There’s not enough room to dragonshape here.” He halted in the middle of the corridor and gave her time to catch up.
    “Show me the owl,” she requested.
    Gray’s voice filtered through the speakers. “Warning. Gravity coming back on.”
    “Good work, people.” Jordan believed in complimenting his team. It cost nothing and boosted morale.
    Vi shoved her feet toward the deck. Jordan did the same, and then he morphed into an owl. His cells compressed. His limbs
     shrank and his arms became wings and his skin grew feathers. His pupils changed from blue to golden, and his eyesight sharpened.
     He lost some of his intellect. His clothing shrank with his body, the nanobots leaving him with only a collar. He flew around
     her head, then humanshaped back into a man. And the nanobots quickly clothed him again.
    “When King Arthur suffered a mortal wound, he feared the Grail would fall into the hands of the Tribes. So before he died,
     we brought the Grail to the Pendragon Moon and placed the healing cup inside Avalon.” Jordan had spent his time on that moon,
     trapped in owl form, unable to fight the Tribes. While he’d often accompanied each High Priestess, his abilities were severely
     limited without his Staff. “When Lucan Roarke, your archeologist, made his journey home, I accompanied him and his wife Cael
     from her Pendragon moon.”
    “Lucan filled me in, but he never mentioned you were a dragonshaper.”
    “He didn’t know. Neither did his wife, Cael. At the time, they thought I was only an owl.”
    Her eyes lit with suspicion. “Why