Except for Manohar, of course. The Mad Professor would probably just look at those revtions as a means for his research. He was beyond morality, if not even beyond sanity.


    "So you brought me here to show me the life you’ve saved, to not make me angry when I discovered why you’re going to leave me?" Kam pushed him away, her eyes watery and her voice hurt.


    "Leaving you?" Lith asked.


    "Well, if you’re going to die, you can’t waste your time with me. I’m older than you, I’ve yet to build my career and make a name for myself. I know that I’m just..."


    "No, you got it all wrong." Lith gently shut her up, cing his forefinger on Kam’s lips to get the opportunity to exin.


    "I brought you here because I don’t want you to waste your time with me without knowing that if my line of work doesn’t kill me, my past could at any moment. Because I wanted to be honest with you before moving forward with our rtionship, otherwise all we might build together would have lies and omissions as foundations.


    "Due to the exchange of life forces, Protector knows almost everything about me, yet he epted me nheless. It makes him one of the very few people I’ve beenpletely honest with, and I think you deserve to know the truth as well."


    Lith told her about his first tribtion in Kandria, how things had started to change, both inside and outside of himself, and how those changes had be deeper over time.


    "So, not only do you have a crippled life force, but you’re also.... Inhuman?" She asked, pacing in circles, trying to match the speed with which Mogar was spinning around her head.


    "Some say a Dragon, others a demon, but they all agree on the term hybrid." Lith nodded, without trying to get close to her.


    "Show me." She stopped abruptly, facing Lith with her hands clenched so hard that her nails pierced her skin, making Kam bleed.


    "Are you sure? It’s kind of unsettling..."


    "Just do it." She cut him short, hoping that his story was just a convoluted, sadistic way to break up with her. Yet it was all true. Just like Protector’s, Lith’s shapeshifting was so fluid that one blink was enough to miss it.


    Selia almost yelped from the shadows in surprise and only Protector’s hand silenced her, leaving Kam’s illusion of being alone intact.


    Kam looked at the ck scales, whose tips were reddened by the inner fire burning within. She noticed the razor-sharp ws that had reced Lith’s nails, the short tail full of bone spikesing out from his spine, as well as the ck wings on his back.


    They were different from those he had created a few days before to defend her. They were twisted and unnatural, like the hands of a giant clutching him. Then, she looked up, way higher than she normally had to meet his eyes.


    Lith had apparently no mouth nor nose, with just two small curved horns on his forehead and three eyes searching for her gaze. Just like Protector’s, Lith’s eyes hadn’t changed, they were the same as before.


    Honest, worried, and full of that pain that so rarely left them alone, making his gaze sad or cruel most of the time.


    Kam took several deep breaths until Mogar stopped ying tricks on her. Only then did she manage to open her hands, touching Lith’s ws first and then his scaly neck.


    She expected it to be cold and rough, maybe even sharp. Yet his body was warm and soft under her touch, the scales twitching as if that contact gave Lith goosebumps, either out of pleasure or fear.


    Kam felt a little itch on her hands, where the nail marks were quickly healing without leaving any trace of their existence. She instinctively flinched, as if she had just got hurt instead of being treated.


    "Oh, gods!" Kam yelled at the night sky while kneeling on the grass and holding her head.


    "Don’t worry. I understand this is hard to ept." Lith’s voice was different, sounding like a howling from an abyss that somehow had learned how to speak. "I also brought you here so that Protector can get you back home without having to see me ever again. I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I..."


    "You’re hot, you know?" Kam cut him short, making Lith aware that his inner turmoil had turned most of his scales into a white-hot color and that they were now steaming in the chilly spring night.


    "Yes, I do. The scales actually contain the fire within this body. I’ve got no bodily fluids in this form." Lith exined.


    "No, I mean it. You’re hot." Kam stood on her tip-toes just to drag the cor of his shirt low enough to manage to put her arms around his neck.


    "It seems that Selia’s not alone, I’m a pervert as well." She said while stamping a kiss on theyers of scales that hid his mouth unless he willingly retracted them.


    "What?" Lith’s knees suddenly buckled and hit the ground, incapable of standing Mogar’s break-neck rotation speed anymore.


    "That’s why I was yelling before. Knowing that you’re a pervert is one thing, but admitting it to yourself is hard." She kissed him again, looking Lith in the eyes now that the height difference was gone.


    Outside he might be someone else, but the man inside that hardened shell hadn’t changed one bit. He was still full of worry, pain, and scars, but he had been nothing but kind to her.


    He had fought for her, for her family, never asking anything in return. Lith had protected her from humans, monsters, and everything in between them, but what made him most precious to her was that he had never taken her for granted.


    Suddenly, her mind went back to their second date, when after singing that song for her, Lith had revealed Kam the trick behind his masterful performance.


    That night, he had told her that he wanted to impress her for who he was rather than pretend to be someone else. He had told her that he wasn’t willing to build their rtionship on a lie and he had been true to his word.


    Lith had risked so much by sharing with her the truth about Protector and about himself, yet he had done it anyway. He had done it for her, with no strings attached.


    Lith’s hybrid form started to fall apart in patches, slowly reverting him into his human body and bringing him so low that Kam had to kneel to not lose eye contact.


    "It will take you more than a few scales and bad breath to get rid of me, Lith Verhen." Even though the scale mask had remained closed the entire time, the pungent stench of brimstone was still in the air.


    Kam held him tight and soon Lith returned her embrace. He clung to her as if she was a lifeboat in the eternal storm that his life was, still incapable of finding his bnce or even to believe his own ears.


    "Are you sure? Wouldn’t it better for you to find someone normal? Someone who can offer you a boring, peaceful life?" Lith asked while listening to the steady rhythm of Kam’s heart.


    She wasn’t afraid of him nor was she lying. All of her body gave off a feeling of tenderness and affection.


    "I’m more than sure." Kam said before kissing him with the same passion they shared the first night they spent together.