“I’m guessing this involves a woman, because no one needs to drink that bad.”

Van closed his eyes. Instantly, Lisa’s pretty, deceitful face appeared in his mind. “Yes, it is about a woman.”

“’Nuff said.” There was a smile in Nick’s voice. “You know the girls are over there having a night out?”

“Yes. Pandora is supposed to be keeping Lisa occupied until I get there.”

“I see. This Lisa must be something else for you to want to see her this bad.”

He grunted. “Something else is right.”

Nick chuckled. “Okay, I’ll be over. You live up near the ridgeline, right? That big chalet-style house?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there in about ten minutes. Dress warm, it’s going to be a cold ride.”

Van snorted. “I will be fine.”

They both hung up, then Van got Grom to go out. “You must. I am leaving.”

Grom stood at the top of the steps, staring into the white abyss. He glanced back at Van.

“Give me a moment.” Van eased down the porch stairs and made his way a little deeper into the snow. Then he fired up his internal furnace and let the heat radiate out of him.

As the snow began to melt, he turned in a widening circle. When he was done, he had a patch about fifteen feet wide cleared. He looked up at Grom. “There.” He pointed at the space he’d made. “Now you go.”

Grom trotted down and started running around in the circle and biting at the falling snowflakes.

Van laughed. “You are something, dog.”

Then Grom took off into the drifts with a big leap. He sank up to his chest, but he kept going, plowing through, and running around as best he could. The trails he left behind looked like they’d been made by a drunken lunatic.

Van frowned. “That is enough. Back in the house, silly dog.”

Grom perked up at the word house. That seemed to motivate him. He came back into the area Van had cleared, lifted his leg and peed, then dashed back onto the porch.

Van laughed and went in after him. He grabbed an old towel from the stack in the closet kept there for this exact purpose and rubbed Grom down as best he could. Van threw another log on the fire and prodded the embers a little. Grom loved a good fire to sleep by.

Then Van headed outside to wait for Nick.

The gargoyle was already there, crouched in the open area Van’s heat had created. He nodded. “Hey. Thanks for the landing zone.”

It took a lot to surprise a dragon shifter. But seeing Nick in his supernatural form did just that. “You are welcome.” He was staring, and he knew it, but it was the first time he’d seen a gargoyle of Nick’s size in his true form. “You are leviathan class. Very impressive.”

Nick nodded. “Yep. Big as they come.” His voice was a gravelly rumble. “I’m guessing you’ve fought against my kind before.”

“Only titan and ranger classes. Never yours.”

“We are a rare bunch.” He seemed to be studying Van. “You must be about my size when you shift, right?”

Van smiled. “Something like that.”

Nick’s stony brows lifted. “Bigger?”

Van nodded. “Yes.” Then he shrugged lightheartedly. “I am a dragon.”

Nick laughed, and the sound echoed through the stillness like a shot going off.

Van narrowed his eyes. “You ever think about fighting?”

Nick shook his head. “Not in a professional way.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way. I do not need the competition.”

Another deep laugh rumbled out of Nick, then he gave Van a curious look. “I thought you were retired.”

Van opened his mouth, then closed it again to mull that statement over. “I was. But maybe one more fight.”

“Cool. I’d love to see that. If I could afford the tickets.”

“For taking me to Howler’s, I will get you good seats.”

Nick smiled and jerked his head toward Van. “So how are we doing this?”

Van lifted the crutch over his head, a hand on each end of the metal support. “Like a hang glider.”

“Sounds good to me.” Nick spread his wings and lifted into the air, treating Van to a new surprise. The gargoyle was nearly soundless in flight.

Van used the crutch to get into the middle of the circle, then hoisted it overhead again.

“Hang on. You fall off, and I may not be able to catch you.”

“I will be fine.”

Nick grabbed hold of the crutch and, with a few powerful beats of his wings, took them straight up.

The view was spectacular, but as they rose, visibility disappeared into a white blur.

“You can see in this?”

“Enough,” Nick responded. “But I don’t really need to. I have a decent mental GPS.”

“Good.” The wind bit into Van as Nick increased his speed. He turned up his internal thermostat until he barely noticed it.

A few minutes after he’d done that, they started to descend. Nick set them down in Howler’s back parking lot. There were a few cars hidden under a thick draping of snow.

“You good?”

“Yes.” Van balanced on his good leg until he got the crutch under him again, which was a little more difficult with the depth of the snow. “Thank you very much.”

“I hope it works out for you, man.”

Van nodded, then shifted his gaze to Howler’s back door. “I hope so too.”