by Riley Storm
“I…” She spun away, the shame of her past stealing her strength. She didn’t want Jax to see her like that, to see the hurt in her eyes, still fresh even after all these years.
It never stopped hurting. She could move on, but to relive it, to talk about it, always brought back those emotions.
“I had a boyfriend, once. A lot like you,” she said. “Not nearly as handsome, maybe as rich though. His family was extremely well off. I don’t really know how he was ever allowed to date anyone like me.”
Jax snarled at that. “You are a wonderful person. An amazing catch. It was you who should never have been allowed to date someone like him. Someone should have stopped you.”
“We didn’t know what he was like at first,” she said quietly, trying not to focus on how happy it made her to hear him say such things. “He was charming. Sweet. All those things. A real gentleman. Almost like you.”
“I’m not a fake,” Jax said, shocked at her accusation.
She turned back on him. “You can turn into a monster. Don’t act like you weren’t hiding something from me either.”
“I can shift into a dragon,” Jax growled. “I do not turn into a monster. It is still me. Only your blindness prevents you from seeing that. Your prejudice makes you think that just because I’m different, I’m bad. That I’m evil. Why do you think we’re willing to go to such lengths to prevent the rest of humanity from finding out? How would they treat us, I wonder, when a woman I thought cared deeply for me, calls me a monster?”
Sarah’s defiant expression fell to pieces as Jax explained to her what it was truly like to be him.
A woman I ‘thought’ cared deeply for me…
Those eight words hit home perhaps hardest of all. She did care for him. Didn’t she?
“Jax…” she began, then stopped. She could see the walls coming back into place now, the barriers between them solidifying, establishing themselves once more, as her own words, her own actions, brought them back into existence. A simple apology here wasn’t going to be enough.
“We’re going to talk about that,” she said, bringing a finger up. “All of that. But first, I’m going to finish answering your question about me. Then we’re going to talk about you. I have a lot of questions. I need to understand things, so I’m not scared of them. I’m going to try, but you’re going to need to be patient with me. I can’t promise anything more than that. I will try.”
Jax’s expression softened slightly. “I can’t ask for much more either,” he said softly, gesturing for her to continue. “Please.”
Nodding several times, more in an attempt to pump herself up than anything else, Sarah turned her mind back in time, dredging up memories she’d long tried to leave behind her.
“There was no single issue,” she said softly. “It simply was a case of classism. His family was upper crust, and mine were normal working class. We weren’t poor, I was fortunate enough not to have to experience that, but we also didn’t have money to spend on frivolous things. There was mostly healthy food on the table, a non-leaking roof over our heads, and every now and then we were able to go somewhere for a weekend during the summers.”
Jax nodded, remaining silent, letting her speak, though he stayed intent and focused on her, drinking in every word. He wanted to know more about her, she could tell, and why she had such an issue with money.
“My ex started off all lovey-dovey, chivalrous, kind, etc. He would buy me gifts, things like that, without a care. To me they were extravagant, but to him they were playthings. Spare change at most. I was enamored with him because of it, and so I let a lot of things slide.” She blinked rapidly. “A lot.”
A sound filled the room. It took her a moment to realize it was Jax, that his growl was loudly filling the air, a thing of anger and sympathetic pain. Had he experience with such actions before, she wondered?
“His family started it. They never talked to me. The few times I was addressed, I was talked down to. I became an arm piece, little more. His brothers started bringing around arm pieces as well. Literal arm pieces. Super skinny, huge fake boobs, silicone everywhere. Meant to make me feel bad and ugly, I know now, but I couldn’t see it at the time.” She hung her head. “I tried to make friends with them, thinking that maybe we could form our own little clique, so we’d all have someone to hang around with. But I had nothing in common with them.”
Sarah snorted at her own foolishness.
“Then my ex slowly began to change. He started using the gifts as leverage. Demanding me to do things for him. To him. I wanted to keep him happy, to please him, so I did them. He kept pushing more, and more, all the while subtly making me feel less and less worthy if I didn’t do exactly as he said.”
Jax snarled angrily, his fists white from how hard he was clenching. His breathing was loud as he inhaled sharply through his nose, clenched teeth making his jaw tighten.
“It wasn’t until I found him in bed with someone else that I realized I’d been played.” She shook her head, face burning in shame. “He didn’t even know her name. Called her by someone else’s name. Not mine, but another one of his playthings. Clearly, he’d been doing it for a long time behind my back. I was just too naïve and blinded by his money to see properly. I left. Fuck money, and those with lots of it. They do whatever they want and think the rules of society don’t apply to them,” she finished, her own temper spiking.
“Sarah,” Jax said. “I am so very sorry that you experienced such an asshole. There is little I can do to fix that, and I doubt you want me to.”
“It was a good lesson,” she said, nodding in agreement.
“But I can also assure you, not all of us are like that. Not all of us use our money maliciously. I didn’t send your grandmother away out of any sort of ill intent. Nor did I try to get close to you just to use you. I genuinely like you,” he said. “For you. All of you,” he said sheepishly. “Not just your wonderful physical attributes. But your brain too.”
She flushed, hating that her body could react so easily to his words.
We slept together once. Once, dammit! Try to have some self-worth. The dick wasn’t that good.
It wasn’t just the dick that had been good, though. It had all been unbelievably fantastic. Every moment she’d spent with Jax where she’d not been judging him had been, at a minimum, a lot of fun.
“There is no ulterior motive,” Jax said, spreading his hands wide, inviting her to inspect him, as if that could prove anything. “I’m interested in you. Truly interested. Perhaps…perhaps more than just interested,” he added quietly.
Sarah nodded slowly. “I know, Jax…I know. I—” She stopped speaking, taking a moment to compose herself. “I feel something too,” she said, throwing caution to the wind, speaking the truth. “I do feel something. I’m just overwhelmed by everything. You’re a dragon!” she said, throwing her hands up in the air and turning to walk across the room.
“Yes.” Jax’s voice carried easily. “I can shift into a dragon form. You’re not wrong. But that doesn’t change who I am. The person you met, that’s me. There was no faking any of that. I just…have an ability most others don’t.”
“That’s one way to put it,” she said, surprising herself with a laugh. “I have so many questions.”
Jax shrugged. “Understandable.” He walked forward and plopped himself down casually into one of the recliner chairs, gesturing at her to take a seat on a couch or anywhere she felt like it.
“Go on,” he urged. “Have a seat. Ask me all the questions you want. For you, I’m an open book.”
Sarah hesitated. She knew what would happen if she sat down and learned more. If she started to humanize his other half, to accept it.
But there was no denying the drag she felt to him. The pull that made her want to get closer. To learn everything. To understand just who Jax was.
Screw it. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon anyway. May as well get some answers!
She moved over to the couch and
sat down, fixing Jax with a firm stare.
29
“A dragon,” she mused. “You can shift into a dragon.”
“Yes. As can my family.” Jax held up a hand, forestalling her next question. “Not by blood. I am the only blood member of my family left. But all dragon shifters consider themselves to be brothers. As do the others.”
She frowned. “Others?”
Jax smiled. “Your world is much larger than you think, Sarah. It’s not as plain as it seems either. All around you, creatures from my world live. The paranormal is woven throughout humanity, and has been going back centuries and millennia, well before shifters were ever around.”
“You’re not the only ones.” It wasn’t a question.
“No,” Jax said. “We’re not. There are other shifters—wolves, bears, etc. But the paranormal is more than just that. You have magic users, mages and witches, among the human races.”
“Human races?” she interrupted, wide-eyed.
“The elves are magic users too, though they rarely venture out from their kingdom,” Jax said. “I have met but one in my long years.”
Sarah frowned. “How old are you? Because you don’t look it.”
“I am in my thirty-third decade,” Jax answered after a long moment.
“Thirty-third…” It took Sarah a full minute to process the fact that he’d tacked the word decade on at the end instead of year. “You’re…you’re…three hundred…”
“And thirty-four, to be exact,” he finished softly. “Yes. Though that doesn’t include the century I spent asleep.”
“What?”
“Um, we dragons, like out of your myth, we can sleep—or hibernate if you prefer—for long periods of time. It doesn’t affect our aging, it’s part of the magic of our being. What sets us apart from the other shifters, who age slower than humans but usually live no more than one to three decades longer on average. Whereas a dragon can live to be five hundred.”
“Oh,” she said weakly. “I see.”
“Yes. This is a lot, I know. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to suddenly accept the world you thought you once knew is, in fact, a lot more complicated.”
“Complicated. That’s one way to put it,” she said with a laugh. “But…I don’t know. It’s kind of cool, too, now that you aren’t suddenly copper and covered in scales and fifty feet long.” She shivered at the memory of the dragon suddenly appearing in front of her in the underground parking garage.
“I’m sorry about that,” Jax said, pained. “I didn’t think it through. I was just so excited to find you, I overreacted. I didn’t think things through and rushed into showing you, and…ugh. What a mess. I would do it so differently if I could have a re-do.”
She laughed. “I believe that.”
Amazed at the humor she was finding at a time like this, Sarah took a moment to collect herself and her thoughts out loud. “Okay. Shifters. That’s what you call yourselves. Dragons. Bears. Wolves. The whole shebang. Right. Magic is a thing too. And elves. Non-humans.”
“Human myth and legend weren’t created out of thin air,” Jax explained. “Most of it has its roots in something real. Magic. Faeries. Fantastical creatures.”
“And those things that chased us tonight?” she said with a shudder. “You called them vampires?”
“Evil is what they are,” Jax said darkly. “Pure evil. They used to rule over the world like a plague. They called themselves the Roman Empire. Their control was vast and near-absolute. Until we came along.”
“We being shifters?” she asked, receiving a clarifying nod.
“Yes. We appeared in the third century, and the other races followed shortly thereafter, our numbers growing at a vast rate. We took on the vampires. And we won. It cost a lot, but we did it. The world was free. They were all dead.” Jax looked away bitterly. “Or so we thought, until two years ago, when the first of them showed up here. The first vampires seen in fifteen hundred years.”
“Right. And they want to kill you all.”
“No,” Jax said, shaking his head. “Worse.”
“Worse?” she asked, confused.
“They want to rule us all. And we won’t let that happen. My brothers and I will fight to the end to protect those we love.”
Sarah blinked. “Love?” she asked quietly.
“Dragons only mate once,” Jax said softly. “Their mate is for life. I…I believe you are my mate, Sarah Mingott.”
“Oh.” She bit her lip. “Listen. Jax. I care for you. I feel…something. I can’t deny that any longer. It’s obvious—I think since I’m still here—that my feelings aren’t fake. But love?” She shrugged. “I need more time, Jax. I need to understand all this that I’ve learned. Understand and accept it.”
“I understand,” he said softly, managing to hide most of his pain, though some of it slipped through. “I have to go, anyway. I have some planning to do. In the morning I have somewhere I must go, and I can’t afford to screw it up. I’ll let you be.”
She almost protested, but he was up and gone before she could find the words, leaving Sarah with her thoughts, and with a whole lot more information about the world around her than she’d ever expected to possess.
“Okay, brain. Time to sort this mess out.”
Maybe then I can figure out what it is I feel toward Jax.
Because it was certainly more than nothing.
What scared Sarah the most was how much more than nothing she suspected it was.
30
The big SUV rumbled along, its path along the road not distracted by the constant wandering thoughts of its driver.
Jax maintained enough awareness to ensure he stayed on the road, a portion of his brain keeping him safe, but the rest of it kept wandering back to a beautiful brunette currently imprisoned in Drakon Keep.
He hated using that word, but there was no other way to phrase it. Her room had no way out, no handle on the door. She was trapped there for as long as he deemed it necessary. Francis would give her food, and she would live in luxury at least, but that was small comfort to the earth dragon.
This was his mate, and he was treating her terribly. Yet this was the duty of a dragon, to protect the secret of his species, and put that over his own personal discomfort.
Besides, she’s going to come around. She cares for you too; she can feel the connection. It just scares her.
Jax had been telling himself that all night, hoping that if he believed it, it would eventually come true. There was little he wanted to do more than set her free and live with Sarah happily and freely.
Except perhaps defeat the vampire menace once and for all, so that his brothers and their mates could live in peace, without fear for themselves and those they cared for.
Early that morning, he had received word that Grandma Mingott was safely on her way down south, to a tropical, sun-filled destination where the vampires would never find her, and where she would have boatloads of fun. He hoped. It wouldn’t be the first of his plans to go horribly, horribly awry lately.
So wrapped up in his thoughts was he, that Jax never even saw the other car as it sped out from the side road.
The silver pickup slammed into the rear end of his SUV, spinning the big vehicle around. The tires caught on the pavement, and abruptly he was crashing end over end. The interior filled with glass as windows shattered and the entire frame crumpled in around him, trapping Jax inside. The airbag had deployed at some point, but he couldn’t recall when.
His SUV tumbled off the side of the road, down the embankment and wrapped itself roughly around a thick tree, crumpling the roof in far enough it smashed against his head, leaving him woozy.
Once the vehicle stilled, Jax’s head filled with ringing, the noise of the crash stunning him, the sudden ferocity of it catching him entirely unaware. He lolled about in the seat for several seconds, body not responding to his brain. His blood dribbled out from hundreds of tiny cuts where glass had sliced his skin.
“Ow.”
His seatbelt came loose with a savage jerk, and he felt to his left side as gravity took over. More glass sliced into his palms as he got to his feet inside the crumpled interior of his SUV. It lay on its side. Calling upon his powers, Jax let his metal armor flow over his body. Only then did he push his way out of the front windshield, ignoring the sound of glass scratching metal.
Once clear, he dismissed his armor. If there were humans about, he did not want to be seen as anything but his human form.
Gathering his senses, he oriented himself with the crash and realized he was down below road level. The other car would be on the road still. He had to get up there, to make sure everyone was okay. And call police. And an ambulance. It would take them a while to get out there. He wasn’t anywhere near Plymouth Falls.
The snap of a twig in the forest behind him was the only giveaway. But it was enough.
Jax dove to the side as a black-clad shape sliced through the space he had just occupied. It bounced awkwardly, having expected to hit him, rolled once, then came to its feet.
“So, you’re out during daylight now, are you?” he growled. “You shouldn’t have come alone.”
The vampire—that was what Jax assumed it was—tilted its head. That was the only warning Jax received before he was hit twice more, once in the legs, once in the upper body, by two more creatures.
The trio went down in a heap. Jax rolled to his feet, while the earth itself reached up at his call and took a hold of his two attackers, vine-like tendrils of rock clutching at their limbs.
In response, shadows flowed, slicing through the earth, releasing the vampires to spring to their feet.
Jax stared wide-eyed. Shadows in the middle of the day. He swallowed nervously, backing up the embankment as the three vampires came at him. These were no younglings. To call upon shadows while the sun was directly overhead…