It was then that she had someone tell him about iron for a dragon. That to feed it to her, in small doses, would be all it took for him to kill her too. She thought that if he did that to her, fed her iron over a period of a few weeks, she’d be safer than for him to come up with another plan, one that she’d have no control over. And if she was honest with herself, she’d never thought that he’d do it, not try and kill his own mother. But he had. And that was all it took to tip her feelings for her first born to hatred rather than love.
So, on the tenth morning, she had told her trusted advisor what she was going to do, and he was to keep her in the loop of what James did to his brother. Marissa thought that Griffith would have been next on James’s list, and that he’d try and kill him as well. But when she’d left him there, the man who had kept her sane during all the happenings of the castle—her advisor Philip—had been killed along with the rest of the household that had anything to do with her. Her maid, her cook, as well as the milliner that made her gowns for her when she and her husband would travel or have a party—all dead.
She wasn’t sure what to do now. Should she find Griffith, tell him what she’d done? Did she send him a message and hope that it would get to him and not his brother? If he should get it over Griffith, what would he do? Marissa knew what he’d do. He’d come for her and end her life just as he had his father’s.
Looking at the few pieces that she’d been able to buy back from the pawn shops, and other items that James had sold off when he needed cash, she was saddened by how little there was. It had taken a while to gather what she had been able to. Nearly all the silver that had been monogramed for her and John on their wedding date had been found. She’d even managed to get most of the tapestries, as well as some of the linen that her grandmother had made centuries ago. And mostly all of the furniture. It had been the easiest to track down. Most people had no idea what they’d gotten from James’s stupidity, and she’d been able to get it for far less than she could have imagined.
But some of the treasures that they’d had were never going to be found or used again. All the dishes and pottery that had been given to them, and things from her past were shattered and left in ruin at the back of the house. Marissa had surmised that he’d taken it outside and thrown it against the castle simply because he could. Her gowns, too, and his father’s things, had been torn to shreds and had laid in the yard so long that they had become a part of the earth.
Touching her fingers to the portrait of her mother and father, she cried for what he’d done to their things. She knew that it really wasn’t her fault. They’d all tried their best to curb his appetite for destruction and mayhem, even going to far as to send him abroad to places that dealt with children and adults like her son.
But that had been another huge mistake. Not only had he not learned anything there, but she was sure that was where he’d gotten his first taste of sex the way he liked it.
James was a sadist. He hurt women, nearly killing them, and her family had been made to pay his fines that were ordered by the council. But James hadn’t stopped there. He’d come home when kicked out of the country, and hurt women and sometimes men with depravity. Marissa cried for the things that he’d put them through.
It was as if he were possessed with something. Evilness oozed from his pores, and it only got worse the older he got. Then he’d killed his father. Bragged about it to her. Telling her that he’d not begged for his life, not said a word to him, only that he’d get his comeuppance someday. That, she thought, had pissed him off more than his inability to kill her in the same manner.
“Oh, John, I miss you so much. You would have known what to do about him.” She moved to lie upon the bed that she’d managed to take from the castle in her preparations to leave there. Some of her things had been put in this cave long ago for just this part of the journey to save herself from her son. “He killed any kind of love I might have had for him the day he took your sword from this house and used it upon you.”
Feeling sorry for herself didn’t solve anything, she knew this. But that was all that she had at the moment. She didn’t miss the servants or the nice things that she’d had as much as she missed her son Griffith and the joy that he’d bring to her. She missed stepping out into the sunlight as her dragon, taking to the skies when the weather was just right enough to shield her. She missed being herself, too.
Marissa woke up and the cave was dark. But there was something with her, something in the cave where she’d been for all these years. Trying to find a place to hide, she made her way to the back of the cave and tried very hard to blend into the stones around her. But as she’d not been out, getting heat from the sun and the fresh air that a dragon needed, she wasn’t well enough to completely disappear.
“Look, there are some of your mother’s things here.” Her first thought was that James had found her. He was going to kill her. “Griff, I think that you’re right. She is alive and living here.”
“Griffith?” She came out of her hiding place and lit up the cave with her magic. The two men standing before her were like a balm to her otherwise broken heart. “Oh, Griffith, I’ve missed you so very much. And Danburn, it’s so wonderful to see you again.”
She and Griffith embraced several times, their declarations of love tumbling over and over what the other was saying. He asked her why she was here, told her how much he’d missed her. Griffith, her loving son, was here, and she could not let him go.
He held her to him as he sobbed that he had missed her so very much. That he understood why she’d left when she had. Griffith even told her about his mate, one that she’d be so happy to meet, he told her. Danburn cleared his throat—the young man was king now, and Marissa bent on her knee before him, begging his forgiveness for not doing so sooner.
“You are like a second mother to me, Lady Farley. Please, stand.” She did, then hugged him tightly as well. He was like her son too; he and Griffith had always had a special bond. “You are well then? Do you need anything?”
“Nay, I’m all right here. I’ve hated to be so close yet not able to see my son. This mate of yours, she is good to you?” Griffith seemed to light up with the question. “I can see that she’s made you very happy indeed.”
“She has, Mother. Christ, I have missed you.” She hugged him again, holding onto the only love that she’d missed more than her husband’s. “James is causing trouble, as you can well imagine.”
“I didn’t mean to harm you that day, Griffith. You have to believe me. I thought it was him. I’d been out feeding my dragon and I saw him and the truck coming at me, and I didn’t realize it was you until it was nearly too late.” He told her that he understood. “You believe me?”
“Of course I do. You’re my mother.” She couldn’t get enough of him. Just being with him, and him understanding what had transpired, was more than she could have hoped for. “Will you come home with us? I’d like nothing more than to take you to meet Lilac. Danburn has a new baby too.”
“I cannot. Not with your brother out there.” Griffith said that he’d not harm her again. “But he will. He has. What would happen if I were to go with you to stay in your lovely home and he came for me? I couldn’t live with myself should another person that I loved be harmed by him. No, I can’t do that to you.”
“Danburn and I will protect you, Mother. And Kip, Dana, and well as the rest of the old gang is around as well. He will never harm you again—not so long as I live will he harm my family again.” She leaned her head on his chest, wondering how she could convince him that she was doing this for him. “Lilac is a water faerie. She’s the queen of the waterways. I am her king.”
She looked at him then, just now noticing the difference in him. He was stronger than when she’d left, happier too, she could see. And his strength was great, even more so than she was.
Stepping back from him, Marissa noticed other things about him too. His eyes, so green before, were now a green so dark that they looked almost black. Ev
en his height was different, his muscles stronger. Taking another step back from him, she asked to see his dragon.
The shift from man to dragon was immediate. There hadn’t been any hesitation on his part as she might have thought he’d have. But when he was fully dragon, she saw that he was right—that Griffith could not just keep her safe, but all of them.
Marissa looked at Danburn when he laughed. She asked him what was so funny.
“He’s changed in the last few days, my lady. His dragon is larger than before. His armor is also stronger. Griff always had a dangerous helmet, but now it looks evil, like it could do more harm than even I could if pushed. Yes, I do believe that should your other son come to him to cause any of you harm, he will have a reckoning that will haunt him for the rest of his days.”
She believed it too. And when he laid his head down and put out his hand for her, she rubbed her cheek along his sharp claw and closed her eyes. His father hadn’t lived long enough to see what their son had become.
Tears filled her eyes then, causing them to race along her face like a dam had been opened. When he asked her what was wrong, she told him—told him how proud his father would have been of him.
“I love you, Mother. Please, come home so that I might care for you. I will keep you safe, this I promise you.” Marissa told Griffith that she believed him, but was no less frightened of James. “He will die by my hand if he so much as touches your hand. I will not allow him to hurt what is mine. Not ever again.”
~*~
Lilac liked her new mother-in-law, but Marissa was as unsure of her role in the house as Lilac was. When they were left alone, Griff being called away for an emergency, she asked the older dragon to join her in the kitchen. It was the place she enjoyed most in the big house.
“We used to come to the kitchen, too, when we wanted comfort. Do you do that as well?” Lilac told her that she liked to cook some. Not a great deal. “Oh, that’s wonderful. I never learned. And when I was on my own for so long, I promised myself that I’d learn something. Even boiling water was a trial for me. I would forget that I’d put it over the fire and nearly burn the pan to cinders, along with the logs.”
“I, too, was on my own for a long time. However, since I can only be what I am, I didn’t have the need to feed someone as large as your dragon would be. But still, not being able to be in the sunlight would have rendered my magic void. Even being what I am, I need the sunlight as much as I do the water. Danburn has allowed me to swim in his lake. It’s very nice.” She pulled out the things to make some salad. It was the only thing that she really loved to eat, besides some of the sweets that had been made by their cook.
“I’m not sure what I’m to do.” Lilac smiled at her and told her that she felt the same way. “This is your home, yours and Griffith’s, so I know that I’m not in charge. But it’s also difficult for me, since I’ve been gone for so long, to know the proper way for things to be done.”
“There is no proper way, Marissa. None at all. And I’d like for you to be yourself. If you see something that needs taken care of, we can work on it. I’ve not been in charge of a household before, and it’s a bit overwhelming, I think.” The other woman nodded and looked relieved a little more. “I’m helping with a few projects that Elissa is on. She’s been very helpful in showing me the ropes, so to speak. And the other women of the family, as she calls them, have been very nice to me as well. Have you seen the new baby?”
“Not yet. I’m to understand that you’re going to have them all over for dinner tonight to see me. I’ve spoken to Elissa, and she cannot say enough good things about you and my son.” She looked away, then back at her. “I’m going to tell you how sorry I am about James. I know some of what he had done to you, and I need you to understand that we did not raise him to be such a monster.”
“I know that you didn’t.” She didn’t look convinced, so Lilac set the salad that she’d made in front of her and joined her at the table. “James is running out of places that will accept him. And he’s stealing from the local stores as well. Griff has been reimbursing them for what he takes because he doesn’t want James to resort to killing people for food, so this is safer, we think.”
“He killed his father. Did you know that?” Lilac told her that she did, that Griff had told her. “He was going to kill me as well. He’d been...well, I knew that I was next on his list, and I had started a rumor that dragons could be killed by feeding them iron. It would have taken him several decades of doing it that way, but the rumor that I started just for him said that it would be quick. Then I disappeared.”
“That must have been very hard for you. I mean, to just leave everything that you loved behind to keep yourself safe.” Marissa nodded and started to cry. “No one blames you for leaving. Especially Griff. You had to do what you needed to be safe. And from my experience with James, it would take drastic measures to do that. He’s a monster. I’m sorry to say that, but—”
“No, you’re right. And I don’t even know why he’s like that. We raised them the same. Treated them no differently when they were growing up. Griff was easier for us, I will admit that. James, it seemed, went out of his way to be mean and combative. For a long time, we thought that he was just jealous of Griffith. But I realized, too late, that he was just as you said, a monster.” Lilac handed her a tissue when she cried harder. “I just don’t know what to do. I know that he will continue his ways until someone kills him or puts him in prison. But even that, I don’t think, will do any good. He’s very resourceful and strong. Not as strong as you have made Griffith, but he won’t stop until he gets all that he wants. And the really sad part of that is, I don’t think he even knows what he wants. Just all of it, is all I can figure. He wants it all.”
“Griff told me that he all but destroyed your family home. He’s working to have some of the things that he’d found put back, and what has been damaged, he’s working to get it repaired. He was so glad that you’d been able to save a great deal of it. I think they’re moving it back today.” Marissa said that was what she’d heard as well. “I guess they’re going to make a showing of it too. Just to show James that he hasn’t won a damned thing. I don’t think that’ll go over well, but it might be enough to get him caught.”
“Then what will happen to him? Has anyone said? Because to be honest, Lilac, I don’t care if he’s put in irons for the rest of his days or killed. He’s taken so much from everyone, and my love too.” Lilac told her that she was so sorry about that. “As am I. I never thought, never in all my wildest dreams, that he would do something like that. To kill his own father. And for what? Money? The castle? He was going to get all that anyway. Why did he feel the need to rush it along?”
“Only he’ll be able to tell us that.” Lilac thought about James. “I don’t think he’ll feel as if he needs to have a reason for anything that he’s done or is about to do. He just feels...I guess you could call it deserving. The way that he took me, tied me to a tree and expected me to stay there and wait for his return, made me realize that James isn’t normal and I’m not sure that I’d call him insane, but he isn’t normal. And had it not been for my faerie friends, I think that I would be dead now.” Marissa said again that she was sorry, and Lilac told her that it was all right. She had escaped and found her other half. “For a great many people it didn’t work that way. I’m counting myself lucky to have been in a position that I could escape him. There are so many that weren’t able to. And he will pay for that.”
“Yes—soon too, I hope. And I can’t help but worry that he’s plotting a way to get to you again right now. Or Griffith.” Lilac put her hand over hers and smiled. “You’re so very kind to me, Lilac. I’m so happy that you’re a part of Griffith’s life. You’ve made him smile. And that, in my book, makes you perfect for him.”
Blushing, Lilac thanked her. They had a lot of things to do today, and she was glad that they’d been able to talk. Sometimes, she knew, just talking to someone else made you feel like you could c
onquer anything you set your mind to. Something occurred to Lilac as she as finishing up her meal.
She’d not thought once of dying or ending her life. Before Griff, at least a two or three times a day, she’d think about ending her life or having someone put her to rest. Not because of anything that she’d done, but simply that she’d been around for so long, seen so much, that she’d resigned herself to thinking that it was never going to be better. That life as she’d known it was gone, and there wasn’t any point in trying to change any of it. Humans were so sad in that. Like they didn’t care about what they had but what they could get. Much like James was, but to a higher degree.
The furniture arrived at the castle just as she was getting ready to go over to see Elissa. Lilac had brought Marissa with her, just to make sure that things were put in the same places that they’d been before. And while there, she also made a list of things that had to be replenished, such as linens for everyday use, kitchen items and such. As well as a staff.
She and Griff had talked it over last night, and they were going to ask his mom to stay at the castle. It was a place where she’d feel comfortable, and she’d love being home. He had made sure that James could not get on the grounds by talking with the witch, Lady Beatrice. She had put a spell on the land and the castle that would keep even the most determined people out, thus keeping all those there safe as well.
Marissa was just directing where her bed went when Lilac saw James. He didn’t come any closer to the land, but stood just beyond it in the place that was the shortest distance from the forest. James stared at them while they worked, and Lilac wondered if his mother had even realized that he was there. Not wanting to ruin her good mood, Lilac reached out to Griff and told him what was going on.
Are you worried that he could harm you? She said that she wasn’t, just wanted to let him know that he was aware of the castle being loaded up and that his mom was there. I wish I could hear what he’s thinking right now. I bet he’s as pissed as I’ve ever seen him.
Griffith: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 8