by Jade White
“Oh,” said Macy. “For dragons only. If I’m intruding…”
“Not a bit, Macy,” said Aaron. “I was just wrapping things up with Eamon and these other gentlemen.”
“Wrapping it up successfully, I hope.”
“I’d say so,” Aaron replied, watching Larch out of the corner of his eye. “Are you getting tired? Want to call it a night?”
“I think so, if your friends can spare you.”
Aaron addressed Larch and the others. “I think we’ve wrapped things up here, wouldn’t you say?” He watched the other dragon executives shift and fidget a bit, nodding agreement. Larch stood still, narrowing his eyes, yielding for the moment. “We can follow up on this later, of course, if the young lady wants to leave. It was nice meeting you…Macy.”
“Nice meeting you too…Eamon,” Macy replied.
“Good night then, all of you. Thanks for a pleasant evening.” Again, there was an irony in his words, this one a bit plainer than the subtle irony of before.
The dragon execs said their good-nights as well, Larch standing by quietly and drilling holes in Aaron with his eyes as Aaron and Macy took their leave.
Once they were out of earshot of Larch and the others, Macy said to Aaron with further irony, “You seemed to be having fun with them. Or with Eamon, anyway.”
“Eamon is about as much fun as lice and ticks under a dragon’s scales. And did I see you having some kind of private head-to-head with Sophia Leland? What was that about?”
Macy wrapped her arm around Aaron’s and said intently, “I have something to tell you about that woman, and I want to wait at least until we’re sitting down in the limo on the way home to do it. Aaron, you may have to do something about her—especially once the triplets are born. I have a strange feeling about her.”
Aaron stopped in his tracks, turned Macy to face him, and looked at her with quiet alarm. “The triplets? Sophia said something about the kids?”
“She knows,” Macy answered anxiously. “I don’t know if she’s really psychic or if she found out some other way, but she knows. I couldn’t deny it because pretty soon it’s going to be common knowledge anyway.”
Aaron belted out a profane reaction almost as a shout. Macy had to squeeze at his arm to remind him to be quiet.
“Goddamnit!” Aaron growled. “Coming up to you like that in a public place, putting all that crap on you now of all times! Who the hell does she think she is? I don’t give a damn about any Prophecy of any Dragons Three! If she thinks she’s going to bring you and our kids into this mystical bullcrap of theirs, and have some religious weirdos hovering over our family, I’ve got news for her…” He darted his eyes out across the room for a glimpse of the redhead, as if he were ready to go dragon and go after her right there in the hotel.
“I told her I didn’t want these ideas of hers anywhere near our kids, and she seemed to get the message. But Aaron, once it gets out that we’re having triplets, and once we do have them, there are others of your people who are going to know about it, and some of them are going to believe in this so-called Prophecy too. I don’t want those people around our family either. People like that make me nervous.”
Aaron spat out a curse like a dragon spitting out a wad of flame. “People like that piss me off. Damn them and their f…king prophecies; I’m sick of them. Maybe I can’t keep Larch away from my business, but I can sure as hell keep that woman and her cronies the hell away from us. My papers don’t need a psychic columnist that badly; I'm firing her ass…”
Macy squeezed Aaron’s arm. “No, Aaron, don’t do that. You’ll only make yourself look bad. People could see it as persecution; you don’t want that. It’s enough if you just make it clear to her that she has to keep her distance and keep her friends away. Don’t make more trouble than we need.”
Aaron scowled. “It’s against my better judgement, but if you say so. But if push comes to shove, I’m shoving the hell back. Hard.” Seeing how upset Macy was, knowing how upset he himself was, and knowing that neither was especially good for the babies, Aaron let out a long, smoldering breath and forced himself to calm down. “You know what, let’s just go home; I need to unwind after this.” He brushed his fingers through her hair and gave her a quick, light kiss. “I could use a good lay if you’re up for it.”
“That sounds perfect,” said Macy. “When you’re doing it, it takes my mind off everything else.”
“And mine,” he said with another peck on her lips. “Let’s get the limo.”
With that, they left the gala.
_______________
In bed that night, Aaron continued a practice that he had begun shortly after learning Macy was pregnant. Once they were naked on the bed, he took his lips first to her stomach and abdomen, tenderly kissing her midsection all over, loving their unborn children as he loved their mother. They both recognized this as a ritual which would be taken as something almost as superstitious as the things that had so upset them this evening, if they did not understand that it was not something mystical but an act of bonding. The only magical thing about it was the way it made them both feel. It gave Aaron a feeling of assurance that he was taking care of the woman who was giving him the greatest gift of his life, and it gave Macy a feeling of abiding peace and security before he kissed his way lower, through her muff, and into her sex. Here he kissed and licked her, penetrated her with his tongue, and sucked her pulpy knob to bring her to a climax that made her mind shimmer, before topping her and inserting his urgently pulsing and hardened length and pumping her to his own wetly exuberant and always plentiful release. Afterward they slipped between the covers and curled up in each other’s arms, Macy taking in his warmth and enjoying as always the slippery feeling of his abundant seed leaking from her opening. And they fell asleep together, content in the worship of each other’s body that had brought them together in love.
_______________
Macy was beginning to show on the day they were married. Neither she nor Aaron especially cared. They were too happy to care, and they did not care who knew it—for the most part. They did not make any public announcement of the wedding. They registered in the appropriate places, even though they didn’t need presents, because they assumed—correctly—that their guests would want to give them things. The company of friends and family on their special day was all that they really wanted in the way of gifts. The event was small and tasteful, held at a large house in Connecticut where Macy had shot a number of commercials. For the honeymoon, Aaron had actually rented an entire mansion on Cape Cod with a private beach and gardens. Here Aaron introduced his bride to the pleasures of sex on the beach and on grass surrounded by hedge rows and beds of flowers. The mansion had multiple fireplaces, in the entrance hall, in the living room and the dining room, in the library, and in the master suite. Aaron took his bride from one fireplace to the other to make love to her, and of course kept her in bed for days at a time. And so, the party of two celebrated the joining of their lives on their way to becoming a party of five.
Andrew, Sam, and Kate Bedford were born after Macy endured an entire day of labor, and Aaron endured sitting with her and coaching her through the whole thing. Aaron understood how much greater the pain and rigor of the experience was for Macy than for him, but for him it was grueling all the same. At one point in the delivery room, Macy grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face, shocked and half-panicked expression and all, into hers. She bellowed to him, “Let’s be clear about something, Aaron Bedford. After today, you are never to touch me again unless we’re using birth control. I don’t care if it’s a pill or a patch, but we’re using it. Every time. Those little dragon-makers of yours are never going to do this to me again, do you understand?”
And of course, Aaron understood and agreed: for in his mind was the image of himself going into his other body one day and his wife coming up behind him with an axe and lopping off his wings and tail as retaliation for what he had put her through, giving birth to his children. The
night they resumed sex, he brought her a box of chocolates that he’d commissioned a chocolatier to make for him in the shape of a package of birth control pills, and a dozen red roses. Aaron spread the petals of the roses across the bed and opened a bottle of champagne for them, and three times that night he gave her what he had given her to make their three little dragons.
As Macy had studied the care and raising of weredragon infants, she was prepared for the experience of watching her human infant children morph into reptilian beings for the first time. The triplets were just a year old. It happened in the living room of the penthouse. Macy was sitting on the floor with them, playing with them by blowing bubbles at them and watching them laugh when the bubbles wafted over to them and popped against their skin. Macy laughed with them—until she noticed the scales breaking out on Kate’s face and the tiny horns budding from Kate’s forehead like acne on the face of a teenage girl. At once, she called for Aaron, who was working in the office upstairs. Aaron came running down just in time to see Kate’s entire face starting to shift and the back of her little blouse beginning to bulge from the first growth of wings, and the same things starting to happen to the boys. Hurriedly, Aaron and Kate got their three little ones undressed, and no sooner were they out of their clothing than they went into full morph. Kate was too transfixed by the moment, but Aaron had the presence of mind to whip out his iPhone and turn on the video camera, recording for posterity the first transformation of his children from their mother’s image to their father’s. In a minute’s time, three miniature dragons with scales in the same pattern as Aaron’s sat spreading their wings, arching their little reptilian necks, and whipping their tails on the penthouse floor. Macy did not notice at first that tears of wonder were streaking the astonished look on her face, and neither did Aaron until he turned the camera on her. After recording that moment as well, he turned off the camera phone and sat on the floor beside her, with one arm around her, and mother and father shared together a moment that was akin to watching human babies take their first steps.
Six months later, Aaron booked them a trip to a special resort in Massachusetts that catered to weredragons as well as human guests. The place had a huge, cavernous recreational area, six stories high, with walls for rock climbing, an indoor waterfall and lake for water sliding and swimming, and two gym areas, one for acrobatics and one for weight training. It also had an open area with an indoor lawn, made for the purpose that Aaron had in mind for bringing his family here. It was here that Aaron would teach the triplets to fly. He had them sit in the grass with Macy and watch him. He stripped down almost naked until he was wearing a special thong and cup for the benefit of the human guests, then shifted to bipedal dragon form. In the time since their first change, Aaron had taught the kids how to hold their forms between full human and full dragon. Once he was properly morphed, Aaron showed them how to take off and take a short flight around the rec space. He showed them twice, then it was their turn to try it for themselves.
Andrew proved the most adept at getting himself off the ground at first. It was he who showed the greatest initial ease at getting a running start and getting aloft for a short distance for the first time. Soon, he was staying up longer and going farther. His brother and sister, showing a competitive streak that they all had likely inherited from their dad, soon caught up with him, and soon the three Bedford siblings were making little scaly kites of themselves, gliding and wheeling about in the air of the rec area. Once he was satisfied with the kids’ confidence in their budding flight skills, Aaron took off with them, and the rec space of the resort was the scene of a dragon family in flight.
Or most of a dragon family. Macy sat quietly watching, holding Aaron’s clothes in her lap, looking up in wonder and a mother’s quiet pride. So many times as a young girl, she had imagined herself as a mother, wondering what kind of mom she would be and what kind of family she would have. She knew without a doubt that her family would be the greatest joy and satisfaction of her life. But never had she dreamed she would have a family like this. The father and her three children, flying around in shiny, scaly bodies with tails undulating in the air behind them, were beautiful in a way that only the mother of this kind of family could understand. They were the most beautiful and wondrous thing she had ever seen.
In spite of not wanting to expose the triplets to certain influences, Aaron and Macy watched for certain things as Andrew, Sam, and Kate grew smarter and stronger, becoming strong, healthy, and spirited Nathairfear children. They kept a cautious eye out for any signs of psychic talents: precognitive dreams or waking premonitions, evidence of reading minds or projecting thoughts. Ever since their confrontations with Eamon and Sophia at the Plaza Hotel, they had both conceded the possible existence of powers of the mind, and in spite of not wanting to embrace mystical and paranormal thinking, they had grown quietly wary of any expression of such powers in their children. If the triplets did exhibit such tendencies, they knew, there were people in the Nathairfear community who might take an interest—and it would not be the kind of attention they wanted for their family. So, Aaron and Macy both watched their children carefully for any suspect behaviors, such as seeming to follow instructions at playtime without verbally communicating. They were also vigilant about their children’s activities with other children, monitoring for any clues such as seeming to know what was going on in another child’s mind or saying things about another child or his family that only the child or his family should know. Thankfully, no such signs appeared. However, other talents did express themselves.
The Bedford children showed an almost preternatural aptitude for mechanics. They all had an instinctive ability to design and build machines—specifically, toys. It began innocently enough. Aaron bought them sets of Legos that the children were able to assemble on instinct alone without looking at instructions or blueprints. On a hunch, he next bought them a 3D printer, which they used to create things right out of their heads that did not belong to any Lego set. They built insects, dinosaurs, land vehicles, aircraft, spaceships, and of course dragons. On a further hunch, he began to bring them simple motors, gears, circuits, and lighting, just to see what they would do with them. To the astonishment of both of their parents, the triplets turned their playroom into a miniature theme park full of robots that had adventures and battles from one end to the other. The creativity, and the facility with which they used it, seemed almost magical and just a little bit frightening.
One night, Aaron settled down into bed beside Macy, who sat up staring absently into her iPad, seemingly oblivious to everything else including her strapping, stunning husband lying beside her with a colossal bulge in his tiny briefs. Aaron glanced over to find that she was watching videos of the triplets at play in their roomful of robots. She seemed as lost in watching them play as the kids were engrossed in their playing. Aaron remarked, “We may have the beginnings of a little industry here.”
Without looking up, Macy responded, “Hmm?”
“What the kids are doing. This could be the start of a new business: playrooms with robots based on their designs, or robot parts that other kids could put together into original robots of their own to play with, and have little battles with each other. I’m thinking of having a business case study done about it. What do you think?”
Still focused on her video, Macy said, “Mmm. That’s interesting.”
Aaron watched her watching the video, wondering what else to say to get her attention. Perhaps he should say nothing and just slip off his tiny briefs, and see how long it took her to notice that he had a toy of his own for her to play with. Before he could act on his idea, Macy finally lowered the iPad and said, now looking directly ahead, “Thank goodness this is all they can do.”
He nodded. “Yes, we’ve said before, it’s a relief that all they can do is make things. No signs of telepathy or precognition or clairvoyance. Just this. It’s strange, but it’s good.”
“It’s also good that no one’s been…approaching us, coming a
round us. Or them. Everyone knows we have triplets now, but no one’s been coming around. Or they haven’t been coming around me.” She turned to Aaron now. “Are you still getting no attention from any of…those people? Those people like Eamon and Sophia, people like that? They’re still not bothering you, right?”
“I haven’t heard anything from them, thankfully. They’ve just gone on the way they’ve always done, believing in the return of the Vonsahlans and waiting for them to come back. There may be some other Nathairfear couple with triplets that they’re bothering about their old Prophecy, though I haven’t heard about any, personally. I’m just glad they’ve left us and the kids alone. I wasn’t interested in dealing with them before, and I’m not interested in dealing with them now. Let them keep staying the hell away. We don’t need them and neither do the kids.”
“But doesn’t it strike you strange that they’d stay away and pay no attention to us? They know we have triplets; they’ve got to know. I think it’s…I don’t know, odd…that we haven’t been getting any attention from them. I mean, think of the way some human faiths are. They’re not shy; they come right to your door with books and magazines. They go through whole neighborhoods and make you wish you could get rid of them.”