by Tami Lund
“All right, ready to practice for your Emmy?” he asked. Petra rolled her eyes, but the smile tugging at her lips told him she appreciated the reassurance that he understood the rules of this game.
Not that they had to put on much of an act in the first location. The owner was human, and there were no signs any dragons at all had entered the shop. Still, Noah thoroughly enjoyed wrapping his arm around Petra’s shoulders when the pleasant woman greeted them and asked if she could help them find anything. And he took perverse pleasure in kissing the top of Petra’s head, breathing in the strawberry scent of her hair and holding his breath, willing his dragon to calm the hell down because his body was reacting quite predictably to a scent that had somehow become erotic to him.
Totally acting. This wasn’t real at all.
“She looks just like you,” the elderly man in the next shop said to Noah while talking nonsense to Sadie, who offered up a gummy smile in response.
“We did make a beautiful baby, didn’t we, sweetheart?” he said to Petra, grinning widely for the shop owner’s benefit. Really, it was an act.
The third and fourth places offered up similar experiences with the proprietors who greeted them. Finally, halfway through their stroll around the fifth shop, Petra grabbed his forearm and gave it a squeeze. “Smell that?”
He sniffed the air and then glanced around sharply. “Dragons.”
A tinkling noise indicated another customer had entered the shop. Noah watched two young dragons in shorts and T-shirts nod at the human woman manning the place, before heading toward a curio cabinet made of white-washed wood and glass. Inside was an assortment of dragon-shaped bric-a-brac. Mostly wood, pewter, and colored glass. None looked particularly expensive or terribly old.
“Is it weird that there’s a display of tiny dragons in this place?” he whispered to Petra as he nudged her away from the two young men pointing at the curio cabinet while the shopkeeper used a small silver key to unlock it. Noah pushed the stroller behind a teal-colored folding screen with giant magnolias painted on it and stood there spying on the interaction between the dragons and the human woman.
“It would be if it wasn’t a place dragons frequented,” Petra replied.
“It’s still weird. They don’t look valuable, although they do look like something a dragon would hoard. Which means it’s odd that they’re out here, for sale, instead of hidden away someplace. And check it out, she’s selling a few to those kids.”
“More than a few,” Petra said. “That one kid is buying a dozen, at least.”
“Did you see how focused they were when they walked in? Like they knew the display was here.”
The kids paid for their merchandise and headed for the door, stepping to the side so a jittery female could enter before they made their exit. She, too, was a dragon, and headed straight for the curio cabinet.
There was a lull after she left, and the shopkeeper headed over to see if Noah and Petra needed any help.
“Those dragons sure are popular,” Noah commented, nodding at the display.
The older lady nodded. “I know. And they aren’t even antiques. Which, by the way, I’m not supposed to tell customers. Even though it doesn’t matter. People looking for antiques don’t even bother with that cabinet. But all those little dragons are definitely popular. I figure it’s like a Pokémon phase or something.”
Or something.
“Are you the owner?” Petra asked.
The human woman chuckled. “Oh no. I just work here part-time.”
He and Petra locked gazes. “Tell me about the display,” Petra said.
The human employee glanced over her shoulder; the tinkling bells indicated another customer had entered the shop. This place was tens times busier than the other shops they’d checked out so far today.
“The owner is as obsessed with those little figurines as all the people who come in to buy them,” the employee said before bustling over to sell more tiny dragons.
When she returned to Noah and Petra, she said, “There are boxes of them in the back, and whenever we sell one, I’m supposed to replace it with another. Never let the shelves go empty. I don’t know where she gets them all, and like I said, they aren’t even antique.” She shrugged. “But people love them anyway.”
“Is the owner here, by chance?” Petra asked.
The other lady shook her head. “She’s supposed to come in around noon today. Is there something specific you’re looking for? I could call her.”
“No, no, that’s okay.” Petra contemplated the shop. “How long has she owned this place?”
The employee’s nose wrinkled as she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, like she was trying to find the answer there. “A few years. No more than five.”
Noah heard Petra’s sharp intake of breath. “What’s her name?”
“Delilah. Delilah Dawson.”
Petra’s fingernails dug into his arm. “You said she’d be here at noon?”
“Yes, but I can help you if—”
Petra gave Noah a push, urging him toward the door. “No, that’s okay. Thank you, have a nice day!” She hurried out of the shop, speed walking down the sidewalk, barreling through the clusters of humans wandering at a more leisurely pace, no doubt attempting to enjoy the late-morning sunshine.
At the end of the block, she twisted to face Noah. “We found her.” There was unfettered excitement in her voice, almost as much as there’d been last night when he’d given her an orgasm, and she’d demanded more.
Uh-oh, was he going to start relating every damn thing to having sex with Petra?
Sadie made a noise and flung her toy onto the sidewalk. Noah picked it up and handed it to her, and she tossed it out again while looking at Petra.
“I think she’s hungry,” he said.
Petra cupped one of her boobs. “Yeah, it feels like it’s time to feed her.”
He sure hoped whatever physical attraction they had lasted until she was done breastfeeding. He had lots of fantasies stored up that involved those puppies. “Come on, Café Beignet is right here. I can’t leave New Orleans without trying their pastries.”
Petra walked along next to him while he pushed the stroller across the street. “You planning to go home soon?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Not until your assignment is done.”
“Gabe’s okay with that?”
He held the door open for Petra. The place was packed, but she managed to snag a two-top table in a corner. Sadie had begun to fuss, so she plopped down, lifted the wiggling infant out of the stroller, and then held her in one arm while draping a blanket over them both. Noah was fascinated by the ease with which she managed the process of feeding their child.
“Show’s over,” she said with an amused smirk. “How about getting in line and ordering us some food?”
He shook his head like he was trying to wake from a trance and asked what she wanted.
“I’ll take a muffaletta, a glass of water, and an iced café mocha.”
Clearly, she’d been here before. He headed to the cashier to place their orders and returned a short time later with a tray loaded with food. Of course he ordered gumbo—and beignets. He placed their orders on the table and bent over and kissed the top of her head.
“No reason to keep up the act right now,” she said. Yeah, they weren’t, in fact, a couple, and she had no intention of moving in that direction. Obviously, he’d fallen a little too deeply into his role.
“Right,” he muttered, seating himself across from her. He savored that first bite of gumbo. Damn, he needed to find himself a few cookbooks while he was here, because he definitely wanted to learn how to cook New Orleans style.
“I haven’t told Gabe what’s going on,” he said after a couple more spoonfuls.
“What do you mean?” Petra asked.
“I mean, I was in the kitchen making Halloween treats for the school when Gabe and Talia started talking about that charge at Nola Kids. And when Gabe read your respond
ing texts out loud, I remembered that we hadn’t used protection and the timeline seemed to fit, and when he said he hadn’t heard much from you in about three months, I literally dropped what I was doing and ran out the back door. I shifted and flew here. My only communication with him since I left was a text telling him I had a family emergency and I’d be in touch as soon as I could.”
Petra’s eyes widened. “You lied to him?”
He frowned. “No. It was a family emergency. You—well, Sadie’s family. And the fact that I didn’t know she existed until yesterday constitutes an emergency in my mind.”
Her gaze dropped to the floor as she extracted Sadie from her breast and lifted the child to her shoulder to burp her.
“Here,” he said, reaching for the baby. “I’ll take her. I can eat one-handed. I’m not so sure you can. That sandwich is huge.”
There was reluctance in her actions as she handed Sadie to him. “I’m not used to this. Having someone else help take care of her. Well, I mean, Pacey and Rebecca have been amazing, but that’s different.”
It sure as hell was.
After propping the baby in one arm, he resumed eating and said, “I just want to be part of my daughter’s life. That’s it.”
Yep, that’s it. Keep telling yourself that, Noah.
“That’s it?” she repeated dubiously.
“Well, I’d like to continue having sex with you, too. I’m not gonna lie, that’s a pretty fantastic bonus to this whole unexpected fatherhood gig.”
She rolled her eyes while her lips twitched, until she finally admitted, “Yeah, that’s definitely a perk. But that’s it,” she added, suddenly serious again. “Nothing else.”
“No homemade breakfasts? I’m thinking about training myself to cook beignets. I’m going to need someone to practice on.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He waved his spoon at the sandwich she hadn’t yet started. “Eat. And let’s go through this again to make sure we aren’t missing anything. We know Gabe’s mother cursed our colony. And the theory is, she felt jilted by his father.”
Petra took a bite and after she swallowed, said, “Gabe’s parents pretty much did exactly what we did when we conceived Sadie.”
“Had amazing, albeit unprotected, sex up against a tree out in the woods?” He stole one of the chips from her plate and popped it into his mouth while she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.
“Okay, I don’t know quite that much detail, but, yes, they apparently had unprotected sex, which resulted in Gabe. Problem was, back then, there was no curse, and Gabe’s dad met his fated mate and called it quits with Gabe’s mom, not knowing she was pregnant at the time.”
She paused to take another bite from her sandwich.
What if they ultimately were successful with this assignment? What if they figured out a way to lift the curse? And what if the same thing happened—Petra returned to the colony and met her fated mate?
“When Dahlia figured out she was pregnant, she went to Gabe’s dad and told him, but he blew her off since he was in love with someone else. Then she had the baby and showed up on his doorstep again, figuring he’d take her in since she had birthed his child. But he still blew her off. Apparently, the whole fated mates gig is a pretty powerful connection.”
“It is,” Noah said. The curse had already been enacted by the time Noah was born, but his parents had often talked of how wonderful it had been to be fated mates. And then his dad had been so devastated when his mom died, had been unable to figure out how to function, how to love again. And that was with the curse; Noah couldn’t imagine what the man would have done if he’d been burning with that sort of passion for Mom at the time of her death.
“So she apparently gave the baby—Gabe—to his father and his mate, and left the colony, but not before swearing to get revenge for him screwing her over. Four years later, she cursed the entire colony.”
“I’ve never heard of a dragon being able to use magic other than shifting.”
She frowned. “Yeah, that’s an interesting aspect to all of this. Although the fact that it took four years for her to do it probably explains that. She obviously used that time to learn how to do it.”
“You know what else is interesting? Those little figurines. The way all those young dragons were buying them up, like they were actually worth something.”
“I agree that was weird.” She polished off her sandwich and glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s after twelve. Let’s go back and see if Delilah’s there. I’d really like to know how the hell she managed to curse an entire colony of dragons.”
***
Noah clutched the handle of the stroller and watched from the sidewalk as a steady stream of people entered and exited the antique shop he and Petra suspected Gabe’s mother owned. Most were dragons. The majority of those were young, upper teens and early to mid-twenties, although older ones were sprinkled in there, too.
“The woman has to be making a fortune on those figurines. But why? Dragons love treasure, sure, but those little knickknacks—it doesn’t make sense. A dragon would want a unique treasure, if not a valuable one,” he mused.
“Only one way to find out,” Petra said, and she started toward the shop, with him kicking into gear and following while pushing the stroller.
When they entered the storefront, they veered right, away from the popular curio cabinet, and pretended to peruse a display of Mardi Gras-themed items that, according to a small placard resting on an old oak dresser, were from the turn of the twentieth century.
Noah caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch the human woman they met earlier step into the shop from a back room. She smiled when she spotted Noah and Petra, and then whispered something in the ear of the lady hovering near the miniature dragon display. The woman—a dragon—glanced up and acknowledged them with a brief nod. She and the human exchanged a few words, and then she left her employee to sell the knickknacks while she headed in Noah and Petra’s direction.
Dragons aged at about half the rate of humans, so while this woman was likely sixty or possibly older, she looked only a few years older than Noah. Her hair was midnight black, a straight curtain draping to the middle of her back. She had a heavy hand with the black liner around her eyes, and her lips were full, pale, and glossy. She wore a choker necklace with a large green stone fastened to the middle of the thick, gold band. The tops of her ample breasts swelled over the low-cut neckline of her long, black dress.
“Hello there,” she said in greeting as her gaze traveled the length of first Petra and then Noah before flicking briefly to the baby sleeping in the stroller. She offered a limp hand to Noah, like she wanted him to kiss her knuckles or something, but he shook it instead.
“You are dragons,” she said. “But not from around here.”
Petra shook her head and stuttered over the cover they’d devised. “West. Out west.” She swallowed. “Colorado.”
The lady nodded. “Very different from New Orleans.”
“Very,” Petra agreed and appeared to relax. “We’re vacationing here.”
“Ah.”
“I’m Petra.” She held out her hand to shake.
The other woman gave her hand a sour look before reluctantly squeezing it once and then releasing. “Petra, you say? I’m Delilah, and I own this shop. Is there something in particular you’re looking for?”
“Well, we’re quite fascinated by all things Mardi Gras,” Noah said. “But what’s going on over there? Why are all those other dragons so interested in that curio cabinet?”
Delilah’s gaze darted to the latest cluster hovering around her human employee. “It’s a local thing. Nothing that would interest you.”
“I don’t know. If it’s specific to New Orleans, it might be something I’d like to add to my hoard.”
Delilah’s lips twitched, as though she found him amusing but was trying to suppress her laughter. “Trust me, that isn’t what you want to add to your trea
sures. Fated mates, I presume?”
Noah wrapped his arm around Petra’s shoulders and grinned. She stiffened for a moment before sliding her arm around his waist. “Yep,” he said, as if he were proud of that fact. As if he wanted it to be true.
“Of course you are.” Delilah’s tone was derisive, which certainly went along with the fact that she may very well be the woman who cursed an entire colony and took away their ability to find their fated mates.
“I know,” Petra said, snapping her fingers and glancing up at Noah. “Voodoo. Magic. Curses.” She turned her focus to Delilah. “That’s what we should take home with us. A book of spells or something. Something different from a Mardi Gras mask or beads. Something unique.”
Well done, babe.
“Do you have anything like that?” she asked Delilah. “Even if it isn’t real?”
“If you purchase anything in my shop, it will most definitely be real,” Delilah said, her nose thrust into the air. Petra definitely hit a nerve with her questions.
Even those worthless dragon figurines?
“Even better,” Petra said. “Authentic. This is exactly what we’ve been looking for since we arrived,” she said, casting doe eyes at Noah. Damn, she was good. And sexy.
Was she sexy because he was so impressed by her acting skills or because he just generally found her attractive?
Delilah lifted her hand to the green stone at her neck, stroking it for a moment before she shook her head. “I don’t sell anything like that here.”
Liar. She may not sell anything associated with magic, but she’d obviously dabbled in it at some point. Cursing an entire colony was no small feat for anyone, let alone a dragon.
“We can pay,” he cut in. “Cash. Tell us how much and we’ll make it happen.”
If she took the bait, she’d likely arrange for the sale to occur in a more private setting, and then they could corner her, ask about the curse. Convince her to break it. And then they could go home.
Together.