by Alisha Basso
Along with Lila, who was still at his side, they all gave him more than one reason to make sure this ended without any of them being killed.
Chapter 19
Parked down the street from the shop, using binoculars, Claude watched the winemaker enter the shop. Jealousy consumed him, the only fire he would ever have in his belly.
He knew. He’d tried often for that fire but could never achieve it.
Because he wasn’t a full dragon. At first, he’d thought that if his mother hadn’t left, perhaps she could have shown him how to achieve the fire. But now he believed that he just couldn’t do it.
The ennui and, worse, despair settled over him like toxic dust. It wasn’t fun to be a half dragon. He’d lived longer than full humans, but he lived alone. He’d collected money and homes and women ... and none of it mattered.
He’d waited for wisdom, and the only wisdom that came was a contempt for humans for the way they treated each other and the Earth. And he was no better morally than anyone else, which meant he despised himself.
But he wasn’t ready to leave humanity and find his mountaintop to perch on—or even a church where he would tell the truth about himself. No one would believe him, and his only followers would be the crazies.
He didn’t need them, that was for certain. He had his own crazy.
But he wasn’t giving up, though these last days had knocked the conceit out of him.
Jin didn’t love him. She would never love him. Right now, she was toying with the golden-haired Scotsman, and Claude admitted to himself that she wasn’t going to turn to him.
And he couldn’t force her.
But she was still the only dragon he knew on earth.
Despair threatened to swallow him. He’d spent a lot of money finding her then following her. He didn’t regret it. Money was easy.
Making her care for him was impossible.
Yet somehow he had to achieve the impossible.
The only alternative was a slow death—first his soul and then his body.
Even as he thought this, his burning belly rebelled.
And so did his mind, shouting, Hell no!
He had one more alternative. It would involve the items in his trunk that he’d never planned to use ... unless he was desperate.
He grew hot, his breaths fast, his heart beating too fast.
He was desperate now, but he didn’t think he could do this. Kill someone else.
Better that he killed himself, but he’d tried before—more than once—and each time, he hadn’t been able to do it.
A plan formed in his mind.
To achieve it, he had to get inside...
* * *
A six-foot-two golden Viking followed Jin into the living room, diverting Lila’s attention from the egg. His warm brown eyes glistened as if he were a golden retriever puppy and Jin was his owner.
A hmmm hummed through Lila. Nice. No wonder Hamish made Noah’s mother’s stern face soften.
Noah strode into the room, and as she smiled at him, she wondered if she looked at him with puppy eyes like Hamish.
Mystic meowed at Noah’s feet, rubbing her cheeks against his legs, marking him with her scent that said, Mine. This human belongs to Mystic.
No, he doesn’t, Lila thought. He belongs to me.
She had her scent on him, too. The thought gave her immense satisfaction.
Introductions were made, but Hamish kept shooting furtive glances at the large, gleaming egg in the room. Lila doubted if he would remember her name.
“That’s real?” He took a step toward it and stumbled.
Jin caught him, holding him tightly in a way that was not common in a normal woman who had so recently given birth. He was a tall, muscled man, but she didn’t even appear strained, pushing him upright with one slender hand.
“Did you drive all night?” she asked.
“I wanted to get back to you.” He gave her a bone-melting look that didn’t seem to melt anything in her.
Instead, she released his arm and stepped back. “You have to take care of yourself.”
“I’m worried about you.”
“As you can see, I’m fine.”
“Well, I was worried about...” He stopped, looked at the egg, and Lila could practically see a light go off on top of his head. He took a step forward, and a frown furrowed across his forehead. “Is that ... ours?”
“I told you this might happen.” Jin’s voice was hard. “You said you believed me.”
“I did, I did.” He turned to her, the frown still on his forehead. “I guess I just thought you were having fun with me.”
“Fun?” Her voice could have frozen Lake Michigan in summer.
He sighed and pressed the heel of his right hand against his forehead. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. I’m tired, and you can’t blame me for having a hard time trying to swallow that.”
“You’re calling the baby that?”
Frustration crossed his face. “That’s not what I—”
“That’s exactly what you called it.” Her voice was as sharp as an assassin’s knife. “What will you call it next? Monster?”
“You don’t have to be so dramatic.”
She didn’t say anything, but fire flashed in her eyes.
Lila rolled her eyes. How could men be so thick? She was certain this wasn’t the reunion Jin had been hoping for.
Noah stepped to Hamish’s side. “After that long drive, you’re probably tired. Come. I’ll take you to the bedroom.”
Jin turned her back to them, which relieved Lila, as she suspected that Jin had a different suggestion on what Hamish could do with himself.
On the other hand, an egg was a bit hard to ... well, not to swallow. Not physically, anyway. But hard to look at and think there was a child inside.
Though if he had a rough time looking at an egg, what if it turned out to be a dragon? If she could have bet money on what would be inside the egg, hers would go for a dragon. She wasn’t an expert on what happened during pregnancy, but she did know that a human baby was connected to the mother’s umbilical cord in order to receive much-needed nutrients.
As these thoughts whipped through her mind, Noah grasped Hamish’s upper arm and turned him around. The Scotsman gave rigid Jin’s back a pleading look, but she didn’t turn to see it. He twisted forward and stumbled next to Noah, catching his balance, then lurched along with him.
Lila winced. He made her think of a small boy in trouble, and she might have felt sorry for him, only there was nothing small about him. And it was her opinion that if a man was careless enough to get a woman pregnant, he needed to be man enough to accept the consequences with a smile.
No matter what happened.
She stepped up to Jin. “Let’s watch the egg.” She put her hand on Jin’s back and nudged her forward. “I don’t know what’s wrong with men that makes them so stupid.”
Jin looked at her. “It’s been like this through the ages.”
“How can you stand it?”
“Dragons never live with the father.”
“Ha! Dragons are a smart breed.”
Jin’s laugh was harsh. “Sometimes I wonder what happened to us. Why did we seem to disappear? I think I’ve found the answer.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“I’ve concluded it’s our intelligence that has made us nearly extinct.” She raised her voice. “We—meaning female dragons—no longer wanted to mate with the insensitive and thickheaded males.”
Lila looked at her then at the egg. There was no way she could argue with that.
Still, Noah was the best thing that had happened to her. And he wasn’t thickheaded. Well, just once in a while. But she wasn’t perfect, either.
And maybe someday, she and he might have a baby, too. If Jin and Hamish could have a child, it might be possible for her and Noah.
A thrill shivered through her ... and as she looked straight at the egg with the two cracks in it, the thrill turned ice-cold.
*
* *
“I’m going downstairs to pack some orders.” Noah stood in the kitchen again. Though the shop was closed, they did three-fourths of their business through their website.
Lila squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes at him, a look that would very likely intimidate any other man with a working brain.
He just wanted to kiss her.
She put her hands on her hips, and if his mother hadn’t been nearby, he might have succumbed to his urge to lift one of her hands, pull down her slacks and her panties, and kiss the warm flesh that covered that hip.
And then work his way down to a lower, warmer, and more intimate place.
She flushed, as if she knew what he’d been thinking. She probably did. He was transparent to her. Most of the time, he knew what she was thinking, too.
“Come with me,” he said, his voice low. “I need you with me. Jin doesn’t need you watching over her.”
“How do you know? After all, she just had a...” Her mouth shaped the syllable ba, then she unshaped her lips and raised an eyebrow. “Egg. She has to watch the egg.”
“She’s used to doing things by herself.” As he said it, he thought of all of the things he’d done. Jin had said she’d been watching him. “She prefers it that way. And Hamish might wake up soon.”
Lila frowned at him for a moment, and he smiled at her. Since he didn’t smile often, he thought it might be a deal sealer.
She stepped back. “Don’t play me.”
“What?” He raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t above coercing her. Wasn’t that the human way? Whether it was or not, he was all for it. Especially if it led to the outcome that he wanted most.
He had a leather love seat in his office downstairs. It was small, but they’d used it for lovemaking before and had learned the angles on it and how to adjust their positions for maximum pleasure.
And there was always the rug on the floor.
They’d used that, too.
When she didn’t answer right away, he said, “My mother will call us when the egg cracks farther.”
Her eyes narrowed, and he could see her brain working, the cells in it crackling with invisible, lightning-swift connections.
He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He could lean forward and put his arms around her and kiss her until she melted against him.
Instead, he took a step back. He didn’t want to manipulate her. It had to be her choice.
Her expression changed. She laughed low in her throat, stepped forward, and kissed him hungrily. With a sigh, she drew back, looked him in the eyes, then laughed again and kissed him with her lips together. Short and sweet.
He closed his eyes. Even before she pulled away, he knew what that meant.
This time when he opened his eyes, she looked at him with that sorry expression that girls and women used so much more than men, her shoulders up, her hands out. “I should stay with your mom until Hamish wakes up. Maybe she’s used to being alone, but sometimes it’s better to be with someone else.”
He shook his head but smiled at her with his eyes. He loved her for her stubbornness, even if it wasn’t necessary in this case. She had been the protector of her mother and her sister—and many other women. If she thought a woman might have the smallest chance of needing her, she wasn’t going to leave her. Even one as self-sufficient as his mother.
Leaning forward, he said, “I’m going to kiss you. Hard.”
Before he could do anything, she grabbed him, and she kissed him just like he’d threatened, her teeth pressing her lips against his and their tongues tangoing.
When she released him, he threw his head back and let out a bellow of laughter.
Then he looked over her and saw his mother watching the egg, her back to them, not even turning to see what they were up to. His laughter fled. He nodded, then turned to the door.
Though his mother seemed to think the danger was over, he’d had experience with a madman before. He and Lila. He knew that anything could happen.
Chapter 20
“You didn’t have to stay,” Jin said.
“I wanted to.” Lila sat on the rug, a few feet from Jin. She bent one leg, the knee in the air, and leaned her head against it. One of the great things about being an expert in karate was that it kept her flexible.
Another great thing was that she could beat the crap out of almost anyone.
“I know I wasn’t a good mother,” Jin said again. “I know you blame me for not showing up in Noah’s life before this.”
“You want to know what I think?” Lila let go of her leg and shifted to face Jin. “Noah is the most wonderful man I’ve met. He doesn’t act out of meanness. He’s a man—or dragon—of his word. He behaves honorably and is generous without letting people take advantage of him. He’s strong. I’m not talking about body strength, though of course he’s physically strong. Incredibly strong. But he’s strong in every other way, too. He’s loyal, and he’ll do anything—” Her voice cracked, and she stopped, averting her gaze from Jin, her throat choked up.
This was too much, telling all of this to her lover’s mother. She was going too far.
Jin’s long-fingered hand was light on her shoulder. “I understand. You love my son.”
Nodding, Lila turned back to Jin, her emotions in control again. “I love him because he’s a good man. And he’s a good man because you raised him right.”
Jin stared at her, and Lila felt as if Jin were trying to peer into her mind and see if she were telling the truth about giving Jin credit for Noah’s nature.
The answer would be a big maybe. Lila didn’t know. She wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been there.
But she loved Noah, and he loved her. And she could see that, despite her aloofness, Jin loved Noah, too.
Lila sucked in her breath before she spoke again. “I know that our early years are our formative years. That’s the way it is with humans, anyway, and I think it’s true for all species. Whatever you did or you didn’t do, he’s the best person I know. So you must have done something right.”
And that really was the truth.
Jin’s mouth worked, sucking in and out, and she looked down and up, and she nodded and put her hands over her eyes, then lowered them.
“Thank you.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper. “I’ll do even better this next time.”
Lila reached out and touched the forearm closest to her. “Sometimes too much is worse than too little.”
“I’ll remember that.” Jin nodded, even as Lila thought, What do I know?
After all, she wasn’t pregnant. She’d never had a child. The closest she’d come to helping raise one was her sister. The thought brought a twist of pain in her chest, because that hadn’t worked out very well.
As she and Jin watched each other, the bed creaked in the guest bedroom, and in the middle of the rug they sat on, the egg cracked loudly.
Their gazes snapped to the egg. At the same instant, running footsteps thumped up the steps. Noah. Of course it was him. With his sharpened dragon hearing, he’d heard the crack.
Her breath was still sucked in as she leapt to her feet.
Jin, with her dragon agility and speed, beat her by a second.
They were barely on their feet when the door to the hallway slammed open and Noah was rushing to them.
As he opened his mouth to say something, an alarm went off downstairs.
The next second, the back door downstairs crashed open.
* * *
Desperation twisted through Claude’s bloodstream, into his gut. A terrible burn. That and his longevity and, perhaps his brains, were his only legacy from his mother, who’d abandoned him so long ago.
The mother who was probably dead.
And he knew why. Without sharing, without having anyone who cared about him, not even good friends, his life was empty.
He stood inside the back hall, gasping for breath, holding the assault rifle, thinking, This is it. My last chance. This is all that I’ve got.
<
br /> If this doesn’t work...
Maybe they’ll kill me.
His foot was on the bottom step while he looked up the stairway where he was pretty sure they gathered. As he hefted the assault rifle into a shooting position, he didn’t know if he would be happier if they killed him...
Or if they didn’t.
Chapter 21
Noah whipped around. “Stay here,” he ordered.
As he ran downstairs, three steps at a time, he heard footsteps rushing after him. Lila. Even at a time like this, he recognized the sound of her steps. Adrenaline rushed through him. He couldn’t let her be harmed.
Why hadn’t she listened to him?
But he knew the answer. She would think she was there to make sure he was all right.
Damn her for that. And love her for that.
Jin wasn’t coming. She was staying upstairs to protect the egg.
Hamish was probably still sleeping soundly and hadn’t heard the break-in.
Noah wished he could say the same thing about the intruder. The landing was six feet away. Whoever was down there had to have heard him running down the steps like an army of men. There was no way to surprise the intruder, and that infuriated him.
And Lila was running down the steps after him, almost as swiftly as he. He needed to confront the intruder before Lila caught up to him.
He leapt the six feet forward, flying for a good five feet and slamming down in a crouch on the landing ... where he looked straight into the barrel of a three-foot rifle pointing between his eyes.
The perfect place to blow his brains out.
“Assault rifle!” Noah shouted to warn Lila, and his muscles tightened as he readied to leap forward at the muscular, swarthy-complexioned man who held the thick-barreled rifle as if he knew how to use it. The half dragon who’d been Jin’s reason for leaving her winery.
Introductions weren’t necessary. Noah could smell the faint dragon scent—a blend of the sun and the earth and the sky. And he was acutely aware of the man’s finger on the trigger. More important, he was aware of Lila slowing her descent. Creeping down the steps. Readying herself to launch forward to protect him.