by Kira Nyte
Once again, he sensed her fighting the urge to shut down. Only this time, he refused to allow it. Not when she’d obviously come looking for him.
Alazar hung up his stick and started racking the balls so they’d be ready for the next players. “How about we go for a walk?”
He was briefly surprised when she came up beside him to help place the balls in the rack. He looked at her, caught her shy glance, and grinned.
“I’d really like that, Alazar.”
Chapter Twelve
At ten o’clock, foot traffic along the main portion of Nocturne Falls was almost as busy as it was during the day. Numerous street performers and live acts were in progress, drawing astonished crowds of onlookers. Even though it was a Thursday night, music pulsed in the air from a nearby club and other bars. What Alazar called “fairy lights” twinkled up and down Main Street’s storefronts, enhancing the magical appearance of the town. Vampires dressed their parts and engaged groups of tourists with dramatic tales and flashes of fangs—fangs that were the real deal, Alazar assured her. A magician created a bouquet of flowers from a puff of purple smoke.
The night was wild, the air filled with vibrant energy that sank into her soul with that elusive promise of happiness.
Ariah tugged the supple leather jacket tighter around her body to ward off the chill of the late September night. Georgia or not, fall nights could lend a surprising bite, foresight she had lacked when she left her uncle’s house in a dash to find Alazar.
She had barely shivered when he peeled his jacket off and draped it around her shoulders without question or comment. His scent surrounded her, warmed her twice as much as the leather, and settled her nerves.
Maybe the man walking close beside her helped, too. As laid back and funny as Alazar appeared, there was definitely something dangerous and beastly about him. His height was eye-catching and comforting to her smaller five-five stature. He was muscular beneath the simple black T-shirt. The fabric stretched over his chest and appeared to melt into his biceps. The angles of his face were fierce, but his ever-lasting smile and laughter, along with the soft glow of his eyes, smoothed every razor-sharp edge. His hair, now completely pulled back in one of those strange trendy man buns, fit him perfectly. She had to bite back her request for him to let it down.
Three times.
A gold chain glinted above the collar of his shirt. His watch looked like one of those crazy expensive gold timepieces she’d expect to see her uncle wearing. She didn’t doubt the price tag of Alazar’s was anything less than astronomical.
Alazar cut her a glance with a knowing smile. “You’re staring at me.”
Her cheeks burned and she laughed.
“Busted,” she said, knocking him in the arm with her elbow. “Like you don’t stare.”
“I have. You just haven’t noticed.”
She noticed, all right. Every time his attention focused on her, she wanted to melt. Her heart would start racing and breathing became a chore. A flutter teased the base of her throat. Her skin tingled. Her legs, not just her knees, turned to mush reinforced by toothpicks. Alazar’s effect on her was profound, to say the least.
“Or, have you?”
Ariah tsked. “I think I’ll let you simmer in your own ideas about that.”
“Darling, I’ve been simmering. Boiled dragon isn’t a delicacy, I assure you.”
She laughed. “You have a way about you that can make people feel so comfortable.”
“Except for the one who matters.”
Alazar sidestepped a group of teenagers dressed up like skeletons. Ariah didn’t miss the way he cocooned her without encapsulating her in his arms. She wouldn’t have minded his embrace.
“I am comfortable. It’s just…hard to face certain things.”
“What is it you fear, Ace? How you’ll sound? How I’ll react? How you’ll react when you hear yourself say out loud whatever it is you have to tell?”
D. All of the above.
Her biggest fear, though, was having this new spark of hope snuffed out. She still pinched herself every now and again to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
“My uncle. He hasn’t told you much, has he?”
“The first time I’ve seen Mark in thirty years was earlier at Hallowed Bean. He wouldn’t tell me anything in his office. Maybe because he couldn’t. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether or not you want to share your past with me.”
She looked up at him. “Will you share yours?”
A shadow crossed his face. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if it was from the lighting of the streetlamps until she caught the very tip of scales along his chin disappearing. Their presences was ghost-like, leaving her to wonder how much of Alazar was the dragon and vice-versa.
Who controlled whom?
“I control the dragon. Not the other way around. That’s asking for an increase in unexplained fires.” He slowed down and brushed aside her bangs. “And yes. I’ll share my past with you.”
Ariah caught his hand as he lowered it to his side, folding her fingers between his. “Thank you.”
He raised their hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Anything you need.”
“You mean that.”
“I can be serious when I need to be.”
She didn’t doubt that for a moment. She wondered how others perceived this magnificent man walking beside her if he had to make such a statement.
“You know, we were under the impression that your father was killed at The Hollow.”
Ariah inched closer and placed her head on his arm. “Is that the magical land my uncle used to tell me about?”
“Possibly.”
“Was it destroyed?”
Ariah listened to the somber sigh that left his lips. “No. Not the way you think. The heart and soul, the essence of the land has been stained by death and deception. The world itself is a living entity. It has recovered and is more beautiful than ever.”
Ariah dug out the memories of her uncle telling her about a mystical world that existed beyond human reach. He had described certain aspects in such stunning detail that Ariah could picture herself standing riverside, listening to the birds sing and the rocks sluice the water falling from the cliffs. She could smell the fragrances of rose and jasmine, or a hybrid of the two, and see silky white petals fall from tree branches like summer snow. The grass was emerald green and fields swayed with wildflowers of every color imaginable. Mountain peaks rose up from valleys, draped in ivy and blooming vines.
“He told me stories.” She cleared the husk from her throat. “Mark.”
“From the projection you gave me, seems he did a pretty good job.”
Ariah turned her eyes up to find Alazar staring down at her. “Really?”
Alazar stroked her cheek and nodded. “Yes.”
His sincerity drew her in by the heartstrings, fanning those sparks of hope to life. If she wasn’t careful, it would become a blaze in no time.
She couldn’t afford to let that happen. Not right now.
“So, you thought my father was dead.”
“We had no indication that he survived the attack on the home he shared with your uncle. The Baroqueth launched a surprise attack on The Hollow in the middle of the night. Keepers tried to herd families to safety while we fought the sorcerers from the sky. It was a nightmare in the most literal sense of the word. We watched our brother dragons fall from the sky after being struck by deathblows of Baroqueth magic. The slayers went through the villages, melting homes with dark magic. The remaining dragons fought to get the survivors out of the Hollow. Dragons and Keepers were separated if one, the other, or both weren’t killed. Cade, our leader, proposed the separation of dragons and their Keepers in this world and we all went into deep hiding.”
“Oh my. How horrible.”
Her heart tore from the short glimpse of memories he projected to her. Fire. Apocalyptic fire everywhere. Sheer, unimaginable horror and destruction.
“Wasn’t my first battle.
Most likely won’t be the last. It’s that universal balance thing. Everything needs balance, although I haven’t figured out what kind of sick entity thinks annihilating an entire species is ‘keeping the balance.’” He shrugged one shoulder, disrupting the comfort of her head against his arm. “But the discovery of female Keepers and lifemates is definitely a balancing technique I’m all for.”
“And why is that?” she teased.
“Oh, I know a few reasons off the bat.”
“Care to share?”
“For one, it’s nice to know someone can understand you, accept you, and allow you to be true to yourself. Devotion for lifemates can’t be broken down. It’s something that blossoms intensely in a short period of time. A whisper deep inside your soul connecting with another. It’s a sense of security. An element even the strongest of us need.”
When Ariah finally looked around them to see where they were, she smiled. The lush grounds of the park were not nearly as crowded as they were earlier, with only a few small groups of walkers taking a late-night stroll. A few had gathered at the fountain to talk to the stone gargoyle, waiting for the statue to actually speak.
“Ah, looks like Nick’s on duty tonight.”
“Who?” Ariah glanced around before she followed Alazar’s gaze to the fountain.
“Nick. Our neighbor. The gargoyle you thought I was joking about.”
“You’re telling me that huge stone statue is actually a real gargoyle?”
Alazar led her to a park bench close to the fountain and motioned for her to sit. She accepted the invitation, as well as the strength in the man who sat beside her. Close beside her.
“I’ve been telling you that all day. I’ll introduce you to him later when there aren’t humans around. He enjoys surveillance. Not much of an interacting kind of fellow.”
“Guess the idea gargoyles are real shouldn’t be too hard to accept, considering what I’ve seen in you.”
Alazar stretched an arm across the back of the bench behind her, and rested his ankle on his opposite knee. “You still have the dragon in whole to see.”
The prospect excited her. “I’m sure I will.”
“Oh, Ace. You will.” He cast her a side-glance. “Tell me why your eyes are haunted.”
It was coming. She knew it was only a matter of time before she couldn’t steer the conversation away from the very reason she came out again tonight. She was a mess. A hot, rattled mess.
“Perhaps I am haunted. Feels like my closet is full of skeletons.”
“Ariah, we all have skeletons. A skeleton is what provides support to each of us.” Alazar’s expression was serious and thoughtful. Ariah opened her mouth with a comeback, but he continued. “Without skeletons, we’d be flaccid blobs of skin and tissue. No matter how deep you try and hide it, remember it is part of who you are. Your experiences, your triumphs, and your failures. From those secrets you lock up to the experiences you share to help others. Every part of your skeleton, however dark, however haunting, is the seed to something beautiful, if you nurture it.”
Ariah stared at this philosophical Alazar in awe. The depth of his argument was both breathtaking and raw.
He had a valid point. The skeletons she tried to hide were the very essence of the person she was. Hard as it was, almost impossible at times, she fought through and made it out, stronger than before.
Ariah drew a leg up beneath her and contemplated whether or not to lean against Alazar. His arm came around her shoulders and pulled her close a moment later.
Decision made.
“Remember that perfection does not exist. Even in the most perfect of creatures, there are imperfections you don’t see.” Alazar pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was beginning to regret getting spooked earlier before she had the chance to finally experience his kiss. She only hoped she hadn’t screwed that chance up for a future attempt. “So, the stage is yours, my darling Ariah.”
“You can steal it back from me.”
“No. I can’t. You came out tonight for a reason.”
“I did.” She resigned herself to whatever outcome their talk produced. Sooner or later, she’d have to tell him because a relationship of any kind could not survive on secrets and lies. “I guess I’ll start when things got bad. Before that, I spent summers with Uncle Mark while my father worked overtime.
“My mom passed away when I was a baby. I don’t remember her and my father never gave me details surrounding her death. Uncle Mark was a second father to me. He paid for my activities at school, my dance lessons, anything that helped me excel and become the best I could be. He taught me how to control the outside thoughts and tune them out while protecting my own thoughts from those who might try to pry into my head. He gave me history on your home and the dragons. I believed him. I believed in everything against logic because he made everything so real.”
She smiled sadly as she thought of the simpler days when she only had school and her clubs and activities to worry about.
“You lost your belief.”
Ariah sighed. “How could I hold onto something that was obviously nothing more than a fairytale? I knew how absurd the very notion of dragons and other worlds was before I turned eight, but I couldn’t let myself lose belief until reality set in.”
“How old were you when this new ‘reality’ came about?”
“Seventeen. I was in my senior year of high school. I had a goal to graduate valedictorian. I had offers to universities, mostly Ivy League schools. I had my entire life ahead of me. A bright, promising life.”
For a split second, she allowed her mind to wander to the “what ifs.” What if Miriam had never come into her father’s life? What if she accepted one of the offers to a top university and left home? What if?
“What, or who, was the trigger for this new reality?”
“My father had been dating a woman for a few months, but it got serious fast. She was a self-proclaimed witch. My father met her at some silly party for one of his coworkers where they brought in a bunch of fortunetellers and such. I was at Uncle Mark’s, so when I returned home after the summer break to start my junior year, my father introduced me to Miriam.”
Alazar twisted, his eyes piercing through her. “Miriam. Mark’s Miriam?”
Ariah scowled. “The one and only. Courtesy of my father.” Her stomach churned at the memory. “She accompanied us to Uncle Mark’s the summer before my senior year. I have no idea what happened, but by the end of the weekend, my father and my uncle both had chips on their shoulders and Miriam was walking around like a preening swan.”
“She’s a witch.”
Ariah snorted. “I already said that.”
“No. She’s really a witch. There’s a magical vibe in Mark’s house that is completely disconnected from dragons, Keepers, and lifemates. It’s not a really nice vibe either, but since I haven’t met the woman, I wasn’t going to pass judgment on her.”
“Judge away, Your Honor. She’s pure evil.”
“Apparently,” he said with a touch of exaggeration. Ariah huffed, pulling her other leg up onto the bench. “So, Miriam came between your father and Mark.”
“Pretty much. She destroyed my father. Destroyed him. She conned him, deceived him, you name it. He did everything for her. He bought her everything she wanted. If she commanded him to sit, stay, crawl, he did it in that order with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.”
“Sure she hadn’t cast a spell or a curse on him?”
“It never occurred to me, but I wouldn’t put it by her.”
“Sounds a bit suspicious. But why jump from your father to Mark?”
“Mark is loaded. He’s got more money than he knows what to do with.”
“Uh-huh. Truth.”
Ariah shifted, pushing up higher against Alazar’s side. “What do you know of his fortune?”
“I provided it.”
She pushed off Alazar, catching his humored gaze. “You what?”
“Ace, Firestorms provide for
their Keepers. Our fortunes can’t be measured. Remember how old I am. I’ve been collecting for a few years.” His half-grin dropped away. “I’m certain he shared a portion with your father.”
“Well, if he did, my father wasted it away gambling, drinking, and paying back-owed debts after Miriam left him for my uncle. I was a teenager. I watched my father spiral out of control. He began binge drinking and spending weekends at local casinos. He was hospitalized for alcohol toxicity, detoxed, and went right back to it after discharge. Had a small stroke, detoxed again, went to rehab, went back to drinking, then tried to kill himself. Ended up in a psych ward for two months for counseling and detoxing. Medical bills were piling up. He had no insurance. The money he didn’t throw away went to paying bills until we had nothing left.
“Halfway through my senior year, I was working two part-time jobs to keep us afloat while he moped around at home, most of the time mumbling to himself. I withdrew from my clubs, stopped dance classes because I didn’t have the time and couldn’t afford the activities. I tried to find out from my uncle what had happened, but his cell phone was disconnected and Miriam answered every time I called the house. After a month or so, I couldn’t reach anyone on the landline.”
“I think I’ll be having a cozy heart-to-heart with my dear Keeper.”
Alazar’s anger startled her, the growling undertone of his voice resonating in her marrow. Fire licked at his eyes again.
“Don’t, Alazar. It’s past.”
“I don’t think it’s as much in the past as you claim.” His eyes narrowed. She lowered her gaze. “Or am I wrong?”
She pressed her lips together for a long moment, trying to sort out every ending to this debacle. She should’ve kept her mouth shut about Miriam, but the woman was the trigger to her father’s self-destructive path that ultimately carved a new, less bright path for Ariah.
“Don’t do anything that’ll come between you and my uncle. My uncle hasn’t changed since I was a little girl. I have to believe that he truly did, and does, love her. Uncle Mark had always been alone as far back as I can remember. I just wish it wasn’t her. I didn’t like her with my father, and I don’t like her with my uncle. But, Miriam hasn’t changed him. He’s stronger willed than my father.”