by Kit Fawkes
He put in the code, and it opened. The door swung in on its own power a few inches, and he pressed harder on the wood, indicating she should precede him.
She stepped inside, and her eyes were wide. As much as he didn’t want to, he evaluated her expression as he turned on all the lights to reveal the foyer. He could see the light dimming from her own gaze the more she looked.
Trying not to feel defensive, he viewed the house from what he thought might be her perspective. It was striking visually, with crisp, clean lines, but it didn’t really mesh with the outside. The exterior had been reasonably sound and had only required minor touches and had been done before he had ever decided to change direction on the design. It spoke of Victorian charm. The inside was anything except that.
Her shoulders fell as she gave him a look full of disappointment. “It’s hideous. How could you take such a beautiful home and...?” She trailed off, waving a hand as she blinked her eyes. Apparently, pregnancy had made her even more emotional than usual if she could find tears over such an inconsequential thing.
Feeling like he had let her down, his voice emerged gruffer than he’d intended. “Come with me, and I’ll show you your room.” He was tempted to put her in the modernly designed guestroom, which was a pure reaction based on her expressed disappointment.
He wanted to reinforce the notion that he was as cold and practical with the house as he’d been with everything else. He didn’t want to give her a renewed sense of hope, or ignite a spark of excitement in her. Somehow, he still found himself leading her to the other guestroom instead. He stepped back as he turned on the light, indicating she should go before him.
In here, her excitement returned, and there was a sparkle in her eyes. She seemed to love every kitschy bit of it, from the vintage print wallpaper to the old-fashioned hearth. She appeared to be particularly enraptured with the four-post bed and its hanging velvet curtains. “This is so much better than the rest of the house.”
He didn’t like the approval gleaming in her eyes, directed toward him. Feeling like a bastard even as he did so, but unable to quell the impulse, he said, “The design crew just hasn’t gotten to this room yet. It will soon look decent like the rest.”
She glared at him for a moment before turning away. “I guess it’s a good thing I won’t be here long then. I wouldn’t want to hold up your plans to convert this room into a soulless showpiece like the rest of the house.”
He sighed, regretting his words and the tension between them again. Things had changed in the last six months, and the biggest one of all was in her stomach, though it wasn't too big yet. They had to find a way to meet on middle ground for the sake of their child. “When are you due?”
“February Fourteenth.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s just about the worst day your child could ever be born, isn’t it, Eben?”
He gritted his teeth to avoid responding to the provocation. “I have nothing against Valentine’s Day. I just don’t consider it a real holiday.” Except the previous one. They had been together as a couple then, and he had actually tried to make it special for her by taking her out to dinner and giving her jewelry.
She had seemed appreciative, but the real celebration had happened later that night at her apartment. That was the part he remembered, not the forced romantic air of the restaurant, or the ruby heart necklace he had given her that had been such a cliché, though she seemed to have enjoyed it.
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m still angry with you, but I need to get it under control. It’s not going to do any of us any good to keep sniping at each other. You’re stuck with me for a little while, and I’ll try not to make it too unpleasant for you. Mostly, I’ll just stay in my room. I think that would be easiest for everyone.”
He frowned as he took a step forward. “I don’t want you to hide in here.” He paused a few steps away from her. He could have crossed the distance remaining and put his arms around her, but instead he shoved his hands in his pocket to resist the temptation. “It’s good to see you again, and I’d like to see you more. We have a lot of things to discuss and situations to figure out.” His gaze darted briefly to her belly. “We also need to come up with a plan to keep you safe from Anderson.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think it was Anderson. I mean, he was clearly involved, but he specifically referred to Angelo Peretti, and it was a pair of strangers who came into the office and killed Mr. Wang. I don’t know much about organized crime, but I’m sure I’ve heard his name in the papers a few times.”
Eben grimaced. “Maybe not him specifically, but definitely the Peretti family. Try not to worry. We’ll come up with a plan.” Of course he was frightened on her behalf, but she had an ally she didn’t even know about. It would take a lot to take down his dragon, and though they were no longer involved, he still cared about her. He certainly felt protective toward her and the child, and he would fight to protect them until his dragon drew its last breath.
Chapter Two
While she rested, he made her a simple meal from the staples he’d found in the cabinet. He hadn’t been to the home much recently, and the few things he’d found in the refrigerator had all gone bad. Even the eggs, which tended to stay good longer than most other products, were clearly spoiled.
She didn’t seem to mind the simple meal of jarred spaghetti sauce and frozen ravioli, and he was pleased to see the bruises of exhaustion under her eyes had started to fade. Conversation was as simple as the dinner, and neither one of them probed too deeply. He wanted to ask about the baby, but he wasn’t quite ready to introduce such a heavy topic of conversation when she clearly still needed to unwind and rest a bit before tackling anything strenuous.
He’d just scooped dishes of vanilla ice cream when the house started to rattle. For a moment, he was completely confused by what was happening, until he recognized the sound of bullets tearing through the front of the house. Abandoning the ice cream, which fell to the floor with a shattering sound of glass from the bowls breaking, he lifted her into his arms and rushed up the stairs. She wasn’t wearing her shoes, but there was no time to fetch them.
The modern guestroom offered the best vantage point for the front of the house, so he went there. He left her near the door before slipping to the window, trying to look out it as carefully as possible. He cursed when he saw five figures below, all of them carrying what he tentatively identified as submachine guns. He wasn’t a weapons expert by any means, but he’d seen his fair share of action movies. They were busy tearing up his house with them, but it wouldn’t be long before they entered.
His sight was good, even in the dark, thanks to his dragon, and he cursed again when he realized they had taken out his car as well. There were bullets fired indiscriminately into it, and all four tires were flat. It was the only vehicle they had there.
That left one alternative, and it was surely one Marlie wouldn’t like, but he couldn’t think of another option to give her.
Eben grasped her hand and dragged her from the guestroom to the master bedroom across the hall. He didn’t bother to lock the doors behind them, knowing the French-style doors would pose no barrier to armed men with submachine guns. There was no time to grab her coat from downstairs, so he rummaged in a drawer and held out a sweater. “Put that on.”
She gave him a mystified look as she took it, but didn’t protest. She simply held it for a moment. The protest came when he started taking off his clothes. “What are you doing? How is this going to help anything?”
He didn’t have time to explain it to her. “Just trust me.” He knew that was asking a lot considering the past six months, but he hoped she could extend a measure to him. He disrobed as quickly as possible, bunching all of his clothes into a bundle with his shoes wrapped inside.
He let out a small sigh of impatience when he saw she was still holding the sweater, though he was briefly amused to realize part of her silence was due to the way she was staring at him. She’d seen it all b
efore, but not for months. Maybe he should have felt a little self-conscious, but he liked having her heated gaze on him.
That snapped him back to reality, and he cleared his throat. “Put on the sweater, please. You’re going to want it outside.”
That seemed to break her paralysis, and she put the garment on as quickly as she could with her hands shaking slightly. “What are we going to do outside? There are so many of them, and they all have guns.” Her lower lip trembled, and she drew it between her teeth as though trying to still the impulse. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this, Eben.”
He grunted, not bothering to acknowledge her statement. He wasn’t at all sorry she’d come to him to protect her and their baby. He was just sorry she was going to learn the full truth about him under such circumstances.
When she had on the sweater, he handed her his clothes. “Hold onto those and try not to drop them.”
She seemed puzzled, but she nodded as she hugged them against her chest. She shivered as soon as he opened the balcony door, but stepped out alongside him, though she was clearly confused.
When Eben jumped onto the balcony railing, balancing gracefully, she let out a small cry of dismay. He turned to look at her over his shoulder, alarmed by her loss of color.
“We can’t jump down! It’s two stories, and I’m pregnant.”
He nodded. “I know. We aren’t going to jump.” As he said the words, he lunged forward, changing into his dragon form as he leapt off the balcony and into the air. In the process of transforming, he quickly used his camouflage ability to hide the dragon. He was thankful it was dark, because it was going to look awfully strange to anyone who observed Marlie seemingly floating in midair. Not as strange as if they had seen his dragon form though.
She stood frozen, not moving any closer to the railing even when he gestured her forward before remembering he was camouflaged. Thinking she didn’t know where he was, he said, “Come as close to the rail as you can, and I’ll pick you up.”
Instead, she reared back. A sickly stench of panic hung cloyingly to her pheromone signature, and she was clearly on the edge of bolting.
He didn’t have time to deal with her panic, or an easy way to do it anyway. With a small curse, he darted forward and picked up her resisting body, ignoring when she shouted to be let free. She was pounding on his chest, and he watched with a pained grunt as his clothes fluttered from her arms and onto the snow below.
His hearing told him the thugs were already in the house, so he didn’t bother trying to scoop up what she had dropped. He’d have to work out clothing somehow when they reached their destination, but he wasn’t even certain where that was yet. He cursed again when he realized his wallet was in his pants, further restricting where they might go, or how they might hide. She hadn’t had a chance to grab anything either, so they were broke and flying blindly, at least in a manner of speaking.
The actual flight itself was fine, once she settled down. He wished he could stop to check on her, to ensure she was calm, rather than catatonic, but he didn’t want to until they were at least several miles away from his home. Instinctively, he veered north, toward the mountains, where he hoped they would find shelter.
Even with his revved up metabolism, he was starting to feel the cold the farther north they flew, and he was certain she was freezing by then. He had flown for more than an hour before he started looking for a place to land. As he scanned the ground around him, his excellent eyesight giving him more accuracy and detail than a map would have, he abruptly recognized the town they flew over.
It was a small, quaint little village named Haven, that was set up to attract tourists. They had passed through the hamlet last Christmas when they had gone away together for the holiday. He had no family, and her mother had been so ravaged by Alzheimer’s that she hadn’t remembered who Marlie was at that point. They had only been together a few months, but he’d been trying to distract her, so he’d set up a romantic weekend away.
That weekend had taken place at Haven’s Edge, a small hospitality structure on the outskirts of the village. It was a bed-and-breakfast, but also had several individual cabins scattered across the grounds. If luck was with them, there would be one free.
He started to circle, reorienting himself to the correct direction. He found it in no time and covered the last miles in just a few minutes. She was trembling in his arms, and though he kept her locked tightly against his body, he’d lost a lot of his own body heat from the chill temperature in the air. Even his tough dragon hide wasn’t completely impervious to the snow and the freezing wind.
He was relieved when they got closer, allowing him to scan Haven’s Edge. There was one cabin that appeared unlit, and while it could have had guests staying who had opted to go to bed early, there was no fire burning either. It seemed unlikely someone would stay in one of the cabins without lighting a fire, despite the central heating installed in the structures, because it was such a part of the ambiance and experience of renting a rustic cabin.
Still, he was cautious when he landed on the periphery, temporarily considering the idea of putting her down so he could investigate. She was trembling too much, and he wasn’t entirely certain she wouldn’t make a run for it the moment he let her go. That decided it, so he kept her locked in his arms, situated off to his side, as he transformed from the dragon back to his human form.
The human part of him didn’t have camouflage, and was also quickly feeling the cold much more severely. He shivered along with her as they approached the front of the cabin. Deciding he had nothing to lose, he walked right up to the front door and knocked, planning to spin a story of why they were on their doorstep—and him without any clothes—if someone answered. As he had expected, there were no signs of life though. He knocked once more, stronger this time, but there were still no visible stirrings in the cabin, and no lights came on.
He grabbed hold of the knob and twisted it as hard as he could, shoving the door open with a small crack of wood against metal.
Marlie spoke for the first time since they had fled his home. “Why did you do that? Why didn’t we just check in?”
He bit back an impatient sigh, relieved at least she wasn’t trying to run for the door. “My wallet was in my pants. That’s about ninety miles to the south of us, and I’m too cold to fly back to try to fetch them, assuming it’s even safe to do so.”
She fidgeted, looking uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I dropped your stuff.”
He didn’t dare turn on more than a small light in the kitchen or start a fire in the hearth, but he immediately went to the thermostat and cranked it high. He stood there for a moment as the vent started blowing out air, enjoying it though it was tepid to start with. When it reached a tipping point and became more warm than cool, he nodded to Marlie. “Come get warm.”
She did as he suggested, though he hadn’t really phrased it as a suggestion. She stood over a vent, but not beside him. She rubbed her hands together for warmth as she aimed them at the hot air shooting up. It wasn’t long before color started to return to her cheeks, and she stopped trembling so much. At least until she sneaked a look at him every few minutes, which seemed to start her trembles all over again.
When he caught her doing it for the fourth time, he let out a growl of frustration. “Stop looking at me like that. I’m not going to jump on you and rip you to pieces. I’m the same man I was before.”
She shook her head. “But you aren’t. You turned into a dragon. At least, I think that’s what it was. I barely caught a glimpse of blue and silver before you went completely invisible. How did you do that? Who does that?”
There was a note of hysteria in her voice that he didn’t like, because he was afraid she might let it get the best of her. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart.
With a sigh of impatience, he pulled her toward him and led her into the bathroom. He closed the door firmly behind them before turning on a light above the sink, keeping it as dim as possible by unscrewing three of the four
bulbs and leaving them resting in their sockets. “Get warmed up and have a bath. I think it’s the fastest way. I’ll look to see if they have anything in the cupboards. If I remember from last year, and things haven’t changed, they should have some basic items like soup or stew.”
Her stomach rumbled, indicating her appreciation at the idea even though she still seemed torn between terrified and confused. “Fine, but you owe me an explanation.”
He nodded abruptly and turned away from her. As she started to disrobe, he snatched his sweater from her and slid it over his head. He was starting to warm up well enough that he could have lived without it, but he was certain she’d prefer he be partially covered rather than walking around bare-assed naked in their current situation.
He foraged in the cupboard, finding a few simple staples, and had managed to warm them each a bowl of soup and put out some crackers by the time she emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later.
His dragon roared its approval, and Eben had to force the beast not to spring forward and snap her up. She wore a bathrobe that must have been hanging in the bathroom for guests’ use, and her dark hair was down around her face and across her shoulders. Wet from her bath, it looked almost blue-black in the meager light, though it was more of a rich brown with a black undertone when it was dry. Her face was freshly scrubbed, and something about the way the robe curved around her belly, reminding him she carried a child—his child—made it difficult to rein in the beast.
He hadn’t had difficulty controlling his dragon since he’d first learned how to shift during puberty, which had been enough to scare anyone, but particularly a twelve-year-old boy who’d had no warning of what was coming, and no idea of his heritage. Back then, Eben hadn’t realized he was a dragon-shifter, and he hadn’t even known such a thing existed.