Crimson Flames

by Alex DuBois

  “Will you come, Johnny?” Malachai asked his mate. He could see that Levi was a bit surprised that he bothered, and he smirked a little. Whichever human ended up being Levi’s fated mate, Malachai hoped that they were very strong, because it would be necessary if they wanted to hold their ground against Levi.

  Johnny looked apprehensive, but he let out a soft sigh.

  “I came all the way from Los Angeles, I guess I kind of have to,” Johnny said, sounding more resigned than excited. Malachai shook his head. Sometimes it was hard for him to remember just how terrifying his family had to seem to outsiders, especially to humans.

  “I won’t make you.” Malachai shook his head. Maybe they could do some sort of individual meetings, not toss Johnny into it all at once. Maybe that would be more merciful.

  Johnny gave him a little bit of a smile, and Malachai felt his lover’s naturally cheerful, easygoing disposition kick in again. All of this had been quite the strain on Johnny, but who he was had never really changed, no matter how stressed he got.

  “They’re family. I’m sorry. Of course I’ll meet them,” Johnny said.

  Levi gave a little bit of a noise, and Malachai turned to look at him suddenly. He was able to catch, before Levi hid it, an approving expression on his older brother’s face. Johnny seemed to be growing on Levi more and more.

  “Okay. Just give us a second and we’ll get ready to go,” Malachai said, and Johnny slid off the bed and pulled on a shirt. When they were alone together like this, it was rare that Johnny was more than partially clothed, if even that. It was hard to find maternity wear for guys.

  Not that Malachai was complaining. Johnny had once accused him of wanting to burn, to destroy, all of his clothes completely, and he wasn’t even close to wrong.

  Johnny tugged on a t-shirt, and the stretchy material was pulled tight across his belly. Fascinated, Malachai reached over and touched. He couldn’t help it. Those were his baby boys growing in there, Keith had confirmed that at their last appointment.

  Malachai looked into his mate’s bright green eyes and smiled at him. Their fingers linked over Johnny’s stomach, and Malachai could have happily stayed like that for hours if Levi hadn’t cleared his throat to let them know he was still there.

  There was nothing malevolent about the way Levi looked at them, but there was envy in that gaze. Maybe it was too forward of him, but that was just how Malachai was. He had to ask.

  “Maybe you should try to find your own mate, Levi,” Malachai said quietly, looking over at his brother. Every time he’d seen him, he’d seemed so lonely. Six hundred years, give or take, all alone might do that to just about anyone.

  “I’m too old for that nonsense,” Levi said briskly, but it didn’t fool Malachai. He’d struck a nerve with his brother, even if the other man was not interested in showing it.

  “It has nothing to do with age, you know that,” Malachai said, amused. “It’s just when your mate is born.” He actually sort of wondered if the longing that had struck his brother was because his mate was ready to be found, but that was just his own theory. It was hardly a science.

  “In that case, I will find my mate when it’s time, and no amount of me searching will help,” Levi said, his tone calm and implacable. Malachai rolled his eyes, but before he could continue on with that, Johnny pulled a huge, concealing coat over himself which almost even hid just how enormous his stomach had gotten.

  Oh well. They would be in a car for most of the trip. No one would even notice.

  For the whole trip, though, Malachai decided to be a little brother for once. It wasn’t an experience he’d had very often, since dragons tended to keep to their own territory.

  It was sort of fun to tease his big brother about finding his mate, and about how he would have to leave his house to find him. And yes, he was teasing, but there were undertones of seriousness to the whole thing. Levi did spend so much time alone in his house, even though he was also a successful businessman, a moderately big figure in New York real estate.

  Maybe it was instinct, or intuition. Malachai didn’t know, but he somehow had the sense that his brother was going to have his mate walk into his life soon, and as it stood, he wasn’t sure that Levi was ready.

  The car ride was a long one. Levi, introverted as ever, lived far outside of the city, so it took awhile to drive to his house.

  “Have you thought about where you’re going to have the birth?” Levi asked, his eyes on Johnny’s stomach as if fascinated. Johnny smiled at him, and Malachai was glad to see that his lover and mate seemed to be getting along with his big brother better all the time.

  “Nah, not really. I mean, I think I know how it’s going to go, but I’m not sure where I can breathe fire and not burn things up.”

  He and Johnny had been spending much of their time, especially as Johnny got bigger, in the hotel room. That would be comfortable enough, but there were far too many flammable things in there and it just wouldn’t be safe.

  “I have a cave that can only be accessed by flight,” Levi offered, and Malachai shook his head. He hadn’t realized just how lucky he was in his big brother until very recently. Levi was far more generous than he’d realized.

  Though maybe he should have known, since when he’d come up from Brazil and asked for sanctuary, his brother had given it to him without question.

  “A cave,” Malachai said thoughtfully. “My instincts would prefer it that way.” Whether he always acted like it or not, he was a dragon, and dragons liked caves.

  Maybe he’d find out if Keith wanted to be there. He would be willing to bet that the doctor would jump at the chance. He was also willing to bet that his older brother would not be very excited about an outsider witnessing the birth.

  Malachai had never been that great at being traditional, though, and having a healer there just seemed like a good idea.

  The limo pulled up in Levi’s driveway just then, and Malachai clambered out so that he could help Johnny out. Seconds after he had, he saw a rather slender, small young man with big, dark blue eyes and black hair walking out of the house. He was walking quickly, but he was still overtaken by a taller man with hair so blond it was almost white and one eye a bright gold. The other was covered by an eye patch, a legacy of Jason’s fight with their mother.

  Then Jason was there, and Malachai hugged him tightly. He felt more comfortable being affectionate with him than he did with Levi.

  “Hey, done anything crazy lately?” he asked the blond man, and then turned to smile brightly at Noah. He had spent a lot of time with Noah recently, he’d gone up to bother him but also to get to know him.

  Really, Malachai had never been that good at being solitary, dragon or not.

  It was nice to be with his whole family. He pulled his lover close to him and felt more complete than he could remember feeling in quite some time, if ever.

  “Noah, Jason, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Johnny

  There had been some bad times in meeting Malachai’s family, there could be no doubt about that, but there had also been some very good ones. Johnny had really come to trust Levi, and he was glad that he had him on his side. He wouldn’t have found that if not for coming to New York.

  Meeting with Jason and Noah was more on the good side than the bad. Noah was very quiet but polite, whereas Jason seemed bored by the whole thing. Jason was interesting, though. He was the first dragon that Johnny had met (and he’d met more than he ever would have believed, at this point) who had scars.

  What would it take to hurt a dragon to the point where he would scar, given how quickly they healed? Johnny tried not to stare, but luckily, Jason didn’t seem to care if he did or not.

  All in all, Johnny liked his mate’s brothers, and that could only be a good thing. They were his family now, too, as he’d pointed out to Malachai.

  “Like I told you guys on the phone, I found my mate. I wanted you to meet him, but I didn’t tell you
that he’s pregnant. With twins.” Johnny could feel Malachai pretty much glowing with pride, and it made him smile.

  Noah actually looked excited. He looked really young, like he couldn’t be over twenty-two at most, slender and small and beautiful, and it was hard for Johnny to remember that he was several centuries old. At least that’s what Malachai had told him.

  “That’s wonderful. Congratulations!” Noah walked over, smiling at Johnny. “Do you mind if I touch?” he asked, and Johnny shook his head. No, he didn’t mind. He was just glad that Noah had asked. A lot of people in the parenting class hadn’t done as much.

  “I thought you had something important to tell us,” Jason said, looking Johnny over. He was oddly pretty, too, despite those scars and the eye patch. It seemed dragons were just attractive people, or maybe it was just this family.

  Malachai turned to Levi, who was watching everything with a slight smile on his lips. What was it like for these four brothers to be united? Had they even ever been together in the same place at the same time before? Johnny could tell that Malachai was excited, but Levi didn’t show anything much. Then again, he never did.

  “I need to talk to our mother. Would you mind ...?”

  Just as he was talking, the woman with the dark hair and skin and the bright green dress came out of the house. He’d never seen anyone move with the power and grace that she showed as she stepped out, and her feet were bare, but she moved without a trace of discomfort across the cold ground.

  She moved fast, too. Johnny watched her cautiously every step of the way, and she didn’t appear to be rushing, but it only took her a few short seconds to cross over to where he stood. He put his hand protectively over his stomach as if the fragile appendage could somehow save him if she decided to hurt him.

  “Human,” she greeted him, and by the contempt in her voice, she might as well have been calling him a dog or some other animal. Then again, it was hard not to feel puny and insignificant next to someone so old and powerful.

  She didn’t give him time to respond, though. She reached out for him, and her hands were suddenly glowing green. Being mated to Malachai had made him immune to fire, but that didn’t stop the shiver of fear that went through him as he watched her hands burst into emerald flame.

  Instantly, Malachai was there, and Johnny could almost swear that he felt all three of the brothers bracing themselves around him. Even Jason would fight if it came down to it, though that probably didn’t have much to do with Johnny, really. The blond man just seemed to like fighting.

  “Mother, what are you doing?” Malachai asked, and Johnny could feel the panic in his mate. It seemed understandable to him, since he was pretty close to panicking himself.

  “If your children are dragons, and if your mate is truly yours, it won’t hurt either of them,” the woman said, and though Malachai was protesting, though he reached out and grabbed her slender fingers and pulled them away from Johnny, she never so much as looked at him.

  Her gaze was completely focused on Johnny, and she didn’t look away for a second. The odd thing was that Johnny didn’t sense any evil, or even really any hostility, in her big, dark eyes. She just seemed very determined, and very, very focused on him. Like she’d come to some sort of decision, or more like she almost had and just needed this one last thing to finalize it.

  Jason, now that Johnny thought about it, seemed to get a lot of his restless energy from her. Or that was his impression on such limited knowledge of both of them.

  Suddenly, he wasn’t scared. She could have killed him by now, if she wanted to. She could have killed Malachai, too. She didn’t seem to want to, though. It was like she wanted to find a way out of having to.

  For just a second, he thought that he might understand her. Not fully, that would be impossible. How many millenia had she lived? It was like trying to understand an old river or a tree. For that moment, though, he understood that she was sad and old and was that fear that he sensed?

  Johnny had always been an intuitive, emotional person, and he spoke without thinking.

  “Why are you up here? I mean, why are you really up here?”

  Malachai stared at him in shock, but Johnny didn’t look away. He looked into her eyes, and he saw how startled she was by his insight. He gave her a little bit of a smile to try to put her at ease, and her eyes narrowed. Clearly it wasn’t going to work.

  “Will you let me?” she demanded, and Johnny shook his head, not in negation but rather in sadness. He wanted to know. Why had she come up? It didn’t seem to be just about hearing about men being impregnated by dragons. That was only part of it.

  On the other hand, it was surely significant that she was actually asking if he would let her. Surely she could easily break the grip that Malachai had on her hand and touch Johnny whether he he wanted it or not.

  It could help, too. So Johnny nodded. He took Malachai’s hand and tugged it away from her wrist, giving her her freedom back. Linking his fingers into Malachai’s, he held on tightly to him.

  It was an enormous sign of trust, and Johnny knew it. These were his babies, after all, but this was also those babies grandmother. So he clung to Malachai and watched as the woman reached out.

  “Hold on,” he said, tugging his jacket off and pulling his shirt up. He was immune to fire, but his clothing wasn’t. Once he was ready, he nodded to her, and her hand lit up in green flames again as she reached out to touch his stomach.

  Why green? Johnny just had time to wonder about that. When he’d seen Malachai’s flames, they had been a bright reddish-orange. No one else seemed to find that odd, though.

  Her fingers, warm but not uncomfortably so, settled onto the pregnant curve of his belly. He refused to wince, looking her boldly right in the eye. The flames flickered around him but didn’t burn him, and inside him, he could feel the babies enjoying the warmth, basking in it.

  “Dragons,” the woman said, and she gave Johnny a surprisingly bright and beautiful smile. “They’re dragons, both of them.”

  There was an air of relief, and Johnny knew that Malachai, Levi and Noah were all glad that it hadn’t devolved to a brawl. Jason, on the other hand, was probably disappointed, but he was the only one.

  Then, quite to Johnny’s surprise, Malachai’s mother hugged him. He felt her slender arms around him, her small, powerful body against him, and what to make of that suddenly embrace, he had no idea.

  “You are just a human,” she said, pulling away from the hug, “But I suppose you must be part of the family now.”

  It was a big deal that she would accept him, even as grudgingly as she was. Johnny could tell that from Malachai’s reaction.

  Levi stepped in before there could be any awkwardness. Johnny was coming to appreciate that trait in his mate’s brother.

  “Dinner has been made inside,” he said, and Johnny found himself in the very strange and overwhelming and wonderful position of eating dinner with not one, but five dragon shifters.

  * * *

  It wasn’t so many months later that Johnny woke up to a strange, intense little pain that ripped across his swollen stomach. It pulled him right from a deep sleep, and he groaned as he hunched over.

  “It’s too soon!” Malachai protested. He had been planning very carefully. Johnny wasn’t supposed to go into labor until after they were already in the cave that Levi had very kindly let them use. It was still a week until the expected delivery date.

  “Keith said twins often come early,” Johnny pointed out, relaxing as the pain eased. He had the idea it was going to get worse, and he grabbed Malachai’s hand. “We have to get there now, baby.” Or else it was going to happen here.

  It occurred to him that he hadn’t asked nearly enough questions about what exactly was going to happen. That seemed to be a bit of a fatal flaw in him, accepting what he was told and not asking questions.

  Too late now. Malachai was bundling him into clothing and every so often, those pains hit him again and he stopped thinking about anyth
ing else. He would have to trust his mate, who had, after all, never lied to him before, and who loved him.

  As they got ready, Malachai was on the phone with Keith, who had agreed without hesitation to come just in case he was needed with the birth. Even through his own fear, he couldn’t help but smile at the clear panic his mate was feeling. He was talking a mile a minute.

  No one looking at Malachai would assume that the sexy, vibrant man was the sort of person who would make a good co-parent, but they would definitely be wrong. No one could wish for a better one.

  Then there was another pain, and Johnny clutched onto Malachai until it passed.

  “We’re going to go pick Keith up, love, and then we’ll go,” Malachai said, and there was nothing for Johnny to do but clutch his stomach and follow.

  * * *

  Keith had been ready to go, and it was less than an hour later that they were driving outside of town. They found a safe clearing and then Malachai shifted into his huge, imposing dragon form. It was reassuring to see it. There could be no doubt that Malachai could protect him.

  Without hesitation, Johnny climbed up onto Malachai’s back. He watched as Keith stared, clearly having no idea how to do the same thing. Was it harder for the man because he wasn’t Malachai’s mate?

  “Just climb up his foreleg,” Johnny directed, and Keith was fit enough to do it, but he was far less graceful about it than Johnny was. Soon enough, though, he was pressed against Keith, grateful for the doctor’s presence behind him. If anything happened, Keith would be a good person to have around.

  Then Malachai was airborne, and Johnny smiled a little when he heard Keith’s gasp of surprise. Really, he was grateful to Keith already. He was providing a distraction from the pains, which were coming more and more frequently.

  The flight didn’t take long, and soon enough, they were in the cave that Levi had so nicely allowed them to use.

  * * *