by Leela Ash
Andrea sighed and sank down on her couch to check her voice messages. She had two new ones. One from her mother, and the other from an unknown caller. She furrowed her brow at the second one, listening first to the one she recognized.
“Hi honey, it’s me,” her mother’s voice said softly. “The doctors…well…they told me they don’t think I have a whole lot of time left and gave me the option of going home to live out my final days. Everything could be arranged and settled by the end of the month, but you need to think about that. I would need you to be my caretaker and I know how difficult that could be. I am okay no matter where I am, though the idea of being at home does sound nice. I want you to take the time to think this over, though. Don’t let me pressure you. I love you.”
The gentle click of the phone brought tears to Andrea’s eyes. Her mother was suffering. The disease was getting worse. It seemed that there was no hope. What was going to happen? She would be an orphan. She would have nobody in the world. Nobody but Max, at least. And who knew whether Max would stick around? She felt like he was completely constant, but that was based only on her gut feeling. And although her gut feelings like this were rarely wrong, did she even want Max to stick around that long? He was clearly unstable if he was saying things about being part dragon.
Dragon? What even brought up dragons? How could she ever take him seriously again if he was being genuine? That would be a serious indication of a mental illness. And she couldn’t let herself be swept up in the impulsive whims of a mentally ill man, no matter how enchanting he was. If he thought she was part reptile, there was something seriously wrong there.
But, possibly, the strangest part about it all was that in a way, she believed him. She had a very difficult time feeling as if he was just making it up. In fact, it had almost felt like a relief to hear the words come from his lips; as if it had been able to explain the whole reason behind the instant and intense attraction she had felt toward him immediately.
Or maybe she was thinking far too much into it and it was simply a silly line he had dropped to keep her interested. He was a handsome man, after all. Maybe he was simply confident enough to let himself look like he was crazy for the sake of a joke, whether that joke was poorly executed or not. It was hard to believe he would say anything like that and be completely serious about it. It was easier to think he might be simply testing her to find out just how much she was able and willing to take as far as her tolerance for strange behavior was concerned.
People tested each other out in all sorts of different ways when they were in the early stages of dating, didn’t they? Of course, they did. It was part of getting to know somebody. And that could mean anything. Maybe he really liked dragons. Or maybe he wanted to see if they had a compatible sense of humor. Or maybe he really wanted to be able to tell her that he genuinely believed they were meant to be together but didn’t want to make it sound too serious. Turning serious things into a joke was something many people did on a regular basis.
It made it easier for them to get serious matters discussed and help them to test the waters of other people’s emotional reactions. Some people would never be able to broach serious subject matter without the use of humor, so maybe Max wasn’t really all that different.
Andrea pushed the thought away and sighed as she considered whether to play the next message in her voice mail box. If nothing else, it would distract her from thinking about Max, so she pressed play and listened eagerly for the next voice to begin speaking. As soon as she heard Mr. Jansen’s voice, she cringed.
“Hey Andrea, I just wanted to see if you were going to RSVP to the barbeque or not. It would be really helpful to know ahead of time how many people to expect so I can keep it in consideration for the preparations. It’s exciting to be out of school for the summer, isn’t it? It makes me feel like a little kid again in a way.”
He let out a laugh that grated on Andrea’s nerves before continuing.
“So, just give me a call back and we can figure all this out. I want to be prepared…really prepared.”
He laughed again, left his phone number in case she couldn’t see it on her caller ID. She was startled when the machine suddenly backfired as if it could sense her agitation. The message was cut off instantaneously and she was left in the silence of her apartment to consider what Mr. Jansen had been saying.
Andrea was mildly dumbfounded. Was she paranoid or had that been an overt come on? Either way, his voice made her sick to her stomach and she shuddered, standing up quickly from the couch and heading in to shower the strange and confusing day away.
***
“Miss W! Hey!”
“Oh, Carl!” Andrea said, turning around, and smiling broadly at the young man approaching her. His characteristic warm, loose smile was spreading across his face and he paused in front of her in the convenience store, clutching a bag of chips in one hand and a bottle of soda in the other.
“Long time no see,” he said, laughing wryly.
“Yeah, you’re right about that,” Andrea said. In fact, she hadn’t seen him since he had been released. “How are things going?”
Carl’s kind face clouded over, and he sighed, glancing sidelong at the candy in the aisle beside Andrea. “Not great, honestly.”
“Why not great?” Andrea asked, a frown beginning to form across her lips. She had always liked Carl and his friends. They were such sweet kids.
Carl gave a half-hearted shrug of his shoulder and then sighed. “They might be making us switch schools. I don’t want to.”
“What?!” Andrea exclaimed, instantly furious. “Why would they make you switch schools? Who is they?”
“Mr. Jansen and them,” Carl said with another shrug. He was trying to play it cool, but she could tell by his face that it troubled him deeply. “They said that we were causing too much trouble.”
“But you didn’t cause any trouble,” Andrea said, rage bubbling just below the surface. The real reason they wouldn’t want those kids there was to keep their reputations pristine. They wanted to protect the school, or Jansen’s ego. They didn’t give a damn about the boys. Who, as far as Andrea and the other teachers were concerned, were a credit to the school compared to the other kids there who had a tendency to fuck off most of the time. It was like pulling teeth to get them to hand in homework sometimes.
“What are you going to do?” Andrea asked, trying not to let her anger show. Still, the boys had done nothing wrong. It had been a huge clusterfuck on the behalf of the school board, not these kids. They shouldn’t have to suffer. It was like playing hell to adjust to a new school, and they shouldn’t have to go through that. Not when they were so close to graduating.
“I want to fight it,” Carl said. “But we don’t have that kind of money or time. It sucks but I will probably just end up having to commute to a school further away. But that will mean that I’m separated from my friends. Greg’s family lives further west and will probably send him somewhere out there, and Anthony’s family was already talking about sending him to a private academy as soon as all of this started to happen. They knew none of it was his fault, even if the principal didn’t.”
“I’m so sorry, Carl,” Andrea said, shaking her head. She wanted to give the boy reassurance; to let him know she would fight for him to do whatever was possible to keep them in the school, but truth be told, there was very little she could do short of confronting Mr. Jansen. And none of her confrontations with him ended well. He would probably just end up pressuring her to sleep with him in exchange for the boys’ enrollment. And that was something she would never stoop to doing.
“It’s okay,” Carl said glumly, looking down at his chips quietly. “Everything will work out for the best, either way. Gotta keep looking on the bright side, you know, Miss W? It doesn’t do any good to be bummed about things you can’t control.”
Andrea gazed quietly at the young man, who seemed far too wise for his years already. How difficult was it for the board to see that these were stand-up youn
g men who deserved every possible opportunity they could get to thrive? Why was it so damn biased?
“You’re an incredible young man, Carl,” Andrea said, still biting her tongue against going off about the school. She couldn’t make him false promises, but she would do whatever she could to sway the odds in the favor of the boys. Maybe they would do better in a different school where the board wasn’t already hateful toward them. Even still, it should be their choice, not that of the board.
“Thanks, Miss W,” Carl said, a deep blush creeping across his cheeks. He shifted awkwardly. “Well, I guess I should get going now. The guys are expecting me. We’re going to do a game night now that school is out officially.”
“All right, Carl. Take care of yourself.”
“Oh, I always do,” he said with a smile. “I’ll see you around.”
Andrea watched him go and then paid for her own things, then walked to her car slowly as she mulled the whole conversation over. Everything was so unfair regarding what had happened with the boys. The false accusations. No backing by anybody. No witnesses. So little evidence. And now they were being run out of school. There was nothing good about any of this. What was going to happen to them?
Andrea sighed and started the car. She would try to figure something out. She had to.
11.
Max paced around his bedroom, his thoughts intent on Andrea. Their time was beginning to run out. If they were too late, they might never be able to culminate enough magic to keep them anchored to their home world. That would be tragic. What if he lost the power to shapeshift?
He would have to come up with something else. A new way to convince her of the truth. Short of showing her his powers, there wasn’t a lot he would be able to do, but he wanted to do something. Anything. Whatever would help her to see that he wasn’t lying about the fact that they were fated. They were meant to be together. They had to be.
But that wasn’t something that was easy to digest, especially for someone who wasn’t raised in the same culture as Max had been. He had grown up knowing about the pull of fate. He was ready for it when it happened and knew exactly what it meant. But would Andrea really? On some level, she really would, he knew it. He had felt it.
There wasn’t any time. He had to make sure she knew that the claim was real and that it meant something. Even if that meant he would have to take drastic measures.
Max sighed and wracked his brain until a sudden thought occurred to him. He left the room and headed to the kitchen restlessly.
“Do you still have access to that cabin?” Max asked Gavin when he stepped inside and found the man cooking a lunch for the big group of men.
“The cabin? Yeah, of course. Why?” Gavin glanced over his shoulder at Max as he continued cutting an onion on the counter.
“I am having a predicament with my fated mate. I need to make sure that everything is going to work out well and quickly.”
“I don’t understand. If she is your fated one, then why wouldn’t it work out well?”
“Who knows. Maybe things work differently here on Earth than they do on Fiora. Just as it is possible that shapeshifting is more difficult. Have you figured anything out about that yet?”
Gavin nodded. “It isn’t impossible, though it is different. Though none of us have succeeded yet, the first one to do so will surely learn the key and pass the knowledge on to the rest of us.”
Max nodded.
“Either way, we need to speed this process along. I feel that the time is very important. And limited. If I don’t convince her soon, we may not even have a home to go back to.”
“Yes,” Gavin said glumly. “I have been having similar concerns myself. There is a lot of negativity that I have been feeling and I believe that it has everything to do with the state of our home world. We were already in trouble when we were outcast. And now that we aren’t there, I fear the situation has reached a terrible state. What are we going to do?”
“I am going to take the descendant to the cabin. I feel that I may be able to use the opportunity to help her understand her role in all of this from there. What do you think?”
“I think that anything you can do to speed this process along, you should do,” Gavin said seriously. His dark eyes glittered with the same concern that Max had been feeling as well. Time was running out. He didn’t know how he could tell. It was just something he could feel.
“Yeah,” Max said thoughtfully. “I am going to make sure I do whatever I possibly can to sway her. It is very important.”
“It is,” Gavin agreed. “Have you told the others about your idea?”
“I haven’t even fully told you about it. But I have to begin right away. If you could, please tell TJ about my intentions. I know they will miss me for work, but I’m sure you will all be able to manage without me.”
“We are more than capable,” Gavin said. “It’s not like you’re the one driving the van or anything.”
Gavin shot Max a teasing smile and Max laughed and slapped his shoulder. “You know I don’t like these Earth contraptions. But my fated one does. Perhaps she’d be interested in giving up her job teaching to drive a moving van, so you could get a day off once in a while.”
“I could only hope,” Gavin said with a wry smile. “Wait, she is a teacher?”
Max beamed proudly. “She is. And I am sure she is the best kind of teacher there is on Earth.”
“Undoubtedly,” Gavin said. There was nothing teasing at all about his statement. He truly agreed. The dragons from Fiora were among the most wizened dragons in any dimension, and a human descendant would surely take the task seriously. Who knew how many other descendants might be teachers?
“We should check other schools, just in case,” Max said suddenly. “To seek out the descendants. Don’t you think that would make sense?”
“Yes,” Gavin said suddenly. “Or musicians.”
“Artists. You know the Loni blood in their veins would give them a bend toward creativity. This is a good lead. Be sure to bring it up to TJ and take the device out to scout for descendants.”
“Of course,” Gavin said, rummaging through the junk drawer in the kitchen. He tossed Max a set of keys. “And you should get your human to the cabin as soon as possible. Make sure everything is as it should be. Do not take no for an answer. It would not help anybody.”
“Don’t worry,” Max said, his eyes growing serious as he clutched the keys in his hand. “I will do whatever it takes to claim my fated one.”
***
Max glanced around the parking lot, where he had tracked Andrea’s car. She hadn’t been at home, so he had used his dragon instincts to hone in on her scent and follow it to the location of the dentist’s office. He had always been wary of human doctors but understood the need of them.
He waited patiently in the parking lot until Andrea finally emerged, her mouth full of cotton. Her bright blue eyes went wide when she saw him.
“Mhhx!” she mumbled.
Max couldn’t help but smile. She was a very cute human, whether she meant to be or not.
“Hello,” he said, stepping forward. Her eyes went wide, and she watched him approach.
“Whh ahh you dohhng hrr?”
Max laughed outright now.
“I thought maybe I could take you out somewhere.”
“I his nah a good tahhm,” Andrea managed. “Ah cahnt tahk.”
Max’s smile broadened. “That’s okay. I don’t mind. I can still understand you.”
He nearly offered to leave her be but then remembered the keys to the cabin in his pocket. He had to take her somewhere secluded. Private. Somewhere he would be able to show her the true nature of things. Where she wouldn’t be able to deny the truth between them any longer. It was time to be out with the truth. The most important things about his home planet were counting on it.
Andrea was standing in front of her car, hesitating, and then sighed with a small nod.
“Wha do you wan to do?” she asked, opening the
door to the driver’s side.
“I thought maybe dinner but now I see that isn’t an option, unless you know a place that serves very good soup,” Max said with a pleasant chuckle.
Andrea shot him daggers and his laugh deepened.
“All right then. How about this. I know a great place. It’s very beautiful. But it’s kind of far away. I would need to take a cab there. We should drop your car off back at your apartment.”
Andrea looked unsure, and Max felt suddenly guilty. They were connected. Of course, she would know better than to believe that everything was all right. He was acting suspicious. Because he had something up his sleeve. And she was his fated mate. She knew him better than anybody else ever would, whether that was easy for them or not. Whether she knew it yet or it took more time for her to realize the significance of his meaning.
“Oh. Sure,” Andrea said, unlocking the door so Max could get inside the car with her.
He took his opportunity swiftly and soon, they were on their way back to Andrea’s apartment. He didn’t tell her he had just been there looking for her. It would probably have raised some major red flags in her mind if that were the case. Everybody wanted to hear that things were normal and within the realms of normal reality to them. Especially those who were raised in the human world. Andrea had been no exception so far. That was why she had to be taken to the cabin. She had to learn the truth, no matter what it took.
“Okay,” Max said once Andrea had parked the car in the parking garage. “Let’s get a cab. Are you ready? It’s a long trip.”
“Yeah, ahm okeh.”
Max laughed. “How long until you can speak normally?”
Andrea shrugged miserably. “We don’ ha’ to go,” she muttered, looking down at the ground in front of her.