Dana

by Kathi S. Barton

  pushed it in that she was going to kill him this way. His brain was going to be smashed when she did— ~~~ Dana watched Sapphire. She’d been sitting on the swing on their deck since he’d brought her home. Carmine was in the house, taking a nap. She told him that she’d not slept well last night, knowing that anything could go wrong, and had worried. “She’ll be okay, won’t she?” Dana had asked Carmine if she could read into her sister’s future path. “No. Not yours either. It’s like you’re blocked. I could see just bits and pieces of it all, and that Quinn was going to make sure I was safe, but the rest, I didn’t know.” Now she was safe, all of them were. He rocked back and forth on the rocker and decided to talk to Sapphire. Not about what happened today, but just talk. Dana decided to tell her about his piece. “Faerie Home is finished as of today. And I’ve sold it. I was telling my agent that I’ve got it and he asked for some pictures. It was easy to do, just snap some with my phone and send them. What he should have told me was that he had a buyer, not for me, but another artist, in his office. The man wanted it badly, and I had to come up with an over inflated price because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to sell it as yet. Maybe never. But he didn’t even haggle and bought Faerie Home without seeing it.” She leaned back on his chest, but still said nothing. Dana continued to babble. “I have signed us up for a nice cruise. I think of all people, we deserve it. Also, Danburn has agreed to help the city with the installation of a new pool. It’ll be finished about the time summer is over. But at least they have one for now. And Carmine can practice here as well as at home whenever she wants.” “She killed a man.” He kissed her head and told her that it was fine. “No. It might have been had she just killed him, but Quinn made him suffer in the worst kind of way.” “He was going to sell off Carmine for the highest bidder. Now, since he’d never told a soul what he was about, no one else knows that she’s here nor what she can do.” Sapphire asked him if that made it all right. “Yes, to me it did. And to Quinn’s dragon. Who did the killing, by the way. Quinn said that unlike Danburn’s and mine, the dragon is like a separate being to her. She has conversations with her all the time. And when she tossed Anthony, she blacked out. Doesn’t remember anything that happened until she was in the house after it was all over.” “Not her, but her dragon did that.” She turned in his arms and looked at him. “Quinn never would have been able to do those things to him. And he did deserve it. He put a gun to the head of that little girl. So when the dragon took her mind and body, he made it so that she could live without any kind of memories of what she did. Quinn knows that he’s dead, but nothing more.” They rocked for a little while longer, and just as the sun was hiding behind the trees at the back of their property, Sapphire spoke again. “I’m going to stop doing the sapphires soon. I want to have children with you, and I don’t think I’d be any good at gem dropping anymore anyway.” He didn’t ask her why, but she answered his unspoken question anyway. “I don’t like humans. Not right now. I mean, today was good—fantastic—but I don’t want them to have any joy in their lives by finding one of my sapphires. I want them to suffer in ways that I can’t.” “You can’t do that, honey.” She asked him why not as she got up to pace. “Because it’ll make you bitter and old before your time. Dragons are meant to bring joy to the world. It’s the reason that we have so much magic, the reason that we were put here in the first place. We feed from the earth, and when the earth is happy, so are we. And vice versa.” “Are you saying that you want me to keep dropping gems? Because I will if you make me.” He told her that it was doubtful that anyone could make her do what she didn’t want to. “I just don’t know what to do.” “Why does this bother you so much? I mean, it’s not like you had anything at all to do with his death.” She didn’t answer him, so he persisted. “Carmine is fine. Quinn is all right with this too. So what is it—?” “I could have gladly done more to him for what he’d tried to do. Are you happy now? Your mate is a monster and could have killed that man without any kind of help from my dragon. I would have done more to his body while he lived, hurt him more, stripped him of his skin, his eyes. Then I would have taken out his black fucking heart and eaten it while he watched.” He got up to go to her and she stopped him. “Don’t touch me. I don’t deserve to have you loving me.” He turned her around and jerked her body flush against his. “I would have done worse too. Could have, because when he was tossed to her, I could easily have caught him up and taken him away to use my human self to hurt him. Cut him to ribbons before I burned him alive. You don’t think that any one of us would have loved to have had the chance?” He shook her when she didn’t answer. “That dragon saved us all from having to live with ourselves after he was dead. Not even Quinn, who was the one that actually did it, can remember what his face looked like when she jerked his arm from the socket. Not a clue that he begged her over and over to end his life.” He held her while she sobbed, and when he heard the tink-tink of something hitting the deck beneath them, he looked down at the tears of a dragon and what she was producing. “I’m so sorry.” He told her to look at the gems. “I don’t care about the gems right now. I pissed you off, and I ache with that.” “Sapphire, your gems are diamonds and sapphires.” She looked at him with a crystal forming on her cheek. Taking it away with his thumb, he watched as it formed a perfect sphere of a diamond and sapphire right before his eyes. “This is beautiful. I mean, it’s like it took both of us to make something so unique that people might start looking for the gems again.” “You think this is going to be a norm for us?” He said that he didn’t know, but she should look at the ones at her feet. When she stepped back, he knelt down and looked at them. “They’re all spheres. Like they were formed to be something beautiful right away.” On some of the balls the diamond was part of the sphere. One of them had a vein of it right through the middle, while several more had them snaking through them like a river along a beautiful water. There was one that he was keeping. The diamond was more than half the sphere, and the sapphire looked like a waterfall coming down off of a snowy mountain. The imperfections of the sapphire made it feel like you could almost touch the water and be wet from it. There were about a dozen in all, not counting the one that he was keeping. And Sapphire found one that was exactly like his but for the gems being reversed. He loved them both very much. And more so because Sapphire had made them for him. “Do you think this is what I’m going to be making for the drops?” Her voice was low and in awe, and he knew just how she felt. He asked her to make one, just to be sure. And as soon as one tear landed on her cheek, he knew that she was making them from now on. “I’m going to make this one into a water design. And have it so that the ball will forever be turning in it. It’ll be all ours, this gem. The first of many that will be found soon, I guess.” “Not soon. Not yet. We have to tell the sisters. For all we know, they could be producing these as well.” He didn’t think so, but he’d not thought this was possible. “They’re perfect, aren’t they? People will think them fake. And while some are as big as that one, softball sized, there are ones small enough to be put into a setting for a lovely ring.” “Yes, I know. I think that they’re the most beautiful gems I’ve ever seen. But for my gem, you.” He laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him. “Such a romantic you are.” Gathering them up, she heard from the sisters. No, they didn’t produce them solely, but they did have one or two of them in their drop. To think that these ladies had somehow saved themselves from being pushed out of work by man-made products. They brought over their work and he marveled that the ones with diamonds in them were all spheres, while the ones that they produced that were uniquely their own were rough stones that would need to be cut and polished before being used. The girls tried several more times to make more, but all they got for their efforts was one each time. None of them but Opal. She could take her tear and mix it with one of the others, and it would grow into a large rough stone. The rest couldn’t do that. “So you can make opal diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. And so you know, I’m taking one each of them.
I want to put them up as the first ever.” They all agreed that he could have them. Dana wasn’t sure what he’d have done had they said no. But they told him that they loved him and that was fine by them. He’d not tell them, but he loved the combination of the opal and diamond. It was by far the prettiest of them all. The tears, just regular tears, would take a little of their DNA as they traveled down their cheeks and dropped. Once they had whatever else they needed, he wasn’t entirely sure, but once they were formed with the needed ingredients, they would form as they fell. Sometimes they would continue to form on the ground, taking on the DNA of the earth below it. that would be the imperfections that would be found in the gems. And if it landed on something, a flower or some water, you’d get a quite different piece that would be marveled over for decades. Like the Hope Diamond. It was blue in color because at some point he must have stumbled upon a bit of Sapphire to turn it that color. There was no shifting of the gems then, but a single bit of her and him making a diamond had formed the largest gem he’d ever made. And instead of keeping it, which he supposed he could have, he left it to be found by some human who might need it. It was still around, he marveled at that, and had gone to see it once. When the girls—as he had begun to think of them as just girls—agreed to stay for dinner, they all had a wonderful time around the big table. There were things that they were still working out. They lived in their own houses now and seemed to be enjoying the quiet when they got it. But more often than not, they’d end up in one of the three houses and invite young Mel over. He was becoming good friends with them all. “You think that it would be rude of me to ask him to move in with us?” Dana asked if he was one of their mates. “No, nothing like that. He’s like a little brother to us, and we want to keep him around. He’s really good at moving big boxes and stuff.” “You have magic for that. And don’t do it, please?” They asked Sapphire why not. “Because he’s saving for his own home. The one he’s in now. And if he moves in with you three, even for a little while, you’ll make him forget his dreams. He’s a good human and needs to feel like he’s something.” “I can see that. He does take a lot of pride in his home. Did you know that he takes home the broken plants and brings them back most of the time? We help them out when we see them, but he’s getting to have himself a showcase at his place. And an apple tree as well as a plum. My two favorite fruits.” Sapphire told Opal that they were all her favorites. “Okay, you’re right about that. But you’re right, we won’t ask him.” They ended up staying the night. Dana liked having them there. They were his girls, even though he looked to be about the same age as them. But they were his girls, and he was going to make sure that they were just fine.

  Chapter 12

  Griffith wasn’t ready for a mate. He had a feeling that no matter how many times he said that, she’d show up at the worst time. The house he’d purchased was coming along nicely, thanks in part to the sisters. They had taken to dropping off their purchases to him in the last week, and he had a feeling that it would have to do with his mate. Not even asking Carmine would get him any answers. “She’ll come when she does.” He said that he knew that. “Well, then why are you asking me? I’m just a kid.” “Honey, you are not even close to be just an anything. Especially not just a kid. But if you divine something, let me know. All right?” She said that she would, but she had a smile on that he didn’t think boded well for him. “You will, right?” “I said that I would.” He had bothered her too much. When she was doing her homework, he was supposed to come back later. But this was important to him. He didn’t want his mate to come up on him when he was least expecting it. He thought of his brother and shivered. “She does not need that in her life.” Griffith sat down now on his deck and watched the animals come out to play in the early morning sun. It was late enough in the summer where there were all kinds of things lurking about. And his favorite creatures were the brownies that came up on the deck to talk to him. “Did you find out anything?” He told Bud that he’d not. “Too bad. Are you going to share that watermelon? Or eat it all for yourself? You’re starting to be a little pudgy around the middle, Griffith. I’d watch the sweets if I were you.” “I’m not fat, tubby.” He loved the way that the brownies would talk about their bellies like they were children. They took a great deal of pride from having the biggest one. Of course, it interfered with their work at times, being too fat to fly, but they enjoyed life too much to let it get to them. “I was wondering if you have any more of those seeds you gave me the other week. I don’t know what you did to them, but I have the prettiest vines hanging all off the roof of the porch.” “I gave it a little loving. You should try it.” He didn’t even want to hazard a guess as to what that might mean, so just asked for the seeds. “I have some, but you must let me come and gather the new seeds up when you’ve done with the plants of the year. Those are pretty, and I’ve been putting them on old houses for about fifty years now. Makes them look less decrepit.” “I thought that the flowers looked familiar. I want to plant these on the sunny side of the barn. They’ll be all right there, don’t you think?” He said that they liked the sun. “I’m going to build a trellis next spring to put out over the steps to the porch.” “Sounds like a right fine idea, that. Hey, you think that lady gardener, she’d let us come and have her leftovers at the end of the season? We can trade off what we have, and she’ll have the best plants ever.” He said that he’d ask her. He reached out to Sapphire then or he’d forget, and Bud would annoy him until he did.

  I can do that but ask him if I can hire a couple of dozen of his kind to come and help me with the new seeds. I don’t know anything much about brownies. He asked Bud and his chest puffed out. I don’t even know how to pay a brownie. Sweets. They love them, and it helps them have more energy. But not candy if you can help it. They eat too much of that as it is. Just sweet fruit and tomatoes. They love tomatoes. He asked Bud what his opinion was. He said that he’d be happy to help you, and to find you a good crew. For that, he said he’d give you one hundred different seeds. Some of them are all but gone now from the humans. You mean heirloom seeds? That’ll be fantastic. Tell him I said thanks a bunch. He told Bud that he’d made the sapphire dragon very happy. “What are you planning to do now? You got yourself something to do all day, or you going to be a lazy bum and sit on your brain?” He told Bud that he was planning to do just that. “No, you’re not. You’re much too smart for that. Why don’t you come on down to our factory and help us out?” “You have a factory?” He told him that everyone had to have someplace that made goods. “Yes, I suppose. What sort of things do you make?” “We have a place now that just makes chairs. The sapphire dragon, she gave us a bunch of soft wool that we’re making into covers for chairs. They’re so soft on the butt. I was wondering if you could come and bring that noisy cutter thing that I heard you using, and cut us some little branches off with it.” It took him a moment to realize that he meant the chain saw. “That’s the contraption. You bring it with you and I’ll set you to work. And we’ll take care that your house is all spit and polished too.” “You mean clean up after me?” He told him what he meant. “I would enjoy that. You guys making sure that the bushes are all right and trimmed. Also, the trees, I guess.” “Whatever needs attention, we can do it. You’ll see.” He knew that he would too. His lawn was too big for him to take care of on his own, if he was inclined to do so. And the trees were dropping more and more branches all the time. He wondered what he was going to do about that. “You can bring us some of them flowers that the sapphire dragon sells, and we’ll pretty them right up too.” “Her name is Sapphire. Why do you call her the sapphire dragon, like it’s a title or something?” He said it was a title to him. “I guess so. She and her sisters are going to be gone for a week starting tomorrow. They call it dropping their gems. Did you hear about the new ones that they’re able to make?” “I seen it myself or I’d of not believed it. Nearly didn’t want to believe something so pretty could be coming from a tear, though. I wonder at the hurt one would have
to be able to cry when they need to.” He told him how it worked. “You’re joshing me. Really, you can just ask for them and the tears form?” “Yes. While I make any kind of gem, it does depend on my mood as to what I get. Green is from a pleasant mood. Rubies are for when I’m angry. And then there are the ones that I cry for just the sake of needing money. That will be about anything.” Bud said he could see that. “But with the sisters four, Opal, Sapphire, Emerald, and Ruby, they were created to make the gems for the human population. It was to try and keep them from taking a dragon back in the day.” “I heard that one too. I didn’t know if I believed it or not, but I heard it.” Bud sat down on a chair that he told him he’d brought from home. “Sure would be nice to have us some help on those chairs. They’re going to put them in the shop, I heard.” “I’d not heard that.” He was teasing the little guy and stood up to go and get his clippers and chainsaw. Whatever they needed done, he was willing to help. Bud had been his companion a great deal over the last few weeks. Gathering up his gloves too, he headed out to the field he was sure that either he owned or one of the others did. As soon as he was ready to start the chainsaw, however, he had them take cover. It was too loud for his ears; he couldn’t imagine what it would sound like to them. After cutting down the tree that he’d been told was safe, he began cutting the smaller branches off and putting them in piles. There were different kinds they needed, he knew. Green would bend well, and the darker ones that were already dry would make the best legs and seat bottoms. Almost as soon as he had the tree dismantled to what they could use, a large pip of faeries came and took away all the shavings. He knew they were going to use that for mulch for the newer plants. At lunch time he went home to get himself a much needed sandwich. He had to admit, he felt better just getting out and doing something. He’d been down for too long, and it had affected him. Now that he was out in the sun and having some fun, he was willing to bet that Bud had known that, and took them all back some of the cookies that he’d gotten from Cassie last night. “We need a bit of a fire.” Griffith asked Bud why. “Well, we have to make sure that the sugar doesn’t come out on the chairs and onto our floors.” He could see that, but the grass was terribly dry. “Does it have to be done now? I mean, can we wait until after a bit of rain? I don’t want to burn down the forest, and it might happen with all this dry grass.” Bud looked around and flew to the trees. He was asking their opinion, he knew that, and started out to find them a similar tree like they had before. When Bud returned he asked about the tree, then the fire. “We’re going to wait, as you said. The trees, they said that they’re much too brittle now and it would hurt them.” He said that was smart of him to ask the trees. “Thank you for reminding me that we’re not the only ones in the forest.” “My pleasure.” They worked until supper time. They were planning a big day for working tomorrow now that they had enough wood. He never thought about how they got a tree down to use, and they said that they’d have to gather them all up, drag them to where they were working, and then take them apart. It would slow them down for a week just to get ready to make them. On his way home, he picked up a few of the flowers that were in the field. He’d not destroy them, but would enjoy them for a while then plant them back in the soil for the next person to see. When he was ready to make his own dinner, Bud joined him again.