by Amy Faye
"I told you. I had to."
"You had to, what? You had to show off? You had to try to get yourself killed? What the fuck were you thinking, Seth? I'm fucking pregnant!"
"I know," he said again. "But I told you before. I'm not letting the blacks have you back. I'm not letting them try to bully my woman, mother of my child, into their seedy lives."
"Oh, good. I'm glad that you're so confident in yourself! Can you even move your arm?"
He looked down at it like he was putting forward a great deal of effort, and then let out an exasperated sigh. "Give me some time. This hurts, you know."
"You're lucky I didn't just leave you there until it stopped hurting! You're lucky I showed up when I did!"
"Quiet down," Seth said. He rubbed his head with his good arm. "My head feels like it's going to split in half."
"It would serve you right," I growled. "But we're going to get you to a hospital."
"I don't need to go to a hospital, Meg. I'm going to be fine."
"You've got a huge chunk missing from your shoulder, you dumb lummox."
"Things are a little different for dragons," he said. Then he laid his head back, and the conversation was over. I drove on in silence and tried not to let him know exactly how worried I was, because if I did, then I was going to have to admit to him that I was more worried than I ought to be.
24
I watch the walls and wait for someone to come and get me. Eventually, they're supposed to get a room for Seth. Maybe he'll be mad at me for taking him here, but I'm not going to ignore a massive chunk missing out of his torso because he says that it's fine. I'm willing to along with a lot of stuff, but that's a bridge too far.
When he gets a bed, I can go in, I can wait in the room, and then he'll wake up eventually. At least, I kept telling myself that. Eventually, I hoped I would believe it. Until then, I repeated it over and over in my head, like a mantra. I hoped that it would help me believe the lie sooner, but I didn't hold out hope.
"Meg?"
I turned. Cassidy looked at me strangely. But I didn't have time to wonder what that was about, because I was too busy being surprised by the small army of men that came in with her.
Three men, all young and rugged in their own different ways, scowled around the room like they were trying to rush it with their guns drawn. I swallowed hard. Blake was at their head, right behind his wife. His scowl was the deepest. Then, behind them all came another person. A woman I didn't recognize, who looked as if she were going to have a violent fit at any moment.
"Oh God where is he?" The new woman spoke first. She was older than any of them. Old enough to be their mother. I guessed that was who she was.
"I don't know," I said. "They didn't have any beds when we came in, so we're waiting for them to find a place for Seth to stay more long-term."
"What happened, anyways?" It was the youngest man who spoke, then. His voice held a note of roughness, like as soon as she answered he would be able to take care of whatever had put Seth in the hospital.
"It's my fault," I said. I let out a sigh.
The woman's eyes fell on me and widened. She tried to hide the anger on her face, but she didn't succeed.
"I'm sure that's not the case, sweetheart. Why on earth would Seth get himself hurt on your account?"
Blake's nostrils flared, and Cassidy's eyes snapped shut. "You'll have to excuse Margaret; she's very concerned about her son, is all. You'll, uh… I guess you might get used to it, eventually."
I nodded. "I don't know. He just… there was a guy. My ex. But I guess… this is going to sound crazy, but apparently he was a dragon?"
The lack of reaction on everyone's face was startling.
"He picked a fight with a dragon? Over a woman?"
"That's not… he just showed up at his apartment one day. I don't think that I was part of the deal, per se. It just kind of happened."
"And then what?"
"So uh… he just, I don't know. They fought a lot. That's all I can say."
"What's your boyfriend's name?"
"Kyle Steen," I said. "I guess he's a black dragon?"
"I know the name," said the youngest.
"Um. I don't want to be rude here, so if I'm stepping out of line, just tell me to shut up, but it's a bit hard to talk to all of you if I don't know your names."
"Oh. Of course." Cassidy this time, again. She started pointing from herself on. "I'm Cassidy; this is my husband, Blake. He's the eldest. You know Seth, the second eldest. This is Dante; he's third. And last, but not least…"
The youngest, though he was perhaps the burliest of them, cut her off. "Lance," he growled. "And my mother, Margaret. You'll get used to her."
Margaret looked like she was tensed to jump right at me in a moment to tear out my throat. But she didn't, in spite of her obvious desire to give it a shot.
"And you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," I said. "I didn't even get hurt."
"That's not really true, though, is it?" Cassidy looked at me hard again. She was getting at something, but I didn't know what it was.
"I mean, other than my hip… if I stay seated, I'm alright."
"And the stomach pain?"
"What stomach pain?" I've never been a good liar. But I've learned something over my life: if I don't lie, I regret it in the end. I always do. "I'm fine. Please. Just. I'm fine."
"You're not ready to discuss it? Alright, fine."
"I'm not avoiding anything, I'm just… there's nothing to discuss, okay?" I wasn't about to tell them that I was pregnant. Not when there was a decent question whose child it was. In my gut, I knew, of course. It had been a rocky couple of weeks with Kyle. A rocky couple of years, really.
But I couldn't be certain, not rock-hard certain. And I wasn't about to admit it in front of five people. Not five people who I barely knew the names of. The two I knew best, I knew by their name and their face, which wasn't exactly a close friendship.
Cassidy sat down across from my, pursed her lips, and looked at me. Like she was waiting for something. I don't know what it was supposed to be, but I knew what I thought it was, and I knew I wasn't planning on telling her. Not here, not now. Not in front of all these people, and not after they'd just revealed to me that they knew all about dragons, of all things.
Besides, I'm not a dragon. At least, I'm pretty sure that I'm not. I've never been a dragon before, and I've never thought I might be. There had been something Seth had said, something about Black dragons liking to push people over the edge when they were close. That seemed to fit a lot better than the idea that I was, myself, a dragon.
So if I was a dragon, is it even possible to get pregnant? Maybe it's like, you get some cum inside you, and then like… you test positive for it, because it's like a drug test? Like how you can detect weed up to six weeks later?
I let out a long breath. I hoped that she would stop looking at me like that. If she didn't stop soon, I might have to tell everyone everything.
25
I let out a long breath. The room seemed to get really quiet, waiting for something. Waiting for something to happen. Eventually, the silence is going to break, and when it does, everything is going to be crazy. Especially with his mother right there, especially with having just met her for the first time. Especially with how high-energy she seems to be.
"You're serious? Oh my god!" The mom, Margaret, is the first one to break. "Pregnant? My baby boy is pregnant?!"
I shrink inside myself. Yeah, I'm not involved in the thing at all. Continue to think of it as his child, rather than mine. It makes better sense that way, and I'm not the center of attention.
"Congratulations," Cassidy said. She was still giving me a look, but now it's a more pleased one. "And you made the right decision, telling us. Trust me, you don't want to be around this family when you're keeping secrets. It's not an easy time."
"Oh my God, I've got to call Anatoly! I've… oh my god!" Margaret rushed out the room. I watched her go with a v
ague sense of relief.
"Are you feeling okay? I know Cassidy here, she was sick… oh, man. Every day. The worst. I felt so bad." Blake squeezes her hand. "But we got through it okay."
"God. No, I'm feeling fine. Aside from the whole 'car crash' thing."
"God, I'd be thanking my stars that didn't, you know… with the baby."
"I didn't know about it at the time. I just found out… what, this morning?"
"And Seth went to go get into a fight with some Blacks? Didn't call any of us?" Lance's jaw flexed. It was really, impossibly wide. "Idiot."
"Oh, I'm going to make sure he knows all about that," Blake said. He let out a long, low breath. "I'm going to make sure he finds out exactly how dumb that decision was."
A nurse appeared in the doorway, holding a clipboard. Or an orderly. I couldn't tell what the difference was, except that I knew one had more training. Telling the difference, though? Impossible for me.
"Meg Jones?"
"Yes."
"You came in with Seth Yovanovich?"
I'd never really spent much time thinking about his last name before, but as I heard it now I almost laughed. What an ethnic name. "Seth? Yeah. Is he okay?"
"He's stable, he's awake, and he's asking for you."
Blake pushed himself up from the chair. "I've got to go have a talk with my brother."
The other two men stood up in silent agreement.
"Okay, well… I've got to go get a breath of fresh air. Did anyone see which way Margaret went? I'd rather have a little quiet."
Cassidy sighed and nodded. "I know what you mean. Hey, do you mind if I come with you? I hate hospitals. Really. I would appreciate it if you could, you know, just stand with me a few minutes." She lowered her voice. "Plus, I don't want to be there when Blake decides that he needs to teach Seth a lesson. They're not exactly known for their really good humor. Like oil and water, Seth and Blake."
I took a deep breath. "Yeah, that's fine. Let's go. Five minutes, boys, and keep in mind that he needs to still be alive when I get back."
"Alive? Sure. He might be back to sleep though. Back to sleep for a few days. What a fucking moron. Pregnant girlfriend, and he goes off… Idiot!"
Blake's expression told me that as much as he was playing the angry brother, he was something very different. He was the angry father, and in his head he was imagining what if it was Cassidy. I decided to get the hell out of there, and Cassidy followed behind as I started to wander through the halls looking for a door to the outside that didn't say 'Emergency Exit.'
"How are you holding up, really?"
"I'm fine," I say. I'm a bad liar, but 'I'm fine' is an exception. Mostly because I say it in a way that implies 'I don't want to talk about it,' and I genuinely don't want to talk about it.
"If you've got anything you need to talk about, then, just don't be afraid to let me know, okay?"
"So if I get pregnant from a dragon, does that mean…"
"Well, half-dragons are a thing. Do you have a mark on your hip?"
"Yeah, it's all black and bruised up. I just got hit by a car."
I've never liked hospitals before. Nobody does. But now, I'm at least thankful for them, because they've got hand-rails most of the way down the hall, and I can barely walk without one.
"Like a birthmark."
"No," I said. "Why, should I?"
"Well, doesn't matter. Dragons can, uh… 'breed' with humans. No problem. It's the other way around. Humans don't really do it for dragons, if the tabs and slots go the other way. No human sires."
"Oh. Well, I guess that would be good to know, if I was a lady dragon."
"Half-dragon, too. Overcoming the whole dominant species thing is pretty much not going to happen."
"Oh. I take it…"
"Personal experience," Cassidy answered. "But hey. You're pregnant! That's good, right?"
"I guess. I do have one other question."
"Okay. I live to serve. What's the question, I'll answer it."
"How did you know?"
I found a door and pressed the handle out. It gave way easily, and no alarms started firing off. I let out a long breath of relief.
"Honestly? I could just see it. The skin tone, the expression, the annoyance. I don't know. Just the whole picture together gave me an impression, and I trust my intuition."
"Oh. Cool, I guess."
I took in the cold air. I was wearing a coat, but it was still freezing cold. Cassidy, on the other hand, was barely in a sweatshirt and she looked like she was as happy as a clam. I shut up, and she shut up, and we stood together for a long time in the dark, just drinking in the calm and the quiet and the night.
And then that night opened up, swallowed me whole, and lifted me up off the ground. My hip hurt so bad that I couldn't see straight.
"Go, go, go," a voice said, from the darkness. The bag over my head rubbed against my skin as I was carried away. I could hear Cassidy screaming, but me personally?
I was so surprised that I didn't even think of it until we were already in the van.
26
"You really thought you could get away from me. Is that what I'm supposed to understand?"
Meg looked up at Kyle. He looked a little different. It had been a while, but she didn't remember him having a horrible scar on his throat, and she didn't remember him having that gleam in his eyes like he was going to kill her any minute. At least, he usually didn't she hoped that this time, he wasn't any more serious than the last several times. But she didn't hold out a ton of hope.
"I'm not your property, Kyle. You have to let us go." I looked over at Cassidy. She was unconscious, still. Her head lolled, and occasionally it rolled from one side to the other. "At least let her go. She's nothing to you."
"Oh, now, Megan. That's where you're wrong. She's everything to me. We don't have the same history that you and I have, no, but there's still time. I think she'll be hard to push. Not like you. You were a piece of art, but like most art, you were solid, easy-to-work material."
"Just let her go, okay? I'll do whatever you want, just…"
Kyle's eyes flashed and his hand moved faster than my eye could follow. My cheek, though, didn't have any trouble understanding what had happened. The pain seared across my face and I let out a bubbling cry of pain. For a moment I thought I'd woken Cassidy, bu then her head lolled back down.
"You son of a bitch, that hurt!"
"And it's going to hurt a whole lot more," Seth said. His voice was low and hard. "You think you can just try to screw me and get away with it? Huh? You think you can just walk away from me?"
"I don't… no, I would never. I just…"
He let out a low breath and his lips started to pull back in a snarl that showed his teeth. "You just, what? You just thought that you were going to get away from me. You thought that I was going to let you get away. You thought I was going to let some guy come and take you. Well, I'm not going to lose you. I'm not going to lose my property."
"I'm not your property. You lost me a long time ago, Kyle, and you and I both know that."
His hand moved again. My other cheek blossomed with pain. Pain that started my skin tingling in a way that I distinctly disliked in this ramshackle house. A house I'd never seen before. Anyone could tell, though, just from looking, that it was abandoned. No reason to go investigate it, because nobody would be inside if you did.
"You should learn to shut your mouth. You used to know how to keep your mouth shut. You used to know how to stay in your place, and how to keep your head down, and how to avoid pissing me off. What the hell happened to you, Meg? Did you just lose it? Did you become stupid? Is that what it is?"
"Don't hurt me," I said. I tried to make my voice threatening, but I don't know if it worked. I don't think it did. But I had to try.
"You think I'm going to be afraid of you? Meg? Is that what you think?"
"I'm warning you," I repeated. "Just leave me alone."
"Leave you alone, or what? Or you're going t
o call your boyfriend to come get you? Go ahead. Scream."
I bite my cheeks to keep from saying anything further. If he wants to grandstand, I'm going to let him, because the truth is that I don't know if or when anyone's coming. But I can't let him push me around, either. Kyle doesn't back off when he gets his way. He just pushes harder.
"I think you know just as well as I do, Megan. I think you know that there's nobody coming. I'm going to have you, and your little friend here, for as long as I want. And nobody, not your boyfriend, not his family, not his friends, none of them are going to lift one finger to stop me. Not that they could if they tried. I'm not that easy to find, not when I don't want to be found."
"Please, just let her go, Kyle. I'll do whatever you want."
"No, I've already told you. She's part of it now, and she's going to remain part of it, no matter how much you beg and whine and plead."
"She's pregnant," a voice said. A woman's voice. A slurred woman's voice. I looked over and watched Cassidy's head lift a little. "How do you like them apples?"
Kyle's eyes widened, and he looked at me. He didn't ask if it was true. He seemed to sense it in me, like he could see the truth in my eyes.
"You're not serious."
"Oh, I'm serious, alright," Cassidy said. "Dead serious. And you think they're not going to come for her? You think you're going to get away with any of this?"
Kyle's hand moved and I instantly felt a wave of second-hand regret. She shouldn't have said those things. She shouldn't have said any of them. Kyle's not known for his good humor on the best of days.
But he doesn't pull it back and slap her. He pulls out a knife, he hunches his shoulders in a posture that I've seen a thousand times when he's feeling mean and angry, and then he growls.
"Say that again. You think you're so smart, say it again."
"I said, my husband's going to kill you."
He switched the knife from one hand to the other, his hands flexing on the handle.
"You know what? Maybe you're right. But I'm betting he doesn't do it before I kill you, first." His hand started to move, and I screwed my eyes shut. I couldn't watch Cassidy die, and I couldn't stop telling myself, even as I knew that she had been protecting me, that she shouldn't have said it. That if she hadn't said those things, she wouldn't have gotten hurt like she did.