by Ava Benton
It didn’t look like much from the outside, that was for sure. A cave. Not exactly the sort of place I was accustomed to living in—which, naturally, made it all the more inviting. I didn’t want anything in my new life to resemble what I’d left behind. I would’ve gladly moved into a tent and stayed there, if need be.
Of course, I wouldn’t have to. From what Miles had told me, the cave would hardly require us to rough it. I could hardly wait to get inside and explore, not to mention the chance to meet the others.
I had my chance to get started before we entered.
I gasped, hands over my mouth, when a dragon swooped low overhead and landed only feet from the mouth of the cave.
Miles slid a protective arm around my shoulders.
“That’s Smoke,” he announced, holding up a hand in greeting. “It’s his turn on guard duty. I’m sure he’s glad we’re back.”
The dragon lowered his head as if to agree.
Martina and I exchanged a single glance—what were we getting into?
I reached up and patted Smoke’s shoulder, smiling as genuinely as I could. The sight of a dragon was still surprising and slightly unnerving, but I was getting better with it.
“It’s good to meet you. I can’t wait to get to know you better.”
Miles squeezed my hand, and I knew he was pleased.
The walk into the cave was a long one, with Gate and Martina behind us.
The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever.
I understood how important it was to keep the living quarters far from the outside world, but it was still surprising.
“Gate! Miles!” The sound of a little boy’s joyful voice floated toward us, and moments later he became visible as he hurtled down the tunnel.
It warmed my heart to see how happy it made him to see his friends again. He threw his arms around Miles’s waist, then moved on to Gate.
“Martina, Savannah, this is Tommy.” Gate ruffled his blond hair, and the little boy shrugged it off while laughing.
“Aunt Cari said you can teach me about writing,” he said, eyebrows raised in hope.
“I sure can, if you want to learn,” I offered.
He turned to Martina. “And you know all about karate and stuff.” He did a few moves, waving his arms and kicking.
“Whoa! Slow down, Bruce Lee,” she laughed. “I’ll teach you how to really do it. Okay? But you’ve gotta promise you’ll be safe, and never use what you learn to hurt anybody.”
“I promise.” He made an elaborate cross over his heart.
The five of us continued down the tunnel together, with Tommy skipping along and chattering a mile a minute.
He made me miss Ainsley, strangely enough.
I looked forward to the chance to chat with her again once she and the others returned to Scotland.
A group of girls waited for us in the kitchen—or, rather, they were in the middle of preparing a big meal when we reached them.
“You’re early!” One of the girls, a petite redhead, embraced the guys before turning to Martina and me. She gave us the same sort of hug, like we were old friends. “I’m Jasmine, and I’m so happy you’re here.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, overwhelmed at all the affection and warmth.
Maybe because I had been without it for so long.
Alina stood at the stove, according to her sister, while Ciera stirred something in a large bowl at the table.
There was a bandage on all five fingers of one hand, and I remembered hearing about how clumsy she was.
“I tried to grab something from the oven with a damp towel,” she explained with a sheepish smile when Miles asked what she’d done to herself this time.
I decided that stirring was the safest task for her.
“Pierce and Fence had to run into town to pick up a few additional supplies,” Alina explained. “We, uh, broke a few plates earlier today.”
Perhaps Ciera needed to stay out of the kitchen entirely.
“Where’s Cari?” Gate asked, clearly trying to change the subject for her sake.
“In the lab, as always,” Ciera replied with a bright smile. “Working on something important, too, I bet.”
“Let’s go see her. She’ll want to hear about how the antidote worked.” Miles took my hand and showed me around as we went further into the cave.
I couldn’t get over everything my eyes fell on.
The rec room—I couldn’t think of a better word for it—with its gigantic TV and game systems and sound system and even pinball and arcade games.
“I’m pretty good at air hockey,” I confided with a wink.
“I’ll keep that in mind for later.”
We passed a library, where I understood Smoke spent a lot of his time when he wasn’t on guard duty.
Several closed doors—bedrooms and such, I guessed.
Finally, we stopped, and Miles rapped on the door before opening it a crack.
“Hello?” he called out.
Good thing, too, since we had obviously interrupted something.
A beautiful, blonde girl slid from a table she’d been sitting on and buttoned her blouse, while a tall, dark-haired man pulled a t-shirt over his head.
I buried my face in Miles’s chest, biting my lip to keep from giggling out of embarrassment.
“Hey, brother!”
Cash and Miles embraced as only men could: patting each other on the back with their clasped hands between them.
Even dragons made use of the bro hug.
“I thought you’d never get back!”
“Sometimes, it felt like we never would.” Miles turned to me. “This is Savannah.”
“Thank God,” Cash grinned. “I thought this one would never find a woman who could stand him.”
“Please. I just got her here. Don’t drive her away yet.” Even so, I laughed. It was nice, seeing Miles unwind that way and joke with his brother. I could feel myself relaxing little by little, letting this crazy, unlikely family pull me in.
“And you’re Carissa,” I said. “This lab is incredible.”
“Thank you. I wish I could take credit for all of it, but somebody was generous enough to get it started for me.”
They smiled at each other, and it was clear how in love they were.
“Your antidote worked a treat,” Miles congratulated her. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I did what I could.” She blushed, ducking her head, clearly not used to such praise.
I liked her immediately, the way I liked the others.
Everyone brought something to the family—except for me. I wondered what I could do. I wasn’t as spectacular as she was, or as smart as Ciera. I wasn’t a healer, like Alina. I wasn’t a leader, like Jasmine. I didn’t have Martina’s strength or her skills. I was just me.
Miles cleared his throat. “This is as good a segue as any.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“I’ll show you.” He took me by the hand and led me from the lab, further down the tunnel.
“I’ll bet you’d like to show me something,” I giggled.
“I would—but there’s something else, first.” He opened a door at random, just enough to stick his head through and look around. “Great. It’s all set.”
“What’s all set? Our room?”
“Not our room.” He grinned over his shoulder. “Your room.”
“Mine?”
He opened the door further, flipping a light switch before stepping aside. I didn’t know what to look at first—the beautiful desk, the high-backed leather chair, the laptop sitting open.
Waiting for me.
“What’s this?” I whispered, tiptoeing into the room. It was beautiful. A TV, a sofa, a wall of books. There was even a small refrigerator and coffee maker in one corner.
“A room for you—or, rather, an office,” he explained. “I talked to Pierce about it before we left St. Lucia. You can decorate it any way you want. But I thought this would be a good st
art.”
My mouth fell open. “An office? For me?”
“For you. I mean, you’re a writer. Writers write. They need their space and their quiet. Don’t they?”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable at my confusion.
“Is this all wrong?”
I couldn’t believe him.
Nobody had ever called me a writer before—nobody who wasn’t making fun or patronizing me. He took me seriously.
He made me believe I could do anything I dreamed of.
“Wrong?” I laughed, falling into his arms. “Nothing was ever more right.”
Epilogue
Miles
It was hard to believe. All of us, sitting together at one, long table. The way we’d been for months, ever since Gate and I returned from St. Lucia.
The conversation never lagged, not once, voices overlapping again and again until it was nearly impossible to follow the thread.
I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Life had changed completely, and in less than a year. I would never have imagined it.
Sitting with the girls, with Tommy, feeling as though they’d always been part of us. How did we get along with them? How did I get along without the woman seated beside me?
“Do you need to put your feet up?” Smoke asked Alina. Again.
“I’m fine,” she chuckled, patting his hand with one of hers while using the other to pat her growing belly.
“Imagine how he’ll be by the end of it,” Pierce laughed. “Only four months along.”
“Wait until your turn comes,” Smoke warned. “We’ll see how you handle it. Remind me to be as kind to you.”
“Now, now,” Alina crooned, but not without a wink Pierce’s way.
“I can’t wait until I’m not the youngest anymore,” Tommy declared, making us all laugh. “It’ll be like havin’ a brother, finally.”
“What if the baby is a girl?” Carissa asked.
His eyes widened as though he had never considered this before, and we all laughed again.
“You’ll be all right,” Martina assured him. “Didn’t we already talk about how tough girls are? Maybe she won’t want to play with dolls. Maybe you can teach her how to fight.”
“When she’s old enough,” Smoke added, sounding anxious.
“How are they doing back home, with the antidote?” I asked Carissa, changing the subject.
“Wonderfully. Their latest tests were successful. It’s just a matter of waiting to be sure the effects last the full month, and they’ll have the green light to produce as much as they need.”
“I wonder if there are others, elsewhere, who could use it,” Ciera pondered. “There are legends all over the world not unlike the ones I heard when I was a little girl. There seems to be a common thread running through all of them, too strong a thread to chalk it up to coincidence.”
“Maybe this one will explore those legends one day,” Alina suggested, rubbing her belly again.
“Or me!” Tommy announced.
Funny, how I’d forgotten about the wide world around us.
The world had shrunk over a thousand years, until only the cave and the homeland existed no matter how the media I’d consumed told me otherwise. We’d expanded our world along with our family. How remarkable.
When the meal ended, and the cleanup was complete, Savannah tugged my sleeve outside the notice of the others. She had been ominously quiet throughout dinner, very much unlike her.
“What is it?” I asked.
She only crooked her finger, beckoning me.
The dragon opened an eye, vaguely curious at the potential direction this would go in. When she led me to her office, however, he went back to resting. Not that we hadn’t broken in the sofa, the chair, even the floor of the office. But the spark of desire wasn’t in her eyes when she turned to look at me, once we were alone. All I saw was apprehension.
“I wanted to talk about this at dinner, but I don’t know how everybody will feel about it and didn’t want to put them on the spot.”
“What’s it all about?” I hadn’t seen her so worked up since bringing her home with me.
She motioned for me to join her behind the desk, where her laptop sat. “I’ve been working on it since we first got here.”
“Oh! You’ll finally show me what you’ve been pouring all your energy into, then?” I’d only asked a few times a week for three months.
“It’s very personal,” she reminded me, as always. “I wanted to finish the first draft before telling you about it, so you could see the entire thing as a whole.”
“What entire thing?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve been writing about us. Or, rather, you all. The dragons.”
I gaped at her. Just when I thought she couldn’t surprise me anymore. “What did you write, exactly?”
“Don’t worry!” she was quick to urge. “I changed all the details and added a lot of things, until there’s no way to know I’m writing about you guys. I promise. You can read it and see for yourself.”
“You wrote about us.” I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “I guess I’ve never considered us worth writing about—or reading about.”
“It’s never easy to see oneself as being interesting. Trust me, you are. And I’m sure there are so many more stories to tell. I mean, what was it like, living here for so many centuries? What sort of changes did you see? Have things changed for the better, or for the worse? Would you go back and redo anything?”
“Hang on, hang on,” I chuckled.
Every question she asked seemed to excite her more, to the point where her fingers fairly twitched with the urge to start writing again.
“I would love to tell you all of it, and I can’t wait to read what you’ve written so far. You know I’ve been dying to get a look.”
“I know you have,” she smirked. “And I know you’ve been trying to sneak a look when you thought I didn’t know.”
I grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Anyway,” she continued with a roll of her eyes, “I thought this was a good start. Under an assumed name if I ever decide to publish, of course.”
A book about us. Maybe more than one book. Even if she never published, it was almost comforting to think of our story being recorded somewhere. We would live on.
“I love you,” I reminded her as I sat down to start reading. Those three words didn’t seem enough. They never would. But I wasn’t the wordsmith she was.
She ran a tender hand over my head, flashing me a wry grin. “We’ll see how you feel when you’ve finished reading.”
Footsteps approached.
Pierce popped his head in. “Mary’s on the phone.”
Savannah raised her brows.
“This is how it usually starts,” Pierce told her with a smile.
“Let’s see what’s on Mary’s mind.” I took Savannah’s hand in mine.
“There’s plenty of time for reading later,” Savannah assured me, a wicked gleam in her eye.
Looked like I was with the right woman.
The dragon roared in agreement.
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed Miles!
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Copyright © 2017 by Ava Benton
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
, Miles