Lincoln_The Manning Dragons_Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  When he’d seen her the other day, it hadn’t brought up the memories that it did this time. As she came into the house, he remembered her from when he’d been a younger dragon. His father had gone to her for salves for cuts they’d receive. There were times when Dad would have taken her something he’d found while they were out foraging.

  Cooper would never forget the day that his dad had died. Nor what it felt like coming upon his mother’s body, cut to shreds and stripped of nearly every part of her so the humans could profit from it.

  “Hello, Cooper. My goodness, you’re even more handsome than your father was. I never got a chance to ask you the other day, but do you enjoy being a human?” He told her that he did, and being a dragon as well. “Yes, I can well imagine that you’d like your other half more now that you have a mate. And she’s breeding too. You must be very happy.”

  “I am. I don’t want to be rude, but—”

  “But he will be.” Cooper felt his face heat up when Carson finished his statement for him. “Hello, Sadie. If I haven’t told you this before, I’m so glad that made it so that Cooper was here for me when I needed him.”

  “Oh, how lovely of you to say that. Thank you.” She looked at him, then back at Carson. “He has a right to be rude. I was the reason his father perished the way he did. But had he not, as you have said, his sons would never have made it this far.”

  “So you say.” Sadie said nothing but sat when Carson asked her to. His brothers started to arrive one at a time. With his temper already not in a good place, he had to bite his tongue not to snap at them for being late. For Winnie—he didn’t look at her. She still scared him a great deal. “Now, if we could begin, we’ll have a reason for you to be here on our mountain.”

  “The mountain was the only place that I could go when I helped your father. I used all my magic, and even the dragons that were gathered there, to make sure that each of you got enough to be able to change. I’ve been resting, or hiding out, you could say, for a thousand years, give or take. Then when I woke, I watched over you all, just as I was asked to.” Cooper asked how his dad using magic had drained her. “You don’t think that he could have changed six full grown dragons into men without a little help, do you? Then there was the fact that you all had to be able to change back to dragons when you wished. No, your father was strong, but not that much.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Sadie said that was all right as well. “Are you admitting that you had a hand in my father’s death?”

  “Yes. But he knew what was going to happen well before I gave him as much as he could handle. Even as the king of dragons, your father could hold only so much magic. That’s the reason we had to do it on the night of the meeting. Where all the dragons and their magic could be drawn from at once. I willed all that I was to him and took from each of the others until there was nearly enough. Had it not been for the lady of the faeries, I’m afraid that it would have failed. This your father knew as well.” He asked why he’d not been told. “Would you have believed me, Cooper? I think not. Even had you hung around, which would have been a bad idea after you were changed, you would have noticed the weakened state of all the others there. You and your brothers meant that much to Coop that he’d willingly die to keep you safe.”

  “He was all we had left after mother was murdered, and you took him from us.” No one said a word. He’d been loud and cruel. Not to mention, he felt sort of childish. “I’m sorry. I must have been holding that in for a long time.”

  “I have something for you from him. He knew he wasn’t going to be around to give it to you when you were old enough to receive it. I have some of your mother’s things as well. After you left the area, I had the faeries collect as much of them as they could find. I’m sorry there wasn’t more, but they did the best they could.” He told her how Dad had said to burn what they couldn’t carry when they left. “Yes, so the humans would never find you. Even then they had ways to track dragons that would mean their certain death. But the key I gave you before goes to the trunk that your father put things in for you. Items he managed to bring me to hide away for you all.”

  Sadie got up, and that was when he noticed how weak she was. It wasn’t just her magic, but her body too was starting to show her age. When she made to carry a larger bag than she’d given to Carson, he got up and brought it over to the fireplace where they were all sitting. He even gave her his chair so that she might be warmer.

  “You are weak.” She said that she was beginning to show her age now as well. “You’re going to die.”

  “Oh yes, and I’m ready to go. I’ve only been here this long because I made a promise to my best friend. And your father was the best a person could have asked for. He was forever finding me herbs that I didn’t have. Making a mental list of things he knew I was short on. Once, he traveled all the way to the town to steal me a dress from the clothesline of a woman. You see, I had burnt mine while making a salve for your knee. You cut it running from a human, I believe.”

  “I remember that. I still have the scar from it.” He smiled at the memory. “It stunk, if I recall correctly, and I told Dad that you had made it smell that bad just to be mean.”

  “I did, as a matter of fact. But it wasn’t to be mean. It was all I could think to do when you were forever going to the town to see the children playing on the swings. And you might have been caught, had I not done that for you.” He nodded. “You were the most curious dragon I had ever encountered. Still are, I bet.”

  More memories were coming back to him with each passing minute and every item that they took from the bag. His brothers seemed to be remembering too, and told where they had come from and which one of them had given it to their mom.

  “This is the shell we found when Mom took us to the lake beside the mountain. We couldn’t be too loud because the humans were lurking everywhere.” Hudson held it up as he continued. “She told me to bring something back that would remind me of the time we had fun. While we were in the water, I never thought once of the humans.”

  “That was more than likely the point, don’t you think?” Hudson smiled and nodded. Sadie looked at Cooper when she spoke again. “There was some that I was sure that was part of a chess set. You learned it once, before all the madness of humans hunting you down. We got some of the pieces, but not all. You and your father played, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. He was never any good at it—the pieces and how they moved confused him. But we had so much fun learning it together. He said it was a good game to learn how to think one or two jumps ahead of the competition. I guess he was right, it did serve me well.” He looked at Sadie as she closed her eyes and rocked with a smile on her face. “I’m truly sorry for the way I’ve spoken to you and treated you. You should have bashed me over the head and made me listen to you.”

  “Winnie said that she’d do it for me, but I told her that I didn’t want you addled too much.” She didn’t open her eyes as she continued. “You used to have the hardest head when it came to teaching you something. It always had to be tried several different ways before you were satisfied with the one to make something work.”

  “He’s still like that to this day.” They all laughed, and Tristan told how the new contracts had to be gone over fifty times to make sure there were no loopholes. “Took me nearly a year to get them good enough where he’d sign off on them. And still he wasn’t satisfied.”

  Each of them had a story to tell about when they were younger. Mostly it was the older ones. Xavier was the youngest, and by the time he was old enough to enjoy being a dragon, the humans had already invaded their camps and caves. But he did tell of the memories he had of their parents.

  Cooper looked at Sadie again. “I’m ready for that trunk to be opened now. I think that I’ve grown up over the last few minutes. Thank you for that.” She kissed him on the cheek and he felt the warmth of her, also her weakness. Being here was taking a great deal out of her. “If you’d like to rest, I’m sure that we can all wait on this
.”

  “I cannot. I’m set to die this night, and your Winnie there has made me a few promises that I shall see if she does.” He laughed when she did. “I am very old, Cooper. A strong witch that needs to rest forever now. It’s been coming on more and more, and should I wait on this, I fear that I will not make it here a second time.”

  He nodded as the large container appeared in front of him. “When did he give this to you? He must have been preparing for this for months.”

  “Oh yes, for at least that long, if not longer. And your mother too. The plan had been to change you boys and they would remain as dragons. It would have worked too, as strong as your mother was. But she was murdered, as you know. So, some of the things in that are from her as well. A few I collected for them, being as how I look the part of being human. You’ll be surprised at how much they cared for you all.” Cooper nodded, almost afraid to open the container. “You’ll be happy to know that your uncle put one or two items in there for you as well. He knew, you see, that your father was going to do this. And the night that he killed himself, he came to me and asked if he were to stay alive long enough for it to happen, would it make a difference. It did. His power, while not as strong as your father’s, was still very helpful.”

  “How did uncle do it? I knew that he was unhappy, but how did he end his own life?” She told Lucas when he asked. “Threw himself over a cliff? How sad for him.”

  “Nay, he was flying, he told me before he left. He would do it once more before he hit the earth. He did it this way so that his body wouldn’t be found for a long time. I don’t think anyone ever disturbed his resting place but me. I had the faeries gather as much of him as was left, and we put him with his lovely wife and children. He is at peace now.” Lucas thanked her. “No reason for that, my son. He was a good man too.”

  Lifting the lid off, Cooper noticed that it was padded with leather. The strings on the side, worn now, were also. He wondered at the hand that had crafted such a beautiful and sturdy box and thought to ask her later. As soon as he moved some of the heavy cloth out of the way, his breath caught at what he uncovered.

  There on the top was the crown that his father had worn. It was beaten silver, the jewel on it the purest diamond. Someone had carved a neat hole in the silver for the diamond to lay flat against it. There were no other adornments. His mother’s, made with the same kind of silver and a single diamond, lay beneath his father’s, and he felt his eyes well with tears when he touched his finger over hers.

  “She was so proud of this. Told me when I was older that my mate would wear it proudly, and everyone would know that she was the queen of all dragons.” He wiped at the tears that fell freely now. “Dad said that to have been given the honor of being king was the greatest thing he’d ever had. And having this crown to wear, it made him feel more than king. I thought them lost when they died.”

  He handed them around, letting everyone in the room have a chance to put them upon their head. Cooper laughed when it fell to the shoulders of his son and knew that someday he’d give it to him as his oldest.

  Cooper was almost afraid to touch the next item, or even to reveal it. As he pulled away the cloth, he thought of his parents and how much they had given him. Then he saw the emeralds that had been theirs.

  “Tears made from love will be the purest of emeralds. And once it is planted by another dragon in love, it will grow the most beautiful tree once they give it a part of themselves.” Instead of finishing the saying, he passed the smaller of the two to Carson and showed his brothers the other. “When we’re finished here, I’d like us to plant these. They’ll bear fruit that will have emeralds in them once every sixty years.”

  “How very romantic.” He kissed Carson and put his hand over their child. It was all he could do not to lean down and kiss his daughter as well. “I love you, Cooper.”

  “And I love you both. So very much.” He held the container in his hand while he dug to the next layer. “Oh my. Oh, my good Lord.”

  ~~~

  Lincoln wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It was tattered and old, that much he knew, but what it was he didn’t have a clue. When the next item was handed to him, he held onto it and the one he’d had first.

  “What is this?” Sadie wasn’t looking well, and he figured this was her last business before she died. But he needed to know what these things were and what they meant to him and his brothers. “I mean, I can tell it’s cloth, but other than that, I don’t know.”

  “When your mother had to carry you from one place to the other, she would use that to tie the egg in and put it in her mouth. Sort of like the stork did in all those cartoons I’ve seen.” Sadie laughed, then coughed hard. “That was used for all of you. She would tote you around like it was nothing so that she could fly with her mate. No other female did that but instead stayed hidden until the egg would hatch.”

  He looked at it with new eyes. His mother was very inventive and special. He passed it to his brother and held up the next piece. Lincoln had a feeling that he knew what it was but needed to be sure. If it was what he thought, it was more precious than gold to him.

  “Your mother’s scale. When the faeries were looking for something to bring back to my resting place, they found that. Sadly, it was the only piece of her that was left. I’m sorry. The other is your father’s. Since he died in one piece, he was buried with your mother’s bones and a tooth that they also found.” He nodded, touched that the faeries were so kind to them. “They lie side by side, the two of them. When you are finished here, I shall tell you where to find them.”

  “Thank you, I’d like that.” He handed his father’s scale to Grace. When she held it in her hand, she looked so much smaller with it there. When she passed it on to someone else, he wondered if she knew what having them would mean. It was a piece of the last of their kind. The last fully dragon king and queen.

  There were other things in the box, nothing so important to him as the scales. As the other pieces were passed around, he kept coming back to the necklace that had startled Cooper so much when he’d found it. It was a diamond as large as his fist, and uncut. It would be worth billions. Their mother had left instructions on what to do with it.

  She wanted a college fund set up for the underprivileged children of the town where they lived. He supposed she’d never thought that they’d stay so close to where they had perished, but none of them could leave their home.

  The money from the sale of the diamond would pay full tuition for both male and female humans that had lost their parents to some sort of accident or sudden death. It was something that they were already doing, in the name of Molly Conrad. He’d have to talk to Cooper and the others about what they could do now. Add to the foundation or set up a second? These were things that they would work out.

  The gifts from their uncle were funny. He had thought of himself as an artist. Carving into wood with his claws, he would create the most hideous things with them. But they all thought that to tell him would hurt his feelings. So, he sent each of them a piece that he’d made. It was touching as well.

  The last item had been pulled out when Sadie stood. They thought she was leaving.

  “Nay, I have one more gift to give you all. It’s magic.” Cooper said that he thought they had plenty and suggested that she keep it to make herself well. “You are a kind young man, Cooper, but I cannot use what isn’t mine. This was for you all, and when the rest of you have mates, it will come to them as well. This is the magic that your father couldn’t give you when he changed you. That of true immortality.”

  “What do you mean, true immortality? We’re that now, aren’t we?” Lincoln looked around when the rest of them agreed with him. “What’s different about this magic?”

  “You will no longer have to fear a pierce to the heart. No one will be able to remove your head. Nor will iron make you ill or kill you. You will be able to walk among the humans and never fear that they’ll harm you again.” Cooper looked at Lincoln when he cursed
. “Yes, that’s what I said when I figured out that it wouldn’t be passed the way the other had been. This requires a witch to touch you and to take one thing from you that you are willing to give. A drop of blood will be enough.”

  “But you’ll have some of the magic, won’t you? I mean, we’ve only just gotten to know you. Again, I should say, but you have so many stories to tell us about our parents.” She looked at Cooper and put her fingers to his forehead. When he fell back, Carson stood and demanded to know what she’d done to him. “It’s all right. She gave me her memories. All of them. I know everything she does.” Carson sat, but she didn’t seem happy about this turn of events.

  After Sadie sat down again, she asked them each for the drop of blood. Cooper was to go last, for he was to get more of the magic than they were getting. What it would be was a mystery, but Lincoln was glad that the women would be included. He never had to worry about Grace again.

  When his turn came, he stood before her, then went to his knees so that she could reach him. She was getting weaker still, and he worried that she’d not make it to her garden that she’d told them had been prepared. Sadie touched him on the cheeks and smiled at him before speaking.

  “Your mother loved you all so very much, and I felt her heart when she was murdered. All she could think about was her babies, and who was going to take them on walks and play with them in the sky as she’d done for you.” He nodded, feeling his eyes fill as hers were. “The night she was killed, do you remember the date?”

  “My birthday. I turned one hundred that day.” Sadie nodded. “I’ve never celebrated any since that night. It would make me think of her, and it would break my heart all over again.”

  “You should celebrate them again, young Lincoln. Her last thoughts were of you, and how you would only remember that she died that day and not that you would be growing into a man. She feared, you see, that you’d only feel her pain and suffering. That she did not want for you. For her, I would like you to celebrate your birth. It is what she would have wanted.” He nodded, sobbing now that she would think of him while dying. “There’s a good boy. Now, I want you to think of me when you have your cake. It is something that I loved more than I did my teas.”