by D. R. Perry
“Yeah.” I shook my head, not in the negative, but to shake off the haze of sleep threatening to club me and drag me down until spring. “I thought she might slap me at first. Might have been better if she had.”
“Huh.” His face went blank like the window on a calculator. Blaine’s thinking face looked like anything but. “Was this at the beginning of the evening or the end?”
“End.” I twisted the jump rope more, wishing it was a long cord instead of beads on a rope. “Technically after sunup.”
“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin, and expression returned to his face like feeling to a waking limb. “Should have done it early. Then you would have had time to do the deed and see if your bear had the urge to claim her.”
“Wait, what? No!” The urge to put my hands on my cheeks was strong, but I fought it. Bad enough I knew they were beet-red by then. Anyway, I didn’t want to drop the stupid jump rope. Blaine had probably figured that in when he handed it to me. “I just met her yesterday. My momma raised me with manners.”
“Mine did, too. Dragon manners.” A wisp of white smoke trailed from one of his nostrils. “We’re a pragmatic bunch, even when we’re labyrinthine in our delivery. You need a miracle or a mate to get through this weekend. The memory amulet will help on exam day, but what about today and tomorrow? I’m betting a mate would make things way easier.”
“Speaking of bets, you owe me that ten bucks.” I still wasn’t relaxed enough to crack a smile, but at least the muscles in my arms and hands had eased up.
“Which was it?” He pulled out his wallet, opened it, and tossed money on my desk.
“Star Trek.” I closed my eyes, remembering her silly imitation. “She riffed on Scotty.”
“See? She’s perfect for you. Go upstairs now and bed her. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
I could think of a handful just off the top of my head. Some of them were good reasons, like the possibility that Lynn might not answer the door, or having to fight my bear while sleep-deprived. Blaine was being direct, so I decided to get right to the point of what bothered me.
“What if she doesn’t want me?” I opened my eyes.
“That’s just crazy talk, Bobby.” Blaine puffed a faint smoke ring out of his mouth. “Human girls love shifters. They all want us. Look in a mirror. You’re sex on legs, man.”
“That ain’t true.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. It was true most of the time, but I’d never been comfortable with it. Sex shouldn’t be something you did just because of how a person looked. I’d had my share of women hitting on me just for that, and I’d always said no. Without any feelings involved, sex just didn't excite me.
“Since when?” He glanced at me slyly. “How many human girls have turned you down?”
“None, but I don’t…”
“No excuses, Bobby. You don’t have the time or energy for them.” I almost hated Blaine when he got like this, all single-minded. That kind of thinking would be dangerous to someone like Lynn, who from what I could tell, just wanted someone to care about her. I understood that all too well. So did my bear. He was so riled, I couldn’t keep him down as far as I wanted.
“You listen here, Mr. Dragon Knows Best.” I clenched my fists, the plastic beads on the jump rope creaking under the pressure of my fingers. “My dad’s famous. If I wanted to just sex a girl up to run away from this problem, I’d pick one who’s into that kind of thing. Trust me, I meet them every day. I could have a different girl every night if I wanted. You notice I’ve been single and home early all semester.”
Blaine blinked, finally silent. The surrounding smoke thinned out, too. I waited. He was one of the smartest people I knew. He’d already made the connection. I was just standing by while his pride got out of his brain’s way.
“Lynn’s become different to you already.” His face was composed, but his eyes blazed with draconic calculation. “Special?”
“Whatever I say, you’ll twist it just like that.” My bear’s anger was up, and it wouldn’t go down, no matter what I did. Blaine was implying I should do something that might hurt Lynn, not only physically but break her heart if I was wrong. I couldn’t use words to convince Blaine he had a bad idea. He loved semantics too much. I let my bear have his way with my hands.
My fists clenched, twisting the jump rope one final time to send blue and white beads bouncing all over the room. Blaine’s eyes darted from side to side, following them faster than even I could have. Dragons were magical shifters and had different abilities than the lion and tiger and bear types.
“I’m sorry, Bobby.” Blaine sat perfectly still. “To be clear, I’m apologizing for pushing you, not for being who I am. I stand by my idea. It’s what I’d do, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right strategy for you.”
“Fine. Apology accepted.” I looked down at the frayed hank of thin cord in my hand and the scattered beads on the floor. Just as I was about to pick them up, I yawned.
“There’s really no other way your family has to figure out their mates besides dreaming or biting the bullet?” Blaine’s eyebrows hunkered down in the middle of his forehead. I was glad to see him back in pondering mode.
“None that they’ve mentioned.” I collected the bits of blue and white plastic, putting them next to the ten-dollar bill on my still-made bed. “I guess I could call and ask.”
“Good idea.” Blaine picked a few jump rope beads off himself and sent them soaring through the air to land next to the others. “You will spend a lot of time with her over the next few days. Get all the information you can.”
“You’re super-fixated on the idea of Lynn and me.” I swept the bits of ruined jump rope into one hand and dumped them in the trash. “Why is that?”
“Just a hunch.” He stood up, cracking his knuckles.
“Based on what?” I stuffed the money I’d won into my wallet, thinking I should have bet him twenty instead.
“Nothing concrete, unless I ask you a few questions. Nothing pushy, I promise. Is that okay?” He opened the closet and took out a basketball.
“Okay.” As much as Blaine’s arrogant delivery had gotten on my nerves, dragons were savvy shifters. Any clue would help, and I couldn’t be picky about whether it came from my parents or my roommate.
“How many girls have you been around here in the illustrious halls of PPC?” He slung the hand towel he used at the gym over his shoulder.
“I don’t even know, there were so many.” Looked like Blaine wanted to shoot hoops. I went to the closet to get my own towel. “Remember the first month? They wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“Yeah, I do. More than one tried to drag you upstairs at that house party.” He gave me a pointed look. I hadn’t gone to any off-campus parties after that. “And how many girls have you kissed since you came here?”
“Just Lynn.” I sighed, remembering how her lips had tasted, and how her body felt pressed against mine. My bear had base urges, and while most women I’d met at school had tried their damnedest to play on them, he hadn’t wanted any of them enough for me to give in.
“Look at yourself, man. You’re all moony-eyed” He moved the door of the closet so I could see my reflection in the mirror on the back. I looked like a guy on the front of one of Momma’s romance novels, gazing into the heroine’s eyes.
“That tears it, then. It's time to call home.” I pulled my phone out of my bag. “I’ll meet you at the gym.”
“No way.” Blaine tucked the ball under one arm. “I pinkie-swore. My Dragon Scout honor is at stake here, Bobby.” He opened the door, gesturing to the hall. “Call them on the way.”
“Fine.” Our room was on the first floor with the rest of the larger shifters on campus, so we didn’t have to use the elevator. I think someone in the housing office had the idea that would help us get out in the open if we had a shifting emergency.
My feet crunched as I followed Blaine around a corner and down Hope Street. The urban campus meant PPC’s larger buildings were
spread out. At least Hope Street had been cleared better of snow than the side streets our dorms, classrooms, and dining hall were on. I tapped my phone, swiping to the house number. It rang a few times, then clicked as someone picked up. A long pause and a distinctly metallic creak told me it was Dad on the line.
“Bobby!” The lift on the last syllable told me he was glad to hear from me. I hadn’t gotten him the last few times I’d called, so it had been a couple of weeks since we’d spoken.
“Hi, Dad.” I’d needed to talk to him more than I’d originally thought. I took a deep breath of frigid air, vapor puffing out of my mouth like I was Blaine’s cousin instead of his roommate. That was one northern novelty that never got old.
“Uh-oh.” Dad’s voice lowered, making me think everyone else at the house was still asleep. “This sounds like something serious. Let me wheel myself to the kitchen.”
“Okay.” I listened to a distant creak and squeak from his wheelchair, counting off the seconds I knew it’d take for him to get down the hall and away from the bedrooms.
“Go ahead, son.” I heard running water in the background as he made coffee. Momma had redone the entire house just so he could get around. Before they married, she’d done historical renovations, but after Katrina, her work had turned more practical. She made nowhere near the amount Dad had while he was still fighting, but they were comfortable and had a solid retirement fund because of her. The medical bills had wiped out most of Dad’s savings.
“Mom must have told you about the hibernation urge, right?” Last time I’d called had been the night the snow fell.
“Yup. Did that dragon friend of yours figure anything out?” I heard the coffee maker sputter then beep as it finished percolating.
“Actually, he needed help.” I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “From a human. A girl, no less.”
“That must have rankled.” Dad chuckled. His tag-team partner had been a dragon shifter, so he knew their peculiarities well.
“Yeah, it did at first.” I heard Blaine chuckle up ahead of me.
“Somehow, I don’t think you’re calling to let us know this is settled.” A metallic clatter came over the line. I recognized the sound of him setting up coffee.
“No, because it isn’t.” I explained Lynn’s theory and Blaine’s, plus the potential solutions. “So, what I really need to ask is, do the Tremains have a way to be sure of their mate before making a claim? Mom’s dreams won’t help me since I can’t sleep until after the exam.”
“Shoot, son, you’ve got a situation on your hands.” I heard the percolating drip of the coffeemaker in the background. “I bet that roommate of yours has already suggested you go full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes.”
“Yeah.” Blaine held the gym door open for me, and once inside, I shrugged off my jacket and hung it up. “I don’t want to do that, though.”
“Wait, you mean you don’t want Lynn? She’s the only girl you’ve talked about since Rochelle back in eleventh grade.” Rochelle had been my only girlfriend. Her dad was famous too, but they’d moved away just before graduation.
“It’s not that I don’t want her. I think she’s amazing. She’s smart and funny. Got a good heart.” I leaned against the whitewashed concrete wall. “But I bumped into her by accident, then hit her with a snowball when a werewolf dodged it. My bear felt horrible. If I do this and I’m wrong, she will get hurt. I don’t think I could control my bear if that happened.”
“Son, stop and think for a minute or five.” I closed my eyes, imagining how Dad’s face would look just then. The scar running down his left cheek was bone-deep, so the concerned frown I envisioned him wearing would scare anyone who didn’t know him. Picturing it comforted me.
“Okay, but I need some help on which direction my thinker should take.”
“How did I get myself saddled with this chair?”
“You pushed Momma out from in front of that truck. I still have no idea why you didn’t move.”
“It wasn’t me who didn’t move. It was my bear.” Dad sighed. “He stayed there to fight that truck. I couldn’t control him, because it was your mother, my mate, who was in danger. Do you understand, son?”
“But that was after fifteen years with her.” He couldn’t mean what I thought he did, could he?
“I’m going to have to agree with your pal Blaine. Give things a shot with this girl. I’d bet your bear’s already sold.”
“But Momma always says to wait for the dream.”
“You want to know something about Momma she hasn’t told you yet? You have to promise not to repeat it.”
“Okay, Dad. I promise.”
“She didn’t wait. She had our mating dream the first night we met like she always says. The part she leaves out is, she had it wearing nothing but a blanket in the back of my pickup truck. With me right next to her.” I heard him pause to sip coffee. “It was a crazy time for shifters back when we met. We couldn’t court properly like our families did before the round-ups and registries. She only wants you to have what we didn’t get, a chance to take your time and be prepared before starting your adult life. It’s why we sent you to PPC even though we miss you like crazy.”
“Wow, Dad.” I wasn’t sure what to say or how to talk more without my voice cracking. “Knowing the dire straits I’m in must be hard for you and Momma to deal with. I’m sorry.”
“Listen, I didn’t want to lay anything heavier on you than what you’ve already got going.” He lowered his voice. “Anyway, you’re the one in the situation. I trust you. You do what feels right for you and your bear. This is the time in your life where you need to find the balance you can both live with. You’ve got one hell of an urge messing with that, but believe me, you’ll be stronger when it’s over.”
“Thanks.” I heard Momma in the background, her patter on her cell with a client unmistakable. “I love you, Dad.”
“Love you too, sonny boy. To the moon and back.” I hung up with the man I admired most in the world.
Tucking the phone away in my hanging jacket, I turned around to find Blaine taking free shots at the human-height hoop. He got nothing but net, of course.
“Come on, Trogdor. Let’s shoot some more appropriate baskets.” I trotted across the polished wood, still slower than usual.
I was off my game the whole morning, not because of the hibernation urge, but because thinking about what I’d say to Lynn later took up most of my attention.
Chapter Eight
Lynn
After the lab practice session, I had to take a shower. Even though most of the stuff we had to identify was inside a jar or encased in a glass, the biology labs smelled like formaldehyde. After spending close to six hours in there, so did I.
I collected my basket of toiletries and headed for the bathroom, wondering why a magus or a psychic hadn’t come up with some kind of scent charm or odor amulet to use in the labs. Maybe it was something they cast on themselves and not a location. They’d spent centuries hiding their existence, so why would they blow it by making formaldehyde smell like fresh linen?
For a moment, I thought I knew a magus I could ask, but her name and even what she looked like slipped my mind. At least I knew she was a Magus and not a Psychic, and a she and not a he. Maybe. And at least, I remembered where I knew her from. No, I didn’t. I sighed, checking the water temperature before hanging up my robe and stepping under the hot spray.
The steam and wet surrounded me, relaxing shoulders sore from leaning over microscopes and black lab benches. I’d managed not to snark at any of my classmates by forgetting to talk. None of them bothered to try to speak to me, and I was too busy practicing identifying the supernatural creatures in jars. Okay, I had to admit to doing more thinking than I should have about Bobby. I didn’t just remember that kiss in the elevator either, although that was definitely the main feature. His problem intertwined with my own. I couldn’t be sure what his intentions were because of the hibernation drive. I’d been an idiot, kissin
g him in the dining hall like that. Blaine probably knew, even though I’d waited until he wasn’t looking.
The extra lab practical study had given me something different to focus on, and it had also helped me realize I’d get bored back in Madison at a less challenging school. I was ahead of everyone else in the courses specific to my Alternative Therapies major. PPC was the best fit for me academically, but with the way things had gone socially, I still wasn’t sure whether I could handle another three-and-a-half years. At least in Wisconsin, I’d go home to my family after classes. Even with sibling rivalry, I knew everyone there loved me. But in Wisconsin, there wouldn’t be Professors like Watkins. There wouldn’t be helper ghosts in the stacks and card catalog area. There wouldn’t be Bobby.
I closed my eyes and rubbed mint-scented everything into my hair and over my body. A flush that had nothing to do with the water temperature made me wonder what Bobby would think of minty me. That morning, I’d only had time to brush my teeth before he kissed me. I’d see him at dinner when we met with Blaine’s psychic vampire contact. I blinked, then rinsed my face. Blaine hadn’t called Henry Baxter a friend. The dragon shifter was almost as sarcastic as me, and way more arrogant.
Did he have it easier, being a guy? Did he just not care as much about what people thought? Probably the latter. Being a billionaire who was able to turn into a dragon the size of a Little League field had to do something for one’s confidence. Same thing probably went for being able to turn into a bear. If I left, I’d never get to see Bobby do that. I’d always wonder what he would have looked like shifted. Even worse, whether anything might have happened between us.
I thought I shouldn’t wonder anything about Bobby Tremain, though. The water went cold, so I got out, wrapping one towel around my head and drying my body with the other. Oddly enough, I used less lotion here than back home. Rhode Island was cold but more humid than Wisconsin. Maybe there were other differences I hadn’t noticed right away, but hope was the heart-killer, worse than fear. That notable hadn’t been able to kill my mind yet, and my name wasn’t even Paul Muad’dib. A knock at the bathroom door was the executive deciding for me to dry my hair in my room. I opened the door and almost walked into Jeannie.