Dark Dragon Daddy

by Abigail Raines

  I knew who she meant but it still felt strange to hear.

  “My girlfriend…”

  “The pretty brunette?” The nurse said doubtfully. “Isn’t she your…?”

  “Yes,” I said, chuckling. I didn’t know why exactly, but I found it very funny that anyone would think she was my girlfriend. Maybe it was because I had long since dismissed the idea of being able to relate to anyone, especially on a romantic level. I had been chained to a wall during the years where most men learned how to be lovers. “My girlfriend,” I muttered.

  What a joke that was.

  But Dana had brought me ice. That was sweet. I tipped the ice chips into my mouth and groaned in relief as they melted on my tongue. I wondered dimly where Dana had ended up going to eat. I hoped she hadn’t wandered too far.

  “Have you seen her around?” I asked, knocking back some more ice.

  “Yeah, I think she went to eat,” the nurse said, making a note on my chart. “But she’s back. Probably in the restroom.”

  I settled back on my gurney. The hospital was busy as ever even though it had to be about four in the morning by now. I wasn’t even sure. When I checked my phone, it said five.

  And I hadn’t called Miles. Feeling like a complete asshole, I called him, my phone still clinging to about ten percent of battery life.

  “David!” Miles said, before I could say a word. I shut my eyes, feeling yet guiltier. Miles only called me David when he was very worried about me or feeling particularly affectionate. He’d known me when I was a kid, working for my parents before I’d been taken. He was the only family I really had left. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine.” I grimaced. It was sort of easy to forget that I’d actually been shot even with a bandaged up shoulder. Somehow I felt like getting shot should be more dramatic. “I will be fine-”

  “David, what happened?” Miles said, in a tone that sounded much more fatherly than subservient.

  “I sort of got shot,” I said slowly.

  “Oh my God.”

  “Only in the shoulder,” I said quickly. “And ah, I broke my leg.”

  “David.” I could hear him scrambling around through the phone. “Are you at the hospital?”

  “Yes-”

  “I’m coming over there.”

  “I haven’t been released yet. I probably will be in a few hours.”

  “David, I’m coming over there,” Miles said insistently. “I’ll wait with you. You shouldn’t be alone.”

  “I’m...not.”

  “Oh, who is with you?” Miles said. “One of your dragon club friends?”

  I cleared my throat. The fresh pain killers were starting to make my head foggy again, and I felt a little drunk. I found myself smiling faintly thinking about Dana who was just now poking through the curtain and smiling tightly. She looked about one degree healthier than when I’d last seen her, a little less pale perhaps. Though she must have been exhausted. I certainly was.

  “No,” I said. “Um, you’ll find out when you get here.”

  “Alright. I’ll be right over.”

  “Thanks, Miles.”

  I hung up and Dana and I smiled at each other a little awkwardly. She was holding a fast food cup with a straw stuck in it and still dripping with condensation as she approached. “I bought you a chocolate shake,” she said. “I mean you bought it. It’s your money. Only when I was sick as a kid, I always wanted a chocolate shake even if I knew it would just make me sick.” She set it on the nightstand next to me.

  I was about to fall asleep again but I clenched my fist in an effort to stay awake and grabbed the shake, taking a long sip. It actually did rather hit the spot. “Thank you. It’s good.”

  Dana nodded and held out a handful of singles and pocket change. “Your change.”

  “Keep it.”

  Dana stared at me as if she hadn’t heard a word and I sighed, taking the money.

  “When I do some work for you,” Dana said slowly. “Then you can pay me.”

  “Agreed.”

  That seemed to satisfy her and she took a seat by my side but soon enough the pain killers put me to sleep again. The nightmares came to haunt me but this time I felt a warm hand clutching mine, making them subside. In the hallucinatory riot of drug-induced sleep, I wasn’t sure if Dana was really holding my hand or not. I decided that I wanted to believe she was.

  Chapter Four: Dana

  The tricky part of this, I thought, was that I was pregnant, of course. I couldn’t think of how to tell David that. I had a feeling it would change things somehow. He already seemed like kind of a fretting, protective type. But I didn’t want him to feel obligated to help me beyond what was necessary just because I had a baby dragon in my belly. Besides, the trade did seem just fair enough. The guy was rich but he had loneliness oozing from his pores. Maybe his butler was helpful but he couldn’t do everything. He seemed like someone who needed a person around to make sure he didn’t push himself too hard after an injury like that. Maybe, I told myself, I could make myself useful in other ways too. I could assist him. If he let me. I hoped so. I wanted to be useful. Just the thought of sleeping in a warm bed soon and getting to be in a comfortable place that wouldn’t kick me out was filling me with anticipation.

  I was so tired, I could hardly think straight. I’d been up for about two days straight. As a shifter, I was pretty strong. But that still wasn’t good for the baby. I needed a comfy night’s sleep. Regular meals would be nice. I was thankful at least for the burger and fries I’d bought with David’s twenty. I hadn’t had hot food in too long.

  Now I sat back and snoozed by David’s side, waiting for him to get released, I guess. When the short, chubby guy in a black suit showed up and looked at me curiously when I opened my eyes, I hopped out of my seat. I felt horribly unpresentable. I hadn’t had a shower in way too long. My clothes were a little dirty. I knew my hair was disgustingly greasy. In short, I pretty much looked like somebody who had been sleeping on the streets lately.

  But the older man in the black suit had a friendly air about him and he smiled warmly at me. “Ah, hello. You must be Mr. Kagen’s friend. He mentioned something… I’m Miles.”

  I glanced at David, but he was still dead to the world. I nodded and stuck out my hand, hoping I wasn’t anathema enough to not want to touch. “Yeah. Hello. I’m Dana. Nice to meet you.”

  “Pleasure,” Miles said, but in a way that actually seemed genuine as he shook my hand. “I am Mr. Kagen’s housekeeper and cook. In truth, I’m his butler, but he’s never much liked the word. I don’t know why. But then, he does have his quirks. May I ask if you know precisely what happened to Mr. Kagen?”

  I smiled. I liked Miles already. He seemed easy to talk to. He stood there, as ramrod straight as he could be with his portly frame, and I explained what had happened as well as I could, though I did pointedly leave out the details of what exactly Gus had wanted with me. I wasn’t ready to get into that. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to. Just talking about it made me panic a little.

  “So...I thought David, er, Mr. Kagen, I mean…” I cleared my throat, bracing myself. I looked like some kind of moocher, I thought suddenly. A gold digger. Miles would think I was trying to take advantage of David and want to get rid of me, my brain said, already starting to spin in curious circles. “I thought he might need help while he’s injured,” I said quietly. I felt tears prick behind my eyes and I wrung my hands, unable to meet Miles’ gaze. “And I… I told him I didn’t...have... “ I sprang from my chair, a tear sliding down my cheek. I was a moocher. I was taking advantage, I thought. Miles would be right to want to get rid of me. “I should go.”

  “No, no!” Miles said, gently taking my arm and stopping me. “Please, Miss-”

  “Just call me Dana,” I said softly.

  “Dana,” Miles said. “I’m sure David will have something to say to me. But I’d beg you not to leave if he asked you to stay. I think it would be...nice. To have someone around the house.
You’re right, he needs someone to assist him. He’s terrible at accepting help. He doesn’t like to feel out of control.”

  I nodded, relaxing slightly. “I plan to work,” I said firmly. “I don’t want to take advantage of him or anyone.”

  “No one thinks you are, my dear,” Miles said. His eyes were so genuinely kind. I felt so gross and unkempt beside this dapper little man in his neat, black suit. Yet he reached up to wipe a tear away. “There, there. Please don’t hesitate to accept his help or an offer of employment. All of us need a little help now and then.”

  I was taken with his kindness, I found myself at a loss for words. Miles seemed to anticipate that and he sort of waved it away and said he might make himself useful while David was still sleeping.

  “Would you like some coffee?” He asked me. “I believe I saw a coffee cart just outside the entrance. My treat. Mr. Kagen likes those lattes. What about you?”

  The mere idea of coffee made my mouth water. I was lucky enough as a shifter, to have a stronger constitution in pregnancy than regular human women. I could withstand more hardship (which wasn’t always a good thing) and I could also drink coffee. I could probably have had alcohol too but I still avoided it. The stigma on that one just felt too strong.

  But my mouth ran away with me, so used to rejecting help. “You don’t have to-”

  “If you like coffee, then I insist,” Miles said firmly.

  “Alright,” I said, tittering. “Regular coffee. But I’ll come with you.”

  The two of us left David to sleep and went to the coffee cart. I felt awkward around this well spoken man who obviously knew David very well, but he made it so easy. We mostly talked about the weather in New York lately. He was a dragon shifter himself, which I’d sniffed out easily enough. He said he flew when he got the chance but he wasn’t one for adventure like David apparently was.

  We stood outside and sipped our coffee for a few minutes and I almost felt like a person for the first time in a while.

  “It will be nice to have someone else in the house actually,” Miles said, musing. He looked off out at the traffic-jammed street in front of the hospital. “It’s only the two of us in the house now since his parents passed. The worst sort of timing, I’m afraid for him to come from…” Miles got a far away look in his eyes and shook his head, apparently unwilling to finish his sentence. But I didn’t want to press him. It wasn’t any of my business although I couldn’t help but be a little curious. “Anyhow, it will be nice to have somebody else in the house.”

  “Take as needed,” the doctor said, handing the prescription over to Miles. “And we’ll see you for a follow-up in a week. If you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to call my office.” The doctor smiled, nodding curtly. David nodded curtly back and the doctor left, having signed off on the release.

  We all looked at each other a little awkwardly. It felt like the strangest little grouping of people in the world; a rich man who’d just been shot, his butler, and the homeless pregnant girl he’d just taken in. David seemed more clear headed now, apparently on a lower dose of painkillers. That seemed to mean he was much more quiet though. He wouldn’t look at me at all and he barely spoke a word. It made me afraid that he’d only agreed to take me on because he’d been high as a kite.

  I was about to ask him about it when a nurse came over with a wheelchair.

  “Here you are, Mr. Kagen…”

  The nurse loaded him up and he held his plastic bag of personal items in his lap. He looked the worse for wear, his long, black hair a bit stringy and limp and his beard growing in. Miles had brought him some casual clothes and now he wore a sweater and jeans. He looked utterly mouth-watering to me but I had a feeling that for him, this was considered dowdy. I was attracted to him, undoubtedly. I’d just have to keep a lid on that though.

  I waited until the nurse had wheeled us out to the town car waiting on a sidestreet before I said, “If you’ve changed your mind, you really don’t have to-”

  “I haven’t,” David said. But that was all he said until Miles frowned at him, nudging his shoulder. “I meant what I said. Please come with us.” He spoke quietly, staring down at his hands.

  “Okay,” I said just as quietly. “I will.”

  That seemed to satisfy Miles who grinned at us as if something great had been accomplished and I helped him load David into the back of his shiny, black town car that was driven by an actual chauffeur.

  To say I had no experience with wealth was a little deceptive.

  For the last two years, I’d been living in a mansion and even been given the chance to take advantage of some luxuries. For a while I’d thought I was lucky. To say I’d changed my mind was a gross understatement. But I’d grown up dirt poor and wealth was still very much an alien thing to me. When the town car pulled up in front of a stately brick red and narrowly built mansion way up on the Upper East Side among shady, tree-lined streets, I raised my eyebrows. I’d been in New York just a few weeks. I’d never come up here at all. I hadn’t quite known it existed. The place didn’t even look that big from the outside, but inside it was huge. David had crutches and Miles helped him into the marble-floored foyer where a sweeping staircase led to a wide landing. The place seemed old, as if older people lived there, but David couldn’t have been older than thirty-five by my guess and I had a feeling he was younger than that. It looked like he’d inherited the place and hadn’t updated to his own tastes. Though that was a big assumption on my part.

  “Oh no,” I said. “How will you handle the stairs?”

  “We have an elevator,” he said with a wave of his hand.

  “You have an elevator?”

  “Miles, please see that Dana gets everything she needs.” He gave me a nod as the chauffeur wheeled him toward a wide corridor. I guess that was in the direction of the elevator. “We’ll discuss your duties tomorrow!”

  I nodded, uncertain. I wanted a shower more than life and then I wanted to sleep for about a year. Miles gave me a little nod and lead me up the stairs. “Let me show your to your room. I imagine both you and Mr. Kagen would like some sleep. Sleep through the mid-morning is going to wreak havoc with his schedule but then I suppose he doesn’t have much of one to begin with. He mostly keeps it for his own wellbeing.”

  I wondered what that meant but only nodded as Miles led me down the landing. There were rooms on either side of it and I wondered vaguely if I’d be near David’s room or not, but they hadn’t come up the elevator yet.

  The hallways were hardwood with a long dark blue runner and old portraits of serious and noble looking people on the walls with gilded frames. All the furniture look antique. I squinted at an old but expensive looking floral vase.

  “This was David’s parent’s place,” Miles said. “The Kagens have been in New York for more than a century.” He showed me into a huge guest room. In a regular house it would be the master. I bit my lip. After Darien, I had a sense of being a little scared of wealth but Miles and David couldn’t have been more different than Darien if I’d invented them myself. I could tell that much already.

  The room had a huge dark wood four poster bed with plush bedding. The rug was thick and soft and the large windows looked out on Manhattan beyond. The room had the feeling of a castle. Miles waved me over to the bathroom and I actually gasped and found myself blushing, embarrassed at my own reaction. There was a large clawfoot tub and a big shower, and dual sinks. It actually wasn’t that fancy but then I’d been showering at the YWCA and a couple of shelters lately.

  “May I ask a delicate question?” Miles said, clasping his hands in front of him.

  “Um, I guess so,” I said, bracing myself.

  “Do you have more...clothes?” Miles said. He looked truly apologetic to even be asking.

  My cheeks burned but I cleared my throat and stood up a little straighter. “I have another outfit in my backpack. It’s clean.” I smiled weakly. “When I could get money, I spent a lot of time in laundromats. I like my clothes to be cl
ean and fresh as much as possible. Also laundromats are kinda nice? They smell so good.”

  Miles smiled that smile of his and said, “If it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, I’d very much like to get you some necessities. A few things to wear. For now, you can take your clean clothes and if you’ll leave out what you’re wearing we’ll launder it for you.”

  “You want to buy me clothes,” I said flatly.

  “Well, I know Mr. Kagen will,” Miles said, shrugging. “Just a few things?”

  “I’m going to work for anything he gives me,” I said fiercely. “Honestly. I can clean if he needs me to clean or office work. Anything-”

  “That’s fine,” Miles said, waving a hand. “What size are you then?”

  I squinted. Good question. I’d filled out a little since getting pregnant. “Something like a six should be okay.”

  That was another thing. Eventually I’d start to show more. Then I’d outgrow my clothes. But that would be awhile. I probably wouldn’t be living here then. I decided not to worry about it.

  Miles looked me up and down and said, “Very good. I’ll leave you to it then. The kitchen is downstairs as well whenever you should be hungry, do not hesitate to eat. And I can also make you anything you like.” Miles nodded, clicking his heels together and made his way off. I looked after him and swallowed, tears pricking my eyes again.

  This place might have been lavish like Darien’s but that’s where the similarity ended. I’d had absolutely no freedom at Darien’s. It had been a gilded cage where I was kept like a rat, albeit a rat in a very fancy house. This was very different.

  I shut the bathroom door and kicked off my shoes and stripped of my horribly dirty socks. The marble tile was cool under my feet.

  The shower when I stepped in felt like the most relaxing shower I’d ever taken in my life and I moaned in relief under the hot water, turning it up as high as I could stand. The place was full of amenities. There was shampoo and conditioner in pretty little pumps and it smelled like coconut. I washed my hair and hummed to myself. I washed all over with a sudsy soap that smelled faintly of violets, rubbing my belly and smiling to myself.