Inferno

by Amelia Jade

  Somehow he suspected that Hollie wouldn’t take kindly to knowing that fate had decided who she was to spend the rest of her life with. She struck him as the type that liked to make her own decisions. So, how was he going to make her fall in love with him, while ensuring she felt like it was her own decision?

  He snorted. No, making Hollie fall in love with anyone was just a bad idea. He couldn’t make her do anything. Which meant he was going to have to hope it happened naturally, while doing anything he could to help the process along. Which started with adapting better to the times. First though, he would show her that he could be powerful with his words, and get this mayor to acknowledge the mountain was his, without resorting to threats.

  Feeling proud of himself, he walked through the door, holding the second, interior one for Hollie, who smiled and thanked him before walking inside. He grinned, proud of himself for figuring out some of the newfangled social customs. Which is why he ran right into her back, because she’d stopped abruptly.

  “Well shit,” Hollie cursed softly. “That explains so much.”

  “What does?” he asked, confused. The interior was empty.

  “It’s Saturday,” she said, shaking her head and laughing, as if that were an amusing fact.

  Chapter Nine

  Hollie

  “I don’t get it.”

  Right. New to this millennium. Go easy on him, Hollie. This is going to take some time, but he’s worth it.

  It wasn’t the first time that thought had gone through her head either, but it was still mind-boggling to consider. Although she’d really have preferred that they simply ignored Doug and his ilk, part of her enjoyed the fact that Obsidian had given them what they deserved. The way he’d simply gone up to them, destroyed the cars, and then proceeded to give them the beating of a lifetime was satisfying on a very base level.

  She firmly ignored the part where the guns had been aimed at her. Despite all that, she hadn’t felt scared. With Obsidian nearby, she felt completely and totally secure from all danger. Though he’d never stated it, the unspoken vow that he would die before allowing any harm to her had become clear. Hollie had no idea when he’d changed from wanting to kill her and everyone else to now being her guardian, but she kind of liked it.

  Despite her speech about feminism—which she still resolutely believed in—knowing that he was there to support her however she needed was kind of nice. In fact, it was giving her butterflies as they stood there in the empty mayor’s office.

  She looked up at him, his long hair and somewhat unruly beard hiding what she thought to be a handsome facial structure. And just like that, she knew what to do next.

  “Right. So most people don’t work Saturday and Sunday, unless they are in select professions,” she explained, letting him hold the door for her on the way out. The world was different enough—the least she could do was let him feel some familiarity. “It’s called the weekend, and it’s generally used for relaxing and catching up with chores around the house. Follow me so far?”

  “Yes. Rest days. The concept is not new.”

  “Okay, well, it’s Saturday, and that means we can’t get you in to see anyone until Monday. Two days from now.”

  “Oh. Well, I can see how that would be an issue.”

  “I’m glad,” she teased. “But I have an idea of how we can spend some time.”

  Just then his stomach growled loud enough that she was sure the couple sitting on the bench nearby with ice cream heard it.

  “What the hell?” she asked, looking at him. “Is it alive?”

  “No, just empty. Was your idea food? Because I’m working on fried squirrel right now, and if I can be honest, I was really just putting on a tough face earlier. That thing was disgusting.”

  She started to laugh, and didn’t stop. The frustrated look Sid gave her only encouraged her more, until she was on the verge of tears once more.

  “What is so funny?” he asked.

  “Sid, the big bad dragon, can’t handle a little roast squirrel. He’s got a weak stomach,” she teased.

  The dragon shifter rolled his eyes and blew out air from between his lips. “Oh grow up. Just because I’m a dragon doesn’t mean that my taste buds don’t work.”

  She grinned. “Okay, well, let’s go get you some food then. After that, a haircut and shave for sure.”

  Sid fell in line, but she could almost sense the frown on his face as they walked toward her favorite pizza place.

  “Okay, what is it this time, Scales?”

  “Why do you keep calling me that? Scales? Is that supposed to be an insult?”

  “Not at all. More like…a term of endearment, maybe even mild affection.” She narrowed her eyes. “So, what’s bothering you?” The topic needed to be changed, and immediately. Hollie didn’t want him asking her why she was referring to him with affection.

  “I was trying to understand something.”

  She made a gesture to tell him to go on.

  “Well, you said that after food you wanted a haircut and a shave. But I just can’t figure out why you would need that. Do you need to shave that badly?”

  Hollie choked on her own spit, trying to maintain her composure as they walked the city street. She saw a few people looking their way.

  “I meant for you,” she shot back once her voice returned.

  “Me? What is wrong with me?” he asked, sounding hurt.

  “You look like a wild man. You need to get cleaned up,” she stated. “It will, um, help you present a better case. Trust me.”

  She knew that long hair and beards were a thing, but it just didn’t suit Sid. His perfect, slightly tanned skin with clear southern European roots to it was hidden beneath all that hair, and it was a shame. He needed to clean it up and show off his lines. Well, perhaps show off wasn’t the best term. Hollie didn’t want him doing it to other women. It was more of a generalization she was trying to make, not a specific statement.

  “You’ll need a suit too,” she said before he could respond.

  “A what?”

  “A suit. It’s formal wear for this century,” she clarified. “Like that.” She pointed out a couple of other men wearing them.

  “Ah, very good.”

  She eyed his clothing now. The long sleeve shirt with buttons and a low hemline had an almost eastern-European cut to it, possibly even Asian-influenced, she wasn’t sure. His pants were…well, not from this time either, but sweatpants was probably the closest description. And his feet had sandals on them. Honest-to-goodness sandals. In September. Talk about a fashion faux pas. He definitely needed to be updated with the times.

  “Okay, food first though,” she said, ducking into the store.

  Sid followed, his nose leading the way, and she smiled. One thing he was going to love about this new era was the availability and selection of food. Possibly even as much as he loved the idea of cars.

  ***

  “I have to confess something.”

  She looked at him as they exited the barbershop. Like, really looked at him. Part of Hollie had known that he was attractive, but everything had been hidden. Now he had a ultra-modern low-skin fade with wavy longish hair, and my God was he gorgeous. His broad features were fully revealed after the straight-razor shave, slightly bronzed skin reminiscent of his scales gleaming.

  His brown eyes popped out at her now as she made eye contact, and the butterflies in her stomach went insane, trying desperately to get out. Her heart started racing just from making eye contact, and she felt a mild moment of panic as the realization of everything set in. Sid was male-model gorgeous. Supermodel even. His muscles, which she’d caught a glimpse of as he adjusted his clothing to sit in the barber’s chair, were so defined they were to die for.

  So with all that going his way, why would he stay with her? She knew that once he got his feet under him in the new era he would leave her eventually. That was just a given. But now she felt like the ugly duckling in her brown coveralls and steel-toed boots. I
t was only going to get worse once she put a suit on him. Everyone was going to stare at her, and wonder why they were together.

  You aren’t together, though. He isn’t yours. You barely even know him, so why are you moping over the fact that you’re going to “lose” him, when he isn’t yours in the first place?

  She argued back that he was hers. But it was when she started using arguments like “finders keepers” with herself that Hollie knew she was losing it. How embarrassing, to lose an argument with herself.

  “Go on,” she urged when he didn’t immediately speak.

  “I much prefer eating pizza to having someone else shave my face and cut my hair.” He sounded almost grumpy.

  Hollie grinned. “Well, pizza is pretty damn amazing, I’ll give you that.” She reached up and gently touched his smooth face. “But you look so much better.”

  To her surprise, Sid jerked when she touched him, pulling away.

  Hollie yanked her hand back, figuring she’d just crossed a line she shouldn’t have. “Uh, sorry.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “I’m sorry. It startled me, is all.” She saw his chest inflate as he drew in a breath. “It’s been a long time since someone has touched me like that.”

  Hollie felt her stomach tighten. She hadn’t meant it like that. It was just supposed to be a friendly gesture to show that she approved. But even at that, her argument fell apart because she’d used the inside of her fingertips, instead of the back of it. Most people would call it a caress.

  No wonder he’d reacted so strongly. Sid probably thought she had been trying to put the moves on him. Considering that not even Hollie could prove that she hadn’t, it was understandable.

  You need to figure out what the hell is going on, and soon, lady. Don’t forget who he is! This is Obsidian, dragon shifter extraordinaire. He doesn’t flinch at killing people!

  She countered that by reminding her brain how the times had been different. Very different. He had shown restraint earlier, proving that he could still enact his will without killing anyone. Doug would recover from his injuries. Eventually.

  “So, a suit?” Sid said into the silence as she wrestled with her internal thoughts.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “A suit. It would be for the best. But Sid, I gotta be honest. I don’t really have the money to spend on one of those for you. Pizza and a haircut? Fine. But a full suit? That’s out of my price range.”

  Sid compressed his lips into a line, then reached into the folds of his shirt, pulling out a bar of something or other. “They don’t still take this as payment nowadays, do they?”

  Her eyebrows flew up as she realized it was a bar of gold. “Uh…yeah,” she said, her throat constricting. It wasn’t a full-sized bar, a smaller one that could fit easily in her hand. But if he so casually produced one…maybe the legends of dragon treasures were based in reality as well? She didn’t know.

  “Good. Is that enough, or do you need more?” he asked, reaching back into his shirt.

  “No no!” she almost shouted. “This is more than enough for a suit. We’ll have to go exchange it somewhere, probably a pawn shop. But it will suffice just fine, thank you.”

  She shoved the bar into her purse and then tugged on his arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

  He shuffled after her, quickly catching up. “What’s a pawn shop?”

  Hollie smiled. “Okay, next lesson!”

  Chapter Ten

  Obsidian

  “Why is all this necessary?” he asked, looking at the other bags of clothing they’d bought with the paper money his gold had gotten them.

  He didn’t understand that part either, something about the gold standard and other economic terms. There was a long list of things he needed to research tonight. Part of him couldn’t wait to learn more about the fascinating world he now lived in. There was just so much technology that it was mind-boggling!

  Televisions! Phones! Cars! Airplanes. Hunks of metal that soared through the skies like he did. Incredible! Hollie had been helping as best she could, but he could tell that his questions were starting to wear on her. She wasn’t an educator by trade, and he loved to learn things in detail, which she couldn’t provide. Now he’d just started creating a list in his mind instead.

  “Because, if you want to live in our era, you need to look like you’re from it. Someone probably has video of your little stunt with the cars earlier. Once that makes it online, people are going to come looking for you, and not all of them will be nice.”

  “Let them,” he growled.

  “That’s just my point!” Hollie said angrily. “You can’t go around showing off the fact that you’re a dragon, Sid. The world won’t accept that.”

  “You have,” he pointed out.

  “I’m one of like seven billion,” she retorted. “Do the math. It doesn’t work out in your favor. Ever. You need to keep this quiet. Otherwise governments are going to come after you. They’ll want your blood, so they can create others like you, others that they control.”

  He frowned. “The government will already know about me, Hollie. Or at least, if not about me, about some of my lesser, very, very distant cousins.”

  She looked at him dubiously. “Is this where you tell me that gecko shifters are a thing?”

  Sid guffawed loudly at the idea. “No,” he finally said. “I was referring to other species. Wolf shifters mainly, though there are a few others.”

  “Werewolves are a thing?” she asked, stunned.

  “Very much so. It’s impossible the government doesn’t know about them. From what I’ve learned of its pervasiveness in your everyday life, trust me, they know. No matter how careful you are, with all this technology around, they’ve been caught before. They just don’t tell you, because they don’t want you to know about it.”

  “Well that’s both interesting and scary.”

  He shrugged, unsure of what else to say. Her comment was accurate. A sudden desire to be done walking swept over him.

  “Hollie, when will we be retiring to your abode?”

  Her head turned to look up at him. “Um, pardon?”

  “I’m getting sick of walking. Can we go to your place now?”

  She started to sputter again, a sure sign that he’d said something inappropriate. Instead of push further, he kept quiet. As old as he was, he’d learned a few things about how to best deal with women. Letting them do the talking was one of the biggest ones. Some things, it seemed, didn’t change with time.

  “Pardon?” she said at last. “Go back to my place?”

  He nodded. “Unless you would prefer to go back to mine?”

  This caused another outburst. Eventually she realized he had known exactly the reaction his remark about his den would get from her, and she started to glare at him.

  “Really funny, mister,” she told him grumpily. “Twenty-four hours into your new age and you think you’re ready to crack jokes? Hah.”

  Sid just grinned at her, enjoying the way her cheeks took on a mild shade of pink.

  “You’re going to a hotel,” she managed to get out at last.

  “A what?”

  “A hotel. Umm, like an inn, I guess.”

  “No,” he said immediately, his voice firm. “I am not going to an inn. Sleeping on the floor with common folk around a central fire? No.”

  Hollie was snickering at him by the time he finished his protest. “You should watch it, mister. I’m one of those common folk. No royalty in my blood, so if that’s why you’re here, then I’m sorry to disappoint.

  He glared. “I’m staying near you. Letting me go off on my own is a bad idea. You are the only human I know.”

  “That’s not going to change if you don’t interact with others.”

  Sid just kept his mouth shut, letting his silence make the point for him. She was his mate, and he needed to be near her, to have her close by. His soul yearned for her. But since he couldn’t have her until she wanted him as well, he could only remain close by instead.
r />   “Fine. My house it is,” she said at last, sounding unhappy about it.

  “I’ll be a good guest. You have my word.”

  To his surprise, she actually seemed to relax a little. Could she finally be starting to believe him when he spoke to her? It wasn’t in his nature to lie to those he cared about. On top of that, when he gave his word, Obsidian kept it. Period. By promising to be good, he would sooner die than break that.

  Hopefully it never came to that.

  ***

  “Thank you.”

  Hollie looked up at him, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “For what? I haven’t done anything.”

  He gave her a look that said she was very, very wrong. “Besides stick around when you didn’t have to, ensuring that I didn’t wander the world alone, and make a big mistake in the process? Or did you not do anything with all the education you’ve given me about this world that I am now awake on. Or paying for my food and haircut?”

  He ran his hand through the cleaned and cut hair. After seeing himself in the mirror before and after, even Sid had been forced to admit he looked better now. It was still unsettling to pay for someone to do something he’d always done himself. But the results were hard to argue with, and he had felt refreshed. Seeing himself in a suit had just put the cap on everything. He looked good.

  “Oh. That” she said, unsettled. “Well, you’re welcome. Anyone else would have done the same thing.”

  “Everyone else ran way, Hollie. You didn’t. You stayed.”

  “Barely,” she admitted. “It was tough. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t; my body wouldn’t respond. So I got angry about that, and the anger cut through the fear.”