by Zoe Chant
They tottered to the bed together and sank into the silky sheets. They had only twined together for a few minutes before Darius peeled himself away from her and leaned off the bed to search through their discarded clothing.
"What are you looking for?" she asked, sitting up.
"Phone." He found it and swiped buttons. "I sent warning messages to my children yesterday. I need to—ah. Here's a text from Melody."
"Esmerelda's daughter?"
Darius nodded. "She and her mate Gunnar are fine. They're all the way down in Florida right now with their bookmobile—probably the best place for them." He scrolled through messages for a moment. "Nothing from Ben and Tessa, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Cell reception at their cabin is spotty."
"I'm surprised we have it here."
"I'm not," Darius said in a tone of wry amusement. "We dragons enjoy our creature comforts. They probably have their own cell tower here." He typed briefly, and Loretta peeked past his arm to see that he was writing a text to his son. Ben, stay off the grid. Code red. Call me for details. D.
"Darius," she said softly as he settled in beside her, spooning around her, "how long are we going to stay here?"
He was quiet for so long that she thought he might have fallen asleep. Finally he said, his breath stirring the hair on the back of her neck, "It depends on how long Heikon is willing to hide us. I hope that I can convince him to keep you safe here while I—"
"—go get yourself killed by gargoyles?" she interrupted him. "I don't want to be split up, Darius."
His hand stroked back and forth across her bare hip. "Nor do I. But I must deal with Sharpe. I cannot spend the rest of my life on the run. That is no life for you. And I don't intend to let him win."
Chapter Nineteen: Loretta
It was the second time in a week that Loretta had awakened in a strange bed. For a little while, she drifted in a dreamy haze, wishing she could stay cuddled up in bed forever. But thoughts kept intruding of the mansion collapsing in flames behind them, of Maddox sacrificing himself so they could get away ...
She opened her eyes with a small sigh and sat up. Sunlight was streaming into the bedroom, making her notice how the room's simple wooden furnishings caught the light in their deep gold and red wood. Everything in here was probably expensive, she thought, plucking at the heavy satin coverlet. But it was expensive in a tastefully understated kind of way. It was the sort of expensive that meant good-quality materials and durability, rather than glittering with gold and jewels like Darius's place.
Darius's former place, she reminded herself.
For that matter, where was Darius? His side of the bed was still warm and dented from his body. He must have left only minutes ago. She had a brief, frantic moment of loss before the bathroom door opened and Darius came out in a cloud of steam, with a towel wrapped around his waist.
"I woke up and couldn't find you," she said helplessly. It sounded stupid to her; she was forty-four, not a child. But Darius didn't even smile. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed and took her in his arms and kissed her hair. He looked much better than last night, the bruises faded to almost nothing and most of his cuts healed.
"Will you be all right here for a little while?" he asked, smoothing her hair back from her face. "I need to go find Heikon and talk to him."
"I'll be okay." She didn't want him to leave, but she had to admit that she didn't feel unsafe here. It was just that she felt safer with Darius around.
He kissed her and then dressed quickly. "There's food on the tray there. One of Heikon's clan brought it for us. If you want anything else, you can summon one of them. I'll be back soon."
After he left, she dressed in the clean clothes that had been provided. These turned out to be a cream-colored blouse and earth-toned slacks, different from the bright colors she preferred, but a reasonably good fit. The tray turned out to contain fruit and pastries, and someone, perhaps Darius, had made a fresh pot of coffee. Loretta took a cup of coffee and a donut to the window and looked down at the sun-drenched garden.
By daylight, the place was even more impressive than it had been in the dark. The garden was more extensive than she'd realized—in addition to the lighted area with paths that she'd seen last night, it turned out to sprawl down the mountainside in a series of terraces, some spilling over with flowers, others containing neat rows of vegetables and even what looked like a vineyard. A few people were visible, adults and children, some weeding in the garden, others engaged in hobbies like reading in the shade.
All around them, mountains spread toward the horizon. Except for the contrail of a jet passing over, there was little sign of civilization nearby. She guessed they were probably somewhere in the Rockies; she didn't think they could have flown all the way to Canada last night.
A shadow flickered across the garden. Loretta looked up with a gasp at a dragon soaring overhead, glittering violet and gold as if it had been encrusted with jewels. Another one appeared from somewhere out of sight, much smaller, with orange and gold scales. This one darted around the bigger one in raptures of delight, and the two of them flew out of sight around the side of the mountain. Loretta watched with her mouth open in an "O" of wonder until the two of them had vanished, and then she looked around for more, and spotted another dragon sunning itself beside a fountain in the garden. This one had no wings and the whiskers of a Chinese dragon.
Most of those people down there (the woman in a sun hat clipping deadheads off the roses, the little boy playing with a dog, the old lady reading on a garden bench) were probably dragons, she thought. It was a staggering thought, and it also made her wonder if Darius was lonely without others of his own kind around. Was this what a dragon clan was supposed to be like?
She had the urge to explore this place, but she didn't feel quite right doing it, not like in Darius's mansion. Here, they were guests, and reluctantly tolerated guests at that. Heikon didn't seem to mind having them around, but as much as she wanted to look around the garden, she didn't want to risk straining the limits of his patience.
Instead she looked around the room for something to do. She found a backgammon set on a shelf, but she couldn't remember how to play, or whether it was a game that could be played alone. There was also a bookshelf containing a mix of old leatherbound books that were probably first editions, mixed with paperback bestsellers, most of them dog-eared and well-thumbed, representing a wide range of diverse genres. None of them held her interest, and she was just putting back a recent legal thriller and had decided to try backgammon after all when there was a buzzing sound from somewhere in the room.
It was coming from Darius's jacket, which he'd left thrown over the back of a chair. Loretta felt in his pocket and took out his phone. She meant only to check and make sure it wasn't anything terribly urgent, but the incoming caller was labeled TESSA. By the time Loretta made up her mind to answer it, the call had already gone to voicemail.
If his daughter-in-law was trying to get in touch with him, Loretta decided she'd better find Darius and give the phone back to him. Besides, it gave her an excuse to look around; if anyone questioned her right to be there, she could just tell them she had urgent business with Darius. She tucked the phone into her pocket and went out into the hall.
She found her way to the garden easily enough by retracing their steps to the chamber with the waterfall. Ducking through the waterfall into the sunshine, she was nearly blinded for a moment. It was a gorgeous day, the garden drowsing in sunshine, the wind whispering through the trees and the sound of children playing somewhere in the distance. She yearned to find a shady spot out here and spend the entire afternoon daydreaming in the sun with a book in her lap.
But somewhere out there, Tessa and the rest of Darius's family might be in desperate peril. And the danger would be getting closer, Loretta thought. Darius was right; they couldn't hide behind Heikon's walls for the rest of their lives, however much they might want to.
She had thought, looking down from abo
ve, that it would be easy to find her way through the garden, but quickly realized it was like a maze. The lovely, winding paths dead-ended at fountains or benches; they twisted around so that she kept finding herself facing the mountainside when she was trying to go toward the edge. She could hear voices elsewhere in the maze, but when she tried to go toward them, she ended up going in the opposite direction entirely.
"Maybe you need to have wings to navigate this place," she muttered.
Eventually she managed to follow the sound of children's laughter to a railing looking down on a lower terrace where a small group of kids were playing in a patch of lawn bordering one of the garden plots. For a minute Loretta just watched them play. There were four of them, and they were shifting as they played a fast-paced game involving a ball, flickering from little dragons to kids and back again. Two were winged Western dragons and two were wingless Asian dragons, but those two seemed to be able to fly as easily as the others. They wove in and out in their game, batting the ball back and forth, sometimes on the ground, sometimes in the air.
Was that what Darius had been like as a kid? It was hard to imagine him being so carefree, even as a child. Somehow it seemed as if he must have always worn the same air of stiff pride and dignity.
Watching the children play also made her think of Skye, who didn't have other little dragon children to play with—at least not that Loretta knew about. Darius's family was so isolated. She'd just assumed that was what dragon families were like. Now she saw these people and realized it didn't have to be that way. Darius had built himself a fortress in the middle of nowhere and lived there with his servants. But Heikon had made a sanctuary, where dragons could be themselves without having to worry about discovery by the outside world.
"I see you're up. How did you sleep?"
Loretta tried not to jump. She hadn't even noticed Heikon sitting on a bench in a patch of shade a little to her left, watching the children play, just like her.
"Very well, thank you," she said politely. "Thank you for giving us a place to stay."
"Manners?" Heikon said, arching a brow. "I can't believe you're Darius's mate. But then, he was unusually well-behaved last night. Maybe you're rubbing off on him."
Loretta's temper flared. It was one thing to butt heads with Darius when he was standing right there being his usual prickly self, and quite another to be rude to him when he wasn't there to defend himself. "Oh, that's rich coming from a man who runs his own private kingdom in the mountains. Darius isn't perfect, and he'll be the first to admit it, but at least he isn't a hypocrite."
She regretted her outburst immediately, but Heikon just looked amused. "Darius is willing to admit he isn't perfect? You have been a good influence on him." He patted the bench beside him. "Come sit down."
Loretta took a seat on the very end of the bench. She still wasn't sure she trusted him. "I was actually looking for Darius, to be honest. Do you know where he is?"
"We spoke earlier. He's currently using one of my computers to check on a few things."
"You don't mind him using your computer?"
A quick smile flashed across Heikon's face. "I'm fine with it when my nephew is watching him."
"Would you mind telling me where he is? I really would like to talk to him."
"I'll do you one better," Heikon said, and whistled. A moment later, a small dragon swooped down and landed on the grass, shifting into a boy of about ten or twelve. "Josh, run and get our guest from the office suite and bring him down here."
After the boy ran off, Loretta said, "I'm still getting used to how it's all family here. Darius's mansion is so different." She winced. "Was. I still can't believe it's all gone."
"Dragons are all different," Heikon said with a trace of a smile. "Like humans, we build the lives we desire. But I must admit that Darius's lifestyle is a little unusual for us. We are not normally as isolated as he is. The way I live with my clan is more normal for us."
"His family—" Loretta began, but she was interrupted by the vibration of Darius's phone in her pocket. "I'm sorry. I'm going to have to answer this. There might be something wrong." With some nervousness, she touched the button to connect.
"Darius?" said Tessa's breathless voice.
"This is Loretta. Is everything all right?" As she spoke, Heikon rose with a polite nod and stepped away to give her privacy.
"Oh, Loretta." Tessa's voice cracked. "I was expecting Darius. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but is he there?"
"He'll be here in a few minutes." Worry swirled in Loretta's stomach. She thought she could hear a baby fussing in the background. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Tessa said. "And Skye is fine, don't worry about that." She swallowed hard. To Loretta, it sounded like she was trying not to cry.
"It's okay," Loretta said, as she might have tried to soothe one of her children at the day care. "It's okay, sweetheart. Tell me what happened."
"It's Ben. There—there was ..." Tessa made a sound like a stifled sob. "I don't know what they were. Something ... some kind of, of creature. Animals or people, I ... I don't know."
"Did they look like they were made out of stone?" Loretta asked when Tessa paused again.
"Yes! I know it sounds crazy, but they just came out of the ground. Ben shifted into his panther to protect me and Skye, but his teeth and claws didn't do anything. And then they took him."
"It's going to be okay," Loretta told her soothingly, with a confidence she didn't feel. Tessa made a little sniffling noise. "Where are you now?"
"At the cabin. I don't know where else to go. I tried calling the mansion first, but I just got a disconnect message. I don't know what's happening."
"The mansion is ..." Loretta hesitated. In Tessa's current (and completely understandable) state of mind, it didn't seem like a good idea to tell her what had happened to the mansion. "We're staying with some friends of Darius," she tried again. "Those creatures who attacked you are called stoneskins. They attacked us too. But we're okay, and we're going to help Ben, don't worry."
"Darius has friends?" Tessa asked with a tiny little huff of a laugh.
"Another group of dragons. They seem nice. Their leader is called Heikon—"
"Heikon!" Tessa's voice was startled. "Oh, I know him, all right. He tried to make me the Heart of his hoard once—I don't know if you know what that is, but I didn't appreciate it. And then he decided my daughter was going to marry his grandson. Heikon owes me. Is he there? Can I talk to him?"
Loretta could only blink in astonishment. Now that she thought back to it, when Darius had told her about the Heart of the Hoard, he had mentioned that his daughter-in-law used to be one. She just hadn't connected it to Tessa, who seemed so human and normal.
"Uh—yes. Of course you can." She held out the phone to Heikon. "She wants to talk to you."
Heikon took the phone. It soon became clear that when Tessa said she was going to talk to him, all the talking was on her end. Loretta could hear just enough of Tessa's voice to tell that she wasn't yelling, but she also wasn't letting him get a word in edgewise. Heikon made occasional agreeing noises, once tried to say something and then closed his mouth. Eventually he said, "Very well," and handed the phone back to Loretta.
"Did that go okay?" Loretta asked as Heikon wandered off a few paces and summoned another of his kids or grandkids. The two were soon in deep conversation, too quiet to be overheard.
"Oh, about as well as it could, I guess. I feel much better now."
"You sound better," Loretta said with a laugh that startled her. Tessa did sound much less tearful and miserable.
"It's amazingly cathartic to really unload on someone ... who doesn't really deserve it, probably, but damn it, he did send an assassin to kill me and then hijack my brain for awhile. Family, right? So anyway," Tessa went on while Loretta was still trying to figure out what to say to that, "I guess Skye and I are coming to stay with Heikon for awhile. It's probably the safest place for us."
"You'll be okay
here," Loretta told her. "I don't know Heikon very well, but this seems like a nice place, and everyone we've met so far has been nice too."
Tessa gave a short laugh. "You're an optimist, aren't you?"
"I try to see the best in people," Loretta said. "That doesn't mean I let them push me around."
"I like you," Tessa said simply. "I think you're good for Darius." She took a deep breath. "You know, Loretta, I don't know if you have any kids, but I'd be a total wreck right now if not for Skye. I have to stay strong for her."
"I don't have kids, but I can tell you're a good mom," Loretta told her. "And you'll be here with us soon. Darius and Heikon will get Ben back. I'm sure of it."
After she hung up, she went over to Heikon, who was standing at the railing with his fingertips touching his lips. There was no one else around at the moment; they were alone again. "I'm not going to ask about the things Tessa said about the history you two have. She seems to trust you, so I guess I will too."
"I'm not sure if you should trust any dragon," Heikon said simply. "Except for your mate. He would never hurt you. But I will tell you that I'll do my best to keep Tessa safe ... and you."
He turned and looked down over the railing. Loretta looked too, down at the gardens stretching terrace by terrace down the mountainside. It was beautiful and idyllic, and although she thought she'd probably go stir crazy living here for any length of time (she really needed more people around), it was an awfully nice place to visit. She still liked it better than Darius's mansion; as beautiful as that had been, she didn't miss its coldness and the lonely quality of its glory.
"You never know how much you have to lose until you've lost it," Heikon said in a voice that sounded old—as old as he must truly be. "I lost all of this once, but then I got it back again. Darius had something like this once, but he lost it when he was a child, because of the gargoyles. Don't underestimate the mark that such a loss can leave on a man."
Loretta's breath caught in her chest, thinking about Darius as a lonely, scared child. "He's trying to rebuild it," she said quietly. It made her look at the mansion and the town in a new light, Darius with all his servants as a substitute for the clan he'd lost. "He's just ... going about it a little wrong, I think."