“What did you see?” His voice was low and agonized.
“I was in a beautiful castle. I saw you and your family coming in to eat. Your sister handed you your nephew. She was talking about how she couldn’t wait to teach him to fly. There was so much laughter and love. Then he came in.”
“Mutufa, he killed my father that day, and all I did was run like a coward.”
“No, you did what your father wanted you to do. You made sure your family survived.”
“Did I? My mother died of loneliness. The grief she bore was too much for her, she flew off one day and we knew she was never coming back. None of us know if our sisters and nephew are alive. The connection we shared with them has been severed but that’s not conclusive proof that they are dead. In some rare circumstances, a mental bond can be severed. All I have are my brothers.”
“Your dying wouldn’t have changed anything. Without you, Mutufa would have never been locked away. Your dying would have changed the world as we know it.” She shed tears as the death of his father played before her eyes in vivid color. She mourned him and the loss of Syn’s family.
“I thought you didn’t become human until you locked Mutufa away. You looked human in the dream.”
“Your mind interrupted it in a way you would understand it. Can you stand?”
“Of course I can, silly dragon,” she replied, trying to lighten his spirit. She snatched the comforter off forgetting she was naked and stood to her feet, promptly falling into his arms.
“What’s wrong with me?” She looked down to see her legs shaking. They felt as if she hadn’t used them in months.
“You don’t have reserve energy built up. Fighting Mutufa and then memory walking requires lots of energy.” He placed her back on the bed and went to retrieve a bathrobe.
She wrapped it around her body taking a deep breath, it smelled like him.
“You actually wear this?” she asked in shock.
His lips quivered in a smile and he laughed before picking her up.
“Sometimes. I have friends who believe they are allowed to visit me in my lair. I keep a robe for such visits because they never call ahead.”
“Is one of those friends George and the mysterious wife you told me about?”
Wrapping the robe around her, she followed him into the elevator. He hit the fourth floor. “Especially her. I will never understand women.”
“Can I ask you a question?” She looked up at him. He was still holding her close allowing his body heat to penetrate her.
“If my parents were still alive…” she licked her lips wondering how to ask, “and we were together. Could they stay with us if they wanted to be closer to me?”
“The fifth floor would be theirs.”
“Really?” Who gave in without a fight when asked about in-laws living with them?
“Yes, my brothers and I would all live together, if it was possible. Unfortunately, dragons need space. As the times have changed so have we. Instead we live in our mountains close enough to fly to, but far enough to provide the space we need.”
“But it didn’t use to always be that way.” Pictures of them seated at the large table flashed before her complete with the laughter and the love.
Those pictures reminded her of how her life used to be. Her dad was always teasing her and her mother. He would tease her mom then wink at her over her mom’s shoulder and she would giggle. When she was younger, he always picked her up and threw her in the air asking who was his little angel.
Then things changed. Not because her parents changed, but because she had. She crawled back into her shell just when she was beginning to emerge. It didn’t matter to them though, they stuck with her no matter what. Now they were gone. There was no way her mom left her voluntarily.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, just thinking about my parents.” She followed Syn as he walked into his big kitchen. “So how many people share this kitchen?”
He chuckled and seated her in a chair. “As of right now there are two of us. I saw no reason to go small when I have a whole mountain full of space.
She nodded and looked around. The stove itself was big enough for two people to cook a Christmas dinner on it and not get in each other’s way. He had a refrigerator and two freezers. Why? Because you couldn’t have enough meat?
There was a row of windows in his mountain allowing her to see outside, a large sink will lots of counter and cabinet space and three separate seating areas. He could hire this place out as a hall.
“How about beef stew?” Her stomach rumbled an agreement.
He went to the freezer and took out a large package that he threw in a pot.
“What’s that?”
“Beef stew.”
“Oh, thought you would just open a can.”
“Canned food won’t nourish you as well as the real thing. It won’t take that long to thaw and heat. I made it about a week ago, you’ll love it.”
“I’d ask you if you cook, but that would sound stupid. It’s just that making stew from scratch is different than putting a steak in the oven or on a grill.”
“I cook, you request it and I can make it. I had to learn to cook to survive as a human. I found I had a knack for it.”
“Smells good. It’s heating up faster than I thought.”
“Because we use a flash freeze system that allows food to unfreeze not only quickly but without changing its composition so it tastes just like it did before it was frozen.”
“Something the people we refused to acknowledge came up with?” He just smiled at her and started stirring.
There was a loud sound, he reached over to look into a monitor then hit the button to open the door downstairs. “Looks like we’re going to have company.”
Several minutes later, the elevator opened letting George and a woman off.
She was beautiful, short with long black hair touching her bottom, it swept straight into a luscious waterfall.
“Hi, I’m Tamia.” She walked up to Alexa and stretched her hand out. Her grip was firm and warm and her eyes were accepting.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Alexa.”
“George told me all about you and I couldn’t wait for this grouchy old dragon to show you around.”
“Not grouchy or old,” Syn murmured under his breath making both of them laugh.
“I don’t know why you fight it. Mumbling at Tamia simply encourages her.” George clapped Syn on his back in greeting and took a look in the pot. “Looks like we’re just in time for dinner. Got any rolls to go with that?”
Syn gestured to the end of one long counter top. George retrieved them sliding them into the oven that was already preheated.
“I love watching those two work together. They do it like they were born twins as opposed to just being friends,” Tamia said.
“Have you lived here your whole life?”
“Uh huh.
Alexa turned to look at her. “Do you ever wish you could see the rest of the world? Visit Paris, see what New York or Los Angeles is really all about.”
“We’ve studied the world outside our borders and the things I would want to see might surprise you. I want to see the Grand Canyon. We have nothing to compare it to here. I would love to see Niagara Falls. Although we have beautiful waters falls nothing here compares to it. I also want to see the Hoover dam. We have no damns here.”
“I wouldn’t mind visiting some of those places myself. Why haven’t you gone? Syn left and blended in, you could blend in also. Heck, I blend in and look how different I look for the everyday human.”
“George and I planned to go, then Mutufa reared his ugly head and we put our plans on hold. If we survive this, then we will go and you must come with us.”
George laughed. “This way we can have the first ever dragon sighting over the Grand Canyon.” He pulled the rolls out and grabbed bowls as well as saucers.
Together Syn and George made the table and spread the food for everyone. Syn served Alexa first making sure she had enough to eat before the others served themselves.
“What did you do, Alexa, before you came here?” George asked.
“I used to have a business. We made some of the hottest apps for phones and computers and we were good at it. The people I had were creative. Then we would sell the apps to interested buyers helping to keep them number one in their fields.”
“What happened?” Tamia asked.
“I had an app that crashed and burned after being sold. The app was solid. I developed it myself, tested it, then after testing I retested it. I demoed it and it worked without a hitch, but after I sold it, nothing. The company looked stupid and I paid the price. No one trusted me after that.”
“What do you mean by crash?” Syn asked quietly.
“The company I sold to always had a small demographic of people including employees who tried every app first. I am thankful for small favors. They loaded it up and put it in a month of beta testing. The first three weeks it worked great. Everyone loved it, the feedback was all positive.
“In week four something happened. I have no idea what and have been unable to figure it out yet. The app not only stopped working, it crashed their systems. They were down for a week and my business was history by the end of that week. I worked with them night and day to recover their lost data, but I knew even as I saved their company that mine was dead.”
“What did it look like when it failed?” Syn asked. He was sitting up in his chair, his serious eyes staring at her.
“There was a series of black images going across the screen. We couldn’t interrupt it.”
“Do you still have a copy?”
Alexa’s heart was starting to beat fast. “I have a copy on my phone.” She stood and strode to the elevator. Her phone was in the bathroom where she left it. Retrieving it, she hurried to the kitchen.
She turned the phone on and opened the app. The symbols stared back at her, nothing but lines and swirls reminding her of tribal tattoos. She handed it over to Syn and waited as he looked at it.
“Mutufa.”
“What?” Was he saying that his enemy, the one who tried to kill her, ruined her company? For what? So she wouldn’t come and sleep with a dragon as if that would make her stay away if she chose to come.
Her employees depended on her to take care of the company, to pay them on time, to respect them. She worked hard to do that and so much more. She had single parents working for her who not only needed, but deserved to make a decent living. She made sure they could afford to raise their children. It was how life should be.
She looked up at Syn her blue eyes electric, snapping with the force of her anger. “What do the symbols mean?”
“It’s a warning. If the white haired one mates with the dragon I will kill her parents.”
Mutufa had her parents. Of course he did, because anything else would have been anti-climactic for her. She paced Syn’s lair while he sat in a chair watching her. There was nothing to say at dinner; she ate but the food was grainy and tasteless in her mouth. No one seemed to take pleasure in the meal.
George and Tamia left as soon as possible and Alexa mulled over her life. Her parents were taken as hostages to keep her away from Syn. Syn—the pain in her heart beat against her chest. This was all about him and his brothers having the power to keep Mutufa from breaking out. Her choice was between her parents or the world.
“I don’t know what to do.” She flounced on the bed bouncing just a little bit on the mattress.
“Do what you believe is right.”
“It’s not that easy, Syn. My parents or the world. No pressure or anything.”
“I can’t tell you to let your parents die. I have watched you mourning for them, saw how you kept the hope alive, and now you know where they are. All we have to do is retrieve them, and then you can go home.”
“You would do that for me?”
He stood and crossed over to her, taking her hands and looking in her eyes. “I have made peace with both my life and death. It is time for you to live, to shine.”
“He’ll kill them anyway won’t he?”
Syn closed his eyes and squared his shoulders. “Not if we get to them first.”
Alexa lay down on the bed, “Syn, lay with me. Hold me, please.”
Pulling the comforter back, he laid beside her before covering them both in its warm embrace.
“Tell me how it works…you know if we were to mate.”
“Mating for a dragon is both mental as well as physical. You would have to let me into your mind and I you. Then there is the sharing, what is shared is different between each couple. There is no way to predict what it may be. There are no secrets between dragon mates. No privacy, we are constantly open to the other. It can be a hard way to live if there is no trust or love.”
“We will be in constant contact with each other and know what the other is thinking or doing at all times?”
“Yes.”
She shook at the thought of being that intimate with someone. There would be no barriers, nothing to keep what she was thinking about away.
She snuggled deeper into his arms. Did she need a barrier with him? He wasn’t the enemy.
“Is it like this for all your kind?”
“Yes and it has stopped more than one dragon from claiming a mate and thus reproducing.”
“What do you mean?” Her hands were exploring the full expanse of his chest. Her fingers were tracing around his hard little nipples.
She like hearing the catch in his voice as she stroked her nail over one. What would he taste like? Her tongue slowly caressed her lips knowing his eyes were following her every move.
He cleared his throat. “Dragons only reproduce within the mate bond.”
“If they refuse to bond, they end up with no offspring and frozen on top of that?”
He glanced at her with sad eyes. “That’s our life.”
“You have no offspring.”
He shook his head enjoying the touch of her hands on his chest.
As she took her finger and flicked over one hard nipple, he sucked in air making her damper. Leaning over, she took that nipple into her mouth and sucked. His hand landed in her hair, pulling on it gently, tugging at the roots before he slid his fingers down to massage her scalp.
He was heady, making her want to gulp him down. She backed off wanting to savor him even as a fierce need to devour him rolled through her.