“Hey, they have sour apple, I’m on that,” Odem declared as the clerk reached the counter with my drink.
“Do not even think about…” Ionus began as Odem rushed to give his order.
“Too late,” Odem said as the clerk rang him up.
“For fuck’s sake!” Ionus snapped, drawing stares as all conversation in the room ceased. “Fine, make mine pineapple.”
It was so unexpected I started snickering and poked myself on the nose with my straw. Odem’s laughter was joined by chuckles from others in the room, who finally stopped staring at us and turned their attention back to their drinks.
“Pregnant Omegas get what they want,” Odem reminded him as we left the shop, drinks in hand. “You know the rule.”
“I do, and I apologize for attempting to hurry you along,” Ionus said, surprising me again. I’d never expected to get an apology from him for anything.
“I’ll tell you everything my dragon said and everything I remembered,” I said as we got in the Jeep. “I just wanted a comfort food first.”
Empty pavement sat where my car had been. I didn’t know how they’d removed it so fast or where Baird and Larkin had taken it as long as it wasn’t anywhere near our home.
“They have countertop slushie makers,” Odem said in between slurps and sillyahsthat made me want to both shake and kiss him for drinking it that obnoxiously. “I’d been thinking aboutstocking up on all the flavors for the dragonets as a treat when they were visiting me. Now I have even more reason to get one.”
Okay, kiss, definitely kiss. If I wasn’t buckled in the back seat next to the bags with him behind the wheel, his brother in the passenger’s seat beside him, I’d have been in his lap, thanking him for being so sweet and thoughtful, while he struggled to keep the Jeep on the road. He truly was. Even when I’d been furious with him, I’d felt nothing but soft, hopeful vibes from him in response.
And sadness. Pain. Loneliness and hurt that I’d caused and intended to make up for. If we could just catch a break from the memories and my stupid past so we could have some time to ourselves.
“There is an elder in the village I grew up in, he would bring those leeches out whenever anyone got to be too much of a problem. We were never supposed to be problems. We were always supposed to just do as we were told. They used the leeches so that even if you disobeyed, you couldn’t win. That’s why only area around my house burned and not the entire village. It fell off in the car, not long before I reached the city. It’s been there the whole time. I think that’s why the car always made me feel uncomfortable whenever I got in it. My dragon warned me today because we were about to take the car home. If the eggs had hatched there, the leeches would have been everywhere.”
“Which might have been what someone was hoping for,” Ionus said. “Maybe they didn’t plan for you to reach us specifically, but your dragon’s instincts would have been to seek out other dragons. Those leeches spreading to them would have made them easier to defeat and control.”
“And may be the answer to why they’ve been so successful in the past,” Odem mused.
“Larkin and Baird have been told to contain it but destroy the car to ensure the destruction of the eggs,” Ionus said. “Raven is on her way to their location to analyze it and see to its permanent containment.”
“Now that I think about it, I remember how compliant almost everybody was,” I said as I sipped my drink.
Tangerine was definitely this month’s flavor, so I’d be adding a bag of them to the grocery order when we got home. And more oysters, with scallops this time. My stomach bubbled again, and this time I was sure it was my sweet eggs giggling at the thought of more delicious seafood. A memory returned, released along the thread between my dragon and me. My mother’s face, smiling as she held something to my lips, buttery, sweet, she’d been feeding me bits of seafood from her plate while the rest of the spread on the table had consisted of meat. Now that I sat there sifting through the rest of my memories of her, I couldn’t recall ever seeing her eat any meat that didn’t come from the sea.
“Almost everyone?” Ionus said.
“My brother was always angry, and not just at my father for the way he treated me,” I said. “He had two friends who were always with him, I never saw them again after he left. We had an uncle, I barely remember him, he was just gone one day and never came back.”
“That seems to be happening a lot lately,” Odem said. “There has been a mass influx of shifters, many of them dragons, seeking shelter in Dragon City. If any of your family members are among them, we’ll know once they’ve been processed.”
“Through the blood sample we had to give,” I said, remembering the way I’d sat, numb and still in the chair when they’d taken my blood.
I’d barely been able to give them my name and age when I’d gone through the process. I’d answeredI don’t knowto so many questions that I’d been afraid they wouldn’t let me stay. Thequestions I had been able to answer, about my plans and how long I intended to be in Dragon City, had been easy. Forever, and to make a life for myself here.
I’d never expected that life to include being mated to a protector and carrying his eggs, but if there was anything that cemented my life and my forever here, it was Odem.
“If we can find my brother, I know he’ll be able to tell you far more than I’ve been able to,” I explained. “My dragon is still being very selective about sharing things with me. He made me promise I wouldn’t freak out when he reminded me about the leech. The worst thing that happened was that I bumped into a rack on the way out of the store the first time, but it was a happy accident because it reminded me that I’d forgotten the binkies and clips.”
Odem’s laugh, as we pulled into the underground garage, left me longing to curl up against his side, something funny on the television, just so I could listen to him chuckle all night. I wanted time with my mate and hoped we’d be able to have that before his next patrol or there was going to be one cranky mate in his bed come morning.
Just as Odem was helping me down from the Jeep, my dragon sent another memory through our growing connection, and I gripped my mate’s arms, so he wouldn’t let me go.
“What is it?” he asked, cocking his head as he studied me.
“The elder who kept the leaches had a leech on his arm,” I said. “Black like a tattoo, but embedded in his skin, like a brand. My brother said he saw it move once, but I never wanted to be near enough to that elder to see it for myself.”
Odem grimaced and shot a look at Ionus. “I’ll speak to Emerson and see if anything like what you speak of appears in the archives. If so, then you may have just unveiled one of the dragons responsible for the upheaval in our community. One that has steadily been spreading to others too.”
