He shoots me a withering stare. “Three flaming assholes that dragged a cosmic fuck-ton of shit to our borders. I helped chase those out of towners away from Hadeon during that shoddy weapon, political mess you stuck your nose into a while back, remember? I really don’t put anything past a Veles.”
He waits for Saige to answer, not believing me. “I came here on my own,” she relents, though she doesn’t budge. As she actually digs her knife deeper at his confrontational tone, he yelps.
Sighing, I walk over and wrap an arm around her stomach to pluck her off of him. She doesn’t fight me, but doesn’t stow her weapon either. Her entire body is stiff with tension, like she’s ready to either bolt or go down swinging. I keep an arm around her waist just in case, wanting to ensure she keeps her ass put this time despite her claims. As much as things have been going well, this is the first real test to make sure things aren’t built on fragile hopes and dreams, and I’m not sure I want to risk giving up my delusions.
“You can head back to the basement,” she mutters. “You don’t have to watch.”
It takes me a second to decipher her meaning, tilting my head to peer at the side of her face in a combination of pride and horror. “Do you always go around stabbing babies? He’s like sixteen; a kid. You can’t honestly mean to kill him?”
She doesn’t shrug with humor, doesn’t take her eyes off of him. Every little twitch he makes, she files away. As he starts scrambling to his feet, her knuckles turn white against the hilt of her blade and her muscles coil, ready to spring into action in an instant.
“I killed men when I was his age. Don’t underestimate people or you’ll wind up dead.” Her face is a cold mask, accustomed to brutality. “But he saw me, we can’t just let him leave.”
Donovan pales, eyes flitting towards the front door and back as he debates if he can make it or not. “Look, I don’t know what clone C told you, but Hadeon is decent. We’re not going to turn you over to anybody; women are safe here. Well, as safe as we can make it, anyway. But with four fully shifting dragons helping guard the borders, you couldn’t be in a better place.”
I swallow, taking the gift he unwittingly presented at the same time forcing our hand. “She’s just new to town and we’re helping ease her into things. Not everywhere is as decent, as you well know, and seeing is believing.”
Thank all that is holy he isn’t getting human vibes right now.
“Well you can’t just keep her locked in the house to yourselves,” Donovan scoffs, starting to relax more as no one attacks him. “Show her around and let her meet people before making her think you three bastards are the only men worth knowing in the city.”
Saige winces as her claws extend, digging into her hand and forcing her to drop the knife to pull her talons out of her palm, drawing Donovan’s eye. Thank fuck that’s all it was. All females can do that much and access a bit of their element as a self-defense mechanism from the time they’re born, so no red flags just yet. Now, if she had grown wings or scales, we really would have had to kill the kid, so we need to speed this along before it’s too late. That type of news will spread and as we found out shortly after the newbloods came to town, the way even Ezra was attacked in town by someone trying to sell her off, there will always be some risk. Thankfully, it just helps add to Saige’s cover of being one of us.
Still, she stands her ground, stopping short of snapping her teeth at him. We’re starting to get a better sense of when her other half is awake, for lack of a better term. She’s more agitated, like her dragon has control of the reins and is uncomfortable being forced to wear human skin. The small trace of fear that is usually hiding in her pale blue irises is replaced by one of bloodlust, taking all of her pent up resentment and using it as fuel. If it wasn’t for the simple fact that the beast possessing her likes us, drives her to protect herself and her flight, I’d worry she was at risk of turning feral. But it seems more like when that part is awake, her actions are driven by basic animalistic instinct; flight equals a better chance of survival. Less existential crisis and more food, curling up against one of us for warmth and a sense of safety, or aggression directed at anything standing in the way of that.
Swiping her tongue over the punctures in her hand to try and stop the bleeding, she leans back against me infinitesimally. “I don’t want to meet anyone else. I’m happy here.”
Donovan glares at me something fierce and I really start to question holding her back. If it wasn’t for the fact Elias really doesn’t have more than two friends his age, I’d be inclined to just say fuck it and let her maul that annoying look on his face off.
“You stockholmed the poor thing?” He scoffs, indignant. Saige softly growls, her chest rumbling aggressively and drawing a confused look from Donovan. She’s just starting to tell him exactly where to shove his pity when she’s cut off by his phone ringing.
There’s a heavy beat of silence while Saige pivots in my grasp to have a silent stare off with me before it devolves into softly arguing over to kill or not to kill. I must admit, she’s starting to pull me over to the dark side; all earnest, murdery eyes and fire.
Fuck, she’s perfect.
“A dead kid would be hard to hide, Saige.”
Still, she refuses to back down, used to living a very different sort of life. “With that attitude, maybe. He’s not that big, wouldn’t take long to burn. And the panic room is fireproof, so...”
Donovan’s eyes widen as he takes a cautious step towards the door. I snap out my free hand to grab a firm hold of his upper arm before Saige launches herself at him, thinking he’s making a run for it.
“Jesus, are all females psychotic?” he whispers and I shoot him a warning glare before he finishes digging his own grave. All the while his phone continues to ring and the tension continues mounting as I have my hands full trying to keep them both under control.
“Answer the phone, D,” I command, releasing him to quickly wrap both of my arms around Saige to hold her back as she lunges for him.
Rather than buck against me and struggle to break free, she uses my hold to her advantage, swinging her legs out to hook around his knees and knock him back to the ground before he can make it two steps. Impressed, and more than a little turned on to be honest, I still try to make her see reason, to get through to the savage part of her brain that she can’t slaughter him.
“There’s no way his fathers won’t track his last known location back to us, love. We’d have to fight them all or abandon ship. We promised we’d keep you safe, right? So trust me, killing him isn’t the answer here.”
A shiver courses through her and I hold her tighter against me, like I can keep all of her dragonish pieces inside just a little longer by sheer force of will. Donovan needs to get the hell out of here while we can still salvage this, before her scales or wings make an appearance.
“We might be able to cover it up for a while, but it will come to light sooner or later. Things are already strained with Eli as it is, and this would be a blow we’d never recover from. There are other ways to handle problems beyond stabbing them in the face.”
Giving Donovan a pointed look, he fumbles his phone free while hastily getting back to his feet. “Hey Dad, you’ll never guess what the Veles clones did this time. Nope, they’re hiding another girl here like a bunch of creepy weirdos!”
There’s a shift in the air, like a small, invisible ripple, and I instinctively know Saige is in control again. Cautiously releasing her, I punch the ungrateful twit in the arm. Saige throws her hands up in frustration, turning to storm off.
“Get the hell out of here, D,” I snap, anxious to follow after her, to make sure she isn’t slipping out the bathroom window.
