23. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alex
Excitement coursed through me at the prospect of being able to sit down with my great grandfather and find out more about our clan history and what hidden traits were carried in our bloodline that my children might inherit. As far as I was concerned, the scary stuff, like who might have been lurking in the mountains and what the Gorynych might be after, was best left for my mate and my brothers-in-law to deal with for the time being. It wasn’t that I wanted to be kept completely in the dark, it was just that I’d realized how important keeping stress and fear away from the developing eggs truly was.
In a roundabout way that he might not even be aware of, Odem had helped me to discover that today, as he’d shared stories and distracted me from what might be going on in the mountains. I hoped a time would come when I could repay his kindness and give him as precious a gift as he’d given me today, because I would cherish those stories, and the giggles of my little ones, forever.
My great grandfather and the other elders clearly understood the importance of keeping the atmosphere around the eggs free of any sort of distress and discomfort, as the one time the presence of another dragon in the mountains was mentioned, they’d collectively turned their gaze upon Hamish, silencing him. Now the meal was over and Great-Gramps, Gramps, my mate and I had retreated to the comfort of the library, where we could sit and get to know one another better.
“So now, am I to understand that you scaled the mountain to get here?” Great-Gramps said as he got comfortable against the backrest of the couch.
My mate had provided him and the others with clothing until we were able to procure proper wardrobes for them, and he still looked pleasantly confused by the change in texture and style.
“I did,” I replied. “I’d been drawn to it for months and studied the routes up, as well as the challenges others had faced when they’d attempted to climb it. I couldn’t let that deter me, though, there was something about it that had always fascinated me, and the more I read, the more I felt like some of the climbers had overreacted and turned back far too soon. Now I know that it was the wards at work, and I was just too stubborn to heed their warnings.”
Great-Gramps nodded at that as he stroked his chin. “It could be that the pull you felt was stronger than the discomfort wards are meant to cause. The ones we used were always designed to cause some level of unease in strangers. The farther they pushed, the greater the level, until it morphed from paranoia to fear. Most never made it that far, but the rare few who did always proved to have dragon blood in them. They’d come seeking answers, even if they hadn’t understood that was what they desired at the time. Like you, they’d only felt the pull. Rory is one that came to us that way. He was born to a member of our clan who’d been kidnapped from our lands by the Gorynych. She was an omega who, unbeknownst to them, was freshly with egg. It surprises me to this day that they did not destroy it, but Rory was allowed to survive and grow, forced to watch his mother be used a broodmare for them while he was often neglected. She urged him to flee when he was close to the age when he should be shifting, out of fear that they’d attempt to use him the same way if he was an omega and deny him the opportunity to find his true mate. She was able to point him toward our lands, and though heavily warded, he made his way through, much as you have. It’s a testament to the power of your spirit and the strength of our bloodline.”
I felt a surge of pride at hearing him put it that way, especially when, in those first few minutes of being faced with five huge dragons, all I could think about was that I was about to become a snack.
“Did they attempt to come after him?” Ionus asked.
“Aye, and we were able to repel them and keep him safe as he matured, but because of the way he was treated, he never attempted to venture out to try and discover his mate the way my son did.”
Gramps sighed heavily at that. “I cherished your grandmother and the kindness, friendship and companionship we shared during our time together, but I always felt like a fraud when I was with her, because I knew in my soul that I could never love her with the same strength and conviction I’d have felt if she were my true mate. It’s a shame I’ve carried with me all these years, especially after she passed away not long after your father was born.”
“You told me that she fell ill and never recovered,” I said. “But you never told me if there was anything else about the way she died. Did you keep something from me the way that you did about my parents?”
“No,” Gramps said. “It was an illness that took her from us, a direct result of the very career that brought her into my life in the first place.”
“Since this is a story I do not know, perhaps you would be willing to provide the highlights,” Great-Grandpa requested as he steepled his hands together in front of him.
It was the same tone I’d heard from Gramps many times over the years, especially when I’d done something that I wasn’t ready to own up to. The stare was identical, too, laser focused and demanding. It wasn’t an angry look, but it was fierce, stern, and uncompromising. Seeing Gramps squirm the way I usually did was weird, but I guess all parent/child relationships came with those moments when one was forced to don the cap of authority no matter the other’s age.
“Yes, sir,” Gramps replied. “Her name was Madaline, and she was an archeologist. We met when she hired me to guide her and her team of students to a site that she believed was the final resting place of The Mad Poet, Gregor Degrange.”
“Gregor wasn’t mad, though it’s a far stretch to call the man’s ramblings poetry,” Great-Gramps declared.
“He was a dragon, wasn’t he?” Gramps asked.
“Aye, and a member of our clan.”
“Did you find it?” I asked.
“Unfortunately,” Gramps explained. “The tomb was where she believed it to be, but opening it exposed her to Aspergillus flavus, a dangerous mold spore that invaded her lungs and damaged them, making it impossible for her to fight off the double pneumonia she contracted when your father was just a few months old.”
“So you raised him the way you raised me, alone,” I remarked, my admiration for Gramps growing even more, which I never would have thought possible, since he’d always been my hero. I didn’t want to point out the fact that since Gramps was still here that meant she wasn’t his true mate, though we were likely all thinking it.
“I loved my child the same as I love you and knowing that you will now be safe and protected means that I can finally delve further into what happened to him and your mother.”
“ We can delve,” Great-Gramps amended, earning a nod from Gramps.
“You will not be investigating alone,” my mate insisted, his look as fierce and concrete as theirs.
The twin looks of stubbornness on their faces was one I was certain I’d see on those of my own children at some point, and I was glad to see that my mate didn’t back down in the face of it. Instead, he sat up straighter, his very demeanor, and no doubt his status as a protector, leading both to incline their heads in deference to him. The dragon hierarchy was overwhelming for someone not raised as one. Respect, trust, protect, there was no wavering with any of that.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” Ionus said. “Should anything happen to either of you, I fear my mate would be the next to go charging off looking for answers and that is something that I cannot abide.”
“Understood,” Great-Gramps declared.
“Was anything of any significance to our kind discovered within the tomb?” Great-Gramps asked.
Gramps sighed and hung his head. “Aye, to my shame I took the items before she or any member of her team could discover them. I never would have done so if she had been of our kind, too, or my true mate, but I could not risk her digging further and discovering our people’s existence.”
“You did the right thing,” Great-Gramps replied.
“Where are the items now?” Ionus asked.
“Sealed within the safe in the root cellar wall,” Gramps declared.
“They’ll need to be retrieved,” Great-Gramps stated. “And shared with the archivist to be entered into his records so that their existence will not be lost.”
“About him,” Gramps began. “He has been greatly damaged by the treatment he received at the hands of the Gorynych when they banished him.”
“Aye, I expect so,” Great-Gramps said. “As I told you when you were young, only the discovery of your true mate would give you the opportunity to unlock the abilities hidden in your blood.”
Oh, now they were getting to the subject matter I’d most wanted to discuss with them.
“What abilities do we have?” I asked.
Great-Gramps smiled at me and rubbed one of his hands before turning it over and allowing the fizz and crackle of electric energy to dance along his skin.
“Everything pulses with an undercurrent of its own energy,” Great-Gramps explained. “Our clan was long revered from our ability to not only draw it down from the heavens, but also to draw the electric charges from any material that contained it, no matter the size or design. We are natural conductors, able to move it from one place to another, as well as carry it inside of us. We can render an area natural, for a short time anyway, as well as forge it into a weapon against our enemies. Unfortunately, the Gorynych have proved immune, as their scales have the ability to neutralize electrical energy.”
“Good to know and is likely what has led to your clan’s difficulty in defeating them,” Ionus explained.
“Unfortunately,” Great-Gramps admitted. “Though the few times we worked together, we proved to be a formattable force. My marriage was supposed to bring the clans closer and usher in a time of peace and cooperation between us, only that was never their intent. Something that to my shame, I discovered much too late.”
“You are not to blame for their deceptions,” Ionus said. “Emerson has shared much with us about their scheming and treacherous ways as well as their desire to control all of dragon kind and enslave humanity. Your attempt to bring peace and prosperity to both clans was an honorable one, and I thank you for your efforts on behalf of all our kind.”
“We are going to need to be very detailed and thorough in our fireproofing,” I said, as I thought back to all the science lessons Gramps had given me.
“It will be done,” Ionus said, gently closing his hand around mine.
“I know,” I said as I turned to smile up at him. “I’m just glad that we’re finding out now about the potential dangers and not after one of our hatchlings has an accident that could have been prevented.”
“I will help in any way that I can,” Great-Gramps assured us. “Not just in this matter, but with your archivist as well. Any and all information that I possess will become his, though the best thing that can be done for him is to help locate his mate so that he can reform his connection to his dragon side. Those Gorynych, pfft ! What fools to dispose of an omega instead of cherishing him. The ability to shift is not what makes a dragon a dragon. It’s in the blood, whether one has a single drop or is as pure blooded as the protectors. Even when dormant, as long as one possesses a dragon’s bloodline, they are and will forever be a dragon.”
His pfft sounded a lot like my dragon’s, who preened at hearing the conviction in his words. Knowing that he believed so powerfully about the subject was a comfort to me, with how much I’d struggled not to see myself as lesser after learning about the dragon blood in my veins. If I felt that way after just a short time of knowing what I was, I couldn’t imagine how Emerson and Gramps felt, to be cut off from that part of themselves for so long. It made me wonder if that wasn’t why Gramps had invested so much time in his explorations, the same way Emerson had in gathering all the information he could about the dragon clans.
Great-Gramps heaved a heavy sigh, one in which electricity crackled in his eyes as he shook his head. “Dragons have been exterminating themselves with this foolishness for too long. I have seen mates be rejected and turned away for not possessing the proper pedigree, as if we ourselves were not creatures who evolved from other creatures.”
“Like the brontosaurus?” I asked, because yeah, I was still a bit hung up on them.
He chuckled at that and gave me a fond smile. “Fortunately, no, though historical archives have listed them and others of their kind as a primary food source for the earliest of our kind.”
“So dragons really did eat brontosaurus burgers,” I declared. “The Flintstones didn’t get it all wrong.”
He laughed at that, doubling over and slapping his knee, little sparks of electricity sizzling over his fingers as he did.
“I remember that cartoon when it aired, rather amusing I must say,” Great-Gramps replied. “I’m glad that you had the opportunity to enjoy it as well.”
“I can’t wait until the hatchlings can, too.”
“And I cannot wait to meet the new generation of dragons you will be bringing into the world,” Great-Gramps said. “You’ve done us all proud, Alex, as have you, son.”
He turned to my grandfather when he said it. “You could have allowed yourself to become bitter and lost at not being able to reclaim your heritage, instead you had the strength to do what I knew you always would, survive and thrive, and in doing so, look at what you’ve had a hand in creating.”
When Gramps looked at me with pride glowing in his eyes, I felt tiny prickles of warm energy from the little ones inside of me. They could feel the joy and love in the room and were responding to it, while I sat feeling blessed to be a part of such a magical moment, as our family took one more step toward being whole.
We were bringing about the next generation of protectors.