Chapter 24 #2
My mother definitely had a penchant for the melodramatic today, but it wasn't her heart I was worried about right now, so I took out my cell phone and put in my brother's number. I hadn't talked to him in years, so his voice sounded foreign to me when he answered the call.
"Vossman," he said, picking up the phone. He'd taken my father's last name, as if to cut ties with the dragon side of the family completely.
"It's Tyrel."
The other end of the line was silent for a moment. "Ty? Is that really you?"
I suppressed a chuckle at the clear surprise in his voice. "It is."
"Oh wow. I didn't even think you had my number. Wait, is something wrong with Mother?"
"No, nothing wrong with her, aside from the fact that I'm apparently breaking her heart."
"That makes two of us."
Oh yes, he was constantly breaking Mother's heart. Mostly by choosing to live in the human world. Honestly speaking, I don't know how he did it, hiding his dragon form away for so long. The few weeks I'd spent across the sea had been enough to make me long for home.
"To what do I owe the honor of your call, brother?"
"I need to talk to Father."
Another moment of silence. It seemed I was full of surprises today. "What do you want from him?" Kylan's voice turned suspicious. "If you only want to rage at him again, he really doesn't need that."
"Nothing of the sort. I promise," I added, feeling silly. "I need his help with something."
Kylan laughed. "Never thought I'd see the day you'd ask help from a human."
"Believe it or not, I'm in love with one."
More silence. I must really be rattling my poor brother—and getting entirely too much satisfaction out of it. "You what?"
"Could I have father's number now? It really is rather urgent." I only had to picture Adrian in his hospital bed to give my voice a sharp edge.
"Okay. He's at work now, but you can try." He gave me a number and I wrote it into Mom's address book.
"Thank you."
"You should call more often, Ty. Good luck with your human." With that, he hung up.
I looked to the door, but Mother had left the room. Perhaps to drown her sorrows in a cup of tea somewhere. I ripped the page with Father's number out of the address book and went in search of her. I found her in the living room downstairs, with the predicted cup of tea in her hand.
"Greetings from your second born," I said.
She looked at me over the brim of her cup and said nothing. Then she glanced at the paper in my hand. "I see you got what you wanted."
"Don't I always?"
She shook her head as if she was tired of my antics.
She was an old lady now who had grown bitter over the years, but she was still my mother, and whatever she was doing now, she thought she was doing for me.
So I stepped up to her and gave her a short kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you for brunch next Sunday."
She didn't respond, but I knew she'd be ready and waiting for me at our usual time.
"Be careful!" she called after me when I left.
With the page from the address book in hand, I returned to the house I'd rented for me and Adrian.
It was empty now, of course, but for a moment, I imagined bringing Adrian and the babies home.
Mother was wrong when she said there were no upsides to a bonding for me.
A longer life wasn't worth anything if I had to live it the way I had before I'd met him, toying with my partners and growing bored of them quickly.
Not even other dragons had been able to hold my interest. Nobody had, until him. And I wasn't going to lose him.
So I went inside and called the man who'd run from me when I was a child.
My father took a long time to answer his phone, but I let it ring for a while, and then called again, until he finally picked up.
He answered the call the same way my brother had. Something about that sent a spark of anger through me, but I suppressed it.
"Hello, Father," I said, not bothering to introduce myself. He'd know from my voice that I wasn't Kylan, and I didn't think he had too many other children.
"Tyrel?"
I couldn't see the man, but from the sound of his voice, I imagined the color draining from his face.
"Indeed." I couldn't help but smile a little. Perhaps I wasn't as tired of toying with humans as I thought. I'd make an exception for him.
"You… You've never called before. You've been avoiding me for ten years."
"Has anyone ever told you how good you are at stating the obvious?"
He snorted. "Why are you calling?"
"Do you know how to do a fate bonding?"
"A fate bonding? Did your mother tell you to ask me about that?"
"Not before I asked her. I need to perform one. Do you know how?"
He took a moment to respond. "Are you sure you want to do that?" Was that concern in his voice? For me? The world was a strange place today, and only getting stranger.
"I'm certain."
He took a deep breath. "I'll show you if you come here."
I gripped the phone a little more tightly. "I don't have time for that." Even if I'd wanted to see my sire, I needed to stay by Adrian's side.
"You're going to have to make time. I'm not doing this over the phone. I'll drive out to the airport. We'll have a cup of coffee. It'll be nice."
It took all my willpower not to yell at him for making this more complicated than it needed to be. If he'd been in front of me, I wasn't sure that I wouldn't have tried to compel him to tell me what I needed to know with my special abilities. "Aren't you afraid I'll use my magic on you?"
"I'm not afraid of you, Tyrel. I was never afraid of you, and if you come here, I will tell you what really happened when you were a kid."
How ominous.
I did the grown up thing and hung up.
When I got back to the hospital, Adrian was awake, sitting up in his bed and leafing through a glossy magazine advertising toys and baby clothing.
"A nurse gave it to me," he said. "Wasn't that sweet?"
"Very sweet." I sat on the edge of the bed and pressed a kiss to his forehead. His skin was hot, reminding me why I'd gone through the trouble of talking to my estranged family this morning. "How are you feeling today?"
"About ready to get these babies out of me. You know, I'm kind of hoping for girls, or at least one girl. Look at these cute little dresses."
I glanced at the magazine, then back at the stars in his eyes, and got the feeling that our babies would have a bigger closet than we did if it was up to him. "They're very cute."
He put the magazine aside. "You seem distracted."
"There's…" I debated telling him what I'd found out, but if we were to be mates… "I found mentions of an old fated mate bonding in a book. If we did something like that, this pregnancy would be a little easier on you."
"Oh." His hand went to his belly. "You know I'd do anything to help these kids, but you sound like there's a drawback."
"It's only… I'd have to leave here for a bit. My father knows how to do it, but he won't tell me unless I go see him."
He touched my face in a tender gesture. "You don't want to see him."
"I don't want to leave you."
"It's both, isn't it?"
I swallowed, looking into his eyes, which looked right through me. "I haven't… No, I don't want to see him."
Adrian gave me a soft smile. "I understand. It's fine. We can get through this without additional magic. It's only a couple more weeks."
And just like that, he would let the topic go, even though we both knew what 'a couple more weeks' like this could do to him. I sighed, feeling less of a man. I couldn't put him through any more hardship because I didn't feel comfortable around my sire.
"I'll go."
He gave me a long look, then nodded. "How long will you be gone?"
I took his hand and interlinked our fingers. "I have to fly over, but I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I know you will."
He leaned forward and kissed me before I left. More than anything, I wanted to stay with him, but I hoped that by the time I came back, I'd know how to make him feel better, and that was worth any short separation.