Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Ronan
When my car was ready to be picked up from the shop, Odem and I drove down in the Jeep so he could follow me home.
Of course, I couldn’t resist popping into the children’s clothing store in town to raid the racks, filling Odem’s arms with sleepers and adorable socks with lace frills around the ankles.
I found one outfit that said Butterfly Kisses across the front and another with dragonflies all over it and quickly added one with ladybugs.
Odem and I reached for our wallets at the same time when we got to the counter and engaged in a stare down that resulted in the shopkeeper laughing and dividing the bill in half, since neither of us was willing to budge.
He insisted on carrying everything, which was fine by me, but as we headed out to the curb, I got the strangest feeling when I looked at my car.
“What is it, mate?” Odem asked, pausing beside me as I stood on the sidewalk and stared at it.
There was nothing visibly different about it, and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. My stomach roiled at the thought of getting in it and for a moment I thought I’d have to dive for the nearest trashcan, grateful to spot one in front of the next shop.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, “There’s just something about the car. I-I don’t want to drive it.”
“Okay, you drive the Jeep and I’ll follow in the car,” he offered.
“No,” I snapped, putting my hand out to stop him when he started to head that way with our packages. “There’s something wrong.”
“I’ll call Larkin,” he said, tipping his head back to scan the sky. “Let’s go back in the shop and wait for him there.”
Anything to not be near that vehicle right now.
“He’s on his way,” Odem said as he slid his phone into his pocket then ran his hand up and down my back. “Ionus is coming too and bringing Baird.”
The fierce older man was a wee bit terrifying to look at, despite his age, which meant I felt nothing but relief at hearing that.
I couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness whenever I glanced outside, grateful when the sheriff showed up and began inspecting the vehicle with a mirror on a stick that he held beneath it.
I turned over my keys to Odem, who took them out to the sheriff so he could get under the hood and in the truck. Funny, but the longer I sat there watching him at work, the clearer memories became of being worried about that car long before it had crapped out on me.
They’re not going to find it that way.
The voice in my head shocked me less this time than it usually did, or maybe it was just that I was finally growing accustomed to having my dragon speak to me.
They need to take it apart.
The shop just did that.
The shop fixed what was broken, they didn’t take it apart. They need to take it apart. It’s the only way they’ll find it.
If you know there is something to find, why don’t you just tell me where it is so I can tell them and they can get it out of there!
Where it is now isn’t where it will be in a little while. They need to take it apart, somewhere secure. Tell them that, and to have fire handy. As for what they are looking for, you can not freak out if I share it with you.
I don’t like you right now.
Human, you are not going to like what I show you either, so I need your word that you will remain calm and not fly off the handle in public, again.
Huffing, I stared around the shop at all the cute things I had yet to buy and nodded. Fine. Just get it over with.
The image that suddenly swam up from the dark corners of my mind, was of a large, sightless leech, about four inches long, it’s once white coloring streaked with oil and grit.
There would be egg cocoons by now. The car would be riddled with them.
The leeches, raised by one of the elders in my former community, were used to extract…
oh-no-no-no, I did not want to remember the way they used those leeches, but Larkin had to be warned.
Bolting from the bench threw me off balance, but a display rack caught me, sending dozens of pretty binky clips to the ground.
We’d forgotten to get any, and we’d need them, according to the books I’d read.
Lost pacifiers could be extremely stressful for the little ones who were attached to them, or should have been, so they wouldn’t have gotten lost. I’d make sure to get several, and a decorative box to keep them in, but only after I warned them about what my dragon had told me.
They were going to think I was insane.
One of my eggs was poking in a very uncomfortable spot, meaning I waddle walked out there very aware that I needed to pee on top of everything else.
“My um…” I stammered, when Odem spotted me and hurried to my side. “…dragon says there is a gross ass leech in the car somewhere laying eggs in cocoons and that the car needs to be taken apart to find it. He also says to have fire handy, since the leeches…why are you staring at me that way!”
I stomped my foot and instantly regretted it, because now I really needed to pee and he was looking at me like I’d grown a second head.
“Just tell them to take it somewhere safe, find the leech and burn the eggs,” I snapped as I turned right back around to waddle run back into the shop and straight to the restroom I’d spotted earlier.
Oh, blessed relief.
Pokey eggs were no fun.
Odem was waiting for me outside the door when I came out, a concerned look on his face, Ionus peering over his shoulder. I held up my hand before he could say anything.
“We need to talk, again, yes, I know,” I said, “But there are two things I will have to buy first.”
Without another word to them, I walked far more comfortably back into the room, collected several binky clips from the rack the owner had just finished restoring to order, paid for them, and headed out the door.
I could hear them whispering as they followed me three doors down, but if I was going to take another deep dive into the horrors buried in my head, I was going to reward myself first. The giant slushie sign had caught my eye when we’d parked, and I’d skimmed the flavor list as we headed to the clothing store, spotted tangerine and felt happy bubbles in my belly, almost like the twins were giggling.
“Could I have a tangerine slushie?” I asked when it was my turn at the counter. “The largest size you have, please.”
“Sure thing,” she said, and turned away to make it.
I could feel the presence of my mate and his brother like a giant wall at my back, brimming with frustration and amusement. The amusement came from Odem, while Ionus grumbled beneath his breath the whole time we waited for my slushie.
“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 silly ahs that made me want to both shake and kiss him for drinking it that obnoxiously.
“I’d been thinking about stocking 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 answered I don’t know to so many questions that I’d been afraid they wouldn’t let me stay.
The questions 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.”
“I’m sorry I don’t remember his name,” I replied, leaning against Odem’s chest as my dragon prodded at our link again, this time sending just a single word.
“Daigle,” I whispered, making Odem tense.
“What did you say!” Ionus barked, startling me into burrowing against Odem.
“Daigle,” I repeated. “I didn’t remember, but my dragon reminded me.”
“That is a name I have not heard in centuries,” Ionus growled. “And none of it was good, even then. Now I must speak to Emerson!”
I heard his footsteps echoing through the garage as he stalked away and hoped Emerson wasn’t in the middle of something, because a giant interruption was on its way.
“Think that will keep him busy long enough for you to feed me?” I asked, stomach growling as the need to pee hit again.
Slushy cup was empty, so the bladder was full.
“Let’s hope so,” Odem said, opening the door so I could scurry to the bathroom.
Something told me I was going to be spending a great deal of time in there in the upcoming weeks.