Chapter 1 #2
The Adelmund family estate lay in the warm and forested Piney Woods region of eastern Texas.
In days past, it had been the perfect location for our kind.
Mostly warm year-round, centrally located to the rest of the country, and also near enough to the ocean.
My ancestors had settled here centuries ago and built the huge mansion in the center of our land—a mansion that once teemed with life, but was now mostly empty.
As I swooped low over the huge pine trees, my home came into sight.
The three-story brick house with white accents had wrought-iron railings on the porches and stone walkways leading from the home into the gardens surrounding it.
As late as it was, a small group awaited my arrival outside near the front door.
“Jackson!” Carson shouted as I landed. He was older than my mother and had lived at the manor as long as I could remember.
I handed him the chest and shifted back to my human form. “Carson. Good to see you again.”
“Any luck?” he asked, looking at me hopefully.
As badly as I wanted to say yes, all I could do was shake my head.
The hope evaporated from his eyes. He nodded, then glanced at the chest in his hands. “What’s this?”
“Books,” I said. “As far as I could tell, they don’t have any cures in them, but there might be something in there that could help. Can you and the others go through them? I didn’t have time to dive deep.”
The sadness in his face broke, and he grinned. “Of course. We’ll read every line.” He turned and called to the few other adults nearby. “Come on, everyone. We have a job to do.”
They followed him inside, leaving me behind to hug my mother. She grabbed me, squeezing me tight.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she said.
“I’m glad you’re still here,” I whispered.
Ever since The Vanishing began, I was always worried that any time I left, I’d return to find someone else I cared for missing, gone to the winds, nothing more than a memory.
“I would never leave you,” Mom said, breaking the embrace, and putting a hand to my cheek.
I had to drop my gaze, too ashamed to keep looking at her.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Sorry for what?” she asked, frowning at me.
“I failed. I didn’t find what we were looking for. I let everyone down.”
She nudged my chin with her knuckles, lifting my face like she had when I was a child. “Look at me, young man.”
I snorted a laugh even though I was upset at myself.
She faked a scowl. “What’s so funny?”
I was thirty-five years old, and she somehow still managed to make me feel like a kid.
“You haven’t called me young man in about a decade, that’s all,” I said.
“Well, compared to me, you are a young man,” she said. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. We all thought trying to find Ayumundi was a last-ditch effort. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t really holding out much hope.”
“It was our best chance,” I said, irritated and upset all at once. Most of my frustration had been held at bay, but now, here with my mother, it all came rushing forward. “I wanted to help us.”
“Jackson? What happened?” a girlish voice called out from behind Mom.
Glancing over my mother’s shoulder, I spotted Savannah and Silvia Rosen rushing out of the house toward us. Behind the fifteen-year-old twins was their mother, Tiana. I waved at the girls and put on my best smile.
“Just a little adventure,” I said. “No big deal.”
They were twins, but not identical. Savannah had dark blonde hair that was nearly brown, and her sister, Silvia was the opposite, with hair so light it was almost white. Savannah chewed at her lower lip, unsure whether I was being serious.
“You didn’t find a cure?” she asked.
I hadn’t realized everyone knew what I’d been searching for the last couple of months, though it shouldn’t have been a surprise. There were only twelve of us left, and we all lived in this house. Of course these kids would overhear conversations.
“I don’t think he did,” Silvia said, bumping her sister with her elbow. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Silvia,” Tiana hissed. “Language.”
Silvia dropped her eyes, and winced in apology. “Sorry, Mom,” she said, then looked at her sister again. “I meant don’t be an ass.”
Tiana rolled her eyes and looked at me apologetically. “I’m sorry about that, Jackson.”
The interaction was so lighthearted, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was good to laugh. I needed it.
“No big deal,” I said, winking at the two girls. “I’ve been known to be both an ass and a dick at the same time, you know.”
My mother patted my shoulder. “That’s an understatement.”
Tiana gave me a pained smile, then herded her children away.
I watched her go, wondering if, perhaps, she might be my best option for a mate.
Of all the surviving winged dragons, she was the closest to my age, the others being the twins, who were far too young, and three other women who were too old.
Seeing my gaze, Mom leaned in close to whisper. “Having second thoughts about Tiana?” she asked hopefully.
“Mom, please. Let’s not get into this now.”
Her smile faded, and she reached down to squeeze my hand. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t being serious. Not really. I…” She shrugged, a sad expression on her face. “I don’t want to see you alone forever.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Tiana had been floated as a possible option for me, but I’d declined—so had Tiana.
We were friendly and enjoyed each other’s company, but there was no spark, no emotional connection beyond friendship.
But as the years and months went by, with our numbers dwindling, I was beginning to think we might end up together out of duty more than anything.
That wasn’t fair to either of us. Her own mate had vanished when the twins were toddlers, and she still missed him terribly.
The last thing I wanted was to be a replacement for him.
“I’m starving,” I said. “Can we get something to eat?”
“Of course,” Mom said, perking up. “I’ll make you whatever you like.”
She led me inside, and I heaved out a breath. “Mom, you don’t have to cook. I’m a grown man. I can throw something together.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “I’m your mother. There aren’t any servants anymore, so why shouldn’t I cook for you? It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done the last few months.”
Rather than arguing, I allowed her to lead me into the huge and mostly silent house, and take me to the kitchens. Refusing to sit at a dining room table, I instead chose to sit on a stool near the counter and watch her work.
“How about some pasta carbonara?” she asked as she rifled through the pantry. “Oh, or puttanesca?”
“Mom, I’m starving. At this point, I’d take plain buttered noodles. You don’t need to go to any trouble.”
“No, I won’t hear of it. I’ll make a simple cacio è pepe. How’s that? You love spice. Extra pepper?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Sure. Sounds great.”
As she put the pot of water on to boil and got out a box of pasta, I pulled out my phone and opened my notes app, checking to see if there was anything more I could do to research or hunt for a cure or more dragons.
Over the last several years, along with trying to find cures, I’d been hunting for any remaining winged dragons.
“How’s Tormynd?” I asked. “I didn’t see him outside when I arrived home.”
“As good as can be expected,” she said. “He’s still trying to fit in and find his way.”
I’d found Tormynd in an abandoned village in the Norwegian wilderness a little over a year before.
He was the last winged dragon I’d found in years.
The small hamlet he’d called home had been almost completely taken over by drakes.
That subset of our kind—a wingless, four-legged dragon—had been encroaching on our old territories ever since The Vanishing had begun.
Tormynd had been holed up in a cavern on the outskirts of the town when I’d found him and talked him into journeying across the ocean with me to live with those of his kind.
“His English is coming along nicely,” mom added. “He’s a very fast learner. Mateo has been teaching him both English and Spanish. It’s rather impressive.”
“Good,” I grunted, going over my notes again, desperately praying to see something I’d overlooked.
A few minutes later, Mom set a heaping bowl of pasta in a simple creamy pepper sauce. My stomach gave a gurgling lurch at the sight of the food, and I dove in as soon as she handed me the fork.
“Enough about the others,” I said after a few bites, wiping my mouth, “how’s the little one?”
“We can go see her when you’re done, if you like.”
“I’d like that, actually. I missed seeing her.” I nodded at my mother. “You seem to be getting reacquainted with being in your human form again. You haven’t screeched at me once since I’ve been back.”
“Don’t be—what did you say earlier? An ass and a dick,” she said, but her smile told me she was only joking.
When I’d finished eating, Mom led me into the deeper bowels of the mansion to the hatchery.
The first thing I noticed was the emptiness of the vast room.
At one time, there would have been an egg waiting to hatch every twenty feet.
Now? Only one egg lay in the middle of the room, sitting on soft, ornate fabric in a circle of heated stones, and laying on soft, ornate fabric. My little sister.
“She still has some time before she hatches,” Mom said as I approached the egg.
“Another couple of months at least, right?”
“Probably. It’s not quite as exact as human births or other shifters who give birth to live offspring. Sometimes it’s three months, sometimes six. I’ve even heard of them hatching after three weeks, but I haven’t seen any sign of that so far. No movement or noise from within.”
Stepping over the magically heated stones, I knelt beside the egg. On my knees it came up to the top of my thighs, small enough that I could have wrapped my arms around it, which I did as I pressed my ear to the dark orange shell.