Chapter 3
Three
Zamir
I followed Nolan into his modest, one-story house—seriously, weren't dragons supposed to be rich as fuck?
—and sucked in a breath as the various scents assaulted me.
It didn't smell bad, by any means. A mild lavender scent hung in the air, but beneath it, I could smell notes of wet fur, litter, vegetation, and. .. was that feather dust?
When Nolan had asked me how I was with animals, I'd assumed he had a couple of cats, or dogs, or a mix of both. It turned out he did, but that wasn't all he had.
"Are those chickens wearing t-shirts? How drunk am I?" I asked as three brown hens pattered toward us before coming to a stop. Their tiny eyes slid from Nolan to me, and they made a sharp, clucking sound almost in unison.
As if my voice was an invitation, two dogs came tumbling out of the room at the back of the cozy living room we'd walked into.
The dogs stopped short of crashing into the hens, panting in excitement as they wriggled in place.
Like the hens, they wore matching red t-shirts with white polka dots on them.
Who would've thought this ancient, pierced dragon enjoyed dressing up his pets?
"Are there more?" I asked curiously, quite confident I'd heard at least one cat somewhere around here.
"I have two cats and two bunnies," he said as we walked deeper into the house, and I trailed after him. Aww, he called them bunnies. How sweet was that?
"Kitchen's that way, if you get hungry or thirsty," Nolan said, pointing to a doorway to the left. I leaned back to peek inside, finding a small but well-stocked kitchen. Did Nolan enjoy cooking? And why did I care?
"Bathroom's over there," he gestured toward another door, then pointed toward a door at the back of the living room. "That's my bedroom. Knock if you need anything."
I nodded, then eyed the other door, the one he hadn't mentioned. "What about that one?"
"That's the pets' room," he said, and I brightened.
"Can I see it? Please?" I begged, which wasn't like me at all. I must still have been drunk.
Nolan stared at me for a long moment before releasing a sigh. He led me to the ajar door, and pushed it full open to reveal the cats and bunnies I hadn't met yet.
The cats were curled up together in a large dog bed set against the far wall, two similar empty beds beside them. Opposite the dog beds was a large pen layered with hay, the door tied up with a string. Did that mean he rarely locked up the hens? They were free to roam all around the house?
Pressed against the wall adjacent to the door was a large rabbit enclosure with fake burrows for the bunnies to hide in, water bottles, and fresh green leaves of some kind.
A cat tree stood beside the open window on the far side, a screen keeping the cats from jumping out. I imagined they spent quite a while up there watching birds or people.
"I could sleep here," I suggested, eyeing the empty bit of floor in the middle of the room. It was carpeted, so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
Nolan didn't say a word, and when I glanced up at him, a look of disbelief painted his face.
"I'm not making you sleep on the floor. The couch has a pullout. Come on," he said, and I sighed, disappointed, but trailed after him anyway, feeling like one of the chickens who hurried after us.
Nolan brought me a pillow and some blankets, then set the couch up while I busied myself petting the two extremely friendly dogs. Thumbing the edge of the clipped ear of one of them as I scratched the other's chin, I asked, "What are they called?"
Nolan glanced up, pillow in hand. "The one with the clipped ear is Clip. The other is Muffin."
Grinning, I nuzzled Clip, then peered at the chickens over her head. They'd been watching me since I arrived, and I wondered if they were planning an assassination.
"What about the chickens?"
Nolan sighed, like he would rather walk around naked than continue this conversation. Was I getting on his nerves?
The alcohol made me feel all fuzzy, and I couldn't bring myself to worry about it if I was. It was nice to feel relaxed for once.
"Taco, Roast, and Nugget," he said, and it took me a moment to remember the question he was answering. When I did, I doubled over with laughter as Clip and Muffin started trying to lick my face.
"Those poor chickens," I gasped out, shaking with the force of my laughter. My belly ached as I tried to catch myself, but one look at the beady-eyed chickens and I cracked up again.
Nolan sighed deeply, hands on his hips as he straightened up. "All right, it's ready. I'm going to bed. I don't get up until nine, but if you wake up early, there's food in the kitchen."
I nodded, my lips pressed in a firm line so I wouldn't laugh again.
"If you wait until I'm up, I can help you figure out what's wrong with the Sanctuary. Help you get in."
"You don't have to do that. You didn't have to do this either," I said, sobering a little.
I hadn't forgotten what he'd said about setting me loose.
He might've been joking, but he hadn't been wrong.
I was dangerous, especially drunk, and the humans of this town wouldn't have been safe had he left me out there.
Nolan shrugged, but didn't say anything. With a parting nod, he went into his bedroom, with Muffin hot on his tail.
The chickens watched me for a few minutes before retreating to their bedroom, and I turned out the lights and settled on the couch. It was quite comfy, but I still felt cold. Unsettled.
After twisting and turning for a while, I caught the sound of Nolan's deep, even breaths. Good, he was asleep.
Without making a sound, I got up, and took the blanket with me as I snuck into the pets' bedroom.
The moonlight filtering through the open window was more than enough for me to see the animals all curled up in their respective beds, though Muffin's bed lay empty between the cats and Clip, and I grinned.
Clip's head came up as I lowered myself into the empty dog bed, and she snuffled into my side, laying her head on my hip as soon as I settled. Sighing, I covered us both with the blanket and ran my fingers through her soft, thick fur until sleep claimed me.
Nolan
I blinked, sighing. Why was I awake again? One glance at the clock told me it was barely past three. This wasn't right. People weren't supposed to be awake at this hour.
Closing my eyes, I tried to go back to sleep, but thoughts about the man in the other room interfered.
Why now? Why had I found my mate just as I'd decided to give up on love, in all its forms?
I sat up in bed, then leaned over it to pull out the thick journal I always kept beneath my bed. The worn leather cover was as familiar to me as my own skin, and I ran my palm over it, feeling every crease and break in the ancient material.
Carefully, I turned the cover, revealing an equally old page.
The papers got more and more modern as the journal progressed, but these early pages were barely holding on.
I knew I'd have to replace them someday, to transfer the sketches on them onto new paper so I didn't lose them, but I couldn't do it yet.
I traced the face with my index finger. My first human friend. My oldest friend. The first person I ever lost.
Two thousand years of meeting and losing people, and they were all in this journal. It was my most treasured possession.
All dragons had a hoard, a collection of things they valued.
For some, it was jewels, for others, plants, or rocks, or something else.
For me, for the longest time, it'd been people.
People I'd loved, people I'd cared about.
They'd been my family, my companions, and after I lost them, I stored my memories of them in this journal. Not that I could ever forget them.
I spent hours flipping through the journal, like I had a tendency of doing whenever I opened it. My memories of my friends, my lovers, my family, were bittersweet, but I couldn't let go.
It was why I'd decided I couldn't go on like this. Every time I loved someone, I handed over a piece of my heart to them, and when they inevitably left this world, they took it with them.
After all these centuries, I had no more pieces left to give. My heart was in tatters, barely functioning with what little of it I still possessed. I wouldn't survive losing any more slivers, even to my mate.
So Zamir had to go. I'd help him get back home, and hopefully, it'd be the last I see of him.
Muffin whined, nudging my side with her big head, and I scratched her head as I slowly closed the journal, replacing it in its spot under my bed that my magic kept dust-free and barred to my pets.
I lay down on my side, pulling Muffin closer as I buried my face in her soft hair, soaking in her warmth.
I knew I'd lose her someday too, but this was somehow easier.
I would survive it. Maybe it was because Muffin and I didn't talk, or maybe it was because I didn't give her and my other pets as much of my heart as I would a person.
My pets were the happy compromise I'd found between heartbreak and complete loneliness, and for now, I was content with this, with them.
I didn't need human connections, didn't need to go on camping trips with Sofia, or get closer to my mate.
This made me happy, and it was enough.
Tomorrow, I'd take Zamir back to the Sanctuary, I'd help him get inside, and that would be it.
If needed, I'd find some reason to leave town to put distance between us, but I wouldn't allow our bond to grow any stronger.