Chapter 4
Four
Zamir
"You look cozy."
The voice pulled me out of the sleepy fog I'd fallen into when I'd woken up buried under a mound of fluff, and I removed the cat from my face to find Nolan standing in the doorway, his green eyes twinkling as he watched me.
I'd somehow ended up spread out on two dog beds, with Clip asleep between my legs, one of the cats on my stomach, and the other on my face. I turned my head, jerking back when I found the chickens standing close enough to touch. How long had the creepy little shits been watching me?
"Um, hi," I mumbled as I peered up at Nolan through squinted eyes, the sunshine hitting me right in the face from the open window.
The beginnings of a headache made itself known, and I groaned as I struggled and failed to sit up.
Nolan smirked, finding amusement in my discomfort. For some reason, I liked it. Something about this age-old dragon had me... mesmerized.
"Come to the kitchen when you've unearthed yourself. I have something for the pain," he said, then disappeared, leaving me under the watchful gaze of the Murder Triplets and the furry weighted blankets who refused to rise.
"Come on, guys. I gotta get up," I said, but of course, none of them cared. After much shifting around, I managed to slide out of the beds, though the blanket I'd brought over had to be sacrificed to the cat overlords.
The bunnies were fast asleep in their closed enclosure with the door firmly shut. Why was their door closed but not the chickens'?
Shaking my head, I followed the scent of the fresh coffee as the Murder Triplets trailed after me.
"Your chickens are planning to kill me," I told Nolan as I slumped against the counter, hanging my head as I braced my palms against the cool countertop. Hey, I bet that would feel great against my head.
To test the theory, I pressed my forehead against the cool marble, and sighed in instant relief.
"Here, drink this," Nolan said as he placed something beside my head with a soft clink, and I turned my head, eyeing the shot glass. The blue liquid inside sparkled in the warm daylight that filled the room.
"Are you trying to get me drunk again?" I asked as I straightened up, and Nolan rolled his eyes.
He turned to the coffee machine, and light sparked off his piercings, pulling my gaze to his plush lower lip. "It's not alcohol. It'll help with the hangover, trust me."
With a shrug, I downed the liquid, hissing at the sharp, spicy taste.
"What is that?"
Nolan placed a mug of coffee in front of me, then hid the curve of his lips behind a mug of his own. "A blend of spices and dragon fire. You'll feel better in a few minutes."
It was hard not to trust him, which was strange since I never trusted people so soon after meeting them.
I hadn't trusted Headmaster Morrigan when he'd found me in those woods all those years ago and invited me to the Sanctuary with the promise that I'd never have to hurt someone to feed again.
He'd kept his promise, but it'd taken me years to trust him beyond a shadow of doubt.
Yet I'd let this man take me back to his place, and introduce me to his adorable furbabies. I'd consumed whatever magic drink he'd made me—and I had to admit my headache had mellowed out—and now I was sipping the delicious coffee he'd made. What was next, eggs and bacon?
As if he'd heard my thoughts, Nolan turned to me, one hand wrapped around the open refrigerator door. "Eggs or pancakes?"
"You don't have to make me breakfast," I insisted as I downed the rest of the coffee.
If I were human, I'd have burned my tongue in my haste, but all I felt was the hot liquid coursing down my throat before filling my belly with warmth.
It almost replicated the way a new life force felt when it first settled in my gut, but the hunger that always lingered deep inside me clawed at my skin from within, assuring me that it had not been sated in quite a while.
I needed to get back into the Sanctuary before it got to be too much.
This wasn't the first time I'd reached the edge of starvation—hell, I'd surpassed it a few times—and the one thing I was grateful for was that I never went rabid in my hunger.
Maybe it was the years I'd spent alone in the woods before the headmaster found me, but my body shut down the moment I got too ravenous—I believed to save energy—instead of attacking anyone around, and I considered it to be a silver lining.
"I'm making some for myself, and I always end up making too much," he said, which I couldn't help thinking was a lie. Why was he taking care of me? What did he get out of this?
"If you're sure, I'll have eggs. However you like them," I relented, only because Muffin and Clip chose that moment to join us, and their adorable, fluffy faces distracted me. "By the way, can I ask why you lock up the bunnies?"
"They get anxious at night. They feel safer with the gate closed," Nolan said as he mixed the eggs before pouring them in the pan, his hands moving as deftly as they had last night at the bar.
As I ruffled my fingers through Muffin's fur, my eyes stayed latched onto Nolan's hand, far too fascinated by the way he handled the spatula.
What the hell was wrong with me? I was acting like a... No way. No way.
I hadn't sensed anything, but that could very well be because of how powerless I was at the moment. I needed food, the right kind of food.
Why hadn't Nolan said anything, though? Surely, if we were mates, he knew. He was a dragon, and nothing slipped past those ancient creatures.
Unless this was me seeing something in nothing. Maybe his kindness had lowered my guard, and I'd turned it into something more than it was.
That had to be it because the alternative would be that Nolan knew, and didn't want me.
Nolan
After breakfast, I grabbed the dogs' leads, and we headed outside, walking down the sunlit streets toward the Sanctuary.
We passed by the bar, which would be closed until four in the evening, when Sofia and Hugo, our chef, would arrive and start setting up for the evening.
We didn't offer a lot of food, just enough fried things to keep the patrons drinking longer than they would on an empty stomach.
People bustled past, phones pressed to ears, takeaway cups in hand. Avoiding people and connections had never been easier than today, and I'd somehow still ended up letting my mate in.
I'd promised myself I was done, but when I found Zamir curled up amid my fur-children, I realized I was already too late. Somehow, despite my best efforts, Zamir had weaseled his way in.
My plan had been to remain alone until I felt ready again, until my heart had healed enough that I could imagine giving it to someone without breaking into a cold sweat. I supposed I should've remembered what they said about the best-laid plans...
"Sanctum is closed," Zamir murmured, pulling my gaze to him. His frown was directed at Sanctum of Geeks, a storefront I'd passed many times when walking the dogs, though I'd never gone inside. I enjoyed the odd comic books, but I'd never been the type of enthusiast who collected every volume.
"Do you go there often?"
"Not really. The owner, Liam, lives at the Sanctuary too. It makes me think the door isn't working for anyone."
"You think they're locked in as well?" I asked, thinking about what that implied. If everyone was sealed inside the Sanctuary, this was far more serious than I'd assumed.
"Maybe. Or Liam's running late. It's possible," Zamir said as Clip tugged him toward a bush, while Muffin, never to be left behind, picked a bush right next to Clip's.
"Huh. They're pee buddies," Zamir said, and I snorted.
"Just wait," I said, and Zamir cracked up when they squatted with a foot between them, facing away from each other as they did their business.
"First the Murder Triplets, now the Poo Buds. Where do you find them?"
"The Murder what?" I asked, and he grinned.
"I told you your chickens wanted to kill me. They followed me everywhere, and I could feel their eyes on me in my sleep," he explained, waving his free hand to emphasize his point.
"I feel like you might be exaggerating."
"Nuh-uh."
"A fine argument," I conceded, making him laugh.
He had a wonderful laugh. He didn't just laugh with his mouth.
His whole face expressed his delight: his curls bounced with every chuckle, his dark eyes sparkled, their corners creased, his nose wrinkled.
While he was guarded in some aspects—like the flash of something I'd seen when I'd made that unfortunate joke last night—he was also so very free with his joy, and I found it, found him captivating.
I scooped up the dog poops into their designated plastic bag, then threw it into a dumpster before we continued walking. Zamir started up a one-sided conversation with the dogs, telling them about some of the people at the Sanctuary who would love to meet them.
I had to tell him the truth, tell him what we meant to each other.
The longer I'd been around him, the more sure I'd been that he didn't know.
A... a frailness clung to him that I couldn't make sense of.
Supes exuded an aura of magic that made it easy for other supes to recognize them.
It was how any supe who came close to me would instantly recognize me as a dragon.
The distance depended on both the supes' strengths.
It took me no effort to recognize any supe who entered my bar, no matter how far they were from me.
While Zamir exuded enough of an aura that I'd recognized him as a shtriga, it was flimsy. I suspected a weaker supe could easily mistake him for a human, and I wondered why that was. Had he not fed in a while, or was he weak by nature?
The Sanctuary was home to supes who wouldn't or couldn't live in the human world, so it was possible he was the latter.
I didn't care that he was weak. In fact, it'd helped me, in a way. If we'd both discovered we were mates at the same time, I'd have rejected him outright. I never would've invited him to my place, and I certainly wouldn't have changed my mind.
I was still afraid, terrified, to be honest, but I couldn't... I couldn't let Zamir disappear from my life.
Who knew when our paths would cross again once Zamir returned to his home?
The Sanctuary had been anchored here for years now, and I suspected they didn't stay in one place for too long, lest the locals get suspicious.
My fear wasn't gone, but I would deal with it, because despite all my grief, I'd never regretted any of the friendships I'd had over the years, and I knew I would regret letting Zamir go. And weak or not, he was a supe, and once our bond was complete, he wouldn't be as easy to lose.
"Here we are," Zamir said as we stopped in front of the Sanctuary once more, and this time, I climbed the steps with him. Muffin pressed against my leg as Clip whined, and I wondered if they could sense something.
I could still feel the tendrils of sorcerer magic clinging to the door, so the connection between it and the pocket realm hadn't been severed.
"Try the door," I said, and Zamir nodded, wrapping his hand around the ornate handle. He pushed, and the door slid open, revealing the building inside.
"Damn it."
"Is there anyone inside who might need to get out for some reason and now can't?"
Zamir started to shake his head, then stopped. "Oh shit. Dustin, he's pregnant. I don't know if they have a doctor's appointment, but he's eight-and-a-half months pregnant, and it's a half-naga baby, so his pregnancy is unprecedented. What if there's a complication, or he goes into labor—"
"Hey, hey," I grabbed his shoulder, cutting him off. "We'll figure something out, okay?"
He swallowed hard, then exhaled an unsteady breath. "Okay, okay. Can you do something?"
"Let me try."
I replaced his hand on the door handle, closing my eyes as I focused on the threads of magic clinging to the wood.
They were untethered, like something had ripped the pocket realm away from it, breaking their connection.
Pocket realms needed more than one anchor point, and I hoped to Gaia this was the only point that had been damaged.
I didn't even want to think about what could happen if it wasn't.
"Anything?"
I shook my head, and dropped my hand as I turned to meet his worried gaze. "Has anything like this happened before?"
Zamir pursed his lips, then made a strange gesture somewhere between a nod and a shrug.
"Kind of? Not this exactly, but we've been having issues for a while.
It started off small, undetectable, really.
Flowers changed colors, grass grew a foot taller overnight, stuff like that.
But then Khush had a little... freakout—he's a naga—and that seems to have escalated things.
Since then, the sky has changed color multiple times, and a human walked in one time, though that turned out to be fortunate since he's mated to one of the residents now. "
That didn't sound good. It sounded like the sorcerer was growing weaker, like he couldn't handle the added weight of the new residents. He needed help, and soon, or the Sanctuary might collapse in on itself one of these days.
I didn't want to panic Zamir, though, so I kept it to myself for now. It would be pointless to scare him when I couldn't help until we found a way inside.
"I'm going to walk around town for a bit, and I'll keep trying the door. You should go. You've helped me way more than you needed to," Zamir said, as he handed Clip's lead to me and took a step back.
"Zamir," I started, unsure how to say it, but sure I had to. He turned to look at me, and his body swayed, causing his feet to stumble. It was only because of my dragon nature that I dropped the leads and reached forward in time, catching him before he could crumple to the ground.
I cradled him against my chest as I sank to my knees, and Muffin whined, nosing at his cheek as the sisters tried to wake him up.
Panic clawed at me as vision after vision of holding a loved one in my arms as they breathed their last flashed behind my eyes.
No, no, no. I couldn't lose Zamir, not when I'd just found him.
Clip licked my cheek, and I blinked, pulling myself away from the past. Zamir was warm in my arms; his breaths still moved his chest. His heart still beat, soft and steady in his chest. He was still here. He was still here, and I wouldn't let him go anywhere.
I wasn't losing someone I cared about, someone I could love, again. I wouldn't allow it.
"Let's take him home, girls," I murmured, and removed their leads with one hand so I could carry Zamir, knowing they would follow us home.