Chapter 25
Beryl
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
The alleyway was chaos! I scooped up Jade and tried to shoulder my way out.
Friends of the dead alleyway bears had made their way onto the roof where Amorti and others were fighting.
Part of me knew they probably needed help, but until I got Jade somewhere safe they’d have to hold on without me.
I almost flew away with him until I realized the closest emergency gathering place was Glitter Bomb.
I started in that direction as a head tumbled off the roof and splattered in front of my feet.
I stepped over it, ignoring a new nagging sensation.
My brain wasn’t processing anything correctly, because I could swear my dad was here.
Only that was impossible. He never wanted anything to do with me before and I’m sure one little attack wasn’t about to change that.
I’d lent my strength to wars before and the fucker never showed up.
Then I caught a glimpse of a winged man flying high and dive bombing down onto the building to land on one of the invaders. I was stunned for a second. So stunned that I almost shot fire at Carmine when he tried to tug Jade out of my arms.
“I’ll take him,” Carmine said, shaking. I almost didn’t pass Jade off to his carrier, afraid I’d never see him again, but a big amber eye opened to look back and forth between us. I nodded and I let his dad have him. Turning to help I stopped dead in my tracks.
“DRAGON DAD!” the call was as clear as sunlight. I glanced around, searching for Jondi. How did he get here? Who let him leave school on his own? He didn’t even fly!
“DRAGON DAD!” the call came again, this time from inside my head.
The rest of them would have to forgive me for not staying to help quell the chaos.
My kid needed to know everything would be alright!
My kid needed ME! I took to the sky, spotting the dragon who was probably my dad holding onto the legs of a bear shifter while the biggest man I’d ever seen ripped the top part of the bear’s body away from his legs like two kids ripping a meat snack in half to share. I shook my head and flapped hard.
“DRAGON DAD! WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHAT’S GOING ON?” Jondi’s little voice cried out to me.
“I’m on my way. What’s happening at school?” I asked, a vice around my heart fearing that perhaps the bears had intended to do more than vandalize or attack Flight School.
“THEY LOCKED US IN THE BASEMENT!” he cried. “I DON’T LIKE IT! ARE THERE MORE DEAD PEOPLE? I DON’T WANT DEAD PEOPLE GERMS!”
That was the protocol for when the GGB was under attack.
Hell, they might not even let me into the basement, but I had to try.
An attack anywhere in town meant that all the kids went into the underground infrastructure that Canton spent decades designing and construction teams spent even longer building.
A lot of them were in place before the GGB was even the GGB.
Not knowing what to expect at the school, I sort of tried to tell the group link that I was at the school for Jondi.
I’d only been there in the pickup/dropoff lane or in the parking lot if Jade went inside to pick him up on a hard day.
Turned out that I didn’t need to worry so much.
As I circled the parking lot, I spotted plenty of other parents.
I landed and made for Evie once I spotted her.
We really hadn’t talked after the night where the pride made a good attempt at eating me, but Jade was obviously fond of her.
She smiled when she saw me as if we hadn’t fought the one and only other time we were this close together.
“Jade has a broken wing. Maybe a shoulder injury too. Jondi is losing his mind and yelling for me,” I dumped all the words out of my mouth at once.
“Is Jade okay? Shouldn’t you be with him?” someone else asked. I didn’t know who they were but I had to fight off the urge to punch them. “I’d be with my pregnant mate if she was hurt.”
“Shut up!” Evie snapped. “Where is Jade?”
“At the bar with Carmine. You know Jondi is the most important person in his life! He’d never forgive me for—Hell, our kid obviously has things he needs accommodations for and he’s scared and freaking out and I need to know how to get inside to him.”
“Gotta wait on someone to unlock the basement from the inside. You could try to take one of the other entrances, but you might get shot or mauled,” Evie said, her eyes darting in every direction. “What’s going on at the playroom?”
I couldn’t string it together in words. She leaned close and I thought she was going to kiss me like the lions were always kissing each other. I stepped back and she grabbed me. She sniffed me and frowned.
“Mercenaries,” her brows knitted together. “There was this group of non-magical mercenary bears that helped Mundanes Before Magic during the war. They’re from some Other World village.”
“Do we need to tell someone?” I asked.
“They know. They’ll pick it up over the group link. Shit!” She swore under her breath.
“FERAL!” she shouted a second later and shouldered her way past the guy who commented about me leaving Jade alone. Evie pulled me with her.
“I KNOW!” Feral Moonscale shouted back and then said, “They’re searching the city now.
All the mercs at the playroom are dead. Fucking these two dragons showed up out of fucking nowhere!
One is claiming that he’s Volex from Medwin and Clarence’s book but no one knows what to believe.
The other one is claiming he’s Delin. They both say they spoke to Pras Lavender months ago.
Well, months ago for them at least. They came here because Delin has this son… ”
My ears rang for a second. I didn’t want to hear the rest of that right now. If that dragon shifter had been my father, it didn’t matter. All that mattered right now is that I got to Jondi and we went back to check on Jade and the baby.
“He’s safer down there until we know for sure,” Evie said, gripping my shoulder. “I know it’s hard, but what we do works. No one in. No one out. That’s how we keep our babies safe.”
I paced. Smoke rings came out of my nose one after another.
“DRAGON DAD!” Jondi called out again over our family link.
“Jondi,” I said his name gently. “Jondi, it’s okay. We’re all going to be okay. Your Dad is with your grandpa. I’m right outside the school with Evie and the others. No one is getting near you or any of your classmates.”
I talked him through what I could only guess was a panic attack or maybe a meltdown for the next hour.
A few times I managed to distract him by asking him about the places he wanted to see – from the whales in the older climates to going swimming in the sort of sea that you can float in that he’d only heard about in stories.
I promised him again and again that his dad was okay.
I knew Jade was okay or at least that he was alive even if whatever they gave him for pain made him a little loopy.
Carmine and Elliot both assured me that he was okay.
“I feel so useless,” I said aloud so that Jondi didn’t hear me.
“You’re not. I’m surprised about that too,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned to see Vius and Claw. I wasn’t sure what they were doing here since if they had kids I didn’t know about them.
“You’re right where you need to be. Come on.
They’re about to open the doors. We’ll get you as close as we can. ”
Five minutes later, Jondi collided into my legs and I scooped him up.
The crowd roared around us and instinctively I flew upwards.
Jade had told me Jondi was afraid of heights but all I could think about was getting him away from the crowd because the little guy was clearly scared and overstimulated.
My original plan was to head straight to the bar to meet up with Jade, but we needed somewhere quiet for a moment.
I flew until I found an area of the town where the streets were blocked off and landed on the roof.
I couldn’t be sure, but I thought we were on the bank.
Its roof had one of those concrete ledges.
So I sank down against it and rocked Jondi as he caught his breath. Crying made it hard to breathe.
“You were right there,” he said, wiping his eyes after he caught his breath. “Right there.”
“I couldn’t get in, buddy,” I said, wiping away his tears with my shirt.
“I know but… You came for me! When—I thought when Dad got hurt…” he started bawling again.
“Look at me, little man,” I said and cupped his chin.
“As long as I’m alive, I will come for you, okay?
No matter where you’re at, what happened, what you did – none of that matters.
If you need me, I’ll be there one way or another.
I know it’ll take some time to get used to but you have two dads now. ”
He hugged my neck and I held onto him until he finally dozed off.
I was about to test my luck and see if I could fly while he was asleep when the large fucker from the fight landed on the roof.
He was still covered in blood. He was dressed like something out of an old book.
Dude even wore a long green cloak. He wasn’t the dragon I was decently sure was my dad, but the one who had come with him.
“You look so much like Pras and Delin. It’s almost like they had a baby together,” he said, his eyes raking over me.
“No one could find you. I tried to speak with your mate but one of the dragon omegas there, I assume his carrier, nearly flogged me. I don’t fight emotional omegas. Delin was worried.”
I opened my mouth and shut it again.
“Yeah, I know. He hasn’t worried about what you’ve been up to all this time, so why now?” he nodded, sinking down next to me. “Mind if I smoke.”
“Smoke around this baby and I will toss you off the building,” I said.
“Ooh,” he nodded. “Definitely related to Pras. I’m not here to convince you to speak with anyone.
That’s between you, your mom, and Delin.
I merely wanted you accounted for. Pras was a good man.
Better man than most who live on Earthside and he was my friend.
Since I figured you weren’t going to talk to Delin, I thought maybe you’d like to speak with me instead.
I don’t know what Diamond Moonscale has taught you, but I saw you take that bear apart that your mate bit into. She’s trained you well.”
“Mum ensured I knew how to throw my weight around if I needed to,” I nodded.
“I’m impressed,” he nodded. “Most people vomit after such an act.”
“Do you?” I asked him, fighting off the urge to roll my eyes.
“No, but I am not most people. I was born and raised in a different time. I sort of loathe Earthside for what it has become and how it has failed again and again to live up to its potential but I am here because Pras asked me to look in on you. He said you were stubborn and might punch Delin instead of talking to him.”
“This isn’t the time for me to deal with another grown man’s emotions,” I said.
“Pras asked him to come meet you,” Volex said. “He was against it.”
“Because he never wanted me in the first place,” I laughed.
“I do not speak for him but whatever his motives and your mother’s I believe he probably missed out on someone great.
I’ve raised my fair share of kids both here and in other places.
I don’t regret a single one of them. You won’t either.
From what I gathered at Glitter Bomb, your mate and baby will recover.
They’re mostly using laughing gas to manage his pain while he’s healing.
Someone there was able to pop his shoulder back into place and set his wing. ”
“And you’re here to tell me to get moving?” I arched a brow, but Volex shook his head.
“Not at all,” he said a second later. “I’m here because Pras was my friend and no one should be alone after a battle like that one. Your mate was hurt and you had to rip a man apart.”
“Seems like you do it a lot,” I said.
“Only on Earthside usually. Those merc bears have been a thorn in everyone’s side.
They like to start trouble like this. I call it entitlement trouble.
Like that little hate group London fought against. It’s the same thing.
They want what is theirs and what is everyone else’s.
I think we probably persuaded them to stay away.
I delivered what was left of their fighters to their doorstep, guts and all, because I think losing you would be a terrible fate for the Moonscale Flight. ”
“I bet you say that to everyone,” I rolled my eyes because really, what the bloody hell was I supposed to say?
“I do not,” I frowned. “They don’t make alphas like they used to.”
“You’re an alpha,” I pointed out.
“I am and that’s why I have room to speak,” he shrugged.
“They don’t make alphas like they used to.
There is this divide between being a protector and a present parent and I hate it.
You don’t give up one for the other. So, I meant what I said about your mother.
Whatever she did, whatever her reasons, she brought you up alright.
As for the rock,” he smirked. “Well, just be glad it was that and not a knife pulled on you.”
“Did your mate do that to you too?” I asked and winced, hoping I didn’t hurt a sore spot.
“Not so much. We met in the Other World and I was the one to pull a sword,” he smirked.
Did this ancient draconic ancestor of mine really just tell a dick joke?”
“I did,” he nodded and then laughed. “Dick jokes predate Earthside. I need a favor.”
“I’m not talking to Delin.”
“Okay. Well, that’s not the favor. You don’t owe me anything, but I’d like you to convince your mate to hire me. He doesn’t even have to pay me. Just let me work at the playroom.”
“Why?” I asked. “Do you know how sketchy that sounds?”
“Because my being there will keep the scum at bay. Sure, they may run their mouths on their little phones and platforms and whatnot, but they will stay away.”
“I’ll talk to him about it when he feels better,” I nodded.
“Now, I think it’s time for you to go. Get the baby on the ground before he wakes up if he really is afraid of heights. Sometimes panic overrides phobias but panic can’t last forever.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“We’re on a family link,” he laughed. “Thought you’d know that from Clary and Smokey’s little book.”