Cole: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Have you met the new king?” She tilted her head and looked at him. “You are aware that there is a new king of dragons, aren’t you? Not only is there Devon and his queen Kelly, but he also has a mated couple that have been proclaimed as the protector of all dragons. That would include any that served with them in life or death.”

  “I have been in hiding.” He told her he was sorry. “You say this is a new king. How do you know he is as kind as you say? For all you know, he could be just as much a monster as the one before him.”

  “Would you like to meet him?” She said yes. He could tell she really did want to believe him as well. Reaching out to Devon, he told him what was going on and where he was. Devon said he was out and about and would come there first thing. “He’s on his way here, Rankheart. Once he gets here, I assure you that you’re going to see a man who is not just truthful in his word and bond, but a man that will go out of his way in order to make life much easier for those like you. I’m terribly sorry you didn’t know he was around.”

  He had Bertha bring him some scones and flowers for their guest. When Ryan showed up a few minutes later, she introduced herself to the pixie and told her what she’d been doing. The pool was a big hit with Rankheart in that the faeries could use some of the water for their own if need be.

  “It will have chemicals in it. But you just gave me a good idea. How would you like it if I were to make it so that you and the others had an endless supply of water that was clean and pure?” Rankheart asked Ryan if she was real. “Real? I suppose I am. But other than that, I don’t know what you mean.”

  “No one just makes things for faeries. Not that many people believe in us anymore.” Ryan told her that she did, and she would do just what she told her she would. “Well, I guess we’ll see. As I said, no one does things they say they will for us little creatures.”

  Cole wanted to warn the little woman but thought she might learn that being a flippant ass when someone was trying to help you was in bad form. He sat back in his chair as Ryan geared up her loins and let her temper fly on the little woman.

  “You little piece of shit. Who shit in your fucking oats today? And where do you get off judging me when we’ve only just met? I’m not used to people calling me a liar, but to do so to my face is just beyond rude. Christ. You need to get that stick out of your ass and start bending a little until you see the lay of the ground.” Ryan stood up then and looked down on Rankheart. “Watch your words wisely, little one. I’m much more powerful than you’ll ever be on your good days. Should you have any.”

  Devon walked in as Rankheart was being dressed down. He had his daughter with him, which he supposed was to make him less intimidating. It would have worked except for the look on his face. Not only was he as angry as Cole had ever seen him, but he was also letting enough of his dragon go that there was no mistaking his wrath.

  “You will cease this immediately.” Cole stood up. He wouldn’t allow him to speak to his mate that way. But before he could defend her, Devon handed him the baby and stood near Ryan and looked at Rankheart. “You will not talk to my family like this. I know your family, Rankheart the Red. I know they have colored your outlook on life in general. But this isn’t your family, they’re mine, and you will not treat them like they have done nothing but lie and cheat you their entire life.”

  Rankheart laid down on the desk where she’d been standing up to Ryan. As soon as she did that, he could see the anger wash off Devon like he’d been standing in a storm, and it cleansed him. Rankheart the Red was giving her life over to Devon for what she’d done.

  ~*~

  Noah listened to the information being told to him. It was a great deal too. When Rankheart was finished, he looked down at his notes. Thankfully, he’d had a pen in his hand when she started, or he might well have missed a lot of it. He had also been able to star the things she told him so that he could get more information on it.

  “First of all, this is awesome. I don’t think we would have known all this without your help.” Devon had told him that Rankheart didn’t get much in the way of positive feedback. So if she deserved it, he said to tell her. “There are a couple of points I’d like to clear up with you. I don’t understand some of the language you’re using.”

  “It’s pixie.” He told her he thought that faeries were all pixies. “No. We’re a different kind altogether. Not in great numbers like the faeries are, but we are around to work with the others. One of the big differences is that we can be bigger should we want to and not have to stay that way. Bertha is one of us. She’s been around for a long time too. Though I think she says she’s faerie so as not to confuse people. What is it you don’t understand?”

  He showed her on his notes the part where she said that they were gully gipped. Not only did she explain that it meant the pixies in question were overweight from a lack of jobs, but she was able to change herself into one, so he’d understand it better.

  “I’m assuming this is a bad thing.” Rankheart told him that those types of pixies were too fat to even get up to toddle off to their bed when ‘twas time. “Lazy then. That’s what we call lazy humans. Okay. One more here that I have is wanker doodle. I have an idea what wanker means in human language, but not with you.”

  “I’m sure it’s the same. It’s a male pixie that thinks his wanker, his manly parts, should be used on every female that will allow him to. My brother, he was one such as that. He’s no longer with us, as he tried to wanker his way into the bed of another pixie. She’d been willing, but her mate, he wasn’t so keen on the idea.” Noah covered his laughter with a short cough. “Also, I didn’t mention it to you, but when you hear that someone is being called a bug dweller, it is a dead pixie.”

  “Yes, well, that one is very clear, isn’t it?” He was having such a wonderful time with the little pixie that he forgot they were working. “Is there anything else I should know before we have Devon start calling in his pixies?”

  “Why does he want to do this?” Noah asked her what she meant. “Bring them in. Have them put their information in the big book. There is no reason for it. I mean, they’re dead, aren’t they? They did a great service for sure. No one else cared enough to make sure they knew where they were.”

  “But we do now.” She just shook her head. “Okay, maybe you need to know a little bit about us, the dragons that are here working every day in not only making it easier for pixies but all living creatures. That would include humans too. When I first met Devon and the others, I was nothing more than a man trying my best to make it in the world. I was a human that happened to be friends with the strongest dragon there was. He called me one day, even going to far as to sending his wife out to get me just so I could help with the things he had going.”

  “You’re not human.” He told her he wasn’t anymore. He was a dragon. “I don’t understand. They cannot do that. Change someone into what they aren’t.”

  “Yes, you’re absolutely right on that. But I wasn’t changed, Rankheart. I was given a great gift. A gift of a dragon that put itself inside of me to have me be just like the others. A magic so strong it even surprised those that were here when it happened. Kelly, the mate to Devon, she too was given the gift of being a dragon. Her dragon was at one time the dragon for Devon’s mother.” She asked him if he was sure that was how it had happened. “Absolutely sure.”

  She started pacing back and forth before she spoke again. When he asked her if she needed him to answer any more questions, she asked him if she could be bigger. Not exactly sure what that might mean to her, he nodded before he could think how big she was going to be.

  However, she turned into a lovely female. The glitter was still there, her wings too. It was harder to figure out the finer details on her when she’d been small, but he could see now that she was something of an oddity to the other pixies that had been coming around. She was wearing a crown, and she had a long blade at her back. Even it
was encrusted with gems and the like that sparkled around the room like a disco ball might have.

  When she paced, this time on the floor, he could see little parts of her sparkle fall upon the floor. It made him smile when he thought about how much she was like her king. A pacer, as well as one that thought hard before saying anything that might well come back and bite him in the ass. It was why people and creatures alike underestimated Devon. He wasn’t being laid back when he spoke to you but looking for the place to stick the knife if he had to murder you.

  “There are more.” Noah had a feeling that while he was musing, he might well have missed something she’d told him. “Other wisps. Other, like you said you got, other dragons’ spirits that were released when their holder was killed.”

  “Do you mean it’s common to have a dragon release his other self in order to save the wisps for other dragons to be made?” Rankheart nodded. “Are there a great many of them? I mean, they’re very small, as you are most of the time. They’re just the spirits of the dragons that become one when they find hosts, correct? How many do you—?” He let out a breath. “I’m calmer now. How many other wisps, like you called them, are out there?”

  “Hundreds.” He asked her to repeat what she’d said. “It’s going to take us a long day and more if I have to keep repeating things you don’t believe. I was gonna say thousands, but you tend to get all wonky eyed when I say stuff like that. But there are thousands of them, just waiting for someone to come along and meet them. If they like the person within, the wisps can enter their body, much like they did with Lady Kelly, and make them a dragon too. They’ve been with me. I’ve been keeping them safe.”

  With trembling hands, Noah picked up his phone. Setting it back down on its cradle, he had to count to ten three times before he thought he could speak like a man and not squeak like a little mouse. When he thought he could call Devon, he picked up the phone and completely forgot how to use the number pad. He looked at Dillon when he entered the room with them.

  “I need help.” Dillon told him he looked as if he did. “Would you mind calling Noah— No, that’s me. Don’t call me. Call Devon for me. Yes, that’s him.” Noah knocked over his pencil container and began gathering them up. “I don’t even know why I got these things. They’re very un-useful if you ask me. Why, just the other day, I picked one of them up to use, and the point broke off. There are thousands of them, you know.” Dillon told him he’d buy him more. “No. Not pencils, but wisps.”

  Devon must have answered. “Can you come over here, please? I think Noah has lost his mind.” The pause had Noah thinking he should be offended at Dillon’s words, but he was still working out the thousands of wisps. “You might want to bring over some pencils if you have them. For some reason, he’s obsessed with wanting a lot of those.”

  “It’s not...never mind. Dillon, this is Rankheart. Rankheart, this is Dillon. Another family member.” They stared at each other. That was when he noticed there was a glow around Rankheart that he’d not noticed before. “Is that why they call you the Red? That you glow red all the time?”

  “Nay, ‘tis not. The red is for blood. I was—I am a warrior that strikes fear into the hearts of those I come up against.” She looked around the room, then back at Dillon. “You’re not what I thought you’d be. You’re not human either. What are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “No. Christ, you’re beautiful. I guess you’d know that.” She didn’t nod, nor did she disagree with Dillon. “Does this mean what I think it does? I mean, my sisters, they both told me that it hit you right in the heart and in the head.”

  “What hit you?” Noah did get offended when they both told him to shut up at the same time. “I’m only trying to ascertain what you’re talking about. I might well have something to add to the conversation. Why is everyone so blasted mean today?”

  “He’s my mate.” Noah said that couldn’t be it. That he had a mate. “Not you, you dunderhead. The man here. Mr. Dillon. Him being my mate changes things now. Don’t you see that?”

  Noah was still working around the thousand when he realized he was alone in the room except for Devon. And he’d been there for some time if the lack of scones on the little plate was any indication, as well as the half empty glass of tea. Even the sweat around the outside of the glass seemed to be mocking him for his lack of paying attention. Noah looked at his friend when he laughed.

  “You’ve been mumbling to yourself for some time now, my friend.” He told him what he’d been working out. “Yes, I’ve been made aware of that too, while you were fussing with your desk toys. Why do you even have those bouncing balls on your desk? They’re too small to throw at anyone with any kind of accuracy.” He showed him how they worked. “Oh well, that’s not any clearer.”

  Noah decided right then and there that he’d had enough of people taking potshots at him today. Standing up, he went to find his lovely mate. Surely Bryce would have something nice to say to him. But as soon as he walked into the kitchen where she was, he turned and left. He was not going to get in on a conversation about Christmas when it was barely past the Fourth of July. He was going to go and watch some television for a while.

  As soon as he turned it on, he saw that on the list of things to watch were more Christmas shows. Specials and cartoons were playing so that if you wanted to be in the mood for the holidays early, they had just the ticket. Turning it off, he went to the yard. There he shifted into his dragon and took to the skies.

  He didn’t even care that he’d left his good friend in his office without telling him where he was going. Serves him right, Noah thought. For making fun of him the way that he had. However, he knew he’d be back in his office in short order. Noah couldn’t be rude to the man that had saved his life.

  As he was landing in the yard, he stumbled and fell. “Did Dillon find himself a mate in Rankheart?” He was still thinking about that when he heard Devon’s burst of laughter coming from the kitchen. “Bastard.” But he loved him and could forgive his good friend of anything. Going into the kitchen, he was happy to see that more scones were being baked, and they were berries—his favorite.

  Actually, any kind was his favorite, hot out of the oven. But he knew Bryce wouldn’t allow someone to take the ones he loved the most. So while he munched on his warm buttered scone with his cup of hot tea, he told Devon what he’d been able to find out. Which, now that he thought on it, was a lot more than he’d first thought.

  Chapter 8

  Connor had plenty to work on, but he just couldn’t stop thinking of the things he’d been able to find out from some of the ghosts that had checked in today. Dragons. They’d found a great many dragons, as well as a lot of dragon slayers. Even in death, they were a group that needed to be taken care of. He looked over at Roxanna when she cleared her throat. She’d been keeping him on track for the last hour or so.

  “Right. Now, you said you needed to speak to your family regarding the box you planted in your yard.” Roxanna told him that was the last case. “Yes, I remember now. You’re here because....” Trailing off, he had hoped that someone would help him out. There was just too much on his mind today to be able to sit here and take care of business.

  “I’m here on account’a I’ve been wanting to bag me a dragon since I was a wee tot. Now that you’ve found them all and they be running around like there ain’t nothing wrong with it, I think we should be able to have us some fun.” Connor told him that he and the dragon were both dead; how much fun could it be. “It’s a damn sight better than just leaning against the post hereabouts waiting for someone to come along that you might know to talk to. Don’t you think?”

  The dragons, ones that could fit into the shelter where they were, nodded as well. Connor asked Roxanna what he’d missed. There had to be something because the dragons would not have just agreed to let the hunters hunt them down in death as well.

  “They can’t die. I mean,
it’s a given fact that someone or something can’t die twice. And the men and women here were warriors at one time. I think it would be fun to have them let off a bit of steam while they await their turn in line. You have to admit, there isn’t any reason at all that we shouldn’t allow them to have some fun.” He laughed when she smiled at him. “Who knows. We might well have some fun watching them ourselves.”

  It was decided. The dragons that had come to put information in the book and the warriors that fought them were given permission to play in the skies. The best part was, no human could see them fighting, so there wouldn’t be panic. And even the other family members came out to enjoy the show. Connor would never understand the dead. But then, he’d been having to deal with them for a very long time to make sure that things were right in their world.

  After they were finished up for the day, he and Roxanna sat in the yard and watched the swordplay. It was exciting to see that they didn’t just pretend their wounds when either side died. Dragons would fall to the ground, even falling over homes and businesses that were there. Also, they’d make noises he’d not ever heard, screams of pain, and then the loud laughter when one of them scored a hit on the warriors trying to fell them. After a while, the rest of them joined them on the lawn.

  “Was it like this all those years ago?” It was Susanna that answered Ryan. She said it had been much worse. “I would imagine that when one of them fell from the sky like this, there were a great deal of deaths from that as well.”

  “It wasn’t so much the deaths, but the aftermath of one falling from the sky. You have to remember that we’re talking tonnage of weight just dropping and hitting the solid ground. There were others, wives and children, waiting there for one of us to fall so they could be the first to take what they could from the bodies.” Susanna smiled sadly. “The stench was the worst. Decaying bodies of not just the dragons, but the people that would be killed. There was no end to the way they tried to hunt out our breeding places and destroy our children’s eggs. It amazes me all the time that humans could go from trusting us to be there for them to killing so many of us that there are a scant few of us left. I know it seems like we have a lot of dragons now, but when people say the sky was darkened by them flying overhead, they aren’t kidding.”