Chapter 5: Fortune
Landing back at the mansion and locking the front door behind us was one of the saddest feelings. I knew that it was necessary, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. My stomach growled softly and I brought my hand to it, wishing that I could will away hunger like I willed away fear at times. “Are you sure we’re safe now? He looked intent on following us home.”
Garen nodded his head but he stayed leaning his body against the front door in case he needed to fend Sam off. “Ash was on it,” he answered. The guard dragon was still up in the sky above us, keeping the unruly restaurant owner away from our own fortress by the lake. Garen looked over to Brock, who was stationed near the door as well, ready to help ward off any intruders if needed. “Call Winger and order us some hot wings and burgers, please.”
Brock whipped out his cell phone as if this was something he regularly did for his boss. I eyed him a little, surprised to see him using a cell phone when the landline was what Garen always seemed to use. Maybe tracing this order will be less easy…?
Oh god, were people really tracing our food orders now?
Garen looked at me and took me by the hand. “We’re going to eat in the basement tonight, okay? Just to be safe.”
I looked at his quizzically. Did he mean the den or the basement basement? The basement that was filled with gold? I could tell that he took my confusion for surprise because his mouth briefly curved into a small smile. He moved away from the door then, content with the fact that Brock was there and Ash was outside. Those two dragons had been trained for this sort of thing, so there wasn’t any sense in Garen himself trying to defend his castle. How often did princes do that? He turned and walked with me down the deep hallway, still holding onto my hand. He kept a brisk pace as if we were still running from Sam out of that hovel of a restaurant. As I expected—though it was still surprising to me—he brought me to the heavy, black door that I’d tried and failed to open earlier that day.
I did my best to seem surprised that the door existed. “Oh wow,” I said. “Where does this lead?”
Garen raised an eyebrow at me, smirking a little even as he quickly opened the door like it was nothing. “I know that you know where this goes. You’re not as sneaky as you think you are.”
Gasping a little, I followed him down the staircase to the ocean of gold below. “You’re not mad at me?” I asked him as we went. “I’m so sorry that I snooped. I didn’t mention it because I thought you’d be angry.”
He chuckled and shook his head, turning to look at me as he walked down the stairs. He’d gone down there many times, obviously. I would’ve too, if I’d had millions of dollars in gold down there. “I’m not mad at you,” he said. “In fact, I’m sorry for not mentioning it to you before. You deserve to know about my fortune. After all, it’s now your fortune, too.”
My jaw dropped. No. How is that possible? I haven’t done anything to deserve this! “Are you like my sugar daddy or something for real?” I asked, my voice squeaking slightly in my surprise. All I’d done was sleep with him and apparently I was now his MVP. I didn’t buy that I was really that important now, in the grand scheme of things. “I mean, now that we’ve fucked a few times, couldn’t I just go away or die and you’d be fine?”
Garen looked at me sorrowfully, pulling me to him at the bottom of the long, black staircase. I could already smell the gold. He held my tiny face in his hands, looking down at me as I looked at him. “Of course I wouldn’t be fine,” he said to me soothingly. “I thought you understood by now. I love you. I need you in order to live my life as the leader of my faction. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
This was a lot of pressure. I wasn’t sure if a huge amount of gold sweetened the deal, exactly. It certainly couldn’t buy me some freedom from this place. “I don’t even know you,” I said to him honestly, feeling him deflate a little against me. “I-I want to,” I quickly added. “I’m excited to, even. But this is all so much. You have to know that it’s a lot to handle and live with. And now this fortune business… I feel like I can’t breathe anymore.”
Garen led me into the expansive room. The ocean of gold glittered and gleamed before us, but he led me over to a deep red dais and sat me down. He sat beside me, taking my hands into his. “I hope that you’ll someday get used to this,” he said to me gently. “I know it’s a lot. Trust me. Even as someone who was born into it, it’s a lot to take in… but gold is just gold. It’s just money. And we’ve got a lot of it.”
“Where did it all come from?” I asked.
“It’s been in my family for centuries,” he answered. “Passed on from leader to leader. They say it dates back to the middle ages. Back when fighting knights was how we filled our time.”
I smiled a little, incredulous even now after everything else. “Wow. So that’s not just a legend created by Disney.”
Garen laughed. “Not just a legend, no.”
There was a sound of slow steps on the staircase. At first, he was on his guard, but then Brock came into view, carrying a black tray of delicious-smelling spicy wings and burgers. My stomach growled on command and I giggled slightly, embarrassed, even though they both knew I was starving at this point. Brock placed the tray of food onto Garen’s lap and gave a bow. “Can I get you anything else, Master?”
“Yes, two glasses of the red, please,” Garen instructed his servant in a kind and patient voice. It was almost hard to believe that we’d recently been under threat of attack.
Brock bowed again and left. I immediately began eating one of the hot wings, not even caring as the tears ran down my face at the spiciness. I was too hungry to worry about capsaicin.
“I’m so sorry that you didn’t get to enjoy your dinner at The Blue Duck,” Garen said to me once we were alone. “I never anticipated any trouble from Sam.”
“Yeah, you might want to pick better friends,” I said. Then I smiled a little. “It’s okay. It definitely could’ve been worse. You’ve been a good protector, even if I do complain and feel bored. I’d rather feel bored than feel like I’m in danger all the time. I haven’t been attacked in months.”
Like two months, but still. He did better at protecting me than Ash and Brock, though then again, they’d done fine. I hadn’t listened to them and taken things seriously before. That had been my main mistake. I’d been a danger to myself.
Garen smiled at me and took a wing for himself, tearing into it with those big fangs that I knew were powerful, even in his human form. He was not someone that I’d ever want to mess with. “I’m glad to hear that. I don’t mean to make you feel bored and restless. I promise that we’ll go somewhere soon. I’ve been doing research and thinking about it almost as nonstop as you have, trust me.”
“Is that what you do when you’re at work?” I joked.
He laughed softly. “Sometimes. Most of my work involves fighting off enemy factions and keeping Chicago as my territory. Which is no easy task, especially not now that you’re with us.”
I pouted a little. “I’m sorry… You know I don’t feel great about that.”
“I know,” he replied. “It just is what it is. But I intend to make it better for you.”
Brock came downstairs and carefully handed each of us a generous glass of red wine. Garen held his up for me and I clinked my glass against his. As soon as the servant was gone again, I set my glass safely down on the floor by my feet and picked up my burger. It had spicy chipotle sauce on it, and melted cheese. It was delicious even as it burned my mouth even more than the wings did.
“You like things spicy, don’t you?” I asked him, laughing a little. “It’s so good, but it’s making me cry so much.”
He laughed along with me, giving me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry! Yes, we dragons prefer hot things. Makes sense, wouldn’t you say?”
I nodded as I ate the Hell burger. “I might be a big weenie about this, too. You’d think, given my Latin heritage, that this would be no problem for me.”
Garen seemed to
get an extra kick out of that. He laughed harder and then took another sip of his wine, licking his lips happily. “I’ll remember not to get you spicy stuff anymore.”
“It’s okay,” I said with a sort of embarrassed laugh. “I can work on it. Maybe I just need the practice. This burger really is good.”
“I’m sorry that we have to eat dinner down here,” he added, digging into his burger as well. “It’s just best to be on the safe side until we get the all-clear from Ash.”
I imagined the big silvery blue dragon up above us, encircling the mansion and keeping the unfriendly purple dragon away. I still couldn’t entirely believe that this was my life. “Now I really do see why you were so cautious about me going out. Did he not realize who you’d be bringing with you?”
“That’s the part that confuses me,” Garen said. “I did tell him and he was totally casual about it. It wasn’t until he saw the birthmark on you that he… changed. I guess he was corrupted by greed.” He sighed a little, clearly sad to have lost a good friend and ally. I gently put my hand on his shoulder.
“Greedy bastards don’t deserve your friendship,” I said.
He chuckled a little and nodded his head. “You’re right. They don’t. I’m mostly disappointed in myself for thinking that it could be that easy.”
We ate our burgers together in silence for a while. Occasionally, I’d stop munching and gaze around at the gold piles that surrounded us. It was quite cold down there, which made me think about gold mines in the olden days. A cave like this was likely where the gold originated. A mountain cave, where an old, ornery dragon lived. I marveled at Garen. He wasn’t a relic himself, but he had a long and storied history that made him seem far more important than I could ever hope to be. What had I done with my life so far? I’d gotten into Columbia’s journalism program. But so what? I couldn’t even attend class in person. There was no way that I’d ever become a real journalist. And it didn’t even matter, now that I was forever tied to Mr. Moneybags.
I need to stop getting down, I reminded myself. The alternative is not better necessarily. You could’ve died before Brock and Ash successfully brought you to Garen. You could’ve failed to get into college at all.
“Everything okay?” Garen asked me, giving me a comforting smile even though he didn’t know what he was comforting me from. It turned out that I had a lot of inner demons and hang-ups on my own without all of this new drama.
I slowly turned my head from a tall stack of coins to his face and nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I think I’m just tired.”
“Of course you are,” he said sympathetically. “Let me go upstairs and see if the coast is clear now. We can go up and get you in bed, if so. You’ve had a long and frustrating day.”
“So have you,” I said to him with a smile. “Thanks.”
He set the almost empty tray of food onto the dais, next to me, and went to the stairs, ascending as if he was concerned about what he might find at the top. We hadn’t heard anything, but that didn’t mean much. Sam could’ve fought swiftly and silently. I had a feeling that Peoria dragons weren’t exactly the same species.
I sat there in nervous anticipation, hoping that there would be no trouble from Sam Fields up there. After about five minutes, I heard steps on the stairs again and Garen came back to me. He had a serious expression, but he offered me his hand. “Come on, it’s safe,” he said. “Are you finished with dinner? Brock can take care of that.” He gestured to the tray.
“Don’t be silly,” I said, getting up from the couch and picking up the tray with one hand, taking his hand with the other. “There are leftovers on here that I can put in the fridge and I told you already—I’m handling dish duty. At least sometimes.”
Garen smirked a little but he didn’t argue with me. “You’re going to confuse my servants.”
“Well, let them be confused,” I replied. “They deserve a reprieve from some of the work they do. I can’t fight off enemies, but I can at least put some dishes in the dishwasher.”
We walked up the stairs together and then I did just that. Brock was in the kitchen and he watched me, smiling slightly. He wasn’t surprised by this gesture anymore. I thought that he might even get used to it soon. He seemed much more appreciative than he ever was confused. I wasn’t some dainty flower who couldn’t stand to get her hands dirty occasionally.
After I placed the dishes into the washer or fridge accordingly, I went upstairs to the bedroom with Garen. He was smiling and shaking his head at me in amused amazement. “I must say that you’re not like I expected,” he said as we went. “I offer to let you live like a princess and you choose to do the servants’ work.”
I shrugged. “It’s really not a big deal. If I wasn’t living with you right now, I’d probably be cleaning dishes at a restaurant downtown in order to pay for college.” My parents didn’t have mountains of money like he did. They barely had plateaus of money sometimes.
“That’s just crazy to me,” he replied, but he was giving me such a look of respect that I decided not to be offended. He likely couldn’t imagine any kind of ‘chosen one’ living a life of servitude. Talk about having a silver spoon in his mouth. He had a gold spoon for his entire life. And I didn’t resent him for it. Not really.
Instead of removing my clothes and getting into jammies, I laid on the bed fully clothed and just watched as Garen paced around in thought. I’d never seen him so worked up like this. We were safe from Sam for now. But I had a feeling that wasn’t the only thing that weighed on his mind at the moment.
“What’s up?” I asked him, trying to remain calm and upbeat for his sake. If we were both worrying, it wouldn’t be a very pleasant night. “Are you still upset about not getting to enjoy that fancy, probably expensive wine? At least you didn’t end up paying for it.”
Garen gave a short laugh that betrayed that he was more amused than he wanted to be but, goddammit, he wanted to laugh. “No, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do with you. I mean what I told you. I want to give you a real vacation.”
I sat up a little, leaning against my arms, so I could see him better. I blushed as I smiled at him. It was touching to know that he really meant to take me somewhere. It meant a lot to know that he cared about not only my safety but also my happiness. I’d worried a lot about being a prisoner in this palace, but I’d never really thought that he was the reason.
“What sort of place did you have in mind?” I asked him. “It can be completely noncommittal if it doesn’t work out.”
He looked at me thoughtfully. “What do you think about Montana? Wide-open fields, plenty of places to hide.”
“Wildlife,” I replied with a grin. “Fresh air.”
“Does that sound like the sort of place you’d like to go and be free for a bit?” he asked, grinning. He already knew the answer to that question.
I grinned back at him. “I mean, it wasn’t on my list, but beggers can’t be choosers, you know.”
Relaxing now, pleased that he’d thought of a worthy place for our next adventure, he came to bed and lay down next to me, also fully clothed. I wrapped my arms around him and curled up against him, closing my eyes and letting the smell of him consume my senses. This was one of the things I loved the most about being with Garen. At the end of the day, he really was like a normal human being. It was easy to forget that he could transform into a giant monster when he was lying in bed with me. After all of the scary, stressful bullshit was over, we could always find sanctuary in each other’s arms.
Chapter 6: A Real Vacation
The plans were soon underway for us to go off on a little trip to Montana. I had no idea which place, and of course no one would tell me because it was ‘too risky.’ I don’t know who they thought I was going to share this news with. My classmates? I couldn’t even remember if I’d told them my name. We only ever talked in the lecture classrooms. “I think I can only name, like, two cities in Montana anyway,” I said to Garen, as if this would make him change his mind about t
elling me.
“Hmm,” he said. “Well, this probably isn’t one of them.” That was all he would say about it.
Finally, one day he returned home from work with a grin on his face as he set his briefcase down next to the coffee table in the living room. I looked up from my textbook. I’d curled up with it on the couch in that room, thinking that a slight change of scenery might save me from feeling like I was hitting the seasonal slumps. I was weary from my studies and I wasn’t even halfway through the semester yet.
“What’re you grinning about?” I asked him playfully, closing my book so I would be able to give him my full attention. I’d been zoning out while I read for the past hour anyway.
“I’ve booked us a cabin,” he said to me delightedly. “We leave tomorrow at first light. You might want to pack a suitcase. We’re staying a week.”
I beamed at him, letting the textbook slight off of my lap. I rose up from the couch and hugged Garen. “Thank you!!” I shouted excitedly. “How will we get there? Where are we staying?”
He laughed and placed a finger in front of his mouth. “I can’t tell you. You’ll see when we get there. I can’t chance anyone finding out where we’re going. Only Brock and I know.”
“Brock and not Ash?” I asked him, raising my eyebrows. It wasn’t normal to have one of the servants be uninformed, especially the one who stood watch over us most of the time.
“Ash will stay here and see that the house and money are well protected,” Garen said. “It’s important to not leave everything unattended for so long. You know that us dragons can get awfully greedy.”
He didn’t usually insult his own kind, so I knew that he meant it. The incident with Sam was likely not the only time such a thing had happened to him. I knew that it must’ve been difficult to find people that he trusted. It was a good thing that he had Brock and Ash to help him. I wondered what the other people that worked with him were like. Hopefully there weren’t other snakes that were hiding out in his company. “Do you really think someone would try to break in and steal your gold?”
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