I shook hands and sniffed out other dragons. At mixed events like this there was a weird unspoken kind of introduction that happened between shifters. There were a couple of people I didn’t know, new entries in the upper echelon of dragon shifters in New York. But my ears perked up when I heard my father say a certain name.
“Jude, this is Eddie Didion,” my father said as a guy around my age who looked very slick and picture perfect for this crowd stuck out his hand. “The Didions? You might have come across each other in school. They’re out of Connecticut…”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Eddie said. Eddie Didion. Edward Didion.
This was the guy.
He was very handsome, and he was smiling at me like we were already old pals.
I hated his guts on sight.
“Good to meet you,” I said. “I think we have a friend in common. Sierra Lowell?”
I saw Eddie’s eyes flash and his expression faltered the slight bit. That was odd really because I hadn’t put any tone into it. I only wanted him to know that I knew Sierra. But I read his reaction quickly. I blinked, and it was gone. But it put me just a little bit on edge, considering he was already a rival even if he didn’t know it.
“Oh yes, Sierra,” Eddie said. “Our parents go way back. We corresponded while she was in London.”
“You corresponded,” I said, almost laughing at his formality. The guy was wearing a very nice tuxedo, and he was drinking wine.
“She’s a very talented writer,” Eddie said.
My father had mercifully disappeared into another cluster of rich dragon types and I was left on my own. My job would be to remain charming and talk to a variety of people. For all that my father was disappointed in me, I was just known and well liked enough to be an asset. He couldn’t deny that.
“Have you seen her around here tonight?” I said, looking out among the crowd.
I was trying my damndest to be civil, but I already wanted to punch the guy and he hadn’t even done anything yet. There was just something about his stupid blonde hair and the stupid cleft in his chin and the fact that they’d “corresponded.”
Well, I’m probably getting married, Sierra had said.
I hadn’t forgotten about that either.
“Jude!” The voice of Justin rang out from the crowd. He was one of my friends from a little group of very wealthy youngish dragon shifters who were, well, mostly single at this point. A couple of them had just recently found their destined mates, it seemed. Justin was one of them. He’d ended up with a coder who had worked for him at his company and become a father twice over in one blow. It was the kind of scenario that gave me a bit of anxiety but seeing how happy he was, sometimes I wondered if I didn’t want that too. Now he came popping out of the crowd, his hair freshly cut in a dashing do. “Jude, hey! I didn’t think you’d be at this thing.”
Justin clapped me on the back and I smiled, genuinely relieved to see a friendly face. “Yeah, I usually get out of it, but uh… Had incentive.”
“Yeah?” Justin’s eyebrows rose. He was just a little bit rounder than he’d used to be. But he also looked so happy. Fatherhood agreed with him. “Female incentive?”
“Sort of,” I murmured. “Shit, I need a drink.”
“Come on,” Justin said, nodding to the bar. “Let’s get you set up.”
I went with a vodka tonic, feeling something refreshing that might perk me up a little and I allowed myself some time to chill out with Justin on the side of things for a bit. There was still the dinner and awards ceremony to contend with and I’d have to sit with my father and his girlfriend for that unless award. I’d find Sierra and finagle a seat with her. Screw my father. I wondered if Justin might have a seat at his table…
“So who’s the girl?” Justin said, as we stood around sipping our booze. “Must be an important one. You’ve been searching the crowd for her this whole time.”
“She is important,” I muttered, and forced myself to give Justin my full attention. “Sierra?”
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever mentioned Sierra before. My friends in the little club of wealthy dragons that we had together were pretty close and by virtue of us being dragons, we sometimes tend to close ourselves off. Dragons could be like that sometimes; emotional, fiery, but unwilling to explain themselves and open up to people. My friend, David, had been a lot like that until he’d found the right girl to break into his shattered heart. It was considered a minor miracle among the rest of us.
“Oh, Sierra!” Justin said, his eyes lighting up. “I had no idea.”
“I’ve mentioned her?” I said. I genuinely could not remember. I could see her coming up now and then in conversation, she had been such an integral part of my life for so long but Justin was looking at me like this was a huge deal I was not even aware of.
“Have you mentioned her?” Just said, clapping me on the back again. “You talk about her constantly. Are you really not aware of this?”
“Not, well…” I frowned, licking my lips. I was not always the most self-aware person in the world but I liked to think I was little more alert to my own fixations than this. “Yeah, I don’t know. I mean she’s been gone for two years, so maybe that’s why…”
“Yes.” Justin knocked back the rest of his drink. “Buddy, we know. You’ve been mooning over Sierra every time you hang out with us. She was in London and you missed her. Well, I’m glad she’s back anyway. I hope it works out between you two.” He seemed to see something over my head and winced. “Shit, sorry. Nicole is giving me the come help me signal. Gotta go rescue my girl. Best of luck, man. And also don’t get too drunk. You always want to shift and things get crazy.” He winked at me and smiled and I would’ve been annoyed at the advice except that I knew Justin too well and also, he was probably right.
“Hey, stranger.” Sierra voice sent tingles up my spine and I spun around, sighing in relief.
“Thank God, you’re here,” I said. “I’m about to gouge my own eyes out.” I looked her up and down furtively. Sierra looked gorgeous as usual in a dark blue sheath that hugged her curves. I tried not to stare, but it was hard when she wore that purplish lipstick she liked to wear at night. I’d always liked to imagine what that color would look like in kiss-shaped marks all up and down my neck.
“It’s not that bad,” Sierra said, in her scolding voice. She grabbed two glasses of champagne off a tray and handed me on. “This kinda shit might be annoying but it’s useful. I’ve made some good connections for my writing.”
Somehow it really annoyed me that Sierra wasn’t as miserable at this thing as I was. It made me miss the old days when we’d been dragged to events like this as teenagers. Back then, we’d always had each other’s backs. It felt like some tiny betrayal that she wasn’t on my side. The more reasonable part of me thought that was ridiculous, of course. But I had a little booze already, and I wasn’t inclined to be gracious when I was roped into talking up my dad, who hated me, and playing the good son.
“What about Eddie?” I said, biting down on the name. I was poking at something I shouldn’t be poking at. I knew that. “Good ole Eddie Didion? I met him. He’s very...slick.” I scoffed and shook my head.
“Wow. Someone’s already formed an opinion.” Sierra was still smiling even as she shook her head. “You don’t even know him.”
“No, we didn’t correspond,” I said. I’d already had one drink and now the champagne bubbles were hitting me on top of it. I wasn’t feeling like being charitable. “Correspond, he said. That’s the word he uses. How pretentious.”
“Are you just going to talk bullshit all night?” Sierra said, eyeing me warily. “I haven’t seen you in forever and now you’re being a dick.”
“I might!” I said loftily. “But for sure I’m going to get drunk so are you going to join me or what?”
“Jude…” Sierra shook her head and her mouth turned down like she was so disappointed in me, just like my father. “I’m not a kid anymore. I’m an adult, Jude. I actually ha
ve a job-”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Right. Nice.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Sierra said.
“No, you’re right.” I waved my glass of champagne around. I only partly meant it but I also entirely didn’t want to be in a fight with Sierra, not when she’d just come home. “Go be an adult. Really. I get it.”
“We’ll fly together soon,” she said, resting a hand on my arm for a moment. “Like the old days. Okay?”
I nodded. She had no idea how much I missed that. We used to fly together all the time; the two of us soaring in and out of the clouds, blowing little bits of flame at each other. I’d missed that so much since she had gone to London, it was an ache in my heart.
“Good.” I smiled, and I tried to make it seem as genuine as possible. “Good okay.”
“Okay.” A little ringlet of her long strawberry blonde hair fell over her eye and I wanted to curl it around my finger. She smelled good too. It was her familiar dragon scent that was as much home to me as my own, but it was also some perfume she hadn’t worn before. I wondered if she’d picked it up in London. “Okay, good.”
Sierra walked away, and I watched her go. She was good with people. I observed her networking and schmoozing with shifters and humans alike and she had somehow become a natural at it in the last two years. The Sierra I remembered was timid at events like these. We’d drink and wander off to make trouble if only because she was so timid she didn’t want to speak to anyone. But now she’d bloomed. Despite myself, I smiled as I watched her move in the crowd. I was being a snarky asshole, sure. But I wanted Sierra to bloom. I wanted her to be the best version of herself even if it meant I might lose something.
Out of some begrudging duty, I made some more rounds on behalf of dear old dad. I spoke to all the people I knew I was supposed to speak to, and I said the things I knew I was supposed to say. I played good son all the way up the beginning of the dinner because that would only involve me sitting and looking pretty anyway.
“I’ll give you three hundred bucks for that bottle,” I said to the bartender, nodding at a bottle of champagne behind his bar. The bartender shrugged, and we made the trade. Everyone else was taking their seats for the dinner now and the lights had come up on the stage for the presentation. My dad was winning some small thing for throwing a lot of money at a few hospitals. Whatever. It was all just show so everyone could feel really good about themselves.
I took my bottle of champagne and wandered off to sulk. There was a nice big pool out on the patio beyond the ballroom and I thought it might be nice to dip my feet.
“Hey, New York!” I shouted as I stumbled out onto the roof one empty bottle of champagne later. I could see the whole city from the top of the hotel. “It’s your most eligible bachelor! Woo!”
I was maybe pretty drunk.
Luckily, flying drunk as a dragon you can’t hurt yourself too badly as long as you can land, preferably in the park. The magical wards over Manhattan protected you very well from being seen by humans. I only knew this because I’d tested them multiple times. Only magic could possibly explain why humans had never seen me pulling the kinds of stunts I’d pulled as a young dragon.
I shifted and took off, feeling the pleasant burn in my hind-legs as I pushed off from the ground. My head buzzed pleasantly as I soared up into the sky and flew above the clouds only to turn sharply down and faint towards the ground and then back up again.
I flew pretty often. It gave me that feeling like racing cars.
At some point now as I flew around, a bit more inebriated than I should have been, I decided it would be a good idea to get back to the patio with that nice pool and dip my feet or, why not, my whole body. It being so warm this summer in New York.
The only thing about flying around as a drunk dragon is that inhibition thing. It was a little too easy to forget that wards or no, you should not be flying right into a human and shifter mixed even while shifted. But I wasn’t thinking about that now as I feinted now, aiming for the swimming pool. It was only as the cool water hit my giant dragon head that I thought better of my actions as a massive splash sent pool water splattering against the glass doors of the hotel.
Mercifully there was nobody on the patio and I managed to shift back so quickly that it only appeared to the humans as if a person had perhaps cannon balled into the pool. That was a kind of saving grace but not really as the dinner was over by now and everyone was milling around, socializing and having drinks and now turning to stare at Jude Fairchild who was climbing out of the pool still in his designer suit.
I threw open one of the doors and laughed as I walked in, seeing mouths drop everywhere and the rage-filled face of my father in the crowd. “It’s alright, everybody!” I said, throwing my hands up and dripping all over the floor. “I’m good! No dragons here!”
“Oh my God, Jude!” Sierra said, suddenly appearing as if by magic to rescue me. She took my arm, looking annoyed as she hustled me towards the exit.
My father was striding after us and now he turned to block my path as people turned back to the conversations, although some of them were no doubt too excited by the hubbub of somebody’s drunk and troublemaking son. “We’ll talk about this later,” he snarled at me as Sierra smiled tightly and led me away. “Don’t you worry about that.”
“Looking forward to it, pops!” I said, laughing a little.
“Jude,” Sierra said. “For the love of God, shut up.”
Chapter Four: Sierra
Jude was being ridiculous, and I was used to that, even if I hadn’t taken care of a drunk Jude in a long, long time. In fact, it was strange now to be taking care of a drunk Jude when I wasn’t drunk myself. But I’d been determined to use the opportunity of the stupid awards banquet to make some good writing connections and I had. Or at least, I’d made a couple and tried to network a bit more but my parents kept pulling me over to talk to Eddie as if I wasn’t spurning my duties by not entertaining him all night.
It was the worst.
In fact, a few times I’d looked around for Jude to save me from my parents but he had already wandered. Then he had crashed into the pool. Lucky for him, nobody knew a dragon had crashed into the pool. They’d seen a big dark blur out of the corner of their eyes for the most part, and then a hot young dude, wasted and soaking wet, had climbed out.
Now he was in my car. Or rather, he was back in his car with me as his chauffeur drove us back to his place. There was a chilled bottle of water in the car and I handed it to him, sighing as he dripped all over his own upholstery. He was still soaking wet.
Jude obeyed and gave me the puppy dog eyes I had never been able to resist since the sixth grade. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t think you have to apologize to me,” I said with a snort. “Your dad on the other hand…”
“I don’t give a fuck about him,” Jude murmured.
He did, of course. That was the problem. He gave a huge fuck about what his dad thought of him. I wasn’t even sure if he knew that though. Probably not.
“You didn’t have to take me home,” Jude muttered. “You were doing your whole networking thing.”
I smiled and pushed back a lock of his soaking wet hair. His dad would be telling him to get a haircut soon but I’d always liked his hair long. “Well, it’s not really a party unless Jude Fairchild gets wasted and makes a scene, now is it?”
That was an exaggeration. It didn’t always happen, even when we were younger. Just if he was in the right mood...or the wrong one.
At Jude’s place, I took his arm even though he was all wet, and escorted him to his place which I knew wasn’t necessary. He had a sad air about him. He wasn’t just being drunk Jude. But I couldn’t imagine what his problem was. I thought he’d be happy I was back now. I knew things had changed a little, but we were still best friends. I couldn’t let anything get in the way of that.
“Gatorade,” I said, when we’d staggered into his loft. I kicked off my shoes, feeling somehow more at home a
t Jude’s place than I had at home since getting back.
“Coffee,” Jude grumbled.
“First Gatorade,” I said. “Stave off a hangover. Then coffee. You’re still drenched, by the way.”
In my experience, Jude always kept hangover cures on hand just in case. He really didn’t go hard like this except when he had to deal with bullshit. He just had no patience for it. He probably shouldn’t have been doing it anymore. Although I got the feeling that whatever he was so mopey about was the real culprit.
“Ugh.” Jude grunted, but he sat on a stool at his own kitchen counter and took the bottle I gave him. It was only then I noticed the scrape above his eye that was now bleeding.
“When did you get that?” I muttered, tapping his head.
“Climbing out of the pool,” Jude said, looking very pathetic.
I really wasn’t sure how he managed to survive for two years without me but I only rolled my eyes and went about putting on coffee before fetching his First Aid kit.
“What’s the matter, Judy?” I said, calling him by the name I’d used to tease him with. “You’re so sad. Usually even when you get drunk, you’re not like this.”
“Just...nothing.” He got up from his stool, still sopping wet and I glared at him until he smirked and spun around to go to his room. He’d already gotten his stool all wet. I snorted a laugh and waited for the coffee, fixing it how he liked when it was done and making myself a cup.
I took a sip of coffee and looked around his giant loft. It looked pretty much the same as I remembered, a couple of different art prints on the wall. We’d come home falling down laughing to this place a million times. It held a lot of my favorite memories as did both our parent’s houses despite everything.
Jude came out in sweatpants and a t-shirt and somehow made it look sexy. He was really annoying like that.
Alpha Dragon's Second Chance Page 3
