It was just a phone, sitting on the side table. In fact, I didn’t have my own phone. Edward had taken it. That didn’t matter. All I had to do was get out of his house and back to safety.
Then I recognized the phone; encased in a distinctive and eye-catching red leather case.
That was Jude’s phone. I grabbed it and now my heart was pounding so hard, it was quite painful. Edward had Jude. That was the only explanation. He could even be dead already and the thought was too horrible to consider for more than a second.
He had a text message coming in from a group thread. I recognized them as his dragon guy friends. They all had a little boy’s club for themselves. I stood there in the sitting room, taking the terrible risk of being found out at any second as I took a wild guess at Jude’s passcode (my birthday) and turned out to be right. Jude’s friends had pledged to help and somewhat hysterically replied to them, telling them briefly that a guy who had taken me hostage had Jude and what the address was and to come help if possible. I immediately got several replies that they were on their way.
I was afraid they wouldn’t be here in time. It was hard not to imagine them flying in to save us only to find the two of us already dead.
Yet even now, the front door in my sights, I knew I wouldn’t leave. As terrified as I was, I was not about to abandon Jude and wait for his friends to rescue.
Jude and I had always been there for each other, especially since that fateful day after his mother’s accident when I’d held his hand and broke the news to him that she had died. I had always said rather casually, that I would follow Jude into hell and I had absolutely no doubts he would do the same for me.
Now it was time to prove it.
I snuck through the house as stealthily as I could manage, sporadically closing my eyes and focussing on Jude’s scent. I picked it up as I crept down a wide corridor and at the creak of a door, I panicked and ran to the nearest door I could find unlocked. It was a closet, and I waited there, having closed the door silently behind me. I closed my eyes and now I could pick them out; Jude and Edward, whose scent was all over the house. I couldn’t smell death. Jude was alive. That was something. I found myself smiling and I clasped my hands together, squeezing my eyes shut as I tried to figure out what to do next.
There was really only one thing to do. I needed to go out there. It was terrifying. But this was Jude. Losing him was as frightening as the idea of my own death would be.
Besides that, he had already fought Edward for me once and nearly been killed doing it. The least I could do was fight for him too. I braced myself, gathering all my strength and courage, and snuck out on my tiptoes, hardly breathing as I followed Jude’s scent. There was a light coming from under a door not quite closed.
If Edward was there, he might smell me near unless Jude’s scent confused him and my scent was already in the house. I had to depend on that. Jude’s phone vibrated in my pocket and I froze, terrified.
“I’ll torture you,” Edward was saying. He sounded just a little drunk. “Slowly. Perhaps for days. That’s what you get.”
I tiptoed past the door to get a peek through the little opening. I couldn’t see much but I did see Jude’s dragon, or part of him. He was shifted, but he wasn’t moving. He appeared to be frozen like a statue, a thin glimmery kind of gossamer net covering him. It was some enchanted, or rather, a cursed item. It was keeping him frozen in place, unable to so much as breathe fire or speak, I assumed. It could be the only reason why Jude wasn’t fighting back now.
But he was alive. My love was alive and I found the sight of him giving me strength as I hovered there behind the door.
Jude was too my right, on the other side of the wall. I could hear Edward speaking, though I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he was to my far left, and probably just left of the door. That’s what it sounded like. I peeked inside, getting in just a little closer, and saw Edward smoking a cigar, grinning around it as he leered at Jude. He was eyeing him as if he’d just won a grand prize in some contest and Jude was his trophy.
I was trying to come up with some plan to take out Edward. I could shift, but Edward would shift as soon as he heard me or sensed me and I couldn’t take Edward if we were both dragons. He was easily twice my size. If I came up with nothing, I would happily go down fighting in defense of Jude but that was only useful if I couldn’t save him. I supposed I could distract Edward long enough for Jude’s friends to show up. New York was deceptively small. As far as I knew, most of them lived in town. They shouldn’t take long. Maybe I could just throw Edward off and delay?
That seemed like a weak idea to me.
What I really needed was Jude, and that was impossible. Somehow I kept forgetting that Jude was completely immobile. The best option would be to break the net and free him.
But I had no idea how to deactivate a cursed net? Even if I had the magical know-how, I had no supplies. I wasn’t a witch, and I didn’t know much in the way of spell casting.
Now a dragon’s fire, I thought as I hovered there, that had some magical proponents. At least that’s what I understood from the old shifter lore. Perhaps it was the stuff of fairy tales, but I had always been taught that in the old days when dragon shifters were more hidden from the human world and were more attuned to their magic potential, they could do all kinds of things with their fire; cast spells and yes, even break curses.
I wished I’d paid more attention to the lore now.
I racked my brain for some knowledge hiding somewhere in the nooks and crannies of my mind that could possibly help Jude now.
All I came up with was my mother’s voice in my head telling me to hurry up and come up with something to save my mate. I often hear my mother’s voice in my head when I’m stressed out. Not literally, it’s just one of those subconscious phantoms. I could picture her, even now, her eyebrows raised as she looked at me over cups of tea. As much as my mother had pressured me about this or that over the years, she had high expectations for me as a person and it wasn’t to feed her own ego. She had high expectations because she assumed I’d be able to meet them. That had always meant something to me.
She also had an intense view of what it meant to be a mate. My parents always seemed stuffy to me but they loved each other passionately.
A mate’s fire…
It can break curses, it can stop armies…
I gasped softly. That was it. That was my chance and it was also the only one I could possibly think of. I had to shift and breathe fire not at Edward, who might move too quickly and shift himself and then I’d be screwed, but at Jude. If it was true, what my mother had said about a mate’s fire according to the old lore, mine should definitely be able to break the net, freeing Jude. Then we could both take him down together.
All of this had gone through my mind in a couple seconds. Edward was still in the library, basking in his own triumph and smoking a cigar. I moved slightly and then I caught Jude’s eye in the little space left by the open the door. His eye was fixed on me. He couldn’t move, but I was sure he saw me.
I felt suddenly, the intense connection between us, and it was so visceral that it felt like being shocked by some electrical current.
I’m going to break the curse with my fire. I thought it at him. That was the only way I could put it. I threw the thought at him with all the force I could muster. I could swear that somehow, though he was completely still, Jude was agreeing with me, telling me this was a good plan.
If I was wrong… I was wrong.
I did it before I could give myself anymore opportunity to second guess.
I took a deep breath and shifted. The corridor seemed a bit narrow, but I was right in assuming that a dragon shifter would take care to have halls wide enough to shift in. I heard Edward’s shout but the very second I had my bearings, I inhaled deeply and then gathered all the power within me, and breathed fire through the wall right in Jude’s direction. The fire blasted through the wall in an explosion of white flame, blowing a giant bla
ck hole through it. I didn’t wait to see if it had worked or if Edward already shifted. In a second I was inhaling again and breathing fire, just in case the first breath had mostly functioned to take down the wall.
The wall left of me was crumbling suddenly. Edward broke through and attacked me, clobbering me with his front claws and knocking me down. My hide was pretty thick but so were his claws and roared in pain as he slashed my shoulder.
But it had worked. I couldn’t see him as Edward had knocked me down but Jude was moving. The curse had been broken, the net dissolved. Jude charged Edward and pulled him off me and then the two were going at it, knocking down the walls of Edward’s mansion as I staggered to my feet.
Three of Jude’s friends broke right through the front door. They scared me for a second and my eyes were fixed on the battle between Jude and Edward but then the front door was splintering, two large dragons and one much smaller black one all in a row and now charging into the fight and snapping and clawing at Edward as he fought Jude. They obviously knew Jude’s dragon form well, but of course they would know him just as well as I would.
Edward didn’t stand a chance. Once Jude’s friends showed up, it was all over.
They ripped him to shreds and I didn’t watch, but I wasn’t sorry.
“Jude!” We’d all shifted back into human form, myself and Jude and his three friends, all beaten up and standing among the wreckage inside Edward’s house as well as the now very dead and bloody dragon body still steaming on the floor. I cried out for my mate and we ran to each other, half tripping over the bits and pieces of smoking wall on the floor.
Jude crushed me in a hug and he squeezed me so tight, I could feel the fear he felt when he’d thought he might have lost me. His friends stood off to the side, seeming content to let him be for a moment. But we couldn’t stay here forever. We needed to tell my parents and they would probably tells the elders of the shifters around here and they would contact Edward’s parents in Connecticut and tell them what had happened. It would be rough. Things like this could lead to a war between shifters. It would probably take some testimonials from more people than just Jude and I to explain this.
“I got you,” Jude kept whispering in my ear. “I got you, sweetheart. Except you just saved my ass so really you got me.”
“Damn right she did,” one of the guys said. He was a little older than Jude, dark haired and bearded with cheerful eyes even as his shirt was torn up from Edward’s claws. “I’m Justin.” He motioned to a dark and brooding looking fellow who nodded kindly and another brick house of a guy who looked like he’d hardly broken a sweat. “That’s David and Jessie.” The other two nodded.
“Asshole had me in a cursed net,” Jude said, breaking our embrace to throw an arm around my shoulders. I was pretty sure he was at least a little scuffed up and I knew he would heal quickly but I still had an urge to at least check out his injuries. Except that now he was busy bragging about me. I could just feel it. “And this one thinks to break it with her fire.”
“Mate’s fire,” David said quietly. “That’s very smart.”
“No shit,” Jude cracked, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “She was always a much better student than me.” He grinned at his friends. “Fellowship at Oxford!”
“Oh my God,” I said, rolling my eyes. Jude had always loved bragging about me, even when he was doing badly in school and I was acing all my classes. He had only ever been proud of me as a friend, and now as a lover. “Shouldn’t you be traumatized or something?” I turned in his arms, frowning at the deep scratch visible along his shoulder. “And you’re hurt…” I clucked my tongue. “I can’t wait to get you home.”
“Awww.” That was his friend, Jessie. “That’s sweet.”
I blushed and Jude hugged me again, kissing my hair and whispered in my ear, “Never letting you go now.”
“I hope you don’t,” I whispered back.
Chapter Seventeen: Jude
A few months later...
“You’re not supposed to be back here!” Sierra was scolding me but her eyes were bright. I could tell she wasn’t really mad. How could she be? Not today. The two of us were so giddy, we couldn’t even remember to be stressed out.
I was leaning into the window of Sierra’s dressing room. After some hemming and hawing we’d chosen our parent’s favorite country club for our wedding. It had surprised even us. As kids, we’d always thought the place was so stuffy, full of rich fuddy duddies grumbling when we’d run by or play in the grass while our parents took tennis lessons or golfed.
But that was just it. We had so many memories held there. We’d fallen in love growing up together all over New York, and this was just one spot in it where we’d spent time. But it had more meaning to us than any church.
Now Sierra was supposed to be getting ready. She was already all made up and wearing the gorgeous designer gown she’d picked out; a 1920s cream colored satin sheath with gentle drapes and folds. It was elegant and sophisticated but she’d added a little bit of gold glitter to her blush. Playful Sierra. That was her; a combination of all these things that I loved so much.
I’d been ready for an hour. I was so ready I had nothing to do but pace around the men’s dressing room and feel edgy and impatient. I wasn’t nervous. I’d thought I would be, but it wasn’t that at all. I was just antsy to get married already. I was also kind of fixated on our honeymoon. We were going to go to the Caribbean. I’d laughed for ten minutes when we planned the thing because Sierra had insisted that she didn’t care where we went as long as “it has one of those bungalows with the stairs going into the water so I can see my feet.”
She’d put that anecdote in the article about me, about us. The thing had turned out to be a tome-like five thousand words, and it seemed as if every single person in New York read it when it came out. It turned out to be a love story and also scathing towards my father. He had to answer all kinds of questions after that when people begged him for comment.
My father and I hadn’t spoken in a while.
I didn’t care. I had too much on my plate anyway. I already had plans in place to organize some investors to form a non-profit with a sort of underground charity alongside it just for underprivileged shifter kids. I’d be plunging right into that once we returned from the honeymoon.
But first we had to get married.
I was standing on a sprinkler head in my shiny black shoes and peeking into the window of the woman’s dressing room where, mercifully, there were no naked bridesmaids. There was just Sierra in her gown looking gorgeous and angelic as she scrunched up her nose, looking up at me.
“Why can’t I be here?” I said smirking, even though I knew exactly why.
It was a stupid rule and anyway, shifters didn’t believe it. We didn’t even really believe in weddings. That was just part of us assimilating into the human world. Besides, of course I wanted to see Sierra before my wedding. She was my best friend. It seemed silly to have to avoid her for “luck.”
“It’s bad luck!” Sierra said loftily.
“Oh please,” I said, rolling my eyes. I was taking my life in my hands, climbing up to the window. What if I fell into the muddy puddle next to the sprinkler and ruined my pants before the wedding? Although I’d taken my jacket off because it was unseasonably hot in New York even though it was already September. “Come outside. I want to show you something!”
“I’m not climbing out a window in this dress!” Sierra said, all but shrieking.
“Then come around back!” I said. “Meet me at our tree!”
I didn’t have to say what tree even though it hadn’t been “our tree” in a long time, probably not since tenth grade. I checked my phone. We still had some time before the ceremony, as guests were still arriving. The ceremony was being held on a grassy stretch next to some willow trees and a waterfall. It was a popular spot for weddings. But “our tree” was east of that. It was a maple by a bench not far from the tennis courts.
I didn’t wait for S
ierra to answer. I hopped down from the sprinkler head, carefully avoiding the mud, and took off at a trot for the tree. The sun had been beating down, but a few shifting clouds had made the heat abate a bit and now a cool breeze blew through the trees.
Not that anything could have ruined our wedding in the first place. There could have been a thunderstorm that drenched the guests. We would have laughed it off and gone to a Justice of the Peace. None of that stuff really mattered. Though I was feeling sappy enough to be thankful for all the friends and family that got to be here to see this. Excepting, of course, my own father who I had opted not to invite.
I found the tree and sat down on the bench, sighing happily as I crossed my ankles in front of me and rolled my neck.
We’d already been through the hardest part, which had been realizing we’d found each other. That had taken about a decade. Battling Edward had been hard, of course, and a little traumatic. Afterwards, when we’d found out that Edward had murdered his parents back in Connecticut, we hadn’t even been surprised. It was as if another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
But all of that is over now.
All we had to worry about was looking after each other. I knew we always would, because we always had.
I closed my eyes and let the cool breeze brush my face and when I opened them, I saw Sierra walking toward me through the grass, carefully holding up her dress so as not to dirty her skirt. Her strawberry blonde hair was clipped up on top of her head and curling tendrils blew around her prettily freckled face.
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