by Ella Hart
“Thank you for trying.” He smiled at him softly before brushing some hair out of Solana’s face. “She died with a smile. That is a consolation I will take. She never felt the pain.” He kissed her face before dismissing Cobalt.
He woke with a small gasp. How come every time he brought up love in a conversation, this was all that would play through his dreams? Why couldn’t he ever dream that one day he’d be happy with someone other than Solana?
He sighed softly. It was morning now. Cobalt had a feeling that Paulina or Rani would be coming to wake him up soon, so he sat up in bed.
He walked towards the bathroom, trying to shake the memory of the nightmare from his mind. He always had to go in the early morning. If his nightmare about Solana hadn’t woken him, his bladder would’ve soon. How would he tell Paulina he had fallen in love with her? There was no easy way for a dragon to tell someone who wasn’t also a dragon shifter that they were in love. It was difficult for dragons to express, to emote. Even Cobalt – who had been considered one of the most expressive dragons of his clan – had issues doing it. It was simply the reason he had been so nervous when he proposed to Solana.
The thought of telling Paulina that he loved her gave him nerves. He began to shake softly as he racked his brain for the best way to bring it up. As he began to feel nauseous, he gulped. There had to be a way to keep his thoughts in check.
She had given everything up for him. She had felt that it was worth giving up the life she knew. It had been her choice, not his. If she didn’t return his feelings, she’d probably go rat him out to the people in their little town. If he told her and she didn’t love him... he didn’t want to think of those consequences. They were too much like what had happened with Amelia.
Granted, Amelia had never known his secret like Paulina did. That was the key difference between the two of them. There weren’t many differences when it came to their different personalities. She certainly took after her grandmother. They were both kind. Loving. Compassionate. Amazing. There weren’t enough adjectives in the English language – in the world – to compare the two.
He took in a deep breath. Well, if he never told her, he’d never know how she felt. If he did tell her, the only real harm she could do was to reject him. He’d surely be gone before she could bring others to capture him and take him for experimentation or detainment. Whatever they decided to do to him this time around.
“Cobalt? Are you up?” Paulina’s voice echoed around the top-level. It was now or never.
Chapter Ten: Love Admitted
He opened the bathroom door. Paulina stood outside, and Cobalt caught his breath when he saw her. She looked amazing. She must’ve just woken up – still dressed in her pajamas, and her hair all messy. It seemed as though she had slept with it wet. He wouldn’t have blamed her for taking a shower before she went to bed last night. He probably should have done the same.
“Wow, so you are up. Are dragons naturally early risers?” She lowered her voice, probably to help him feel more comfortable talking about his kind in public. He nodded slowly. He wasn’t quite sure what to say.
Suddenly, the tongue-tied feeling he had always had around Solana returned. His throat felt like sandpaper, and saliva didn’t come to his aid. He was on his own at this point. He managed to swallow, and, to his surprise, a couple of words came from his throat.
“Yes, we are.” It was no more than a reiteration of what he had nodded, but it made her feel better about asking, he guessed.
“Cool.” She smiled warmly at him. “Come on downstairs, breakfast is almost ready. Rani is a really good cook, by the way.” Her smile widened just a bit. It was enough for him to see her teeth. There was something about that smile that made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.
“Before we go downstairs, can I talk to you in private for a moment, Paulina?” He was again surprised by the words coming out of his mouth. Where had he gotten the courage to speak up? He took a deep breath. Better now than never.
“Yeah. Sure. What’s up?” She didn’t seem too sure about what he wanted to talk about. There wasn’t a lot of room for them to talk privately in the house, so he took her into his room. He shut the door, but not all the way. She seemed a little nervous at this point, so he was careful not to close it completely. “I’m not entirely sure how to say this...” He took in another deep breath.
“How to say what, Cobalt? You’re scaring me.” She took a step towards the door. If she was uncomfortable, this wouldn’t end well at all. breathe racked his brain, trying to find the words to say what he was thinking. How couldn’t he find the words? Why were they avoiding him?
“I love you.” He finally found the words, just as her hand was on the doorknob. He made no attempt to stop her from leaving the room. She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to face him.
“You... love me?” It sounded as though she didn’t know what to say. “You really love me?” Now it sounded as though she were surprised. It took her a moment to find a smile. As the smile grew on her face, he found himself unsure if that meant she felt the same way. “I love you too, Cobalt.” She walked closer to him, and took his hand. He smiled at her, and squeezed her hand softly.
“I wasn’t sure how you’d react when I told you.” He laughed a little as he spoke. “Dragons don’t emote very well.”
“I noticed.” She smiled. “I think it’s kind of cute.” She placed a kiss on his cheek. He felt his cheeks become very hot. Scorching, even. She giggled. “And you’re even cuter when you blush.” Blush? He was blushing?
“I’m blushing?” He hadn’t thought dragons could blush. He’d never done it before. She nodded, and he felt his cheeks get even hotter. That confirmed it; he was blushing. By how hot his cheeks were, his blush had to be deep.
“And it makes you much cuter than anyone else I’ve ever met.” She kissed his nose softly after she spoke. “Now, do you want some breakfast?” He nodded slowly. “Come on, then. Let’s go downstairs.”
“How long are we going to stay with Rani?” He voiced a new question, one that had been bouncing around his head all night. If they stayed too long, it was possible she would find out what he was. That’s what worried him the most. That someone else would find out what was going on, and would rat him out. Then he’d end up somewhere he didn’t want to be – again.
“Just a couple of days. I’ve arranged for us to stay at a hotel. They take permanent residents, so we could stay there as long as we need to.” She smiled at him as they walked down the stairs. “I got us a ground floor suite, thankfully. I wanted you to be able to get outside if you had to during your shift time.”
“Thank you for that consideration, Paulina.” His heart warmed at her thoughtfulness. “I’m almost old enough to be able to shift on command.” That was an exciting prospect. “While it’ll be easier to shift during a full moon, I’ll be able to shift at will. It’s an exciting accomplishment in a dragon’s life time.”
“I imagine it would be. There’s something special about it, isn’t there?” She looked genuinely excited for him.
He nodded, but said nothing. They were on the ground floor, and he wasn’t sure he wanted Rani to question him. He was sure she would ask him questions anyway, but he wanted to know it would be run of the mill topics of conversation. Where he was from, what he was doing, how he met Paulina... Those kinds of things. He didn’t want to talk about his family or his past. At least not in depth.
“When do you want to leave?” Paulina seemed to ask this out of curiosity than anything else. Then he realized that Rani was in the room. That would explain her sudden change in thought, partly, anyway. He bit his lip, trying to think of a good answer. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, but that could be a rude gesture. He wasn’t too sure how to answer it, honestly. They were in someone else’s home, but that only meant that he couldn’t shift here.
“When it is polite to leave.” That is the only answer he could think of. It made Rani giggle a little, but it seemed to confu
se Paulina. However, she didn’t try to ask for clarification at the moment. There probably wasn’t enough of a reason for her to try that.
“You could leave today if you wanted, Cobalt. I won’t mind.” Rani spoke up. “Paulina told me last night that you probably wouldn’t want to stay for long.” A soft smile appeared on her face. Then, he wondered why she had spoken up like that. Normally, people were too afraid of him to assert their own opinions.
“Then I would prefer to leave today, if possible, Paulina.” He spoke up, a thankful look in his eyes.
“All right. We’ll leave after lunch, then. We can pack up and make sure we have everything we’ll need for our trip to the hotel. It’ll be a few days of driving, but it’ll be worth it to get there in one piece. I’ve arranged for places to stay along the way, too, just in case you were curious about that.” She smiled as she spoke, and sat down. “But for now, let’s eat.”
Chapter Eleven: Moving On
The days passed on the road. By the time they reached the right hotel, Cobalt was excited to be out of the car. There was nothing he liked better than being able to stretch out across the bed, or the floor of his cave as he was used to doing.
Paulina laughed a little as he practically sprang out of the car when they arrived. His legs had fallen asleep again, and he tiptoed around as he tried to regain feeling in them. He didn’t understand how people could sit in cars for hours on end. The truckers, especially, that stopped in the other town had confused them. How could they enjoy that kind of job? It didn’t seem like it was very healthy, nor very fun.
Then again, they did have their radios to talk to other drivers on the road. That was the only upside he could think of.
He put those thoughts away. He followed Paulina happily into the hotel. It was a grand hotel – probably somewhere that a lot of celebrities stayed often. There weren’t a lot of employees there today. It might’ve been a holiday, but there were still people working. Shouldn’t there have been more employees working today if that was true?
“Wow. I expected it to be a little busier.” She smiled a little. “Well, that makes move in an easier process.” A half-laugh came from one of the cashiers at the front desk.
“Yes, it would, but we have more employees coming in later. We’re expecting a flood of people tonight. You came at a good time. You must be Paulina and Cobalt, then. Yes?” The cashier smiled at them.
“Yes. We’re here to move in.” Paulina smiled, and walked over to the front desk while he worked his legs. “We’ll need two keys.”
“Of course.” The cashier continued the conversation. He walked around slowly, taking everything in. He found the water feature rather interesting. It had an uncanny resemblance to the waterfall in his hometown. Not where he had been living for the past hundreds of years, but where he had been born, the little town in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Surprisingly enough, many dragons were born in the Amazon rainforest when it was still large and glorious. The climate had been just right for many things, including the right temperature for dragon eggs to hatch. “This is a beautiful water feature. Is there a waterfall that inspired it?” Cobalt couldn’t contain himself. There was so much of a resemblance that he had to know.
“Um, some waterfall in the Amazon. I’m not quite sure what it’s called; I wasn’t here when they put it in. Wish I had been, though. It would’ve been fun to watch it going in.” The cashier smiled. “But for now, we do admire it as much as we would the real thing.”
“It’s very lifelike. I’ve been to the Amazon Rainforest before. It’s amazing.” He smiled a little as the cashier was listening interestedly. “It does remind me a lot of one of the waterfalls there – one called the Raining Fall. In real life, it looks like a rainstorm coming down the mountain. It even sounds like it, too, with the roar of the falls.” Unlike the real thing, the water feature had no roaring falls. Instead, it sounded more like a bubbling and babbling brook. It was a soothing noise, which, he guessed, was what they wanted.
“I see.” Paulina smiled as she spoke. “Well, I think I prefer the soothing sounds of this one instead of the roaring falls.” She laughed a little as the cashier handed her the keys to the room. Then, she turned to the cashier. “Thank you.”
“Room 1449. You should find it easily.” The cashier smiled. “I’ll have the bellhop help you get your bags up to the room. Does that sound agreeable?” When Paulina nodded, he wondered what a bellhop was. Then, a man dressed in a hotel uniform walked over with a rolling cart. Paulina helped him lift his single bag onto the hop’s cart. Then she lifted her own bag on.
“Is this all you have, ma’am?” The bellhop didn’t sound too enthralled with the idea of helping them carry more than this.
“Yes. The other bags are easy enough to carry up. Thank you, though.” She made sure to be polite. He wondered why.
Then he saw why. The bellhop smiled at her.
“My pleasure.” His tone had changed; it was now happier, as if the simple act of thanking him had brightened his entire day. Maybe even his entire week. Cobalt wondered why he felt so happy after being thanked. The thought then crossed his mind that maybe he didn’t get a lot of nice people to interact with in this kind of hotel. It reminded Cobalt of the kind of people he hated – the rich snobs that think they’re better than everyone.
Paulina certainly wasn’t like that. Nor was he; he was simply more awkward around people.
That’s when Paulina seemed to realize something.
“Room 1449... is that up a floor?” She asked the bellhop as they walked after him. He nodded.
“Yes. We have no ground room floors. We haven’t for a few years, but our site developer has been inactive. We’re in the process of finding a new person to do it.” This kind of hotel, not having an up-to-date site? It seemed a little odd to him.
“How long have you had issues with the site developer? And how do you know of this?” She was simply curious, and he could understand why. There had to be some reason he knew so much about it.
“I’m one of the owners. I like to get to know the customers – especially those that will be staying in our permanent rooms.” He smiled at her softly. “As for how long, I do not know. We only noticed the discrepancy a few weeks ago. I apologize for any confusion that has caused, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” He spoke up. The bellhop/owner seemed a little surprised that he was there. Or he had simply figured he didn’t speak much. Whatever the case for the surprise, Cobalt was a little excited to see that he could still surprise people.
“You’re welcome.” At this point, they had reached the elevator. He smiled, and walked in behind the two others. The door slid shut behind them.
He began to feel claustrophobic. Maybe he’d stick with stairs. The small elevator reminded him of days that he’d rather not remember. Thankfully, he managed to keep from freaking out for the short ride. It only took a couple of seconds once they pressed the button. Being the last one in meant he was able to get off first, to his relief.
This elevator was between rooms 1335 and 1336. Their room was to the left and just down the hall. It was almost at the end of the hallway, as the last room number was 1450. Either way, they had arrived at their destination for the next few months. Maybe even the next year or two. It really all depended on how they felt they should continue from this point.
The bellhop – who told them his name was Marius, from the character in one of Victor Hugo’s novels – left them with their bags to settle into their new home. On the coffee table in the little living room, a thoughtful person had left them a list of local grocery stores and take-out places. A kitchen suite was situated to the left of the living room, with two bedroom doors and a bathroom door to the right. For a small space, it seemed rather large and inviting.
He guessed that was due to the design of the interior: how the furniture was placed, the patterns, that kind of stuff. As he rolled his small bag to one of the rooms, he looked towards Paulina.
“Do you ha
ve a preference of which room is yours?” His words came out clear and soft. In a room as nice as this, it seemed only right to have a softer voice than he had deemed proper in the cave.
“Not really. They both have good views. Although, I imagine you’d want the one closer to the door, for when you have to get outside fast.” She smiled. “Take it.” With her happy, he went to the room he had wanted. She’d called it correctly; he wanted the room closest to the front door – just in case.
He put his bag on the bed. He’d only packed a few changes of clothes, not anticipating staying anywhere in particular for a while. That had been a mistake, but it was easily fixable. As soon as he or Paulina got a job, anyway. There was, of course, that one small thing they had to do first.
As he unpacked, he thought of all the possibilities that lay before them. There were so many that he almost felt a little overwhelmed by it all. He’d never had the privilege of trusting someone as much as he trusted Paulina before. So far, the only thing that had made him doubt her was the fact that her uncle had figured out what he was.
He still wondered over how she had fallen in love with him. Why she had fallen in love with him. Not many would have stayed with him after learning that he wasn’t human. That he was, in terms of some humans, a monster. A demon. A villain. Giant. Freak. Behemoth. Beast. Whatever synonym they could think of for the word “dragon”. He finished putting his clothes in the closet, and took a look around the room. This was to be his new cave. His new home. For some reason, it filled him with a sense of excitement instead of the dread he usually felt around this time of the moving process. He usually hated moving because that meant making new friends, and trying his hardest – again – not to be found out.
He let out a deep breath. With Paulina here, suddenly everything didn’t seem as intimidating.
He left the bedroom, and returned to the main area of the suite. Paulina had moved from the couch to the kitchen. She rummaged in a cabinet, then another. Then a drawer. She concluded that there wasn’t much in the kitchen, and that they would have to buy pots and pans. They had very little money, so that wasn’t much of an option at the moment.
