by Alisha Basso
“I love you,” he said.
“I know.” There was a pause. “I love you, too.”
“I know.”
She laughed first. Then he did. Loud and gusty, as he rarely did. And then only with Lila.
It was good to be alive.
He just hoped to hell it would last.
Chapter 12
Lila restrained herself from grinning as she entered the living room. Noah was lifting the cooler-turned-incubator cover. She hurried to his side to gaze at the egg. She could only see the top, and she thought it might be a darker gold than before, but that could have been the effect of looking at the lights that Noah had added. So she nodded, then sat on the floor next to Jin.
Noah shut the top, then sat on the other side of his mother.
“About Claude—”
Jin groaned. “I didn’t even know him that well. Once I knew what he wanted, I avoided him.”
“He sounds like a bully,” Lila said. “Did you know his father? Or mother?”
“His mother was a dragon, and I didn’t know her.”
“Did he live with her?”
“He said she left him with his father when he was seven.”
Lila frowned.
Jin shrugged. “His mother told him that she was tired of living as a human.”
“So, she was going to switch to a dragon?” Lila looked at Noah. “For the rest of her life? Is that possible?”
He shook his head, his expression grim.
Lila switched her gaze back to Jin, who shrugged again. “I believe she found a nice, warm cliff top to curl up on, and she went to sleep and never woke up.”
“Seriously? Is that possible?”
“That’s my supposition. I don’t know what happened for sure.” Jin’s face that usually looked so calm crumbled a little. “She told him that she’d thought having a child would make it worth staying, but she’d been wrong.”
“Jesus,” Lila whispered.
Noah looked as if he wanted to take her hand in his, but his mother sat between them.
She glanced back to Jin. “Have you ever felt like that?”
There was silence, then Jin raised her eyes to Noah. “Sometimes life seemed empty.” Her gaze flickered back to Lila. “But those were the times I thought of Noah and wondered what he was doing. And then I would find him, and then I would want to live.”
“You lived for him,” Lila whispered.
“Perhaps.” Jin turned her face toward the cooler.
Lila stared at her. “Yet you never contacted him.”
“That’s correct. But I always knew he was here.”
“And that was enough?”
She inclined her head.
“But this is better than enough,” Lila said. “Sitting here next to him. Talking to him. Isn’t it?”
Jin didn’t answer right away, still staring at the egg. Next to her, Noah stared at the egg, too, as if he weren’t part of the conversation. As if it didn’t matter what his mother replied.
“Yes,” Jin whispered, the sound so soft that Lila strained to hear it. “Yes,” she repeated, still a whisper. Then, “Yes,” and this time louder. And she turned her head just slightly toward Noah, and he turned his head just slightly toward her. Neither said a word, but she felt their tension.
Lila wanted to say, Hug, you two. Why the hell don’t you hug?
They both nodded at each other, and then they turned back to look at the egg, as if nothing had happened.
But Lila knew something big had happened. That in the one glance, they’d admitted to each other how much they cared.
She shook her head a little. Dragons weren’t easy.
But they were sure worth it.
Jin lifted her head and looked straight at Noah. “Go to my room. Look in the carryall. There’s something in there that you should see.”
* * *
Noah stared at the slender, oblong leather case he’d taken out of the black carryall. His breath slowed. He recognized this case. He knew what it was. What he didn’t know was why his mother had it with her.
Lila followed him into the guest room. He glanced at her, speechless, and her eyebrows whipped up. “What’s wrong?”
He held out the case. “This is a flute case.”
“Um, that’s nice.”
He looked back at her. “What’s my mother doing with a flute?”
“I would take a wild guess and say that she plays it.”
He frowned at the case. “How do you think she became a flutist?”
“Another wild guess is that she took lessons. Or it’s possible that she’s self-taught. Why don’t you ask her?”
“There are flutists who play blues. Do you think she plays the blues?”
She stepped close to him and touched her hand to his left cheek. “Ask her.”
“I will.” As he headed out of the bedroom, he heard footsteps leaving the living room. When he stepped into the hallway, he saw his mother on the other end, her expression inscrutable.
“You play the flute,” he said. A stupid observation, but this discovery had seemed to knock out everything he knew about her, and the connections in his brain were rearranging with every breath and every thought.
“I do play.” Jin headed toward him. She wore another loose top today, a thin sweater in red, and black slacks.
“What kind of music do you prefer?” he asked.
“Classical or jazz. Jazz is my favorite.”
He nodded. “I sometimes listen to jazz, but jazz is a cooler music. It’s for the mind. Blues is for the soul. And sometimes for the heart.”
“You don’t care for classical?”
“Some of it. I like opera, which has fiery passion and an occasional playfulness. Opera can be anything.”
“A gypsy or a princess,” she said.
“A clown or a king,” he replied, their words sounding surreal. What he really wanted to ask was whether she played the flute because of him.
“But you prefer blues.” She tilted her head. “Because it touches your heart and soul.”
He nodded, feeling as if the brain rearrangements were ninety percent finished and the cells weren’t swirling in circles anymore. For a long time, music had been his only way of expressing his emotion. Perhaps his only way of feeling emotion.
Until Lila had come into his life.
He turned to look at Lila, standing in the opening of his mother’s bedroom door. She was watching him, her expression somber, her eyes darkened.
He interpreted it to mean that she wanted to have sex with him again.
The feeling was mutual.
There was an earthiness about the music...
And there was an earthiness about Lila.
The phone trilled, stopping his thoughts. It wasn’t his. His played blues notes. And it wasn’t Lila’s. Hers was a new one, and he’d left it at the regular ring, but this one played the clear notes of a flute.
Jin brushed past him to the guest room. Lila moved into the hall, out of her way, as she disappeared into her bedroom. The phone rang again, then abruptly stopped.
“Hamish,” Jin said, and her voice rang with the same joy that he felt when he thought about Lila. “Hamish!”
Chapter 13
Jin returned to the living room, and Lila observed that her face was glowing. “That was Hamish,” Jin said.
“We guessed,” Lila said.
Jin’s laughter was like bells ringing. Love was grand, but Lila thought it was too damn bad that someone who had more money than scruples was obsessed with her.
The last time a man with too much money had been interested in Noah for his dragon properties, they had come close to dying.
She felt Noah’s gaze on her. Glancing at him, she saw his lips twisted, his forehead drawn down, as if he shared her thoughts. She shrugged. Every great love story needed at least a little opposition. She and Noah had had more than their share.
“Hamish had thrown away his old phone in case Claude somehow co
uld trace him,” Jin said, “and he bought a prepaid one.”
“What about your phone?” Noah asked.
“It’s new. Hamish bought it before I left. He should be here in two days.” She took a breath, the joy leaving her eyes. “If we’re still welcome here.”
He bowed his head. “I’ll be pleased to be present at the birth of my sibling.”
“I doubt that Claude knows anything about you. I hate to inconvenience you any longer.” She turned to Lila. “It’s possible that Claude doesn’t even know that I left. I was very circumspect.”
“Aren’t you worried that if Claude questions anyone,” Lila asked, “the people who work for you might tell him that you left?”
Her body stiffened. “Only a few trusted employees know, and I asked them not to say anything.”
Though Lila didn’t say anything, Jin’s chin tilted up.
“I give our workers a good wage. More than the other wineries in the area, but I can afford it. And many of the places are switching to harvesters.” She spat out the words like they were a bad taste in her mouth. “Not us. It’s too easy to bruise the grapes with machines. And many of our grape pickers have been with us for eight years now. They are wise about the grape. They can tell which bunches are ripe and healthy bunches, which is why our wines are so successful.”
Lila frowned. Perhaps the workers were loyal, but when it came to humans, often money beat loyalty.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Jin looked at her with a half smile that was as cold as a winter night. “But even if Claude found out I’m not at my home, I haven’t been long gone. And I certainly didn’t divulge my destination to anyone.”
“Except Hamish,” Noah said.
“Yes.” She stared at him then Lila, daring them to disbelieve her.
Lila nodded. She didn’t know this Hamish, but if she and Noah were in this situation, she would die before she would betray him.
Though her preference would be to kill her attacker.
“Besides”—Jin’s voice was brisk—“Claude believes that because I’m a woman, I’m sitting at home like Rapunzel knitting in her tower.”
Lila stared at her. “But you’re a dragon.”
“To him, I’m still a female. Weak.” Disdain thinned her voice. “He thinks I’ll cave to him. If I didn’t have the baby to care for, I might show him how strong I am. He should count himself lucky that I have more important concerns.”
Lila looked at Noah, and she saw the fire in his eyes and the steel in his clenched jaw.
Her gut tightened. She knew what was in his mind...
She stepped to his side and took his hand. Letting him know that whatever happened, she would be with him.
* * *
The fire in Noah’s belly heated, and he forced himself to breathe normally. Lila’s hand in his helped. A reminder that they’d faced evil together before and prevailed.
“Hamish and I thought of everything.” Jin’s voice was strong—maybe too strong. As if she were trying to convince herself. “I’m safe here, and he’s on his way. I’m not going to imagine the worst.”
Lila squeezed Noah’s hand, and it wasn’t lightly. Giving him the message that she wasn’t going to imagine the worst, either.
But if it came, she was going to be ready for it.
And just in case it would be necessary, so was he.
“I have more pressing concerns than Claude,” Jin continued. “Like what baby clothes to get.” She gestured at the cooler in the middle of the living room. “Considering the circumstances, I’m not sure what the baby will need.”
“I’ll buy diapers and baby clothes,” Lila said. “If you can’t use them, you can donate them to a halfway house.”
“Since you’re in a human form,” Noah said, “I would guess that your eggs would have to be human.”
Lila unclasped her hand from his. “It’s an egg. If it’s an egg, I would think it has to be a dragon.”
He raised his eyebrows. “In this situation, anything might happen.”
“Even if it goes against the laws of physics?” Lila asked.
“I don’t believe the laws of physics apply to dragons.”
Lila made a funny sound that could’ve been choked laughter or a cry. “What you two are saying is that it could be anything?”
“Not anything,” Jin said.
Lila’s forehead furrowed. “Do you want a dragon baby?”
The muscles in Jin’s face flinched. “I want a healthy baby, dragon or human.” Her voice was gritty. “That’s what I want.”
Lila went over to her, her arms out. Jin allowed Lila to hug her, but she stood stiffly. When Lila stepped back, Jin nodded. More of an acknowledgment than a thank-you.
Still not speaking, Jin walked to the cooler to check out the condition of the egg. Noah met her at the cooler, where he carefully opened the top so as not to break any of the wires. He and his mother peered down at the golden egg, neither of them speaking. The top of the cooler had two red lights attached to it that would shine down on the egg. He’d done something else to keep the egg moist.
Behind him, Lila sighed.
Noah lifted his head and peered back at her, seeing her frown. Something was bothering her. “What is it?” he asked.
“We need to make a plan.”
“A plan for what?”
“A plan to keep your mother from being taken away and the baby from being killed.”
He nodded. A just in case plan. He was all for that.
Chapter 14
Jin closed her eyes. She had admitted to them her own uncertainty about Claude, but she wondered what had happened to make them so mistrustful. What horror.
It could be anything. In her years as a dragon and then as a human, she’d seen plenty.
But this should be a happy time for her. She had a baby! Well, just an egg now, but it was a baby.
And after unloading her fears to Noah and Lila, her worries that there might be something to worry about, she felt lighter. As if the load was taken off her back and dropped onto theirs.
That wasn’t what she’d planned, of course. But she didn’t want to wallow in the fear. To let it affect the happiness she felt now as she looked at the egg.
A baby... After all these years—and with a human for a father—it was amazing. She didn’t believe in miracles. For her to turn from a dragon to a human, perhaps a person born human would think that was a miracle.
She had gone through it, and much of it had been painful. Excruciating. Were miracles supposed to hurt? She didn’t think so. What she did know was that it had happened, thus it was possible.
Her eyelids opened, and she looked at her egg. And even though she still didn’t believe in miracles, she opened her mouth and whispered, “Miracle.”
The baby’s name. Of course. Even though she knew there had to be an explanation behind it, this was a miracle to her.
It was her chance to be a better mother than the first time. She’d loved Noah, but as he was growing up, she hadn’t told him enough.
This next baby would always know he or she was loved.
* * *
“We need to have weapons nearby.” Lila gestured toward Noah’s bedroom. “The crossed swords by the hall entrance downstairs. And I have my own swords.”
Noah wanted to kiss his warrior queen, so fierce and so ready. But he could wait until they were alone. “A gun would be best. Fast and deadly.”
“A big gun,” Lila said.
Noah nodded and looked at her. Her eyes narrowed, looking inward. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t think it will be that easy.” She frowned at Jin. “You’ve been quiet. What do you think?”
“I think you’ve covered all the bases,” Jin said, her voice dry. “Guns. Swords. And you’re a karate expert, so we have that, too. We can’t have napalm or a bomb. We could”—her voice was wry—“but it might hurt the baby.”
Lila gave a hard crack of laughter, and Noah frowned. He�
�d wondered a few times lately whether Lila wanted to have a baby with him. Or even without him. When they shopped in the grocery store or walked along the street and she saw a baby, her face would soften and he often caught a yearning in her eyes.
But perhaps that was a natural female response. Hormones kicking in so they would want children despite all the tears, tantrums, sicknesses, neediness, and sleepless nights. If not for that strong instinct, he didn’t know why women would want to bring children into this world.
He was not immune to the cuteness, either. But he had a sleek, beautiful, and smart black cat who required his paternal affections. Through the years, he’d had many black cats, and a few cats of other colors.
Perhaps they’d all taken the place of children in his life. Since no procreation had occurred during his couplings with human women, he’d concluded that it couldn’t be possible for a human and a dragon to have a child.
The egg in the incubator proved otherwise.
And there was Claude, too. He was born from a dragon-human match.
His heart pounded, and he allowed it for a few beats before calming himself and taking a deep breath. This was something he wouldn’t think about today.
Lila was right, and they needed to be proactive. Though his mother was agreeing that precautions were a good idea, it felt to him that she didn’t want to believe there was any danger.
Perhaps it was something about being a new mother. A half-human, half-dragon baby—
He cut his thoughts off again. This was not a good time to speculate on this subject.
“You know this man,” he said to Jin. “You said he kept showing up wherever you were. He’s not the type of man who would give up easily, is he?”
She frowned. “He didn’t follow me. He would have shown up by now.”
“You know him that well?”
“I don’t know him that well, but I know that much.” Her frown deepened. “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of it.”
Noah inclined his head. No sane dragon liked anger. To make that fire inside them took a lot of work and energy. It was a painful and dramatic process. No wonder dragons through the ages had avoided each other. If they stayed far away from each other, they couldn’t fight.
