by Leela Ash
The Dragon shifters listened grimly as Gavin spoke. All of them were well aware of just how precarious their situation was at this point. Norris was still tempted to tell everybody about his plan and the possibility of having met his potential fated mate, but he couldn’t bear the thought of having the others get their hopes up for nothing. He still wasn’t even sure if Lisa would agree to go out with him to the club. He trusted fate, but he didn’t trust anyone who couldn’t even trust themselves. That was a sad fact of the matter.
“We need to start strategizing then,” Max said, taking charge of the meeting as he had a tendency to do. “I want everybody to report to me early tomorrow and we will start figuring out what our next steps are going to be. I’m not going to take any of this lying down and neither are you. It may seem bleak, but there is always a way. Never forget that. And if you do, talk to somebody who will remind you rather than someone who will let you stew in your own juices and make it impossible for you to move forward. Does anybody have any other thoughts or concerns?”
Again, Norris could feel Gavin’s gaze burning into his back, but he chose to ignore it again. He wasn’t going to make a fool of himself. He needed proof. Gavin had been right about that much at least. He was going to go into the underground bunker and test the security system, and then take the device with him so that he could test Lisa and find out once and for all whether or not his suspicions were accurate.
But Norris was royalty. He already knew his suspicions were correct. But, he also understood Gavin’s need for confirmation. It could be a significant waste of time and energy if it turned out the person he wanted to be with wasn’t going to further their cause and help them to save the universe. But that wouldn’t change his feelings toward her.
After everybody had filtered out, each of them speaking briefly to Max about things that had been bothering them before heading out for the day, Gavin took Norris aside. “I have been waiting to hear from you about this girl of yours. I know you keep saying she is some sort of special, but how can you possibly know that for sure? You really need to get her tested.”
“Yes, I know. I’m going to do that when I see her next. It’s just the last thing that has been on my mind. I have been having kind of a hard time with her.” Gavin nodded sympathetically, and then his face fell.
“Don’t tell me that you tried to tell her about being a Dragon shifter after I told you what a stupid idea that was,” he scolded. “Norris, you’re going to get us in some serious trouble. You never know who’s lurking around the corner trying to get information out of us. You have to be more careful than that.” Norris prickled. He didn’t like being told what to do, and certainly didn’t like having the implication that he will put his friends in danger. If anything, he was doing everything in his power to help them.
“Everything is going to be fine,” Norris said, shaking his head. “Give me the stupid device and I will get the blood sample or hair or whatever it is you guys need. I’ll get her tested and we will find out for sure. And if I’m wrong about this, then you don’t have to say you told me so. Just put me on guard duty for the rest of my life. I will accept that.”
Gavin grinned despite himself and sighed heavily. “All right, man. I guess you’re just going to do what feels best to you. I can’t talk you out of it. Just make sure you aren’t doing anything that could be considered dangerous. I’m not trying to insult your intelligence or anything, but things are not as simple as they used to be anymore. I’m just concerned.”
“Gavin, buddy, you are always here. And I’m sure there is good reason for it. But what you need more than anything lately is a chance to relax. And I’m going to give you the chance. Come here.”
Norris led him to the underground bunker where he had already set up the security device he built. Norris had always been very good with his hands and now he was pleased to be able to use that skill in a way that would help him to create a better life for his friends, even if just for a short while.
“What’s all this?” Gavin asked, looking around at the impressive array of machinery curiously.
“This, my brother, is a security system. I put it together myself. It isn’t quite as good as what you might find back home, but it’s damn good. If anybody is messing with the area, we will know right away.”
“Wow,” Gavin said, looking around quietly at the machinery. “I hadn’t thought of all this. I’m so burnt out…”
“Well, I did, and it works. And that means, you are going to take a break and we're all going to have some fun together, whether you like it or not."
"How is it fun if I don't like it?" Gavin asked, but his face was suddenly light with relief and gratitude. It did Norris’ heart some good to see that his hard work had paid off and he was able to give his overworked friend something to look forward to.
“Well, you’re just going to have fun so that it’s worth it,” Norris teased. “I’m not going to take no for an answer. You have to do this for me. And for yourself. I want us all to go out this weekend and have some fun. It’s really important. You surely understand that. If you are burnt out, there is no possible way you are going to be able to function at the capacity you are needed to function. We have to take care of ourselves and each other. You used to preach that to us all the time, but you don’t practice what you preach. You act like you are some sort of impenetrable machine. And maybe it feels like that now but look at you. You are so burnt out that you didn’t even consider how easy it would be to set up a security system like this.”
Gavin mulled this over quietly for a few moments and then finally nodded. “All right,” he said. “I suppose I’m going to let you have your way on this one. We will go out this weekend. And hopefully, I will have fun. Or at least do what is necessary in order to become a little bit more relaxed so that I can focus better on the mission at hand. I cannot stress the importance of all of this enough.”
“Trust me, Gavin, I understand. And I’m going to take the device with me and ask out the woman I’m in love with beyond the shadow of a doubt and find out for sure whether or not I have been wasting my time with her. How does that sound?”
Another wave of relief washed over Gavin’s features and he nodded enthusiastically.
“Please. I have been waiting for this.”
Norris chuckled to himself. “I know you have. I am willing to do what it takes to help our people thrive in this difficult time. Just leave it to me.”
Gavin nodded seriously, and Norris slapped him on the back before leaving the bunker, grabbing the device as he left and turning his thoughts back to Lisa. Everything is going to be okay. It had to be.
12.
Lisa answered her phone absently on the third ring, not bothering to check the caller ID. When she heard Norris’ voice, she cursed inwardly. She had forgotten about his invitation for a date. She had been so swamped with work and overwhelmed by the strangeness of his declarations that she had simply been doing her best to avoid going out of her way to be social in any way, shape, or form. Especially when it involved Norris. She simply couldn’t bring herself to understand his perspective. The more she thought about it, the more confused she became.
Whether she believed in his words or not, it was difficult for her to find any sense of peace in what it was he was saying. She just couldn’t trust him. She couldn’t trust anything. She couldn’t trust her own intuition on the matter, which is especially concerning because it told her to believe something crazy. She didn’t want to believe in crazy. She didn’t want to be duped again because she was vulnerable. She had to be strong and make wise, conscious choices. Otherwise, everything she was doing would ultimately end up being bullshit.
“Norris, what are you doing?”
The question hadn’t been phrased kindly or tactfully. Because Lisa wasn’t feeling kind or tactful. Sure, she missed Norris like crazy and had been hoping to hear from him secretly for the past few days. But more than that, she was completely overwhelmed and grateful for the chance tha
t she had been given to reflect on the bizarre events in silence.
“We were supposed to go out. Well, you said we would but now we might not and now, so I guess I’m just here waiting for you to decide what it is you want to do.”
His voice was as silky and soothing as ever, and Lisa found herself quickly sucked back in to the comfort of having him here. Why was it that she responded so easily to him? Nothing else had ever felt so easy before. He seemed to be able to understand her effortlessly.
He understood her emotions and had even made observations about her personality that were very true, whether she wanted to admit that to him or not. So why did she have so many reservations? It had to have something to do with how outlandish his claims happened to be. And yet, now that she had him on the phone, she couldn’t bring herself to simply allow herself to forget about it as much as she could. But then Norris called and brought the situation right back to her attention again. But instead of being angry or irritated about it, she realized she had missed talking to him, even though the topic of their conversations had mostly been complete nonsense.
“Hi, Norris,” Lisa said quietly into the phone. “Actually, I had completely forgotten about the date.” That was partly a lie, but Norris didn’t need to know that. The truth was that she had been very busy and very overwhelmed. It wasn’t really his business either way, though now she felt bad for lying to him.
“That’s all right, I know how things can be,” Norris said. She could almost see him smiling through the phone and her heart thudded involuntarily at the mental image.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch,” Lisa said quietly. This part was true. She didn’t have to lie to him about that. She didn’t want to speak to him. But she also wanted desperately to avoid the headache of trying to figure out what was true and what was false.
“Well, I know you have just started a new job and everything, but if you have time for a date, there is a new club downtown that is opening soon and I feel like if you go there with me, everything is going to start coming together. You will see that I’m not just crazy. It feels important that we do this.”
“A new club?” Lisa asked, frowning. “I don’t like clubs or things like that. I’m not big on crowds.”
“Well, that’s all right,” Norris said, his voice gentle and kind. Still, she could sense a hint of disappointment. “If you don’t want to go there, we could either go somewhere else or forget about it. I know you weren’t entirely sure about what you wanted to do. And that’s okay.”
“No, we can go,” Lisa said quickly. The words spilled out of her mouth before she could even stop herself. She cursed inwardly, wondering what impulsive entity inside her kept causing her to agree to spending time with this man. Maybe she really was beginning to understand what he had been saying and believe it for herself. Or maybe, she just missed him. He was really good company. He made her laugh. He was easy-going, and easy on the eyes as well. She felt comfortable with him. And the way he touched her… there was really no going back after something like that.
“You mean…?” Norris asked, excitement clear in his voice.
Lisa sighed and nodded. “Yes. We can do this. It’s going to be great.”
She couldn’t stop the words from spilling out as the conversation rolled forward. It was as if she had been secretly sitting on her answer all along, and now that she had a chance to make it official, she was going to and she was going to do it well.
“That’s great. I can pick you up Saturday night at 6 o’clock. How does that sound to you?”
“That sounds fine,” Lisa said, her eyes darting to the calendar. She would have been well off of work at that point, and the thought of spending the evening with Norris made her heart tremor in her chest. Whether he was insane or not, she liked him. What else was there to be done about it?
“Great, I’ll see you then. I’m really looking forward to this. I think it’s going to be good for us.”
A small wave of nervousness washed over Lisa, but she tried to allow herself to believe that everything was going to work out for the best. What good would it do any of them for her to believe otherwise? It would only end up being a major pain in the ass. No, she wanted to make sure that everything was exactly as her heart seemed to intend for her. And apparently, her heart wanted her happy with this ridiculous person.
The next couple of days, waiting for the weekend, went by agonizingly slowly. By the time Norris arrived on the doorstep, Lisa’s heart was nearly ready to burst. When she opened the door, she was shocked to find not only Norris, but five other ridiculously attractive men gathered around him, all looking at him very curiously.
“Norris? What is all of this about?”
She would’ve been put off and disturbed by it if it wasn’t so funny. All of them looked wide-eyed and excited, as if it were the first time they had ever seen a girl before. What kind of date was this going to be? Could she trust him?
“Lisa, these are the other Dragon shifters. I already told you about them.”
“The other Dragon shifters?” Lisa asked softly, her eyes roaming over the impossibly perfect features of each man before returning back to Norris. “What are they doing here? I thought this was a date?”
“Oh, it is. It’s kind of a quadruple date. So to speak. The other women are still in the van.”
“Then?”
Lisa’s eyes wandered out to her driveway, where she saw a moving van parked outside. A couple of women waved shyly at her from inside and she turned her surprised gaze back to Norris.
“This is kind of bizarre,” she said, laughing despite herself. “Even for an elite.”
“I told you that I’m not an alien,” Norris said. “I’m not a little green man with big eyes. I’m a Dragon shifter. And so are they.”
“You don’t have to come with us,” one of the men, a little bit lengthier than the rest, but with an incredibly beautiful eyes, said. His voice was somewhat soft-spoken, but he spoke with conviction. She could tell just by looking at him that he was incredibly intelligent. “We just wanted to meet you. Norris has told us a little bit about you and he made it possible for us to enjoy a night out for once.”
“Oh, he did?” Lisa asked, shaking her head quietly at Norris. “Well then, I suppose we don’t have much choice but to go on this particular day, do we?”
Norris beamed and took her by the arm, leading her away from the house and to the moving van. If this had happened in the beginning, she would’ve been extremely nervous, but there was something warm and inviting about the eyes of the women waiting inside the van. Something almost like home. It was a strangely impossible to describe sensation, and she found herself climbing inside the van with no reservations whatsoever. She wanted to commiserate with the women and sighed. Something told her that the experience would be very rewarding.
“All right, everybody hold on. The Dragon shifters do not make the best drivers as Lisa here is well aware.” The men laughed heartily at this comment as the same lanky man with the beautiful eyes got behind the wheel and started the van.
Soon, they were heading toward the club and Lisa found herself falling into easy, casual conversation with the women. She discovered that they called themselves Loni, the same term that Norris used to describe Lisa. It was strange just how soothing the concept was when the other women were present. Seemed strange or fabricated. It all seemed completely natural and very necessary.
By the time they reached their destination, she had learned all of their names and even the names of their children. They were supposedly children who were conductors of the type that Norris had mentioned before, and she found herself wondering how it was possible that, should this strange belief system turn out to be a cult, how peculiar it was that she felt so incredibly comfortable with it.
“All right, everybody out. We have relaxing to do.” Gavin was ushering everybody out of the van, and before long, they were all inside, where midtempo music was playing gently in the background and bright, f
lashing lights were illuminating the atmosphere.
Still, everybody seemed to go their separate ways. Norris was soon leading her toward the booth and ordering themselves a Dragon theme drink. “I really like your friends,” Lisa said as Norris turned his attention back to her. He beamed at the statement and nodded.
“I can tell they like you too. We will all make a wonderful family one day. I can feel it.”
The statement made Lisa feel slightly uncomfortable. But there wasn’t much that she could do about it. There was also a small part of her that kind of liked the thought of being a part of this friendly family, among people who made her feel, for the first time in her life, as if she were somewhere she truly belonged.
In that moment, she made a conscious effort to try and enjoy the night without worrying too much about whether or not it was crazy to accept all this Dragon shifter talk as normal. Maybe it was normal. To them it was normal. Why should she be the one to rain on their parade? Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try to relax and just go with the flow of things for once. She could call herself crazy and denounce it all as mass hysteria in the morning. But, for now, she just wanted to hold onto that feeling of belonging somewhere. Even if it turned out that it was all just a strange and convincing fantasy.
Why let any of her hyper-rationalizations bring her down? She was here with a handsome man who drove her wild and whose touch made her completely lose all her inhibitions. Maybe she could just try to accept him exactly how he was and hope for the best. What could be the harm in that?
13.
“Master Kin, now is the time, isn’t it?”
Little did the party of Dragon shifters know, all of them were being observed. It was all part of the master plan, as far as Kin was concerned. Everything was happening exactly as he had hoped it would. Now, all he had to do was pull the final string and enjoy the show as chaos began to unfold around them.
