Chase_The Sons of Crosby

by Kathi S. Barton

  The bathroom, or what he could see of it, had the same shower curtain pattern as the spread. The towels were folded up and laying on an equally adorned rack that sparkled when he moved his head a certain way. The floor, thankfully only white, along with the commode, was stark against the rest of the things in the room. Harold wondered if he should ask for another room, but decided that he might end up in something putrid colored, or maybe even all the colors in the rainbow. He turned off the light, hoping that it would be easier on the eyes. It wasn’t. Some of the things glowed.

  The pebbles glowed to the point where he had to cover his eyes when he moved by it. The spread, too, had some sort of light in it that made the paisley look like it was moving. There were stickers on the ceiling too. He had no idea what the intended design should have been, but he had to turn the lights back on or be deathly ill from it. Harold knew that the woman was responsible for this mess, and he made a mental note not to mention it to her. So she’d think it hadn’t phased him at all.

  Putting away his few things, he didn’t look around anymore. It was dizzying to do that and try to stand upright. The room was making him ill, and he wasn’t up to having to try and figure out if he could throw up in the toilet without seeing purple sparkles coming out of him.

  Putting on his only other clean shirt, he decided to try the little dive across the street from the hotel. There were a lot of cars in the lot…a few semis as well. And since he’d had to skip breakfast and lunch, he was starving enough to sit in one of the nasty booths. As soon as he entered, he could smell the food.

  “Howdy. You all by yourself tonight?” Telling the waitress that he was alone, he followed as she took him to a table. There were a lot of people enjoying their meals, and he felt his belly growl at the sights and smells that were coming his way. As soon as he was seated, she brought him a cup of coffee.

  The menu was a sheet of laminated paper that had tonight’s, Saturday’s, meals on it. It wasn’t sticky, like he thought it would be, nor was there anything much on the thing that he’d want to eat. Settling for an open-faced turkey sandwich, whatever that was, he sipped his coffee and was surprised at how delicious it was.

  In less than five minutes he had not only rolls with warmed butter, but cream in a pitcher, as well as honey should he want it. Harold didn’t care all that much for breads, but once he saw the steam billowing from the basket, he tried one so he could complain about how dry it was. Or find out that they’d microwaved it to make it hot and it was now hard and tasteless. He could not have been more wrong. It was like eating wonderfully warm slices of heaven. Bread, in all his life, had never tasted nearly this good before.

  Harold nearly fell out of his chair when he was served his dinner. There was thick slabs of bread with turkey all over it. He found that there was stuffing too, between the bread sandwich, as well as the creamiest mashed potatoes he’d ever eaten. The gravy, as far as he was concerned, was a national treasure. He was in heaven. Until someone sat down with him. Three people, as it turned out.

  “Mr. Bates.” The first man took his plate and asked for a clean fork, while the second man asked for some pie. They argued over what kind, and simply had the waitress bring them a slice of all of them. When she was gone again the man eating his dinner asked if one of the other two wanted a bite.

  “That is my dinner you’re eating.” He said nothing to him, but did lay a gun on the table. Just put it there like that would settle any arguments from him. “What do you want? Besides my dinner.”

  “We were sent here by Grayson. And Elliot, but Grayson contacted us first. Have you met them? The Crosby men? They’re a good bunch, but not very friendly when it comes to people like you.” Harold asked him what that was supposed to mean. “The kind that gets themselves killed and no one finds the body kind of person.”

  ~~~

  Emerald had never thought of how nice and wonderfully relaxing a hot tub could be. Her muscles felt like they were gooey, and her feet had long since decided that she was never leaving this space.

  “I would have thought, you having the need to heal in a freezer, the hot tub would be a no-no for you.” Chase joined her in the tub and sighed heavily. “This is very nice. I’ve had it for some time, just never got around to using it. How do you like it?”

  “I’m not leaving.” He laughed. “Seriously, my muscles have gone on strike. I can’t even lift my head up.”

  He slid closer to her and lifted her up so that she was on his lap, their legs tangled together. She was naked, as was he, and she loved that he didn’t immediately try and make love to her, but did touch her. It was comforting as well as sexy.

  “I’ve been thinking about a couple of different things. One was the way you’re trying to make Bates insane. I love that. He can tell the truth, yet not be believed by anyone that he speaks to.” She told him that she’d used it once before, this plan of hers, and it had worked out well. “I like that he won’t have to be injured unless he continues to fuck up.”

  “Yes. He’s not really evil, just stupid. And stubborn.” Chase agreed with her on that assessment as well. “And the second thing you’ve been thinking about?”

  “Children. And before you say yes or no, I want to tell you a few things. I don’t know how to tell if you’re in heat. Or even if you do go into heat. For all I know, you could be carrying my child right now.” She told him she wasn’t, and saw the flash of sadness as he continued. “We’ve never talked about them. Having them or not. But I’d like to have a child with you. Whenever you’re ready.”

  “You won’t have any say in when I’m ready?” He explained to her what he’d meant. “So you’re saying that even though you’d love to have me fat with your child, you won’t tell me when because it’s my body.”

  “Yes. I mean, it is yours, and even though I’d have a blast creating a child with you, I’m not the one that would be going through the most difficult thing in my life like you would be.” She nodded, understanding what he meant. “Also, I’m pretty sure that I won’t ever want to tell you that you should do anything you don’t want to. You have dragons to call upon.”

  Turning, Emerald sat on his lap and felt his cock stretch and thicken between them. Kissing him, making him as much aware of her as she was him, she lifted her head just enough that she could look him in his eyes and kiss him again if she wanted.

  “I want children with you. But, before you say yes or no, you must realize that I’m a far superior being than you are, and the likelihood of any of our kids being only a vampire is pretty slim.” He smiled at her. “They might not even be a vampire at all, but just an ice warrior.”

  “I can live with that, so long as the little girls are as beautiful as you, and the little boys are as kick ass as their mother.” She loved him for that. “However, I’d very much like to, if you don’t mind, name a daughter for my mom.”

  “Rena.” Chase nodded. “Yes, I would love that. It’s a very pretty name. It means Peaceful. Which, knowing the two of us and the rest of this family, it’s doubtful that she would be.”

  “I hope not. I want her or any of them to be just as brave and as happy as we are. You are happy, aren’t you, Emerald?” She nodded, overwhelmed with emotion just then. “I love you, so very much.”

  “And I you.” She lifted herself up with his help and slid down over his cock. He filled her, in ways that didn’t just mean her body, but her heart and soul as well. “We can have a child, now if you’d like.”

  Chase rolling his hips made her moan. And when he suckled at her breast, she held him to her as she took her own pleasure. He let her, too, riding him in long and quick strokes until she was so close that she could almost touch it. And when he bit down on her nipple and suckled hard, she knew a kind of pleasure that made her cry out that she was coming and released hard.

  “Again, love. Come on me again while I feed from you.” Emerald couldn’t have stopped herself from coming had she a blade at her throat. It felt wonderfully fulfilling to have
a man feed from her as he gave her the most incredible pleasure.

  When he lifted her out of the hot water, he never stopped giving her as much as she wanted. Even though her body was chilled, he warmed it up right away with his mouth and touch. As he sat her on the side of the tub, she wrapped her legs around him, renewed now with a need to have him fill her.

  “Give me your child.” He nodded, kissing her mouth almost savagely. “Please, Chase. I need it, I need you.”

  He exploded inside of her. Not just filling her womb with his babe, but her body too. All of her seemed to have received some part of him, whether it was just his love or something more, something magical. And when he bit deeply into her throat, she cried out again, holding him to her until she was able to fill him as well.

  He took her up to their room after that. She could have walked, she supposed, but having him carry her, his cock still deep within her, she loved being with him. As he laid her on the bed, his mouth doing incredible things to her own, Emerald rose and fell with each of his strokes, and fell more deeply in love with Chase than she ever thought possible.

  When she came this time, it was gentle, like he was spreading her with his love rather than just making love to her, and the ease to fall asleep took her under. When she closed her eyes, Emerald knew that when she woke, if she needed him, Chase would forever be there.

  “I love you, Emerald.” Nodding, she was unable to speak she was so relaxed. His soft laughter made her smile. “Had I known I could render you speechless by putting you in the hot tub, I might have used it long ago.”

  She didn’t care that he teased her. Emerald couldn’t care less if he were to roll her to her back and leave her nakedly exposed to the world. She was in love, and loved in return. There wasn’t anything in this world that could make her feel any better than that.

  When the noises in the room woke her, she looked up to see that Soto was there, speaking to Chase. Asking what was going on, they both assured her that it was all right, and she closed her eyes again. Sleep took her under once again. Emerald was sure that whatever was going on, the two of them could handle it better than she could right now.

  Chapter 12

  Chase wasn’t really positive if he could do this, much less if he should. He knew that he’d been told that he was the king of the dragons, but even with that knowledge, he wasn’t sure. Not to mention the knowledge that had come with the crown when he’d had it placed on his head had been running in circles for days now, but bringing a dragon to justice was harder than he thought it would be.

  “Your lordship, I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.” For some reason, he had an idea that the dragon was lying. Not only that, but he was hiding more than just this trouble from him. “I will be better in the future, you can count on me.”

  He has lied to you twice now, my lord. Soto was sitting on his shoulder, holding onto his ear lobe like he’d seen him do with Emerald. He has walked this path before, on numerous occasions, while there was no one to hold him accountable.

  Chase asked why he hadn’t been, and was told that without anyone in charge, it had been hard. So now, Chase would bet, since there was someone to hold the dragons to the rules, they’d see this a great deal more.

  “You have not only shown yourself to the human world, but you have also destroyed a big part of their livelihood.” Chase knew that he’d help the couple who had lost their business because of this dragon’s actions, but these people had seen him do it. “You have endangered not only all dragons, but me and my family as well. I don’t think that you telling me that you’ll be good from now on will suffice.”

  “No, you see, that’s okay. I said I’d not do it again, and that’s the end of it. You’ll see. I’ll be a model dragon from now on.” Soto snorted. “You be quiet. No one asked you. But I’ll just go back to my cave and think about what I’ve done. I’ll be good. You’ll see.”

  “No, this isn’t the end of it. From what I’m to understand, you’ve done and said this before. That you’d not do it again, and here we are, visiting the same behavior as before.” He nodded, and Chase had a feeling that it had worked for him in the past, agreeing and just going about his business as usual. “You are to work on the building that you destroyed. Human money, all that they lose during the reconstruction, will be repaid to them from you. As well as—”

  “No, I don’t think you’re understanding how sorry I am. Plus, I told you that I’d think on what I’d done. It won’t happen again. No, you can bet on that.” Chase told him to do as he’d said and tried to finish the dragon’s punishment. “If I have to pay them out of my wages, which I don’t have any, then how will I live? I mean, you’re talking a great deal of human money.”

  “So I am, and perhaps the next time you do something this stupid, you’ll think on that. In addition to the wages and helping them rebuild, if you are caught again doing such a thing, especially being seen by the human fold, then you will leave me no choice but to sentence you to death.” The dragon just stared at him for a full minute before he laughed. Loudly. “You think my punishment is funny? That my words have so little meaning to you that you’d scoff at them?”

  “You can’t kill me. I know that you’re the king and all, but we all know that you, as a non-warrior, don’t have it within you to kill a creature such as I. And there are so very few of us left. Killing me would be a bad thing to do.” Chase asked him how he’d come to that conclusion. “You aren’t the type of man to do that. Not to mention, you cannot kill something as rare as myself. I’m a dragon. That alone should be enough to keep you from destroying me. It’s the way things have always been done.”

  By now they’d gathered a group of the others. No one seemed to be disagreeing with the dragon, but they didn’t seem to be agreeing with him either. Several of them, Soto told him, had had this particular dragon harm some of their own things as well.

  “Well, think of this as being under new management. I’m telling you what you’re to do, and if you don’t do it, I won’t have any other choice but to destroy you. I won’t want to, but you’ll leave me no choice in the matter.” The dragon was nodding again, thinking that he was off the hook, no doubt. “Now, as for the monies that this family is going to need.”

  “You aren’t going to get any of my things for them. I have been around a very long time, even before you. I won’t give up my things just because I’ve had me some fun.” He looked around at the rest of the group of dragons. There were faeries and brownies as well, but they all just stood there. “Ask them. Ask them if they think this is fair. I’m betting not a one of them will agree with you.”

  There was a hush over the crowd just before they all fell to their bellies and curled wings around themselves. Chase knew without looking that it was Emerald. They knew her, knew what she was capable of too. He turned to look at her, marveling at the beauty and poise of his mate. When he started to step back, to let her take over, she shook her head.

  “No, you’re doing fine. I’ve only come to the meeting because I didn’t know where you were. Go on, Chase. You’ve got this.” He wasn’t so sure, but didn’t say it aloud. Instead he moved to stand next to her and held her hand. If you back down, love, they’ll never respect you.

  Chase turned back to the group as a whole. He knew that she was right, but to have a group of dragons, most of them bigger than he was, pissed off, Chase thought this a monumentally bad idea.

  “Ask her what she thinks. I’m betting she tells you that you’re not to do this again. I don’t know why that speck went for you when the queen is right there.” He glanced at Emerald, who looked as if she were looking at her nails. Turning back to the dragon, Chase smiled. Emerald was right. He had to do this now.

  “I don’t need to ask my mate what I need to do about you. I’ve made my decision, and I’m going to stand by it.”

  The dragon asked Emerald what she was going to do about him.

  “I’m sorry, what did you ask me?” The dragon told her, from the beginn
ing, of what had started this and how sorry he was. “And what was his punishment toward you? I’m sure that he did say one.”

  “Yes, he expected me to give up my things for money, and that I was to help them in some way of getting their building back in shape. I told him I was sorry, and that I’d never do it again, but he’s on this power trip, and I don’t like it. We both know that isn’t going to happen. He’s not going to destroy one such as me.”

  Emerald looked at Chase, then back at the dragon before speaking. “I’m not sure what you want me to say. I mean, did you want me to add to your punishment? Or perhaps destroy you now?” He said she wasn’t listening to him. “Yes, I am. It is you who isn’t listening. My mate, your king, has told you, in no uncertain terms, that you are to repay the people, make restitution for what you’ve done. Or, and this is the part that I love, he will destroy you. He’s capable of it too. Just so you are aware of that.” The dragon was nodding again, and Chase was sure he was trying the same thing he’d done to him on Emerald. “You have been warned before about this, haven’t you?”

  He waved her off. It was then that Chase had a chance to really look around. The others there, the ones that had come to see the show, they weren’t happy either. Whether at him or the dragon, he wasn’t sure, but he was nervous. Then one of them stood up, his face full of anger, and pointed to the dragon on the ground still.

  “My lord. He has taken my moonstone flowers and seeds. He sells them, to other dragons, then steals them back. I should like to file a complaint against him.” The dragon in question told him to shut up and sit down. He almost did, but stood again. “He is a terrible name for the dragons, my lord. I should like to be reimbursed as well. My moonstone seeds are of the highest quality, and even the queen of faeries has said so. I would like them returned and more so.”

  The next dragon stood up when seed dragon sat down. “This dragon has threatened me for many moons, my lord. Just last month, before coming here, he said that he was going to be king of us all, and that I was going to be his slave. He has demanded that I give him my flowers so that he does not have to work the gardens. I have a family, my lord. I don’t have the extras that he is demanding of me. Should you destroy him now, I believe there will be more harmony with all of the rest of us. He is a terrible dragon.”