by T. Cobbin
Chapter 10
Dennenth knew the scent was male. It had an earthy and very sour, musky smell to it. Whoever it was hadn’t bathed in a while. He could now also scent both Rosa and Freddie’s fear, and that made him even angrier. Someone was in his house, frightening his family. That just made him fucking angry—no one scared what was his.
Walking down the stairs, he bellowed, “I know you’re here, so you better come out and step before me, because if I have to hunt you down, you won’t see the morning sunrise.” The stupid idiot wasn’t going to see it anyway, but he wouldn’t know that.
Movement to the right of the stairs caught his eye. A man he estimated to be about five and a half feet tall with greasy, lanky hair, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans walked forward. He was standing behind a frightened but a pretty pissed Rosa, and he was carrying a very terrified Freddie in one arm. Even though tears streaked his boy’s dirty face not a sound left him. Dennenth caught a glance at the gun the man was holding on Rosa. Looking into the man’s eyes, he recognized them—they looked like Freddie’s.
“I guess you must be Blake.” He walked down the final few steps to come within a few feet of the man.
“What’s it to you?” the man asked.
“First of all, you’re in my home. Second, you’re holding a gun to my housekeeper’s back, and you have my son in your arms. That’s what it has to do with me!” he spat back.
His dragon pushed against his skin, wanting out to toast the offending male’s body to ash. Protect family. It pushed harder.
“This boy?” Blake questioned. “This fucking boy is mine, not yours. Where’s my fucking wife?”
“You don’t have a wife,” Dennenth answered, keeping his voice calm although his anger was top-notch.
Blake raised the gun and knocked Rosa in the head with it. Dennenth winced seeing the woman who was like a second mother to him fall to the floor in an unconscious heap. His dragon roared in rage. Blake now had the gun pointed at Dennenth’s chest. Dennenth knew that if the gun was fired at his heart in his human form it would kill him. But if fired at his dragon, it would simply piss his beast off. There was only one thing to do. Alas, it wasn’t the way he wanted Freddie to find out.
“Freddie boy, can you close your eyes for me?”
“Don’t fucking talk to him,” Blake ranted, waving the gun at Dennenth. “Where’s my fucking wi—”
Seeing his boy’s eyes close, Dennenth released his enraged dragon. He watched through its eyes as Blake stumbled backward, dropping Freddie to the floor and firing the gun randomly at the beast before him. Bullets were no match for his hearty scales, they pinged in all directions until all that was left was the clicking of a hammer against an empty chamber. Dennenth’s beast grinned and snapped at the male.
“What the fuck? Shit. Oh my God!” Blake chanted over and over. His face had gone a very pale white and he was sweating profusely. Not being able to scrabble any more he came to an incoherent heap of fear against the wall.
Too nasty to eat. Pile of ash?
No, my friend, too close to Freddie.
Take outside and toast? his dragon asked.
Although I agree, we have to let Sarah decide. It is her past and we are her future, let us not start off with something she might regret.
But she love us, will agree, his dragon argued.
Let us know for certain. Let me take over, my friend.
With a grumbling acceptance his dragon picked the male up between his teeth, making sure it didn’t touch his tongue, sure by the smell he would taste nasty, and shook him until the gun fell to the floor with a clatter. His dragon threw the man over his shoulder to the other side of the room and then gave Dennenth control to shift to his human form.
Dennenth frowned when he scented urine and blood in the air. Looking across the room at the male slumped against the opposite wall, he saw a damp patch on the man’s crotch. There didn’t seem to be any sign of blood on him, but the smell was growing stronger. Twisting around, he turned to Freddie’s small body lying on his side not far from them both. He wasn’t moving. Shit!
Youngling hurt.
Falling onto his knees, Dennenth reached for Freddie and gently turned him over. His skin was cold and clammy, and there was blood seeping from the boy’s shoulder.
“Sarah!” he shouted. “Sarah!”
He tore off his shirt and placed it over the wound. He was of two minds—he wanted to rip off Blake’s head and feed it to the dogs while another part of him wanted to rewind time until before Freddie was hurt. Tears blurred his vision.
What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t think properly. He—a fucking dragon shifter with magic at his fingers—couldn’t get his mind to think. This was his fault. Fucking hell, why did he change? Why couldn’t he keep his family safe? Guilt swamped him. Anger raged inside of him.
* * * *
Sarah didn’t want to hide in the safe room. She wanted to find Freddie and Rosa. She sat on the floor and scanned each and every screen. Where were they? She could see Dennenth walk calmly down the stairs. How could he be so calm?
“I know you’re here, so you better come out and step before me, because if I have to hunt you down, you won’t see the morning sunrise.” His tinny voice filled the room from the two speakers built into the wall.
She gasped when she saw the appearance of a ragged figure on another screen. Blake. He pushed Rosa in front of him and walked into the hallway, carrying a very frightened Freddie on his hip. Time had not been good to her ex, he looked really rough.
She couldn’t believe that at one time she had loved him. Her heart broke again seeing Freddie so damn scared. Should she go out and help him? No, she had to stay there. But could she watch something happen to either Dennenth or her boy? No, Dennenth would be okay, he was a dragon shifter.
With the thoughts running through her head she didn’t hear the full conversation between the men. It was Rosa falling to the floor that brought her back into the here and now.
“Freddie boy, can you close your eyes for me?”
Why was Dennenth asking him to close his eyes?
“Don’t fucking talk to him,” Blake ranted, waving the gun at Dennenth. “Where’s my fucking wi—”
In a flash Dennenth’s garnet red dragon appeared, filling the hallway and snapping at Blake who, in his fear, dropped Freddie on the floor and was scrabbling backward, firing the gun. Sparks flew and rebounded off the scales she had lovingly stroked her hand across not a few hours before. She watched the dragon stretch its neck and pick Blake up in its mouth, shake him, then throw him over its shoulder to the opposite side of the hallway. Then, after a brief pause, Dennenth was back in his male form.
Her eyes flickered to Freddie. Her boy wasn’t moving. He was so still. Had he hit his head when he fell? Not being able to watch any more she stood and opened the safe room door, running toward her family.
She heard Dennenth’s cries before she reached the stairs. Something was wrong. She had never heard and felt such pain come from Dennenth before. She wavered on the top step as his pain overwhelmed her. Her chest constricted. No. No, not Freddie. The stairs seemed to go on forever. Running down them, she reached the bottom to see her man leaning over the small, frail body of her son who was bleeding.
“One of the bullets must have ricochet off my scales. Oh God, I’m so sorry.” Tears were running down the big man’s face. He looked petrified.
Kneeling down, she felt for the boy’s pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the weak thump of it. “Hospital, we have to get him to hospital, unless you can work some magic?”
“Magic?” he asked, stunned.
“Yes, come on, Dennenth, we need you,” she shouted, anger creeping in.
“I can remove the bullet, but I won’t be able to heal him.”
“No, but I can.” A deep voice came from behind them.
With a squeak she turned to see Troy and Pete standing behind them. Sarah hadn’t even been aware they
had entered the house.
“Remove the bullet, then move over, my friend.” He barked the order at Dennenth.
Still kneeling before their boy, Dennenth opened Freddie’s torn shirt and hovered a hand above the bleeding wound. The skin and muscle in the wound wiggled and moved until she spotted a metal object appear and move on its own to sit on top of the broken skin. Picking the object up, Dennenth moved aside.
He gathered her in his arms and held her while they watched Pete place his hands over Freddie’s shoulder. She watched in awe as the blood seeping through his thick fingers lessen until it stopped. Color gradually started to come back into the boy’s face. Pete pulled his hands away, and she saw only a pink, puckered scar left behind.
“It’s all I can do. It’s up to him now,” Pete said, moving away.
“Thank you, my friend.” Dennenth released her and lifted Freddie up into his arms.
“What do you mean it’s up to him? Why aren’t we taking him to the hospital?” Sarah asked.
Pete put a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him and into his piercing blue eyes. “He will be fine, Sarah. He lost a lot of blood, but between us the bullet is out and the wound repaired. Take him to bed and let him sleep. He won’t feel any pain when he wakes, Dennenth’s magic can do that.”
She turned to look first at her boy then up at her man who still had wet cheeks from the tears he had cried.
“What happened here?” Troy asked as both she and Dennenth started up the steps.
It was then she remembered Blake. She looked back to where she’d last seen Blake, but her gaze met nothing but bare floor. Pete was leaning over Rosa, his hands hovering over her head. She was beginning to come around and cursing up a steak in Spanish.
“Shit!” Dennenth cursed. “Fucking Blake, Sarah’s ex, he came in with a gun.”
“Take them upstairs.” Troy nodded to Sarah and Freddie. “Rosa, go with them until we search the place,” he ordered, then left with Pete.
Chapter 11
After checking around the house and the surrounding area, Pete and Troy found that Blake’s scent disappeared around the corner. With the recent scent of exhaust fumes they concluded Blake had escaped in a vehicle of some kind.
With the house once again locked up after Dennenth’s friends had left, Sarah and her man sat beside Freddie’s bed, watching the small boy sleep. He looked so fragile.
Dennenth hadn’t uttered a word. His face offered no clues as to what he was thinking. If it wasn’t for their bond, Sarah wouldn’t have known of the guilt and self-loathing he was feeling. Standing up from the edge of Freddie’s bed where she’d been sitting, she took the few steps to reach her man and crawled into his lap, breathing a sigh of relief when his hands reached around and pulled her closer to him. She ran her nose along the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. Earthy, musky, and all Dennenth.
“I love you, Dennenth. None of this was your fault.” She pulled back from his neck to look up into his beautiful gray eyes. They still hid all his emotions from her, and he never took his eyes off Freddie. “You don’t have to hide behind a mask. We’re joined, and I can feel everything. Look at me, my mate.”
Ever so slowly he dropped his gaze and stared directly into her eyes. Tears welled in his eyes, and the corner of his lips dropped. “I hurt our boy, Sarah, and I can’t take that back. What if he hates me when he wakes up?”
She stroked up along his cheek to grab hold of his ear between a finger and thumb and pinched.
“Hey.” He frowned and pulled his head away from her hand.
“Oh, I’m sorry I hurt you, but I can’t take it back. Do you still love me?”
“That is nothing at all like what I did to Freddie.”
“No.” She again ran a hand over his cheek, her thumb collecting a tear that had fallen. “You didn’t hurt him. Blake did. He was the one who fired the gun. He was the one who hurt Freddie, not you.”
“Woman, are you not listening to me? He was hurt because the bullets ricochet off my scales.”
“Dennenth, listen to me. It wasn’t your fault. If it was, I wouldn’t be sitting here on your lap trying to convince you otherwise.”
His head drooped and his forehead touched hers. “I wouldn’t hurt him ever. You know that, right?”
“I know, my love. And you can tell your dragon that it wasn’t his fault either. You were trying to help. You could have been killed if he hadn’t come forth, right?”
“He wants to fly and seek out the bastard, no matter if the humans see us.”
“That would make the front page in the papers tomorrow for sure. Big red dragon seen flying over London.” She smiled.
“It should have been me, Sarah. I shouldn’t have changed...”
“Dennenth Sharp, if you hadn’t changed you’d probably be dead! Don’t you dare say you would rather be dead instead of Freddie hurting! If I get this dragon bonding thing right, I would wither and die without you, wouldn’t I? If you had died, that would have left Freddie no better off, so don’t you even think about it. The bullet ricocheting was a fucking accident.”
Dennenth’s head shot up and he once again looked into her eyes. “You swore.” He smiled.
“Yes, I did, and it’s entirely your fault. You made me do it.”
One of his hands left her waist and snagged her hair, pulling her closer so he could kiss her. Teeth clashed. Tongues entwined. They kissed with passion. They were alive. Freddie was alive. They kissed until they were both left panting.
Pulling back, Dennenth whispered, “I love you, Sarah Porter. Will you marry me?”
“You sure do let them emotions bounce around, don’t you?” She smiled up at him, feeling the nervousness coming from him.
“Are you going to answer me, woman?”
“I’m already your mate. You have me already, Dennenth Sharp, but yes, I’ll marry you.” She knew her face mirrored his. He lowered his head and kissed her again.
“I will do better at protecting you, darlin’. You and our boy and any other dragonlings that come along.”
“All I ask is that you be yourself. Whatever comes along we will combat it together.”
“Mummy?”
They broke apart and looked around to see Freddie beginning to sit up in his bed.
“Hey, baby.” Sarah climbed off Dennenth’s lap and went straight over to her boy, feeling his head. “No temperature. Cool as a cucumber.” She smiled. “Do you remember what happened?”
His mouth opened in a big O and his eyes shot wide. He answered so fast she would have thought he’d been given a whole bag of sugar to eat.
“Isawagreatbigreddragon in our hallway. Mummy, he picked bad daddy up and threw him across the room after I hurt my arm.” Getting to his knees, he bounced a little and asked, “Is it still there? ’Cause I want to thank him for helping me.”
“I thought I told you to close your eyes, little man,” Dennenth said with amusement.
“I did at first, but then bad daddy dropped me on the floor and I hurt my arm. Did you see the dragon, Denny?”
“I see the dragon loads. But he likes to stay secret, so we can’t tell anyone, okay? Because if anyone else was to see him, they would want to take him away.”
“I won’t tell no one, Denny, but do you think I can see him again one day and be his friend?”
“I’m sure he would like that.”
Freddie climbed off his bed and onto Dennenth’s lap. Wrapping his tiny arms around Dennenth’s neck, he squeezed. “Thank you, Denny. I love you.”
Tears formed in her own eyes now. Her boy had just handed Dennenth his heart on a plate.
“I love you too, son.”
“Aww, now isn’t this a pretty picture?”
Sarah looked up to see Rosa standing in the doorway holding a breakfast tray.
“Rosa!” Freddie was off Dennenth’s lap in a flash and had his arms tightly wrapped around Rosa’s legs.
“That’s a nice greeting, boy, but come o
n, this old woman has some rooms to clean.”
“You were told to take the day off, Rosa. Several days, in fact,” Sarah said, using the voice she would use when talking to a naughty student.
Rosa just rolled her eyes.
Sarah shook her head. Nothing kept that woman down. Walking over to her with a smile, Sarah took the tray from her and placed it on the bedside table, then she sat back down on the bed.
“Rosa?” Freddie asked in a small voice, looking up at her.
“Yes, little man?”
Freddie dropped his gaze to the floor. Sarah’s immediate reaction was to get back off the bed and cross the room to her son, but with a wave and frown from Rosa she stopped halfway.
“You aren’t angry at me for what he did, are you?”
Rosa squatted down, picked the small boy up in her arms, and stood looking him square in the eyes. “Boy, did you hit me on the head with a gun?”
Freddie looked shocked. “No.”
“Then why would I be angry at you?”
“Because he was my daddy.”
“But you didn’t ask him to do it, did you?”
“No.” His small hands reached up and touched Rosa’s face, then he leaned in and whispered something Sarah couldn’t make out. But judging by the grin on the woman’s face and the kiss she planted on his cheek, Rosa seemed happy with it. She watched Rosa whisper something back to him which made her boy blush and hunch his shoulders with a smile.
“Right, you go and eat your breakfast, and I’m going to go clean those rooms that need doing.” Putting him down, Rosa nodded to both Sarah and Dennenth and left the room.
Freddie bounded back over to his bed and the waiting food.
“Freddie, why did you think Rosa would be angry at you?” Sarah asked tentatively.
He dropped the piece of toast he’d picked up. “Because of what daddy did.”
“But none of that was your fault, sweetheart. You know that, right?”
“But daddy said it was all my fault that you left him. If it wasn’t for me, you would still be at home.”
She couldn’t help the tears that welled up and began falling down her face. “Oh baby, it wasn’t your fault at all. Daddy and I just didn’t love each other anymore. It had nothing to do with you. In fact...” She wiped away some of her tears. “You made me stronger and a whole lot happier.”
