by Alex DuBois
It seemed like they both wanted to make it work, despite what had happened. So that was something. No, that was everything. Malachai shifted into his dragon form, and Johnny, without question, climbed back up onto his back and held on for the takeoff.
“Take us there, love,” Johnny murmured, and if Malachai had been able to smile in his dragon form, he would have done so. Love. It meant a lot to hear that one word coming from his mate. It always did, but even more so now.
He took off, and as he did, he could swear that he felt eyes on him. Peter, no doubt, checking to make sure that he had left. It seemed that the bear didn’t want them as permanent neighbors, and really, Malachai wasn’t even sure he could blame him.
Malachai had been acting to protect his mate, and he would do the same thing again in a second. Only maybe he would think a little bit more about how he protected Johnny and their baby.
He’d been so wrapped up in his rage and protectiveness that he hadn’t even noticed that the bear that had attacked them was a bear shifter and not just a grizzly. That, he should have noticed, and he was really sort of ashamed of himself for the whole thing.
This was so new to him. Having a mate, well, he’d heard stories about how protective it could make a dragon (and probably other shifters, too) but he’d never experienced it himself. He’d never felt responsible for anything or anyone other than himself, and maybe his brothers. It was going to be a balancing act.
On the other hand, it hadn’t been a completely horrible night. He’d learned valuable things about his mate. For instance, he’d never known how emotional Johnny was, how he could connect so easily to people, even to animals, and care about what happened to them.
It was that very trait that had saved them, Malachai was sure of it. He was equally sure that Johnny would, no matter the human’s misgivings, be an incredible father to their baby. He wouldn’t be able to help it.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. He stayed far up in the sky so that no one would be likely to see him. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to identify him as a dragon. Whenever there was cloud cover, he used it, but sometimes there wasn’t and the only thing to do was to keep on flying.
Occasionally, they stopped and rested, and luckily none of the areas that Malachai chose were inhabited. They ate and took care of themselves, but as soon as they could, they were back in the air.
There was this urgency that they both felt to just have this over and done with. Johnny felt it as strongly as Malachai did. Even Malachai had no idea how his big brother would react to this, but it was going to be better to have that figured out.
Finally they landed. It had been centuries since Malachai had seen Levi’s main house just outside of New York, but nothing had changed.
Malachai had to wonder if Levi himself would be the same. He rather thought so, but would that end up being a good thing or a bad thing?
* * *
Johnny was sheltering in a little tent that Malachai had made out of one bright orange wing. He could feel the apprehension coming from his mate and he did his best to soothe him while he was still not sure what was going to happen himself.
Malachai stayed in dragon form. Anything else would be considered to be impolite. As he waited, he tried to calm himself down a little. This was, after all, his brother. The only thing was, Levi was also the most dangerous, powerful dragon on the entire continent.
The minutes passed slowly, feeling like hours, but it was less than five of those long minutes before a huge golden form appeared in the sky, shining like the metal it resembled so strongly.
Levi landed, huge and strong and powerful, with a much more sturdy build than Malachai’s more slender one, and Malachai had to smile. It was good to see him. A little bit scary, yes, but so good. It had been a long time.
“What brings you to honor me with your presence, brother?” Levi asked, and even in his draconic form, he sounded amused and curious. That was a good sign, Malachai figured.
Levi looked the same as ever. Bigger, maybe, but he still had those same golden scales and gleaming gold eyes. It was reassuring, in a way, that not much had changed.
“I have someone I’d like you to meet,” Malachai said, his voice more confident than he felt. He raised his wing and Johnny peered out, and Malachai was proud of his mate. He gave a little gasp, but he didn’t scream and run. Given how big Levi was, that was impressive. Of course, Johnny was no stranger to dragons at this point.
Instead, even though Johnny’s green eyes were huge and wide with fear and wonder, he actually tried to speak to Levi. How many humans would be brave enough to do that while Levi was in dragon form?
“Hey,” Johnny said, while Levi looked at him thoughtfully. Malachai wished he could tell what his brother was thinking. The link between them was different than that between mates. He could tell that Levi was there, as he could with any dragon if he paid close attention and was very close to them, but he couldn’t sense his emotions.
The only time that a dragon was guaranteed to sense another dragon was when they were in their territory. It was an adaptation to protect the hoards that gave them their power.
“Hello, human,” Levi said back, and Malachai relaxed a little. Levi didn’t sound like he was upset that Johnny was there, and that was a starting place, anyway. Surely Levi was curious, but he was also patient.
“This is Johnny. He’s my mate, and he’s carrying my child.” Malachai figured it would be better to get that out into the open right away. The sooner it was said, the sooner he’d know Levi’s response.
Which was a lot less intense than he would have expected, as it turned out, though not entirely encouraging. Levi sighed and shook his head, seeming almost sad.
“Oh, little brother. You could have had much better timing,” Levi said, then shifted down into human form. That was the sign Malachai needed that he could do the same, and he did. In that form, he was able to put an arm protectively around Johnny, who was looking at them both in wonder. “Please come in.”
Levi opened the gate by entering a code into a panel, and it clicked and slid open. Levi walked in, and Malachai followed, bringing Johnny with him.
“What do you mean by better timing .... Oh.” Malachai stared, because out of the house walked a woman and everything made sense. Horrible, horrible sense.
The woman was beautiful, in the same way that a snake or a river or a natural landscape could be beautiful. With long, curly black hair and wild dark eyes, she had always given Malachai the impression of untamed wilderness personified. The bright, vivid green dress that she wore only encouraged that impression.
“Truly, I am happy for you.” Levi spoke quickly as the woman walked across the grass to the driveway. Her feet were bare, but she didn’t seem to notice, and Malachai knew that Johnny was staring at her.
Many humans who had come too close to her horde had been enthralled by her to their doom, and Malachai trusted to their bond but kept an arm around his mate’s shoulders, just in case.
“Thank you,” Malachai told Levi, stunned. He’d known that this confrontation was coming, but he’d sort of thought it would be in a couple of years. Or a couple of hundred, that would be even better. Certainly he’d thought that the baby would be born before he’d have to have this talk.
“Mother,” Malachai said, fighting to keep himself calm. He’d come here to face his big brother, but this was something that he simply hadn’t expected. He hadn’t sensed her, because this wasn’t his territory. Or maybe it was just that she was so old, she could cloak that. Or he hadn’t been paying close enough attention, worried as he was about Levi. He wasn’t quite sure. It could have been all of those reasons together.
Yet here she was. His mother. A force of pure chaos in the world. Neither evil nor good, just like nature.
“Hello, my son,” the woman said, and she didn’t speak English, though he knew that she could. Nor did she even speak the Portuguese that was the dominant language of her home in Brazil. No, she
spoke a language that had been spoken there far before the Portuguese had made their way to the New World.
“It’s been so long,” Malachai realized, speaking in that same language out of politeness. Not since he’d left Brazil centuries ago had he seen her. It was odd, looking at her outside of the jungle. It didn’t seem quite right, like seeing a caged lion. She and the Amazon were one and the same and didn’t belong apart.
Malachai could never be sure how his mother would react to anything. She could be warm and maternal and loving, if the mood struck her, or she could be cold and vicious. So when she wrapped her slender arms around him in a hug, he hugged her back, but he was braced for anything that might happen.
“Too long,” she told him, and her tone was faintly chiding. Only faintly, though. They both knew why Malachai had left Brazil all of those centuries ago, and they both knew there was no real point in speaking about it now.
Malachai pulled back a little, looking at Johnny who had no idea what was going on. How could he? No humans even spoke the language that they were speaking anymore, and it had never been spoken outside of what was now Brazil.
“You’re going to have a grandchild,” Malachai said rashly, and he heard Levi’s soft groan and saw him shake his head in belated warning. But it was too late. The words were already out, and Malachai couldn’t take them back if he wanted to.
“Malachai,” Levi warned, but their mother had already heard the words that had been said. She pulled away from Malachai, and her face, which had been open and loving, closed off and became stern, haughty.
“I came up here because I heard that a human male had given birth to a dragon baby. A female dragon baby. I had to see for myself, and I find that my own son has sunken to the same depths of depravity? Taken part in the same abomination, the same crime against nature itself?”
Malachai was very glad suddenly that Johnny couldn’t hear those words. Trust his mother not to care about what effects her words might have on the humans around her. Then again, she’d never seen humans as anywhere near equal to dragons. At least never while he’d known her.
“It’s not like that. It wasn’t a decision that I made. It’s fate. He’s my life mate, and there’s no other way that that could go,” Malachai said, and he had to smirk a little. Even after all these years, his mother had the power to make him feel like a petulant, whiny child. He forced himself to speak calmly and quietly, for all that it would help.
She sneered at him, her pretty face contorting as she faced off against him. She was a small woman, but he knew very well just how powerful she was. Still, this was something that was quite honestly out of his control, that he couldn’t change even if he wanted to, which he didn’t.
“Life mate, fate. Human nonsense, my son. Dragons are not meant to mate for life.” She turned to Levi, giving him a searching look. “Did you know about this?”
Levi shook his head, and Malachai knew, of course, that he was telling the truth. Maybe it was a good thing, after all, that he hadn’t been able to simply call his big brother to tell him. Levi hadn’t had any clue until Malachai had told him less than ten minutes ago.
“It’s not human anything, mother. It’s old dragon lore. I know you’re an egg bearer, but this has been happening to male dragons for all of history.” Malachai had to struggle more to keep his voice calm. Going against his mother was never a safe thing to do, but he also wouldn’t just stand there and listen to her saying horrible things.
“I know this,” she hissed, and anger crossed her face to the point where Johnny cuddled close to Malachai’s side, terrified. “Don’t presume to teach me. I am disgusted by your behavior.”
She turned to Johnny then, looking at him closely for the first time. A sneer crossed her full lips and her eyes seemed to burn with green fire.
At that moment, it was a good thing that Malachai had had the run in with the bear shifter. If not, he certainly would have attacked her. Even his mother must not look at his mate with that anger, that destructive force, in her eyes.
He was able to calm himself a little, enough to use words instead of force. He reminded himself that attacking his mother on his brother’s territory would be incredibly rude, and that helped. Levi might even help their mother, not that she’d need it.
“If you’re disgusted, it’s because you choose to be. This is a natural thing, mother, and if you wanted egg bearers, you should have had daughters.” It was an incredibly daring, impudent thing to say, and he knew it, but he was glad he’d said it anyway.
With that said, he switched back to English and pulled Johnny protectively in to him.
“Come on. We don’t need to be here,” he told him. He started to walk away and Johnny, seeming dazed, followed him. Inside, Malachai was fuming, and he knew that Johnny could feel it.
Then again, he’d always known that she would react badly. She hadn’t outright attacked him, so that was actually a lot better than it could have been.
Just as he was thinking that, she spoke again.
“I could run you off the continent completely, my son,” she said, and this time, she did speak in English. She spoke with an accent, but she was, unfortunately, completely comprehensible.
“You could,” Malachai said, feeling Johnny’s fear and surprise and hating that he hadn’t been able to shield him from her words. The fact that she’d scared his mate added an extra edge to his voice. “But to what end? What are your demands? What must I do in order to avoid that?”
Even she must know that the pregnancy was a real, incontrovertible fact at this point. It was done, and even if anything could have been done about it, Malachai would never, in a thousand years, do it.
Levi sighed and stepped in, and that was probably a good thing. That had been far too close to a challenge to his mother’s authority, and she wouldn’t like that. That had been Malachai’s way for a long time, though. When he’d left, it had partially been because he wanted to go have some fun, but part of it had been a desire to get out of his mother’s territory.
“Malachai, just go,” Levi spoke with authority, and Malachai, honestly, wasn’t inclined to challenge that just now. The situation with his mother was in danger of escalating wildly. “We all need time to adjust to this news you’ve brought. Come back in, say, a week.”
Malachai nodded. That was good advice. Nothing more could be said today, and if anyone tried, it was possible that things would be said that couldn’t be unsaid. So Malachai tugged Johnny gently away from the other two dragons, but he could feel his mother’s dark, angry eyes burning into the back of his head.
Johnny was trembling a little, and Malachai couldn’t blame him. He luckily hadn’t been able to understand most of that exchange, but he had the link with Malachai which would have given him the broad idea, and that part in English at the end ...
“I don’t think she liked me very much,” Johnny said, and Malachai couldn’t help but laugh a little. It was a relief that Johnny could make a joke at a time like this, it was exactly what Malachai needed to break the tension he was feeling.
“Let’s get a cab and get out of here,” Malachai said. They needed to be away from her, but he was feeling too drained from the long flight to fly and besides, this close to the city it wouldn’t be safe. Far too much chance that someone might see.
Johnny sat down on the curb and Malachai pulled out his phone, calling for a cab to pick them up. They could go into town, he decided. Away from his mother, who hopefully would stop short of razing the whole city to get to them if she decided she was angry enough.
To think that it had been Levi he was worried about. It turned out, that was the least of his problems, and it was almost funny, in a horrible sort of way. Of all the times that he would go visit his big brother, it had to be when his mother was around and on the warpath, besides.
Looking at Johnny, though, he had to admit to himself that he would never have it any other way. If he had to choose between his mother and his mate, it would be his mate eve
ry time.
He just wished that he didn’t have to make that choice.
Chapter Eight
Johnny
If there was an experience that Johnny heartily hoped that he would never have again, it would be being on the receiving end of those burning dark eyes. Those eyes that seemed to see him as a threat, though Johnny didn’t know why.
Malachai’s mother was terrifying. Walking away from her, it had felt sort of like he’d been walking away from someone who had a loaded gun pointed at his back. His body had been tense and tight, waiting for the shot, but it had never came.
Maybe they had Levi to thank for that. It was sort of funny that he’d been so terrified of Malachai’s brother, when he hadn’t been the problem at all. When he had, in fact, tried to defuse the situation.
Sitting down on the curb, Johnny looked at Malachai when he was done on the phone. He had questions. So many questions that he barely even knew how to start.
“Why does she hate me so much?” he started, because he seriously had no idea. Most of that conversation had been in that other language, one that sounded nothing like anything he’d heard before and people from all over the world came through Los Angeles. He would have thought that he’d heard everything.
“My mother doesn’t like any humans,” Malachai replied, sitting down beside Johnny on the curb. “She thinks she’s better than them, that they’re beneath her. She thinks that what we’re doing is disgusting.”
Johnny touched the slight curve of his stomach, stroking over it. He shook his head. He didn’t understand.
“I know a lot of humans would think that me having a baby was sort of weird, but I don’t know about disgusting.” Johnny glanced down at himself, then sighed. “What about this is disgusting, babe?”
