by Cherron Riser, Ashley Nicole Davis, Tara Ann Moore, & Taylor Lexus Brown
“You’re a dragon! When were you going to tell me you’re a freaking dragon?” To say that Sparrow was less than amused by the events at the theater would be an understatement. We had made it to an old cabin I kept in the Smokey Mountains, and I had shifted back so the two of us could talk. It had turned into her yelling at me mostly, but at least she wasn’t running and screaming in fear.
“What was I supposed to say? Hi, my name is Liam. I’m an ancient dragon, hiding from people who want to finish killing off my kind. Want to go to dinner? It doesn’t work that way, Sparrow. I was just trying to live a normal life. I was just trying to be with you,” I answered, frustrated about how my little secret had been discovered.
“I don’t know, but this certainly wasn’t the way I should have found out. And who was that woman, or dragon, or whatever? Why did she try and attack us?” Sparrow asked, pacing back and forth in the cabin we were at. I could only hope that Gwyneira wasn’t able to follow us.
I slumped down in a chair, my fingers running through my hair as I tried to compose myself. “She was the girl my parents insisted I should marry. We were betrothed when we were children, but by the time we were old enough of marry, I had fallen in love with someone else. It was many lifetimes ago, and so much has changed. I don’t know why she is here now.”
“So you were in love with another, and you left this woman hanging? That would be a good reason to come after you,” Sparrow sighed, taking a seat. “I need a drink.”
She wasn’t the only one that needed a drink. Going to the small cabinet by the fireplace, I pulled out the brandy and a couple of glasses. It wasn’t the sweet drinks Sparrow usually got, but a night like this required something a bit stronger. “Not after all this time. Sparrow, I’m many hundreds of years old. I have seen hundreds of years go by. That woman killed my wife all in the name of getting something neither of us even wanted. No, she has no reason to be here and after me. Hell, I haven’t even been with anyone since my wife.”
Silence filled the air for what felt like eternity. The two of us sat there, stewing in our thoughts. Now and then I would look over to her, curious to see what thoughts were rolling through her mind. She was distant and confused. Maybe there was even a bit of pain in her eyes. We hadn’t been dating long, but there was a real connection between us, and I had crushed it.
“Why would you want to date me if you haven’t dated in all this time? Why me after all of this time?” Sparrow looked up at me, her eyes glazed over with tears.
“When I walked into Lauren’s shop and saw you standing there, it was like seeing a ghost, a dream. I didn’t want you to know because I worried it would affect what was growing between us. Sparrow, you are her. You are the spitting image of my wife. You look like her, talk like her, act like her. You even carry her magic. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were her. You even carry her name. She was called Spearwa, which is Sparrow where I am from. When I saw you …” There weren’t any more words for me to say. I was pretty certain I sounded like a crazy person, and I refused to let myself come off as some sort of whiny sap.
Getting up, I moved over to where Sparrow sat leaning against the window nook. She had pulled a pillow on her lap and stared at me as if I was as crazy as I felt. Those big eyes drew me in; the way her lips formed a nearly perfect “O” left my mouth watering. If I was going to ruin everything, I might as well get what I wanted out of it.
Letting my fingers sink into her hair, I took a deep breath and then kissed her deeply. That spark I often felt when we touched multiplied tenfold. She had to have felt it too, because before I knew what was happening, her legs were wrapped around me, and she was pulling me tightly to her. My arms took hold of her more tightly, and our kiss took on a rather hungry and frantic sense of urgency. Had part of her known there was more between us from the start? Did her soul need me to let the truth be known for us to be happy?
It wasn’t worth questioning in that moment. All I really wanted was to hold her, kiss her, and love her until the end of time. Tomorrow may come and steal her away from me again, so I wasn’t going to waste one more second. I lifted her from the nook and carried her into the bedroom before tossing her down on the bed. The sight of her lying there in a haphazard mess made every nerve in my body ignite with desire. Oh, how I needed her. There was no stopping it. The stress and worry of the day disappeared as I fell to her, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, my heart, my body, and my soul were all as one.
