Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “So Eamon couldn’t know if he loved Autumn in less than a week?”

  “No,” Siobhan said defensively. “Yes. I don’t know. The point is, I don’t know. He has visions of flying through the sky with a golden dragon, and he thinks that golden dragon is his guardian angel. His salvation.”

  Ronan’s eyebrows climbed so high on his forehead that they almost disappeared into his hairline. “Wow. And he doesn’t know that he’s seeing you?”

  “No clue.”

  “Wow,” he said again. “Siobhan, that sounds to me like it means something. Aren’t his visions predictive?”

  “That’s the theory.”

  Ronan chuckled. “You sound so resentful.”

  “I’m not,” she said. “I’m really not. I like him a lot. I’m just confused. When we first met, I was so sure he wasn’t the one, and now I wonder if I’m just jumping to the conclusion that he is because I want my partner. Maybe his visions are based on some connection to me. He has psychic connections to people, where he feels their emotions like his own. Maybe we’re feeling each other’s emotions. Maybe the whole thing is fake or wrong or—”

  “Siobhan, shut the hell up.”

  Surprised, Siobhan blinked at him. “What?”

  “That’s what you would say to me, if I was being this ridiculous. You’re scared, and I get it, but stop questioning this thing. You know Moira wasn’t crazy about Grady at first either. That means nothing.”

  “They didn’t decide that they couldn’t even be in the same room together.”

  Ronan leaned forward, looking at her intently. “Stop worrying. This isn’t like you. You’re impulsive and adventurous and a risktaker. Why is this different?”

  “It’s never mattered so much,” she said quietly. “If I go all in, and I’m wrong, I can’t take it this time. And …the reason he’s in this bed is because I went out flying last night and left him alone in the house. His first thought if he finds out who I really am is going to be associated with me going out flying instead of being there to help him.”

  “If that’s really how he thinks, then he’s not the one,” Ronan said firmly. “He’s not going to blame you, Siobhan. You’re blaming you. That’s all. And I’ve had about enough of it. Cut it out.”

  “You’ve been here for ten minutes! You’ve had enough of it already?”

  He chuckled, his tired eyes still containing a bit of his old twinkle. “Yeah, you’re damn right I have. The girl I know goes all in on every hand of poker because it’s better to play and lose than not to play. So get a grip, or I’m going to launch an investigation into who swapped bodies with my friend Siobhan MacFaddan.”

  Siobhan had to laugh. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” he said, patting her arm again. “I’m going to take that as agreement that I’m right and will be listened to.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Good.” Ronan stood up. “I’m sorry to go before he wakes up, because I’d be happy to meet him. But something tells me I’ll have other opportunities. I just wanted to come make sure things were under control. You let me know if you need me, okay?”

  She stood up too, walking him to the door. “Answer your phone now and then, and I will.”

  “It’s a promise,” he agreed, hugging her lightly at the door and then walking out into the hallway.

  Siobhan watched him walk away, noting the slight limp that he had and the way his shoulders hunched over, as though his body hurt. Something was wrong with Ronan. Something terrible. He said that he had it under control, and she trusted him, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch him suffer. He was like a big brother to her, and just the past few minutes of talking to him had reminded her what a valuable presence he was in her life.

  “Please be okay,” Siobhan said under her breath, as Ronan got onto the elevator, still drawing looks from every female nurse in the place, despite his tired looks. “We need you.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Julian

  He went through a sterilization irrigation procedure and a local anesthesia suture procedure and a couple of blood transfusions before lunchtime. By three o’ clock that afternoon, he was able to both keep his eyes open for longer than five minutes at a time and remember the things that people were saying to him, neither of which he could manage just an hour before. By six o’clock that night, when the nurses brought him dinner, he had thoroughly examined what was to be a new jagged scar on his left pectoral and was ready to get out of the hospital bed he’d been trapped in and get back to work.

  Siobhan had been in and out of the hospital room all afternoon, and she was always there when Julian woke up, leaving only to field phone calls, sneak him food from the fast-food places down in the cafeteria, and go to the bathroom. He was glad to have her with him, and he kept reaching out for her, taking her hand and pressing it to remind her that he was grateful.

  But now it was past dinner and he’d suffered through the thick slabs of processed turkey meat, white paste roll, flavorless green beans, and Jell-O cup that had been offered to him for a meal. He was ready to be done with the hospital, and everyone knew it.

  “I’m writing a review about this place on my blog,” he muttered, pushing away the tray that contained leftover slab remnants that he couldn’t manage to consume. “And it’s not going to be a positive article.”

  “Yeah, well, I have worse news for you,” Siobhan told him. “Your parents are going to be here any minute.”

  His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. “What? Why? How? Why?”

  “Because your mother is listed as your emergency contact,” Siobhan told him. “So I had a nurse check, and then we gave her a call, because all parents need to know when their kid is in the hospital.”

  “No, they don’t!”

  “Yes, they do.”

  “No, they really don’t.”

  “Yes, they really do,” she insisted, unbothered by his indignation. “It would not be good if she found out later, and if she’s ever going to see you without a shirt on again, then she’s going to find out, Mr. Lightning Scar.”

  He groaned, his head falling back. “Siobhan, I can’t believe you did this.”

  “What, you don’t like your parents?”

  “I love my parents,” he said, picking his head back up. “But they’re very …Italian.”

  She lifted her eyebrows at him, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back in the chair she had been sitting in all day. “Meaning?”

  “Meaning …”

  He didn’t have time to explain. The door opened and instead of a sweet, helpful nurse appearing with a plate of decent-quality food, his mother’s round, lined face appeared instead, framed by dark hair that had thick streaks of gray through it.

  “Oh, mia figlio! Son astato cosipre occupato!” Bellina Giordano walked in, followed by a short, squat man with a bald head and a friendly-looking face. “You are dying! I have been crying so many tears.”

  “Hi, Mom,” Julian said, giving her a slight smile. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

  “I have worried all day long, for so many hours, but you do not call me!”

  Siobhan cleared her throat. “I only called them an hour ago,” she told him.

  He didn’t doubt her. His mother had a dramatic way about her, which was why he wouldn’t have thought to tell her about something as potentially upsetting as a stab wound to the chest, caused by a man who had broken into the house with the intention of murdering the woman he was sleeping with.

  “Mama, take a breath,” Julian encouraged, returning her hug gingerly, and wincing when she wasn’t nearly ginger enough. “I’m fine.”

  “You’ve been shot!”

  “Stabbed,” he corrected. He lifted his good hand to wave at his dad. The two men had an understanding, and they had for a while. Bellina Giordano could not be contained. It was better not to try.

  “Now, now,” Alberto Giordano said, seemingly to everyone in general, as he walke
d over and patted Julian hand. “Mi dispiace, Julian. Are you in pain?”

  Julian shook his head. “Not much now. I’m on pain meds, although not as good as the ones they gave me last night when I was brought in.”

  “Last night!” Bellina gasped, covering her hands with her mouth. “Dio mio, Julian. Here, all alone. You were so afraid.” She went to hug him again, but Siobhan took her arm, holding her back.

  “Mrs. Giordano, Julian is going to be just fine,” Siobhan said firmly. “Here. Sit down. He needs to be handled very carefully. Touching is not a good idea right now.”

  Bellina sniffed at Siobhan, taking her arm away. “I will not sit. You lure my son to your bed and he ends up here! You are American woman, with bad morals.”

  “Mama!” Horrified, Julian sat up in bed even though the movement shot pain through him, ready to defend Siobhan regardless. “You will not talk to her that way.”

  “Bellina, back down,” Alberto said, shaking his head at his wife. “We let him make his own decisions. He doesn’t need your approval.”

  “Also, you’re an American woman,” Julian said. “You were literally born in this hospital, if you recall. I know your heritage is important to you, but don’t use it to insult the woman who has been here all day taking care of me, and who was the one who decided to call you at all. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have told you, because you can’t handle these things.”

  Tears welled up in Bellina’s eyes, and she put her hands over her face. “I am just scared. My baby is so hurt! I cannot be blamed for what I say.”

  “Oh yes, you can,” Julian assured her. “Now, apologize to Siobhan. Right now, Mama.”

  Siobhan shook her head at him, indicating that it wasn’t necessary, but Julian insisted again.

  “Mama. Right now.”

  “Mi dispiace,” Bellina said, with no small amount of reluctance, as she cut her eyes toward Siobhan.

  “No problem,” Siobhan said, taking her own seat in the chair, since Bellina wasn’t going to sit down. “I mean, you weren’t wrong. I did lure him to bed, and he did end up here. And my morals probably aren’t all that great. I stole a pair of tweezers from the store when I was eleven because my mom wouldn’t let me use hers to pluck my eyebrows.” She tapped her finger between her brows. “They were out of control.”

  Julian had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud, and when he glanced toward his father, he saw that Alberto was in the same boat. One of the reasons that Julian rarely introduced his friends or girlfriends to his family was because of his mother’s overwhelming personality, but now that he thought about it, Siobhan might be the one woman who could handle Bellina without blinking an eye. She said so many shocking things herself that Bellina might actually think twice before trying to run all over her.

  Bellina clearly didn’t know how to respond to Siobhan, so she turned back to Julian. “What happened, figlio mio? How did you become this way?”

  He assumed she was talking about his injury, and not his own character, though with Bellina you could never be sure. “Mama, it was just a weird thing, okay? The guy who did it wasn’t targeting me. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s all.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Wrong place, yes.”

  “Mama.”

  Quickly, because she didn’t want to face his wrath, she moved on. “Where is this man who hurt you? Where is he?”

  “Bellina,” Alberto said, shaking his head. “You know the answer to that already. The nice young lady explained it all on the phone.” He offered a smile to Siobhan, who saluted him in return. “They’re working on finding the man, remember? Siobhan is a detective.”

  “Then where is he?” Bellina demanded, turning to Siobhan, her eyes filling again. “You have to save his life.”

  Siobhan blew out a breath, her hair lifting off her forehead from the puff of breeze. “Yikes. I mean, I would, but my bad morals are calling me to go out and party tonight.”

  Again, Julian bit his lip to keep from laughing. He didn’t correct Siobhan, figuring that she had every right to defend herself.

  Bellina, though, didn’t get the joke. “You cannot!”

  “I know I cannot,” Siobhan said, getting to her feet and walking over to Julian. “Look, you catch up with your mom and dad, okay? I’m going to use the time to go out in the hallway and follow up on all the people I have working to track down Xander.”

  “You don’t have to go,” he told her, holding her hand to keep her close.

  She smiled and kissed him. “I’m not running away. I just want to get some work done while you have company.”

  Julian kissed her back, wishing he could keep her close, but releasing her hand because he knew she needed to work. “I’ll be here.”

  “You’d better be.” She pointed a finger at him, then turned to his parents with a smile. “Nice to meet you both. Bellina, mi è piaciuto davvero solo Alberto.” Patting the woman on the shoulder, Siobhan headed out of the room, her phone in her hand.

  This time, Julian did laugh out loud, looking at his mother’s shocked face. “Well, Mama, someone finally told you the truth. Dad’s more fun than you.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Siobhan

  Bellina Giordano didn’t bother Siobhan at all, but she was still happy to escape that room and let the three family members talk while she made her way down to the much-quieter visitor’s lounge, plopped down in a chair, and put her feet up on the one across from her. Earlier that day, while Julian was having his sutures done, Moira had brought her a fresh change of clothes, and Siobhan had been able to take a shower in bathroom connected to Julian’s hospital room. So she was reasonably fresh and dressed in a pair of camouflage shorts and a black tank top.

  The first thing she did was call Eamon. He answered with his usual brusqueness, but Siobhan could hear kids playing in the background, which was a very new phenomenon for her stoic colleague and friend.

  “Hello to you too,” she said. “You at home already?”

  “Until Autumn’s shift ends in an hour, yes. Then I’m available. How’s your guy?”

  Siobhan decided not to argue with him about calling Julian “her guy.” It seemed to be the general consensus, and although she still had her concerns, her talk with Ronan had helped to ease her mind into the reality that …yeah, Julian was her guy. “He’s much better. In with his parents right now. His mother is something else. Listen, I want Melanie and her family informed of the threat against them at this point. We have more to go on than just Julian’s visions—we can actually say that we heard Xander say that he wanted to kill Melanie. But maybe I should be calling Kean. I just feel badly because I’ve drawn him into this so much, and he has that new house with Dhara to keep fixing up. They’re not unpacked yet.”

  “I’ve got it,” Eamon said. “Long as it can wait for an hour.”

  “Should be okay. Moira is monitoring Melanie right now, so there’s someone nearby, watching her.”

  “Any sign of Xander?”

  “No. But I didn’t expect any at the hospital. He walks that fine line between crazy and smart just well enough to have some feeble concept of self-preservation. He won’t come here after us, if he even knows we’re here. My gut says he’ll lie low for a little bit, then relaunch his attack. We don’t know how badly he’s hurt.”

  “You checked hospitals?”

  She got up out of the chair, walking over to the visiting room window as the sky suddenly opened up and a summer thunderstorm began in earnest. Lightning flashed across the sky, and she wished she was out there, darting in and out of the bolts. “Yeah, first thing this morning. Nothing under his real name or his alias. Which could mean anything. He could have another alias that I don’t know about. Or he might not be badly hurt. Or he might have crawled away and bled to death.”

  “Or he’s too stupid-smart to know that he needs to see a doctor.”

  Siobhan gave a short laugh. “That too. Julian knows that the gun went off, and the
re was plenty of blood, though who knows whose blood was whose. But Julian can’t say for sure where the bullet landed, although he thinks he remembers Xander holding his arm to him. Anyway—now we have a lot more than visions to hold against him, so when I hunt him down, there’s not going to be any question of where he goes next. Straight to prison.”

  “You hope.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Siobhan said dryly.

  “Hey!” Eamon’s voice suddenly got loud. “Rachel—no, you can’t do that, kid.” There was a pause. “Because it’s your mom’s new food scale. Not a doll spaceship. And …because I said so. Put it down, please.” Another pause. “Yes, now. Yes, they have landed. They’ve landed because that’s not a spaceship.”

  As Siobhan cracked up on her end of the line, Eamon walked over and had to take the kitchen tool from his youngest pseudo-step-daughter, which created much bereavement on her part.

  “Okay,” Siobhan said, still laughing. “I’m going to let you go deal with that. I have a psychotic murderer to hunt down.”

  “I think you have the easier job. When Autumn gets home, I’ll go coordinate with Moira and break the news to Melanie.”

  “Thanks. Moira has been on guard duty all day. Appreciate it.”

  Eamon hung up without saying goodbye, but Siobhan was used to that. She dialed Moira and informed her of the plan, promising her that she could go home to see Grady shortly. Working around significant others was something that was still new to Siobhan, and she was trying to juggle asking her friends to help out while she stayed with her significant other and recognizing that they needed to see theirs too.

  “Love is complicated,” she sighed dramatically, turning away from the window to find that several people had walked in and sat down in the waiting room while she had been on the phone and she hadn’t even noticed. They were all looking at her quite strangely, and Siobhan couldn’t even imagine what she might have said in her conversation with Eamon—it could have been anything. She was pretty sure she had said she had to hunt a psychotic murderer.

  She smiled at them and waved. “Hey, there. Good luck with everything.”