“I know that, but I don’t like . . . ”
“I know you don’t like people son.” The Chief looked him in the eyes. “But you can’t spend the rest of your life cooped up here in this fire house. You need to go out and live a little. I don’t know about yourself, but if I wasn’t married I would have jumped at the chance to take that girl out.”
“She is beautiful, isn’t she?” Gabriel responded before he realized what he was saying and afterward he stood with a puzzled look on his face.
Now why in the hell did I say that, he thought as the Chief turned and walked away with a smile on his face. He had an unsettled feeling that he knew exactly why he said it, but he didn’t think that he was ready for that. Not yet. Not so soon. He shook his head from side to side as he walked back to the weight bench. As he sat down, he stared at nothing and tried to clear his head.
~~~
Gabriel slept in the fire house the same as he had every night for the last six years, but it wasn’t a drunken induced sleep. In fact, he didn’t even go to the bar. When he woke the next morning, his head was surprisingly clear and he was nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been nervous about something. Burning buildings didn’t even make him flinch, but a dinner date with a girl made him wake up in a cold sweat.
It’s anxiety, he tried to tell himself. He knew better, but it helped him get out of bed and get dressed. He made his way to the cafeteria and had breakfast with the guys. They all greeted him with nods as he sat down, but none of them spoke. After six years they knew by now that they would get nothing out of him other than grunts or an occasional shoulder shrug anyway.
After breakfast Gabriel puttered around the fire house for most of the day. He went on a few calls, but nothing serious. Around six o’clock he went to the locker room and took a much needed shower. As he showered, he thought about Samantha and how she made him feel. Unless he was saving them from a burning building just being around women made him nervous. Brent had been the one that was good with the ladies. This time seemed to be different though. She didn’t just make him nervous. She made him downright uncomfortable and took the words right out of his mouth. Over the years he and his brother had tried to learn as much as they could about themselves and their dragon ancestry. One thing that he remembered well was that there were very few females in the world that were compatible with a dragon shifter. These women were called dragon mothers by the shifter community and they were highly sought by many people. There were many races of shifters who would like to see the dragons unable to reproduce, so the dragon mothers were protected to the fullest extent by the dragon shifters. Deep in thought, he stepped out of the shower and placed a towel around his waist. Maybe she is a dragon mother, he thought. If she is it falls on me to watch over her and make sure she lives. He looked at himself in the mirror and grimaced. His face was covered with a long, unkept beard. That was something that he would never have allowed to happen if Brent had still been alive. The thought of Brent made him sad, but he shoved it down and grabbed his razor, a comb, and a pair of scissors from his locker.
Half an hour later he emerged from the locker room a whole new man. His beard was trimmed and cropped close to his face in a way that accented his features other than covered them. The Chief stood outside the door and when Gabriel walked out he gave a low whistle.
“Looking good son. Looking real good.”
“Thanks Chief.” He was embarrassed by the attention, but he tried not to let it show. “I thought I would try to look presentable for that woman’s sake.”
“Well, you certainly look it. What time is she picking you up again?”
“Eight o’clock sir. Why?”
“It’s five minutes after seven and she’s already here. That’s why.”
“Maybe she is going to cancel. She might have things to do.”
“I doubt it.” The Chief said with a smile.
“What is it? Why are you smiling?”
“Just go see for yourself.” As Gabriel walked away the Chief’s smile widened and he called out. “And Gabe. Take the night off. You’ve earned it.”
Gabriel started toward the front of the building, but the Chief stopped him.
“And Gabe.”
“What?” He spun around.
“You might want to change out of your robe before you go. Then again, you might make a hell of a fashion statement in it.”
“Damn.” Gabriel hurried into the locker room and shuffled through the clothes in his locker. They were the only clothes he owned in the world. He wasn’t sure what he should wear, so he finally settled on a dark button-up shirt and a pair of black jeans. He pulled on the only pair of civilian shoes he had, a scuffed pair of leather boots and rushed out of the locker room.
He slowed his pace as he neared the front of the building and stepped out in the garage where the fire trucks and ambulances were kept. He glanced around and saw Samantha. She stood by one of the ambulances with the Chief.
He has to have his nose in everything, Gabriel thought as he walked over.
The Chief saw him coming and excused himself. He gave Gabriel a wink as he walked past him and whispered for him to have a good time. Gabriel nodded, but he didn’t really hear what the Chief had said. His attention was focused entirely on Samantha.
She wore a light purple shirt that accentuated her large bosom in all the right ways and a pair of blue jeans that hugged her hips. Her hair was down and seemed to flow around her face. She had on very little if any makeup which made her even more beautiful to him. He disliked it when women covered themselves in makeup to try to hide their true selves. Without a thought, he walked up to her and held out a hand. When she placed her hand in his he raised it to his lips and gently kissed the back of it.
“You look very pretty.” He told her.
She blushed brightly and turned her face down. When she spoke, it was barely above a whisper. “Thank you. You look good yourself.”
“Did you have somewhere specific in mind?” He asked her as they walked toward her car.
“I thought we might go to Vincent’s House of Noodles unless you don’t like Italian food.”
“I love it.” Right then Gabriel knew that even if he hadn’t of liked Italian food he would have said yes just the same. There was something about this girl that changed him. He just wasn’t himself when she was around. In fact, when he was around her he felt better than he had in all the years since Brent had died.
She led him to a bright green compact with a sunroof and zero headroom he was sure. Although he had tried to avoid people as much as he could he hadn’t forgotten his manners. He hurried around to her side and opened her door for her. Once she was seated, he closed her door and made his way to the other side of the car. He got a glimpse of the firehouse as he rounded the car and saw that everybody was outside. He waved them off angrily and climbed into the car. He was right it had zero headroom and his tall, muscular frame was almost more than the tiny car could handle.
Samantha started up the car and pulled away from the firehouse. As they drove, he tried his best to make small talk, but it had been years since he had spoken to a woman that he wasn’t saving and he didn’t really know how to start.
“Do you work?” As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he would have just kept quiet until they reached the restaurant.
“I go to school actually. I’m getting my masters in creative writing.”
“Writing. I never could do that.”
“Well, I’ve loved to write since I was a little kid. It suits me.” She turned right at an intersection. “How long have you been working as a firefighter?”
“About twenty years.”
“Wow. What ever made you want to go into burning buildings?”
“It was my brother actually. He was the one who always wanted to be a firefighter, so when he joined up I did the same. We did everything together like that.”
“Is he still a firefighter?”
“He’s dead
.” Gabriel’s words came out a little harsher than he would have liked, but he didn’t like talking about Brent and he wanted her to know that the subject was off limits.
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago.”
For some time after that they drove in silence. Great going, he scolded himself, you ruined the mood with your doom and gloom attitude like you always do. He racked his brain for something else to say, but he could find nothing. Never had he been so glad in his life as when they pulled up in front of the restaurant.
“We’re here.” Samantha said as she put the car in park and switched it off.
“So we are.” He looked out the window. “I’ve ate here before and the best I remember it was really good.”
“I hope so. I heard about this place from a friend and she said the spaghetti was to die for.”
“Then I know what I’m getting.”
A nervous laugh passed between them as they walked to the door. He opened it and the sounds from inside came flooding out, the clatter of plates, the chatter as people talked to one another, waiters called out orders, and a man played the violin in one corner. Gabriel held the door and let her pass through first. He followed, but not without some reluctance. It had been a long time since he had been anywhere other than the firehouse or the little dive bar a few blocks from there that he frequented nightly.
Samantha talked to the hostess and got them a table by the window and he was grateful for it. They ordered and sat in silence as they waited for their food. He once again racked his brain for something to say, but he couldn’t seem to think of anything other than how much he didn’t want to be at the restaurant. She was the one to break the silence between them.
“I have to ask something that you may not want to answer and if you don’t it’s okay.”
“What is it?” He instantly went on alert as he asked.
“How was it that you could carry me down five flights of stairs without a mask in the sheer heat of that burning building? I did some research and a man twice your size shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
He smiled wanly. “I work out a lot and I’m in good shape.”
“That might explain how you could carry me that far. I doubt it, but I might.” She leaned across the table and looked into his eyes. “But it doesn’t explain why the smoke didn’t ever make you cough or get to you. Inhaling that much smoke should have killed you, but you never even acknowledged that there was smoke.”
“I held my breath.” Oh crap, he thought, she’s not buying a single word I say. I bet next she asks me about my eyes. Why they’re like no other color of eyes that she has ever seen.
“I bet you did. So you carried me, a two hundred-pound woman, down five flights of stairs and you held your breath for the whole time all the while why you were in full firefighter gear that weighs like fifty pounds or more?”
“Yeah. That’s what happened.”
“You know I might be able to believe you if it wasn’t for your eyes.” She leaned back and took a drink of her soda.
Here it is, he thought, here comes the question. “What about my eyes?”
“They’re like no eyes I have ever seen before. Not just the color. Even though I’ve never seen a green like that before in a human. No, it’s not the color. It’s the fire that seems to burn behind them. I’ve only seen eyes like that once before in my life.”
“Where was that?”
“An old movie I used to like as a kid. It was about a dragon and he had eyes like yours.”
“So . . . what? You think I’m a dragon?” He laughed and took a nervous sip of his beer. He tried to sound nonchalant, but his words sounded fake even to his own ears. “That sounds a bit ridiculous doesn’t it?”
“It does. I don’t think that you are a dragon, but I think that you’re something special. I wonder if maybe you aren’t the next stage of human evolution or something like that.”
“Well . . . ”
An explosion from across the street caused them to both turn and look out the window. The apartment building across the way belched flames from the middle floor windows and people rushed out of the front. Gabriel and Samantha hurried out of the restaurant and looked at the burning building. A woman rushed from person to person until she made it to them. She grabbed Gabriel by the arm with a panicked look on her face.
“Please. You have to help me. Please. My husband is on the sixth floor and he can’t walk. I got out, but I couldn’t carry him. He was too heavy. Please. He was in the war and he got paralyzed. Please help him.”
“Alright, but I need you to calm down and tell me where he is.”
“On the fifth floor turn right and it’s the third door on the right. Apartment 5F.”
“Okay.” He turned to Samantha. “Keep her here. I’ll be right back.”
“But you don’t have your suit or oxygen. Can’t you wait until the fire department gets here?”
He took a look at the building and shook his head. “By the time they get here he’ll be burnt up. I have to go now.” He touched her arm and smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
*****
Gabriel rushed past the onlookers and into the burning building. He knew that he should wait for the firefighters to get there, but he also knew that if he did, the man trapped inside would die. Besides, he thought, this will be my greatest test yet. To see if I can save a man in a burning building without my suit. He took the stairs three at a time. His long legs ate up the distance. In moments he was on the top floor of the building. Smoke filled the hallway and made it impossible to see for a human, but he wasn’t a human. His eyes took on a glow as he searched for the right door. Flames erupted from below down the hall and turned the end of the hallway into an inferno in seconds.
5F was just ahead.
“Fire department! Call out!” He yelled, but no one answered.
He hoped that the man wasn’t near the door as he hit it with a shoulder and smashed it in. The apartment was already filled with smoke, but his dragon eyes allowed him to see. The living room was empty. He ran to a doorway in the back of the apartment and found a bedroom. The man lay on the floor near the bed. Gabriel knelt down beside him and touched him on the shoulder. The man coughed and opened his eyes.
“Please . . . save me.”
The man’s voice was weak and scratchy from inhaling smoke and Gabriel knew all too well that smoke inhalation killed most people before the fire ever reached them. The man had a large frame, but his legs were spindly due to lack of use. He estimated the man to weigh at least two hundred and twenty pounds. An easy carry. He hefted the man onto his shoulders and made his way out of the apartment. As he reached the door that lead to the hallway, he was confronted by a wall of flames. He could see that the flames ended just beyond the doorway. His body would shrug off the heat and the flames no problem, but he knew the man’s would not.
He checked to make sure the man was unconscious. He was. Gabriel laid him on the couch and did something that he hadn’t done since Brent died. He shifted. Beautifully toned skin turned to hard, black scales. Wings sprouted from his back. Huge leathery wings. In seconds he was twice his normal height. With a roar he embraced the dragon.
Clawed hands reached out and picked the man up. Leathery wings wrapped around him like a fireproof blanket. The dragon rushed out of the room and through the flames. For a moment the flames fully engulfed the dragon and he felt at home. The man moved slightly as the flames heated up the air around him and let out a groan, but as quickly as it happened it was over. The dragon ran down two flights of stairs with the man before he stopped. He laid the man aside and shifted once more. Leathery wings folded and disappeared into his back. Hard, black scales morphed into soft, beautifully toned skin. The shift took only seconds.
Gabriel grabbed up the man and rushed down the stairs at full speed. He could hear the man’s heartbeat with his sensitive ears, but it was growing weaker by the second. At last h
e reached the bottom floor and made a mad dash for the exit. He hurried toward an ambulance that had just pulled up amid cheers from the onlookers. The EMT’s took the man and immediately began to work on him to get his heart rate back up. The man’s wife ran to the ambulance as the EMT was about to close the door and explained that she was his wife. He let her inside and they drove away. A hand touched Gabriel’s arm and he spun around.
“That was something.” Samantha said. “You just saved a man from a burning building without anything on, but street clothes and then nobody even thanked you.”
“That’s how it usually happens. Most of the time the people are so glad to see their loved ones that they forget to say thanks. I don’t mind though. I don’t do it for the praise.”
“No, you don’t. You do it because you want to push yourself. You don’t care if you die and deep down you kind of wish that you would. But why? You have so much to offer the world Gabriel. I know you do. So why would you want to kill yourself?”
“Let’s get in your car and go for a little drive. I’ll explain.”
They climbed into Samantha’s car and pulled away just as the fire department drove up to the scene. He sat in the passenger seat for some time in silence before he directed her to pull into an alleyway. She did so without hesitation because she could tell that he needed to get something off his chest. After she shut the car off, they sat in silence for a moment until he turned to her and began to speak.
“My brother . . . Brent. He’s the reason I want to kill myself.” Gabriel explained how he and his brother had done everything together since they were newborns. He explained how they were inseparable. Then he told her how Brent had died. “We were pulling the children out of the school as quickly as we could, but it seemed that for every one we brought out there were two more trapped somewhere. We finally got what we thought was all of them out, but a teacher said she couldn’t find one of her students. A little girl. Brent turned to me and told me to stay put. ‘I’ve got this one.’ He said and ran into the building. I knew full well that the fire wouldn’t hurt him, I’ll explain why in just a moment, but the building looked like it was about to collapse from structural damage. I yelled at him to stop, but he just waved me off and ran inside. He had no more disappeared through the doorway when the building gave a shuddering groan and caved in. We dug for five hours before we found his body. The fire could never have hurt him, but twelve tons of building was more than he could take. I found out two days later that the teacher had been wrong and the little girl was out sick that day. He died for nothing. Nothing.”
Romance: Menage Romance: The French Quarter Hostages (Paranormal Action Shapeshifter MFM Bear Shifter Romance) (Fantasy BBW Taboo Interracial Love Triangle Werebear Mates Short Stories) Page 51
