by Milana Jacks
“Your real name is Michael?”
Reality slammed into me. Only my family called me that anymore, but I tried not to ruin the moment with a woman I’d spend the rest of my life with. “Mm-hm. Who told you that?”
“Arthur.”
Having her say his name with affection while my dick filled her grated on me, an unreasonable jealousy, yet reasonable at the same time. Arthur had inherited Clementine after her sister passed away, and he’d either found out, or his dragon had sensed she was also a spirit, the one who gave him partial control over his element, the one who’d kept him inside my territory all this time. By lingering inside my territory, Arthur risked our brotherhood falling apart. The only good reason for pitting our beasts against each other would be over a claim of a spirit. He hadn’t told me about Clementine either. He might still be uncertain about her being a spirit. The bird spirit might’ve confused him just as much as it had confused me.
Mother Nature had made a mistake when she gifted Clementine with both. Mother shouldn’t have packed so much power into one woman. And it was raw power. Both creatures and spirits represented energies, and I believed because Clementine carried both a bird and a spirit, she could do much more than an ordinary spirit. I didn’t like it. I feared for Clementine carrying untapped and unknown abilities. I feared the power would overwhelm her.
Mother Nature should fix her mistake, rip the bird away from Clementine and give it to another woman. Seven came to mind since Mother seemed to want to keep the bird creature in this family. A theory, seeing as I had no idea how gifting or nature worked.
As for Clementine, the spirit? She was mine. Arthur couldn’t have her. My dragon claimed her first. I heard it loud and clear. Of course, none of it mattered if she wanted Arthur. My beast stirred in my chest. I’d go crazy if I thought about her with him.
Clementine stretched and arched her back. I used the opportunity to lift the shirt and latch on to her breast. I sucked her nipple, palmed her ass, and slapped it, ready for another round. “I’m gonna tie you up and spank you silly,” I said.
“Maybe tonight, you can show me how the flogger works?”
“I can show you now.” I frowned. “Damn. Left the flogger and the cuffs at your house.”
“I can bring them back with me.”
I quit biting her pale nipple and lifted my head. “I’m not following.”
Clementine put her palms on my face and pecked my lips. “I have to go to work.”
“Huh?”
“Work. I have a store to keep, people to please. Christmas is gonna be huge for my business, and let’s pray I have a business after yesterday’s events in the upper levels. You think the cyborgs are scared?” She bit her lip. “Probably. I hope they go on about their holiday shopping, though.”
I sat up and tugged on my gray sweatpants. “Baby, you don’t have to work.”
“I like to work.” Clementine left the bed and strolled down the stairs.
I followed. When she palmed the front door handle, I pressed my hand on the wood.
Clementine spun around. “Do you have a message for Arthur? Something nice that will mend the issues you’re having? Like maybe invite him for dinner? I’m sure he could use a cooked meal. He’s been out there on his own for a while, and I know he can’t cook.”
I ground my teeth. “Why are you worried about Arthur?”
“Because he’s my dragon lord.”
I growled. “He is not your dragon lord.”
“Okay.” She patted my chest. “Listen here, Knight. I’m totally into you. I’m not into Arthur at all, not in that way. And while I’m not happy to be his bird—”
“You are not his anything. You are my spirit, my bird, my everything.”
Clementine sighed. “What do you want me to do, hm? I can’t give the bird back. I’m what Mother Nature made me, and I gotta live with it. If you can figure out how to un-bird me, great, but if not, I gotta do what I gotta do. I work in the morning, and I answer when my dragon calls.”
“If you call him your dragon again, it will make me crazy.” I thumped my chest. “The beast inside is watching you.”
She tugged my hand, trying to move it away from the door.
Not gonna happen.
“If I’m late, Seven picks up the slack. Since I’ve been doing Arthur’s something or your something, she’s been picking up a lot of slack. Let me go so I can be on time.“
“Nope. We’ll figure it out. There’s no way you are serving Arthur or going to work back inside the habitat.”
Clementine narrowed her eyes and put her hand on her hip.
I stepped back and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You don’t tell me what to do,” she said.
I smirked. “You like being told what to do.”
“Gah. You can be such a dick.”
“Two dicks put together.”
She spun around and opened the door.
I slammed it closed, then rested my forehead on top of her head. I inhaled her anger and the sweet scent of my spirit. “I can’t let you go, Clementine. It’s not gonna happen. I can’t stand the idea of Arthur around you or you inside the habitat surrounded by cyborgs. I gotta go see if my sister is better, and if she’s not at home and I can’t see her, I’ll tear apart the habitat until I find her.”
“Your sister?”
“My baby sister is sick, and they took her to a clinic. I want to see her.”
“Oh no. That’s why you were there yesterday.”
“That’s right.”
“We should find out which clinic in case she stayed the night. They allow visitors, don’t they?”
“My wolves are searching. Like I said, if they find nothing, I’ll keep circling the habitat until the colonel tells me where she is.”
“Clementine’s eyes widened. “The colonel?”
“Mm-hm. That’s the one.”
“Knight, that man is dangerous. He makes regular rounds on the ground level, picks off people from the streets, and promises them homes in the mid-level if they take implants. I heard people who refuse disappear.”
Motherfucker. “Has he ever approached you?”
“Seven. He approached Seven.”
“And?”
“She told him to shove implants up his ass.
“When was this?”
“Around Halloween.”
I paced the room. “Does Arthur know about this?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Clementine threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know. Maybe I forgot to tell him, maybe I’ve been too busy trying to crawl out of a fucking hole after my sister died.”
The scent of tears was unmistakable, and it made me pause. I crossed to her and enveloped her in a hug. Life had thrown many things at her in a short amount of time, and my spirit got overwhelmed. All the more reason why she should stay here. “I’m sorry about your sister.”
She sniffed. “Thank you.”
“Stay here and worry about nothing.” I was gonna regret this. “I’ll bring you Seven. I swear I’ll talk her into leaving the habitat. There are plenty of homes around. She’ll fit right in with the pack.”
“And Arthur?”
“Arthur has to leave. It’s a done deal. My dragon claimed his spirit, and you cannot serve him anymore.”
Clementine pushed at my chest, and I backed off. She wiped her eyes. “You have to accept the fact that I am his bird. And also another fact. I work for a living. I like working, I love my business, and I’m not gonna give it up.”
“Not happening.”
“Then there will be no us.”
My skin itched, my dragon not liking her words. “We are already…a mated pair. Dragon.” I pointed at my chest. “Dragon’s spirit.” I pointed at her chest.
“I’m leaving now.” Clementine opened the door and stepped out onto our porch. Outside, clouds gathered. The storm was coming, an elemental’s spirit mood projecting on the environment.
/> “It’s gonna rain,” I said.
“Mm-hm.” Her teeth chattered. “I can’t help it either. I know I’m doing it, I can feel it, but I don’t know how I’m doing it.”
“Birds don’t fly in bad weather.” Bullshit.
Clementine laughed and threw her hands around my neck. I bent so she could kiss me. “I love you, Knight. Did you know that?”
A mute. She slayed me. I didn’t see it coming. Only two seconds, she was upset with me, but her anger didn’t last. Clementine was one of those people who always found the bright side. Many called those people naïve, their forgiving natures making them look like fools. But it wasn’t true. Without people like Clementine, the world would be a graveyard of cynics.
“I don’t think you did,” she continued. “I love you because last night and this morning, you made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. But I love you more because you care about me. You care if I fly too high or fly at night when it’s dangerous. You care that I learn all the tricks of the trade. You always have. And I trust you. I trust you to let me do my thing. I can’t drop everything because we’re together. My job makes me happy.”
“I can make you happier.” Many people called men like me bullheaded. That was true. I would not let her go. Not ever, and no amount of reason would change my mind.
Clementine giggled. “Tonight.” She tried to get away, but I caught her waist and pinned her against me. I wanted to devour her, so I did. I slammed my mouth onto hers and fucked her with my tongue. The air around me filled with the scent of Clementine’s arousal.
All too soon, she tapped my shoulder.
I stepped back. “I’m gonna give you a ride,” I said.
“I can fly.”
“So can I.”
I ignored her protests and let out my beast.
13
Clementine
Back in the day, the first snow of the year had filled me with joy and hope because I associated snow with the holiday season. I still loved the holidays, for everyone’s spirits seemed to lift, but I hated the snow. A decade of frozen ground covered in white brought nothing but famine and fear as the temperatures kept dropping year after year.
Barefoot, I stepped onto the snow. The bitter cold bit into my foot, and I changed into my bird before my toes froze. Even in bird form, it was too cold. In front of me, the white dragon spread his wings. He didn’t bat them, didn’t need to. The air held him in position.
“You are amazing,” I messaged him in my head.
Knight landed, making the ground shake. He stomped toward me and plopped his tail on the front porch. When I didn’t climb on immediately, he thumped it. I flew and landed between his horns inside the dent on his skull. His frill started right behind the dent. It flared out protectively behind me. I’d sat inside the “nest” once before in my human form when Arthur had sent me to New Orleans with a message wishing Nentres all the best with his spirit. It’d been the first time I’d met Knight, and the first time I’d sensed Knight’s unhappiness with Arthur staying behind in his territory, especially because Knight had attended Nentres’s ball.
During our stay with Nentres, Knight had decided I was too new to roam alone, so he carried me on his shoulder, forbidding my change into a human. I followed his rules because the dragons, wolves, and outlaws out there made me uncomfortable, and also because I couldn’t handle any questions about my sister. On the way back from New Orleans, I’d flown as fast as I could, but not fast enough for Knight not to follow me. We’d paused for a rest, and he ordered me to ride him. I changed into my human form to tell him to fuck off and let me fly, but when I changed into human, I didn’t have any clothes on. Knight in dragon form had stared at me. There had been this…weird feeling as if he’d regarded me like a woman instead of a bird creature.
Looking back, the dragon must’ve sensed a spirit. The man? Not so much. That day, I had climbed up and nested in the supercomfy spot I perched on now, and had slept the entire way back. I wanted to sleep now as well, but all too soon, Knight circled the habitat. I peeked under us. “Oh hey, the plasma stayed pink. Looks nice.”
“Pink is a death trap for us.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to Nentres, the pink plasma is charged with a current. It zaps us and keeps us in place. The more we struggle, the more the current entangles us. Like a spider web to a butterfly, it keeps us in place until we can’t move anymore.”
“You think cyborgs kept it pink because of yesterday?”
“No doubt. I can’t go inside.”
“What about me?”
“You can’t either.” Air whooshed, nearly toppling me over as Knight spun around.
“Hey, go back,” I said.
“We can’t go inside.”
“You can’t, but nobody said anything about birds. Birds come and go from habitats as they please. That’s what we do, isn’t it? Spy on cyborgs, deliver news, keep an eye on things.”
“Can’t risk it. Stay in the nest.”
I took to the sky, a roaring dragon on my tail. Almost at the plasma. I closed my eyes as I pierced through, wind pulling me back toward Knight. I plunged down, right between two buildings, and flew toward my street and the small window Seven kept open for me. Too fast! I tried to break my speed. Nope. I flew right through the kitchen, caught the edge of the chair, and slammed into the wall. Unceremoniously, I slid down and changed into my human form.
Grunting, I stood, white stars playing against the black background obscuring my sight. I leaned against the wall and rubbed my forehead, feeling a bump forming. Gah, nothing beats going to work with a horn on your head.
I swayed on my feet. A strong hand caught my elbow. “Girl, we need to practice landing.”
I blinked a few times, clearing out the stars.
A familiar face appeared. Arthur smiled, his green eyes bright and reminding me of lush forests.
“Thank you,” I said as he walked me to a chair. I sat down.
“Coffee?” Seven asked from the kitchen.
“Yes, please.”
She placed the cup down in front of me and groaned as she sat down, her hair bundled in a messy bun on top of her head, yesterday’s mascara superbly showing off her big brown eyes. “He brought us coffee and whiskey. S class. Dragon boy, you’re welcome into our humble abode anytime.”
I sipped from my cup. Real black coffee unlike any other slid down my throat. “Oh my God, Arthur, where did you get this?”
“I grew it overnight.”
“Damn,” Seven said. “Can I keep you?”
Arthur smirked, his seductive green eyes lifting at the corners. “I’m taken.”
“All the good ones are.” Seven shrugged. “So what brings you here at this ungodly hour?”
Arthur leaned his elbows on the table. “Knight’s flight in the habitat yesterday didn’t go unnoticed. I’d hate to think he’d do anything to disturb this habitat seeing as his sister lives here and seeing as my bird lives here.”
Knight’s spirit also lived here, but I kept that to myself. It was too early for spirits and dragons. I needed to pick fresh flowers for work. “He didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.
“Knight always has a purpose. He doesn’t do anything without thinking it through, so what happened at his sister’s house?” Arthur sipped his coffee and raised an eyebrow above his cup.
I didn’t know if I should mention anything Knight had told me. The tightening in my chest increased as my bird creature wanted to spilled the words out. A compulsion. When my dragon lord asked, I told all. But I couldn’t tell him about Rose. That conversation was private and had been told to me beside a pillow, in a way. I wouldn’t betray my dragon Knight, but Arthur had power over me, a power that made me want to say everything I’d seen and experienced. I didn’t like it.
Under the table, I balled my hands into fists as words formed in my mind and threatened to rush out of me. I fought the pressure in my chest, trying to tell the bird to fuc
k off, and when sweat accumulated on my forehead, Seven bailed me out.
“I’m confused,” she said. “How in the world would Clementine know what happened inside Knight’s sister’s house? Clementine was working, and I know she was working because I worked with her.”
Arthur drummed his fingers on the table. “I see. What did Knight say about Rose’s parents and her decision to leave home for the new college opening up this spring?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Truth.
“Hm.”
“What?” I asked.
He put his elbows on the table and leaned in, his pupils shrinking, his dragon surfacing. “Did you deliver the flower?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Knight got trapped in the plasma and I screeched, thereby dropping the flower.”
“Did you tell him about the rose?”
“No.”
“Swear to silence.”
My chest constricted, my throat felt like I’d swallowed a fist, but words spilled out of me anyway. “I am your bird, my lord, and I swear to silence.”
“That’s good to hear. Clare would be proud.”
Oh God.
“Knight isn’t why I came here.” Arthur licked his lips. “I don’t like the pink plasma around the habitat. Today, I can feel the Cy alien presence whereas before I couldn’t feel them, likely because they weren’t around. They’ve landed inside this habitat, and they make my skin crawl.” He scratched his head. “There’s a group of Cy strolling the street right now.”
Seven and I looked out the window. “I can’t see anything,” I said.
“Because they’re invisible.”
Seven laughed. “Oh man. I’m used to believing all kinds of fantasy with doves and dragons, but invisible aliens really are…I just can’t.”
“You don’t have to believe me, Seven, but one day soon, you will. In the meantime, I need you to pack. You’re leaving for Detroit.”
My jaw slackened.
Arthur continued. “I’m sorry about the last-minute notice. I’d hoped I could delay our move, but I can’t anymore.”
“You mean we’re moving right now?”
