Gabe! My mind screamed. I don’t want to die. Not like this. Where are you Gabe!
The doppelganger drew back its head and lunged at my neck ripping my throat out as I bolted up right into the darkness.
Startled, Cooper rose with his hair standing up on his scruff. I breathed deep, with sweat running down my face. Another breath drew deep into my lungs, and I wiped my brow with my hand.
“Fell asleep.” Reassuring Cooper with a pat on his head, he wouldn’t calm down, and stared into a dark corner of the room. Deep growls rose in his chest. I pulled him closer to me and again my body was succumbing to fear and shutting down.
Movement made my eyes widen as Gabe’s face moved into the light of the full moonlight.
“Bad dreams?” He smiled.
Cooper jumped off the bed and into his arms licking his face.
“Jesus, Gabe. How long you been there.” I tried to relax while purposely fixing my messed hair and pulled my sweat bottom up and covered my flimsy shirt with a pillow.
“Just before you bolted up right.” He said scratching Cooper’s ears. “I tried to get your attention but you wouldn’t come to the window. So I climbed up the side of the house and let myself in. I heard you moaning and whimpering, so I was worried. Then when I saw you were asleep, you were so adorable, I just had to wait and see what you were dreaming about.”
“Uh. Adorable huh?” Too bad you didn’t cradle me in your arms, so I could wake up in them.
He nodded. “Yep.”
We sat in the dark in an awkward silence. So many conflicting thoughts were running through my head. Mostly about having sex with him and living with him for the rest of my life. Not sure they were conflicting, but these kind of feelings I’ve never had for anyone. So for me, they were conflicting.
“Any more news on that man or doppelgangers?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. They are going to make their move soon, though. The egg will hatch on Saturday or Sunday.”
“I hope it’s Sunday. We’re still going to prom, right?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it. Just know that we may have to leave early if something were to happen.”
I shrugged. “I understand.”
More awkward silence.
“Why did that man call you old? I know you have lived a long time, but what is old for you?” I asked trying to make conversation. As far as I was concerned I could just stare at him all night, but he seemed restless.
He smiled at that. “Well, among Dimidius I am old. I don’t have much longer to live.”
“What? You’re not going to die this week?” Then realized how stupid my statement was.
He laughed which was musical and warmed my heart.
“No. But my time is coming to an end.” He suddenly seemed sad.
“How much longer?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer.
“About, fifty or sixty years.” He said.
I felt relieved. Still plenty of time for us.
“I know what you are thinking, JJ. I’m not the type of half man for you.” He said.
“Really.” Anger began to boil inside of me. “What makes you say that? Are you afraid to love me? Afraid that I don’t love you?” Now I was pissed. “I love you, Gabe. I have never felt this way about anyone in my entire life. All I do is think about you day and night. Some might call that an obsession, but I don’t. I feel good around you. You make my day so much better. To hear your voice, to smell your weird scent, to see your golden eyes reflect the sunlight. God. It all feels so right when you are around. Don’t screw this up!”
He smiled. “I think I was supposed to say those things to you.”
My anger quickly dissipated and we both laughed.
He got up and came and sat down on the bed. My pulse quickened. Cooper jumped up and settled between us.
“You deserve a man who can give you a family. You know I can’t do that.” The sadness in his eyes broke my heart.
I placed my hand upon his face. “I want a family. I want my Dad to have grandchildren, but I want someone I can love with all my heart. That’s you. As for the children. I’m sure there are other Dimidius who need a family, we can be like Mr. and Mrs. Wasabi. That would be fine with me and I know my Dad would love any child we got. So don’t worry. Just say you love me.”
A golden tear formed in his perfect eye. “I do love you.”
Warmth washed over my body to hear him say it. He bent in to give me a kiss when a knock came at the door.
“JJ?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Do you have someone in there?”
“Yes, Dad. A boy.”
Silence, then. “Gabe?”
“Yes, Dad.”
Silence, then. “Uhm, why?”
“We are making you a grandchild.” Silently laughing.
The silence was longer this time. “Oh, ha, ha. I get it. Getting back at your old man. Funny. Well, please have him leave by midnight, okay?”
“Sure thing Dad. Love you.”
“Love you to. I’m going to bed.”
I looked at the clock and it read eleven fifty. Gabe got up.
“I’ll be outside. Your kiss will have to wait until Saturday.”
“You’d better make it a good one.” I told him.
“It will be worth the wait. I’ve had lots of practice to perfect it for you.” He winked. He went to the door and left it cracked.
“Night Mr. Ritter.”
“Night, Gabe, and thank you.” I heard Dad say.
“She’s something special.” Gabe told him.
“That she is.” And the front door closed.
I fell back. It’s good to be in love. And my night went by without any more bad dreams.
Thursday was uneventful and Gabe wasn’t to be seen outside my window. I thought about parading myself in front of the window, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself or have Dad explain to our neighbors that his daughter was crazy. Though knowing Dad he would have told them I was trying out for the porno industry.
Friday morning I was up early and felt very liberated. I couldn’t characterize the feeling, but confidence and freedom made me want to push the boundaries of the dress code today and I went for it. The nice long white dress I had originally picked out with the gold trim just wasn’t going to cut it. So I found a deep red dress that had a long slit up the side, low cut front and short fluffy sleeves. I don’t even remember where I got this dress or for what occasions, but I found some of mom’s nice jewelry with pearls and gold, put on some dark red lipstick, heavy eye shadow, and pulled my hair back and tied it with a gold chain. I checked myself in the mirror and winked.
“You are hot!” and my reflection agreed.
Dad was in his jammies eating cereal when I came around the corner, he stopped mid spoonful.
“Do you have a second pair of clothing ready that I can bring you when I get that phone call?” He laughed.
“Psh, they won’t even notice.” I purred, since I did have a second set of clothes ready.
“Okay. What brought this on?” He asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel good.” And drank some orange juice.
He got up and put his bowl in the sink. “I’ll wait for the phone call.” He snickered as he went upstairs.
“It won’t happen!” But of course it did.
With the day over, I sat on the front porch swing and watched the sun go down. To my credit I did make it to lunch before I was called discreetly into the office, where Dad waited with his ‘I told you’ grin on his face and the bag of clothes I had laid out earlier. Mr. Resler explained that the slit up the leg was a little high and the cut in the front was a tad low. But to his credit he only made me put on a camisole to cover my chest and I used safety pins to close up the slit to the knee. He complimented me on my costume and the day progressed normally. I did get some looks that I normally wouldn’t have gotten otherwise which made me feel really good about myself.
Cooper sat next to me with his head on my lap and Dad was cooking dinner. I always thought I would be feeling really giddy about prom. Certainly everyone at school today was in high spirits, but voicing my feelings to Gabe, I knew every day would feel like prom now. Even though I didn’t see Gabe, I knew he was out there watching over me. I smiled.
Love. The Beatles’ song, All you need is love, popped into my head. And it was true.
True Amore
There isn’t much to tell about the morning of Prom. I had a great meal cooked by Dad, who couldn’t keep his silly grin off his face, while making side comments about how I should marry Gabe. Not that I didn’t agree with him, though Dad seemed to think we should elope to Vegas right after Prom.
Brooke came over around ten o’clock and we met Alexa, Kaylene, Kennah and Lindsay downtown at one of the spa places to get ourselves all pampered up. We got our hair done, ate lunch, and strutted around the Sixteenth Street mall to show off how good we all looked. We left downtown around four thirty and headed home. I was going over to Brooke’s to get ready and then we would leave from there to go to dinner and then head to the academy for prom.
As I pulled my red dress from the closet and put it up next to me to look in the mirror, my heart was full of joy.
“You look so much like your mom.” Dad stood in the doorway with a tear in his eye.
My face flushed, not carry that he saw the dress before Gabe. I put the dress down on the bed. “I wish she was here.”
He came and sat with me. “I know baby. I do too. But you are your mother’s daughter and I am the luckiest father alive to have you. I hope you know how proud I am of you and how much I love you.”
I nodded. “I never get tired of hearing it.”
He smiled and placed his hand on my chin. “I love you. Have fun tonight and I’ll see you at the after prom. Sydney will be there too.”
“You finally realized that you like her.”
“I do.” His face held the expectation of a child waiting for approval from a parent.
“Took you long enough. Just make sure I get invited to the wedding.” My smile told him I approved of her.
His face grew into a big smile. “Make sure you return the favor.”
My face grew a big smile. “I will.”
I gathered up my stuff, making sure not to crumple my dress, got in the jeep and drove off to Brooke’s.
The driveway was absent of any activity, which made me doubt that things were going to go as I planned. Mrs. Wasabi came out of the house to greet me.
“JJ. You look lovely. I’ll take these from you. Brooke is upstairs. Go on in.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Wasabi.” Handing my dress and other things to her, I bounded up the stairs. Brooke was sitting on her bed, reading, and not dressed.
“What are you doing? We have to get ready to go and meet the others for dinner.”
She shook her head. “We may have to miss prom.” Her eyes looked very sad.
“Why?” I did not want to miss this.
“The egg. It’s starting to hatch.”
Whatever anger had been brewing inside died instantly. “No way. When?”
“Not sure.” She didn’t appear too pleased. “Dad’s calling the others to let them know.”
“Aren’t you happy? It’s a dragon!” My heart was full of joy at the thought of seeing a real live dragon.
She shrugged. “I’d be happier in Christian’s arms…But whatever.”
I found her callousness intruding on my happiness. “Fine. Sit up here. I’m going downstairs.” and left.
I arrived down stairs with no one insight. Looking, Set was in the kitchen.
“Where is everyone?”
He munched on some dried jerky. “Around.” And he left.
My evil stare should have melted him to the ground but I guess his dragon hide was too tough. Fine I’ll go find them without your help.
Having a good feeling they were outside somewhere, I walked out back and found the trail that lead to the green house. The sun was just above the trees in the beautiful May evening. Birds were chirping, the young leaves rustled, and I found myself really noticing the enormity of nature. The cool mountain air brushed my hair back and felt cool upon my face. The doors of the green house came into view around a corner. The peaks of the mountains began to gather the sun behind them and shadows fell all around. The handle of the green house felt warm against my cold hand. The door squeaked as it opened and the aroma of the flowers and vegetables filtered through the air. My steps were deliberately slow walking the path, so to let the sensations of running my fingers over the flowers seep into my body and enjoying the wetness on the pedals. The waning light of the day brought out the shadows, reminding me of that night. Shivers raced over my spine and I found myself at the back of the greenhouse. The table where we had dinner was still there along with a few chairs. The windows were new, and I sat down making the chair creak. The long shadows of the trees began to cover the panels and then little lights began to wink to life up in the darkest corner of the greenhouse. Fascinated, they gathered and began to migrate with the shadows like wildebeests. Suddenly, a bright light winked into existence next to my eye blinding me and forcing me to jerk away. I struck out at it in reflex knocking it to the table. As my vision returned, a small winged creature lay still on the table. The lights gathered around my head, accompanied by a small buzzing sound.
Each light was a tiny winged creature no bigger than a large bumble bee. Their features were lost to their small size and I couldn’t tell if they were angry or concerned.
“Just blow on it.” Gabe’s soft voice said next to my ear.
I looked up at him. “Not fireflies, I presume.”
Gabe shook his head.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt it. It startled me and I just struck out. Don’t let it die.”
His smile said it wouldn’t die. “Gremlins are a hardy breed of fairy. Blow.”
I slowly breathed in deep and lightly blew on the gremlin. Its wings flittered a little. Gabe encouraged me to blow harder. My breath must have felt like a hurricane to the little gremlin as it rolled away from under my blustery breath. It rolled off the table and suddenly popped up and flew around angrily. Its little wings giving off the light.
I laughed happily.
“Told you.” He sat down at the table.
“How is the egg?” Not really caring as much as I should have. I just wanted to look at him.
He sighed. “It’s really close.”
“You look like an expectant father.” I chided him.
He smiled. “I suppose I am, since it’s a gold.”
I reached across and grabbed his hand. “It will be okay.”
Gabe was about to answer when the gremlins rushed around and then towards the entrance to the greenhouse.
“What is it?”
“Something is out there.” He said watching the gremlins.
“That dog thing again?” Squeezing his hand. The hair on the back of my neck prickled.
“I don’t know. We need to get to the house.”
He grabbed my hand and we ran from the greenhouse. The moon was just coming up over the eastern trees casting its light upon the forest. A warm breeze rushed passed us. Along the path towards the house, odors were beginning to swarm around us.
The stench of rotten eggs began to randomly intrude upon my nose. The back door was open and Mrs. Wasabi was in the kitchen. She looked up, concerned at our abrupt arrival.
The stench grew.
“What do you sense?” she asked without hesitation.
He shook his head. “The gremlins became agitated.”
Mrs. Wasabi’s concern grew.
Voices filtered in from the front room. I coughed, the stench was much stronger now.
“Gabe.” I started but he had already gone into the living room. The stench was beginning to become so strong that it was making me nauseous. Finding my way to the living room, I was surprised to see Ch
ristian and two other young men I’d never seen before, standing talking to Brooke.
Standing behind Gabe, I put my hand to my head.
“Didn’t you get my message?” Brooke was explaining to Christian. “I am so sorry that you made the trip out here.”
Christian’s easy smile seemed a bit strained to me. The other two men were watching Set, who sat in a chair a few feet from Brooke’s left side.
My eyes were starting to water.
“No problem. I just wanted to come and see the most beautiful girl in the world.” His charm seemed contrived to me as well.
Brooke blushed, of course, as Set rolled his eyes.
Unable to keep my head up, I let it fall into Gabe’s left shoulder.
“JJ?” Gabe asked concerned.
“It reeks in here, Gabe. I can hardly breathe.” I rolled my head slightly to the right. Christian was staring hard at me as Brooke blabbered on about something. Strong hands grabbed my shoulder.
Mrs. Wasabi pulled me off of his shoulder. “Gabe.” She whispered.
It happened so fast that I didn’t even see Gabe move across the room and bury a knife into the chest of the young man on Christian’s left. Then, Christian struck out at Gabe, knocking him across the room. Stunned, Brooke stood there and would have been stabbed in the heart if Set hadn’t gotten his hand up in the way of the blade.
Brooke gathered herself and her face contorted in rage. “You bastard. You used me! Who are you?” She stepped back.
“Just an interested party in your dragon egg.”
At the mention of the egg, Brooke involuntarily glanced upstairs, giving its location away.
“Dragons are stupid.” Christian’s eyes turned a sizzling bright red as his companion changed. He slowly began to hunch over and fur grew from every part of his skin.
Dragon Amour (Dragon-Half Breed Book 1) Page 24
