by Starla Night
“Don’t leave here again.”
He blinked.
“I know you left, and I can see it was to go to your female, but this is life and death to me. It should be life and death to you, too. Mother will be angry when you refuse her marriage. She will seek to punish you and your female.”
“She will never reach my Rose.”
“That’s what I thought, once.” Larimar forced another piece of cheese into her mouth, chewed, and spat. “Ugh, soft and smells like old broccoli.”
He recorded the impression.
“If you care, you will stay as far away from your Rose as possible. Give me your phone.”
“I need it for supplies.”
“The wall communicator works just as well.”
“Yes, but…my contacts…are more accessible on my phone, and if there is an emergency…there is an emergency…”
“If she calls you, you will sacrifice her life by going to her now instead of working your hardest?”
“A proper work-life balance is more productive than all work.”
She held out her hand.
He reluctantly handed over his phone.
She elongated her mouth to dragon, chomped, and swallowed the metal. Her eyes made crescents. “Anything but cheese is delicious.”
“The battery will give you heartburn.”
“As if I do not already have it.” She stared into the crate. “This isn’t getting any smaller.”
He studied the software morosely, inputting her judgments. Larimar wasn’t wrong. His goal was to protect Rose from Adviser Wrathmoda. Ideally, they would never meet. And if Larimar was correct, then losing his phone was for the best, even though it felt for the worst.
Rose was moving into his spaceship. Soon, she would be insulated from her worries. He had started the process to assist her grandmother. His lawyer would protect Rose from any legal action, and the family lawyer referral would help against Briar. Kyan would save Rose from any true emergencies.
Jasper disliked it, but perhaps losing his phone was fine. If it would protect Rose from Adviser Wrathmoda, that was all that mattered.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Liam refused to get ready for preschool.
“Shirt!” Rose chased the giggling boy around the giant room. Their small apartment was easier to corner him; she had to fake him out when he leaped over the pirate ship bed, hook him around the waist, and wrestle on his shirt. “Pants! Socks!”
He wiggled free, ran to the corner, tore off his shirt, and raced away.
Her irritation hit the roof. “If you’re not ready by the time Kyan gets here, you’re going to preschool naked!”
He squealed with glee.
She grabbed the door and banged her forehead against it lightly. Whoever was watching these tapes later would get a show.
Obviously she couldn’t send Liam to school naked, the same way he couldn’t skip breakfast or brushing teeth.
He’d woken today in a shaky mood that flipped between screaming and giggling, and even though the giggling frustrated her more, they were about the same on the out-of-controlness spectrum. Why was she surprised? They’d been living at Jasper’s for a week, alone, and only went to her apartment to pack or try to convince Grandma to take over her lease.
Moves were stressful for adults. Kids, too.
The pirate ship bed was a far cry from his sad cardboard car at the apartment, but the sad car had been present for most of his life, and as exciting as the new pirate ship was, it was still new.
She totally got it.
Too many things had been going right, from the unusual neighborhood block party to a quiet week of minding her own business and ignoring problems at work. She was scared, too. The only difference was that she pretended everything was fine, while Liam ran in circles screaming.
Time to change tack.
“I’m going to eat breakfast,” she announced. “And if you aren’t dressed by the time I get there, then you can’t have any pancakes.”
He squealed and kept running.
“All right, no pancakes.” She turned and started to walk away.
He screeched to a halt. “Yes, pancakes!”
“Put on your clothes.”
“Yes, pancakes!” He danced his feet.
“Okay, I guess you’d rather dance than get dressed, so no pancakes.”
“Rose!” He picked up the first pile of clothes she’d tried to dress him in, threw them, and melted down crying. “Pancakes…”
She collected the clothes again, murmuring in a soothing tone as she guided his skinny little brown arms and legs into their right holes. She even got away with buttoning his shirt, a task he liked to laboriously complete a hundred times slower than she could, testing her patience even on days when they had lots of time. He sobbed the whole time about, “Yes, pancakes…”
“Okay.” She rubbed his fluffy black head. His hair was getting long again; she might have time to shear it short tonight before packing the electric razor. “Let’s get a quick breakfast.”
“Pancakes…”
“You can have pancakes as long as you eat them super fast so we’re not late for Kyan, okay?”
He rubbed his red eyes and wiped his snotty nose on the back of his hand, refusing her tissue.
Whatever. That’s what sanitizing gel was for.
Thank goodness for instant ovens. The dragon technology was like a microwave but with extra features. Frozen waffles popped out crisp and hot, perfect for slathering with butter and maple syrup. Luckily, her substitution based on the first thing she saw in the pull-out freezer didn’t cause another meltdown. Liam ate the waffles, subdued. They got teeth brushed, faces scrubbed, and shoes all Velcroed just as Kyan arrived, and consequently, Rose was already on her first frayed nerve before she even got to work.
She greeted her coworkers camped in the staff room as she stowed her lunch in the work fridge. In her opinion, they were bored enough to return to the job if Peridot would apologize, and only the principle kept them in the staff room, protesting.
“How’s your car?” Patty asked.
“Still impounded. They haven’t charged anyone, and I might still be on the hook because I let family borrow it.”
“Not your sister though.”
“I know, but if she argues, it’s hard to prove otherwise with her being family and borrowing my stuff in the past, so…yeah, we’ll just see.”
“At least you don’t need a car right now,” Elle said.
Rose agreed. It was weird to accept a ride from someone who was not Jasper. Especially Kyan, who didn’t hug. He was a massive, deadly, scarred warrior who was so giant and tall that he just held out his forearm. She and Liam stood on his big boot and hooked their arms over his forearm like holding onto a bar on the bus. And even though Jasper held her tight, Kyan seemed to have more experience and control, so she felt safe on the daily commute. He also never seemed tired, and he was always exactly on time. He’d looked upset when she’d asked about watching over Jasper; failing his ability to do that, he seemed to take comfort in ferrying her on the daily trip to and from the spaceship.
Speaking of transport…
“You’re looking for another four-seater, under a thousand, that runs, right?” Patty asked, grounding her in the staff room present. “I’ll keep an eye out for you on craigslist.”
“Thanks.” Rose stretched. “Well, I’m off to the top floor. Again. That place would be spit-polished if they didn’t keep breaking conference rooms.”
“The lower toilets are fizzing,” Elle said.
Great. Just great. “Did anyone tell Peridot?”
“Why?” Shawn demanded. “He’s using the bathroom, isn’t he?”
“He’s got eyes,” Elle agreed. “He can see.”
They all took a moment to wonder about their boss’s bathroom habits.
“Someone should mention it just in case,” Rose said, but she could also hear the un-eagerness coloring her voice.
“Jas
per checked over the whole building every day,” Patty reminisced. “Even during the product launch rush. I miss him. You must miss him more.”
Rose shrugged a shoulder.
Yes, she ached to see him every night when she went home alone, and excitement bubbled as she imagined this might be the night he could sneak in and wake her, or that now he might get a new phone and call or text. Sure, it wasn’t possible, and yes, their separation would end soon. Until then, endure, endure, endure. That was her life.
“I should talk to Peridot,” Rose finally said. “We ignore the sewage plant any longer and it’ll be a fire hazard.”
“He has his manuals,” Shawn bit back. “He should know.”
“He’ll only blame you for pointing it out,” Elle said, while Patty nodded. “And ask if you’re ‘questioning his judgment’ if you want to fix it.”
“Right, but it literally could burn down the building. If he doesn’t answer, I guess I should report it to his boss.”
“Whoever that is,” Shawn muttered.
They all spent a moment imagining who Peridot’s boss was.
They’d never had to know Jasper’s boss. It had never come up. Each dragon rule over his or her own domain. Mal led the company, but he’d never touched the environment, and from the few conversations Rose had overheard, Mal didn’t know how the building operated. He didn’t care about anything Jasper did so long as the right product shipped on time. And the same with Pyro when he’d worked here, and with Kyan, Amber, and Alex. They each contributed a separate expertise that together fit into a successful whole.
“Have any chunks traveled to the top floor?” Rose said. “If they have, someone has to be told.”
They wished her luck. Shawn rolled his eyes with the irony of the situation—she had just cleansed the building of the last alien mass, and now their problems were a hundred times worse—and she zipped up her coveralls, then stocked her cart. It had been a long time since she’d put on her lavender-scented hazmat suit. If she’d been cleaning the pipes regularly, then she’d have been in it every few days. Or doing the windows, or anything other than the top floor.
She hummed along with the waiting music in the elevator, then stepped out onto the top floor.
Despite it being an ordinary workday, the managerial floor was nearly empty. The company hadn’t launched a product since Jasper had left; apparently, the process had stalled out, and so many people had escaped the warren of cubicles until they were needed, while the offices stood empty.
It made her job easier, because—
A conference table smashed through the wall, bursting drywall into powder and splinters.
She jumped.
Inside the distant room, Mal roared. “Come over here and say that, you sniveling brimstone-eater!”
Rose relaxed while the fighting sounds increased. It was just another day at the office.
She focused on the real problems. Rose pushed open the women’s bathroom door and peered inside.
There had been a lot of fighting these past two weeks. The heat of the summer must be getting to the dragons. Normally they wrecked a conference table a month, but lately, they’d been wrecking one every other day. Jasper’s entire back stock of tables had been depleted, and unless Peridot had ordered more, they would soon run out.
Not her problem.
She finished her regular clean super fast and perused the stalls.
Ash floated off the water. Bubbles clung to the bowl. A few bubbles floated to the surface and popped. One carried a black seed, and when it popped, the speck ignited for a microsecond and then dropped into the bowl as ash.
Jasper would call this a critical infestation. It had happened once before. Jasper had taken down the whole system for several weeks to overhaul the old HVAC, but he’d swept every day until he could bring it online again. What must the treatment system look like now? A magic forest? If there were big stalks and all opened at once…Rose shuddered. She couldn’t imagine.
The smell required no imagination. The bathroom already smelled like cow manure.
Rose finished her clean, flushed the toilets—which made the problem worse—and sprayed with Febreeze she’d brought from home because Peridot hadn’t reordered the fragrance spray. Anyway, the other spray didn’t work as well. This situation called for at least home Febreeze. Maybe industrial strength.
She pushed the cart to the door.
Cheryl entered.
“Oh, Rose.” The former intern greeted her shyly. Now she was a big-time art director, but aside from hints of more provocative clothes—in today’s case, a crimson pinup dress hidden under her thick, comfy, dark hoodie—she seemed the same. “Thanks for cleaning. There was weird pepper in the toilets this morning. Maybe the pipes are flaking?”
“They are, and the ‘flakes’ are flammable.”
Her eyes widened. “They are?”
“I’d work from home after today, or else you’ll have to drive to the nearest toilet when you have to go.”
She hugged her midsection. “When will it be fixed?”
“I don’t know.”
Cheryl peered in the first stall. “Jasper leaves and the whole place falls apart, huh?”
“You got that right.” Rose pushed the cart out, shaking her head.
Alex waited for her in the hall. His two-tone eyes, sculpted blond hair, and crisp suit intimidated her even more than Mal’s roaring; the good-looking dragons were all worrisome in their own ways. “Come with me.”
She started to push the cart.
“Leave that.”
She stopped. “You don’t want me to pick up the conference room?”
“No.”
Her stomach dropped.
She followed the broad-shouldered male down the hallway.
Trouble. She was in trouble.
And without Jasper, she couldn’t trust the dragons at all.
Was she fired? Had they seen what was happening in the building and blamed her? She was the most senior, she should have stopped it, why did she let Peridot wreck everything instead of fixing it on her own?
“This way.” Alex led her through the conference room door—never mind the massive hole where the conference table jutted into the hallway like a wrecked car—and directed her into the room.
She stood ramrod straight.
The dragons stared at her like she was in front of a firing squad.
Mal paced, claws extended, green bulk shimmering on his torso where the shreds of his suit remained visible. He’d apparently shifted to dragon and back to human without taking the time to change. “Rose! You are a human.”
Was that a question? She braced. They knew she was a human. Was she going to be fired for not being a dragon? That’s what Peridot wanted.
Peridot wasn’t here. So, maybe she wasn’t being fired.
“Therefore, you have no chance of defeating Larimar or Adviser Wrathmoda in teeth-to-claw combat.”
She dipped her head in agreement. “Yeah.”
“So give up Jasper.” Mal stopped and pointed at the engagement ring she kept on a chain under her shirt. It was too big to flash, and she wouldn’t risk cracking or losing it on the job. “Break your engagement so he can marry Adviser Wrathmoda.”
Heat and cold flushed through her. She gripped the ring through her shirt, half insulted and half furious. “He can’t marry the adviser.”
“You should have married him long before.” Alex sat on one of the few unbroken chairs and rested an ankle on his knee. “Wasting his time means you lost your chance.”
“It’s your own fault,” Mal agreed. “Hand over that engagement ring and stop using his stuff for your convenience.”
“I’m not using ‘his stuff’ for my convenience,” she snapped. “He told me to move in with him.”
“Yeah, but you won’t even fight for his life.”
“Because everyone says it’s impossible.”
“It is impossible,” Alex said, and the other dragons nodded. “Even w
e cannot defeat the adviser. A human would be smeared, smashed, burned, and eaten in seconds. Fighting her is suicide.”
“And I’m not suicidal,” she retorted. “But what I am is pissed off. I get that we should have worked it out earlier—for your convenience—but look at yourselves. Jasper sacrifices himself all the time so things go better for the rest of you. That’s what he’s doing right now. Jasper doesn’t want to marry the adviser. No one wants to marry the adviser, so in a fit of selflessness, he took it on himself. Did you stop him? No! And now, instead of figuring out how to rescue him, you’re in here figuring out how to make it easier for him to get stuck in a rotten married life.”
“Because the adviser is not a dragon we can defeat,” Alex pointed out, and the deadly security dragon, Kyan, nodded.
She held up both hands in the stop motion. “Are you telling me you have no plans to rescue him? No plans at all?”
A sharp silence fell over the group as tattered and splintered at the fixtures.
“Wow.” She crossed her arms, shook her head, and tsked. “Jasper said not to worry because he was a member of your ‘team’ and he was sure you guys would figure out something. Instead, you can’t even finish a single meeting without breaking the room, blaming each other, and now you’re blaming me and him. I told him he had too much faith in you guys, and I hate it, but it looks like I was right.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rose’s accusation echoed over the room.
It had the desired effect. The dragons stiffened and growled.
She hugged herself. As much as she didn’t want to be someone’s lunch, even more, she couldn’t let them dismiss Jasper.
Kyan stood. “Jasper won’t escape. He refuses to leave you. If you give him up, then we will use his spaceship to hide in deep space. That is why you must give him up. So he can hide and survive.”
“Deep space?” Rose repeated staring at the scarred security officer. “You can hide Jasper somewhere the adviser can’t find him?”
Kyan nodded.
“For how long?”
