All But Human (Fate Fire Shifter Dragon Book 5)

by Kris Austen Radcliffe

  A woman with a familiar spring to her step shuffled around the corner of the clinic building, her dark coat pulled tight around her body and her darker stocking cap tighter over her head.

  Rysa, Dragon pushed.

  No seers flung out toward the van, nor any outward expression of their Prime’s Shifter abilities. Just a frantic young woman doing her best not to appear frantic.

  Anna rolled down her window as Rysa approached.

  “Andreas enthralled him this morning and he came to bed and I told him to sleep before I left for my last final,” Rysa said. She waved toward the other side of campus.

  “Hi, Derek.” Rysa twisted to look past Anna. “Sister-Dragon.” She stepped back. “Andreas and Gavin are here. Andreas promised Ladon he’d walk us to and from campus.” She bounced some when she waved at the other side of campus again. “Because I won’t let Ladon come to campus. He’ll spend all day on the roofs walking the perimeters and scowling at the squirrels and making Dragon bored because he can’t spend his time learning his doctoring.”

  Rysa wasn’t holding her anxiety well. Anna dropped her feet out of the driver’s side door. The icy muck coating the parking lot had the thawed and refrozen texture of early winter, except for the extra slickness that came after several days of below freezing temperatures.

  Brother had been spending his nights out in this? “You made the correct choice to not allow him access to campus.” Anna did her best to be sisterly by offering Rysa a quick hug. “Your healings have stopped helping?”

  Rysa nodded, her eyes huge and round. Three seers flared out from Anna’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, first the low oboe of her past-seer, then the flute and piccolo of her present- and future-, but they felt worn. Burdened.

  “I don’t know what to do and—” Rysa pursed her lips, censoring herself, and looked away.

  Anna knew immediately what Rysa refused to say. It showed in how the other woman’s shoulders slumped and in the shadows under her eyes and the fatigue spilling from her slow movements and her shuffling feet.

  Rysa Torres, the healer of dragons, was as strained and overwhelmed by the task of containing Brother’s melancholy as she had been by the burden of her own attention issues.

  Dragon corkscrewed out the back door but didn’t drop to the parking lot. She climbed to the top of the van first, to look for paths toward the entrance of the building that would allow her to not leave footprints in the snow. The walk is clear, she pushed.

  Derek tugged on his gloves. “I take it Mr. Bower understated the issue when he called?”

  Rysa opened her mouth, then closed it without speaking. She paled visibly—the draining of the blood from her face made her skin blend with the colorlessness of the snow.

  Rysa and Brother-Human argued, Dragon’s push snapped toward Anna’s husband. She is worried.

  Derek frowned. He glanced at Anna, then up at the roof of the van, his posture clearly saying So am I. Worried about his brother-in-law. Worried about his new, young, hyperactive sister-in-law. Worried about his cousin and his cousin’s daughter and, Anna suspected, worried about Andreas, as well.

  Maybe he wasn’t sorting this situation as well as Anna expected.

  Derek watched a group of students walk by. “I wish to stretch. Perhaps I should find my way to Daisy’s house? Check on Ladon while plans are solidified?” He tucked his hands into his pockets.

  “It’s cold,” Rysa said.

  “It is invigorating!” Derek chuckled. “Perhaps we should teach the dragons to downhill ski?”

  Anna curled her arms around his waist. His jokes hadn’t changed—they continued to be the same dry silliness they’d always been, but since Rysa healed him in Branson, Anna had appreciated his humor more. Or, more likely, appreciated that she still heard his voice and saw his smile.

  He kissed the top of her head.

  Unlike her brother, she hadn’t shaved the sides of her head. Her hair was still too short to wear any way other than the floppy mess currently wrapped round her head. Derek didn’t seem to mind, and had expressed his enjoyment of the few times she’d pulled it back into two pigtails by playing with her hair and her breasts—and her entire body—as if he’d never seen her parts before.

  Rysa rolled her eyes at his joke. “Hold on.” She pulled out her phone and tapped her thumbs across the screen. “I’ll send Gavin with you.”

  Derek shrugged. “I should check up on the kid,” he whispered. “For Dmitri.”

  Anna tapped her gloved finger on his arm. “Dmitri’s opinion on the state of Daisy’s relationship is irrelevant.”

  He shrugged again. “He is her father and he worries.”

  Rysa glanced over her shoulder. “Here he comes.” She walked toward the lanky kid rounding the corner of the building. Intelligent eyes took in the van, Anna, and Derek—and looked distinctly disappointed when he could not see Dragon.

  I think he wishes to meet you, Anna pushed.

  He is not afraid, Dragon pushed back.

  Derek released Anna but continued to hold her hand. “No, he is not.”

  Rysa escorted the young man over. “Gavin, this is AnnaBelinda and Derek. Anna, Derek, meet Gavin Bower.”

  The kid extended his hand. “Hello.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The guy with the expensive cowboy hat wasn’t nearly as intimidating as the woman standing next to him. She might be tiny like Ivan and Daisy’s mother, Cecilia—probably no taller than five-two—but her aura took up the entire parking lot. Gavin glanced around, hoping to see her other other half, the dragon he knew was here but could not see, hear, or smell.

  He was just a normal, and the dragons knew how to mimic the world well enough to hide from everyone, Fates and Shifters included. Times like these, though, he wished he still had his super-hearing.

  He shook AnnaBelinda’s hand first. Other than carrying the same wavy black hair and the same metallic sparkle to her eyes and warmth to her skin, AnnaBelinda looked nothing like her brother. Their faces were shaped differently, hers being rounder and her nose straighter. Her body also looked tough and lean, and her black leather jacket accentuated small breasts. Her chest looked more like Daisy’s high and perfect mounds than Rysa’s soft curves.

  Her tiny size surprised Gavin. He’d expected someone who took up the same amount of space as Ladon, though she seemed to fill the same territory but in a more compact way.

  Her face did the same looking-at-distant-objects stare Ladon’s did when he talked to Dragon.

  “Dragon wishes to offer a greeting,” she said. She shook his hand once, her grip firm.

  Daisy explained the Brother-Dragon vs. Sister-Dragon naming issue to Gavin. He’d need to pay extra attention, but if he remembered that when Ladon said “Dragon” he meant the Dragon Gavin knew: Brother-Dragon. When AnnaBelinda said “Dragon,” she meant her dragon, Sister-Dragon. Everyone else seemed to make the Brother-Sister distinction when both dragons were around.

  Daisy had shrugged and said, “It’s the way they are, Gavin,” and left it at that. He’d chalked it up to another one of Ladon’s oddities.

  “I look forward to meeting her.” He instinctively glanced around even though he knew he wouldn’t see the other beast.

  The guy wearing the cowboy hat extended his hand. “Derek Nicholson.”

  Gavin shook, doing his best to keep a strong grip. He’d spent the semester living with Ladon and Brother-Dragon. He’d spent time with Daisy’s father. So AnnaBelinda and her husband shouldn’t freak him out.

  But they did. Maybe not seeing yet knowing the other dragon was nearby set off his weirdness response. Maybe knowing the real name of the man whose hand he shook did it. Once he’d figured out who Mr. Pavlovich was, he did his research. Rysa confirmed it. No one talked about it.

  His girlfriend was genuine royalty, even if she, like Mr. Nicholson, did not care to acknowledge that part of her life.

  It still freaked him out.

  “Gavin,” he said, and tucked
his hand back into his pockets.

  Derek Nicholson walked and moved very much like Ladon. They were the same size as well, and surprisingly similar in body shape.

  Mr. Nicholson, though, was probably the most handsome man Gavin had ever met in person. “Handsome” wasn’t something he usually thought about, but like most people who didn’t care about such things, sometimes another man’s face was artistically perfect enough for him to notice anyway. And the man in front of him with his square jaw and eyes as bright blue as Gavin’s, was movie star handsome.

  Built like Ladon, smart enough to run the Dracae’s business dealings, and a superhero. How was Gavin supposed to compete with men like them? They were just more proof that Daisy was so far out of his league she walked with the satellites while Gavin shuffled around in the mud.

  Mr. Nicholson grinned and leaned close. “I am told you know the route to Daisy’s house?” He held up his phone. “I could use, what is it called? An app? But I am an old man.”

  AnnaBelinda chuckled. When she smiled, a lot of the tension in the air melted away.

  “It’s this way, Mr. Nicholson.” Gavin pointed up the street.

  “Call me Derek.” Mr. Nicholson clasped his shoulder. “Come.”

  He had quite the grip. Gavin tried not to wince. “Daisy will be out soon. Should we wait?”

  Rysa nodded. “It’s okay. We won’t be long. Dragon’s going to wake up in half an hour anyway.”

  Derek walked away, toward Cleveland Avenue. “Come, Mr. Bower.”

  Gavin looked over his shoulder once. Rysa waved and AnnaBelinda looked pensive. They turned together and walked toward the front of the clinic.

  Derek sidestepped around a pair of women, both with their hats pulled down over their ears so their hair wasn’t visible. Both wore big pairs of skier sunglasses. They glanced at each other, then parted like the Red Sea so Gavin and Mr. Nicholson could walk by.

  Which was weird. And one of them looked like the strange girl in the Student Union who’d thought he was cute—the girl who had walked by on the street. The other one had an obvious and visible scar on her cheek.

  Gavin frowned. “It’s about eight blocks,” he said. “We walk to campus every day. Ladon’s van is parked in Daisy’s garage.”

  Derek scoffed. “It fits?”

  “Barely.” After last night, Gavin didn’t want to go out there anymore.

  “You are getting along well with my brother-in-law?” Derek adjusted his hat. He didn’t sound Texan or like someone from Wyoming, like a guy with a hat like that should sound. His speech flowed on a smooth, deep baritone in the same slight-but-real Russian accent Mr. Pavlovich spoke in.

  Gavin shrugged. “He tolerates me because I set up the connectivity for Dragon… Brother-Dragon… to use the internet. Getting used to calling him Brother-Dragon now that his sister is here is going to take effort.”

  Derek clasped his shoulder again. “Ladon-Dragon and Anna-Dragon are the names most non-family use.”

  “Oh.” Was that a veiled threat? What did Mr. Pavlovich tell Mr. Nicholson? Oh, shit, he thought.

  “If the beast allows you to call him ‘Dragon’ then you have nothing to fear, Mr. Bower.” Mr. Nicholson stepped around a patch of ice. “I do believe that Daisy would not tolerate huffiness from either beast. Nor should she. Or you.”

  Gavin didn’t know what to say. They stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the light at Cleveland to change.

  Derek looked ahead, his gaze steady on the crosswalk signal. His breath curled in the air and he stomped his feet as the traffic droned by.

  “The Dracae need normals with good heads on their shoulders. Without smart people with connections to the world, they would vanish into their own universe.” He inhaled as the light changed. “If and how you wish to help is your choice. But I will tell you, it is a wonderful and amazing road to travel.”

  Derek Nicholson, the man who had once been the “normal” heir to an empire, walked across the street, toward Daisy’s comfortable—and slightly surreal—home.

  And Gavin wondered if he’d just been handed the keys to the kingdom.

  Chapter Thirty

  Andreas lifted his bulk off one of the Small Animal Clinic’s creaky waiting area vinyl couches the moment AnnaBelinda walked through the sliding doors. She frowned, as was her usual response to sterile yet animal-smelling places such as the clinic, and stopped in the wide open area between the couches and the massive, round check-in station.

  He didn’t feel the presence of her beast, which meant either Sister-Dragon ran completely silent, or she was on the roof. Hopefully, she came in with Anna. In all Andreas’s long life, he’d never met anyone surlier than a cold dragon.

  One of the sweet-faced young receptionists at the check-in watched AnnaBelinda, her eyes wide and her mouth round.

  So much for unobtrusiveness, Andreas thought. Of the two Dracae, AnnaBelinda was the one who frightened normals, not Ladon, no matter what his friend believed. Normals blinked and gaped at Ladon for the same reason they blinked and gaped at Andreas—they were both larger than most men, and stronger, which was why Ladon had stayed with the Norse for several centuries. Among them, he looked normal. Andreas, though, was abnormal most places outside of areas inhabited by this century’s professional athletes.

  But AnnaBelinda confused normals. The tiny woman took up the same space as her larger brother and the dissonance set them on edge. They didn’t know why. Modern normals didn’t understand why they felt reverent in the presence of the small godling who now stood in the center of the open area of a veterinary clinic.

  Most normals took on the same frightened cowering in the presence of his mother as well, when she walked the world in her equally tiny, equally dark-haired original form.

  Godlings were not the natural order of their world, and normals knew it.

  Andreas walked across the open concrete floor toward AnnaBelinda. Two small, puffy dogs and a big hound waiting with their owners all sat, all staring at her with their heads tilted.

  Andreas nodded once in the general direction of the owners before stopping a pace away from his smaller commanding officer. “Is she outside?”

  “Aye,” Anna said. She glanced around the lobby, obviously taking in hiding points, entrances and exits, and the size and speed of the waiting animals. “Rysa waits with her.”

  Andreas scoffed. He hadn’t expected a mutually agreed upon Rysa and Sister-Dragon interaction, but Rysa stood in the entrance area in front of the building watching the street, and, he suspected, pushing images to the other dragon.

  “They practice?” he asked.

  Anna squinted but nodded. “It’s annoying.”

  Andreas laughed, but straightened his back and sobered his stance. “I need you to come here after the wedding. To take up watching over our bride-to-be. I need to take Ladon to Sandro in Portland. We need to get this fixed once and for all. So I ask now, as a concerned brother.”

  For the first time in Andreas’s moments with AnnaBelinda, he could not read her face. Was she surprised? Annoyed? Expecting him to ask exactly what he asked?

  “Andreas…” Her voice dropped low and he moved closer to hear her words over the din of barks and meows. “It’s not that simple.”

  When was it ever simple? They were not a simple people. Even the simplest among them caused more problems than the entirety of many nations. “What’s wrong?” Was Derek’s healing not holding? Did she continue to have trust issues with Praesagio Industries? They all had trust issues with Praesagio.

  Anna’s eyes grew round and huge and… vulnerable. For a split second, the legatus godling looked exposed.

  “Anna…” He reached for her elbow.

  She held up her hand. It wavered in the air, her fingers splayed. Behind them, a dog barked. Anna paid no heed. Her hand dropped toward her body.

  She laid it over her lower belly.

  “By all the old gods…” Andreas breathed. “You are sure?”

  Anna
nodded yes. “Do not speak of this. It has not yet quickened.”

  Andreas would not be silent. “Have you told Derek?”

  Anna’s eyes narrowed and she frowned. “Do not speak of this, Andreas. I only tell you because, as I said, this is not a simple situation.”

  She and her husband needed to go to Portland immediately. This century had the medical technology—and the healers—to ensure the pregnancy stayed true. “Have you spoken to Sandro?”

  Anna opened her mouth but snapped it shut. She stared around Andreas’s bulk, her thoughts pulled back to the here and now. “Daisy comes,” she said.

  Andreas turned to face the reception desk. Daisy and her lovely head of wavy black hair stepped out of one of the hallways.

  Dmitri’s stature and demeanor resonated off Daisy, though her amber eyes reminded him of his mother’s and marked the true extent of her Shifter heritage. She also held Dmitri’s basic facial structure, but it had been modified to be exquisitely female—and undeniably lovely. She moved in the same assured, strong, feminine way as AnnaBelinda—like all well-balanced women capable of tending to herself, the village, and the world.

  No wonder young Mr. Bower had fallen head over heels for her.

  She immediately smiled and hugged AnnaBelinda. “Anna!”

  “Good to see you, Daisy, though I wish it was under better circumstances.” Anna waved them both toward the exit. “Rysa waits with Dragon.”

  Daisy glanced around. “Where’s my sort-of cousin?”

  Daisy and Derek were separated enough genetically that they were marriageable within normal and Shifter circles. “He’s off with your Mr. Bower to check on Ladon.”

  “Ah.” Daisy held open the door. “I’m glad you’re here, Anna.”

  Yes, Andreas thought. It’s good to have all our problems under one roof. How else were they to deal with all the shit that rained down on them every day?

  Outside, Rysa frowned when Anna stepped through the door. “What is she not telling me?” She stepped to the side and back again. “Why can’t—”