by Sadie Sears
As Belle tapped her lip, thinking, I looked at the lanyard. It just had the paper’s logo and said press in big, bold letters.
“Oh,” she said. “I suggest you read the blog or at least skim the title for the last few years. You don’t want to duplicate a story.”
I nodded woodenly, trying to process everything.
“Questions?” Belle asked.
Shaking my head, I tried to think of any. “Oh, yes. One. Does the blog have to be about Spruce specifically?”
“No, but it’s always better if it is.”
“I think I’ve got it.” Thankfully, I sounded more confident than I felt.
“Great. Have a Happy New Year, Damini. Glad to have you on board.” With that, she hurried from the office and out the door. “Lock up when you leave,” she called.
And that was how I found myself alone in the newspaper office on New Year’s Eve with a column to write.
“Eeeeek!” I squealed and danced around Belle’s desk.
This was too good to be true.
As much as I wanted to hang out here and write, I didn’t have my laptop with me. I used the paper to punch in the electronic code and lock the door, then headed to my truck, completely gobsmacked. I hadn’t expected to be put on the spot quite this soon, but I knew I could do it. I could do anything.
I was a dragon!
I went straight home, which I knew would be empty and peaceful. Vince was off doing something with Cam, so I went to our office and fired up my PC.
While it loaded, I picked up the phone and dialed Mother’s office number. After the beep, I left a message. “Hello, it’s me. Damini. I just wanted you to know I just accepted a position with the Spruce Gazette. I’m excited about it and proud. I wanted you to know and hopefully be proud with me. I… I hope you have a lovely New Year’s.”
They’d hurt me, badly. But I couldn’t start a new year with that line to my family completely closed. And now the ball was in their court. I’d done what I could to open the lines of communication.
Two hours later, I stuck my head above water. I’d skimmed the blog, getting an idea for the style of stories, and made a list of subjects already covered.
One thing that hadn’t been covered was Dragons For Hire.
Belle had a folder labeled blog ideas, and I opened that, assuming she’d be willing to share. There was a list of ideas that would tide me over for months, and I could add to it as I went.
I sent off a quick text to Vince and let him know I was going to be writing all afternoon and asked if he’d bring dinner home. He replied quickly that he would, so I lost myself in the story.
About halfway through, and another hour later, I realized I was parched, so I took a break to go downstairs for something to drink. I’d worked through lunch, so I slapped some peanut butter on a piece of bread to hold me over until Vince got home.
My new dragon senses tingled, and I knew someone was outside on the front porch.
I walked through the house, expecting to find Shae or one of the other dragons out there poised to knock.
Seeing my mother trying to hurry down the porch stairs in her ultra-high heels toward a waiting sleek black car was the last thing I’d expected. “Mother?” I called.
She froze and turned back. For a second, she looked nervous, but she schooled her features quickly, as she always did. But I knew her too well. Something had her apprehensive. “Hello, Damini.”
“What in the world are you doing here?”
“I’m not here to intrude,” she said. “Not even to stay.” She gestured toward the porch, and I looked down to find an envelope at my feet. “Your father and I wanted to return that.”
Bending, I picked up the envelope and looked inside to find it full of cash. “Why?” I asked.
“You’re worth more to us than all the money in the world. We’ve talked long and hard about it, and when you didn’t come home for the holidays, it really hit us hard. We’ve done a lot of things wrong, Damini, and there would be no coming back from any of it as long as that money was in our possession.” She crossed her hands at the wrists and looked down. “Your father even put in interest.”
“Come inside,” I said with a shaky voice. “We can talk.”
Mother held up her hands. “No, your father and I talked about that, too. We think this is best done in small steps. We have a lot to make up for, and a long way to go to gain your trust again. This is just the first step, okay? And the second step is me getting back in the car and giving you space.” She turned toward the waiting vehicle, then looked back. “Would it be okay if I called you next week?”
I considered how it felt to be here and totally out from under my family’s thumb, and how it would feel to have my parents be my friends instead of my jailers. “I would like that,” I said.
Emotions rolled off of her, clear as day. She had a bunch of complicated feelings, but the main thing I felt was love. She loved me.
“I’m so glad,” she said softly. “I want my daughter back.”
With that, Mother slid into the backseat of the vehicle and I watched it pull away.
It was probably good she hadn’t stayed. She didn’t know I’d been turned into a dragon.
That might take some time for them to get used to. I needed time before I let her back in, anyway. She was right about that.
When I got back upstairs, I found a message on my phone from Vince. If you’re done, come to Sprucie’s.
I told him I’d meet him there in a couple of hours and finished my article with a smile on my face. When I finally finished, uploaded it, and breathed a sigh of relief, I had five minutes to spare before the 8:00 p.m. deadline.
With my heart full of joy, I hopped in the truck and drove to town. The only parking spot was well down Main Street. As soon as I stepped out of the truck, Vince was there.
“Hey,” I said in surprise and pleasure.
“You know what’s cool?” he asked.
“What?” I took his offered hand.
“I just got an email about Damini Walton’s column on the Gazette’s website.”
I couldn’t stop myself from jumping up and down and throwing my arms around his neck. “It is so cool, isn’t it?”
We enjoyed our evening at the bar with our friends, then joined everyone outside just in time.
“Happy New Year, future Mrs. Orlando,” Vince whispered as the town’s New Year’s fireworks show began at the stroke of midnight.
I let him sweep me up into his arms as he kissed me. “Happy New Year, future Mr. Damini’s husband.”
And we started our first full year together under the fireworks-lit sky with laughter in our hearts.
“Okay. I’m ready.” I’d been a dragon for over a month now, and finally mustered up the courage to fly. Vince had been patient with me, but I knew he wanted me to take to the sky with him. He was an air dragon, after all.
My inner dragon finally overcame my nervousness. She was itching to get out there with Vince and finally, I was willing to let her have her way.
Vince suggested we start in a field to give me plenty of room to get into the air without having a lot of overhanging trees.
I had no idea, so it sounded good to me.
He drove us up into the woods and stopped at a big, open cliff. “Ready?” he asked.
Nodding eagerly, I jumped from the car and shifted as soon as I had enough room. I’d shifted several times; I just hadn’t flown.
Being in my dragon form was exhilarating to the max. My senses were heightened to the extreme, all the sounds, colors, and smells ten times more vibrant when in my dragon’s body. I didn’t even know there were this many colors in the spectrum, but when shifted, everything took on a depth I’d never experienced before.
Vince stared at me in his shifted form until I was ready to try. I stomped twice, which we’d worked out beforehand.
He stomped back and turned toward the cliff face. I’d watched him take off and fly dozens of times, seeing how he d
id it so I could be prepared, and this time, when he moved, I followed.
And my dragon or my instincts or something magical took over, because suddenly I wasn’t scared. I was ready. I lifted into the air, flapping my wings, and rising through the air.
Then the cliff dropped off and the snow-covered ground disappeared under me.
I roared, the world shaking with the ferocity of my yell, and I picked up speed, flying out over the water. The cold didn’t touch me as I raced across the water, banking, and diving, weaving back and forth with Vince.
This was perfect. This was where I was meant to be, and where I would remain.
20
Vince
Two Years Later
The house was loud. It was full of people, so that was to be expected. I heard footsteps approach from behind and glanced over my shoulder to see Cameron. He gave me an amused smile and spun me fully toward him.
“You really are terrible with anything that goes around your neck, aren’t you?”
“Not entirely my fault this time,” I replied. “I didn’t install any mirrors in the library and it’s too sunny outside to use my reflection in the window. I can’t see how to untie it.”
Cameron laughed and shook his head, his silvery blond hair falling into his eyes. He was overdue for a haircut, but Sophie had liked the length, especially where it curled at the ends. When he finished untying the bow for me, he stepped back and nodded.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked. “It’s a madhouse down there. The girls are all worked up on something and we’re nowhere near cake time yet.”
“Has Damini changed yet?”
“Sophie and Jessica are in there with her now, I think,” he said. “Come on, you can wait in the hall for her, at least. Belle wants pictures of you two coming down the stairs.”
I groaned and threw my head back petulantly. “Didn’t we already do that?”
Cam snickered. “Yeah, but that was before.”
He patted me on the shoulder and left me standing in the hallway, watching the closed door to my bedroom. I heard giggles coming from the other side and a grin came unbidden. Never in my life had I been so happy. I twisted the gold band on my left ring finger and leaned against the wall, waiting.
A little over two years had passed, and a lot had happened since. Damini had gone after her dream and was now one of Belle’s top investigative journalists. My girls had started high school, and Zoe was dominating the theater group while Shae was finally getting the hang of using magic. It had been difficult at first, she’d explained, learning where her magic stopped and her dragon started.
And then, just a short while ago, earlier today, I’d said my vows to the most beautiful woman in the world. I felt like I should have been tethered down somewhere before I floated away. The stupid grin was still on my face when my door opened. Jessica and Sophie stepped out in their gold gowns, giggling when they saw me. I watched them go down the steps into the living room, then turned to see Damini walking toward me.
She wore gold as well, a color that beautifully accented her darker skin tone, but her dress had more flow to it. A light blue sash belted her waist, adding a dash of color. I took her hand and pulled her to me.
“You are gorgeous.” I kissed the back of her hand.
Grinning, she replied, “If you keep saying that, I’ll start to believe it.”
I held out my arm and she took it, tucking her fingers lightly into my elbow. Just as we started down the steps together, flashes went off below us. Belle was moving around, trying to get the best shots.
“Oh, you guys are too cute!”
Taurus snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Don’t get carried away. Save some of that enthusiasm for the actual reception.”
Belle lowered the camera, her green eyes meeting his. “I need all the best shots.”
That was another thing. The rest of my brothers, my clanmates, had found their mates in the year after Damini and I had reconnected. It seemed impossible to explain, but Sophie had chalked it up to her ancestors’ magic. It was as likely as anything else we’d seen.
We followed the flashing camera through the kitchen and out into the backyard, where spring had taken hold. Well, where Taurus and Leath had politely asked spring to take hold for that day. There was still a slight winter chill in the air that Vermont was reluctant to let leave, but no one was bothered by it.
The gazebo was still dressed up from the ceremony, flowers everywhere, and Cameron had a temporary dance floor installed nearby. All of the chairs had been moved to the sides. Damini’s grip on my elbow tightened and I glanced down to find a wide smile on her face.
Music started up and everyone’s attention focused on us. I led her down to the dance floor. When her mercurial gaze met mine, the world around us disappeared. Damini was mine and I was hers, in every way that mattered now. Our matching gold bands announced it to the world. I was the happiest man alive.
Pressure on my shoulder brought me back to the real world. I looked up to see Damini’s father, Fred. Things between us had been tense the first few months after she’d left them, but she had slowly repaired their relationship to something healthier. He held his hand out to her.
“Might I have a dance with my daughter?”
Smiling, I stepped back and placed her hand in his. I joined the ladies sitting around the sides as Leath, Zoe, Cameron, and Shae took to the floor for a father-daughter dance. Jessica wrapped her arms around me.
“Thank you so much for making her so happy.” Her fiery amber eyes studied me. “You’d better keep her that way or I’ll come for you.”
I laughed and shook my head. “As long as you don’t bring Dom, I’ll take the heat from you.”
“Yeah, you say that now. Just you wait, mister.”
Dom snuck up and grabbed her around the waist, spinning her away. “Don’t get her fired up, Vince! It’s too early for all that.”
My happy day was made better by the fact that my brothers were so happy, as well. Dom and Jessica had met after an incident when her parents had decided she needed self-defense lessons. Damini had been the one to refer them to Dominic after he’d done so well with her and Lila.
On the other side of the dance floor, Belle was snapping photos of Damini and Fred as Taurus hovered nearby. He’d been assigned to assist her as she hunted down a story about supernatural dealings in the woods. They’d ended up uncovering a smuggling ring and each other. Her eccentricity had brought him down from the high-class cloud he lived on. I’d go so far as to bet the suit he was wearing cost less than a thousand bucks.
As the music changed, Theo led his date onto the dance floor. Daniella was the CEO of a major perfume company that grew their ingredients just outside of Spruce. He’d been hired to catch a hacker that had stolen a secret formula and it had all gone wrong. Almost losing her brought the workaholics out of their own worlds. I was thrilled to see him so in love.
Then there was the party boy that no one expected to settle down. A story that Belle had been chasing down led Ben to Jasmine. She was an amazing, but antisocial, artist. He pulled her out of her shell, and she calmed him down. No one would know how bad her social anxiety had been if they watched her on the dance floor with him. They laughed as they spun around together.
Suddenly, Zoe and Shae were tugging at my arms. “Come on, Vince. Dance with us!”
“With both of you?” I asked, amused. For the life of me, I would never understand their obsession with treating me like just another teenager. Maybe they’d picked it up from the other guys, who were always cracking jokes about my youth. I supposed I was sort of a teen in dragon years.
So I danced, as carefree as they were. It was a happy day, after all. Shae’s golden curls flew around her as she spun, and Zoe’s dark updo was starting to come undone. Cam had been right; their energy was through the roof. It would only get worse after the sugar intake.
“Might I steal my husband back, ladies?”
D
amini grinned at them, and they happily moved on to their next target: Mitias. Belle squealed at the adorable sight of the elder dancing with the dragon youths and made sure to get pictures.
“I want all of those pictures,” I told Damini.
She pressed herself closer to me and we swayed gently, despite the upbeat tempo of the music. “You really love those girls.”
“You’re not going to make fun of my age, too, are you?” I wrinkled my nose in mock displeasure. “Just because I’m younger than the rest doesn’t mean—”
Her kiss cut me off. “That’s not where I was going with that. I just meant that, if you love kids so much, maybe we could make some of our own.”
I froze. She glanced up at me, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. My dragon, who’d been content until that point, pushed against my skin trying to get to her. My restraint was paper thin when it came to her, but I’d been training. Cameron chalked it up to my youth, and the fact that I had the most control issues where my mate was concerned.
“You’d better not be joking because every part of me agrees with that.” I pressed my forehead against hers.
“That’s traditionally what honeymoons are for, right?”
I groaned, fighting the urge to make everyone leave that instant so that I could have her. We had plans for our honeymoon, though, and I didn’t want to ruin that. I pulled back on the reins and my dragon eased up.
The rest of the afternoon was a blur, Damini’s words cycling through my head. We had food, we had cake, there was fun and games. Gretta caught the bouquet and Sam looked like a deer caught in headlights until she kissed him. The setting sun signaled the winding down of festivities and I was anxious to go.
“Probably best to avoid flying over cities,” Theo said. “If you want to make a detour into one, land outside and enter on foot. Watch for restricted air space. Keep up high.”
“Yes, Dad,” I replied, grinning. “I’ve already detailed our flight plan. We’ll call when we get there.”
Sophie hugged me. “The cards said to avoid storms. If you see one coming, go around or take cover.”
