Milo: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “My lady, I do believe they’ve fertilized the land here better than the truck that came to that man’s house across from you. And they trim up the grass nicely as well, don’t you think?” She explained to Jangles it was a service. “Yes, Lord Milo explained it to me this morn. I thought the Mannings were coming over tonight to celebrate. Have they changed their mind, perhaps?”

  “They’re here now. I’m just taking a break from them. They’re very loud and touchy.” Jangles told her that was the dragon in them. “Whatever it is, I’ve been alone for most of my life, and I need a break from them once— What the hell is that thing that’s riding one of my goats? And what has he done to her?”

  Milo joined her when Jangles was laughing so hard he couldn’t answer her. The little man was literally rolling on the ground, he was losing it so badly. She might have enjoyed his mirth but for the fact that the creature, whatever it was, had turned her goat to—well, a rainbow-colored little guy. When Milo joined him, laughing at the sight himself, she made her way out to the yard to confront whatever the thing was that was hanging onto the goat’s horns and riding him like a bronco.

  “What are you doing?” She sat down when the little creature looked at her. She still had no idea what it was, but it was beginning to look more and more human-like as she sat there. “Did you hurt my goat?”

  “Nay, my lady. I was only having a bit of fun with her. You are the new mistress to the Manning Dragons, are you not?” She didn’t answer him. Frankly, since she didn’t know him, she wasn’t sure she should even be this close to him. “I am a pixie. We’re bigger than the faeries and fae around here. I am Lord Color.”

  “You’re not a lord of anything, Color. I’ve explained that to you before.” Milo sat on the ground next to her. “While I’m sure the goat had fun with you riding her, you shouldn’t be changing her colors to suit yourself. It startled my mate.”

  “I can see that. But if she doesn’t believe she’s having fun, she should ask her. I’ve been asking before I play my tricks, Lord Milo. I promised you I would, and I have. Go ahead, ask Millie if she was having a bit of fun with me.” She asked him who Millie was. “Why, the goat, Mistress. They all have names. You only have to ask, and they’ll tell you. Like they did me.”

  “I’m just supposed to say, ‘Hey Millie, are you having fun being different colors?’ Like that is going to—”

  “Oh Mistress, it is so fun to have Color on my back. He gives me such fun. And the colors are like the rainbow in the sky.” Jamie looked at Milo and back at Millie. “You can understand all manner of creatures. Did no one tell you that?”

  “No, I don’t think anyone knows I could—” She looked at Milo. “Are you doing this? Making me insane by my thinking I’m speaking to a…to Millie?”

  “You can understand her?” She nodded, and Millie climbed up into her lap. It was both comforting and scary to have the little goat in her arms. “I can’t do that. I’m not even sure any of us can do that. We can talk to the faeries, the brownies too, but not the four-legged creatures that are around. Let me see if it works on other animals.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t tell your family. I don’t want them to think I’m any stranger than I am.” She heard the door open and looked up to see that they were all on the deck. “You already did.”

  “I asked if anyone could speak to animals. I’m sorry. But they’re happy. This can be extremely helpful to us in a lot of areas.” The only way she could think of it helping was putting her away in an institution someplace near her sister. “Mom wants you to see if you can call to a bird. Any of them.”

  “Sure. And when the bird doesn’t land in front of me, you’re going to have me locked up.” He told her he loved her. Jamie looked at him for several seconds. “Do you really love me, Milo?”

  “With all that I am.” When he kissed her on the mouth, Jamie felt like she could conquer the world. “I don’t know what you’d have to do, but see if you can call something to you. Whatever you wish.”

  Standing up after letting Millie go, she went to the trees at the back of the property. There was a nesting group of falcons there that had been coming back since she could remember to have their babies. Looking to where she thought they might be, she called to the bird and asked one of them to come to her.

  The beautiful bird landed in front of her. She sat down hard and startled him enough that he bounced back just a little. When he asked her if she was all right, all Jamie could do was nod at him.

  “You are the mistress of Lord Milo.” She told him she was and that her name was Jamie Manning. “I am Hawk. My mate, her name is Lady. We have been ever so grateful to you for allowing our kind to breed here. It is as safe a place as we have ever been. Thank you, my lady.”

  “I can understand you.” He bowed again at her and then hopped closer. “I don’t know what to do right now. I’m a little freaked out. I was told the Mannings use that word a great deal.”

  “Can you understand him?” She nodded at Milo when he sat down beside her. “Good. Would you mind asking him a few things for me? I would love to know how we can help his kind and others have plenty of food and shelter, so we don’t lose out on their kind.”

  She asked Hawk. “He said that what you are doing now, with leaving the trees where they stand and leaving the fallen where they lay, helps them a great deal. Hawk said the only thing he’d wish for is that there was more drinkable water.” She looked beyond where they were sitting. “There used to be a pond in the back of this property. I don’t know what sort of shape it’s in, but I can have it cleaned up for you. No chemicals, however.”

  “That would be wonderful, my lady. Also, if I remember, there used to be a lovely fountain on the land. I believe it was just where we are sitting. If that could be returned, that would be helpful as well. You’ve no idea how much we enjoyed that when we were younger. All manner of animals in this forest have missed it.”

  She told Milo, and he said he’d put the faeries right on it.

  “I have a picture of it in the house. It wasn’t here when I was living at home, so I didn’t think about it when I saw the photo a few days ago.” Milo asked her if she wanted it to look the same. “I think I do. It was, if I remember, a beautiful fountain with three or four tiers that had flowers all around the lowest bowl. I remember thinking it had some very detailed flowers around it. I believe I’d like to have some fish in it, too. That way, if one of the animals needs something to eat, they could take them. Or not. It would be there if necessary.”

  “Thank you, Mistress. If it is all right with you and your mate, I should like to come to speak with you more often. It is a pleasure to know there are dragons about and that someone can help us when we need it. I will serve you in any way you wish. You need only to allow me to nip your skin gently, and I’ll be able to speak to you as we are now when we are not together. You can call for me at any time then.”

  Without any hesitation, she put her hand out to him. When he flapped his wings, she was distracted enough for him to have bitten her and back away. While it was painful, it only lasted for a moment. Bidding her good night, he left them there to return to his mate.

  Jamie looked at Milo. “I’m officially freaked the fuck out.”

  With that, she fainted dead away. The day had just been too much for her. The strong arms around her penetrated her overworked mind, and Jamie knew for the first time in a very long time that she was safe. Not just from the world, but everything that had ever been a part of her life.

  Chapter 3

  Winnie tested the iron she’d removed from Milo’s body to see if it would tell her anything about it. Nothing had been found other than a few pieces of it in his hotel room when Milo had been away. Even the place he’d been working had nothing in it that would tell her one of the employees there had given it to him. Just as she was putting it away to think about something else, Jamie joined her in th
e office she’d been using.

  “I have to ask you something. Not that I think I can do what you do, but this tastes funny to me. Can you tell me if you think it’s off, or am I reading too much into this shit?” When Jamie handed her the cup of tea, Winnie could smell the iron in it even before she sipped it. Looking at the younger woman, she asked her where she’d gotten it. “Milo. He said he’d gotten it as a gift last year from one of the people he worked with on some computer stuff. It’s poison, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But not in the sense that it will poison him now. Did he tell you who gave it to him?” Jamie handed her a Christmas card and sat down across from her at the large desk. “You’re not going to be affected by that any longer. Neither will George or Milo. I took care of that little mishap for them, so you can drink it if you wish.”

  “No thanks. I’m not a huge fan of tea anyway. I don’t mind it, but I don’t really care for it. Do you know who that person is? Milo doesn’t remember them, but he’s looking through his notes now.” Winnie put the card and the iron away and regarded the woman across from her. “Do I have shit on my face or something? You’re staring at me as if I might have. What is it? Just so you know, I’m slightly afraid of you but not nearly as much as I am, Cindi. Talking to the dead? No the fuck way. What is it you’re sizing me up for? A coffin?”

  “No. What thoughts you have in your head at times. No, I was thinking about how you were able to track this down for me. I’d still be looking if not for your help.” She said she only asked her about the tea. “Yes. But I wouldn’t have thought of it as a gift from someone. And to answer your question, it is from the same man that is running the IT department at the place Milo had been working just recently.”

  “Do you think he meant to kill him?” Winnie explained to her what she’d gotten when she was handed the card. “So he drinks this to put more iron in his own blood. I don’t know if it works that way, but there have been stranger things people have done in the name of health. So now what do you do? I would guess you’d have to tell Milo that he can’t drink any more gifts from people. If you don’t, I will. In the event you didn’t notice, I don’t have a lot of trust in people. They’re all out to get something, it seems.”

  “Do you think we are? The Mannings, I mean?” Instead of answering her right away, Jamie got up and poured the tea out the open doors onto the grass. When she sat back down, she had a very unreadable look on her face. “Tell me what you’re thinking. Just so you know, unless you cause harm to one of the dragons, I can’t harm you. And that would include hurting Milo.”

  “First of all, I wouldn’t hurt him for my life. Secondly, I don’t think I trust anyone any more than you do. But in answer to your question, the answer is twofold. Are the Mannings out for something? Yes. Yes, you are. To give back to the community as much as you can. In order to do that, you take liberties with their minds and hack into computers to make it happen. Cheating, I think that would be called. Do I trust them? You? Yes. I don’t know why, but I do. Milo and Pem as well. The others, I really don’t know. I know what I’ve been told about them, all of them. But as far as trust, I don’t have a great deal of it for many people.”

  “What if I told you they’d lay down their lives for you?” Jamie asked her why they’d do that. “Because we protect one another with our lives. Even though we’re all immortal, we’d still go to great lengths to make sure you were as safe as we can make you.”

  “I don’t have any kind of thoughts on that, to be honest with you.” Jamie looked around the room, then back at her. “My parents lived in this house from the day they were married until they were killed. And before them, my grandparents all the way back as far as anyone can count. I hated it here. Hated not just the walls that seemed to be crushing me all the time, but everything about this place. It was just a house to me. Then I met you guys.”

  “Now you have a home.” Jamie nodded. “I don’t understand what that has to do with what I asked you.”

  “Only one person has ever made me feel like I was worth laying their lives down for. Not my parents. It was my grandmother when she was living with us. I’m still looking for where they put her. Some cheap nursing home, I’m betting. Not even my sister supported me, though it’s no fault of her own.” Winnie was beginning to understand Jamie a bit more. More than Milo did, she’d bet. “I don’t trust because I really didn’t know how until I met Pem. Did she tell you we nearly died one day while working? That’s why she was given an honorable discharge. Then after that, the nightmares were too much, and they made her depression worse.”

  “What happened?” Winnie wasn’t sure she was going to answer her but didn’t want to have to pry either. Whatever it was, she thought both of them were still having nightmares about it. “I think it might help you to tell me.”

  “That’s what the shrink told me. But to tell it, I don’t know…it makes it seem all the more like it really fucking did happen.” Jamie got up and picked up the framed ribbon she was sure had been on her uniform at one time. “We were just taking a break after nineteen hours of working. It was grueling and exhausting, but since we were the only two that qualified for working on the front line, we were working our asses off.” Winnie wondered why they weren’t on the ship they’d been assigned to. “Some fuckweed decided we’d be better off working close at hand with the wounded. So instead of leaving us where we needed to be all along, Pem and I and ten others were shipped to the front. Pem and I were the only two that made it back.”

  Winnie didn’t search her mind, but she did look through her own to find the incident that would have been the one Jamie was talking about. When she thought she’d found it, Jamie started talking again.

  “We were in the mess tent having a cup of what was supposed to have been hot cocoa. It was nothing more than hot brown water, but it was all there was as the cook had been killed three days before. The people in the tent with us weren’t speaking either—it was just quiet, you know. Like the fucked up shit that happens before the shit hits the fan.” Winnie knew Jamie had never told anyone this before. It wasn’t in any of her records with the doctor she’d been seeing before or the one she was seeing here. Neither had Pem, it appeared. “The machine that was making coffee exploded first. That wasn’t anything new for the shit that we had. Nothing worked all that well, so when it started spraying the liquid all over the ground, none of us even moved. Then the man at the table across from us, his head just disappeared. I think it took me a few seconds of disbelief before I grabbed Pem. We ducked under the table and watched as three more people hit the ground. There was a lot of screaming. The sound was much worse once it was cut off, like when the person was killed. The shots being fired weren’t coming from inside the tent, but from the outdoors where the other soldiers and doctors were, we came to realize.” Jamie paused, then started again. “It seemed like forever that we were ducked under the table. Pem and I held onto each other, knowing the very next shot was going to take us both out.”

  Winnie could see it happening in Jamie’s mind. Tapping into the memory gave her an insight that was much more horrific than the way Jamie was telling it. There was no pause in the shooting. And if asked, she’d bet Jamie would have been able to tell someone what sort of weapons had been used throughout the shootings. There had been four, and someone tossing grenades as well. When Jamie started talking again, she knew this was the part where her trust in people had been lost.

  “Mail had arrived just before the end of our shift. Nothing for either of us, of course. No one cared where we were and what we were doing. Doubtful if anyone even would have cared if we’d been killed that day. Anyway, mail had brought a lot of news for the men in charge. Two of them, I guess, had been given Dear John letters. It was what set off the captain and the two lieutenants that were in charge of the unit. I don’t know who the fourth man was, but they had decided they’d had enough of being in a war that had taken their families away. Their words, not m
ine.” Winnie quietly asked her what had happened. “They came into the mess tent to celebrate. I suppose we could have stayed hidden, and they might well have never known we were there. But I had to know. I had to know why they’d done something so horrific.”

  Winnie watched as it unfolded in her mind. Saw the exact moment that Jamie had decided she was going to make sure these men paid for what they’d done. Standing up, she confronted the men and asked them what the bloody fuck they were doing.

  “Lookee, Ben, we missed one.” The lieutenant aimed his weapon at Jamie when she asked them what they were doing a second time. “We’re ending the war for a lot of people, Jamie. They’ll all get to go home and be with their families.”

  “You killed these people so they could go home? What fucked up kind of logic is that? They’re fucking dead, you morons. You killed them for no reason.” The man pointing his gun at her told her that he was going home too. “Good for you, fucktard. In a bag or upright? Either way, you’ve murdered a lot of soldiers. For what? What sort of reason could you have for killing innocent men and women?”

  Jamie had moved away from Pem, leaving her on the ground. Pem stayed where she was while Jamie spoke to the four men.

  “We told you so that they can go home to their families.” The man, Lieutenant Parlor, laughed with his buddies as he stood up and moved toward her. The gun was at her head as he continued. “You’re a nice fine piece of ass, now aren’t you, Doc? Why don’t you show us what you have underneath that uniform? Maybe I’ll give you a quicky death.”

  The movement was quick, and Winnie was impressed. Not only did she kill Parlor, but she also managed to kill two of the other three by snapping Parlor’s neck and using his weapon to shoot the others. Once they were dead, still holding Parlor in front of her, Jamie was shot twice before Pem shot and killed the fourth man with a weapon she’d picked up from one of the dead on the ground.