DRAGON'S GAP: Set Includes Stories 1-3 Plus Love's Catalyst

by L M Lacee

  Sage said quietly, “Your studio?”

  She shook her head no. That was her peaceful space. She tried hard not to bring crap into it. “No not there.”

  Sage nodded understanding her reluctance. “Then Junes.”

  “Yeah okay, she better have alcohol?”

  “She does, buckets of it.”

  “I will need it.”

  Sage said as the lift came. “We need to talk to Verity this has gone on too long. She is worried. We all are.”

  “No I cannot, Sage please. I will not involve his mother. That is just wrong!”

  Sage grimaced and sadly thought as they entered the lift. Sorry sister I think that is out of your hands now. She did not want to tell Edith but Verity had said if Edith would not talk to her, she would do some talking to her son. Sage sort of felt sorry for Sharm. Verity was angry and an angry Verity was a thing to behold. So Reighn said. She sent the message.

  Verity received the message and thumped the counter. Rene’!

  Their connection was so strong it was like he was sitting beside her when he answered. Yes my soul.

  You need to return home.

  Are you ill?

  Verity could hear the worry in his voice. No dearest. Our son Sharm has got himself into trouble with his bonded. I am very worried.

  Ahh! I see. I will be there shortly.

  Thank you my love.

  As always I am yours. He told her by way of a goodbye. Satisfied Verity made her way to her son’s apartment to explain the facts of bonding to her foolish child.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

  R eighn asked. “Is she right?”

  Sharm sighed and slumped against the wall looking out at the view without seeing it. “About what?”

  “Are you a sexist prick?”

  “I do not think she said prick!”

  “No I added that.” Reighn paced around the room with his hands in his pockets, mainly so they did not reach for his brother and throttle him as he wanted too. “What the fuck are you thinking? She is your shadow and you were barking at her like you would a piece of shit you gave no two fucks for!”

  “She drives me crazy alright!” Sharm yelled, as he ran his hands through his hair. “Every day it is something new, someone else she has upset. Told what to do and organized their life. Look at Ella, she is different she has changed because of her!”

  Reighn looked at his brother amused and angered all in one. Normally Sharm was their calm, centered brother and now he was off kilter, waffling. At any other time Reighn would be enjoying his brother’s confusion but now he just felt extremely angered and disappointed by him.

  “I did look this morning when I spoke with her and at the party. What I saw was a female finally coming out of her shell. Out from under her viperous mother and sister’s influence. Tell me brother, in all the years young Ella has been in your employ. What did you do to help her become self-confident, self-aware?”

  Sharm felt his defenses go up. “I gave her medicine what else was I to do. She was my student. She has never complained of my treatment of her.”

  “She was your student and no she never did… She never would. You treated her exactly as you should with a certain amount of indifference, as long as she showed up for work and learnt everything as she was meant to. What more was there for you to do?”

  Sharm narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Exactly! Are you trying to make a point? If so I am missing it.”

  “Of course you are missing it. You dumb…” Reighn let a breath out and said with a clenched jaw. “Indeed, for four long years she was your student and yet within minutes of meeting her, your shadow gave her the confidence to change her attitude. To change how she dressed, to speak her mind and grow. She befriended a lonely person then introduced her to other lonely people. Do you know Ella never had a phone, her reasoning was she had no one to call? Yeah, I see what Edith did that was so bad.” Reighn told him sarcasm dripping from each word.

  Sharm hung his head. He had not known any of that. He felt a rising tide of shame. Reighn was relentless as he said. “Your shadow is a good, loving, kind female. There is not one person whose life she has touched that has not changed for the better, apart from you apparently. Do you actually know what she has done?”

  “Of course I do!” He said angry again. “She has disrupted my life. Waltzed in and changed everything, even my employee’s fall all over themselves to appease her.”

  Reighn turned from his view of the mountains and faced his brother stunned at his arrogance. “Amazing! Truly amazing. This is what you believe, that these people are just trying to appease her? You are so wrong. I do not know who you are listening to, but it is not your own eyes and ears. Your shadow has set up a singles club for males and females to meet once a week at Madam Tessa’s. She has helped start a cab service for Dragon’s Gap which everyone uses. She has the matron’s organizing cooking and craft classes. She has Elders teaching etiquette and both dragons and shifters are holding lessons on dragons and shifters. Not to mention the driving school she has initiated with members of Conor’s pride. Or the classes on magic and Elementals, that I and Keeper hold. Then there is the day care center she and Ella are looking to have started with the faeries.”

  Sharm stood poleaxe. “That is not right! Most of those are Sage and Junes or your ideas and...”

  Reighn cut him off. “Really you think I lie?”

  “No... No! Why did she not tell me?”

  “Why should she, would you have considered it for what it was or would you call it meddling and another thing? Is it true you have said you wish her not to work? To do what she is very, very good at. What she spent years training to do? Which by the way she had to do herself, with no one to help fund or encourage her. Did you in fact tell her, that her work had no value…NO VALUE?” He finally yelled when his anger rose to the surface.

  Sharm snorted. “Did she tell you that?”

  Reighn laughed harshly, dear Goddess his brother was an ass. “No, as if she would. She would rather die than speak! Is it true?”

  It had in fact been Henry who was so distraught at the arguments the couple were having. And Sharm’s disparaging remarks about Edith’s desire to return to work. He had finally broken down and talked to Storm, his old commander’s nephew. Who had spoken to Reighn with the qualification, that if he did not sort their brother out, he would beat him into realizing he was hurting his shadow.

  Which is why he and Sage had decided to visit today, plus his Dam and Queen Scarlett were worried for her. And now he understood why they were, after seeing her and Sharm today.

  Sharm eyed his brother and asked “Who dared talk about me and Edith, was it Lars?”

  Reighn stilled as he asked. “Lars, why would Lars talk about you and Edith?”

  Sharm shrugged but declined to answer. Reighn narrowed his eyes and vowed to talk to his brother Lars later. He asked again spacing out each word as he demanded an answer. “Is. It. True?”

  Sharm ran his hand around his neck. “Maybe… we discussed it, and I felt she would be better at home.”

  “Do you hear yourself? You...You! That is all I hear, what of your shadow. How dare you? She worked hard for her degree, and you want to make it difficult for her to use it. You are a prick! I was right. Well, she is working, and she will continue to work for as long as she wants. I have given her my blessing unless you wish to go against your brothers and me. I suggest you shut the fuck up and realize your shadow is a working female with talent, and the town and we cannot wait for the gallery to open.”

  Sharm roared as he listened to Reighn’s decrees. “SHE IS MY SHADOW!”

  Reighn stilled as his dragon snarled. “Take care brother. I am not your shadow!”

  “I apologize!” Sharm said hastily, confusion riding him hard. Reighn took a deep breath settling his dragon who was as confused as he was, his dragon told him. Sharm is never like this. Something is not right!

  Reighn agreed. I know but what? I detect nothing. He
said to Sharm trying to get an answer from his brother that would make sense. “You were berating her, yelling at her. Do you want a submissive delicate female? Is that what you are trying to turn her into?”

  “Why does everyone ask me that? No of course not.” Sharm shrugged one shoulder as if he dismissed this assumption as nonsense but even to Reighn’s ear he sounded unsure. Reighn said quietly. “I think you are lying to me, yourself and especially to Edith. She will never be that female, it is not within her to be so.”

  Sharm looked out the window again, anywhere rather than to look into the accusing eyes of his brother as he heard the truth. His Edith would never be that female. You do not understand? There is no give in her. All she does is argue!”

  “Really, I do not see that. She lives with you. She stays here, seems to me if she is arguing it is to be heard. She is fighting just as hard as you, except that where you are fighting to make her into someone else. She is fighting to make you see only her, the shadow you joined with. Sharm my brother, what happened to the calm, rational brother with the sense of humor. The master healer, the loving male we all know and value?”

  Sharm sat and sighed. “He took a vacation. I cannot get a handle on her.”

  Reighn sat opposite him. “Sharm what is there to handle?”

  “She is a loose cannon.”

  “No, she is a strong minded, thoughtful female who has an amazing gift you still have not utilized, why is that?”

  “I do not know. I guess I have been so busy putting out fires I have not had time.”

  “Fires! I think you have been shadow boxing, there are no fires other than what you are imaging there to be. You need to start thinking rather than letting your so-called wish list of how she should be dictate the way you think of her. Also, you should know she is using her gift without training, every morning and at night.”

  Sharm sighed. “I did not know that maybe you are right. Maybe what I want is foreshadowing what is here. I do not know, she should not be using her gift. I will make her stop. She has to be guided, tempered.”

  Reighn looked out the window as he let the impulse to hit his brother pass. “I think I see now. It is not her the artist or the gifted loving giving female you object to. It is the independent female. You wanted a female that would wait at the end of the day whenever that was for you, with slippers and dinner ready. Someone who hung on every one of your words like they were gold.”

  “You make it sound stupid!” Sharm complained weakly, shocked at hearing the attributes he had secretly dreamed of in a shadow spoken in his brothers derisive tones.

  Did you really have those dreams? I do not remember you doing so? His dragon asked shocking Sharm from his thoughts. For a minute he had clarity of mind and knew he had never dreamt of a female like that. Then it was gone much like a cloud passing in front of the sun obscuring it from the earth but his dragon had seen and felt something.

  Sharm almost missed what Reighn said next. “Because it is ridiculous! These females are not as our dragon females were led to believe they should be. Only good for home and hearth like our Dam and her generation, who were told to be of a gentile nature. Like the ones that made Ella feel wrong for wanting to become a healer. These wonderful females are strong, competent, self-assured independent females. They work in all occupations, not just the ones males, deem they are capable of doing. They do not need a male to complete them like we were led to believe females did.”

  “I know that.”

  “Yes you do but as long as it is not your shadow you are alright with it.”

  “If she was just that, it would be okay. But she is so much more!” He stated slightly bewildered.

  She is? Why do you not cherish that? His dragon asked confused by his words still trying to figure out what was wrong…

  Sharm hesitantly told him. I do… I do not know. I want to!

  Reighn agreed. “You are right she is much more!”

  Sharm looked at his brother confused, “What do you mean?”

  Reighn stood. “She is your shadow, should that not be enough for you? We are not our father and elders with their antiquated thinking.”

  Sharm frowned. “Papa is not like that.”

  Reighn nodded. “Maybe not as much as he was in our youth, but he has enough left over.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Reighn shrugged as he said simply. “Is he here with our Dam?”

  Sharm stood. “That is their decision, his and our Dams.”

  Reighn just shook his head. “Open your eyes my brother. Get your head out of your medical papers for a while, look around and see what actually is happening in your family. I will give you this one warning. If you do not change, I will remove your shadow from you!”

  “You would not dare.”

  Reighn morphed into the Dragon Lord dropping his veneer of loving brother. “I warn you healer not only will I dare. You will not be able to stop me. Do not push me on this. Edith is mine to protect as much as you are. Remember you brought her into our family. So now she is mine!” He stabbed a finger at him. “You think on that when next you decide to yell at your shadow and do not be surprised if you wake one morning and find yourself alone again. Even I can see she is losing weight due to unhappiness. You the healer should have already realized that and remedied it. Someone like Edith will not go on like this for long. Painful as it will be for her, she will leave you or I will make her.”

  “She will not! I am her shadow.”

  “Are you? Because from where I am standing it does not look like it!” With that Reighn the Dragon Lord walked from the apartment leaving Sharm standing alone staring blankly out of the window. Even his dragon was still and quiet.

  Verity waited until after Reighn had left. She made herself a cup of tea in Sharm’s kitchen with hands that shook from what she had heard. She had done this to her son…her blood. Grace had told her that the attitude she had been treating her Rene` with was not the way. Now as she had listened to her son’s talking, she realized Grace was right. So it was time to stop. She had intelligence and weapons. It was time to start using them for herself, her sons and Rene`.

  She stepped into the lounge cup in hand and found a seat. Her son so lost in his worries did not even know she was so she waited, there was time. Her dragon told her, causing Verity to sigh quietly. Not too much, this is what has got dragons into trouble. Already we have played nice for too long. We need to be what we are, dragon!

  Yes dear one, you are right. I am glad you are here to counsel me!

  It is what I do, we are a part of each other and while I slept, you forgot the dragons rage. Edee reminded us.

  Yes, she did, we will thank her for that, by helping our son.

  Yes!

  Sharm turned from his contemplation, Reighn had frightened him. Was he really such a prick, was he really going to lose his shadow, how had this happened and where had his thinking gone wrong? He would normally ask his dragon, but he was it seemed, as confused as he was. Startled he said. “Mama! I am sorry I did not know you were here?”

  Verity finished her sip of tea. “I realize, you were deep in thought.”

  Sharm sighed. “I have much to think about?”

  “So I heard.”

  “Oh I see, you have been here...”

  “For a little while yes. Reighn was quite concerned and angry it seemed?” She waited, if he brushed it off she would throw her cup at him, but he did not. “He has reason to be. I have caused harm to Edith, myself and to the people I swore to help. All because I cannot get past the image of a myth and now my shadow is losing weight and my family wish to punch my lights out.” He raised an eyebrow at his mother who nodded with a twinkle in her eyes. “That is so, I wish to very much!”

  “See?” He pointed to his mouth. “There are feet in there, mine! I open it and spew stupid. My dragon is as confused and upset as I am.”

  “Oh my dear.”

  He leant back, his body so very tired, he missed his shadow. �
��She will not sleep with me and before you say it. I know it is my fault.”

  “Sharm my son, the fault is mine and your Sires. We have spent years playing roles we deemed necessary. I see now we were incorrect.”

  “I do not know what you are talking about Mama?”

  “Maybe that is just as well.” Verity looked at her son and realized this was a conversation for her and her shadow not as she thought her son. “Son take me for a flight it has been a long time since I have flown with you.”

  He gave her a bittersweet smile “I have not even given my soul the gift of flight. I am a very bad shadow.”

  “No my son, you are new at joining. Thinking you know it all, it is a failing I have noticed in males.”

  He grinned as she hoped he would. “Now if I might inquire, did you court Edith?”

  “Why would I? We have confirmed our bonding.”

  Verity stood and placed her cup on the table and asked. “Why would you not? Is it because she is not dragon?”

  Sharm paled. “No mama no! Why would you think that?”

  Verity smiled kindly at him. “My Sharm use your formidable intelligence and think about what you said.”

  She could see him thinking as she stepped out onto the balcony. He followed slowly just before he leapt into the air, he said. “I understand mama thank you.”

  Verity smiled and touched his cheek. “I trust you my son to do the right thing by your shadow.”

  He nodded and leapt into the air transforming into a beautiful black dragon with a sheen of blue covering his scales. Hovering close to the balcony Verity hopped on and made herself comfortable, then she tapped his sides and he lifted gently away. They flew for an hour then Sharm took her to her apartment. Verity slid off as they reached her balcony. “Son go see your shadow she is at Junes.”

  He nodded his large head and swept away. Verity smiled and hoped she had done enough. He is a good son a bit stupid as all young are at times but his heart is solid, mused her dragon.

  Verity grinned. That is what makes him a good healer. Well, I must shower.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: