by Jill Haven
I rolled onto my back and allowed myself to wallow on the forest floor, staring up at the dove grey sky above me, until my breath returned. With it came the memory of what I was walking away from by taking on the mission—a clan I’d stood by for over a century, something akin to friendship, and of course… Evan.
Before the emptiness could completely consume me, I hauled myself up and dressed as I staggered back to the Jeep. Though I was returning to where I’d begun, I was still moving onwards. Forever onwards.
Ace and Ten were waiting for me in the driveway of the Princeps Draco’s Charleston house, where they leaned against the armored van that the Enforcement Council had equipped us with. I gave them a quick nod before I let myself inside.
Carlisle beamed at me from his place on the sofa, held up a finger to his lips, and motioned to the opposite sofa where Haiden and their baby slept together. I closed the door quietly and stood completely still. What else could I do? Even my sneakiest tip-toe would be heavy on the floorboards and surely wake them up.
“Office,” Carlisle whispered and eased himself up slowly while grinning at his family. I rubbed the aching space in my chest and tried not to think of Evan. I kept my eyes on the ground and tried to remember what I had come here to say.
Easier said than done.
“Vince is looking for you.” The Princeps Draco closed the door behind us and took a seat at his desk. I remained standing. I didn’t have time to waste with unnecessary etiquette.
I grunted. “I bet he is.”
“Out for blood, is he?”
“I’d say so.” I clenched my jaw and fell silent. It would have given Vince enough fury to call for my head and tail if he’d discovered my scent on Evan. And Evan wasn’t exactly adept at keeping a secret like that. No doubt he’d bragged about our union to rub his uncle’s face in it… If so, then I had to admit, I was proud of him.
“I’ll keep him off your tail. Need somewhere to hide?”
I clasped my hands behind my back and lowered my head. There was no point in dragging it out. “I’ve accepted a job with the Enforcement Council.”
Carlisle’s face dropped for a single, heart-breaking second before he snapped on a practiced smile and ran a hand through his hair. I had known the man for eons enough to spot a fake cheerfulness. “Well, congratulations!”
“It is not a reflection of my time serving you. But the peace we’ve come to know in the century has taken its toll on me. It’s time for me to retire from your command and take on a new mission.”
His fake smile faded into a warm, genuine grin. “I understand, friend. You were born to fight. And they have a mission for you?”
“Indeed. In strictest confidence?”
“My word on my blood.” This ancient phrase brought confidence and comfort to my heart. I told him everything: the history of the hunters, my new contact information, and even the finer details of our assignment. Our plan was to start with the east coast and visit all of the clans from north to south. According to the grid we’d mapped, there was a good chance we’d cross paths with the dragon hunters if we kept to our timeline and made it down to New York—or we were at least hoping to find some of them. We suspected they were working in at least two groups, and we had no idea how many men they had in each.
Carlisle’s eyes widened and he took in the information as the Princeps Draco.
“The Enforcement Laws are more important than ever,” I said, though it was redundant. I could see that he was already considering how he could impose greater privacy throughout his region.
“Of course. It’s a great comfort that you are the one they selected for this mission. I couldn’t think of a better sentinel to protect us from the hunters. I wish you luck, my friend.”
I lowered my head in gratitude, and slowly made toward the door.
“Bishop…” I turned back and he wet his lips nervously. “Will you ever come back?”
I shrugged and gave my friend as much of a grin as I could muster. “We live long lives.”
16
Evan
Carlisle and Haiden’s house came into view through the tinted windows of what I had learned was my uncle’s personal chauffeured car, and my heart danced so fast that I worried I might have a coronary. The tingles inside my chest brightened. I was closer to Bishop; I could feel it. He was here! I imagined the way his eyes would light up when I’d tell him that not only did my uncle approve of our mating, but he demanded it. Everything had changed in our favor, just as I knew it would.
I bounded up the steps like I’d never known illness, and rattled my fist against the door.
“Evan! Oh, dear. You just missed him.” Carlisle’s face dropped as he looked me over.
“Oh, I did?” I whipped around and scoured the gardens, stained pink under the setting sun, for any sign of Bishop’s broad back.
“No, no, a few hours ago.” Carlisle brought me under his shoulder and eased me inside.
“But he was here?”
“He was—” Carlisle stopped and stared at me with an expression like that of a fox taken unawares. Of course, he’d smelled the pregnancy just as my uncle’s keen dragon nose had… I was moments from admitting what had happened, when Haiden bounded across the room and launched himself at me.
“Evan!” I almost failed under his strength, and he pulled me back to look me over. “You look pale. Hey, you’re trembling. Are you cold?”
“I need to find him.”
“You need to sit down.” Carlisle urged me over to the sofa and Haiden wrapped me in a blanket, while his mate leaned in and whispered to him, though loud enough that I could hear, “He’s with child.”
Haiden gasped and smiled at me excitedly. “For real? Congratulations!”
With the blanket pulled tight around me, I nodded. “I need to find Bishop.”
“We’ll call him, right now. Carlisle?”
“Of course.”
Haiden sat beside me and touched my forehead with gentle pressure. I’d felt so buoyed by my quest and the certainty that I’d see my mate when I arrived at Carlisle’s that my symptoms had faded to the background during the journey. Now that I’d arrived and found Bishop was already gone, they came rushing back with greater strength. I could barely swallow the water that Haiden gave me, the nausea reared up and a griping pain in my chest was almost unbearable.
Carlisle came back with his phone to his ear. “He’s not answering. He’s taken on a… mission, and he might be somewhere with spotty service.”
Or he might be ignoring the phone. I didn’t speak it, but we all knew Bishop well enough to know that he was the type to ignore attempts at communication. My heart beat faster and my palms grew clammy as I glanced from Haiden to Carlisle. Surely the panic was evident on my face, and the concern was etched on theirs.
“Let me try Ace and Ten.”
“He’s with them?” I croaked.
“As far as I know.” Carlisle gave me a reassuring grin and squeezed my shoulder, which did nothing but raise my fear. Why was he trying to comfort me? Was it really that unlikely that I’d ever see Bishop again?
“We have to find him,” I whispered and only Haiden heard. “My uncle said…”
My mouth felt as dry as cotton and the words caught in my throat.
“What did Vince say? Does he know where Bishop is?” Haiden asked excitedly.
“If he doesn’t claim me… another alpha will.”
The Princeps Draco lowered the phone and glanced at his mate, who stared back with a sunken expression. Haiden shook his head and spoke to me while keeping his eyes on Carlisle. “No. We won’t let that happen.”
“I could die. He said I could die if I don’t mate with an alpha.”
Carlisle cringed and poked at the light screen on his phone again. “I… don’t know if a simple marriage-style mating will work to improve your health.”
Haiden shot Carlisle a look, but I held his leg with a shaky hand. “It’s quite alright. I need to know all that I
can.”
Carlisle sighed at the shiny parts of his phone and prodded it one more time. He held it to his ear while he spoke to me. “From what we know so far, and this is very new and untested information… well, it seems that the bond between true mates is what strengthens the Divine Omega to get them through the birth.”
All of a sudden, a sharp agony broke through my muscles and had me doubled over, wheezing and whining. They rushed around me, soothed me as best they could, and helped me to recline on the sofa—but everything was a blur. A wailing came from a machine on the coffee table, which Haiden snatched away and quickly hurried up the stairs to tend to their baby. Heavy-limbed and weak, my weight sank into the sofa and with tired eyes, I watched Carlisle pace and snatch glances at me.
“I’m calling Mason, and we’ll find Bishop ourselves. Seth, perhaps he can help. And Mabel. Yes, I’ll call Mabel,” he muttered to himself.
Mabel was a sweet-faced woman with cooling hands that soothed me wherever she touched. Night had fallen by the time she arrived to tend to me, followed by Mason and Seth who greeted me with concerned faces and then talked amongst themselves. Their words floated in and out of my consciousness as though they were lilting on a breeze.
“What can we do to help him?” Seth hissed at Mason.
“I don’t know.”
“What the hell do you mean you don’t know? You’re a doctor.”
“He needs Bishop. He needs to mate. The only thing that could return his strength is the mating bite.”
“Then go get him!” With a shove, Seth sent Mason stumbling backward, turned on his heel, and stalked off. It took all of my effort to breathe. It was nice of them to care so much. I closed my eyes.
Somewhere between deep sleep and this new, awfully sluggish version of sleep, my hand slipped off the sofa and hit Seth’s shoulder. He squeezed it gently, and I peeled an eye open to see him sitting on the floor beside me with his face lit by three glowing screens. They looked similar to giant phones. Perhaps he was playing a game. His fingers danced on some kind of contraption, pressing down on keys like a piano but no music came out, just a trickling sound like light rain.
Mable appeared to my side and smoothed the hair away from my face. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”
I strained to feel how I might be; but a giggling gurgling sound came from the sofa across the other side of Seth’s contraptions, where baby Charlotte bounced in Haiden’s lap and clenched her fists toward the tiny dragon who scrambled across the floor. Out of my misery and fatigue, a smile tugged at my lips as the hatchling Brant clambered up Seth’s arms and wrapped himself around the back of his father’s neck, with his long, scaled tail curled around his father’s upper arm. Brant turned to look at me and blinked his wet eyes with a click. He stared into me with adorable, wide pupils, and gave a trill that I intuitively knew was a sound of affection. Seth clenched his jaw and kept his eyes fixed on the screen but tickled the foot of the dragon babe who let out a giggle of sparks.
Something moved in my belly, and my heart fluttered. My life could be like that of Seth and Haiden’s. I could have a baby and be surrounded by so much life and love. Perhaps Bishop and I could build a home like this on the land that the barracks sat upon, and raise not just one but two or three or even four little hatchlings together. A surge of energy moved through me, but it didn’t soothe me; instead, it froze me to my core. I might have this life, or I might die. And if I died… then I would leave my baby behind to be taken care of by someone else, just as my mother had.
I closed my eyes and finally whispered my answer to Mable. “I feel scared.”
“I know, darling.” She lifted my shoulders and settled me back down so that my head lay in her lap. As she stroked my hair, she told me that Carlisle and Mason had left together to seek out Bishop and had suggested they knew where he might be traveling.
“And I’m hacking the hell out of financial records and toll cameras to get any intel on his location.” Seth said. “You know what bank he uses?”
“Bank?” I croaked. He beamed at me and shook his head. It didn’t matter. He’d find him.
Days went by, and they moved me into a guest room at the top of the stairs. My limbs ached from simply walking to the bathroom, so I dared not wander down to the kitchen where I knew everyone liked to gather. Mabel kept me company when Haiden needed to tend to the children; otherwise, he sat with me and read me books that sounded like science fiction but which he assured me were actually old and quite outdated. Seth appeared by my bedside at regular intervals to update me on any progress he’d made on the computer machines that were tracking Bishop, speaking in jargon I didn’t understand, but his enthusiasm fed the dwindling flame of hope in my heart.
But the most incredible development was my belly. Rounded and engorged, it grew much faster than I would have thought possible. Mabel assured me it was normal for dragon gestation, and that it would all pass by faster than a blink of an eye. It excited me that I could breed with my true mate so quickly—in a half-woken blur after an afternoon nap, I saw my life with Bishop and ten little dragons, and I’d never been happier. But back in reality, Bishop still wasn’t here. Haiden received updates from Carlisle and he loyally relayed them to me, no matter how disheartening it was to hear “Still no sign of Bishop” again and again. I appreciated his honesty; I abhorred the reality.
I was not able to even begin to contemplate where Bishop could be or worry that he might be hurt or worse—I was completely consumed with deep, relentless fatigue and a grumbling, griping pain that ran from the bosom of my heart to the top of my pelvis. The only relief I found was in rubbing the bulbous, taut belly that projected straight outwards and grew bigger every day.
Despite my less than sharp faculties, I wasn’t oblivious to the dour mood that took hold in the house. Mabel wore a frown on her otherwise happy facade and left my bedside only to briefly care for her own physical needs. Seth and Haiden did their best to stay upbeat, though the dark rings around Seth’s eyes told me he had been on his locating machine far too long into the nights.
“Do not worry yourself for my sake,” I croaked to him one day.
“Yeah right, what am I going to do? Not look for him?” He passed me a cup of water and I did my best to swallow a sip. Somehow, the liquid felt dry in my mouth.
“Sleep. Take care of yourself, Seth,” I pleaded.
He waved me off and stalked back downstairs to his machine, while guilt grumbled inside me. The last thing I wanted was for these wonderful people—could I call them friends? Surely the care they showed me was testament to a friendship—to put themselves in pain or risk their health for me.
But ultimately, it was Seth’s selfless dedication that saved the day.
“Fuck yes!” His shout came from downstairs as dawn broke. A thunderclap of feet pounded up the stairs, and Mabel started awake in her chair by my bedside as Seth broke into the room.
“They’re in Maine! The stupid fuckers. Bishop has a tracking system on that stupid Jeep of his so he can find it if it gets stolen. He’s in Maine. Paranoid jerk. Yes!”
“Maine?” Mabel was on her feet and scrambled to get her phone from the bedside table.
“What’s going on?” Haiden called from down the hall, followed by high-pitched crying from two sets of baby lungs.
“We found ’em!” Seth shouted back and let out an ear-busting whoop! as he pumped his fist in the air. Something inside me broke through the heaviness and pain and allowed me to sit upright with a smile on my parched, cracked lips. I think it was hope.
17
Bishop
Portland, Maine was our first stop on what was gearing up to be a long and all-consuming mission. Our intention was to warn the New England clans and gather any information we could before heading down the seaboard. We hadn’t expected to intercept the dragon hunters so far north; according to our map, they were due to hit New York City in the next few weeks, and we’d be ready for them there and not before. But our calc
ulations were not correct, or perhaps the hunters were increasing their activity.
The Mariner Dragons met with us under a thick cloud of grief—Douglas Mandrake, the mate of the clan’s leader, had been found dead in his human form, tangled in a fishing net off the coast just two days earlier. A freak accident, they said. We knew better.
We gained access to the morgue through an old contact of mine at the police department to check the body for clues. The body bag was unzipped, and Ten gagged. Bloated beyond recognition, the corpse looked more like an engorged sausage than a cadaver and smelled like wet, singed hair and barbequed fish. I lowered my head and paid respects to our dragon brother Douglas before we began our investigation.
“Are the cops suspecting murder?” I asked Greyson, the morgue attendant I knew from bootlegging days.
“They considered it but there isn’t enough to go on. It appears to be a freak drowning. But here, look at this.” He pointed out a small, fresh tattoo on the side of what should have been the body’s neck.
Ten gagged again and rushed out of the room. I peered closer. It looked like a three-leaf clover. Ace rubbed the same spot on his own neck. “Hm. Looks like a club playing card.”
“Trouble with a gambling ring?”
Greyson shook his head and zipped up the bag. “Beats me. There’s plenty of underground shit happening here, but Douglas was as clean as they get. That he would even get a tattoo is completely out of character, and I urge you not to disclose it. There’s already too much talk of how he may have taken his own life.”
I grew mute, and Ace stepped in. “Why is there talk about that?”
“There’s an epidemic, haven’t you heard?”
“Among humans, sure. But our kind?”
