“I’m not leaving you. We have a lot to talk about.” She said that she was done talking to him. “I’m sorry that you feel that way, Wynter. But there are a great many things going on that we have to figure out. Like, why were you created with a dragon on your leg and not your back? Who were you parents? Where were they for all those decades before you were born? There are a great many things that we have to figure out. Plus, keeping you safe needs to be a priority—I don’t want anything to happen to you. For some reason, and I don’t know why we’ve never thought of this before, someone wants you to be in prison. To get you alone, perhaps? I don’t know. But it bears talking about.”
Clara stood and so did Tristan. “I need to use the restroom. I don’t know that I’ll return here, because I think that Lord Manning is correct. You both need to talk things out. In the meantime, I’ll be making arrangements for a hotel or someplace that we can stay until we get those answers.”
“I have a large house that we can all live in together.” Clara told him that was all right, but she could find something. “I insist. I can keep an eye on you both, and if Wynter wants, she can become her dragon. There is plenty of room for that too.”
Clara left and Tristan stayed where he was. Wynter was jumpy enough without him lying on the bed with her like he wanted. Instead of talking to her about anything serious, he started telling her about himself.
“I’ve been around for a very long time. When we were born, we were dragons; the world was a much different place than it is now. We, the dragons, blackened the skies when we were around. Helping out our human friends was easy for us. Then they realized that we were worth much more dead than alive.” Wynter told him she was sorry. “Thank you. My mother, she’d been killed some months before my father gave his life for us to be human. And since then, we’ve been trying our best to blend in with humanity so they’d not kill us.”
“I don’t understand any of this.” He said that he understood. They both looked at the dragons. “Do you really think it’s possible that I could turn into a dragon? Being that size would make people back off from me a little, don’t you think?”
“You’ll be much larger than them.” She looked at him. “Wynter, I know this is a great deal to throw at you, but we really do need some answers. Mostly it has to do with why you’re a dragon that no one told us about. Why are we paired with matching dragons? My head is overwhelmed with all this. I can’t imagine what is going through yours right now.”
“My wound is healed. I’m betting if they remove this cast that I’ll be all right there as well. Is that part of the magic?” He nodded. “I’m terrified out of my mind right now. And all I can think about is you wrapping me up in your arms and holding me. Not that I’m asking you to do that, but I just need one thing to go normally. I really could use a dose of normal about now.”
“I’m afraid that went out the door with yesterday’s wash.” They both laughed. “Come on downstairs and we’ll have something to eat, and talk. I’m sure that Winnie or Carson has the others tied to a chair or something to keep them away.”
“I don’t have anything to wear but this gown from the hospital.” She looked down at herself. “What I wouldn’t give for a nice thick pair of socks and some warm pants and a too large sweatshirt.”
Before he could tell her to watch what she wished for, she was dressed in what she’d said. He had to admit, he thought, she certainly looked more comfy. When he started to tell her that she could do that, to change out of her outfit too, Wynter put her hand up.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Nothing happened, all right? Please?” He nodded at her. “Good. I got dressed, and now I’m going to eat. I’m sure nothing will pop out of the kitchen in front of me, will it?”
“I have no idea anymore.” She nodded and took his hand. The dragons said that they’d see them downstairs, as they needed to stretch their wings. “Do you want to watch them fly? It’s beautiful, and perhaps—”
“No. There are no dragons. I’m visiting an old friend and I had a frightful dream, that’s all.” Tristan laughed and she grabbed his balls in her hand. “Don’t make me have to test that theory of yours about hurting you, buster. I’m fucking stressed out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tristan walked behind her, thinking that he might just be as nutty as she was feeling. But Christ, she was beautiful, and her temper made her cheeks flush pink. He wondered if her nipples did the same. But he was smart enough to know not to say a word. Not until later, of course.
Chapter 2
Wynter was overwhelmed. That was an understatement, she told herself. Never this high strung before, she tried her very best to sit quietly while the others shouted at each other. They were big and loud, and she just wanted them to shut the fuck up. Putting her hands over her ears, she stood up.
“I’m taking a walk.” She would just leave them there. It was either get out of the house right now, or she’d have to sic one of the dragons on them. When Tristan stood up, she put her hand up. “Alone. I can’t think with all this going on right now. I’m sorry. I know that this is your home, but I...I have to think about what is going on.”
“All right. But I’d like to go with you. If for no other reason than I want to help you.” She looked around the room and no one seemed inclined to help her make him stay. “I won’t talk to you or touch you if you just let me come along.”
“Can you really shut the fuck up?” Everyone at the table laughed. “I’m sorry. But I’m in this rabbit hole, and I can’t think that there is going to be a bottom. I must be out of my mind for saying this, but yes, you can come with me, but no touching or speaking to me.”
He followed her out of the house and just started walking. She didn’t know where she was, much less where she was planning to go, but she started talking to herself. It was something that she had done all her life, and she wasn’t going to change things because some jackass wanted to follow her around like a sick puppy.
“When did this all begin?” She didn’t have an answer to her own question, so moved on. “You were left on a doorstep in the middle of winter. Why do you think that any of this is going to be solvable? Your own parents didn’t want you, isn’t that right?”
“No, that’s not right. I’m sure they did.” She turned and glared. “Well, I can’t have you go around thinking that you weren’t wanted. They had to sacrifice a great deal for you to be where you are, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know what to think.” He said that he understood that. “How the hell do you think you understand anything that is going on with me right now? I’m a dragon, for fuck’s sake.”
“So am I.” She turned and looked at him. Wynter wanted to tell him that she didn’t want to walk with him any more, but he spoke again. “When our father’s body was taken from us, we were still dragons. There wasn’t anyone around to tell us what we should do. How we were to figure out how to eat with a fork. We had to learn how to drink from a glass. Even to make a button to go through a hole when we dressed in human clothing. You, at least, have us.”
“Yes, I do. And you’re a bunch of dragons that have been around a very long time. I’m new to this.” He said that he was too. “I thought you said you’d been a dragon forever.”
“I have been. But I’ve never had my dragon peel from my body to become a different being. I’ve never had a mate before, much less one that is a dragon as well.” Wynter told him again that she was sorry. “No need to be. I’m just trying to show you that we’re not so different at the moment. We’re both in a place that is so new to us that it’s making us lash out at people that are trying to help.”
“You mean me.” He said that he’d not been all that nice either. “Yes you have. I would have hit me by now. I’ve done nothing but lash out, as you said, and want to hurt you all. Are you guys always so loud when you’re together?”
“Yes. We’re louder when there is a football game on the television that is really good or really bad.” She told
him that she loved football too. “Good. See, we’re finding things that we have in common. And we’re doing it calmly and without threats. We can make this work.”
“What do you do for a living?” Tristan asked her what she meant. “You have a job, I’m assuming. By the size of your brother’s house, I’m assuming that you all have money. A great deal of it too.”
“Yes. And as much as I don’t want to upset you, you have what is mine too.” She snorted at him. “You don’t believe me.”
“I’m still working on the shit from this morning. I’m not ready to tackle your insanity too.” Tristan laughed, and Wynter joined him. “I’m not usually so bitchy. But since the mall thing, I’ve not had things very easy. It’s like the entire world is out to shit on me.”
“I swear to you, Wynter, I’m never going to harm you intentionally, nor will I ever break your heart on purpose. Now, why don’t you tell me what happened the day you were taken into custody for the mall shootings.” She told him she’d not killed anyone. “I believe you. They should have too. Why would the actual killers shoot you to hell and back and just leave you there to turn them in? Even I can see the flaws in that. They should have as well. What else happened? Not at the hospital—I got some of that from your mom when she called for Hudson to come help you guys out.”
“It was my mom’s birthday. She and I didn’t have a great deal of money. I was in my second year of college, hoping that I’d be able to be an attorney. Not because I loved the law, you see. But because I got sick with the sight of blood, and we needed me to have a good paying job.” Tristan laughed when she did. “I’d graduated from high school having taken a bunch of college courses online. It made me a sophomore rather than a freshmen my first year. So by the time Mom’s birthday rolled around, I was in my third year and ready to start taking law classes. It was going to make it so that we could meet bills and have food on the table. I’d decided that I wasn’t going to skimp on her gift, not after everything that she’d done for me.”
“I’m sorry that it was so hard on you.” She just waved him off. People said that all the time, but never meant it. “But I do. And before you get all pissy with me again, you can read my mind as well. You should just practice before you do it too much. You could kill someone.”
“Yes, because I don’t need anyone else’s death on my record.” She told him she was sorry and started walking again. “I got her a gift at the mall and was coming out, just getting my car door unlocked. I was close to the front of the mall and heard the popping sound. I actually thought it was firecrackers. It was the end of the summer for kids, and I thought they were just having some fun. I went back into the mall to get a card then.”
“I thought you were outside when the shooting began.” She told him that she had been until she realized that she’d not gotten a card. “So, thinking that you were safe from whatever was going on, you entered the mall again.”
“Don’t tell me I was stupid. The other attorney did.” He said that he had only put things in a timeline for himself. “Oh. Sorry. So I went through the big doors and saw something on the floor. It didn’t really strike me as being blood, not yet, but then I started to see people falling to the floor.”
“Did you see the shooter?” Wynter told him not at first. “Did you call the police when you saw that people were dying?”
“I didn’t have a cell phone. It was something that it seemed we could do without. So no, I had no way of personally calling them. I don’t know who might have called them, because they showed up about the time I was buried under a bunch of bodies. They were falling from the second floor.” Tristan asked her when she’d seen the shooter. “There were two of them. I tried to tell the police that. It was a man and a very young woman. I don’t mean like father and daughter, but like a he was out of high school and she was starting it kind of difference.”
“Go on. You said that they were falling on you, the bodies. Was the man on the top floor or was the woman?” She tried to think. “Close your eyes and bring the memory to the front of your mind. I’m going to put my hand on your arm, to see if I can see it as well.”
“All right, but only touch my arm, if you please. Please—and not my boob. I’m still sore from this morning and the dragon trying to get to you.” He said he’d look at that later. “You will not.”
“Hush. Now, close your eyes and look for the memory. Just think about what happened. Where you were when you realized that people were being shot.” She did that, but was slightly distracted by the warmth of his hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, love, but you’re very warm too. Now think.”
It didn’t take much for her to remember that day. It had been burnt into her mind and rolled over and over like a stuck record. Wynter felt her body relax a little, her mind slipping to the memory like she did every time she closed her eyes. As soon as she closed the door to her car, she looked at the mall. Hearing Tristan tell her she was doing fine now, he could see too, she let it start again. But this time she felt safer, knowing for some reason that she could finish the nightmare this time, instead of waking up when the woman was about to fire at her head.
~*~
Tristan looked around the mall, hearing what Wynter was hearing. It did sort of sound like firecrackers, he thought. When she made her way into the mall, she looked down. Tristan did as well, and that was when he saw the blood. It wasn’t much, but it was just as she said, hard to tell it was anything but a mark on the floor.
“What’s happening?” He didn’t realize that she wasn’t asking him until he saw the man falling at her. The bullet in his head had come from behind, and had blown most of his face off while she’d been asking the stranger.
The first body that fell from the upper floor hit her in the back, knocking her forward into the sign that was announcing that there were going to be fireworks. The rattling sound had her turning to watch as an employee at the card shop was closing their doors.
“Help us. Someone is trying to kill everyone.” The employee shook his head and leapt back when the sounds of gun fire were closer. He’d have to talk to Cooper about that.
Wynter moved the man out of her way and started to stand. Two more people, a man and a woman, fell from above this time. Two more fell as she tried to get away. When Wynter moved to where the bathrooms were, Tristan wanted to tell her no, to get out, before he realized that she was trying to see if anyone needed help.
The body that she dragged to one of the shops was hidden behind the counter. Two more fell while she was there. Then he heard someone crying—it was a child with someone. Instead of staying where she was safe, she went back out to gather up the child and his mother.
“Don’t move.” The child nodded and she asked him if he had a cell phone. The child handed her a toy one, and she kissed him on the forehead. “Stay with your momma, okay?”
Two more bodies were dragged to safety. One of them, he saw, died before she could get her out of the line of fire. That was when Wynter took her first shot. Tristan felt it like it had hit him as well.
The woman was the person she saw first. Tristan took in all he could about her—the way she was dressed, the way her face wasn’t covered. When she fired at Wynter again, he felt his dragon roar at him to save her. But there was more to go, he thought. He needed to see it all.
“Someone call the police.”
No one would help. Stores were closing their doors on customers begging to be let in. Everywhere he looked there was more blood, more bodies that were bleeding on the white tile floor.
Tristan saw the man then. He was coming down the escalator, firing at anyone that was still upright. Only eight were reported to be dead. Tristan knew that it had to be more than that. Just from what he had seen, there were at least two dozen.
“They only charged me with the ones that were surrounding me. The other dead, they said, were killed by my partners in the crimes.” The movie in her head paused while Wynter spoke to him. “I want you to see this. This is where I get things me
ssed up a lot when I think about what happened.”
The movie rolled forward then. The man and the woman met up in the long hallway and kissed. It was disgusting, like they were about to have sex on the floor as they fired randomly at people. When the woman saw Wynter, she fired at her and kissed the man again.
“Watch the security guard. Tell me what you see.”
He did that, tearing his eyes away from the couple that had caused the rampage that had left so many wounded and dead. The guard was running in the opposite direction. He had a cell phone to his ear, and Tristan focused all his energy on the man and what he was saying. It wasn’t the police he was talking to at all. He was calling his wife.
“They’re shooting everything all up here. I’ve been taking pictures of the dead. We’ll be rich when we find someone to buy them.” It made him ill to hear the man, and Tristan made sure that he not only remembered his name—Carpenter—but got a good look at his face. He watched as the man hid behind the tall posts in the floor and took more pictures with his cell phone.
Coming back to Wynter, he knew that she’d been shot again. Four times, all of them at close range. The two people moved as one toward her, then she paused again. Wynter told him that she didn’t remember much after this. The movie rolled on.
“We’re going to kill you, cupcake. Don’t think that I didn’t see you trying to save those other people. For that, we’re going to blow your fucking brains out, and then Charlie here is going to piss on your body. How do you like that?” The woman stood there, and then suddenly her body simply fell forward. The man ran, leaving behind the guns and the woman. Wynter’s memory simply stopped there.
Tristan held onto Wynter then. She was sobbing, and his heart hurt for her. Before he could tell her that she should be called a hero, she started talking.
Tristan: The Manning Dragons ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 2
