Chapter 2-2
2032 Words
Lena stuck out a hand. “I’m sorry. I’m sure talking about escapees sounded very strange without the whole context. Let me introduce myself. I’m Dr. Lena Verglas from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I emailed your office not too long ago about wanting to talk to your town.”
Calix immediately recognized her name and sent out an internal call to Theo—a dragon to dragon one—but only silence echoed back. If Theo had sent him out and stayed home to get laid this morning, Calix was going to be seriously upset at Magic’s otherwise honorable sheriff.
Dr. Lena Verglas was yet another academic who’d set her sights on doing something experimental in Magic. Theo had assigned him to babysit the university professor when she showed up, but in the midst of a hundred other issues happening lately, both of them had forgotten about her crazy request. He and Theo hadn’t yet had time to share the news of her request with the town council… or its reigning coven.
It wasn’t hard to see how both he and Theo could have forgotten about the silly human professor and her completely crazy idea. He’d just recently taken on being the first line of defense in thwarting the men in black’s now bi-monthly visits. Calix was certainly not looking forward to keeping tabs on the nosy human academic as well. It was just too much to expect of any dragon, no matter how committed Calix was to protecting Magic and its people.
“I remember you now. You’re the dome woman,” he said flatly, unable to hide his frustration.
Lena let her hand drop. “Yes, that’s right. Is my arrival a problem for you, Deputy?”
Calix forced himself to smile. “Why would an academic who wants to burden our town with a host of strangers on a regular basis be a problem for Magic’s sworn protectors? I know Sheriff Theo loves running people like you off. I’m still new to the work, but I’m learning to like it as well. No offense—ma’am.”
Lena’s smile became a smirk. “Progress comes to every town eventually. New people moving in means new revenue. I’m sure Magic could use the money my funding will pay as well as any other town I might consider would.”
“Maybe so, but you best be moving on to your Option Number 2 location. Magic won’t be letting you build your whatever-you-call-it dome here.”
“There’s no need to be overly scientific. It’s basically a snow dome,” Lena said, pushing up her glasses. “It’s a bio-dome capable of manufacturing snow and ice from recycled water.”
“Folks won’t care. I know I don’t. If we wanted to spend a fortune on ice, we’d build a skating rink.”
His dragon roared in protest over his mean words to her and Calix felt his eyes shift into slits as his conflicted emotions climbed high. Theo was right about the transition. He felt it coming. He hoped when it happened that his dragon would double in size like Theo’s had.
Calix grinned when Dr. Verglas backed up while he struggled with his beast. Humans who hadn’t turned off their instincts always recognized how dangerous he was. Every creature on the Earth naturally feared dragons—with only a few exceptions as far as he knew.
Topper didn’t seem to care what he and Theo were. His dragon stayed silent when she was around. Calix didn’t understand his beast’s reaction, but he trusted it. Theo had warned him from day one on the job not to respond to Topper’s fearlessness as a challenge unless Calix wanted to be turned into a baby donkey-dragon. So far he’d stayed completely respectful and in his natural form.
The aliens who’d invaded Magic recently didn’t seem impressed with him or Theo either. His beast stayed on guard around them, much like it did in the presence of dragons who weren’t family. Something was unsettling about the alien’s constant politeness and levelheadedness. Calix hadn’t been able to figure out what it was about them that bothered him or his beast, but Frost, Stark, and even the very friendly Thor always triggered his senses.
Still thinking about the odd people he was protecting, Calix glanced at the van and saw a bunch of male hands raise in greeting.
Were the men in the van part of the crazy academic’s plan? Or were they really strangers she’d picked up on her way here like she claimed?
It had been a hard day for him already. A van full of crazies was the last thing he needed, but what choice did he have except to deal with all of them?
“Okay. Bring your escapees inside, I guess. Maybe Sheriff Theo will know what to do with them. I’ll lock them up until he can figure it out.”
Lock them up? Lena swallowed her nervousness and shook her head. The Deputy’s attitude put her on edge but it didn’t change her desire to do the right thing by the men she’d rescued. The n***d guys had proved to her they were not any sort of threat. They’d been perfect gentlemen with her the whole time.
“You don’t want to do that, Deputy. Let me drop them off where they belong. I don’t mind the trouble, and they’re already in the van. Maybe I can spare you one more bad thing to handle today.”
Her kind rebuttal brought Calix’s walking away from her to a stop. He turned back and studied her eyes to see if she was sincere. “Why would you want to go to all that trouble for a bunch of strangers?”
Lena cleared her throat and moved closer to him. Smelling the bristling deputy’s musky cologne went instantly to her head—and her n*****s. She crossed her arms to hide her reaction. “I found them out in the desert in the hundred degrees heat buck n***d and talking about portals. Those poor guys can’t be right in the head, but they don’t need to be put in jail over it.”
Calix looked at the van again and saw all the hands raise once more. “Portals? Are they well-built guys and polite as f**k?”
Lena frowned at the rude description, dropped her arms, and nodded. “Yes. I guess that describes them well enough.”
“Man, this day keeps getting worse and worse,” Calix said with a grunt while walking briskly to the van.
He opened the sliding door on the passenger side and out climbed aliens who apparently had been counseled on who—and what—Magic’s law keepers were. No wonder his cousin had wanted another dragon as his second. Seeing his uniform, the aliens were calling out greetings and bowing before their n***d Johnsons had even stopped swinging from their exit.
Calix sighed. Dr. Verglas had nothing to worry about. Locking them up wasn’t an option. The aliens would bust out if not magically constrained and put to sleep.
His long-suffering sigh over not being able to go to lunch after all was loud. Calix was surprised smoke wasn’t puffing from his nostrils as well. His beast was close to the surface.
“Come on,” he said, motioning to them. “Let’s get you all inside until I can make a couple phone calls. Don’t you all wear clothes on your freaking planet?”
“Planet?” Lena repeated, chuckling as the hunky n***d guys paraded by her one by one. They each smiled and bowed their head to her before disappearing inside the Sheriff’s office. Mars was the last to go inside. He waved before disappearing.
Calix shook his head as he watched the human female’s stunned reaction to them. She’d probably faint if she knew the truth. His mouth twisted into a wicked smile just thinking about it. “Yes, Dr. Verglas. The n***d men you picked up in the desert are aliens from another planet. Can’t you tell?”
Lena rolled her eyes at the disgruntled deputy’s teasing. It was more than obvious he was having a rough day. “Sure. Aliens. What else could they be? People where I work did warn me about the UFO sightings here in Magic.”
His dragon roared happily about her teasing him back, and again the unsuspecting Dr. Verglas backed up. Grinning, Calix tipped his hat like he’d seen his cousin do before taking his polite leave of someone.
“I better be getting inside and tending to them. The inn is three streets over if that’s where you’re staying. Your email didn’t say when you were coming so we never got a chance to mention you to the town.”
The news didn’t make Lena happy, but the deputy was right. She should have phoned ahead. Deadlines were driving her schedule, but her deadlines had nothing to do with small-town politics. “Guess I should have called before driving all this way.”
“Yes, ma’am. Guess you should have. It’s also the holidays, Dr. Verglas. Maybe you better come back in January or February.”
“That won’t work. The grant application has to be finished the first week of January. It’s for 1.2 million dollars. The funding organization gets to set the deadline and I can’t afford to miss it,” Lena said firmly as she shook her head.
“You’re going to miss it anyway if you hang all your hopes on getting people in Magic to let you build it here. Residents here like keeping a low profile. Alien hunters and government know-it-alls give us all the trouble this town can handle. You’re not going to change their minds, no matter how charming you are.”
Lena held out her hands with palms spread. “I’m sure you get a lot of weirdoes coming around, but I swear I’m not here looking for UFOs or aliens. I’m just scouting a location for a two-year experiment. I don’t even need a lot of room. It will be like a big greenhouse s***h warehouse kind of building with a big old glass bowl over it.”
Calix snorted. “We get our fair share of crazy academics snooping around Magic too. Sorry. Nobody likes them either.”
She wasn’t a crazy academic. Wait… what did he say a minute ago? “Go back to your first argument—do you really think I’m charming?”
It was all Lena could do not to slap a hand over her own mouth for asking such a question. She crossed her arms again and stood her ground. It was too late to take it back. Now she had to wait him out.
Taking his time to do a thorough inspection, Calix looked her over and finally grinned. “You’re cute too, even with those far too serious glasses sliding down your nose.”
Lena looked him up and down. Under his clothes, she’d bet the deputy looked every bit as good as any of the hunky but delusional males she’d picked up on her way here. She thought that when she first saw the lawman waiting for her to pull up and stop, but now she saw the deputy’s attractiveness differently. It started with the fact that she was all alone here for however long it took to achieve her goal. Some male company in this tiny, hick town might make staying a whole lot easier. Plus, she needed an ally and the deputy seemed like a perfect choice.
Since he thought she was both charming and cute, how could she lose?
Lena smiled. “Are you married, Deputy?”
Calix reached up and rubbed his forehead. Thankfully the horn bump was now gone. He swept off his hat and pushed his shaggy brown hair back with his hand. Cutting it never seemed to do any good. It grew out scraggly no matter what he did. Theo thought it was Calix’s unruly dragon mane showing up in human form. Maybe it was.
He blew out a breath. “No. I’ve found the single life suits me.”
“Can I buy you dinner then?” Lena blew out a breath. “I heard all your warnings about staying, but I really can’t leave town until I’ve at least talked to some of your townspeople, even if all they say is no to me.”
Calix looked at the woman. Dinner? Was she serious? He could tell he scared her. He could tell she was nervous around him. “Why on Earth do you want to have dinner with me? I’ve already admitted I want to run you off.”
Lena laughed. The man was crazy if he thought she’d go off and cry over his polite no, but she was willing to give him some time to know the real her.
“Maybe I’m asking because I spent the afternoon with five good-looking n***d men who reminded me I was a woman. I’m not asking to have your babies, Deputy Dawg. I’m just in the mood for male company and I’m offering to buy you dinner to get it. If you’re not interested in spending that time staring at me, just say so. I’m a big girl in more ways than just the obvious one,” she said, fisting a hand on an ample hip.
Calix chuckled at her teasing. She wasn’t a big girl by dragon standards, but by human ones? Yeah, some human males might be that stupid. A male would be an i***t not to see her physical allure. Now her annoying brain—well, that was another matter.
- Writer
