Family
2320 Words
Erik
The boutique hotel Gary chose was a large, faded orange, listed building run by an eccentric old lady. She met us in a cloud of musky perfume and multi-coloured gauzy scarves. The only bonus was Gary had hired the whole place and filled it with extra security. Agatha, the owner, seemed thrilled to be entertaining ‘all these strapping young men.’ She set about persuading the guards to have a tarot reading.
Avery had slept only fitfully on the plane. Each time she woke up panicked, it cut a little deeper into my heart. How she’d survived the level of sadism this demon put her through, I didn’t know. Not just survived but returned to be a functioning member of society. Although how much function she’d truly had, I wasn’t sure. Quinn told me she mostly kept her head down and just worked at the hospital. I wanted to see her flourish, but first, we had to kill this sicko.
My belly knotted when I thought about what I’d triggered last night. I’d let myself get carried away. It had been the single hottest encounter of my life, but I caused my mate pain. I rubbed my chest. I couldn’t let it happen again.
“I don’t know if I can sleep again.” Avery sat down on the four-poster bed, looking pale. Dark circles hung below her eyes.
A riot of colours and patterns decorated the room Agatha assigned us. ‘The Wild Suite’ lived up to its name. A large golden leopard lamp on the dresser stood out against the deep purple walls, and our luggage adorned a zebra print chaise.
“Jet lag is the worst. Even my dragon struggles. I’m sure Agatha could find us some food.” I shrugged my jacket off.
“Oh dear, I’m not sure I could endure the tarot reading I’d get while we waited. She’d probably have a heart attack doing my reading anyway,” she said.
I climbed onto the bed that smelled heavily of lemon balm, launched various shiny gold cushions onto the floor, and then pulled her up against me. She snuggled into my body.
“Why don’t you tell me a bit more about Avery?”
She paused and shuffled about. “Funny story about that.”
I knew what she was going to say, but I still held my breath. I wanted to hear this from her. The email in my inbox twinged at my conscience.
“Well, you know Maurice helped me escape Kai, cloaked me, and sent me to the states. Well, he had a whole new identity created for me. Avery isn’t my birth name.”
“What is your birth name?”
“Tina, Tina Graves.” She peeked up at me from under her lashes. “You don’t know how many comments I got called Dr. Graves!” She shook her head.
I smiled. “Do you prefer Tina?”
She shivered. “No, I don’t want to be her anymore. I prefer Avery Jones, werewolf pack doctor. She sounds a lot tougher than Tina Graves. Tina fell for a lie.”
“But Tina was strong a survivor.” I smoothed her hair. “If you prefer Avery, then that’s who you’ll always be to me, sweetheart.”
“You make me sound a lot stronger than I am.”
I tipped her chin up. “You are the single strongest person I know.”
Her shoulders dropped, and she averted her eyes. “Come on. Your sister is Irina.”
“Irina is incredibly strong, but what you coped with alone is incredible.”
“Sure, incredible, like last night, or yesterday or whatever the hell time it was on the plane when I fell apart, messing everything up,” she mumbled.
“Look at me,” I said.
She hesitated, then lifted those stunning green eyes to mine.
“Living through that nightmare leaves its mark no matter how much therapy you have or how much time passes. You aren’t weak for falling apart; you are strong for putting yourself back together over and over.”
I vowed to confront her low self-esteem, and I’d battle to get her to see herself the way I did.
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked rapidly. “How do you always say the right thing?”
I laughed softly. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m old enough to be a tiny bit wise.”
She twisted and reached up, placing a chased kiss on my lips. “Thank you.”
My lips hummed from the contact. “For what?”
“For everything.”
She ducked her head, but I heard her thought as if she had shouted it. “Please don’t break me.”
I shivered internally. I never wanted to be the reason she broke, even inadvertently. I couldn’t ever face that nightmare again. My resolve hardened to protect her at any cost. I opted to change the subject.
“Tell me about your family.”
“You really want to know?” She smoothed her hand over the leopard print comforter.
“I want to know everything about you.” I pressed a kiss to her temple.
She took a deep breath. “My dad is dead. He died when I was twelve.”
“I’m sorry. How did he die?”
“Liver failure, he drank himself to death. I looked after him at the end. It was the reason I became a doctor, to help people like him.”
“And you are incredible at it.” I squeezed her waist. “What about your mother?”
She blew out a breath. “She wasn’t a very present parent. I guess she tried her best, but after Dad died, she seemed to drift away, working a lot.”
“That must have been hard.” I stroked her arms.
I wished I could hum for her. If we’d fully bonded, I could hum for her. My dragon had a vibration, especially for his mate and dragonlings.
“It was, but I had Edith,” she said with a slight smile.
“Edith?”
I wanted to know every single person who meant something to her.
“Our neighbour, she was in her eighties and lived next door. She was a bit obsessive. I used to hear her locking the door fifty times at night.” She sighed. “We lived in terraced houses, and if someone sneezed next door, you could hear it. Edith always cooked for me when Mum was working or just forgot. She was paranoid about going out, so I’d run errands for her.”
I soaked up her words like a sponge.
Her reminiscing filled her face with such affection. “Edith was sweet. She helped me with my homework. Before she retired, she’d worked in a lab and knew a lot about science. That really helped when I began studying to get into medical school. She’d gone fully blind by then but could still debate scientific theories.”
It was clear how much this lady cared for and influenced Avery as a teenager. It was unlikely she was still around, though, and my dragon tasted Avery’s sadness in the air.
“Sadly, she passed away just after I got accepted into medical school. She told me she was proud of me, as if I was her own daughter. She’d been married to the job and never had children. She said it was her greatest regret when she sat alone at home with no family around. She told me not to be like her and find a nice man.” A single tear spilled from her eye. “I made a mess of that.”
“Stop blaming yourself for the actions of a sadistic predator.” I stroked the tear from her cheek.
“If only it were that easy.” She shook her head. “Anyway, Edith left me a chunk of money, which went a long way to funding my medical school tuition. I thought I would have to work constantly because Mum couldn’t help, but I owe Edith an enormous debt.”
“I’m sure she would have been proud to fund your dream.” I hugged her.
“She would, bless her.” Her gazed looked far off.
I cherished any memories she shared with me, but I coveted more.
“Where does your mum live?”
She tensed. “She lives in a facility.”
Apprehension tickled me. “What kind of facility?”
“A long-term care facility for the severely mentally ill.” Her shoulders slumped.
“Why?”
“She’s had a myriad of diagnoses over the years. From schizophrenia to personality disorder or dissociative state, and the latest is Lewy-body dementia.”
“It doesn’t sound like you agree with any of those.”
“Hmmm.” She pursed her lips.
“What do you think the diagnosis is?”
She sighed again. “Her mind is broken.”
I didn’t know what that meant.
“It’s probably easier if I take you to see her. I thought I should visit if it’s safe to.”
Okay, one challenge at a time.
“If you give Gary the details, he can arrange it all for us.”
“Maybe. Do you have Gary do everything for you?” She grinned.
“He doesn’t wipe my arse if that’s what you are asking.” I tickled her ribs, and she laughed.
“I didn’t mean that. I meant he seems pretty efficient.”
“He is.”
“Is he a dragon?”
“He’s a hybrid, well, a half-dragon. True hybrids have two beasts without the ability to shift fully into either. Gary’s father was a dragon, and his mother was human. Like one of your ancestors. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough dragon DNA to shift. His father is an old friend. He left the dragon lands to be with Gary’s mother. He begged me to take Gary under my wing to prevent him ending up at the hunter council. So, I trained him as my assistant.”
She nodded; she knew enough of my sister’s story to know the hunter council’s methods.
“How long has he worked for you?”
“Thirty years.”
“Wow, he looked so young on the phone earlier, like mid-twenties.”
Gary rang us when we landed, and I’d placed him on video call to introduce him to Avery.
“He’ll like to hear that.” I laughed. “He has enough dragon DNA to slow his aging significantly. He is forty-five.”
She whistled. “I could do with more dragon DNA!”
It occurred to me she might not actually know I could convert her into a dragon. I wondered if it was the right time to bring it up. My dragon had been going crazy about marking and filling her with our fire. He wanted to bring forward her dragon. I couldn’t blame the beast.
A text buzzed through on my phone, and I reached over.
Yiannis—‘Demonic. We’ll talk after the funeral.’
I knew what he wanted to talk about after the funeral. The same thing the other dragons will want to discuss. Something else I needed to tell Avery.
“Yiannis, the dragon elder, just confirmed demons killed Maurice.”
She sucked a breath. “How can he tell?”
“There are various methods. Probably why he’s only telling me now.”
“It’s my fault then.” She stared at her hands.
I pulled her chin up. “No, it’s not your fault.”
She looked away. This would be a problem. She blamed herself so easily already.
“A green dragon would gladly lay down his life to protect a remaining descendant of House Ignis. No matter how far descended. Maurice would have known the risk when he helped you.” I turned her around to face me.
“That doesn’t make me feel any less guilty.”
“It should. He knew your past and who was after you. Dragons have a very different set of rules and honour codes than humans do. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that his only regret would have been not being able to warn you.”
She shivered. “You don’t think he’ll come for me tomorrow at the funeral, do you?”
“We’ll be ready for him if he does. Marco and I, plus the security team, will be there, and Ezekiel is also meeting us there.”
“Is he?”
“Yes, he was invited, although I don’t think he would go if we weren’t.”
Part of me wondered if he’d heard that something might happen at the funeral. Either way, we were as ready as we could be. Marco was going over the last details with the security. They’d already scoped out the abbey.
Avery yawned.
“Maybe we should at least try to get a few hours.” I tucked an errant curl behind her ear.
“Yes, maybe.”
She showered while I fired off a few texts. Tomorrow would be gruelling for Avery; it wouldn’t be easy saying goodbye to Maurice, who had protected her for so long. Especially now that we knew Kai likely killed him to get to her. That kind of thing would weigh heavily on someone as kind-hearted as Avery.
Perhaps I just wanted an excuse to cuddle her again, but as soon as she appeared freshly showered and wearing pyjamas, I pulled her into my arms on the bed and curled around her. She let out a contented sigh, and some of the tension in both our bodies fell away. The guards were patrolling, and I could afford to rest with my mate
- Writer
