Dad packed most of the things I needed. I made sure that my treasure box was in my backpack. There was no way that I was going to part with that. It was all I could show for my life this side.
I went down and ate a sandwich. With all the knots in my stomach and watching everyone in the house getting ready to leave, it was hard to finish the sandwich, but orders from Dad.
He was right. Dad might not have fathered me, but he was my dad. He was the only one there, the only one that raised me. That stuck with me. I owed him everything.
I felt a tinge of guilt when I wanted to know more about my birth parents. Albert and Catherine, or Kate, like they called her. I wondered a thousand times what they looked like over the past few days. Dad said that I looked a lot like my father, but I had my mother’s features, too. I did not know what she looked like, but he told me she was beautiful. She had this dark brown hair and gray doe eyes. I had nothing of her.
Blake wasn’t coming back. I guessed he took a step back, knowing that my dragon was vicious and didn’t want to be in his way. Nobody would even look at me. I had no choice; it was the Rubicon or nobody. That was the reason Dad asked me not to date, and I didn’t listen. So this was my fault—all of it.
Most of the men were wearing robes. Emanual wore black. Black pants, black shirt and boots with a thick jacket.
The robes on some guys were long, and didn’t have buttons, just like a long dress made from thick, black shiny material with different colors sewn into the black. I knew they were beasts. Easy to chuck away the robes and morph. I still struggled with the idea that they would be buck naked for a few seconds. Dad, Robert, and the grizzly bear were the only ones in normal clothes. Mostly jeans, a long sleeve shirt and jacket with sneakers or boots.
Dad actually trimmed his beard and gelled his copper hair. He looked as if he was going on a date.
My heart pounded as I knew now what chased us all those years. If I knew it was a colony of beasts, the same kind that I found in the barn today, I wouldn’t have made it so difficult on him all these years. I would’ve listened not to fall for a heart throb.
I got a feeling that Blake was like me and Dad. A Dragonian, a rider. Did he have a dragon too?
What was his ability? Could he harness it this far from his dragon? I had a zillion questions again, but there wasn’t time to answer them.
The briefing was in Latin, which I hated. It was like they did this deliberately so that I wouldn’t know what the plan of action was.
Then the first group left and Dad nodded. He hugged me tight. “We’ll be okay, I promise.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. His sweet musky mixed with a strong spice filled my nostrils. This was my father’s scent and I would never forget it. I prayed we would both reach home. I wondered what Paegeia looked like.
Would I finally feel that I belonged, that I was home? Or would my home feel like a prison sentence too? Trapped like we’d been on this side.
Dad broke the hug and led me outside to where two black shiny SUV’s parked.
A whistle left Dad’s lips. “I forgot the luxury side of this life.”
Luxury side? I kept staring at the black SUVs with tinted windows.
Emanual opened the door for Dad and me and I climbed in first. My pillow and a blanket were on the leather seat and I grabbed the pillow as I scooted to the window.
Dad sat next to me as Emanual spoke to Robert and a couple of guys that also wore ops uniforms in Latin.
They nodded and the driver’s side door opened and Emanual climbed in.
“You are planning to drive to Virginia. We will never make it in 48 hours, Emanual.”
“Drive to a state that isn’t freezing your balls off cold.”
I froze, and Dad chuckled. “Language, the princess isn’t used to that sort of words.”
“That is a first. Spending time with Blake, I would’ve thought she would be used to that sort of language now.”
Blake didn’t speak like that? Then again, I knew the idiot for less than a week. He could easily have had a dirty mouth.
Emanual put on the radio and I smiled as my music flared from the speakers.
Dad opened his arm for me and I snuggled up against him. He kissed my head softly as the car pulled out of the yard and down the street.
I didn’t want to say goodbye to Falmouth. I actually had a couple of friends here, and it wasn’t so bad. It was one of the best places we lived, thanks to Blake.
I drifted off and slept for a long time and woken up when everything was dark. Dad was in the front seat with Emanual.
“Good evincing, sleepyhead.”
“Where are we?”
“An hour away from Maryland.”
I nodded. The alarm on the clock flashed 1 am.
I felt so tired. I guessed the truth had that effect on a person or it could be a broken heart.
Dad handed me a Macdonald’s cheeseburger with fries, and I devoured the thing. I slurped up the Coke as I kept looking through the tinted window. Everything was so dark.
Around two, we stopped at a gas station for gas. I rushed to the toilet. Dad looked in all the stalls first.
“Dad?”
“It’s your life now, Bear. You don’t know Fox.”
I nodded.
“Make it quick, I’ll be right outside.”
I rushed to the stall and closed the door. I pulled off my pants and the relief of emptying my bladder felt amazing.
A silence I’d never experienced before surrounded me. An antiseptic smell mixed with ammonia burned my nostrils, and I coughed.
“Dad!” I yelled through more coughs, but he didn’t answer.
My heart pounded as my thoughts went haywire. What the hell was in this bathroom with me. Was it them? How the hell did they know?
I covered my nose with my sleeve and breathed in my scent as I finished fast and left the stall.
Arms grabbed me and covered my lips. It wasn’t my father. The powerful scent came from whoever was behind me, clasping me tight into his arms. I didn’t know the scent, and I tried to scream. His palm muffled my screams and grunts. Tears blurred my sight as they burn. The deafening silence was still around me, and I did not know how that could be possible.
The man behind me chuckled as the door flung opened and Emanual and Dad’s eyes grew. They tried to step forward, but the guy left out his hand that carried a ring.
“Say bye bey, Daddy,” the guy croaked. Both of them stopped. Their bodies vibrated as blood poured from their noses.
I screamed again as my tears rolled down my cheeks and my eyes flickered to his arm. The ring? I grabbed his arm and tried to lower it away from them.
Fire exploded around them, and I froze, but my mind screamed and the sobs that came out of me didn’t sound like mine.
The guy exploded, and a beast crawled out of him. My body jolted in all directions, as something hard struck me against the head.
I lost sight and the last thing I felt was the icy cold seeping through my bones.
