I stared at the newly added art pieces against my bedroom wall, laying on my bed with my homework scattering around me. I couldn’t get Blake out of my mind.
Why he wanted to sit with me today in the cafeteria brought on an ocean of questions. Did he really want a break?
I still felt horrible about forgetting my manners and only had a few words spared for him. It was a wonder that I eventually found them.
My heart raised every time his face popped into my thoughts, releasing a hot flush. I pulled my shirt in fast movements away from my body to cool down. Lashes that would make girls envious appeared behind closed eyelids, not to mention his perfect aquiline nose, and succulent lips that I wondered about at least a dozen times what they would feel like against mine. Everything about him was like a drug. You simply have to see him to feel the effect.
My dad would seriously have a hissy fit if I tell him about Blake, and it was in times like these that I wished I had a friend to share it with.
Not that they would believe me.
I tried to carry on with my homework, but it was no use.
“Elena, dinner is ready,” Dad called from downstairs, and I took a much-needed breath.
Where did Blake stay? Was it close by or somewhere in the other direction of the school? Not that I knew Falmouth at all.
I opened my door and skipped down the stairs.
I shouldn’t be thinking about him as my father would just ask me why the smile on my face, and lying to him, was useless. He always knew when I lied. I sucked at lying.
I reached the dining room area that was part of the kitchen and found my favorite on the table. Dad always made his French specialty when he wanted me to stop being angry at him. It was a chicken dish called Coq-au-Vin. Father was no chef, but he loved preparing food and many delicacies, and this was one of his masterpieces.
I sat down as he dished up the rice that was going with this dish and watched him put a helping of the chicken and mushroom stew on top of the rice before putting the plate in front of me.
He did the same with his plate and then he said grace before we dug in.
“So, how was your day?”
“Good. Mrs. Finn wants to pull some strings.”
My father froze.
“Relax, I told her.”
My father’s face fell. “What did you tell her exactly?”
“That your job is of high-security level and that we won’t be staying long. It would be something I’ll look at after I graduate.”
Dad nodded slowly. He had that look on his face again. Dad was contemplating something, but what that was, I did not know. He sighed, and I knew tonight wasn’t that night to get whatever was on his chest out in the open.
But it didn’t mean that I would not push. “Why do we only stay for three months?”
“Elena,” he breathed and put down his fork. He rubbed his face hard. Something he never did before and my hopes climbed a level higher.
Dad’s hands dropped back on the table and he stared at me lovingly. His lips slightly tugged in the corner of his mouth, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. His dimples didn’t show.
“You are not ready yet. I promise, soon, okay.”
I knew it was inevitable to push this subject further, and we carried on eating our dinner.
When was I going to be ready? At sixteen? One could hope.
BLAKE
A family sat in one booth nestled against the wall a few tables from us. Their children were loud, impatient little fuckers. The noises that left their mouths grated on my scales.
Father was still on a call as we waited for our burger and fries to be delivered.
Plates dropped to the floor, and the waitress cussed. The clatter of change hitting the tabletop with the trucker saying goodbye, followed by the bell of the door, caused another shiver in my scales.
A spoon clinking as it stirred sugar into coffee, followed by the sizzle of burgers on the grill and fries being lowered into hot oil, made my scales want to plop.
“Blake!” my father spoke, and I lifted my head. He stared at my jaw, muscles pumping. I missed the quiet of Paegeia. I needed to let the beast out. How long were we going to stay in this place?
“Deep breaths, calm down.”
I took a deep breath and quieted my hearing. It was like turning the volume button down. The noises that grated against my ears finally disappeared.
“Did she contact them yet?”
Father shook his head. “She hasn’t seen his new number. Just be patient. You spoke to her today, that is a good thing.”
I shook my head. If you could call that conversation. I got bowled over about how similar we were. She loved art, had a huge tote bag with her that carried some drawings, and I would give anything to see just how good she was.
She loved Wuthering Heights. It was one of my favorite books too, but I let no one in Paegeia knew that about me. I had a reputation to protect. I was the alpha dragon, pre-destined for evil. Reading soppy stories like Wuthering Heights or any book would hurt me badly. Not to mention the poems that I loved to write.
I wondered if Isaac would wonder where I was. Not that we spoke anymore. That thing with Ty that led to a full-on fight and how Isaac had to shift into his eagle form to keep me off Ty was the last they could take.
I rubbed my face hard and found my father’s eyes on me again.
“She looks just like him?” It barely came out.
“Like Albert?” my father asked, and I nodded.
“She had his fair hair, his green eyes, always searching for something.”
A smile tugged at my father’s lips, probably at a memory of his rider, and knew exactly what I was going through. “What is she like?”
I chuckled. “Dad, I hardly spoke to her.”
The cook yelled at the waitress. It was burgers and fries and I hoped it was our order. I needed fresh air. “I think she knows. She could feel it, her heartbeat was all over the place.”
The waitress’s shoes squeaked on the checkered tile floor as she delivered our burgers and baskets of fries.
Dad grabbed the ketchup as he thanked her, and her eyes flickered to me. I looked back down and grabbed the salt shaker.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“No, thank you, we’re all set.” Dad sounded extra friendly.
“Yell if you need anything,” she said in a singsong tone and left.
My father chuckled, and my gaze snapped at him. “What?”
“Her heart.” He nodded at the waitress. “Was it something like that?”
My eyes flickered back to the waitress that was pouring cups of coffee for two men in plaid shirts and baseball hats sitting at the long white table with spaced-out stools.
The rhythm was the same. “Something similar.”
“It might not be the fact that you are a dragon, but how you look.”
The smell of my beef patty, with fried onion rings and bacon, swirled through my nose and my stomach growled. “No, she is different.”
“Humph. How do you know that? You said it yourself, you hardly spoke to her.” Dad sunk his teeth into his burger, and I curled my fingers around mine.
“I just do. It’s hard to explain. It is like knowing she was my rider the minute she walked yesterday into the cafeteria. She spared me a glance, and that was all it took. I just knew.” I took a giant bite and the juices of the patty exploded on my tastebuds. These burgers were fucking delicious.
I chewed fast as if my burger was going to take off and run for the door.
Dad pushed his half eaten food to the side of his cheek to form coherent words. “But her heartbeat was all over the place today?”
I swallowed and nodded. “Like I scared her.”
“Or just aroused.”
“Oh, stop it. I just told you it isn’t like that.” I murdered my burger and took another bite.
Dad leaned forward in his chair, closer to me. “The humans here are not that different from the humans in Paegeia. Sure, the humans’ back home have magic in their blood, but still the same creatures altogether. Our human forms are not in their league, Son. We are much prettier than them.”
I laughed, trying to keep my lips tight as I had food in my mouth. I finished chewing as my shoulders still bobbed from the laughter and shook my head. “So, you think her heart beats faster because she thinks I’m pretty?” I took another bite and my burger was almost devoured. The juice from the patty ran down my wrist. I hated messy burgers, but I was starving.
“I’ll bet you a hundred Paegolians that it is the only reason her heart fluttered wildly,” Dad said with food bulging his cheek and chewing afterwards again.
I shook my head and smiled as I finished my burger.
“You need to try harder tomorrow.”
I knew that and finished chewing the bite in my mouth before I spoke. “I don’t want to push her away, Dad.”
“We have less than three months, Blake. It would become more difficult if Jako leaves.”
I took a few sips of my coke through the straw. The coldness of the sweet, familiar drink cooled down my throat to my stomach. The gas burped out silently. “We can follow.”
“True, but how do you think Elena would feel if she enrolls in a new school and you show up a few weeks later?”
I got what he was saying as I drowned my fries with ketchup. This was going to fuck up my entire plan of playing it cool and making her crazy for me. I didn’t think about the three-month mark at all.
My father’s eyebrow raised slightly, and my eye caught that. “What?” I shoved a few fries into my mouth.
“You are experiencing vulnerability. I never thought I would live to see this day, Blake.”
“Oh, come on.” I hated the teasing, and he laughed as I still chewed. I swallowed the food in my mouth and chuckled. “It’s not a good look on me, I know. It’s just I can’t mess this up. She has to at least like me if I am going to Dent one day.”
“It’s not that it’s not a good look on you, Blake. It’s the fact that she is already becoming your weakness. And I’m afraid that the Rubicon already has too many enemies.”
I nodded. He was right. I had a few enemies already, and Samuel was going to become one of them, too. He might not hurt my sister and my mother anymore, but he could hurt her.
I huffed. I already felt this undying need to protect her, and I hardly spoke a few words to her. What was it going to be like once we became more than just acquaintances?
