Ibelieve we purchased half of the garden center’s array of plant life. It would not all fit into the sedan, and I had no room for anything in the Vaciroth, so we had most of them scheduled to be shipped to the estate the following day.
And as we walked back to where my security team was guarding my luxury sports vehicle, Dustin gasped. “Is that a Vaciroth? Is… is that your car?”
He stared at it with wide, unblinking eyes. I might have seen a bit of drool at the corner of his mouth, and I could not help my proud grin. “I designed this car. It is one of my favorites, and it is the newest model.” I grinned brighter. “Would you like to drive it?”
Dustin turned toward me and squeaked. “Drive it? I’m almost too scared to ride in it! If I got a scratch in the paint job, I’d die!”
“Do you even know how to pilot a vehicle?”
The owlish blink should have been answer enough, but then he said, “I can pilot, but I don’t have my license, and I haven’t piloted a vehicle since… uh… two years ago, I think. Joe asked me to pilot one of his trucks to a job site.” Then he squeaked again, “And those were all automated pilots. The Vaciroth is one of the only contemporary cars that actually has a manual option! I don’t know if I could pilot anything manually. I can only give voice commands and course corrections!”
I nodded and opened the passenger door for him. “Then we will take you driving one day soon and get your license so you can pilot or drive any of the vehicles you like from our garage, any time you like.”
I didn’t see it until Dustin settled in the car, but then he turned a bright, happy grin on me that brightened my entire day. “You sure?”
“I am positive.” I closed his door, rounded the front of the car to get in on the driver’s side, and buckled my seatbelt. “Besides, driving is one of my guilty pleasures. We have no vehicles such as this in Kal’brath. They are all horse-drawn carriages, or we mostly just ride our soul-mounts.”
“Soul-mounts?”
I grinned and gave the voice command to start the engine and lift the parking gear. “Just as elves can soulbond, so too can an elf bond with a horse, or a dragon, or a vaciroth.”
He frowned. “I thought a Vaciroth was a car.”
“Ah, but I named this car after a bat that grows to the approximate size of a four-bedroom, three-story house. They generally stick to the Netherdark but have been seen aboveground on occasion. They are fast and deadly, just like this car.”
Dustin practically bounced in his seat, and his grin threatened to split his face. “That is so cool!”
I chuckled and pulled out of the parking lot on the manual setting. “I suggest you never try to find one. Wild vaciroth are known to snatch full-grown horses for food and would tear you in half if you survived their screech.”
“Noted.”
We made it out of Shadetree without incident, and when we hit the rural roads, I accelerated to nearly three hundred miles per hour, making Dustin squeal. “I’ve never gone so fast! This is awesome! …Aren’t you afraid of getting a ticket? Shit, Cass! We’re going so fast! I don’t think the police would be able to keep up!”
I snickered. “Look through the back window.”
He did and gasped. “They’re keeping up!”
“Of course, they are. I also made certain the police force has engines in their cruisers that can match the speeds of any vehicle currently in production, and made certain they are trained to be capable of maneuvering at such speeds whether they are piloting or driving their vehicles manually.”
“This is insane!”
Laughing, I sat back and enjoyed the ride, only slowing when we neared the estate so I would not miss the turnoff into my private drive. Once we were past the gate and heading for the garage, I mused to myself, “Have you even seen most of my vehicles?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I saw a few when I thought to learn about the guts of the cars, but I didn’t look at them much before Kevin all-but dragged me back to the house.”
“Then we will remedy this right now.”
I activated the garage door and waited for it to rise before backing inside into the Vaciroth’s assigned spot. “Meet my fleet.”
He apparently had no idea the garage was so large. He looked around, opened his door, and stumbled out like he was drunk. “Cass,” he croaked. “You have way too many cars… These are gorgeous!”
I laughed as I got out. I went to stand beside Dustin, pulling him against my side. “One can never have too many cars.”
I took him around, showing him each car, and as we came to an old Ferrari, Dustin touched the paint lovingly. “You even have ones that have tires? Do they pull up into the frame like the others?”
Grasping his hips from behind, I hooked my chin over his shoulder. “No. I have many classic cars, some not located here. I don’t drive any that have tires and no hover systems unless I’m taking them to a car show, which is rare these days. Though, perhaps we could go together one day so you can see some of the stunning restorations people were able to make.”
“That would be so awesome! When do they usually hold them?”
“I generally only go to the ones in this state, and they happen in the summer.” I shrugged. “Though I have not gone in several years, so I would have to check to make sure the locations and rules have remained the same.”
He gently touched the paint on the fender again and turned in my arms, wrapping his around my neck. “Now I kind of want car sex.”
I heard Kevin groan from where he stood just outside of the garage and chuckled. “Maybe one day. But let us head inside. Don should be back soon with our plants, and I would like to get them comfortable to await the spring before we do much else.”
It took some time, but I finally managed to steer Dustin out of the garage. He chattered the entire way, gushing over the vehicles in my possession, especially my old 1928 Rolls Royce Sport Phantom. I had a feeling that would be the one he bent me over when Kevin wasn’t looking.
Once we made it inside and stowed away our jackets, the staff began carting in plants by the armful. Between Dustin and I, we directed them much like traffic at a four-way stop. Most went into the solarium, a good portion went into my parlor, and a few went into either mine or Dustin’s bedrooms.
We both headed to the solarium, where the majority of the plants would remain until the spring. I had a vision of what I wished done to make the solarium into a makeshift greenhouse until the snow thawed. We had purchased several trees that I wished to be spread out along the perimeter, in the corners, just to spread a beautiful green into a room full of white furniture and bright wooden accents.
I wanted some of the plants to hang from the ceiling but feared that it would be too close to the windows’ chill for them to thrive. But between Dustin and I, we managed to create an oasis of color in an otherwise blank room, and suddenly, it felt welcoming and… and like home. It was almost as if the plants welcomed me, as if they knew an elven king stood among them, as if they recognized me and wanted me to save them.
“Soon,” I whispered. Dustin pressed closer to me, holding me from behind, and hooked his chin over my shoulder so I could lean my head against his. “Soon, my darlings. Just await the spring, and we will give you over to Mother’s grace.”
Dustin kissed the nape of my neck, squeezed me in a tight hug. “You are such a bleeding heart, Cass. We’ll get them settled. Just a few months.”
I nodded. “Just a few months.”
“They’ll be fine. You know that, right?”
Did I? I sighed and closed my eyes. “I know.”
“Then what’s bothering you?”
“I am unsure.” I turned my head, and he met me with a sweet kiss. “I believe I just miss my garden. It is already sleeping, everything turning brown as they draw in their essence to their roots to survive another winter. I just wish I could see it all year instead of watching everything wither so often.”
“It doesn’t do that in Kal’brath?”
I shook my head. “It does in some areas, but in most of the Summerlands, it is summer all year, except for a few months when it feels like early spring. But it does not get anywhere near as hot as it does here, as you had felt when we visited.”
Dustin hugged me again. “Well, at least you saved a few friends to keep us company through the long winter. I’m sure they’re very thankful.”
Chuckling, I turned in the circle of his arms and kissed him again. “You, my love, are a flatterer.”
He grinned unapologetically. “And you need to stop finding things to be sad about.”
I heaved a dramatic sigh. “I shall do my level best.”
“Then let’s get started, kitten,” he said. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to the parlor. “Let’s get the plants in the parlor and our rooms happy so you can be happy for a while.”
“Oh?” His tone intrigued me. “And what do you have in mind?”
“Not sure yet. But if playing with leafy things gets you to smile, then that’s what we’ll do.”
By the time we had them all settled in, I just wanted Dustin in my arms and tugged him to me the moment he exited his bedroom. With a command, soft, slow music began to play, and I began to move in a slow, sensual dance.
Dustin grinned and wrapped me securely in his arms. “Someone is feeling romantic.”
I could not deny it, so I nodded. “I am. I have reservations at one of my favorite restaurants for dinner and thought we might spend some quality time together first. I… I have missed you today, Dustin.”
His face softened, and he rested his cheek on my shoulder. “I missed you, too.”
We danced like that for several songs, just a gentle sway of bodies, warm hands roaming over strong backs, our breaths gusting over each other’s necks as we pressed warm kisses into flesh. My heart had never been so very full, and I wished this one moment could last forever. But like all moments, good or bad, this was destined to end.
I just did not see it coming. Dustin pulled away with a mischievous grin and tickled my sides, making me squirm. “I still can’t believe you kept that hidden.”
My mind was so full of Dustin that it took a moment for me to realize what he was talking about. I ducked my head and sighed. “I am so sorry, beauty.”
He tickled me again. “It’s over now. Let’s just move on, okay?”
I nodded and leaned in to kiss him, but the little imp moved away and ran with a gleeful laugh. I was helpless. I could not help myself but chase him. When I caught him, we somehow ended up on the settee, a mess of tangled limbs and raucous laughter. It took a while for us to both calm down, but as we did, Dustin wrapped himself tighter about me, pulling my body down flush to his. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I loved what I saw. Happiness. Love. Laughter. It made me feel warm from the crown of my head down to my curled toes. His every emotion passed through his eyes, and it fascinated me.
And then it happened. I felt like I was falling into Dustin’s eyes, as if I could not look away. Everything seemed to stand still. The fire in the hearth stopped crackling, frozen in place. The trees that swayed outside of the south window stilled. I fought to breathe, to blink, to move, but I was pinned in place like a butterfly to a board.
Something stirred just below my chest in my solar plexus, burning and churning. It shot up through my chest to wrap around my heart. Intense light blinded me as it seemed to arc between my eyes and Dustin’s. Then, suddenly, an explosion knocked the wind out of me as that electricity struck back, stronger than before, through our eyes, down my neck, and back into my heart, making it feel full at the same time it ached with an intense need before it arced through my body to my fingers, toes, and the top of my head.
The fire in the hearth roared back to life. Sights grew sharper, colors brighter and more vivid. Sounds became so loud that they hurt my ears. My breath came back in a gasp just as Dustin’s did.
Then Dustin tensed under me, his mouth opening in a silent scream that shot terror through me. Dustin’s back arched as he sucked back a pained breath and screamed so hard I feared he would burst blood vessels in his throat. I held onto him as he bucked.
“No. No, no, no… my beauty, no. Hold on. Please hold on.”
But all Dustin could do was scream.
