Chapter 28: Chapter 28

“Hey Julian?”

“Yes?”

“You said Your... father cut Chlorine's eggs out of her.”

His chest rose and fell in a slow exhalation. “Female full-blooded dragons were different from the hybrid ones I’ve seen since those years ago. They lived for a certain amount of time before the instincts to bear offspring became too overwhelming. I thought Chlorine was too young to breed and that I had time with her, but I was wrong.”

“What happened?”

“My father found my people while I was out scouting a new place to hide them. After we had that huge duel and i almost killed him, he felt like I cheated because half of his people followed me. They wanted the son not the father. Including my mother and my younger sister. Only my younger brother supported my father, probably out of jealousy of me. My father and his demons went in search of my people. The humans, the supernaturals, He killed them all. Women, children, unhatched eggs, all of my warriors. Chlorine's body met me on my return. She hung on long enough for me to say goodbye. She said, ‘I’m sorry, and I’ll make everything up to you. You won’t be alone forever. I’ll find you again, and when I do, I’ll be stronger. I’ll gift you mortality with the blood of an immortal vampire warlock, and you’ll be free.’ And then she died in my arms.”

“What did she mean?”

“Hell if I know. It makes no sense. I’m the only immortal Vampire dragon left. I think she was just in so much pain, she didn’t know what she was saying.” He was quiet for a long time as the water ran down their bodies in rivers. He seemed content to cradle Erin—to just be—but at last, he murmured, “The eggs were mine.”

“How do you know?”

“They were blue like my scales, not the black color of My father’s own. He left them there for me to see.” Julian frowned emotionally. “They were so small. He’d broken them all. When you told me about your pregnancy taking but not keeping, I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to hear how it hurt you. I don’t want you to feel pain like that. I don’t want you to feel that emptiness.”

“You’ve lived for a long time, Julian. I could feel it in my dream. The earth was still wild. Did you find more mates?”

“Wives, not mates. Humans. My first three, I buried when they were old and gray, but my fourth took her own life early. She couldn’t stand aging while I stayed the same. I didn’t look for companionship after that. The other women I found to bear offspring when my dragon craved family were nothing more than business transactions. I couldn’t risk getting attached to anyone again. Everyone I’ve ever known has died, and eventually, it was easier to be alone than to attach to people who disappear in the blink of an eye.”

She pressed her lips against the uneven skin on his chest. “That sounds like a shit deal.”

Julian snorted. “Thank you. I’m pretty sick of everyone thinking I’ve lucked into living forever. It’s not lucky. Immortality is a curse.” He plucked at a strand of her damp hair with his lips. “I would give anything to grow old and gray beside you.”

“We’d make a fucking hot pair of elderly people.”

He laughed a relieved sound, but she needed to know the rest. She needed to know what happened after Chlorine’s death before he shut down on her again.

“What happened to your father’s people? What happened to the blurry witches?”

Julian’s lip twitched, and his eyes went cold and dead. “It turns out he had his sites on being the last immortal dragon. He killed all of his own people.”

“Oh, my gosh. How could he do such a thing?”

“He fancied himself a god. He wanted to rule the earth without opposition.”

“And your scars?”

“Dragon’s fire is the only thing that can kill a vampire. I went to war with My father to avenge Chlorine and all of our people. I burned him up and left his carcass for the vultures to roost on. I buried my people in these mountains eons ago, and from that day on, this land was mine. These mountains are my treasure. I failed to protect my people, but I’ve protected their final resting place and will continue to do so until the end of time.”

Heart aching, Erin snuggled her cheek against the burn marks on his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. Julian wasn’t some cold, emotionless Vampire Dragon. He was a man, and a survivor just like her who’d had to find a way to survive something horrific. Something he could never escape. He’d felt everything so deeply for so long, he’d shut down out of self-preservation. Loyal, fearsome, protective man. Chlorine had done a number on his heart with her betrayal, and what had happened afterward would’ve brought other men to their knees. But he’d risen up and gone to war to avenge the people he’d loved.

And now here he was, fighting to protect the land that his people had died on all those centuries ago.

Julian was right that something bigger than both of them was happening, but she wasn’t afraid anymore. If he could be so brave for all this time, she could stand strong beside him until they figured out what had caused them to cross paths like this.

She’d respected other men in her life. She’d been lucky to have time with her mom and dad, but what she had with Julian was turning out to be so much different. So much more. For the first time in her life, she knew what it was to love a man.

She wouldn’t admit it to him out loud for fear of him shutting down again, but she gave a private smile at what she’d found here in Julian’s mountains.

For the first time in a long time, she felt like she belonged.

***

Erin shimmied her hips to the sound of the song she had stuck in her head, did a little spin, and plopped a thick slice of provolone cheese onto the sandwich she was making.

Julian had to work today, but he’d told her at breakfast this morning he’d let his chef have some time off so he could cook for her. It still blew her mind that he enjoyed taking care of her so much. She’d been the caregiver in her family, nurturing Jake any time they had a week off of the rig, so the dynamic was so different here. She was repaying Julian's sweet affection and the delicious food he’d been cooking for her by making them lunch—a pair of sandwiches stacked high with meats, cheeses, and vegetables, just like she’d seen on television. Even the bread was fancy and had to be sliced directly from the fragrant loaf.

There had been so many happy, eye-opening moments since their break-down in the shower yesterday, and one of those was that she hadn’t had a single headache in an entire day. Not one. And she couldn’t get over the giddy sensation that everything was going to be okay. The visions, dreams, coincidences…all of it. Julian was still wary, but she couldn’t shake the growing feeling that perhaps the point of all of this was that she and Julian met, and some cosmic unbalance was reset by them finding each other.

She turned around and startled to a stop, dropping a slice of roast beef onto the tile floor with a tiny splat.

A striking woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and the smoothest, fairest porcelain skin she’d ever seen stood in the doorway smiling at her. “Hello. Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” She approached and held out her hand. A little girl followed closely behind, gripping onto her jeans. “I’m Julian's former wife, Lily, and this is my daughter, Harpe.”

Erin's eyes bulged wide as she hurried to wipe her hands on a napkin to shake Lily’s outstretched palm. “Oh, I would’ve dressed up and done my hair if I knew I was meeting you today. Damon’s talked about you.” Erin patted her wild hair, which did nothing but fluff it up more.

Lily’s grin grew deeper, and her dark eyes danced. “I like that you aren’t dressed up. Formal isn’t my favorite.”

Erin would definitely say she wasn’t a formal type of gal. She was wearing frayed cut-off shorts with holes that allowed her upper thighs to play peek-a-boo, and a T-shirt clung to her torso like a second skin. She and Julian were a study in opposites.

“Hi, Harpe,” she said, kneeling by Her legs. She offered her hand for a shake, and the little girl stepped out from behind her mother. She was perhaps four years old, or five, and when Harpe lifted a shy gaze to Julian, she stifled a gasp. Dark ringlets of shiny hair tumbled down the sides of her round cheeks, but her eyes were the real stunners. One was a soft brown color, like Lily’s, and one was blue with a long, reptilian pupil. “Ooooh, are you a little warlock?” Erin asked low.

The girl smiled and nodded as she gripped her index finger and shook it.

“I love warlocks. Especially dragons.”

“What are you?”

“I’m a um.. Powder witch?....”

The little girl smiled bigger. “I love witches.”

Erin chuckled and jerked her chin toward the counter piled high with food. “Are you hungry? I have all the sandwich stuff out still if you want to help me make one.”

“Can I make my own?”

Erin nodded decidedly. “Of course. If your mom says it’s okay.”

Lily gave her consent, and the little girl blasted off toward the sprawling pantry, only to return moments later with a little red stepstool. “Pop-Pop gave me this so I could help Chef while he’s cooking,” she explained in a squeaky little voice that made Erin want to scoop her up and cuddle her.”

Harper went to work making a sandwich and a mess of the counters, and Erin turned to Lily and asked, “Where did the name Pop-Pop come from?”

“Well, that one,” Lily said, leaning on the counter and nodding toward her daughter, “is a fire-breather like Julian. She was a little hellion when she learned she could do it, blowing flames at anyone who told her ‘no,’ so I sent her up here with Julian for a few weeks last summer, and he got her straightened right out.”

“How?”

“Fire with fire, and Harpe came back a lot more cognizant that her flames hurt people and that it wasn’t okay to throw tantrums like that. Thanks to him warning her off bad behavior with a couple of warning clicks of his firestarter, she now calls him Pop-Pop.”

Erin ducked her head, laughing. “Oh gosh, I love that.”

“You look just like her,” Lily said, though her scrunched up nose and apologetic look said she wished she hadn’t. “I’m sorry.”

“You saw the paintings of Chlorine?”

Diem nodded once. “I grew up on stories of the dragon wars, but I thought they were all pretend. In my father’s bedtime stories, Chlorine was the dragon queen who didn’t deserve her crown.”

“Okay, it feels so weird when you call Julian Like that. We look the same age!”

Diem giggled. “Strange, right? Have you met Creed?”

“Yeah, I met all of his Estate crew, too.”

“They’re all related to my former husband somehow. And Julian is like an ancient you know?”

Erin kept quiet because as much as she tried to understand it was to hard for her to grasp what Lily was talking about.

“Julian is a very powerful man, Erin. He’s God himself. Don’t you feel intimidated by his presence?”

“Well.... yes i do actually. But he’s also a generous person. And fun too. He has taught me so many things in just a few days. How crazy is that??”

“Pardon me but you sound completely in love.”

Erin and Lily bursted into laughter at Lily’s words. But deep down, Erin knew she might right.

Maybe she was indeed falling for the vampire.

*****