Page 53 of Searching for Thanksgiving

“Where are the guards?” he suddenly asked with a frown.

“Oh, they are taking naps. Spring gave us some sleepy powder bombs that Amber and Jade made for thems,” Sacha said.

“It don’t lasts long, so we gots to go,” Hope added, coming up to smile at him.

Devon blankly nodded when Crystal tugged on his hand. He didn’t understand what was happening. This was the most bizarre rescue/escape he had ever experienced—and there had been a few in his life. He lifted a hand to his chest and pressed it over his heart.

Did I purr?

He was answered with a very distinctive rumble that he had nearly forgotten. It sounded like his dragon this time, but there was another smooth rumbling that sounded like a part of him that he had nearly forgotten. His heart skipped at the memories of that familiar reverberation and relief flooded him.

Hello again, old friend, he silently greeted.

Another low, rumbling purr shook his frame in response. Relief that he hadn’t been imagining the return of his cat, and that he was no longer disconnected from the other parts of his being, gave him hope. At least until they rounded the bend in the corridor.

“Halt!”

The booming, deep voice of Zoran Reykill bounced off the walls in the narrow passageway. Devon immediately wrapped his arms around Crystal, lifted her off her feet, and set her down behind him. He ushered the two little girls behind him as well. He gritted his teeth and lifted his hands.

“I give up. I won’t fight. Let Crystal and the girls go,” he called out.

A chorus of curses echoed in the narrow passageway.

“Hope?” Calo muttered.

“Hi, Daddy,” Hope responded, her voice light and filled with love.

“Sacha, where’s your sister?” Vox’s deep voice rumbled.

“Hi, Daddy. She and the others are rescuing Stripe,” Sacha replied.

“You girls come here,” Zoran ordered.

“No, thank you,” Hope replied.

“What?” Calo hissed. He squeezed to the front of the group and stepped in front of Zoran. “Hope, come here right now.”

Hope placed her hands on her tiny hips and lifted her chin. “No. Mommy says us girls have to sticks up for what we believes in. I promised to helps Thanksgiving find her magic and her loves.”

A deep chuckle in the back of the group mixed with the matching moan in the front. Cree squeezed to the front to stand next to his brother. He squatted down and studied his daughter’s mutinous expression. Devon wasn’t sure if the grin on the man’s face was a good thing or a bad one. Being in the presence of the twin dragons again didn’t bode well for his future. The last time he faced them, they had constrained him in less than a minute, and he woke in a prison cell.

“You have a very smart mommy,” Cree said, holding his arms out to Hope.

Hope wavered. “You aren’t going to hurt Uncle Devon, are you? He just needs a friend.”

“I know, honey.” Cree looked up at Devon before he returned his attention to his stubborn daughter. “There are some things that are hard to explain.”

“Is it like when nobody liked you and Daddy because you was different, and they wanted to hurts you?” she asked.

Cree frowned. “How did you know about that?”

“Mommy.”

Calo groaned. “I guess it is.”

Devon lowered one hand and placed it on Hope’s thin shoulder. He bent and whispered in her ear. She looked up at him for a second before she nodded and flew into Cree’s outstretched arms. He partially turned to Sacha and did the same thing.

Sacha threw her thin arms around his leg and hugged him before running to Vox who was muttering curses and trying to get to the front of the group. Vox lifted Sacha up into his arms and hugged her close. His head snapped back when she whispered in his ear, and he stared at Devon with an intense frown.

“Crystal, your father has requested a meeting with me. I have granted his request. Since you are already out and this pertains to you, you will accompany us,” Zoran instructed.

Devon nodded. He threaded his fingers through Crystal’s when she reached for him. They walked in silence, moving slowly through the group of men as they parted. Vox and the twin dragons took the lead with Devon and Crystal in the middle, while Zoran and Mandra followed closely behind them.

“What did you say to Hope and Sacha?” Crystal murmured as the corridor opened, and they could walk side-by-side.

He glanced at her before looking ahead. “That they had fulfilled their mission,” he replied.

She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Yes… I believe they have.”

Sacha peeked over her father’s shoulder and grinned back at them as if she knew a secret. Deep inside, Devon felt his dragon stir… along with something else.

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