Page 18 of Cassian
“As am I.We’re blessed with a wonderful life, you and I.”He said that he’d carry her up to bed, but he didn’t think that he could make it.“I can walk.I want to hold you while we go up so that I don’t miss a second of telling you how much I love you.”
When she got back in bed, the covers were made up once again, she held Cassian to her until she was ready to sleep again.Tomorrow was going to be a long day if she didn’t get any sleep, and she willed herself to relax.Smiling to herself, she wondered how she’d gotten so tense again when she’d had the best sex of her life.Rolling to her back, she counted dragons until she was dozing off.Tomorrow was going to be a great day, she told herself, and was happy that she had a roof over her head tonight.
Chapter 8
Brenin watched his brother talk to the woman and man.They didn’t want to move on, and the mister told them that he didn’t want to work either.A job was offered to them both, and they both declined, saying that it was nicer to have free rent than to have to work out something with a job.It didn’t make sense to him either, but he watched the two of them in the event that things got out of hand.And he had a feeling that it would, too, for some reason.
“Call the police.We’ve done all we can do for them.”Nodding, he pulled out his cell phone to call when the man pulled out a gun.Unsure what he was going to do with it, he put the phone to his ear and told them what he wanted.The police said that they’d be there in less than three minutes, and Brenin hoped they would be.Things went from bad to worse when he held Ace to his chest with the gun pointed at his head.“You don’t want to do that.”
“Yes, I do.”Cassian was trying to reason with the older man, but he wasn’t having it.“I told you we were just fine here and for you to move on.Then you called the police like we don’t have any rights.”
“You don’t actually.You’re squatting in a building that is up for demolition.It’s being demoed for a reason.The walls are structurally unsound.”Even before talking to the people, Cassian had determined that it wasn’t worth trying to renovate, as the load-bearing walls had been shaken and couldn’t hold up their own weight.“Just put the gun down, and we’ll give you three days to vacate the building.Otherwise, the police are going to arrest you for trespassing.”
“We weren’t trespassing.This place is ours.We been living here for six months.”That didn’t sound right, but Brenin didn’t say anything.He was watching the woman dance around the man with the gun.He was fearful that she might well get shot the way that her man, that’s what she kept calling him, kept waving it around while holding onto Ace.“You guys just move on, and we’ll pretend like this didn’t happen.This here is our building, and we’re going to live in it until we say otherwise.”
“That’s not going to work.”Cassian looked over at him before addressing the man again.“I’m going to shift and take you out if you don’t let my cousin go.He’s a good man, and he’ll be as pissed off as I am if you happen to shoot him.Now let him go so that the police can take you away.”
“I ain’t afraid of no shifter.My wife is a shifter too.You just try and hurt me, and she’ll take you out.She’s a big wolf.”No, she wasn’t, Brenin could smell that she was just as human as the man was.“You try anything and I’m going to give her the command to kill you, then it’ll be all over.This man here in my arms will be dead, and so will the two of you.”
“You must think she’s pretty fast if you think she’s going to get by me and my brother.And she’s not a wolf.Neither of you are shifters.”He asked him how he knew that, and Cassian said that he could smell them.“But then you both stink, so I could be wrong about that.But you’re not going to be able to touch us, and Ace will not die.You remember that, don’t you, Ace?That you can’t die?”
He wondered what Cassian was going on about when he had a look at the other man.Ace was showing signs of fear, and it looked like he’d forgotten that he was indeed immortal.He might well have, too, if he had a gun pointed at his head the way that Ace was.He tried moving closer to the two of them and was stopped when the police pulled in.He didn’t think this was going to end well for the couple.
“Mister, put that gun down on the ground and let Mr.Savage go.”One of the officers from the first car was doing all the talking now.He wondered if he remembered that Ace wasn’t going to die when he spoke again.“Put the gun down, or we’re going to shoot you dead.Do you hear me?We will no matter if you let the mayor go or not.You’ll be a dead man.”
“Shoot me in the chest.”Brenin started to tell them not to do what Ace was saying when herealized that it was the most brilliant idea he could come up with.“Just don’t shoot me in the head, that’ll hurt, but you can shoot me in the chest and I’ll be just fine.”
“We’re not going to shoot you in the head or chest.”The police officer turned and looked at him.“He’s been hurt, hasn’t he?He’s been hurt by that man, and now he wants us to shoot him.We can’t do that.”
“I can.”The officer, he thought that his name was James, said that he wasn’t going to shoot anyone either.“But he won’t die.You know what we all are.I promise you, if you shoot him in the chest, nothing…how about you shoot him in the leg?He’ll limp around for a little while, but not all that long.Just shoot Ace in the leg, and that will bring the man behind him down.”
“Are you insane?I’d lose my job if I were to shoot the mayor.We all like him, too.He’s gotten us money enough that we can have new vests.This one here that I’m wearing.No, I’m not going to shoot him anywhere.We’ll just have to think of something else.”He asked him if Cassian or him could shift.“Into a dragon?No siree Bob.No one is going to be shifting into a big assed dragon either.You just get that thought out of your head right now.A dragon would cause some damage.”
“We were going to take the building down anyway.You’d be saving us money.”He was trying to distract the officer and the man so that Cassian could get closer to him and take the gun.James said he wasn’t going to have it.“The mayor would be happy too that both the building is down and the man is no longer holding a gun to his head.I’m betting that he’ll—”
“What the hell are you yammering on about?There ain’t no body going to shift because I’ll kill this man if you do.Is that what you want?Me to kill this here man?”James told him that he didn’t want anyone shot.“Why don’t you get back in your car and drive away.I’ll think about releasing this here man, if you were to let us live in the building until we want to quit it.That way, nobody gets shot.”
“I don’t think it’s going to work out that way.You’ve got the mayor in your arms, and we like this one.He’s been getting things done.”James looked at Cassian, then back at the man.His wife was dancing around, screaming at the top of her lungs about how everyone was going to be shot.“Can you please tell your missus to quiet down?She’s giving me a powerful headache, and I’d hate to have her get hurt.”
“Did you just threaten to hurt my wife?That’s not right.And she likes to scream.It’s part of who she is.”Cassian was nearly to the man when the woman suddenly jumped on Cassian’s back and screaming again.Brenin did the only thing that he could do when the man pointed the gun at his brother and shifted.It was over almost as soon as he touched the ground as his dragon.
“I don’t know how to even fill out a report on this.”James was nervous, and Brenin was trying his best not to laugh.He figured that if he did, the man would shoot him; he seemed to be that touchy.“Can you shift back to a real person, Brenin?I’d feel so much better if you did.”
He went from beast to man in a few heartbeats.Nodding at him when he was done, James held out a clipboard that was trembling in his hand.He was still going on about the paperwork that had to be filled out while his partner arrested the man and the woman who had caused this all.
“Nobody is going to believe me when I tell them that I saw one of the Savage dragons and that he knocked a big building over with his tail.”He told him he was sorry about that, but he didn’t have much control over his tail at times.James glared at him.“Am I supposed to be happy that things ended without anyone being shot?I don’t think so.I saw a big dragon scare a man nearly to pissing himself.Myself included in that, and I have to write up a report on what happened.”
“Just say that we helped you as best we could.”Again, the glare and Brenin laughed.“I’m sorry, James, but if you could have seen the look on your face when I shifted, then you’d be laughing too.”
“I don’t think this is the least bit funny, Brenin.What if you had hurt someone?You’d not be laughing then, would you?”He said that no one was hurt at all.And no shots were fired.“You’re not helping me.Someone is going to ask questions, and I don’t know what to tell them.Do I mention the dragon or not?What if someone asked me to describe you?I wouldn’t even know where to begin.Big is all I’d be able to tell them.And you had big teeth.”
“You’ll be fine, James.I promise you no one will care now that an unsafe building is down andthe mayor is safe.He is, too.Nothing happened to him at all.”Another glare and another burst of laughter from him.“I don’t know what you’re so upset about.I told you that I was a dragon and that I was going to shift.”
“I didn’t believe it.”He asked him what he meant.“I know that we all know that you’re something other than human, but I don’t think that any of us believed that you were dragons.Oh, it was in my mind that you were dragons, but I just didn’t believe it until I saw him.You’re a big fucking dragon, Brenin.”
“Yes, I am.And you should know that I’d never harm you ever because you’re a good man.”He did chuckle a little when he thought of the man trying to get away from his dragon.He actually tossed the gun at him like that was going to be something that would have stopped him from coming after him.“What do you need me to do?You know that I’d do anything you need so that you’re not going to be in trouble.I don’t believe that the mayor will say anything to you about paperwork if you don’t do it.”
He looked at him, and he could see that James was on the verge of tears.He wasn’t helping him right then while he was trying to distract him from what had happened.He was as sorry for that as he’d been about trying to save his brother from being hurt by shifting.His brother was his world, and he’d die before he let anything happen to him.Brenin told James that.
