Page 19 of Cassian
“I know that you would.”He seemed calmer then, like he’d resigned himself to believing there were dragons in his town.“You really are a dragon.And the rest of you are, too, aren’t you?”
“Yes, we are.”He waited to see if he was going to say anything else, and when he didn’t, he spoke to him again.“We’re good men, too, that just happen to be able to shift into great dragons.Nothing more than that.”
“Sure, that’s such a little thing, you being able to shift into…I just can’t wrap my head around seeing a dragon.I don’t want to see it again, mind you, but if more bad guys knew what you were, we’d have nothing so much as a jaywalker in our town.We’d have only to take you to show and tell at the high school, and you’d bet that they’d take care to be on the right side of the law.”He shook his head.“I’m losing it again.I need to have a seat.”
He sat down on the hood of his cruiser and looked around toward the building that had come down when he’d landed near it.The couple had been lucky that there hadn’t been a good storm come through, or they might well have been crushed.Cassian had been right in saying that it wasn’t in good shape.
He’d told James that it was his tail that brought it down, but it was the shaking of the ground beside it.Yes, they were all lucky it didn’t come down on some unsuspecting person while they were inside the thing.Or even on Ace and Cassian when they’d been inspecting the building.They couldn’t die, but they would have been hurt badly had they been inside when it came down.
Hugging his brother when he was close enough to do so, he told him he loved him as well.He didn’t do that nearly enough, tell people that he cared for them, and was going to make it a point to do so when he had the opportunity.You never knew what the next day was going to bring to you, and he was going to make sure that those around him knew that he thought well of them.
~*~
Cassian knew that Raven was going to be upset with him.He’d not gotten hurt, but he nearly had been shot.Not even telling her that he couldn’t die would make her happy with him about trying to get a gun from a disturbed man and his wife.
“You want me to tell her?”Brenin was still laughing off and on, and he couldn’t help but laugh with him.James had been really freaked out, and he was still going on about how he’d seen a dragon.“I don’t think she’ll be any less upset with you for doing what you did, but I can tell her for you.”
“Nah, I got it.I’m just trying to work in when I tell her that I can’t die.I think she’s going to be thinking with her human brain instead of her dragon one and remember about that part.”Brenin nodded and said that he was glad he was all right.“I am too.Thanks for saving me.It was funny when I think about the look on James’ face when you shifted.”The two of them laughed again.
“They arrested those two people.I don’t suppose you noticed that the woman was totally naked, did you?That scared me more than anything when I did shift.I wondered if she thought that she was going to sacrifice to me or not.”The two of them were in a mood, and if they kept it up, they were going to be in trouble with all the women of the family.Joking about everything wasn’t a good thing.“I guess the police have had trouble with them before, setting up their homes in places that have been abandoned.I asked about the shelter house, and he said that they won’t take them because they cause too much trouble.I can see that too.She’s very loud.”
They had to fill out a report on what happened, but were to leave the part about the dragon out.It had taken them both over an hour to get it right, and even then, James was a little worried about what the higher-ups would say when they read it.He didn’t see what the problem was.They’d got them out of the building, he thought with a chuckle.
He and his brother had been dropped off at the stationhouse when they were finished.Then, after the report was given to James, they decided to have some lunch.He was surprised that he’d not heard from Raven in all that time, but he knew that she was spending the day with the other wives in getting things squared away for the Fall Fair that they were working on for late September.He might well be lucky, and she’d not heard yet.However, he wasn’t counting on that.
He loved hanging out with his brother.It had been a while since he’d had the time to be just the two of them, and he was liking it.Brenin was younger than him by a few days, but they never talked about Cassian being the older of the two.It just didn’t matter to them.Brenin asked him about finding a mate.
“Are you looking?I would have thought that you’d seen every female in this town at one point or another.”He said that he was sure that he had, but was looking around outside of their circle.“Good idea.I didn’t know that you were actively looking for someone to be with.”
“I’m lonely.Not just that, but I’m bored with my life.I have a house that I like, friends and family that I adore, but something is missing from my personal life that I can’t seem to fill.Like a void that I have.”He said that he was sorry.“I don’t mean to make you feel bad.It’s just the way things are.I might be next or last; I have no idea, but it’s great living through you guys with your mates.I’m betting she’s out there, hoping anyway, but when is she coming to me that I find frustrating.”
“I’m glad to see that you’ve not given up on finding her.I was at that point in my life, I think.Where I just didn’t care if I got up in the morning and cleaned myself up.I just, well, I was just bored like you said.But I did have hope because the others had found their other half.”He said that’s what keeps him going.“It did me.Knowing that someday, hopefully, I’d find her or she’d find me, and I’d be as happy as Tucker and Kings.They are happy, don’t you think?”
“I do.But I have to admit, you and Raven have a stranger relationship than the other two.You don’t seem to have to be in each other’s business like the other two.I see Tucker and Kaida together all the time.And Kings is with Skye twenty-four seven.Like they can’t breathe without each other around all the time.”
“I never noticed that about them.But now that you mention it, I see it.But Raven and I like to be together.I think it’s because she wants to be independent from me.She’s said that the entire time that I was trying to make her believe in me.That she didn’t want me to hold her back on the things that she wanted to do.When she starts her classes in a couple of days, I’m going to be seeing less of her, and I’m all right with that, too.Because the time that we do spend together is better because of it.Understand?”He said that he did and looked around the area that they were sitting in before speaking again.
“I’m going to invest in a couple of things that Trevor told me about.I’m not in need of the money, but I’d like to know that it’s there when I need it.”He said that he did understand that.“Forever seems like a short amount of time sometimes.Like all the years that we were waiting for something to happen.Avoiding our parents.It’s been a long time in coming, this life that I’m looking forward to.I couldn’t have done it without you by my side all this time.”
“Same with you.I’ve been meaning to tell you, too, that I love you.I don’t do that nearly enough.But I do hope that you know that.”He said that he did and loved him as well.“Before we get all sobbyhere, we should go and figure out what to do with the rest of our day.I’m thinking that this park by the Dairy Mart needs to be upgraded.The seats are a little too creaky for us to be sitting on them for any length of time.”
“What a way to change the subject.”They both laughed, and he was glad that he had this time with his brother.Brenin had always been there for him, and he hoped that he could say the same about him.They were all they had in the world besides their cousins, and he never wanted to spend a day without being around him.That was something else he was going to do: spend more time with his family.“All right.We’ve been playing around enough for the day.Let’s get to work on some of the projects that you have piled up on your desk.I can help with them if you’d be all right with that.”
They walked back to the house, talking about anything that popped into their minds.It was good to have someone to talk to all the time, and he was happy that the two of them got along so well.He’d known other families that couldn’t stand to be around one another, and he hoped that never happened to the two of them.Mostly, they were humans, but they still had a few shifter friends who hadn’t wanted to be around their family as well.Like his sister Margo when she’d been around.
“I was thinking about Margo this morning.”He told Brenin that he’d just been thinking about her as well.“I wondered if she was dead or in prison for the rest of her life.Not that I care, so long as she’s gone, but I do wonder if she’s having a terrible time or not.”
“I hope she’s having the worst time ever.More than what she caused us.”Brenin agreed, saying that he would smile once in a while, thinking about how she’d been taken down by a mere human.“I’d forgotten about that.Skye drew first blood and owned her dragon and her.That burned her toast, and we had such a good time with her after she gave her to us.”
“Yeah, it was all right, but then it got to be boring.”He said that it had and it hadn’t taken all that long to be bored with it either.“No.I guess we’re not the type of person that gets their rocks off at someone else’s pain.”
They had always worked well together, and today was no exception.They went through all the files on his desk in record time and had started on things that would eventually need to be gone over.Most of it was things for Ace, such as getting contracts for larger companies to come into town to help the economy.He couldn’t wait for Raven to come home so that he could tell her what they’d done.He was going to start with that when he had to tell her about not being shot.
He invited his brother to have dinner with them tonight, but he declined.Spending the day with him had put him behind on the things that he needed to do.When he asked what was going on, his brother flushed a little and said that he had a date.Nothing big, she wasn’t his mate, but he was going out with her to have a little fun.
“That’s wonderful.I hope you have a wonderful time.”He said he was sure that he would, she was part of the pack that Jenkins had.“A shifter.They’re the best kind of people to date, I think.They have no expectations about how you’re going to profess your undying love for them on the first date.”
“Wow, that wasn’t right.”They both laughed, knowing that it was true.Humans saw a price tag on them when they saw where they lived and decided that they were going to be the next Mrs.Savage.Not all humans were like that, but the few that had been had soured it for the others.He was just glad that he didn’t have to worry about getting a date from now on.He was as happy as he could be with Raven.She was his perfect match.“I have to get going.It was fun today, Cassian.We need to do that more often.”
