Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 (24 page)

“Surveillance cameras?” Melina asked around
another mouthful of muffin. She quickly took a sip of the coffee to
wash it down. “What did it show?”

“You have nothing to worry about, my little
mate,” Calo assured her. “Our symbiots took care of the system.
They would see nothing out of the ordinary.”

“What did he say?” Stuart asked,
curiously.

“What? Oh, their gold friends took care of
the cameras,” Melina said, looking at the empty wrapper in her
hand.

“What gold friends?” Stuart asked.

Harry groaned as he glanced over his
shoulder. “You shouldn’t have asked, Stuart,” Harry informed him
with a heavy sigh.

*.*.*

Later that night, Melina watched as Stuart’s
blue pickup, followed by Harry’s red one, drove slowly down the
gravel driveway. She wrapped her arms around her waist and leaned
against the post. The day had actually turned out better than she
thought.

Well, after Stuart had gotten over the two
symbiots that had stepped into the room, she thought. For being
such a jerk when he was in high school, Stuart had turned out to be
an okay guy. In another life, there might have been something
between them.

Time stood still for a moment as she looked
around as the red dust settled back down. She remembered watching
the same thing the day her parents had left to pick up her Nana. So
much had changed since then.

She laid her head against the post and just
stood on the front porch enjoying the peace and quiet. This was her
home. It was all she had left of who she was.

“Melina,” Cree’s soft voice called from
behind her.

Turning, she kept her arms around her and
pressed her back to the post. What she had to say was going to be
difficult. No, what she was about to say was going to be
excruciatingly painful, but it needed to be said.

“Hey,” she replied, looking at him with a
heavy heart.

“I like your grandfather’s friend, Harry. He
is a good human,” Cree said, walking over to stand across from her.
“I’m glad we were able to meet him.”

“Yes, Uncle Harry is pretty cool,” she said
in a thick voice. “He’s more family than friend.”

“Melina,” Cree began, but his voice faded
when she shook her head and turned to face out over the driveway
again.

Melina wrapped her arm around the old post
and hugged it to her. Drawing in a deep, steadying breath, she
focused on the small, overgrown patch of rose bushes that her Nana
and mom loved to work with. It was time to take a stand and make a
decision about her future.

No, my mates,
the being inside her
cried out.
My mates. Our mates. Need us. Need them.

No,
Melina replied in a soft voice.
I’m home now. This is where Gramps, Nana and my folks are. This
is my home. It is time to accept that. They can’t stay and I… I
can’t go. I can’t live up there again. It… I can’t.

No!

Yes,
Melina said as silent tears
spilled down her cheeks.
I’m sorry.

Silence greeted her last words. It was as if
the being inside her, the dragon created by the Dragon’s Fire, had
suddenly disappeared. Pain seared through her and she drew in a
large gulp of air in an effort to breathe through it.

“I think it is time for you and Calo to
return to the
Horizon
,” Melina said tightly. “You’ve been
lucky so far, but that luck won’t last forever. Harry, Stuart, and
Manchester have been cooperative because they know no one would
believe them. Harry doesn’t give a crap about that, but Manchester
and Stuart know it would ruin their careers, not to mention their
lives, if they were to start spouting they saw aliens. The longer
you stay here, the more likely it will be that someone will
discover you.”

Cree’s swiftly inhaled breath told her that
he had not been expecting her to say what she had. His eyes
searched her pale face and the dampness on her cheeks before they
turned to gaze down the long driveway. Had seeing the human male
changed her mind? Did she wish to be with him instead? Pain and
disbelief swept through him at the thought of her with another
male. He turned when the door opened and Calo stepped out.

“No,” Calo said harshly, having felt the
emotions sweeping through his brother. “No.”

Melina turned to look back at Calo.
Straightening her shoulders, she looked him in the eye. It was time
to get back to living her life the way it should have been.
Throughout the day, she had listened as Harry and Stuart talked
about some of her former classmates and the changes to the town. It
made her realize that she had been deluding herself the last few
days. It seemed a lifetime, but it had only been a little over a
week ago that she and her Gramps had talked about the same
things.

“Yes,” she said in a soft, but firm voice.
“Gramps and I talked about the day we would come back. He wanted
me… We talked about coming home. It was the one thing that kept us
going day after day, month after month, year after year.”

“Your Grandfather is gone,” Calo said
stubbornly. “He knew of our desire for you. He accepted it.”

Melina shook her head. “He wanted to come
home. My family is here. This farm has been in the Franklin family
since the turn of the century. One day, if all goes well, it will
go to my children,” she replied.

She jerked back with a startled cry when
Cree suddenly surged toward her. The post shook and she swore she
heard the wood crack when he hit it with the palm of his hand right
above her head. Her fingers tightened on the post as he leaned into
her. His eyes were filled with fury and a dark promise.

“I will kill any male other than my brother
who tries to touch you,” he hissed in a cold voice. “We have
claimed you. You have claimed us!” Her eyes moved to his throat
when he pulled down the collar of his shirt. “Look! Look! You dare
speak of staying, of having a child, while we wear the mark of your
dragon on our throat?”

“Cree,” Calo warned in a low voice.

“No!” Cree turned on his brother. “She needs
to
understand
what has happened. She needs to know
what
will happen if we were to leave her as she
insists.”

“Not like this,” Calo replied in a quiet
voice. “Melina.”

Melina slowly released her grip on the wood
post and took a shaky step down as she stared with wide
grief-stricken eyes at Cree. Her throat worked up and down as she
tried to speak. She had never seen him like this before. It
terrified her that she could hurt someone so strong.

“I need you to leave,” she whispered, taking
another step away from them, from Cree. “Please, just leave me
alone. Let me go. Let me live my life the way it should have
been.”

She stumbled in distress when Cree started
forward, toward her, afraid that if he touched her she would break
and give in. His face was a mask of rage and dark topaz and black
scales ran up his neck. His eyes were blazing with pain. Unable to
stand the look of sorrow and hopelessness in them, she turned and
fled.

“NO!” Cree roared after her.

“Cree,” Calo said sharply, grabbing his
brother’s arm. “Let her go for now.”

“I can’t live without her,” Cree said
hoarsely, watching as she disappeared into the woods. “We
can’t.”

“Neither can she,” Calo reminded him. “She
was not ready to hear that. Today, she saw what her life might have
been if she had not been taken. She does not understand that she
can never remain here. Even if we had not claimed her, she is no
longer a part of this world.”

“What do we do?” Cree asked, gripping the
railing. “My dragon is not the only one hurting.”

“I know,” Calo said calmly. “Carmen said she
needs time for closure. We will give her as much as we can.”

“We don’t have much time left,” Cree
reminded him. “Two days at the most.”

“Then, we give her those two days,” Calo
said.

“To what?” Cree asked, looking over his
shoulder at Calo’s tight face.

“To live the life she thought she was
missing and to realize that she does not belong to it any longer,”
Calo replied as he searched the wooded area.

“To find closure,” Cree said.

“As much as she can,” Calo agreed.

Two days later, Melina rose on shaky legs
from where she had been kneeling in the now cleared and pruned rose
garden. She was covered in dirt and scratches, but she didn’t care.
She embraced the stinging of the numerous cuts to her arms. It
reminded her that she was alive.

The emptiness inside her was suffocating
her. Harry came by several times a day to check on her. He brought
her some food which remained untouched in the kitchen. She hadn’t
been hungry and the one time she had tried to force some food into
her mouth, she had gagged on it.

Turning, she swayed. This was crazy. She was
going to have to force some food into her system. Then, she would
take the old truck that belonged to her grandfather and drive over
to the cemetery. Harry told her yesterday that he, Cree, and Calo
had been in the garage out back when Stuart showed up. He had
wanted to make sure she had some transportation while she was here,
just in case she needed it. He had started Gramps’ truck up a few
times, but it had been a while since it had been run and the
battery was dead. He had brought another one with him and they were
changing it out, which was why they didn’t hear Stuart’s truck when
he pulled up.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered under her
breath as she headed back into the house. “Quit feeling like it is
the end of the world, Mel. You’ve been through worse and
survived.”

Twenty minutes later, she was carefully
backing the old pickup out of the garage. She had taken a quick
shower and her hair was still wet, but she ignored it. She had
skipped fixing anything to eat as the idea of food still turned her
stomach. Food would have to wait until she came back. Then, she
would eat. Harry had brought her some homemade Chicken Noodle soup
from the diner. That was always a good choice when her stomach was
upset.

She slowed at the end of the drive and
looked both ways before she pulled out onto the highway. At least
she was making an effort at being normal. The house was spotless
thanks to her not being able to sleep. Harry had helped her replace
the glass in the broken front window before he left yesterday and
today she had cleaned out all the flower beds and pruned them back
for the winter.

Three miles down the road, she turned her
blinker on and carefully pulled through the gate of the cemetery.
It would have been just as fast to cut through the woods along the
old logging trail that ran through their property to the cemetery,
but she wanted to practice her driving. That was another thing she
would need to put on her list of things to do, get a driver’s
license.

Rolling to a stop, she put the truck into
park and turned off the ignition. It was late afternoon and the
temperature was beginning to drop. A chilly breeze blew the door
out of her hand as she opened the door.

Grasping the small bouquet of flowers she
had cut during her pruning, she slipped out of the cab and shut the
door. She pulled her old jacket closer around her to shield her as
she walked across the grass, weaving through the headstones until
she came to her family’s small plot.

“Hey Gramps,” she whispered, kneeling down
so she could pull the old flowers out and arrange the new ones.
“You’d be proud of me, I’ve gotten a lot done. The window is fixed,
the house cleaned, and the flower beds are pretty much done. Uncle
Harry has been helping with the stuff I didn’t know how to do. Do
you remember Stuart Wilson? It’s hard to believe he is a Sheriff’s
deputy now.” A strangled chuckle escaped her as she stared over the
headstone. “I sent them away. I sent Calo and Cree away,” she
continued in a quiet voice. “It hurts. It… I never thought anything
could hurt so much. I feel empty inside, Gramps. I don’t know what
to do. I’m so confused. I thought it was for the best.” Her fingers
moved to the gold pendant around her neck.

Warmth touched her fingertips briefly, but
it was weak compared to before. Even the gold bands around her
wrist seemed paler, less vibrant, than before. The thing that
alarmed her the most was the feeling of emptiness that she had
experienced before was nothing compared to what she was feeling
now. It was as if a huge hole had been carved out of her soul.

“We had talked about coming back home for so
long,” she finally continued. “It was supposed to be the same as
before, but it’s not. The house, the town, the people are, but I’m
not. I don’t fit in here,” she murmured. “I can’t eat. I can barely
sleep. The emptiness inside me, terrifies me, Gramps. I need your
help. I need your advice to tell me what I should do. What am I
going to do? I miss them so much, but I sent them away.”

She bowed her head in sorrow. Even the tears
wouldn’t come anymore. She turned her head when a shadow blocked
the fading light of the sun. Looking up, she saw the shape of a man
standing just on the other side of the headstone.

“Ms. Franklin,” Joe Manchester said with a
nod of his head.

“De… Detective Manchester,” Melina said,
struggling to stand. “What are you doing here?”

He was quiet for several long seconds. His
eyes swept the area, searching. He finally turned his gaze back to
her.

“Are they… Are they here?” He asked in a low
voice.

Melina knew immediately who he was speaking
of. He looked pale and had dark shadows under his eyes, as if he
hadn’t slept in days. He kept his hands tucked in the pockets of
the long, black coat he was wearing.

“No, they left,” she answered. “You haven’t
answered my question. Why are you here?”

“Oh,” he said, looking around again before
he released a sigh. “I just needed to know I wasn’t going
crazy.”