Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 25

25

C ontainment cells; Deep under the Valdier Palace

“Devon.”

“Crystal, what are you doing here?”

Shock ricocheted through Devon when he heard Crystal’s soft voice call out to him. He rose from the bench he was sitting on and walked over to the translucent barrier holding him prisoner. Frustration burned through him when she reached out for him before drawing back and looking over her shoulder.

His gaze followed hers, and he saw Sacha and Hope standing near the doorway. Hope smiled and shyly waved at him. Emotion tightened his throat, and he returned his focus to Crystal.

“We are going to help get you out of here,” she said.

He shook his head. “Don’t. There is… It won’t matter.”

She stepped as close as she could without touching the barrier. “What do you mean it won’t matter? Of course, it will! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

He shook his head again. “There are things you don’t know about me, Crystal.”

“Like the fact that your dad was a crazy murderous psychopath who tried to start a war, turned symbiots into monsters, and tried to take over the universe?”

He looked at her in surprise before he grunted and turned away. He shoved his hands in his pocket and walked back to the bunk. Breathing deeply to calm his raging emotions, he turned and stared at her.

“How did you know?” he demanded in a low voice.

“I’m part of your counsel team. Devon… it doesn’t matter who your father was. It is who you are that is important. My dad has requested to represent you. It isn’t right that you aren’t even given a chance to defend yourself. He is presenting his case to Zoran Reykill and some lady they call a Priestess,” she said.

Confusion swept through him. “Your father… why would he want to represent me? Zoran… There is something you should know. My father… Raffvin… was Zoran’s uncle. He killed his own brother, their father, and tried to kill my cousins. He nearly succeeded. What he did to the symbiots—” Devon paused and took a deep, calming breath before continuing. “I am as good as dead, Crystal. My dragon has retreated until I can barely feel him. My symbiot—.” His throat worked up and down before he forced himself to continue. “My symbiot has been slated to be returned to the Hive… at least what is left of it after the Priestess has salvaged what she can. A Valdier warrior cannot live without his dragon, his symbiot, or his?—.”

He stopped, unable to finish his sentence. Turning away from her, he walked back to the bench and sank down. He threaded his hands through his hair and rested his elbows on his knees.

“Or his what?” she softly asked.

Devon closed his eyes. Was this to be his biggest punishment? Was he destined to confess to his mate that he was not worthy of being called one, much less being given the greatest gift a warrior could be given?

“Or his what, Devon? His… mate? A Valdier warrior can’t live without his dragon, his symbiot, or his mate?”

His head jerked up, and he glared at her. “Yes. Yes!” he hissed, rising to his feet and striding forward. “Does that help? Knowing that you are destined to be my mate and that I, my dragon, my…,” he stopped and shook his head before he continued in a raw voice, “…and my symbiot will never know what it feels like to hold you? To kiss you? To… That I’ll never be able to?—?”

“Yes, you will. We have a plan,” she said.

“A plan—? What kind of plan?” he repeated.

Crystal turned and motioned to the two little girls. Hope shifted into her dragon and flew toward the flashing control panel on the wall. She pressed several buttons. He jerked back in shock when the translucent shield disappeared.

“I’m absconding with you, your dragon… and soon your symbiot,” she cheekily replied.

“Absconding…? Crystal, there is no way we can escape from here,” he said, stepping from his prison cell to stop in front of her.

He needed her to see sense. Life with him would always be one-step away from catastrophe. They would always be looking over their shoulders, living in caves or worse, and never safe. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to her. He reached out and grasped her arms. She needed to understand.

“Crystal, you have no idea of the danger you are in or the life you are asking me to give to you,” he muttered in a terse tone.

“Then let me show you.”

Before he could ask what she meant, she leaned into him, and captured his lips. She pulled free of his loosened grasp and slid her hands up his chest until she wound them around his neck. His lips parted under hers as she flicked her tongue along his bottom lip. She took advantage when his lips parted to deepen their kiss. A low purr was pulled from him, startling them both.

She pulled back and tilted her head, studying him for a second. His brain was still locked in a daze from her unexpected kiss. It was only when twin giggles echoed around them that he was reminded they weren’t alone.

“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.