It’s uncommon to connect with someone this easily. It’s certainly never happened like that for me in the past.
“I’ve been on precisely two first dates in all the time I’ve lived in Gulch,” I offer. “And no second ones.”
She’s quiet for a moment, sipping on the margarita. When that hot, pink tongue peeks out of her mouth to wet her lower lip, I swear I come a little in my jeans.
“Yes.” Her answer’s so soft, so hopeful, it takes everything in me not to steal her away, take her home and start the ravishing now.
If I had any doubt at all before this moment, that doubt is gone with one simple word from her. This might seem like too much too soon to some, but I find that I don’t care, because my heart is helping my mind catch up to what it knows is true—Shadow is my mate.
Shadow
I can’t worry about tomorrow, even though I’m nothing if not the ultimate pragmatist. Lemon says I think too much about every outcome, that sometimes I just need to go with the flow. I channel her enthusiasm and vibrant joy as Dain reaches into the picnic basket and withdraws a charcuterie tray full of meat and cheese.
“Ooh!” I point at a gorgeous cheese with threads of dark purple running through it. “Wine infused? Or blueberry?”
“Neither,” Dain says, cutting a slice and offering it to me. “Gooseberry, which is a local fruit similar to a cranberry. Looks like a blackberry, though. The taste is somewhere in the middle. One of the local ranchers does cheesemaking as a hobby. We traded this for some mead I brewed.”
I take the cheese and sniff it delicately. My human senses aren’t as strong as a monster’s, especially someone like Dain or my friend Lemon. She’s a vampire and I swear she can sniff out a scent a mile away. I suppose it makes sense. They’re predators, technically, although monsters don’t hunt one another now that we’re part of the protective haven system.
Taking a bite of the cheese, I savor its delicate flavor. It’s creamy and rich with the faintest tart hint of crisp fruit. I closemy eyes as the flavor lingers on my tongue. When I reopen them, Dain’s staring at me with an expression that can only be obsession. Maybe a little bit of deviance.
He chuckles, shuffling his wings at his back and threading his tail around his thigh. “I could watch you eat all day long, Shadow.”
Laughing, I lean forward onto all fours, peeking into the picnic basket. “Good, then what else you got in here?”
Dain reaches in and pulls out a baggie full of red and green grapes. Looking closer, I find they’re actually red and greenstripes.
I grab one and examine it, fascinated because as far as I know, nobody’s ever accomplished this sort of grape variant. When one mixes plant genes, you often end up not with a chimera but simply a plant that looks like the one with stronger genes.
Lifting it, I give Dain a look. “Let me guess, your awesome keeper did this too?”
Dain takes the grape from me and pops it into his mouth, chewing slowly. “Yep. There are a solid dozen or so weird mishmash species of things around the haven, byproducts of his experiments. Like these…” he waves at the sunflowers.
Above us, the sun is slowly headed off into the west, the sky brilliant striated shades of red and orange. The sunflowers are turning, although it happens too slowly for me to see it in action. But they’re ever so slightly angled away from even a few minutes ago when we landed.
“They’re gonna do something amazing in a second,” Dain says. “C’mere, Shadow.” He offers me his hand, and when I curl my fingers into it, he pulls me forward and spins me with both big hands on my hips.
“Nestle in there, pretty girl.” His mouth is warm against my ear. “Just watch.”
It’s another minute or so before I notice any change in the flowers. Slowly but surely, their petals are turning white and clumping together so eight or ten of the long, skinny petals look like one huge one that’s thicker at the base and tapers long at the end.
I’m gobsmacked watching the transformation. In five minutes, every flower is white, the smaller petals overlapping one another to form the perfect imitation of a five-petaled moonflower.
“They’ll follow the sun until it’s down,” Dain whispers in my ear. “Then they’ll follow the moon on its path back across the sky.”
Tears fill my eyes. I’m not a crier, usually, but plants get to me. I’m sure it’s connected to my green witch power. I can sense the field like it's a living thing. I can practically see the flowers’ heartbeats in a way, their life force as it flows through them. This field is happy, healthy, and the entire rocky faced cliff around us is covered in bright white, glowing sun, errr, moonflowers.
When I snuffle, Dain reaches a hand under my right arm to press his palm over my heart. “You okay, Shadow? Didn’t wanna make you cry on our date. Or is this a damn-Dain’s-good sort of crying?”
I snuffle a little more, dabbing at the corners of my eyes as I take in how stunning the flowers are. The sky’s a dark blood red at this point. I’ve never seen it look like that in the city—too many skyscrapers to see a great sunset unless you live in a penthouse suite. Even then, there’s so much steel and metal getting in the way of your view.
“You’re good,” I manage, sinking harder into his big, strong chest. He’s not exactly warm since he’s a gargoyle. His skin’s a few degrees cooler than mine. And I’m getting sidetracked. Glancing up over my shoulder, I smile at him. “This is amazing, Dain. I was thinking how it’s so different from the city. And whatyour keeper was able to accomplish is really incredible. Some green witches work their whole lives without being able to breed a species like this.”
“He was really good,” Dain says softly. “A brilliant, kind male, I’ve heard. The gulch misses him, which is why we can’t seem to keep another one. I hope one day we’ll manage to do it, though. The relationship between a keeper and a haven is so important, and without him, we don’t really have anyone to advocate for us at headquarters.”
I chuckle at the idea of that. Monster headquarters itself recently went through quite a shakeup. Long story short we had a ruthless but brilliant vampiress who architected and managed the protective monster city system, but her son and daughter in law overthrew her in a peaceful coup. We haven’t seen a ton of changes yet, but I’m certain they’re coming.
I tickle Dain’s side playfully, marveling at the smooth hardness of his skin. “Are you sure youwantHearth HQ to pay attention to the Gulch? Things seem peaceful here, safe and you’re obviously thriving.”
