Chapter Nine
Frank
He couldn’t help it as his dragon pushed to the front and smoke came out of his nose. He could feel his dragon push against his skin begging to come to the forefront. Only the terror on Violet’s eyes kept him barely under control. Frank thought it through quickly, happy to remember no one was in the office but him and Cathy, and a glance at the clock told him she should be gone for lunch. It didn’t take him long to think it through but long enough for Violet to back away from Frank.
“Please don’t be scared,” he said between clenched teeth as his dragon beat away every band of control tying it down. “I would never hurt you,” he said stepping deep into his office before losing the battle as his dragon unfurled.
Shifting in a building was cramped and uncomfortable. There aren’t any other words for it. Frank was big as an adult human, but his dragon was almost four times that. With his wings tucked close to his body, he managed to only knock the things over on his desk. His head was bowed, neck cramping from making sure he didn’t burst through the roof, and he was unable to see where Violet was standing near the door.
His show was enough proof, he thought as he shifted back to his human form, conscious of covering his genitals as he turned toward the wide-open door. There was no one there. Violet must have run away. Frank ran to the window to see her and when he didn’t, he wondered how fast she could have gotten to her car, and if he could catch her.
Frank rushed to the small closet where he kept an extra suit for those days when he went on midday runs and needed a change of clothes. The closet had one shelf of shirts still in their packaging, three ties, an extra towel set, and a pair of shoes underneath it. Beside it was a small bathroom with just enough space for him to shower and dry off. He changed quickly, not picking up the scraps of clothes he left on the floor as he rushed out the door to find Cathy waiting for him in front of the elevators with her arms crossed over her chest.
“I don’t have time for this, Cat. Move,” he said reaching around her to press the down arrow.
“Don’t bother. She’s already gone.”
Cathy’s words made him sigh.
“You sure?”
“Positive.” She moved out the way, but glared at him. If looks could kill, he would be gone, forget his basic immortality.
He sighed and pulled his hair by its roots.
“You want to tell me why Violet ran into me downstairs frightened and crying?”
Frank’s heart lurched in his chest. “She was crying?” Frank felt terrible.
“Yes, and running away. What happened? What did you do?”
Frank hung his head with guilt.
“Did you have sex with her and then reject her or something?” Cathy asked.
“Why would you ask that?” Frank said with disgust. He did not have random flings, and when he did, he did not do it on his desk. What kind of man did Cathy think he was?
“Because I’m almost positive you were wearing different clothes when I left. Perhaps they’re a bit ruffled or have god knows what on them?” she suggested with a shrug.
“No, Cathy. It was nothing like that.”
“Well, what could it be?” Cathy followed Frank back into his office. “Girls don’t typically cry for no reason. Not in public, anyway.” She flopped down in a chair across from his desk.
“I turned,” he said pulling out a drawer to reveal a case of cheese. It was an in case of emergency stash. This constituted as an emergency.
Cathy gasped. “You turned?”
Cathy knew Frank was a dragon. He had to tell her after a few months of working with him because he kept making mistakes. The first thing was his tendency to rely on tax laws that were at least a century old. Cathy caught that mistake more than once.
The second thing was when she blew up at him for staring at her so hard. He had to explain so that she'd stop wearing fancy stuff because it was distracting. Aside from the fact that he was moody, had mini-hordes of jewelry—one of which was hidden in the office, and his tendency to move quickly when he was relaxed.
He had to remind himself to move like a human and Cathy was around so much he would forget she was there. Which made him make mistakes... too many mistakes to cover with lies. Which is how she knew what he was and the serious repercussions of showing his form to Violet.
“I couldn’t help it,” Frank said, eating a cube of cheese. The buzz of it was a welcome reprieve. “She was prodding me, asking me questions, and I didn’t know what to say and my dragon... He likes her. He was clawing at me, and she kept asking me what was I hiding. He wanted to meet her, and I just couldn’t hold back any longer.”
“Wow.” Cathy leaned back. “That’s not like you to lose control.”
It really wasn’t. Frank was the king of self-control. He could be obsessive about it. He couldn’t afford slip ups. There were too many people with phones ready to record, and online forums of people wondering about their existence and coming up with conspiracies. It was one thing to be a dragon shifter during the dark ages, now, one slip up could spread like wildfire and put the entire dragon community in danger. So, he micromanaged his body, his reactions, and responses, only allowing his guard to slip when he was in his office, with friends, or at home.
“I know,” Frank said. “I messed this all up.”
Cathy smiled weakly at him and Frank knew that was the best she could give. She wasn’t the type to lie to him, which is why she didn’t say it was going to be okay. She didn’t know that, and neither did he. The only person who could tell Frank it would be okay was Violet, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t be hearing from her soon.
“I have to call the guys,” he said, turning to dial the phone.
Cathy stood with a nod. “I hope you feel better.”
Frank nodded instead of saying, Me too.
Frank called his best friend and Desmond answered on the first ring. “Twice in one week,” he said in his deep voice. “It’s not my birthday.”
“We need to meet,” Frank said cutting right to the chase. There was no point in delaying the inevitable.
“I see,” Desmond said, his voice lost all traces of humor. “My house or yours?”
“Yours,” he said putting the phone on speaker so he could clean up the scraps of his last suit from the floor.
“Okay. See you soon,” Desmond said before hanging up.
Cathy was gone when Frank walked out of the office, and he was glad. He didn’t want to see the disappointment on her face. Cathy knew he was a dragon, but even she had never seen his full form. He convinced her by changing one of his hands into his claw.
She said her great-grandmother practiced magic, so it wasn’t too far of a stretch for her to believe in dragons too. She knew the importance of keeping quiet about things mere humans couldn’t handle. Which is why Frank was beating himself up for letting his dragon get the best of him. It had never happened before. He drove to Desmond’s penthouse, trying to figure out how he would say everything he had to say. It was more than Violet at this point. He still had to tell his friend about the sniper.
Was it more important to talk about Violet and get his feelings off his chest, or talk about the sniper and get the guys all thinking together? He wasn’t sure, and eventually decided that doing things in order was the only way to avoid leaving anything out.
The drive gave him enough time to think. Desmond lived in the same area as Frank, though, he owned almost double the land Frank did. When he got to Desmond’s luxury penthouse, he realized that most of the guys were there. Desmond but also Jackie, Charlie, and Joseph. Desmond must have called them.
Frank wasn’t sure where to start. He had a lot to say, and he wanted to say it right the first time because once he got it all out, they were going to have a lot to discuss.
“So, you guys know that I am starting to realize I have feelings for Violet,” Frank said feeling nervous even though he had no reason to be. He rubbed the back of his neck.
“We know,” everyone said.
“If this is the big emergency, I can go back to watching the stock market,” Desmond moved to get up.
“No! That’s not it. Or at least, not all of it. I was up in Farthingtowne trying to escape those feelings, and I saw something. There was someone just outside my land,” Frank said
“People get lost sometimes, Frank,” Joseph said, still doing something with his phone.
“No. I’m all jumbled. There was a person, a man with a gun, just sitting in the trees and watching the sky. It’s not hunting season, so why was he there?” Frank took a couple of deep breaths. “And that’s not all. I used my abilities to find the person with the gun, he was hiding really well. It felt like he was waiting for something.” Frank paced, unable to stay still. “And then when I went into town for some groceries, there was a strange human. He was very excited to talk about dragons, and how dragons are real. He was shockingly accurate, given that he clearly didn’t know anything for real.”
“Maybe they’re just some internet conspiracy theorist nutters again. We get those sometimes,” Charlie said.
“I get a different feeling from these guys. And the internet nuts don’t carry guns these days.”
“Carry guns?” Joseph said, looking up from his phone for the first time. Frank was glad to know something could get his attention.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Creepy Charlie’s friend was not only being a regular ole Tarzan hanging out in a tree outside my house, but he had a sniper rifle with him, as well.” Frank walked to the kitchen and pulled out the drawer where Desmond kept his cheese.
“Hand me one,” Desmond said.
“I need a hit, too,” Charlie said.
“Make it three,” Joseph said, holding the bridge of his nose.
Frank cut cheese squares onto a platter, enough for everyone to have thirds, and placed it on the table.
“So, creepy guy in the store’s name is Charlie?” Charlie said sulking.
“If it makes you feel any better, I think that name is fake,” he said through a mouthful of cheese.
Charlie shrugged.
“Did the man point the gun at you?” Desmond asked, trying to get to the center of the story.
“No,” Frank said.
“Did he engage you in any way?” Desmond continued his interrogation.
“No,” Frank repeated.
“Did he make any noise? Leave any traps? Try to get you to shift? Say anything to you?”
“No. No. No, and no again. He just hid there, watching. I wouldn’t have known he was there if I hadn’t sensed him.”
“And you think he’s working with the men who talked to you in town?” Joseph jumped in to ask.
“Yeah. They’re definitely some kind of team. You know as well as I do that there are no coincidences in life,” Frank said.
“True,” Desmond tipped his head in agreement.
“And then I called Violet,” Frank said, feeling even more frantic.
“What?” Desmond said.
“Why would you do that?” Joseph asked more out of curiosity than a critique.
“I don’t know,” Frank growled, growing more agitated by the minute. He ran his hands through his hair, wanting to pull it out.
“Yes, you do.” Charlie pushed the plate of cheese toward him. Frank picked up another cube. “Tell us why.”
“Because she makes me feel better.”
“Oh, shit,” Desmond said, falling back into a seat. “She calms your dragon.”
Frank didn’t address the accusation. It might have been true, but he didn’t want to say it out loud.
“What did you tell her?” Joseph asked.
“Nothing,” he said.
“You can tell us, brother. I’m not going to judge, I just wanted to know how much interference we need to run,” Joseph said.
“I didn’t tell her anything. I never said a thing. I… just… blanked. I needed to hear her voice, but I knew I couldn’t tell her anything. So no. I said nothing. She asked me if was I okay. She could tell something was wrong and I couldn’t tell her. I said I was fine and then we got off the phone.”
No one said anything for a minute, and Frank sighed. “I lied to her again.”
“Well good,” Joseph said as his phone made another appearance. “She very well could be a part of that creepy band of nutters who were with you in Farthingtowne.”
“She is not a nutter,” Frank said just barely keeping his tone in check.
“Claire wouldn’t have introduced Frank to someone who is likely to run to the government with that kind of information,” Desmond said confidently.
“Fine.” Joseph shrugged. “You know both of those women so well. The point is, we need to make a plan.”
“Why hasn’t a plan been in place to begin with?” Charlie threw a cheese cube in the air to catch in his mouth.
Frank took a deep breath and relaxed into a couch feeling less anxious. Something was finally being done. He could trust his friends. And he was pretty sure he could trust Violet, too.