Chapter Three – Lydia
Maria would be devastated.
Lydia lay in one of the massive beds in Ian's colossal mansion, staring up at the ceiling. After a very sleepless night, she had only just thought about the restaurant's owner. Maria was a hard-edged woman, but she wasn't unfeeling. Of course she'd be upset about the restaurant, but there were also two bodies that were going to be found in the wreckage of the kitchen. She'd think it was her and Amber. That was going to destroy her.
If only she could call and reassure Maria. But Ian flatly told her that she couldn’t, although he did bring up some BS reason about it not being safe – in case the demons were watching.
He just doesn't want Maria to phone the police and get them involved.
Not that she blamed him… He was a dragon, after all!
Dragon. If she were prone to fainting spells, Lydia would be tempted to collapse every time she thought about it. All of this was outside her realm of knowledge: demons and dragons and who knew what else. But Ian was a dragon. He claimed he was trying to keep her and Amber safe, but what if there just weren't enough princesses left in the world to lock away and eat?
A knock on the door had her on her feet in an instant. "Come in."
It was Amber, not Ian, who walked through the door. Lydia sighed, disappointed even though she knew she should be relieved to see her friend instead. She wanted to talk to Ian and find out more about all of this, but her uncharacteristic bravery from last night was gone, along with her adrenaline. Now she just didn't know what to say or do.
"Ian wants to interview us separately about what happened last night," Amber said, sinking onto the bed. "Did he tell you he was a dragon?"
"Showed me," Lydia replied. "And you?"
The chef shuddered. "I keep hoping that this is some sort of dream or nightmare."
Lydia nodded. "I know the feeling. Part of me thinks that this is just a sugar coma from last night, but we have to think about this. It could be an elaborate prank… Yet, what's the point?"
"A new TV show with some really good special effects?"
"Too many liabilities. We'd sue their asses off for this." Lydia hesitated. "Or it could be real. Or it could be that we're both dead and this is the judgment to decide where we go next."
Amber rubbed her arms. "If we had a choice, I'd go for the TV show."
"Me, too." Even thinking of it that way didn't make it feel any less frightening, though.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be alone with him. I don't care if he wants to interview us or not."
Lydia frowned. She hadn't thought about how Amber would feel about being alone with Ian. Even after knowing he was a Dragon, thinking of being alone with him wasn't a frightening idea to Lydia. If anything, she was more curious. It was possibly the shock of the situation overriding her survival instincts, but she didn't get the idea that he was dangerous. Grumpy, arrogant, and an asshole, sure, but not dangerous. To her and Amber, at least.
But, given Amber's past, she understood why her friend was afraid.
"Then we'll just have to insist on being together," Lydia said, making her voice firm. "I'll use my 'you're banned from the restaurant' voice on him. That'll work."
"And if it doesn’t?"
"I won't let him bully us."
Amber looked doubtful but followed Lydia out of the room. From there, they followed a map Ian had given her to the second-floor study. There, Ian was setting up a camera to focus on a chair in the middle of the room. He frowned at Lydia as she grabbed a second chair and put it next to the first one.
"You can talk to us together," she said, squeezing her hands together. She spent all of high school being bullied and had learned how to deal with guys like this.
"I'll be able to learn more if—"
"Together. Or we just walk right out of here."
"Fine," the Dragon snapped. He turned on the camera, adjusting it some more, and sat on the desk. "Tell me what happened last night."
Lydia and Amber glanced at each other. When Amber didn't speak, Lydia started. She recounted every detail that she could remember. Afterward, Ian questioned her about small details that strained her memory. It was hours before the dragon stood and stretched.
"Let's go back to when the demons first came into the kitchen. You said that you thought 'they' were coming again," Ian said. "Who are they?"
"I did?" She didn't remember sharing that detail, but everything she had said was a blur. "It was just a panicked response…" She took a deep breath. "My parents were murdered when I was a little girl. I ended up in the ICU for three months… in a coma. I guess that when I saw their guns, I just…"
Ian turned to Amber. "You can go."
The chef jumped. She hadn't spoken a single word in the entire interview, and now she gave Lydia a wild-eyed look. For the first time, Lydia didn't feel comfortable with the idea of being alone with Ian, but not because she was worried about him doing something to her. Rather, it had to do with context. She didn't want to talk about what she now knew he was going to ask her to talk about…
Still, she nodded at Amber. Her friend was already freaked out by this situation. Amber wasn't exactly the best with people. She was much better suited for the kitchen than anywhere else in the world.
After Amber was gone, Ian captured Lydia in his gaze. "Tell me what happened when your parents were killed."
A sick feeling swirled through her. She did her best not to remember that night. "None of your business."
"Excuse me?"
"I said it's none of your business. I didn't come in here and demand that you tell me about the worst day of your life. You have no right to go poking at old wounds, tearing them open again. Besides, I was only five years old and I was shot. I don't remember anything."
"You'd better start remembering. There has to be a reason you thought they were the same attackers."
"Panic. They came in with guns. My parents were shot to death. That's all the connection there needs to be."
Ian shook his head. "Not good enough."
"Yes, it is. Trauma doesn't always make sense."
"If I am going to find out what those demons wanted with you—"
"I'm not talking about that. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose the people you love?"
Ian closed his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath and pressed his fingers to his temples. "I'm the last Dragon, Lydia. Think about what that means for a minute."
Oh.
Oh. Lydia pressed her hands to her mouth, ashamed of how she had been acting. The last Dragon – that meant he knew exactly what it was like. She wanted to ask him about his past, but after her little tirade, it seemed in terrible taste. She rubbed her arms. So that was the reason he was in this huge house all by himself. He had nobody left. Just like her. She chewed her lip.
"I was very young. I remember… it was late at night. I was up past my bedtime. I don't remember why. Dad was making me a sandwich because I said I was hungry. Mom came in. She told me I should be sleeping. And then the men came." Her stomach churned, a familiar feeling clawing her throat. "I don't really remember anything after that. The next thing I remember, I was waking up and my chest hurt. I'd been shot. Here."
She touched her left breast, her hand over the scar that was still visible all these years later. She shuddered. It was why she never wore anything that showed the slightest hint of cleavage.
"My aunt took me in after that," she finished.
"What did the men look like?"
"I don't remember." An image flashed through her mind and she flinched. "Their eyes. I remember their eyes. They were… cold. Dead – like a shark's. The same as the eyes from last night."
Ian leaned back. A heavy frown was on his face. "Their eyes?"
Lydia nodded.
"There is something different about you. What it is, I'm not sure… But people who can see demons, even when they disguise themselves, always talk about their eyes." Ian hummed a moment. "There are a few possibilities… I'll have to do some research. Do you know your ancestry?"
"Just Mom and Dad. My aunt, Mom's sister, said Dad never talked about his family. But I have grandparents in Kansas from my mom's side."
"I'll look into them first, then." Ian stood. "It could be that you are a Paladin: defenders of humanity descended from the Twelve Guards of Charlemagne. I… You can look them up on Wikipedia if you want to know more. That may explain why…"
He trailed off, staring at her intensely. Lydia felt blood seeping into her face under his focus. What was he thinking?
"Um." She coughed, not liking the silence. "I never thanked you… for saving our lives. And, I guess, for letting us stay in your palace here. I'd have hated to die for a reason I didn't know."
He opened his mouth, then closed it and shrugged. "Just… don't leave."
He walked away without another word. Lydia sighed, returning to the rooms down below where Amber waited for her. She was watching the TV, tuned to the news channel, her brow furrowed. Lydia climbed onto the bed beside her, wrapping her arms around her own waist as she waited for something about the restaurant to come on.
Half an hour later, it changed to a cooking show and Amber turned off the TV. "They didn’t say anything about the restaurant. It's like nothing happened."
Lydia remembered the previous night – Ian making a call. "Maybe he had it cleaned up somehow? I mean, if he can turn into a dragon and he's a billionaire… I don't know. I just wish we could call Maria."
Amber snorted. "We need to do more than that. We need to get out of here."
"With demons out there?"
"There are no such thing as demons." Amber balled her fists. "He is playing with our heads somehow… we have to leave.
"I don't know. I just… I think we need to take this slow."
"Slow? That's the kind of thinking that gets you in the hospital. I'm leaving. And if you're not going to help me, I'll find a way out on my own."
Lydia put an arm around her friend and sighed. "There's more happening than we know, Amber. But I'll talk to Ian about letting us use his phone. If he says no, then we leave. No questions asked."
Amber didn't look happy with the arrangement, but she nodded. "Okay. I can wait until you talk to him."
"Thank you."