TEN
Mason and Alex hadn’t been gone more than a few minutes when I realized I’d made a huge mistake. Just as suddenly as my little fit of anger and paranoia had come on, it had seemed to leave me, along with the confusing tangle of emotions I’d been experiencing. Sitting down at the dining room table, I realized that whatever strange thing had come over me, whether it had been caused by all the wine, the stress of the previous day, or a combination of both those things, it had caused me to really lose my mind for a minute.
In a way, I really couldn’t blame myself. And maybe my behavior had even been the result of subconscious resentment toward the commander. After all, as magnanimous as he seemed, he had still put me in a position of doing what he wanted or else facing prison time. However, I had to admit as I ate the rice and green beans off my plate of dinner mechanically, without really even tasting anything, it still wasn’t fair to take out any subconscious resentment on Alex. In fact, the thought that he had ordered the entrée of our meal as some sort of a sick joke seemed more than a bit silly to me now. It definitely seemed paranoid. Alex had been right on the mark about that.
Even though part of me now felt like calling Alex and asking him and Mason to come back to my apartment so that I could apologize, I was too tired to do any more talking or serious thinking. Considering the insomnia I’d suffered with the night before, I needed sleep. Apologies could come later.
The next morning, after another night of restless sleep, I showered and dressed a little earlier than usual, wondering if Alex and Mason might come by for a morning visit. However, when Sheila came by around eight, I wondered if I’d ever even see them again.
Sheila came inside my apartment, held my door wide open, and then gestured to the hallway. “Go ahead and leave, if you’d like. The commander is cutting you loose.”
Confused and a bit horrified, I stared at Sheila. “He’s what?”
“He’s letting you go. You can leave now if you’d like.”
I frowned at her. “Do you mean he’s ‘letting me go,’ as in, letting me go back home, or….”
I found that I didn’t like this idea nearly as much as I’d thought I would.
Somewhat to my relief, Sheila shook her head. “No…the commander isn’t letting you go back home. He’s just letting you come and go from the building as you please. Apparently, he’s been told that being cooped up in this apartment might be starting to make you a little crazy. So, go ahead and leave if you want. Do some exploring in the city. Just don’t try any escape attempts. If you do, know that you’ll be caught.”
Slumping against the wall, I breathed a sigh of very unexpected and strange relief that I wasn’t being sent home and would be seeing Mason and Alex again.
After taking a deep breath, I nodded at Sheila. “Okay, I definitely do want to get out of here for a while. Just let me grab a few things, and I’ll be on my way out for the day.”
She took a white envelope from her pocket and handed it to me. “Spending money for the day, in case you need it. It’s an advance on your first month’s salary for staying here. Since you might not know anyone here in the city yet, go to the cafe with the green awning across the street at nine. A young woman named Dana will be waiting for you there. She’ll be your friend and show you around town if you’d like.”
Without another word, or a ‘have a nice day,’ Sheila left, with her stiletto heels clicking down the hallway.
My first step out of the apartment felt so good I could have laughed or cried. I hadn’t realized it, but I now knew that being confined to my apartment for just the two days that I had been probably had been making me a little crazy. If it hadn’t been, at least a little, I didn't think being “released” from confinement would have felt half as amazing.
With my heart and spirits light, I practically skipped down the long, marble-floored hallway to an elevator bay at the end. Then, I hopped in and rode the elevator down to the ground floor of the building as the only passenger. It was when I stepped out that the stares immediately began.
Like the hallway, the ground floor of the building was made of solid, dove gray marble. It seemed to be some sort of lobby, with people coming and going from different elevator bays. However, when they caught sight of me, most people stopped what they were doing right away and peered at me intensely, with their eyes full of curiosity. Self-conscious, I began walking briskly, uncomfortable with the attention, until a pretty, slender young woman with short red hair caught up with me, began walking by my side, and said hello to me.
Maybe overly thrilled to have a female to speak to besides ice queen Sheila, I said hello back to the red-haired young woman with a big smile.
She smiled in return. “Well, I can see that the rumors are very true. You’re beautiful. And your eyes are just stunning.”
I slowed my walking to a stop and smiled at her again, a little embarrassed but pleased at the same time. “Thank you for saying that, but...how do you know who I am? I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?”
She gave me a dazzling grin that made her emerald green eyes sparkle. “No, we haven’t met, but I was told your description, and you’re also the only woman in this building I’ve never seen before. They also told me about your eyes, so that was a bit of a tipoff as well.” Still grinning, the young woman extended a hand to me. “I’m Dana, and I was just heading over to the cafe to meet you. I’ve been enlisted by the commander’s office to show you around town today.”
I took her hand and shook it. “Oh, I see. Well, it’s really nice to meet you, Dana. I’m Kira…and I’m really happy to be out of my apartment right now. I’ll just say it’s been a long two days in there.”
Dana laughed, and we soon left the building and headed across the street to the café with the green awning. Just a short while later, we were sitting with plates of breakfast and mugs of steaming coffee, chatting away like we were old friends or something. Bright sunlight streaming in through the plate glass windows of the cafe added to my upbeat mood, as did a few friendly waves and hellos from a few other women sitting nearby, who I guessed knew who I was because of my eyes. Apparently, even in a city the size of New Detroit, word traveled fast when it came to happenings within the commander’s tower.
While we ate, Dana told me a little about herself, including the fact that she was married to a were-dragon named Dean, who was a good friend of both Alex and Mason, and also one of the commander’s top men when it came to fighting the Darkwings. Dana also told me that Iverson Towers was a building that was primarily for the commander’s “inner circle” people to live in, and since she and Dean had an apartment there, we were neighbors, though separated by ten floors.
“So, anytime you want to visit me, you’re more than welcome to just come on down.”
Happy to have made my first friend in town, I said I’d love to.
Dana and I continued chatting while we ate, but when the subject turned to Alex and Mason, and how the three of us were “getting along,” as Dana put it, I began to feel decidedly less chatty.
Lowering my gaze to my plate of food, I also lowered my voice a bit so that none of the women nearby could hear me. “Sorry. It’s just that I’m still getting over the shock of pretty much being taken from my home on the commander’s orders, just because of my stupid eyes, and then I kind of had a stupid flip out and was really rude to Alex last night.”
“Rude” probably to say the least.
“So, maybe, if you don’t mind, we can just talk about something else right now instead.”
Dana said no problem, and that she understood completely. “Just know that if you ever do want to talk about anything or everything with Mason and Alex, I’ve got a good set of listening ears, so come to me anytime you want.”
I said I would, then changed the subject by asking if the cafe served crepes. “As long as I'm having eggs, sausage, and buttered toast this morning, I guess I might as well go all out.”
Dana soon flagged down the waitress and ordered chocolate crepes for us both, remarking that despite her very slim figure, she was a fan of “going all out” sometimes, too. “In fact, I actually ‘go all out’ at least a couple times a week. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, and life is short, you know?”
Recognizing a woman after my own heart, I was starting to like Dana more and more.
While we continued eating, I began thinking about the phone call I’d overheard my first day in the city, now knowing that the speaker had to have been either Mason or Alex. I’d always had a “good ear” for recognizing voices, and I knew I wasn’t wrong. It had definitely been one of them that I’d heard talking.
Although part of me felt like I had bigger problems to deal with currently, I hadn’t been able to put that incident out of my mind completely, and I now wondered if I should tell Dana about it and ask for her opinion as to whether or not the whole thing could have just been a joke or something. After all, the person speaking had chuckled a few times, like maybe what he was saying was just for the amusement of the person on the other end of the line.
However, the longer I thought things over, the more I felt like maybe I didn’t quite know Dana well enough to give her the full story. Maybe it was just that I didn’t know if I could trust her to keep it a secret. I also didn’t want to “out” myself for eavesdropping either, not like I’d really had a choice in the matter, being that I hadn’t been able to leave the commander’s little office.
Ultimately, I decided to ask Dana a very general sort of question, hoping that her response might at least shed some light on what I’d overheard.
“So…Alex and Mason maybe aren’t the closest of brothers, right?”
Without even looking up from her food, Dana nodded. “Oh, yeah. They work well together as far as fighting off the Darkwings and all that, but I know just from things Dean has told me that they’ve always had a sibling rivalry thing going on beneath the surface. Probably not hugely surprising, considering what family they come from.”
“So…do you think they’d ever try to hurt each other or anything like that? I mean…do you think one would ever try to take the other out?”
Dana suddenly stopped cutting off a bite of her chocolate crepe with a fork and slowly looked up at me, frowning. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, and it’s really none of my business, but it sounds to me like you, Alex, and Mason might really need to get to know each other a little better, because it’s clear to me that you really don’t know either of them at all at this point. They may have a sibling rivalry thing going, and they may be really different as far as personality…but they’re both really good men. They’re both men of honor. They’d never try to hurt each other. In fact, I think this is why the commander decided to put stock in his mother’s prophecy and bring you here as a way to take the decision of picking a successor out of his hands. I think that Alex and Mason are both just such good men that he knows he’d never be able to pick who’s most worthy. Sounds like you have a way to go before you’ll be able to do that yourself.”
Instantly mortified by Dana’s vaguely accusatory tone, I picked up my fork and began cutting at my crepe, avoiding Dana’s eyes. “Oh, you’re right. I already know. I really need to get to know Mason and Alex better before I even think about making a choice about who should be the new commander. That was just a silly hypothetical question I asked you, by the way. I didn’t mean to imply that Alex and Mason would actually hurt each other or anything like that. I guess I’m just trying to find out more about them in general.”
“Well, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, and again, it’s really none of my business, but you might want to start asking more questions of Alex and Mason themselves, because it sounds like maybe the three of you aren’t very comfortable as far as communication goes yet. I know it’ll take time, but just know that they’re both really good men, and good leaders, and they’ll answer any other questions you have with complete honestly. And if Alex strikes you as a little too stern, because I know he can come off that way a lot, don’t be surprised. I'm sure you’ve already discovered this, but Mason is a little more laid-back as far as personality. He’s just a little quicker to laugh, I guess you could say. Honestly, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard Alex laugh even once. He’s just kind of serious a pretty good part of the time. At any rate, though, maybe do really try to open up to both brothers, even if you’re a little hesitant. You’re going to have to eventually in order to pick one of them as the new leader.”
I put my fork down, suddenly unable to eat another single bite of my crepe, but not necessarily because I was getting full. As if I hadn’t had my mind rattled enough the night before, I now was beginning to feel the full pressure of what I had been brought to New Detroit to do. Essentially, the entire nation’s future was in my hands. That’s what it felt like at present, anyway, and this was even without the added pressure of eventually figuring out who I’d overheard on the phone.
I was sick of thinking. Seeming to sense this, Dana soon changed the subject to talking about a new department store that was opening downtown, and I was grateful. I really needed a mental break and more light chatter.
To my relief, that was what I got for the whole rest of the day. Dana and I strolled around the city for a few hours, visited several shops and stores, and then enjoyed a late lunch at a small restaurant. Then, we headed back to our building so that I could see Dana’s apartment and have a cup of tea before going back to my own.
When I left her apartment around five, I was near-desperate to see Alex and Mason, knowing that Dana was right. I needed to talk to them more, needed to spend more time with them. I figured this alone would probably eventually make it clear to me who I’d overheard on the phone. As it was, I was beginning to think it was Mason, just because of his propensity to joke around a lot.
To my disappointment, not long after I’d gotten home to my own apartment, I received a text from Dana. Just heard from Dean, and I don’t think you’re going to be seeing Mason and Alex this evening. There’s some kind of a Darkwing problem- something with more spies. Dozens of them. They’re supposedly miles to the west of the city, hiding in the forestland in their wolf forms. Something just tells me our were-dragons are going to be busy all night trying to deal with them.
She went on to say that Dean had told her there was even a possibility that he wouldn’t be home until the next day.
Which means that Alex and Mason might not be either. You should feel free to call or text them in the meantime, though. Even when patrolling the skies or chasing down Darkwings, all the shifters take breaks sometimes.
I didn't want to call or text Alex and Mason. I just wanted to see them in person.
It turned out that I wouldn’t see either of them for three more days. Not until Alex showed up at my door one evening, asking if he could come in and talk to me. To my extreme surprise, he was alone, with Mason nowhere in sight.