Caine
In hindsight, he wouldn’t have chosen a graveyard in early evening as the place to go for solitude.
Nobody is going to bother me out here, though.
That might be true, but then again it made for a bit more somber of a mood than he’d intended. Hopping up onto the hand-laid brick wall that wound around the perimeter of the church and its local graveyard, he eyed the nearest gravestone, wondering just who Harold Ajee had been.
Was he a good man? A great man? Or maybe just a nobody who lived alone at the end of the street. The tombstone said he’d died almost a century and a half earlier. It was unlikely that anyone even knew who he was, except perhaps a descendant with an interest in family trees.
Is that the way he was going to go out? Unremembered and unrecognized? It was possible, though he certainly hoped not. And with the extra-long lifespan of a dragon, it would be ages yet before he had to worry about being six feet under.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about other things. His place in the ground would come, but it was his place in the world around him that was currently bothering him. Mainly because he wasn’t sure he had one. Both his brothers did. They had found their mates and were building lives together.
Even now inside the church his youngest brother Cowl and his mate Andria were preparing to get married. Or preparing to practice getting married. A rehearsal, they called it, to ensure that they got it right tomorrow. Apparently getting married required practice. When he’d first heard of the tradition, Caine had teased Cowl relentlessly, asking him if he needed to practice anything else about married life some more first. Andria had replied that no, he was quite good at all other facets. She was a good woman, and he was happy for his little brother.
Caine knew that none of the trio had planned on things working out the way they had. Life had taken an unexpected turn when an avalanche had buried the three of them, trapping them in sleep for nearly six centuries. Upon awakening, they’d been told they were needed to help prepare and fight in a war against beings from another world, possibly even dimension. Saying that it was a lot to take in was an understatement.
He wasn’t adjusting to it well. At first he’d been ready to stay and fight, to do his best to help defend humanity. But as time had moved on, he’d begun to wonder if humanity was worth saving, and whether or not his place was with his brothers. Both of them were going to stay—having established roots with their mates—and ready to do whatever it took to fight the evil Outsiders.
Not Caine. He liked knowing his brothers were happy, and he wanted it to stay that way. Which is why he was likely to move on. The last thing he wanted to do was ruin their lives. Again.
Deep in his thoughts, Caine’s attention wavered and slackened. It was the only way the person skulking through the forest that lined two sides of the church’s property could have come so close without him noticing. His first clue was the scent that reached him. It was woody, perhaps mixed with some leather grain and something more modern that he couldn’t identify, but that definitely struck him as masculine.
He frowned. Had the crime organization from the nearby town of Barton City followed them out to the country church? He and his brothers had had some run-ins with the former head of it, but he thought after the way things had been settled there—namely he and his brothers had killed the shifters who had led it—that everyone had agreed to leave them alone.
But why else would someone be approaching his brother’s church? They didn’t seem to see him, his presence mostly obscured by the huge oak tree just a few feet from him. The sky was cloudy and the moon provided little more than a hint of light. Out in the country that meant the shadows were long and he blended in fairly well.
Cautiously Caine slipped from the wall, crouching low on the outside of the stone barrier as the person approached. They weren’t very stealthy, unused to the forest as dry leaves and twigs crunched underfoot. Whoever it was, they weren’t expecting company. Why would they? Nobody in their normal mind just hung out in a graveyard for fun. It should have been empty this far from the church itself. Only Caine’s dark thoughts had guided him out there.
Waiting for the unknown person to move right up to the wall, Caine slipped around behind them. It had been a long time since he’d had to move in the wild without noise, but old habits returned to him, leading with his toes, slipping anything that might make noise aside as he slowly shifted weight from one foot to the next. Moving like a ghost, he positioned himself between the spy and freedom.
They paused at the wall, looking over it. He heard a sigh, a sad noise that had no attempt to muffle it. He looked the figure over as best he could. They were dressed in black, bulky clothing to ward off the late fall chill. It gave away nothing about the person inside of it, obscuring any body lines that may have been visible.
Five minutes passed without further action, and Caine grew bored. Rising up from his crouch he strode forward, no longer attempting to maintain silence.
“Can I help y—?”
Before he was even finished speaking the person bolted. They didn’t run left or right, as he’d expected and prepared for. Instead the shadowy figure rolled up and over the stone wall, dropping to their feet on the far side. Short legs and arms pumped as they ran for what they perceived to be freedom.
Caine blinked one, then twice. Well, that was unexpected. His lips peeled back, revealing perfect white teeth. The hunt was on.
Taking two strides forward he pushed off the ground, clearing the wall with ease, not even having to slow down. His feet sank deep in the soft loamy grass of the cemetery, and he accelerated forward between the rows of gravestones, silently asking for forgiveness from the occupants as he trampled over their private resting places.
“Halt!” he commanded, but the stranger didn’t listen.
Catching up really wasn’t a challenge. Whoever it was they were short, and running distances was not their forte. After his initial shock wore off and he went in pursuit, Caine needed mere moments to come up behind the runner. Then he started jogging alongside them.
“Where we going?” he asked conversationally, moving in front and jogging backward, trying to get a glimpse at the face draped in so many layers.
“Go.” Huff. “Away.” Puff.
His eyebrows rose. It was a woman underneath everything. Caine was more than intrigued now.
“Can’t do that. Need to know why you were spying on me.”
“Wasn’t.” Breath. “Spying on.” Puff. “You.”
He shrugged, lightly jogging backward still, confident in his strides. They weren’t moving that fast anymore. “You say so, but I was the only person out in the graveyard.
You were spying on me, whether you meant to or not. So, I need to know why.”
“You might.” Huff. Puff. Huff. “Want to stop.”
“That’s what I told you.”
“Okay, enjoy.”
Caine frowned a split second before his leading leg hit the stone wall. He couldn’t stop the momentum of his huge body in time, and tripped, rolled backward over the wall, and landed on his head before flopping down face-first into the wet ground.
“Perfect,” he muttered, looking up and spitting out grass, leaves and other things. “Thanks for the warning!’
“Don’t say I didn’t!”
Whoever it was they had kept running, their voice coming from farther away than expected. Maybe they hadn’t seen him eat shit at least. That would be a small victory.
Getting to his feet he cleared the wall—again—and ran after the woman. He didn’t waste any time showboating now. Instead he quickly caught up and moved in front of her, forcing her to stop.
“Show me your face,” he commanded, his voice angry.
“Why should I?” she snapped back breathlessly, bending over at the waist, resting her hands on her knees as she sucked down lungfuls of air.
“Because I said so,” he snarled, reaching forward and pulling back the hood and scarf that obscured her.
She stood up straight in outrage, revealing her full features to him. Tightened as they were in fury, he was still left awed. A mane of beautiful hair as dark as the midnight sky tumbled down around her shoulders, pooling there and reflecting the few bits of light that there were in its shiny luster. Eyes of a magnificent yellow-golden brown stared at him bitterly, filled with more anger and hatred than something so beautiful should ever contain.
Big, round cheeks and a small little snub nose were perched above a mouth with lips as red as the roses laid upon the graves they stood around. Though she flattened them into a disapproving line as he stared, Caine would never forget the sight of sheer beauty that greeted him.
Nor would he forget the stinging ring in his ears as her open hand connected with his face.
“How dare you touch me!”