Chapter Eleven
Betsy stared up at the dome of the observatory, marveling at clear, cool sky above. The roof had been pulled back on the dome to allow the telescope to scan the skies.
“It’s not a big scope, but she’s all we got and we use her the best we can.”
Niko and Betsy turned to find an extremely handsome, well-built, tall gentleman round the corner and walk into the observation area. He smiled and walked right over to Niko, hand out. “Nikomedes, good to see you.”
Niko’s smile was wide and genuine. “Doctor Czerkenowicz. Nice to see you too.”
The doctor pulled his hand back. “No, what did I tell you last time?”
Niko quirked an eyebrow. “Max.”
Nodding, he offered the hand again. “Very good, thank you. I’m not your teacher anymore.” The handsome man turned and smiled at her. “And this is?”
“Betsy Tillman.” The sound of her name off his lips made her smile.
“Well, Betsy. Nice to meet you. You’re not from the Valley, are you?”
She shook her head. “Just moved here.”
“Welcome.” Turning, he gestured up grandly. “Welcome to Stellingwerf University, and our prized possession, or I like to think that way at least, the seventy-inch-wide field projector telescope.” He turned and rubbed his hands together. “You’re here on a perfect night. Cool, clear, and wonderfully productive. Please do not touch the machinery. I have the scope tracking a few stars tonight to see if the blur on my frames was a comment or a fingerprint.” He huffed. “I caught a goddamn undergrad scaling ol’ Winnie the other day. Completely fucked my calibration, and I nearly bit his head off.”
Betsy raised an eyebrow. “Literally?”
“Oh, of course not! Standing rule that anyone who’s not magical shouldn’t know—” Max spun around and stared at her. “Son of a bitch!”
But Betsy was laughing and at Max’s declaration, Niko also started laughing. He looked between the two of them. “You set me up, didn’t you? Please tell me she already knew and I didn’t give away a huge secret?”
It took Niko and Betsy a long few moments to collect themselves enough to answer him. Niko slapped him on the back. “No, Max. She knows. She knows what I am, and apparently what you are as well.”
“Does she know the level of secrecy that goes with this?”
Betsy looked at Niko. “Well, level of secrecy meaning what? That I would like to stay out of the nuthouse? That would be agreeable. I don’t know how many people would really believe me if I declared that I was dating a dragon.”
Max laughed. “This is very true.” As he turned back to his telescope, he kept going and made it full circle. “I’m sorry, you said dating?”
Niko clearly blushed. “Yes. We’re dating.”
Max clapped him on the shoulder. “’Bout time, Niko. About time. Good job.”
This time, Max actually did go back to his telescope and typed in a few commands. “I’m really hoping this damn thing isn’t a fingerprint. I’d like to find a comet. At least I could then justify what the university pays me. Betsy, what do you do for a living?”
Betsy cleared her throat. “I’m… a drifter, really. I’m going to be working at Krieg’s market starting on Monday. Someone was nice enough to recommend me.”
“Krieg’s…” Max nodded somewhat absentmindedly. “That’ll be good. Since you know about the town’s secret it’ll be easier. Did they let Krieg know that you know?”
“Yes,” Betsy answered. It was actually a hilarious part of the interview, because the manager, a warlock, spent a good five minutes dancing around the question. He spend most of it hinting that he was going to ask her, then another few minutes trying to figure out how to ask her. And finally, Betsy opted to just put him out of his misery and tell him that she knew all about the nature of the Old Towne, and left it at that. He was hugely relieved.
“Good, good.” Max was mostly absorbed in what he was looking at. “I don’t think that you’ll have too much trouble fitting in here.”
“I’m already finding that to be true.”
“Good, good,” Max repeated. He hit the spacebar on the computer a few times and then whooped. “That should do it.” Stepping back. “I’ll give you control of the scope, if you promise that when it kicks into auto, you let it run.”
“Max, you know I never learned how to shut off the auto. It’s why I nearly failed your classes. I screwed up my own final project and nearly screwed two other students.”
A smirk lit his face. “You’re right. I do remember that. Would you prefer that I show the young lady around the universe tonight?”
“I would appreciate that.”
Niko leaned down to her ear and whispered, “I’ll show you my own personal universe later.”
The blush crept over her cheeks as his words reminded her of the decadently indecent dream she’d had of them together in the lake again.
Max moved the telescope slow through the sky to new coordinates. “Winnie is my baby. She’s an amazing piece of equipment and we’re lucky enough to be far enough away from the cities and the town lights that we get magnificent viewing out here.”
Betsy couldn’t stop her question. “What kind of shifter are you?”
“Bets, that’s actually a rude question,” Niko said. “You don’t know that someone is or isn’t a shifter and if they aren’t…”
“But I knew he was... he didn’t feel like the other guy in the store yesterday.”
Max and Niko raised their eyebrows. “You know if someone is a shifter?” Max asked.
“Well, now that I know there’s such thing as a shifter, yeah.” She glanced back and forth between them. “I mean, I always knew there was something different about people, I just never attributed it to magic. Okay, so you to feel like there are two people in one body. It’s freaky, but I understand it. The girl at the dinner, Keni, feels like she extends beyond her physical body. If I were to harbor a guess, I’d guess she was a witch or something. And then there was Mister Krieg. He felt like he wasn’t human at all.”
She watched the two of them exchange surprised glances, and Max cocked his head.
“You’re dead-on. I am a shifter. One of the other dragons, in fact. Keni is a sorcerer, but don’t tell her we told you. And Norman Krieg is a fae. He’s not human.”
“And you’ve always been able to tell these?” Niko’s voice was calm, but curious.
Betsy shrugged. “Yeah. I guess. I mean, always classified people in my head. Two-for-one, More-than-wysiwyg, Not-human and human.”
Niko studied her. “You have none of your own magic?”
“No. None.”
Max offered a hand. “May I?”
“What?” She was confused.
“There are few people in the world without magic who can sense it. You may well have magic you don’t know about. I’m only half dragon shifter. My other half is witch, and I will be able to tell you if you’ve got hidden talents.”
She pulled herself back. “What if I don’t? Is there…”
“There is nothing wrong with not having magic,” Niko said. “I’m half dragon as well. It’s not a problem.”
“If you have no magic inherent, then you are a divining rod. It’s fine.” Max held his hand out again.
Betsy still hesitated. Her life was changing too fast. Between not wanting to be anywhere near Wyatt, finding out she had any kind of magic—or a bizarre non-magic—it was getting to be too much.
If she took his hand, she could kiss another life goodbye. She had always known there were people out there who were different. She had no powers, no special abilities, but she could always feel the differences. To have someone else tell her that she was actually different, that she had this weird ability, was to make it too real. It would tear her away from the life she and Wyatt had been building toward.
It was also the easiest way out of the life she didn’t want with him anymore.
Carefully, Betsy placed her hand in Max’s and he gave her a blinding smile.
“Just relax, Betsy. This doesn’t hurt at all.”
It did, however, tingle like hell. It made her giggle a bit and squirm. She felt Max’s search flitter up and down, and around. It was a strange, otherworldly sensation that tripped through her, and felt Max withdraw a moment later.
His expression was unreadable, and he stared at her for a moment. Finally breaking his own trance, he pursed his lips. “You are… interesting. I can’t make out what exactly you are.”
“What do you mean? You can’t tell what she is?”
“No. There’s definitely magic, but I’m not quite sure what to make of it.” Max looked at Betsy and smiled. “It’s not something to worry about. If the magic hasn’t manifested as anything more than a tingle, I doubt there’s much magic to be learned.”
“Where would magic like this have come from?” Betsy was actually a little concerned.
“You could have been a mutation, or you could have it inherited it from way back. Your magic isn’t strong enough to be any kind of concern, Betsy. Don’t sweat it.”
But she did. She didn’t have contact with her family. Was there something she needed to know? And now that it had been named and she knew what the weirdness was she had always felt, she was frightened.
“Bets, relax.” Niko’s voice was calming. “If you haven’t turned anyone into a frog by now, you aren’t going to. Magic is always fully manifested by the time you’re twenty. Unless you’re a kitsune, and… I have it on good authority you lack fur and whiskers.”
“Kit what-y?”
Max laughed. “Kitsune. Japanese demigods. They are foxes until they are fifty years old. Then they assume human form at will.”
“Definitely not a demigod,” Betsy said, blinking a few times.
“Good. Let’s let Max show us around the galactic neighborhood.” The smile on Niko’s face was sweet and kind, and Betsy relaxed a bit. He put his arm around her as Max moved the telescope through the sky.
Max spoke as the instrument twirled and whirled above them. “Stellingwerf University’s telescope, that I affectionately call Tilly, is not particularly high-powered or have a broad field. But it’s a very good scope for a few reasons. Pine Valley is a goodly distance from major cities, decreasing the light pollution. There is almost nowhere free of it anymore, save the South Pole. So we do well here.
“Tilly was also built with an integrated radio function. The original Mr. Stellingwerf was a huge fan of the night sky, being a Zhu Que himself.”
“Zhu Que?” Betsy shook her head.
Max nodded. “A Vermillion bird, the fire guardian of the south. Stellingwerf was half Dutch, half Chinese. His mother came from a line of Zhu Que. So he was powerful and he loved the night sky. His grandson was the one who decided to buy Tilly for the school. Hell, he was the founder of the university, as his own grandfather.”
“What?”
“Magical people live insanely long lives. Some of us are actually immortal,” Niko said. Betsy turned and looked at him, and he laughed at what had to be a shocked look on her face. “No, I’m really just thirty-five. Max is sixty. But my uncle is nearly seven hundred, and my grandfather was born about twenty years before Christ.”
“Good God.”
“Stellingwerf returned to Pine Valley as his own grandson to make sure that the university was running well.” Max adjusted the scope a little more and smiled at them. “He still shows up once in a while to see what’s shaking.”
He hit a few buttons with a great flourish and the screen next to the computers came into focus. A giant, gorgeous image of Saturn in all its yellow glory took up most of the screen. Betsy gasped and was mesmerized by the giant planet.
“That’s not even the highest power,” Max said. “But there’s no glory in focusing on clouds. I’m not a planetary specialist. I’m looking for comets. That’s not nearly as exciting as filling your screen with a planet, though.”
“Oh, jeez, Max,” Niko groaned. “Really?”
Pointing a finger at him, Max tutted. “You know my ploy, Tavoularis. You were a victim of it at least twice. Don’t give me that. You know that empty space isn’t as much fun as planets.”
“Why don’t you try a nebula once in a while?”
“Why don’t you cram it and let me show off my baby?”
Niko snickered. “See, he’s just trying to lure you over to his side.”
“My hoard is bigger.”
Niko stiffened next to her, but she laughed. “You’re not that threatened by the size of his... hoard, are you?”
Something passed between the two men that froze the air between them. It seemed the cold delayed their speech, and the response was a moment in coming. It was laced with nervous laughter. “No, I’m not.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
Turning away as fast as he could, Max started punching more commands into the computer. The telescope started moving again, and a moment later, a group of stars focused in on the screen.
“Jackass,” Niko grumbled, the tension in the air disappearing.
“Well, you know. She needs to see it.” Max tossed a look over his shoulder, a smirk perched on his face. “This is Draco, the dragon.”
“Ha! As if you wouldn’t show me this.” Her giggle bubbled out and seemed to dissolve the rest of the cold in the room between the men. “That’s great. I didn’t know there was a Draco.”
“Most people only know the zodiac signs in the sky, and Orion. There are so many more once Galileo came up with this.” He patted the scope, and it beeped at him. “Ooh, it’s time for my comet shot!”
Stepping back, the computer let out a series of beeps and pings and the telescope really moved, swinging up and over as the dome they were under spun with it. It was an impressive display of mechanical coordination as it moved into position.
Max spent the next five hours showing them around the universe as the computer occasionally spun them back to the coordinates of the comet he was looking for. It was amazing to see the sky above as she had never been able to see it before. She glanced over at Niko and realized he’d stopped watching Max’s show a while before. There was no way to tell how long he’d been staring at her.
“Can you fly?” Her question was quiet, and she wasn’t even sure she had asked it aloud.
When Niko shook his head, she knew she had. “I can’t fly. I can barely keep myself under control long enough for a shower most times.”
“Really? You can’t fly? Why do you have wings?”
“Mysteries, Betsy. Mysteries. I wish I knew.”
She heard a sad note in his voice and decided it was smart to change the subject. “I’m hungry.”
“You’re hungry?”
“You’ve been here for five hours,” Max interrupted, pointing at the clock. “If you didn’t eat before you got here, I’m shocked he didn’t make a snack of you.”
“He did.” Betsy grinned. She loved the blush that crept up Niko’s skin as Max turned with mouth gaping open. “But I’m still hungry.”
“Zinter’s place is open late, isn’t it?” Niko tried to take the spotlight off their sex life.
“Mister Z is a night owl, you know that.” The astronomer tossed a look at her. “Not literally, of course. He’s actually a satyr. He just likes night better than day.”
“You don’t mind if we split before the last of your pictures, do you?”
“Nah, go ahead. I didn’t think to tell you to bring something to eat. I’ll be here until dawn, and I brought some delicious leftover of my own making. Burnt meatloaf and overcooked fries. You would think that after a hundred and seventy years, I might actually figure out how to cook.”
“You might, but you haven’t because you’re too busy screwing around here, with Tilly.”
“Eh, just go eat. Food. Dinner.” Max waved them away. “You know what I mean. Go away. Let me be a hermit for science.”
“Thank you for the show, Max.” Betsy smiled at him as Niko took her hand. “I never had a private sky show before. “
“Stop by anytime it’s dark and clear. I’ll be here.”
The two of them found their way out of the building and down toward the parking lot. Niko stole a few glimpses of her as he ran his thumb over her knuckles softly. “So, you’re actually hungry, or were you just bored?
Squeezing his hand, Betsy giggled. “No, I’m actually hungry. I haven’t had anything to eat since probably lunch time. I forget to eat once in a while when I’m thinking or working.”
“Zinter is open to two. It’s a truck stop off the main state route just outside of town. Mister Z is a really cool guy and he keeps his stop immaculate. Most of us have grown up break curfew and calling from Z’s place to see if we could get out of grounding.”
“Sounds perfect.
* * *
“So you’re telling me that you actually had the kid in your jaws and ready to snap him in half?”
Niko nodded, spooning some mousse out of the cup. “I mean, honestly, the kid deserves a scare. I’ve heard that from so many people. But since that, I haven’t been allowed in Cedar Creek during the tourist season.”
“Well, I guess that’s the price you pay for sharp teeth and stupid seals.”
Choking a little on the spoon of mouse, he nodded. “His father understood, thank goodness. And thank God my father was there. I don’t know what would have happened if he wasn’t to rein me in.”
“Where are your parents?”
“They’re gone…”
“Gone?”
It was still painful to remember. “They died. Mom from cancer. Dad from a broken heart a few years later.”
Betsy stopped with the spoon in the dish. “Your mom had cancer? I thought…”
“Mom was a human. Dad couldn’t handle life without her. There was nothing they could do. Nothing anyone could do. Magical or medical. It was a glioblastoma, found too late. Earlier, there might have been something. But it was just too late. They gave her three months. She didn’t make six weeks.”
“I’m sorry, Niko. I didn’t mean to…”
“It was eighteen years ago. The loss never goes away. The pain just gets more diffuse.”
She grabbed his hand across the table and light shock went through him. It was the same pleasant shock he got in the water with her. Naturally, his cock reminded him of what also happened at the lake. Forcing his mind away from his libido, he smiled at her. “I still have a lot of family left, though. So while they may be gone, I’m not alone.”
“How much family?” Her eyebrow quirked up.
“Grandmother, grandfather, two aunts, two uncles, their spouses and a gaggle of cousins. Um. Forty something? They all have kids, too. And some of those kids have kids.”
“Wow.” Betsy’s laugh was sweet. “All I have... had was a brother, sister and two cousins. We weren’t close. Mom and her sister didn’t get along very well. My grandfather kept us together when he was alive, but that was a long time ago. I haven’t seen them in years. My brother and I were kind of never really friends.”
Niko smiled at her sadly. “Do you talk to your parents anymore?”
“No, I can’t… I haven’t seen them in three years and it’s better that way.”
His eyes landed on his watch as he ran his thumb over her knuckles. “Oh, holy crap. It’s three in the morning!”
“Is not—oh, my God, it is.”
“Zinter! Why didn’t you tell us to get gone?”
The golden-eyed satyr looked up from his books and cup of coffee. “Because I don’t want to interrupt such a cute get-to-know-you date.”
“I’m not cute,” Niko said.
“Yeah, actually you are.” Betsy had a smirk on her face.
“Ugh. Bets, I have to get you home. I have to open the store at nine tomorrow.”
“Today,” she teased.
He snorted. “Zinter, how much—”
“Gratis, you two.” He laughed. “Just go home. Be careful. I heard the harpies are floating around out there tonight.”
Betsy’s concerned expression made him laugh. “Don’t worry, Bets. The harpies avoid the dragons, since we are very liable to make tasty snacks out of them.”
“Uh…”
“Only threatened,” Zinter said. “They’re annoying little fucks. It’s good to keep them in line with a heated reminder that they aren’t the most threatening in Pine Valley.”
“Are the dragons?” Betsy asked as Niko held out his hand to help her up from the chair.
Both Zinter and Niko chorused the answer. “No.”
Looking between the two of them, Niko hoped she wasn’t going to ask what he knew was the inevitable question.
“Who is?”
Not wanting to answer, Niko hesitated. Zinter shook his head, and he knew he had to answer her. “Humans.”
Betsy didn’t like that answer at all as he took her hand and headed for the door. He waved at Zinter and locked the door behind them.
“Humans?”
“Yes, they are the most dangerous. We keep ourselves secret from the rest of the world because of what they did to witches in the seventeenth century, and earlier. What they’ve always done to vampires and lycans. Can you imagine how some of the people in town would react to a damn dragon in their midst? Humans are slow to accept change. If we were ever to be found out, by the population at large, they’d kill us.”
“But you have magic…”
“We are rare, Betsy.” He held the door of the car open for her and helped her in. Climbing in, he continued after he started the car. “While we are powerful, and magical, we would be overwhelmed. Have you ever seen ants swarming a larger animal? One or two, the animal can overcome them. But when the rest of the ants come out of the nest and swarm, the animal may at first win, but will ultimately fall to the ants. That’s what would happen to our magical community. We would fall to humans. So we hide and show ourselves only when we have to.”
“Despite the fact that you can spit fire, you’re afraid of humans?”
“No, I’m not afraid of humans. I’m kind of fond of them. They make up a vast swath of my business, and I enjoy conversations with them. What I am afraid of is them finding out just how real magic is. Pine Valley keeps its peace because humans are not aware that there is magic among them.”
She was quiet as he drove the car back through the dark of Pine Valley, heading for her apartment in the Georgian Court. This time, she traced her thumb over his hand as the distance passed in silence.
Pulling the car to a stop in front of her building, Betsy took a deep breath.
Niko considered her. “Are you okay? I mean, there’s a lot going on here.”
“No, no, I’m okay. I get it. I mean, I understand.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, yes, it’s fine.” She gave him a small smile. “Just tired.”
“Good. I’ll make sure you get in.” He grinned. “No sex on the first date.”
Betsy laughed. “That’s ironic.”
“Well, I think this was much better. I had a good night.”
Turning her seat, her face was bright with a smile. “It was a wonderful date. May we have another one?”
“I was going to ask.” Popping open the glovebox, he pulled out two tickets. “I have seats to the SU production of You Can’t Take It With You at the Saturday matinee. Can I interest you?”
Eyeballing him, she paused. “Who were those originally for?”
“Me and Sia, but Sia is... preoccupied.”
“Who’s Sia?”
“A witch who runs an apothecary on High street. She’s basically my aunt.”
“She’s not going to be mad that I’m going with you?”
“She can go with Poppy. Poppy is her best friend.”
“All right. As long as I’m not putting anyone out for this.”
“Not at all.” Niko dropped the car into park and climbed out, walking around to the other side to open the door for her. He offered a hand, and she lifted herself out of the car.
“Thank you for such a great night, Niko. I don’t know the last time I had so much fun.”
“I would hope that our little tryst on the rocks was somewhat fun for you?”
“Oh… uh, I should have qualified that with ‘that didn’t involve sex’.”
Niko swept in and pressed his lips against hers. All night, he had wanted to ravish her sweet mouth, and never once had the chance presented itself. It would have been misery itself if not for the fact that he was with her and learning about her the whole time. He’d watched her smile and frown, and grin and laugh. Every moment of it was wonderful. He wasn’t leaving without his kiss.
She willingly opened for him, his tongue warm and welcomed. Her taste was lightness and sweetness as they petted and stroked and twisted around each other, sharing breath and space. Niko wanted to lift her and carry her inside, lay her down and fuck her until the sun lightened the sky again.
He had to open the store in the morning.
Hell was pulling away from her when the kiss had ignited both of them.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“I really don’t want to be a responsible adult right now.” Niko caught his breath.
“Me neither.” The words almost undid his resolve, but she continued. “Not tonight, Niko. As much as I want it. Not tonight. You have to go to the store, and I have my first day of work at Krieg’s this week. It will have to wait.”
“I hate being responsible.”
She nipped his ear. “Me too. But this weekend, Niko. It’s just you and me.”
Nodding, he stepped back behind the door of the car, unsuccessfully trying to hide and tame his hard-on. “This weekend. It’s only one day, right? We just have to get through Friday.”
“Just Friday.” She nodded and headed for the door. “Good night, Nikomedes. Thank you for a great night.”
“Night, Bets.” He watched as she let herself in through the first door. He then waited until she turned on the lamp in her bedroom. He knew which one was hers and grinned secretly that he knew that.
One day, he told himself. Just one day. He could manage.