Obsidian

The instant he focused his attention on her, it became obvious something was wrong. Hollie’s body language was radiating fear, nervousness, and a strong undercurrent of anger. He reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but at the last second held back. No, this would not be the proper course of action. He needed to wait this out, to let her bring whatever it was that was affecting her under control.

While he did that, Sid thought back to his last words, thinking if he’d said something that might have affected her. His comment about living through the previous five hundred years could have done it.

“Hollie,” he said at last. “Now is a really, really bad time to have a breakdown over the fact that I’m a dragon shifter.”

That got a reaction. “God you’re such an egotistical prick, you know that?”

He smiled, knowing that she couldn’t see it with her eyes focused forward.

“I’m not freaking out about you. I think I’ve somehow just managed to accept that particular fact. Probably because it’s freaking awesome.” She finally looked up at him. “Or at least it would be if you weren’t always threatening to kill everyone. That part keeps me worried. But being able to change into a dragon? Cool! Sign me up.”

He blinked as she suddenly sighed and shook her head. “No, that’s not my issue. That’s my issue.” Her head jerked up the road.

Obsidian followed their path, until he spied several men lounging near one of the moveable metal contraptions. The…he struggled with the word for a moment, automobile! A smaller one, not like the one he had ridden in. Lower to the ground with four doors, it was painted a rather shimmery red color.

“What is wrong with them?” he asked, wondering if he should prepare to be attacked.

“See the one pretending he’s hot shit? The dick with the manbun?”

“The…I’m sorry, what?”

Hollie inhaled heavily. “With his hair all tied up on the top of his head, looking like an idiot?”

“Uh, yep,” he said, the hand hidden by his body from him reaching self-consciously up to his long hair. Does she think the same thing about me and my hair?

Sid found himself hoping that she wasn’t judging him the same way. The amount of hatred that was pouring off her and dripping from her voice wasn’t an emotion he wanted to evoke in her. Frustrate and tease her? Acceptable. Bring her to true anger? No.

“Well, I used to date him.”

“I see.”

Hollie glanced up at him, but didn’t hold it for long before looking back forward again.

“You are wishing to return to your former lover?” he asked at last.

This caused Hollie to burst out into laughter. The noise was so loud and explosive it startled him into moving back several steps, giving her room. To his shock tears started streaming down her face as she held her sides. It took him several heartbeats to realize she was laughing so hard she was crying.

“Go back to that abusive asshole?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and tight as she fought back sobs of laughter. “Fuck no. It took me too long to leave his manipulative ass as it was. I’ll never go back. But every time I see him I seize up, because I remember the power he had over me.”

But Obsidian barely heard a word that she was saying. By this point his anger had gone from simmering coals to a raging inferno, red tinting the edges of his vision as he stared at the leader. Hollie’s laughter had gotten his attention, and the trio of men were now standing facing him as the one she mentioned eyed him up and down, obviously judging whether he’d be a threat in a fight or not.

“Did he hit you?” he ground out, the words sounding like rocks grinding against each other as he spoke.

“Sid?” Hollie asked, her voice sounding faint.

“Did he hit you?”

“Look, you don’t need to do—”

That meant yes.

“Sid, please don’t do anything.”

“My name is Obsidian,” he thundered, striding forward. A distant part of his mind felt Hollie try to grab his wrist, but she couldn’t slow him down any more than an air compressor could stop a landslide. He was an unstoppable force.

“You should go away,” one of the trio said as he came closer.

Obsidian was suddenly reminded of something he’d read while researching the night before.

“This your car?” he snarled, jabbing a finger at the red vehicle, his eyes focused on the leader.

“So what if it is?” he sneered defiantly, his facial hair twisting along with his skin.

Obsidian turned to one of the others. “So it’s your car then.”

“No, mine is the blue one, you dickturd,” the smaller man with sunglasses spat, indicating the car closer to Obsidian, directly behind the red one.

He challenged the final member of the trio. “And let me guess, you take the bus?”

This one seemed to be looking warily at Obsidian, as if aware that they might be making a mistake by challenging him. But in the end strength in numbers won him over and he smiled evilly.

“Sure.”

It was a lie. Everyone knew it, but Obsidian had a feeling the man would talk. He just needed the right frame of mind, the right push, to open his mouth.

“Hi Hollie!” the leader called, brown eyes leering passed Obsidian. “Found yourself a new man did you?”

“I wouldn’t do this if I were you, Doug. Obsidian is…well, let’s just say that as much as I hate you, I actually hope that you don’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“Anything besides walk away,” Hollie replied from over his shoulder. “Please, Doug. Just go. Get in your cars and leave. For once in your life. I hate your fucking guts, but I’m not sure he won’t kill you.”

Doug the Douchebag—as Obsidian promptly labeled him—actually seemed to consider her words for a moment.

“Nah,” he said at last with a shrug. “I think we’ll just beat his ass, and then you can come with me for a ride. It’ll be like old times. Whaddya say?”

“Wrong answer,” Hollie whispered.

“Hi, my name is Obsidian,” he said, stepping closer to Doug. “Now apologize to Hollie for treating her like shit.”

Doug laughed. “Dude, that was ten years ago. Get over yourself.”

“Did you apologize then?” he asked, injecting false lightness into his voice.

“No,” Hollie muttered from behind him.

“Apologize for what? Giving her the best sex she’s ever had?”

“Oh Doug, you poor misguided fool,” Hollie sighed.

Obsidian went ballistic. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best move to have made, but the continual insults to Hollie’s person were more than he could handle. He reached out to the man closest to the street and with a casual backhand knocked him into the other two, sending them all tumbling to the ground.

Then he walked casually out into the street, disregarding the other cars driving by. He stood looking at Doug’s red car from the side. The lines were much sharper than some of the other cars he could see. It was clean, indicating a great deal of care. Perhaps it was an expensive one. That would be just perfect.

“Hey, get away from my car!” Doug shouted as he stepped forward, crouching down between the two wheels.

With a soft grunt of effort Obsidian flipped the car onto its side. Then he reached out and grabbed two metal beams on the underside that seemed to be thicker than others. Metal screeched and sparks flew as he dragged the car out onto the road and lined it up with the blue one owned by Sunglasses. Then with a larger grunt he lifted the car up and slammed it upside down onto the blue one.

Glass shattered, metal crunched, and all three men came flying at Obsidian at once.

“Seriously?” he asked. “I just flipped your car over by myself, and you still think you can attack me?”

“They’ll have guns!” Hollie shouted.

“Okay,” he replied, forgetting for a moment what she meant by that.

A loud blast sounded in the street and his left shoulder spun backward under an impact. Hollie screamed, and another blast hit him in the middle of the chest. More screaming.

Obsidian looked down at his shoulder, seeing the metallic bronze scales that had appeared there already retreating back into his skin. He smiled and rose to his feet, even as another blast from the black object Doug held in his hand ripped into his face, opening a cut along his cheekbone. He snarled in pain. His defenses could handle any one blow, but the more times they were called up, the weaker they got. He needed to stop this, and now. Otherwise someone else was going to get hurt.

“Put that away,” he growled, darting to the side faster than Doug could react. The next shot went wide, and the sound of glass breaking across the street could be heard.

“Doug, you’re going to kill someone!” Hollie was screaming.

But Obsidian had closed the distance. His hand wrapped around Doug’s, wrenching it until the black object was pointed into the sky. Something broke in his wrist and Doug the Douchebag started screaming shrilly.

“Doug, you sound like a little girl,” Obsidian said nastily, then he slammed his other fist forward, knocking the air from his lungs. Taking the black object, the gun, he tossed it to Hollie. “Don’t hurt anyone,” he rumbled.

“Freeze.”

He looked up to see the other two men both pointing weapons. For a moment he wanted to laugh, since they weren’t pointed at him, but as his brain started to reengage after the fury of his initial feelings faded, he tracked the trajectory of the guns.

They were aimed at Hollie.

“Point those at me,” he snarled, “or I will kill you both.”

One of them sneered. In a flash of movement too quick for anyone to follow, Obsidian reached down, grabbed Doug by the neck, and hurled his body at the pair of men. Bones cracked and they all went down in a heap.

“Holy shit, Sid!” Hollie yelped as she came up next to him.

One of the men groaned.

“They’re alive,” she said in surprise.

“Damn,” he cursed. “Missed.”

They lifted the guns from the trio, and other than Doug’s wrist, one of Sunglasses’ arms, and a few hands that accidentally found their way under Sid’s feet, there were no permanent injuries.

That done, he hauled the bodies off the main street and dumped them into the alley at the side of the building they had been lounging in front of. Hollie assured him that most of the residents of the neighborhood knew them and disliked them. Nobody was likely to report them to the police.

“Don’t think this is over,” Hollie told him as they exited the immediate area and continued on their journey after he had used his strength to render the guns useless.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “I didn’t kill anyone, and I avoided any bystanders getting hurt as well. The only thing that happened was the window of the convenience store across the street got hit by a bullet. How am I in trouble for that? I could have leveled the entire block for the way they treated you. But you want me to practice restraint. So I did.”

She licked her lips several times, shaking her head as she clearly fought to form words. “Restraint, is it? That’s the word you’re going with?”

“Yup.” He thrust his chin out defiantly.

“And picking a car up and slamming it down onto the other one? Was that restraint too?”

“It was,” he agreed.

“And why is that?”

“Because I stopped at two.”

It was then that Hollie picked up on the fact he was teasing her.

“Stop that,” she hissed.

“No.” His voice was stern and unyielding. “They insulted your honor and your womanhood. I cannot, and will not, allow that to pass. I accept that the world is different, and I’ll work to fit in, but do not ask this of me, Hollie-Annabelle. I will fight to restore your honor any time it is sullied.”

She fell silent, but he could practically hear her mind as it worked, analyzing his words over and over again. “You’re still in trouble,” she said after they’d walked another two blocks.

“What for now?” he asked, feeling defeated. He’d tried so hard to be good, to impress her with his ability to deal with the dickless wonder back there without killing him.

“You told Doug he sounds like a little girl.”

Sid shrugged. “So? He did. He was screaming like one just because I broke his wrist.”

Hollie’s finger came up like a rocket, stopping just short of his face. “You can’t say that,” she snapped. “It’s not right. There is nothing wrong with being a girl, big or little. None at all. It is not something to be used as an insult, got it?”

“Uhhh…”

Her eyes tightened. “The correct answer is ‘Yes, Hollie, I understand, I will not make fun of women or use them as insults. I respect women and am all right with the fact that in this day and age women are regarded as the same as men, and are given equal rights.’ Got it?” Her voice was deadly calm.

This time Sid did the smart thing. He stopped and thought things through before he spoke. “No, I do not understand,” he said at last. “I will stop making fun of women, and I have always respected them. But I don’t understand.”

“We’ll have a lesson in feminism later,” she told him. “Suffice to say, women are no longer the property of men. We are our own persons now. We can vote, we can work jobs, own property. All of this is now acceptable and normal.”

“Ah. I understand that,” he told her.

“I doubt you understand all the implications,” she muttered. “But it’s a start.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but she spoke again before he could.

“We’re here.”

Sid looked up as they stopped in front of a building on their right. It was set back from the street, a tall metal fence surrounding the property. Green lawns, well-manicured and watered surrounded the property, with several fountains dotting the landscape as well. People moved around it, some sitting on the numerous benches, others walking through the paths from one side to the other. On the far side several of the taller buildings he’d seen stretched into the sky, higher than any castle he’d ever seen.

“Those are some tall structures,” he remarked, pointing past the white and gray building that Hollie had indicated.

“Those?” she said with a shrug. “I suppose. They’re only fifteen or so stories tall. If you go to a big city, you can get them ten times that height, or more in some places.”

His eyebrows rose. “No way.”

“Way,” she said with a little smile, grabbing his hand and pulling him along. “Come on now, Scales, let’s go get you a mountain.”

“You’re going to help?” he asked in disbelief.

“How the hell would I do that?” she asked. “I’m just here to see how you try and prove your case, as well as make sure you don’t kill anyone.”

“You couldn’t stop me,” he shot back.

“How many people have you killed since I’ve been with you?” she countered.

Sid was still searching for an answer when they got to the front door. He recovered and reached for the handle, but she batted his hand away.

“Feminism lesson 101,” she stated. “It’s okay to hold the door for a woman if you’re the first one there. That’s called being polite. But you do not try and usurp her. I am not made of fucking glass. I can hold the damn door open by myself for you. I promise, you will not suffer any embarrassment or loss of honor if you walk through,” she snapped when he hesitated.

Sid swallowed. This world was crazy. So much had changed. Would he ever catch up and feel like he belonged? His eyes were drawn to the unusual woman holding the door for him. Everything about her was different. She wore…well, whatever that brown thing was, and her hair was so short, and cut weird. So how come he’d been stealing glances at her every chance he could? Was it the brown eyes that sparkled every time he looked into them? Or the way her little button nose crinkled while she was thinking something over.

Or was it the way her hand had felt in his just moments ago, small and dainty in size, and yet full of a confidence he’d rarely felt in a woman before. This Hollie-Annabelle was something else, that was for certain. She had zest and a fire for life that he wasn’t sure anyone could replicate, and she wasn’t afraid of him. No matter what he did, she seemed to get over it, and stuck with him.

A thought occurred to him that made him smile.

“What’s so funny?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” This wasn’t something he was ready to share with her yet. Hollie wasn’t ready to hear the conclusion he’d reached. Not yet. Something like that would probably scare her away if he admitted it to her now. But Obsidian was absolutely positive about one thing.

This feisty woman with the sharp tongue and soft curves was undoubtedly his mate. He had been asleep for a long time, but fate had awoken him now. It was obvious in hindsight; he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it earlier. Of all the people that had been in the tunnel when his slumber had been disturbed, only she had remained behind. The rest had all fled. Instead of trying to distance herself from him the first, second, or tenth chance she got, Hollie had stayed by his side. No, there was a connection there, and now that he acknowledged it, he could see it burning brightly. All he had left to do was convince her of it.

Somehow he suspected that Hollie wouldn’t take kindly to knowing that fate had decided who she was to spend the rest of her life with. She struck him as the type that liked to make her own decisions. So, how was he going to make her fall in love with him, while ensuring she felt like it was her own decision?

He snorted. No, making Hollie fall in love with anyone was just a bad idea. He couldn’t make her do anything. Which meant he was going to have to hope it happened naturally, while doing anything he could to help the process along. Which started with adapting better to the times. First though, he would show her that he could be powerful with his words, and get this mayor to acknowledge the mountain was his, without resorting to threats.

Feeling proud of himself, he walked through the door, holding the second, interior one for Hollie, who smiled and thanked him before walking inside. He grinned, proud of himself for figuring out some of the newfangled social customs. Which is why he ran right into her back, because she’d stopped abruptly.

“Well shit,” Hollie cursed softly. “That explains so much.”

“What does?” he asked, confused. The interior was empty.

“It’s Saturday,” she said, shaking her head and laughing, as if that were an amusing fact.