Chapter 16
“I’ve got a surprise for you today,” Colin told her a few days later.
Despite the connection she had felt they made in previous days, she quickly found him retreating. While he wasn’t going out and partying like he had when she first arrived, he was just steering clear of her. She never knew what she was going to get from him. He was hot and cold, and she did her own retreating, making sure he didn’t drag her down with him. Now, here he was again, all smiles and pleasantries.
“What’s that?” she asked, trying to sound polite, but somewhat disinterested.
“A little trip. You’ll want to put on some jeans and shoes with some grip, plus a good sweater and maybe a raincoat.”
“That’s very specifically non-specific,” she replied.
“Yep. Meet me out front in fifteen minutes,” he told her.
Ashley went to her quarters to change and then walked out the front door to find him waiting by a little red convertible not dissimilar to the one he had rented in New York. It was a gorgeous day, something that didn’t happen often here between rain and cloud cover. He opened the door and she climbed in, enjoying the wind in her hair as they drove along a curvy road that ran along some cliffs. Ashley was able to look out over the sea below them for miles. It was incredible.
Finally, they pulled off onto a road that seemed to lead into the woods, but slowly curved around until it opened back up along an adjacent cliffside. It was secluded here, with nothing in sight but some scattered rock formations and open air.
“We’re here,” he told her, putting the car into park, and shutting off the engine.
“Where is here?”
“Dragon’s point. Well, tourists call it something else, but that is what my parents used to call it. It’s where they and their parents used to come to fly after it got dark. You can sail out above the sea and not risk being seen, so it gives us a chance to spread our wings without fear of discovery.”
“Are you here to fly then?”
“No. Not today, but one day, I might show you. You’ve seen my dragon, but you’ve not seen me in flight. I wish you could experience that. It’s the most breathtaking feeling in the world to be able to soar above the world unaided by machine and see the world below you.”
“I’m sure it is,” she said.
“Come on and let me show you something,” he said.
Ashley followed him closer to the edge and looked over. Her stomach lurched as she saw how far down it was from where they were standing. She could barely comprehend what Colin was saying with the fear she felt at being so close to the edge of such a sheer drop onto sharp rocks.
“Oh, God,” she muttered.
“Far down there, isn’t it? You can’t really see it from here, but there is a cave down there. The only way to get to it is by boat or to shift and fly down.”
“Is there anything in it?”
“Yes. Most people who go in aren’t shifters. They are locals who have learned about it over the years and ventured in from time to time from some of the lesser known beach accesses nearby, but they never go very far in. Past the wide entrance at the front, it gets very narrow and dark. There are a lot of superstitious people here and they fear the unknown, something dragons here have played on for centuries to keep them away from things they shouldn’t see.”
“So, your family isn’t the only one?”
“No. There are others. We are the last of our clan, another reason it is important to my family for me to produce an heir. Otherwise, our family name risks extinction.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
“Anyway, hidden deep in that cave are treasures from many clans, not just ours. It is an unspoken trust that no one bothers another clan’s possessions. They are things that cannot be allowed out in the open, that would cause too many questions about their origins. So, they are kept hidden down there, in one place.”
“You aren’t afraid that someone will ignore the superstition and go further in, find them?”
“No. One advantage of modern conveniences is that we are able to put in security measures to alert one of us if anyone attempts to get too close.”
“And if they do?”
“They will experience some well-placed unpleasantries that will make them believe every old wive’s tale they have ever heard and never step foot near that cave again.”
“You live a strange life,” she said, turning to move away from the edge, which was making her feel dizzy.
Everything happened so fast that she hardly knew what was happening. Her foot slipped, sending her backwards, dangerously close to going over the cliff. She managed to erect herself even as Colin reached out for her, trying to pull her away from it and toward him. She waved him off, frightened, but feeling like she was back on solid ground. However, when she attempted to step forward, her other foot slipped backward, and she went flying over anyway.
“God, Ashley,” she heard Colin cry out and then he was coming over the edge behind her as she went spiraling toward the rocks below.
Had she pulled him over with her was all she had time to wonder before she became petrified. She was going to die in a matter of mere seconds, nothing left behind her but the screams she suddenly became aware were emanating almost involuntarily from her body as she grew closer to the ground. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for impact.
This was it. She had come all the way to Scotland just to die. This was her life, a short lived event that had ended in tragedy as she tried to do better for herself. No doubt, she would have been better off staying in Atlanta and scraping by, at least she would still be alive. She shut her eyes tightly, her stomach lurching as she dropped dangerously through the air toward her death. It was almost laughable what one thought as their death was at hand.
You would think your thoughts would be deep and thoughtful as you waited for your life to end, but instead, you were still just yourself. Her concerns weren’t her legacy but stupid flashes of what would become of her belongings? Would this hurt a lot when she hit the ground or would it be fairly instant? She liked to think that she would maybe hit her head first and be knocked unconscious or death would be immediate. That would be a great deal better than lying broken and bleeding out on the rocks.
Her final thought was of the baby. Would there be pain for the tiny human in her belly? Hopefully, the baby would just go so sleep as her own life force stopped. She hated to think that there would be pain for it. She was dimly aware that she was still screaming as she fell, wondering how her mind could possibly formulate thoughts as she spiraled to her death while completely out of control of her own vocals. She had to be almost to the bottom. She braced herself for impact.
Instead, she found herself jerked back upward, plucked from the air. She opened her eyes, only to see the underside of the large gunmetal colored dragon she had seen in the clinic clutching her in his massive claws. They were moving back upward now, growing nearer to the top until they were above the cliffs and headed slightly in ground. The dragon placed her gently on the ground and then stood back.
She tried to catch her breath and calm down as she watched Colin shift back into his human form, running toward her naked and pulling her up against his chest as he knelt to cradle her head in his arms. She could feel his warmth, unnaturally hot from the metamorphosis. His heart thudded against her ear as he, too, tried to regain his composure. They sat there like that for the longest before even being able to speak again.
“Well, that certainly was an adventure I didn’t expect,” she finally said, trying to create a bit of levity.
“Me either,” he replied softly.
“I think we should maybe go home now,” she told him. “You should get dressed.”
“I should, but I can’t,” he replied.
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t have time to undress. My clothes are shredded all over those rocks below the cliff,” he shrugged.
Ashley looked at him for a moment, trying to digest the fact that they were out in the middle of nowhere and he was completely naked with nothing at all to put on for the drive home. It was almost comical when she thought about it. She had just nearly died on the shores of Scotland and instead, the biggest problem now was his coming off like an exhibitionist on the drive home.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped.
They looked at one another and burst into laughter, which took more than a moment or two to get under control. Finally, they gathered themselves enough to decide they needed to get out of here. Colin helped her to her feet, holding on to her for a moment as she steadied her still shaking legs. Once she seemed to be calm enough to even take a step without panicking, he put his arm around her waist and walked her to the car.
After helping her into her side of the car, he climbed behind the wheel butt naked and started it up. His hands shifted the gear shift into first, as they set out for home with hopes that they didn’t get pulled over. Of course, they hadn’t considered that they were in such a low sports car. It didn’t take long for them to determine that they might still get arrested as they arrived, once again, out on the main highway, where it became obvious that Colin was completely visible to anyone with a vehicle higher up than the small convertible, which was mostly everyone.
Ashley stripped off her jacket and lay it over his lap, pushing the arms under this legs on either side to keep the wind from pulling it free of him. He chuckled as a semi-truck to one side of him honked its horn and gave him a thumbs up.