Chapter 19
Henry
Maya fell immediately back to sleep and I watched as tears streamed down her face still. Ledger offered me a concerned look and I just shook my head. It hadn’t been crying that had woken us. No, it was the high pitched noise that had come from her throat before turning into sobs. My dragon had practically forced a shift from the panicked noise and now there was no fucking way I’d be falling asleep. With careful movements, I shifted her so she was pressed into Ledger and stood.
Despite not shifting, I was almost 100% positive she was a phoenix. If she wasn’t, I had no idea what she could possibly be. What I needed was to talk to someone who knew more about that lore than I did. I walked into my room and got into the shower, nearly 5am and my day was already starting, no doubt creating a map forward on how busy I’d be.
Not only were we hosting an event here tonight, but the politics behind the dragon council being here were touchy.
Once fully dressed in a suit and walking downstairs, I picked up my phone to call the only person I assume would know anything about this. Croy Lee.
“Henry,” his southern accent drawled, “what can I do for you?”
I had no idea when the man slept because everytime I called him, despite living right here in LA, he was awake. He worked closely as a scholar for the dragon council, but was a wolf shifter who had separated from his own pack.
“Are you available to come over this morning?”
“I’m assuming you aren’t in Washington?”
I chuckled, “you would be right.”
“How does 15 minutes sound?”
“Perfect, be sure to bring everything you have on shifter lore.”
He hung up and I really hadn’t needed to remind him, it was somewhat impossible for him to forget anything because he had the entire files not only in his head, but on his computer. Despite having entertained myself with a stint in medical school, only finally gaining my license once turning eighteen, my real passion had been focusing on the computer system he and I had developed. One that Microsoft and Apple had been trying to buy out for two years now.
By the way, yes, the only reason I was in high school, or pretending to be, was to keep an eye on the twins.I’d been able to complete medical school at a local university in the evenings while still attending high school during the day. I didn’t want to consider what that said about the workload at both Earth realm institutions.
Although, now that Maya was in the picture, I was grateful for the lie about high school.
If Washington was our sanctuary where we could act like humans, this was the limelight. Our estate staff were already prepping for the event outback and the media lined up outside. I couldn’t blame them, we were interesting and Maya had made 5 o’clock news. I smiled, thinking about how stunning she looked walking around this place like her cute little butt owned it. Shedidfor the record, as of this morning our lawyers were adding her to everything.
I must have been lost in my thoughts for a bit because the roar of a Lamborghini had me slipping on sunglasses to step outside. Croy was a large guy and I had no idea why he insisted on such a small fucking car. He flashed the media a wave and walked up the steps, meeting my handshake as we walked back inside to find Marco already dressed and in the living room with the newspaper and coffee. Not unusual for before 8, but then again, I didn’t think he’d been sleeping well lately.
“Croy,” Marco noted, “good to see you.”
“You as well,” Croy drawled, his Alabamian accent thick as he lounged on the couch before slipping out his laptop. I sat in an armchair and tried to figure out a way to ask him to look up phoenix lore. Marco hadn’t asked why he was here, so if I had to guess, he’d assumed.
“So what lore information do you need?”
“What do you know about phoenix lore?” I tried to act relaxed but Croy’s raised eyebrows had me stilling. He put the laptop to the side and leaned forward, grabbing the coffee that had been brought out to him.
“Why the hell do you want to know about them?” He chuckled as my dragon threatened to make a defensive noise.
“Croy,” I offered him a dry look.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Alright, well essentially, phoenixes themselves are a bit different than your average shifter and unique enough that I don’t even need to look this up for you. First, until they reach 18, the only real magic they possess is the ability to regenerate and past 18, they have to be the one to instigate any shift, usually through high emotions or frustration.”
So I was at least accurate about that.
“In terms of dragon lore, phoenixes are said to be the only true mates to dragons.”
“What?” Marco asked, tilting his head.
“Well, you’re species doesn’t have females, right? So any females you do mate with are usually producing shifters that are only part dragon or not at all. Phoenixes can produce pure blood dragon sons, and daughters who are phoenixes.”
Shit.