The ride

After about an hour, Juniper came down with a duffle bag. Both Dayton and Kai stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. She nibbled on her lip before she spoke, using the politest tone she could conjure up.

“I... I’m sorry for the way I have behaved. I feel terrified to go to a place where reality is not like how I know it now and where they will think and treat me who knows how. Simply because I drank who knows what, and it saved my life. I am thankful to you both for making that sacrifice so I may live, and I am happy to go with you both, but I feel sad I am leaving my family and would like to ask if you guys would figure something out so that I don’t have to lose my family.”

Both males looked at each other, shocked but pleased. Even Dayton didn’t seem to look at her with hate.

“Sit and eat,” Kai said, motioning towards the chair. She slowly took her seat, waiting for the verdict. She was rewarded with a plate full of food and her phone. “First, you will eat, and then you can call your family.”

“Thank you,” she said as she felt her heart jump in her chest. A phone seemed so deadly right now.

Kai crossed his arms as he settled against the counter to watch as Juniper ate. “We need to come up with an alibi that will allow you to be away for at least two weeks or longer. During that time, you can prove to me that you can be trusted, and I’ll allow you to have contact with your friends and family.

Juniper nodded in agreement. “I want to tell them Derick came by, and we have decided to go to Vegas to sort our shit out.”

It was like Juniper was pushing a button, and Kai’s facial expression contorted as he held back some jealousy.

“And who exactly is Derick?”

“He is an ex with whom I have a history of running away. They won’t be happy, but they won’t expect anything out of the ordinary.” Kai struggled to nod his head in approval. “I also would like to call my friend Anne and have her take care of the animals until my family returns.”

“Very well. Anything else?”

Juniper thought, “What’s the weather like where we are going?”

“Never mind that most of your clothes won’t be appropriate, anyway. I’ll have Stasia take you shopping. Please eat so we can get back and have Barcelona properly looked at.”

“Yeah, and since she is the reason you are alive, it would be rude to make her suffer any more than she already has,” Dayton snarled.

“What? I thought the elixir saved me?”

“Never mind that,” Kai said, giving Dayton a look. “Finish eating.”

She didn’t feel hungry, but she ate anyway. Surprised to see he didn’t just put waffles in the toaster and called it a meal. He made pancakes, bacon, and a side of scrambled eggs. She was oddly impressed.

“Thank you.” She said out of a force of habit and then dug in.

After a few seconds of scuffling food, she swallowed and impatiently turned to Kai. “I’m full. May I call my family now?”

Kai looked quizzically at the plate as if he was her father and she was a finicky eater. She was, but the stress still didn’t give her much appetite.

“You always eat like this?”

“No, I’m sorry… it’s just nerves.”

“What, someone doesn’t like Kai’s cooking?” Stasia spoke as she came in through the back door with a plate and fork in hand, practically licked clean.

“What? No! Everything tastes amazing! I’m… impressed, actually.”

“Impressed? See Kai. You need to cook for the ladies in order to get laid!” Dayton said, bouncing on the opportunity to tease his friend. It was becoming blatantly clear that whatever conversation they had this morning would not gain Jupiter any respect. She immediately choked on the food still in her mouth.

“Go ahead and call your family,” Kai said, ignoring the comments and trying not to be phased by it. However, the slight glance he shared with Juniper said otherwise. Juniper went to take the phone and went to the living room.

She looked at her phone and saw that they had been busy sending messages on her phone already. First, she texted her friend to see if she could take care of the place while she was away. Then, she quickly dialed the phone number for her sister —too scared to confront her mom and definitely not her dad. Her sister picked up on two rings.

“Juniper, now you finally call! Studly and I are killing these finals!” Her sister’s cheery voice rang through the phone.

“That’s great, Kels! I’m so happy for you… Hey, look. I actually called to tell you something happened last night.” She quickly turned to see Kai coming into the living room with her. She was sure he was listening from the other room. It wouldn’t be a shock if he showed face just to say don’t fuck with my trust. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is fine… it’s just Derick showed up.” She wanted so badly to say that everything wasn’t okay.

“Are you shitting me?” Like all good sisters who have a sister go through a terrible breakup, she roared through the phone, believing they both were on the same page about Derick. They both were, but she had a lie she had to tell her sister.

“Hey! It’s okay! Actually, it’s even great. We are actually going to get out of town for a bit. We got to sort some shit out.”

“Junes...”

“I’m going to have the girls take care of the animals, and I’m going to be back… I just… I just have to do this.” She had to breathe to push the tears back.

“Are you sure about this, Junes?”

“Yeah, please cover for me with mom and dad. Tell them… I love them.”

“Yeah, okay, Junes, please take care of yourself.”

“Will do. love you.”

“Love you too, and you better fucking come back!”

Juniper laughed and let the lie run through her teeth. “I will,” and prayed it wouldn’t be much of a lie. She ended the call and turned to Kai; her new what? Guardian of her life?

According to him, it was no longer her or her family’s job. He took it; it’s his now. Tears piled in her eyes as he looked into hers. She would find a way to be free again. Kai reached out his hand to take the phone from her. Then replaced her empty hand with a heavy cloth neatly folded.

“For the ride,” he explained, and she unfolded the cloth to reveal it was a cloak. He watched her put it on.

“You ready?” he asked, his eyes hazy with desire.

Juniper let out a sigh and nodded her head. “Yeah.”

“Come.”

She stopped at the back porch, not knowing what to expect. She guessed they would get there by a dragon. She felt even more nervous as the flashbacks of her almost dying returned to her.

Kai touched the small of her back and urged her forward.

Stasia was tending to the one named Barcelona. The dragon still seemed terribly ill, but not nearly as bad as this morning when she was lying outside looking dead.

Kai guided her past Barcelona, and Juniper jumped as the red beast practically hissed at her. All three dragons got fussy as she approached, similar to how a group of horses would. She studied them in awe.

“Make sure she gets there safe. Let it be known she’s under my protection by law.” Kai spoke to Dayton, who was already on top of his dragon—the last person she wanted to ride with. Knowing how he felt about her, he’d probably throw her off and say she ran away.

She didn’t even realize she was clinging to Kai’s arm. He spoke softly in her ear, causing her spine to tingle. “Don’t be scared. I’ll be right behind you. When we arrive, I’ll only leave you alone with Dayton for a short while. Dayton will protect you with his life, and you are under my protection from now on. You have my word. Nothing will happen to you.”

Juniper nodded as she took Dayton’s hand, and he helped her up on the giant black beast. Of course, his dragon would be black. It matched his personality. She felt like her personal boundaries were being crossed as he sat behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“I can sit behind.”

“Not on your first ride. I don’t need you falling off and having Kai have my ass for it. Just focus on not passing out and hold on, will you?”

Juniper wanted to scoff at his remarks, but she didn’t feel like she was far from passing out, and if anyone knew how scared she was, it would be Dayton, given his hands were currently burning holes in her skin. She placed her hands on the black, scaley skin and was shocked; it felt like soft leather.

Juniper looked up from the dragon to see Stasia was already on the blue dragon and watched as Kai climbed onto Barcelona and gave the head nod to take off.

The ride started bumpily. The flap of the wings made the movement not nearly as graceful as expected. The force of the wind came down on her, and she felt like she was going to be pushed off. With nothing to hold, she just ground her teeth.

“Hold on,” Dayton said close to her ear as he pushed her into a secure place.

They rose higher and higher faster than the speed of a plane. The ride seemed to settle once up in the air, which Juniper was thankful for; she wasn’t sure how long she could have taken it.

“There, that wasn’t so bad!” only a few hours before we reach our destination now.” Juniper let out a squeal as she looked down below. The city glistened. They were as high as an airplane. Then her surroundings turned a misty white as they soared through a cloud.

“Where are we going?”

“Mexico.”

“Why there?”

“You will see.”

Juniper sighed and focused on the scenery and the unimaginably beautiful dragons soaring in the sky.