Dima eyed us warily and then slowly chanted a spell that opened the wall. I held my breath and waited to be attacked by something vicious, but I couldn't have been more surprised.
A baby boy, gold and silver Dragon flew out followed by three smiling female Dragons in human form. The baby was roughly the size of a large ape and was babbling up a storm as it flew with joyous abandon toward Dima.
"Mommy," the baby Dragon squealed. "Me love me mommy!"
It tackled Dima and covered her in wet sloppy baby Dragon kisses. My heart was in my mouth. Her hoard was her child—not jewels and money. She had hidden her child from danger. I now knew why killing her father was so imperative to her. She was going to possibly die in nine months, leaving her precious child without protection.
"This is what I would die for," she said as she stared hard at Dwayne, Hank and myself. "My own father killed my child's father. Now I am going to end the murderous bastard's life."
"I get it," I said as I reached out to touch the baby Dragon.
"Daniel, shift, my love. Shift back for Mommy and meet her friends," Dima said in a voice so filled with love I felt like I was watching something I shouldn't.
The baby Dragon shimmered as he went from Dragon form to the human body of a beautiful four-year-old boy. He was shyer in his human body. He ran behind his mother and peeked out.
"Heather, Kathleen and Melissa, these are my new friends. Meet Essie, Hank and Dwayne," Dima said as she introduced us to the women who were clearly looking after her child. "Dwayne is the owner of the house and our unintentional host."
"I am now your intentional host and I insist you not hide this child and his caretakers in a small room under a tunnel. You will have the run of the house, but you are probably safer staying in the dungeon area until you have dealt with your father," Dwayne told them.
The three caregivers bowed to him while Dima gave him a grateful nod.
"You are Wampyre," Daniel said as he pointed at Dwayne with a huge toothless grin.
"Yes, I am… and you are a Dragon. Do you think we can be friends?" he asked as he squatted down and addressed the child.
"Yes, me do," Daniel said as he put out a small hand to shake Dwayne's.
"You be Wolf, but you are diffwent," Daniel said as he pointed at Hank and me.
"How are we different, little man?" Hank asked as he got down next to Dwayne to talk to the boy.
"You no have red eyes. Me like the red eye Wolves. People be afraid, but not me," he explained in a very serious four-year-old way.
"The feral Wolves—he's talking about the feral Wolves," I said.
"Well, that makes sense," Hank said.
"How so?" I asked.
"They know the boy is here. He’s why they won't leave the perimeter of Dwayne's property," he said.
"Dang it, you're smart," I said with a shake of my head. I knew Junior was MENSA, but I wondered now if Hank was too. Hell, if he was then our kids had a chance of being amazing…as long as they got all of his genes. My genes liked to skip classes.
"Sounds possible," Dima said thoughtfully, "but the Wolves wouldn't give away the location of Daniel."
"Do you know these Wolves personally?" I asked, wondering if she'd been straight with us earlier.
"No, most of them want nothing to do with Dragons. However, there are two who seem attracted to Daniel."
"Does your father know of Daniel's existence?" Hank asked as he picked the child up and put him on his shoulders, much to the small Dragon's delight.
"He suspects," Dima said darkly. "He's not sure. Hardly anyone has ever seen Daniel and no one will until it's safe."
"Okey dokey," Dwayne said as he took Daniel from Hank's shoulders and handed him back to his caretakers. "We need to get back upstairs and figure out a game plan for a game where we have no real clue who the players are, what the rules are, or what the end goal is."
"Sounds like my kind of plan," I said. "It’s a weird one, but since I don't have anything better I'll go with it."
Dima kissed her child and sealed the wall with a reverse spell. We quickly made our way back to the Great Room and sat down to figure out what the hell was going on.
Way easier said than done…
Chapter 20
We sat in the Great Room and mulled the possibilities.
"So you think the Council is out there somewhere and is going to use Angela, with the horrendous dress sense, as bait to get to you?" Dwayne asked, trying to clarify.
"Possibly," I said. "Is there any way they'd know about Granny's situation?"
"No, I don't think so," he said.
"Edward and Spike are friendly with the Dragons and the Council," Vlad called down from the rafters of the room as he tattled on his comrades.
"If you're going to speak, then get your dead ass down here," Dwayne reprimanded the Vamp.
"For enough money they'd talk to anyone," Vlad informed us as he floated down to the floor.
"I don't know," I said with a firm shake of my head. "This situation is stranger than that. It's been like one big elaborate set up for something. We've been attacked several times in the last week."
"You told Angela that Dwayne and your grandmother were in Michigan when we were at the zoo," Dima reminded me.
"Mother-humper… I did."