Page 2 of Fence

Manufactured or not, she was hot. And it wasn’t as if I was going to wait around until morning to see what she looked like under the makeup, anyway.

I opened my mouth to accept her invitation when a strong, entirely unwelcome hand clapped me on the shoulder. “C’mon, brother. We’d better get moving. It’s a long walk to the gate.”

“Brother?” Vanessa’s eyes lit up at Gate’s words. “Wow. Some gorgeous parents you two must’ve had.”

“You know, we haven’t seen them in so long, I can hardly remember what they look like.” He cut his eyes to me in the briefest of glances before nodding to her and walking away.

I managed not to roll my eyes at his lame inside joke.

I shrugged. “Sorry. Don’t want to miss my flight. But it was nice to meet you. Have a good trip.” There was no doubting the look of disappointment on her pretty face just before I turned away and hurried to catch up with the others.

“Thanks for the cock block,” I grumbled when I fell in step with my brother.

“Don’t get on my case,” he warned with a knowing grin. “A drink’s just a drink, but you have a tendency to run off at the mouth when you’re in your cups.”

“Bullshit,” I argued, giving him a shove that would’ve felled a lesser man. Gate barely registered the blow.

“He’s right,” Miles agreed with a laugh. “You have no filter once you’ve started in on the bottle.”

“Both of you can kiss my ass.” But I couldn’t help chuckling with them, because there was a grain of truth hidden beneath their jibes: we had to be careful. We always had to think hard about those with whom we chose to spend our time. Just a single slip-up could mean catastrophe for our family. And liquor did have a tendency to loosen my lips a bit.

“I don’t see why she picked you out of the three of us,” Miles muttered darkly.

“Yeah, she must go for the homeless look,” Gate laughed.

I shoved him again, harder this time. “I don’t look homeless.”

“Scruffy?” Miles suggested.

“It’s better than homeless.” I ran a hand over my stubble, then through my hair. Just because it was longer than theirs… “And she seemed to like it, so I guess I’m doing something right.”

“Maybe I should lose my razor,” Gate suggested, grinning at Miles.

“Maybe you should slit your wrists with it,” I suggested.

“Ouch. All right, all right, Fence has been pushed too far. It’s official.” He gave my shoulder a light punch. “Hey, just think. After all this fun, we still get to spend the next few hours on a plane. Let’s not waste all our prime ball-busting before we’ve even boarded.” So like him. Pissing me off, then smoothing things over.

Not that I was really and truly pissed. If anything, it was nerves over the trip which had me on edge. Carissa had given us all a dose of the antidote she’d developed, ensuring we wouldn’t fall prey to our iron weakness.

Would we need it? What would we find out there? It was plain to me as the three of us wheeled our carry-on luggage through the wide, brightly-lit terminal that we had no idea what we were getting into or even where to start.

It had been a thousand years since we’d last been home. We’d be venturing into a new world full of potential dangers—after all, the heartbeat of the dragon shifters in our homeland was still silent. No telling what had silenced it.

That knowledge hung over the three of us like a dark cloud, and all of our ball-busting was only an attempt at keeping it at bay. None of us wanted to face the potential catastrophe we might be walking into.

Or, rather, flying into.

“I feel sorry Cash couldn’t be here,” I mused as we sat near what I supposed was the boarding area, where two young women in uniforms stood in front of computer terminals. The look of strain on both their faces belied their tight smiles as customers peppered them with questions. How difficult their jobs must be. How they managed to make it into work every day was beyond me.

One of the perks of spending my life in a cave: avoiding humans.

“It was his choice to stay,” Miles shrugged. “You know my brother. Stubborn as a mule. It was imperative that he stay with Carissa and Tommy.”

Even though it was his idea to go to our homeland. I kept my thoughts on that to myself, since nobody wanted to hear me complain. Even I didn’t want to.

Only I knew how much it meant to Cash to see our home again. Of all of us, he was the most drawn to our homeland. The thought that he’d give up the chance to be there again and see it all for himself only spoke to how deeply he cared for his mate and her nephew.

That didn’t mean I had to like the idea, even though we all owed Carissa a great debt for creating our antidote.

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