The Pearls (11 page)

“Yes Zoe?”

“Can you slow down a bit
? I know you have all the right intentions, but I am also thinking that we need to sort out the stuff going on here, with us, and then start with the others. I don’t want you building a bunch of houses and them being empty. Plus I think that some of them might want to have a say in their home, I know I would.”

“Damn Zo
e you sound like a Queen already” Justine was laughing at her

“Well everything is happening so fast
, everything I am not used to happening is happening, I just want to slow down a lot. I want to be able to enjoy my time here. I want all of this to soak in and once it does and we really start our life. I would like some say in at least the house I will be living in.” Zoe said in a voice so soft it almost brought Kaiden to his knees. The longing he heard in her voice made his heart break. This woman, who he loved, who was made just for him, is wounded, and he feels he is rushing her.

Kaiden dropped to his knees in front of Zoe grabbed both her hands in his and said “Zoe we can go as slow as you want
. I will have the home of your dreams built. I will do anything and everything to make you happy.”

“Kaiden you have brought me happiness, more than you can know. But I need to let this, my mother and father, soak in.
I feel like I am mourning them. I need to get to know you, I feel drawn to you and want to be around you, but I need to take it slow.” She said pleading him with her eyes. Kaiden nodded his head yes and stood.

“I have waited years to find you and the last thing I want to do is rush you into anything. I am sorry if I have done that to you. I got us some groceries instead of carry
out. I figured you would like to make this feel like home while we are here. I will be in the living room, I hope you don’t mind but I had cable hooked up and bought a TV while I was out. I like to watch movies and there wasn’t one in there.” Kaiden looked like a wounded puppy.

“Kaiden I am sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were pushing me to hard. I am just not used to this yet. The TV was a great idea though
, we love movies too. Did you get one for us to watch?” Zoe had a smirk on her face.

“Yes I got a few, I wanted to cook you two dinner first and let you finish in here then I figured we could sit and watch them together, if you wanted of course.” Kaiden was now smirking too

“Can I help you cook? I sort of love to cook and it’s been a long since I have had more than just myself or Zoe to cook for.” Justine asked him

“Of Course, I would love that.”

Kaiden and Justine left the room to go put groceries away and cook. Zoe liked to cook too, but she had noticed a box buried in the back of the closet right before Justine came in.

Zoe went to the back of the closet and pulled the box out. It looked like a photo box, but was leather and looked well worn. She took the lid off and found journals inside. She decided to set the box of journals aside to look for more hidden boxes in the closet.

On the top shelf she found another box, this one was pink with lots of flowers, it looked to be a hat box. She took it off the shelf and opened the pink lid. Inside she found some more journals and some letters and photos.

She picked up the photos first and noticed that they were not her parents. The couple in the photo looked happy and the woman was very much pregnant in them. She set the photos down and picked up one of the letters. She noticed the name right away as Kaiden’s parent’s names. She skimmed the letter and realized that these were the letters his mother wrote. The letters he has are the ones her mother wrote. Well at least they had a complete puzzle now.

She set the pictures aside to show Kaiden later. She then grabbed the journal out and began reading it. There were pages full of her mother describing her pregnancy and plans she had. Zoe hugged the journal to her chest and decided she wanted to save this journal for reading later.

She skimmed through the journal and stopped on the last page. A sentence caught her eye. She
flipped back to the beginning of this entry and began reading it. Her heart started beating faster and faster and she began to cry. She slammed the journal closed and ran into the kitchen.

“My father might be alive!” Zoe blurted out

Justine and Kaiden just stared at her for a moment. Then Kaiden was at her side.

“Why do you say that?” He asked

“This, I found this!” She shoved the journal at him

“Look in the back the last entry, she saw him get taken in a large truck.” She was panicked and crying
. She was in the middle of mourning her parents and now she is slammed with the fact that one of them might be alive.

Kaiden tensed he knew about the trucks
, he has seen them before. He watched men shoot his parents out of the sky, tie chains to their legs, and start to drag them into a large semi truck. But they both turned to ash before they got them in the truck.

Kaiden started to read the book “She never saw him turn to ash before they got the door closed, but as soon as he was in the truck she lost all sense of him.
But she sensed others and she also says she noticed one of the men’s eyes, red flecks in them.” Kaiden shut the book a haunted look in his eyes and all over his face. He looked like he just saw a ghost.

“A Blood Dragon is hunting us?” he asked the room.
You could see the shock written all over his face. “This changes everything. This is not an accident, this is murder, and he is hunting us, hunting them all down and killing them. He knows where they all were, because he is one of us. I need to call Charles.” Kaiden was pacing the floor and murmuring to himself.

“Kaiden can you explain
this a little better?” Zoe asked in near panic herself.

“If it is a Blood Dragon, he tracked them all down
. You know how you feel the pull to me and Justine? Well we all have that feeling. When we are near another Dragon we feel the pull to them. We know each other’s habits, because we ourselves have them. Another Dragon would know the best time to fly. It means, if he was watching your mother and father he knew she was pregnant. He may have taken your father and then waited until her Dragon called to her, and made her take flight to celebrate your birth. You were four days old when she left you right? That means they got your father and wanted her too. It means they know you exist and we are not safe here.”

“We are not Dragons yet.” Zoe was in tears now a fear she had never known crept its way inside her.

“If he sees us together, we are as good as dead, now and even more so after we turn.”

“Can we at least wait until Justine’s package comes, I don’t want to make her wait any longer than she has to?” Zoe asked

“Yes we can, Mr. Steinman said it should be within the week. But I need to call Charles tell him what we have found out.”

“So we are in Danger being here?” Justine asked
she did not want Zoe to be in any danger because of her. If they waited for the package then it would be Justine’s fault if something bad happened.

“The only thing we have on our side right now is no one knows we are here, no one knows what Zoe looks like
, and no one knows you or me. Half-bloods do not feel the pull that we full-bloods do. If there are any of them around they will not feel us.”

“So we stay inside, you got enough food and supplies for us for at least a week right?” Justine was all business now. She knew how to stay hidden and blend in and she perceived everything a danger.
If they were not going to leave, then she would do what she had to do to protect Zoe.

“Yes we should be good, but I would like to take you both to my home in Ireland as soon as possible
. We are safest there.”

“OK” Justine and Zoe said at the same time.
Neither of them liked being in danger and now that they knew someone hunted them they knew running was not the answer. They couldn’t do the one thing that they were used to doing.

“I will call Charles after we eat and
we need make a plan ourselves. I don’t want to push anything on either of you and make this more difficult than it should be.” Kaiden looked defeated and broken. He felt like he drove Zoe right into a trap. All he wanted was to make her happy and keep her safe, and now she might be right in the middle of a dangerous situation. He was at a loss for what to do.

The
y all cooked together after that, no one wanted to be separated from each other. Once dinner was made Zoe set the table and they all sat to eat. They talked about a plan. The girls listened to Kaiden talk about his home and what he thought would be the best plan to get there.

Once they were all done eating and talking they cleaned up the table and kitchen together. Kaiden went to the living room to call Charles and the girls followed him. Justine sat in a chair off to the side but facing the front door. Zoe sat on one corner of the couch while Kaiden paced in front of them.

Justine and Zoe were silent as Kaiden talked to Charles. After he told Charles about the journal there were a lot of yes and no’s. He listened for a long time and sat on the couch. Zoe leaned towards him on the couch and once she noticed what she was doing she got up and decided to make some tea. Tea always calmed her down. When she got back to the living room Kaiden was off the phone waiting for her. Zoe made them all a cup and handed one to each of them.

“What does Charles think?” Zoe asked

“He has heard some rumors over the years and is going to go through some old correspondence my parents have acquired over the years. He wants us to come home as soon as we are able. He actually wants us on a plane tonight.”

“That’s a good idea for you and Zoe.” Justine said eyes to the ground

“I am not leaving you Justine.” Zoe said angrily

“I don’t want you to get killed because we are waiting for something for me.”

“Let me decide that ok. I won’t leave you. If shit starts to go bad or we all start to feel unsafe then we will have Mr. Steinman ship it to us.”

“Ok” Justine said with a small broken voice

“I can send you both there and I can wait for it, but really I don’t want to be apart from you now that I have found you.” Kaiden said

“No one is going anywhere” Zoe told them
. She was not going to admit it out loud, but she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him now.

They were all quiet for a while
, lost in thoughts of the danger, and the journal. Zoe was holding the journal and flipping through the pages to see where the change happened. The beginning of the folder was all happy times and describing their new home and the pregnancy. Then one day there is just the entry of her father being taken and her mother’s fear clear as day. That was the last entry in the journal.

“Anyone want to watch a movie, I kind of want to clear my head of this, this stuff.” Zoe asked

“Please, a comedy if we have one, I need the same thing.” Justine answered

“
I hope you like what I picked out” Kaiden said

Kaiden put the movie in and
turned to see Zoe pull her legs to her chest and get comfortable. He walked to the hall and grabbed a small blanket out of the linen closet, he walked back to the couch, and laid it over Zoe’s legs. He then sat beside her on the couch and got comfortable too.

Kaiden was nervous, he wanted more than anything for Zoe to love him as he already loved her. He understood her past and accepted it. He just wanted to show her how much he truly cared. He remembered his parents and how much they loved each other and him. Kaiden wanted that love too
. He wanted to feel what his parents had. He knew the feel of a woman already. He was no stranger to sex. But he had never made love to a woman, never experienced the intimacy there is in the act. He only knew the gratification of a one night stand. Kaiden found Zoe absolutely flawlessly gorgeous. She could do no wrong in his eyes and he only wanted to make all her dreams come true.

Halfway through the movie
Zoe noticed that Justine had nodded off and was now passed out on the chair. Kaiden had went and got a twin bed for the nursery for Justine and he was sleeping on the couch while they were here. Zoe decided she was going to wake Justine and tell her to go to bed. Zoe gently shook Justine awake and told her to go to bed. Justine got up without a word and walked to the hall, once Zoe heard the click of the door she sat back down on the couch.

Zoe was still a little light headed from everything that she had found out in the last
twenty four hours. She knew that Kaiden was a good guy that he was going to do everything in his power to make her happy. She appreciated that fact more than anything else. No one in her life has ever tried to make her happy. This also scares her, she wasn’t sure if she was worthy of such a good man.

Zoe glanced at Kaiden next to her
. He was into the movie with a goofy grin on his face. She couldn’t help the smile that came to her face when looking at him. He was a beautiful man. She studied him taking in his profile. His strong jaw and a perfect straight nose, luscious full lips and the most amazing eyes she has ever seen. As she is staring at him he glances at her and she can’t help the flush that comes to her cheeks.