Griffin's Salvation

Chapter 4:Ju-ri

I left them to their own devices, the welp, Ronan, and I walked out of the venue to strategize.

-so little man, do I ask you what you want the next steps to be or should we find your grown-up next of kin? I smirked relishing being a d**k to this tiny old man.

-firstly my name is River, be so kind as to use it! secondly, you think my hippy dumbass parent who named me River, and whose bright idea was to cloak the egg I was in and bind it in a randomized spell that every year would teleport me to a random dot around the earth every year, so they could play a fun game of find the child. Do you think those are the people you should find for any sort of intelligent conversation? And thirdly, you have the information I need just spit it out already.

- Getting cranky in your old age, he! Ronan laughed.

-say less words griffin!

-hey, he's five thousand and two hundred years older than you, put some respect on his name! It "say less" words Ronan-ssi.

-Are you two knuckleheads going to help me or should I wait for you to finish with the back-and-forth first?

-fine! I was with Issa for most of the day, getting dolled up for the party, and she wasn't wearing the shirt you sniffed, the only people she could have hugged in between then and me picking her up for this party, were either her kids or her parents, I think? If It's not any of them we'll get back here and I'll ask her.

-thank you, are we driving to her place or just flashing there? River asked, Also can we ditch the Griffin, he's offensively socially inept and if I'm going to meet my mate I'd rather them not associate me with that!

-hey, your tiny ungrateful geriatric ass came to find me begging me to let you come to this boring non-party party.

-dude, my party is fun!

-there's no DJ, you just put your playlist on shuffle and you have horrible taste in music, most of your songs are sad love songs and I'm pretty sure a few of your guests contemplated suicide at least once this evening.

-You're right River, let's ditch him, my car is over there I said pointing at the Range Hoover closest to the entrance of the venue. he got in the back when I unlocked it and secured his seatbelt himself. freaky, this dragon sure was jarring.

We all got in the car, even Ronan because he was curious about who the dragon's mate could be. when we got to Issa's house I told River to act the way he looked and to be careful not to startle the humans too much with the way he talked.

-Julie? Issa's Mother said surprised to see me at the door again, Marie has known me for four years now, so we were quite friendly with each other. is there something wrong with my daughter?

-god no, she met someone at the party but she forgot her phone so I'm here to get it. I lied, magicking in her bedroom.

-come on in, who is this cute little man? she asked ruffling River's hair

-this is River, I'm babysitting him for his parents.

-you went to a party and instead of finding yourself someone, you decided to babysit other people's kids.

-I have someone. I said punching Ronan on the arm when he snickered, this is Ronan.

-oh, your rude best friend?

-yes that would be me, it's great that she told you about me already that way you'll find me quirky instead of rude. Ronan said walking ahead of us to the living room where Will was playing with the twins.

The moment they saw me they ran to me as fast as their little eight-year-old feet could carry them. I leaned down to put River down and catch the twins, River didn't even attempt to take a whiff of the twins, instead, he walked to Marie and put his arms up in the universal I want to be picked up gesture. She did, he scented her neck, and her dress, then lay his head on her shoulder and a hand on her heart. I could see tendrils of golden magic wrapping itself around her as she rocked River back and forth. this was so going to turn into drama with Issa when her mother divorced her father for the dragon, this was going to get so f*****g messy!

- I wanna get down River said suddenly done with his inspection, Marie obliged. maybe I was wrong? He went to William and did the same routine. when he was done he climbed up the sofa and sat deep in thought tapping a finger on the armrest.

-oh! he is so cute, like a mini grown-up. Marie smiled observing the weirdness, I was sure I told him to act the way he looked. I and the twins went up to get the phone. River had reached a verdict apparently when we got back down. He snapped his fingers and all the humans went to sleep I caught the twins before they hit the ground and put them next to their grandparents on the sectional.

- Warn me before you do that humans are fragile.

-what are you up to?

-I'm going to proceed with the first bite

-he or she is unconscious, that would be wrong.

- I'm going to look like an infant for ten years, she has an aggressive tumor that must be undiagnosed since I didn't scent any medication in her system, and he is seventy years old the average life span for humans is seventy-five. it doesn't give me enough time to grow enough that they wouldn't feel weird about bonding with me.

-Let me check! I said putting my hand on Marie's forehead, I recoiled with a gasp. f**k! how did I miss this? I'm a f*****g single-minded i***t.

- wait, both of them are your mates? I haven't heard of that happening before!

-let me show you. River went to stand next to Marie and Will and took both their left hand in each of his and just like that we could see half of a golden dragon on them. for dragons the moment they meet their mates, the mark would immediately appear on their partner's left hand, but it's only visible to magic users, it only becomes visible to everybody after the first bite.

-And how do you plan on explaining that to them? Ronan asked

- I don't, I'll cloak it and the plan here is to ask for forgiveness not permission.

-What do you think Ju-ri, they're your in-laws.

-okay, no! Kian is fifteen don't make it weird. River you can proceed, Issa would prefer her parents alive not dead.

River climbed up on the sofa between his two mates, turned one of his hands into a claw, and slashed his wrist. He brought his bleeding wrist to his mate's mouth and made them swallow. when that was done he bit them, I admired how controlled he was, although that self-control started to wane after the first taste he had of Marie's blood. by the time his fangs sunk into Will's wrist, he was as stiff as a board and stopped breathing. he still took the time to cloak the tattoos that had turned black and gold of a whole dragon that twisted up both his mates left arms. the head of the dragon on their shoulders, the body winded down their arms to end with the tip of the tail pointing to the ring finger.

-I have to go, thank you, Julie. River said thinly through his teeth before flashing away

-I don't think either of you thought this through. Ronan said

- no to worry I'll wake them up after you leave that way there's a reason River left, and I'll implant memories of them saying goodbye to the two of you.

- That's all fine and dandy but I'm thinking about after.

-what do you mean?

-these humans are in their sixties and seventies, correct?

-yeah?

-when humans of these ages exchange the first bite, the ravage of time will start to revert back. it's a slow process but still fast by human standards, so in exactly one year, these shriveled-up humans are going to look like twenty-five to thirty-year-olds with a s**t ton of questions. I doubt tiny Mctinerson will look like less of a baby by then.

-You could have said this earlier.

A moot point she's dying, also this is more fun for me! he cackled slowly vanishing

I f*****g hated that dickhead! I woke everybody up implanting the fake memory, Marie and Will were sad River left. I made sure to wave Issa's phone around and said my goodbyes, I would deal with whatever came next after. I had almost reached my car when I felt Kian's presence around the corner. After the first time we met, I hadn't seen or been in the same room as Kian. I didn't know how the mate bond could have affected my behavior toward him and the fact that he was jailbait still weirded me out. I sprinted to my car forgoing the walkway to make a beeline to my car across Issa's beautifully maintained lawn. I dove into my car and accelerated out of my parking spot just as he was pulling in. He was furious again. why was he even furious at least he was blissfully unaware of my existence.