Sanguine (Kreuzberg Dragonshifters Book 2)

Sanguine Part 9

Paul partially turned, and saw a familiar figure nearby, one that he vaguely recognised, although he wasn't entirely sure where from. Richard nudged him, attracting his attention back to his face again.

"It's that man from Sanguine, isnt it? The one I nearly fought, over you," Richard murmured, as he gestured surreptitiously with one hand in the man's direction. "Don't make it obvious that we've noticed him, though, Paulchen."

Paul didn't immediately respond, other than to nod swiftly to indicate that he'd heard, a frown of annoyance crossing his face at the realisation that Richard was right.

"What does he want through following us?" Paul asked eventually, voice purposefully pitched low. "Assuming he is following us."

He hid his mouth from view by purposefully taking a lick of his ice cream, long and slow and languid as they had been before.

"Of course he is; he keeps looking in our direction and wherever we go, he goes," Richard said, from behind the shelter of his own dripping cone. "He seems more interested in us than the array of human flesh on the grass."

Richard pointed towards the sunbathers, with a vaguely disgusted grimace. Paul couldn't stop the immediate thought that the humans were cooking themselves, ready to be consumed by dragons and he immediately turned away, immediately ashamed of himself for such thoughts. He was glad for the fact that Richard still was invested in puzzling over their brand new stalker, than paying attention to Paul's red soaked shame.

"Maybe we should approach him, and ask him what he wants," Paul suggested, more as a way of distracting his mind from disturbing thoughts of what constituted as a dragon's dinner than for any other reason. "I realise that that is quite awkward, by the way. How do you word that question?"

Richard huffed out a laugh at that, and he licked his ice cream studiously whilst he thought. HIs gaze dodged from Paul, to the humans and back to the man again.

"Perhaps we should walk again, to see if he follows us still. If he still is, then we approach him. If he ses us both coming for him, perhaps he'll get scared off," Richard suggested. "He's probably a creepy stalker. We can easily handle those."

Paul huffed dryly and nodded; he knew that there was little that could stand against a dragon, after all.

"Let's do it," he said, before reaching out to take Richard's hand in his own.

Richard smiled and his fingers clasped gently against Paul's own; they wandered slowly away, joined hands swinging slowly between them, as they did so. They wandered almost to the zoo, and stopped outside to finish their ice creams; they could hear the sounds of the closest animals to the gate creating a ruckus, undoubtedly scenting the fact that two dragons were in the area. Richard and Paul exchanged glances and laughed, before they moved away to a safer distance, listening as the animal noises finally abated. Their ice creams had been bitten down to the very tips of the cones, and they saw that the man had all but faded away, as crowds of people flocked and jostled around them.

"Well, he's gone," Paul said, a little disapointed that a fight hadn't ensued, after all.

He wasn't sure why he'd even wanted a fight, yet his dragon's blood had been chorusing madly for it, all the same. He could see, through his soul-bond, that Richard was just as anxious for a fight as he was, and despite his own continuing fractiousness, he sent a soothing wash of burnt orange comfort towards his mate. Richard smiled as he turned his translucent, unusual eyes upon Paul suddenly and winked.

"Probably too public for him, for whatever it was he wanted to do," Richard suggested, with a shrug.

"Perhaps he wasn't even following us," Paul suggested, seriously. "I mean, this is a public place; it's not against any law to come here. He probably was staring at us because he recognised us from Sanguine or something."

"Maybe," Richard said, but he sounded only partially convinced.

Paul shrugged; he wasn't sure whether he believed his own ideas either, yet he could think of nothing better to say to his partner. He popped the last bite of his ice cream cone into his mouth and crunched down with great enjoyment, biting it and demolishing it noisily. Richard smiled, even as he popped the last bite of his own cone into his own mouth, yet his bites were less noisy than Paul's.

In time, they left the Tiergarten and drove back to Kreuzberg, yet neither dragon perceived the fact that they were being followed; Paul, however, kept an eye upon the rear-view mirror, yet saw nothing out of the ordinary. No cars kept on their tail throughout the drive home and all that followed soon turned off, never to be seen again or repeated.

Still, neither dragon relaxed properly until they were in their home again, surrounded by the familiarity of their lives, with the door locked firmly between themselves and the outside world. No matter how strong they were, or how many oncomers they could conceivably best in a fight, they still felt safer when they were apart from all else, protected and secure with only themselves to wrap around.