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  After lunch, it was Emilio’s group on the lake. For once, Marc didn’t follow Marissa back to camp. Instead, he stayed out on the lake with Benton and Emilio’s research group.

  At thirty-three, Emilio was the oldest of Ellis’ research assistants and, in Benton’s considered opinion, the one least likely to accidentally set himself on fire. And yes, Benton was including Ellis’ oddly fire resistant niece and nephew, as well as their oddly fire resistant cousins in his estimations. They weren’t phoenixes, but they obviously weren’t entirely human either, any more than he or Marc or Emilio were.

  Is Ellis? Benton wondered. And if she is, would she care that I’m not?

  She was his fated mate, the one that he had been connected to by a red ribbon of fate since the day of his birth. Benton wanted to believe more than anything that they would eventually live happily ever after – at least until it was time for him to find her again – but Ellis was human. Who knew if humans could feel the pull of the red ribbon of fate?

  Unless she isn’t entirely human… Benton thought. Discreetly, he eyed Dafina and Everett’s hotheaded cousin, who was at that very moment casually not being burned by the firebird that he was trying to pet.

  A burst of laughter startled Benton from his thoughts, and he slid a glance over to where Emilio and Marc were cracking each other up.

  Despite being roommates who shared almost everything, including clothes and most of a work schedule, Emilio and Marc got along like a house on fire. That afternoon, their laughter mixed with the strident calls of firebird parents and chicks to each other. No amount of friendly rivalry between the girls could get in the way of their good humor.

  Benton was impressed that such a fierce rivalry could still be called friendly.

  Emilio’s research group consisted of Dafina and Parker, who were both twenty-one and wildly competitive with each other. About an hour into their self-directed tagging operation, the girls had challenged each other to a tagging competition. Dafina had claimed Emilio as her partner, Parker had claimed Marc, and that was all she wrote. In short order, the two mini-groups were competing to be the ones with the most tagged chicks recorded and shells gathered for the day.

  Benton counted it among his lucky stars that none of the people involved knew that he was a phoenix, and thus just as fire resistant as Dafina. Otherwise, he might have been roped into their competition.

  On their way back to camp that evening, Parker said, “Double or nothing?” and Dafina rolled her eyes… but she also nodded.

  Benton wisely didn’t enquire as to the nature of their wager. Some things were better left unknown.

  For dinner that night, they all mercifully got to eat their own MREs in lieu of anyone cooking anything. That night, Benton got to enjoy a ready to eat meal, safe in the knowledge that if he complained about any part of it, no one’s feelings would be hurt. Although truthfully, everything in the MRE was better than anything that the boarding school alumni had managed to cook up.

  The first two days without Ellis were a breeze. He didn’t have to do anything, and everyone seemed to be trying to control their most annoying or self-destructive impulses.

  The third day, however, hit a minor snag.

  Up until then, Marissa and Marc had seemed friendly enough, but something must have happened between them the night before, because when everyone trooped down to the lake the next morning, they stayed conspicuously far apart. And as the morning progressed, they took every opportunity not to speak to one another, which just made things incredibly awkward for everyone else.

  Frankly, it was something of a relief to Benton when Marissa, Cameron, and Landon were spelled by Emilio, Dafina, and Parker. The afternoon group was definitely happier and easier to hang around than the morning group had been.

  After dinner that night, Dafina, Parker, and Marissa went to do yoga and meditate in Ellis’ science tent. Benton wasn’t certain that Ellis would like that – he didn’t remember anyone doing anything non-science-y in there while Ellis was around – but given the looks that they had been directing Marc’s way, he was also fairly confident that ‘yoga and meditation’ had been code for ‘eat secret snacks and gossip, probably about Marc’ so he kept quiet and let them go do as they pleased.

  If Marc suspected anything, he didn’t say or do anything about it. Mostly, he seemed surly and grim to Benton, which seemed about right for a man who was on the outs with his lady.

  When the women left the mess tent, Marc waited a few minutes before excusing himself. That left the remaining men – namely, Emilio, Cameron, Landon, and Benton – to shoot the breeze in the mess tent.

  Given their wildly different backgrounds and interests, there wasn’t much of a breeze to shoot, and the evening quickly devolved into card games and checkers.

  Benton had hoped that that would be that – he couldn’t imagine having a long or drawn out argument with Ellis. He preferred laughter to recriminating silences. And he would have missed her too much – but Marissa and Marc’s rough patch continued across days four and five. In fact, it was still making things awkward when day six without Ellis dawned bright and clear.

  Benton had promised to take care of all of Ellis’ research assistants while she was away, and Marissa was nothing if not that. Marc was an employee turned friend. And he liked them both very much.

  But there was absolutely no way that he was going to step into that mess. Whatever had gone wrong between them, they could work it out for themselves – he hoped. In the meantime, Benton and Marc took to going out to the lake slightly later than Marissa and her research group, so that there was a little bit of space there. And at the end of the day, he hung out with Marc, if Emilio wasn’t already there and being distracting.

  Benton didn’t want to hurt Marc’s feelings or rub it in, but as the days passed – and Marc got gloomier and gloomier – he only became more excited. Ellis had been gone six days already, which meant that either tomorrow or the next day, she would likely be back in camp with new food.

  The others, he thought, would be excited for the food – and the feast – that were going to arrive. For himself, Benton was excited about Ellis.

  It had only been six days, but it had still been far too long since he had last seen her sparkling brown eyes, kissed her mouth, or heard her laughter. He had missed swimming with Ellis, despite his newfound horror of mermaids, and waking curled up around her, like a dragon guarding his treasure. And he had missed looking up from whatever he was doing to find her across the lake.

  Benton had even missed seeing her in her thoroughly unsexy fire retardant gear. It made her look like a grey rolly polly – one that he wanted to strip naked so that he could lick her generous curves and make love to her all night long. Sleep was for the weak.

  He had it bad for his mate.

  And she was coming back! In a day, two days tops, he was going to get to see Ellis and kiss her and exchange stories with her.

  In fact, he was busy imagining a reunion in which Ellis let him lick the last of the chocolate off of her, when it gradually dawned on Benton that there was a plume of black smoke rising from the camp.

  There absolutely should not have been plumes of black smoke rising from the camp.

  Benton, Marc, and all the rest of the group previously straggling back to camp broke into a run.

  Near the edge of the camp, Marc and Emilio peeled off from the group, one going left and the other right. Benton, Dafina, and Parker continued their run straight into camp… which proved to be oddly fine and decidedly not raided. It wasn’t even on fire – much.

  There were a couple of clusters of burning trees near one side of the camp, some shreds of cloth scattered around, and a lot of scuffed earth, but otherwise everything looked fine.

  Except for the part where Cameron was standing buck naked in the middle of camp and laughing his ass off. That part was weird.

  “It’s not funny!” Marissa was shouting as Benton, Dafina, and Parker slowed to a confused walk. “You could
have set me on fire!”

  “No way!” Cameron suddenly wasn’t laughing. He sounded offended. “I’m a way better shot than that!”

  “That guy was holding me right in front of them! You could have burned us all to a crisp!”

  “I would never have done that!”

  “Not everyone is fire proof!”

  “I’m not fire proof! I’m fire resistant! There are things that can burn me too!”

  “Not as many as can burn me!” snarled Marissa resentfully.

  “Hey!” shouted Benton to get their attention. “What’s going on here? And why are those trees on fire?”

  “Oh man, you should have seen it!” crowed Cameron. “I was awesome!”

  “You were stupid!” snapped Marissa, taking several steps towards Cameron. “And you nearly set me on fire!”

  “I did not!”

  Benton nearly sighed. He tried to imagine what Ellis would have done in his position, and then decided that whatever had happened never would have happened with Ellis around. Instead, he settled on putting two fingers in his mouth and whistling shrilly to get the combatants’ attention.

  “Not a word!” he said sternly, pointing at first Cameron and then Marissa. “Not a single word. You!” he snapped, now pointing at Landon. “You like to talk. What happened?”

  Landon gulped.

  “A group of men came into camp,” said Landon. “They were armed with machetes and stuff like that. They wanted to take anything valuable that we had, and things got tense, so Cameron –”

  “Bravely,” interjected Cameron.

  “Stupidly,” said Marissa at the same time.

  “– blew fire at them,” persisted Landon, ignoring the byplay. “They took Marissa hostage, and he transformed into his fire dragon form.”

  There, Benton blinked.

  Fire dragon? Him? It made a certain amount of sense, of course, but –

  Is Ellis a fire dragon? Benton wondered, and then remembered Ellis in her rolly polly fire retardant suit. She definitely wasn’t a fire dragon but, considering her family tree, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t a dragon of some sort.

  Landon continued, saying, “Cameron set those trees on fire while, er, rescuing –”

  “Endangering,” corrected Marissa.

  “– Marissa, and they ran away. And that’s about it,” finished Landon. He looked relieved to be done with it.

  “Whoever they were, they’re gone,” said Marc, as he emerged from the tree line. He went directly to Marissa and put his arm around her stiff form.

  “Because I’m awesome!” proclaimed Cameron proudly. “And you’re welcome.”

  Benton wasn’t the only one who glared at Cameron.

  “Didn’t you read any of Dr. Hale’s introductory materials?” demanded Emilio, as he joined the group. “It’s absolutely crucial for the survival of the group that those of us with other forms stick to our human shapes for the duration of this hitch.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “Then you definitely didn’t read the part where the local folk medicines eat people like us!” snapped Dafina, slapping the back of Cameron’s head.

  “Or pay attention to the review!” snapped Parker. “She said it again the first day that we got here!”

  “By not paying attention to the briefing, you’ve now endangered everyone in the group,” said Emilio sharply.

  “And your comrades definitely shouldn’t be afraid that you’re going to set them on fire when you’re trying to rescue them!” added Marc fiercely. “You handled the entire situation poorly!”

  “What was I supposed to do?” demanded Cameron. “Let them take whatever they wanted?”

  “Yes!” shouted nearly everyone else.

  “Including Marissa?” demanded Cameron, scowling.

  “No one wanted to take me anywhere until you started blowing fire at people! Then they took me hostage! That was your fault, Cameron!”

  Cameron opened his mouth – probably to argue – and Benton cut in, saying briskly, “And this isn’t helping anything. What are we going to do now?”

  Marc said immediately, “We can’t stay here.”

  At the same time, Emilio said, “Dr. Hale’s group will be back soon. We should wait for them.”

  Marc and Emilio exchanged looks.

  “Do you know what trail she’ll be using to get back here?” asked Marc. “Maybe we could go to meet her.”

  Emilio shook his head.

  “No, we came in by foot,” said Emilio. “The initial supplies and equipment were sent in ahead of us. When they come back, it’ll be with a couple of those tiny blue trucks. Whatever trail they use to come back here, though, those things won’t be able to come back to camp using the same trail that we used to walk into it.”

  “Then we should start packing things out,” said Benton. “We won’t be able to take all of this stuff with us when we run for it, but at least we’ll be ready to leave when they get back here with the food.”

  “Tonight we should set a watch,” said Marc, and Emilio nodded.

  “And in the meantime, we’ve got to put those fires out,” added Parker.

  Benton’s nod was a little more reluctant at that idea. As a phoenix, he liked fire, but he could acknowledge that other, non-fire-based life forms might find it destructive. Ellis, he was pretty sure, couldn’t survive in a jungle turned inferno. She had difficulty with minor burns and overly hot weather.

  Dafina sighed. “It’s a pity that my aunt isn’t here.”

  “Oh?” asked Benton, his interest pricking up. “Why’s that?”

  “No reason!” said Dafina quickly. “She just – That is – Everything worked more smoothly when she was around.”

  That was true enough, although Benton was certain that wasn’t what she had originally intended by her comment.

  So they formed a bucket line, sloshing water on the burning trees until their fires were entirely put out. No one, not even Cameron, was in a good mood by then.

  Splitting up, they all went their separate ways. They all had things to do before Ellis and the others arrived. And Benton suspected that there were enough negative feelings lingering over the fire incident that everyone needed their space from the others.

  Marc and Marissa, at least, disappeared together.

  As for himself, Benton really hoped that Ellis got back to camp soon – and not just for his sake or the group’s wellbeing, but for hers. She was who knew where, hours or even days away from any real help with Cameron’s equally hotheaded brother, and there might or might not be a band of greedy marauders out to turn dragons into folk remedies on her trail. Even if she wasn’t a dragon herself, she was traveling with two of them.

  Wherever you are, thought Benton as he lay worrying in their bed that night, stay safe, Ellis.

  Chapter 11 – Ellis

  In Luel, Ellis left Everett and Kris in charge of counting boxes, checking products, and peering into bags for a few minutes, while she went to make a quick phone call.

  My love life is not an emergency, Ellis reminded herself as she dialed her sister’s number on the satellite phone. It’s not. This is not a crisis situation.

  Acknowledging that didn’t stop her fingers from dialing.

  Two rings and Freddie picked up, saying, “Heya, Ellis! I thought you were busy with your firebirds!”

  “I was! I am! I just –”

  And from there, the whole story came tumbling out of her – about Benton and the frustrating upswing in poaching this season and her annoying research assistants and Benton, because what was she going to do about Benton? He was perfect for her – as a soul mate should be – but Benton was nothing that she was supposed to have or even want to have. He was all wrong for a dragoness’ soul mate.

  And all the time that she spoke, pouring her heart out to her sister, Freddie was quiet. She listened carefully, all of her fearsome focus bent towards Ellis and her silly little problems.

  “What am I goi
ng to do, Freddie?” finished Ellis, nearly despairing. “He’s wonderful and perfect for me, but –”

  “Bite their faces off,” said her sister briskly. “You’re a dragoness. Your jaws are big enough.”

  “Freddie!” gasped Ellis, half laughing at that mental image. Even better was imagining it as Freddie in court and delicately biting the faces off of people in suits. “Be serious!”

  “Who was joking?” demanded Frederica. “You say that he makes you happy, and that he’s your soul mate. You say that he’s perfect for you. So keep him. And if anyone gives you any trouble over him, you bite their faces off.”

  “Freddie, it’s not that simple!”

  “It really is. Ellie, not everyone finds their soul mate. You have the chance at something that most people can only dream of having with someone else,” said Frederica. “You can’t let yourself get scared off by what you think other people want for you. You have to be brave like Grissom.”

  “Grissom? How is he, by the way?”

  Ellis listened with growing delight, as her sister told her about their brother’s wedding plans.

  Although they had six other siblings, nieces and nephews, and a variety of cousins near their own age, she, Grissom, and Frederica had always been closest with each other. Maybe it was because they were triplets. Or maybe it was because, underneath all their differences, they were all the same: they were the kind of dragoon that wanted to protect.

  Grissom protected the innocent, Freddie protected the interests of those without power of their own, and Ellis protected magical animals.

  And now her brother, despite being a lone dragon previously thought to be bound for a lifetime of loneliness, had found his soul mate! She was entirely human, but they were happy together!

  “They’ve set a date for the wedding,” added Frederica. “It’s awhile off yet, but you should be back before then.”

  “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for him!”

  “It really is,” agreed Freddie. She sounded as happy as Ellis felt. “But if Grissom can have one single soul mate, then so can you. We three are triplets, after all.”