Chapter 3: Just a Little Closer

Mercedes awoke in her new room to the glaring of the early New York sun. She glanced at the clock that rested beside her bed and groaned as it read 8:30 am. She was not in the mood for waking up early. Not what so ever. It had been a little over a week since she started living in the Long household. It had been a...strange week to say the least. A number of magical creatures passed through the shop daily, all them stranger than the last. All of them had a strange need to...smell her, which freaked her out by all means. But after Jake threatened to rip off a trolls nose when he was getting a little too close, that stopped immediately. Jake was with her every day, and they had gotten close over the week. She knew it had to be tiring for him, seeing as she rarely left the shop for anything.

Lao had enrolled her into Jake's high school and she was to start when the new semester started, which was in a week. To say she was excited was an understatement. Jake found it weird that she was so ecstatic about school, but after explaining that not only was she not a normal teenage girl she had never been to school, he quickly understood. She found it amusing that Jake wasn't a big fan of school what so ever, and hearing him complain about it only added to her amusement.

Suddenly a loud thump resounding outside of her room caused her to jump a little out of her bed. She strained to hear any other type of noise, only to hear a faint growling coming from downstairs. She knew she shouldn't leave her room if she heard growling, but her curiosity got the best of her. She slipped back her pink comforters that once belonged to Jake's mother and tip toed across her room to the door. Peeking out, she made sure that the hallway was clear before making her way down the stairs where she had heard the noise. She peeked out into the open of the storage room/ magical study, struggling to see through the darkness of the room. She stepped to the floor and felt her way around the room to find the light switch. Not knowing where she was going, she stubbed her knee on Lao's desk, making her hiss loudly in pain.

"What are you doing up?"

Mercedes jumped at the low tired voice and looked around the room. Allowing her eyes to focus through the darkness, she saw the large and powerful form of a red scaled dragon, sitting slumped in the middle of the floor staring at her with black eyes. It was probably one of the largest dragons she had seen, its muscular body stretching to fit almost ¾ lengths of the room. Sitting it was already taller than she was, she didn't even want to know how big it must be at full height. It had strong powerful wings that were folded against its back, and its tale stretched to a long length reaching to lie in front of her, even though she was on the other side of the large room.

"Yo Mercy, I asked what you were doing up?" the dragon asked her again, a hint of annoyance in its tired voice. She recognized that voice...

"Jake?" she wondered aloud.

The dragon chuckled and turned to her, revealing its yellow underbelly to her. "I forgot, you've never seen me in dragon form huh?"

She shook her head and approached him, happy that she knew there wasn't a highly dangerous creature liable to kill her in the house. When she was closer she noticed the green mane that ran down from his head to his tail, the green streak that Jake displayed in human form. A warmth emanated from his body that heated her skin even from a distance, and increased as she got closer.

"I didn't wake you did I?" Jake asked her.

Mercedes shook her head. "No, I woke up on my own but I couldn't fall back to sleep." she told him. "Are you just now getting back home?"

He nodded. "Pretty rough night."

"Why didn't you go back home to sleep?" she asked him.

"Told my dad I was sleeping over here for the weekend." he answered her simply before groaning a bit. "I'm beat."

Mercedes nodded. "I understand, I'll let you sleep."

Before she could turn away Jake's body erupted into flames, which made her panic a bit before the fire died away and the Jake she had grown to know stood before her, his clothes ripped and his hair disheveled in a adorable sleepy way. He raised an eyebrow at her staring.

"What?"

Mercedes smiled and shrugged. "Nothing, your hair...its cute."

Jake snorted and sat on the futon, shrugging off his jacket, leaving him in his wife beater. "Cute? How masculine."

"Yes it is." she said before her eyes fell to the bright red stain on Jake's wife beater. "Jake, your shoulder..."

Jake looked down at his shoulder and winced a bit at the sight. Four puncture wounds lined his shoulders on either side from a chimera bite. He silently cursed the stupid creature at the memory of the fight. He had latched onto his shoulder for a good minute before Jake finally got him off and killed the thing. But his shoulder was healing slowly, due to the venom from the chimera.

"Its fine, chimera just tried to use me as a new chew toy." Jake joked as she crossed and sat on the couch beside him.

Mercedes examined the cut, her face scrunched in worry. "Jake, it looks pretty deep."

"NO, its all good." he said, trying to reassure her worry. "Wait, what are you doing?"

Mercedes crossed to Lao's desk and grabbed a pair of scissors before crossing back wordlessly. Jake watched in shock and she sat down and raised the scissors to her wrist.

"Hell no!" Jake exclaimed, jumping for the scissors, which she held out of reach due to his hurt shoulder. "What the hell do you think your doing?"

Mercedes sighed and smiled a bit, which he found weird beyond belief. "My blood has healing agents, which is why I heal so fast. My blood can heal you."

Jake watched helplessly as she raised the scissors to her hand this time, so not to freak him out too much, and slit it, making her wince only slightly. He watched in awe as she pressed the bloodied hand to his bite marks, and almost immediately the wounds closed up. She did it with the rest before her hand healed itself completely. She smiled at her handy work and patted the newly repaired skin on his shoulder.

"There!" she cheered. "Good as new."

"Don't do that again." he muttered. "Can't protect you if your just gonna hurt yourself."

"You worry too much Jake." she said setting the scissors next to them on the side table. "I'm tougher than I look."

"And that is soooo saying a lot." Jake said, the sarcasm practically dripping from his lips.

Mercedes glared at him playfully, but didn't bother to retort. She couldn't help but stare as Jake stretched and pulled his bloodied beater over his head, revealing his chiseled torso to her. She sustained a gasp, for she had never seen this much of the male anatomy except for in movies or on TV. This was a new level of closeness that she had never experienced.

"You sure your not tired or anything?" Jake asked her with a big yawn, making her smile.

"I'm sure." she assured him. "You should go to sleep Jake."

"Well I would but a pretty girl is kinda taking up my bed space." Jake said with smirk on his handsome face.

Mercedes rolled her eyes and smiled at him. "Go to bed Jake." she told before standing up and moving to the stairs.

Jake smiled softly to himself as he lay back on the futon. "Yeah, good night Mercy."

"Good morning, Jake." she called back with mirth.

"Jaaaaakeeey boi!"

Jake groaned in annoyance as he was slowly

"Her scent is simply enticing!" a high pitched male voice exclaimed from the shadows of one of the buildings near the Canal Shop, a roof over looking its top most level. "All that power is practically rolling off of her. Good enough to eat!"

The other shadow figure smirked, his clawed and shriveled hand tapping the ledge in thought. "In time brother. The dragon is entirely too powerful for us to get through. We need to get rid of him through...intellectual means." his smirk widened. "We need to get the girl to break him."

The other licked its lips, the girls smell still fresh in his nostrils. "And then we get her?"

The shadow figure smirked at his brother. "Then we get her. All of her."