by Riley Storm
“Perfect,” he muttered. “Just perfect. Can this day get any worse?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Emma
She was insane. Nuts. Psycho. A total whack-job. Cuckoo.
There was no other explanation, nothing that fit or made sense.
Emma blinked as a raindrop made its way into her eye. Forced to pay attention to her own body she suddenly clutched at her chest, stuffing her hands into her armpits. She was freezing.
“Emma?”
“Am I crazy? I must be. I have to be.”
“We don’t have time for this, Emma,” Asher said impatiently.
“I must be,” she repeated. “No way I saw what I saw. Where is your shirt?” she asked abruptly, looking up at him. “You had a shirt on. I distinctly remember that you wore a shirt. Why did you take it off?”
Asher sighed. “I didn’t. It got destroyed. Back there. We can’t wait here though, Emma. We need to keep moving, it’s too dangerous to just stay still.”
“You had a shirt. You picked me up and then we flew. Like, through the air.” She made a plane with her hands and motioned flying. “Like that. Zoom. Vreeoooommmm. Up-up and away!”
“Emma!” Asher barked.
She flinched. Dismay crossed his face as she backed away from him.
“You had scales on your face,” she said, his emotions not really registering with her at all right then. “And wings. Asher, you had wings!”
“Yes,” he said. “I did. I am a shapeshifter. I will answer all your questions and more, but not now. Do you understand? We need to go. He’s still alive and will be after us shortly. I can’t fight him with you around.”
“Questions. Yes. I have questions. A lot of questions. So many questions.” She did. She really did.
Like how was it that he had wings, and they had flown out of the quarry? Emma was trying to reconcile what she had seen and experienced, with what she knew to be humanly possible, but the two things were slamming against one another, both refusing to admit that they weren’t real.
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered.
Her eyes narrowed and she looked up at Asher with a hard glare. “Did you drug me?” she asked quietly. “Is that it? Am I on drugs right now?”
“No,” Asher said. “You are perfectly and completely lucid. You’ve just experienced something that you’ve been told all your life is completely and totally impossible and doesn’t exist. So, you think you’re going crazy. Once we’re safely away though, I will show you that you aren’t.”
“Right,” she said distractedly, her mind still reliving those fervent few moments as they left the quarry behind. “Right. Okay. Um. Where are we going?”
“First, away from here, come on.”
Emma started following him as he gestured for them to cross the street that ran behind the quarry, and then into the forest.
“Asher,” she asked as they jogged under the cover of trees, where he seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
“Yes?”
“Why do I still trust you, Asher? Why do I still feel in my gut that you aren’t a bad guy? That you’re on my side.”
“Because I am,” he said quietly. “No matter what you think of me, I will always be there to help you. Always.”
“Right. But you had wings.”
He sighed tiredly. “Yes. I did. Big ones that allowed me to fly us away. Out of the ice storm. That happened in July. Lots of crazy things going on.”
Emma looked at her hands, then without thinking reached out and pressed several of her fingertips into his bared chest. They sank in slightly, creating little depressions before hitting the hard muscles.
“What are you doing?” Asher asked, bemused at her actions, though most of his attention was still focused behind them and above them.
“You had, red. You were covered in red things. Like, like a lizard. But now you’ve got flesh.” Emma closed her eyes and shook her head. She pinched her forearm and gave her face a slap.
When she opened her eyes, it was still Asher standing in front of her. Still shirtless, sexy, Asher.
“Did you just hit yourself?” he asked, cocking his head to the side, biting his lip.
“Yes,” she said bluntly. “Are you laughing at me for it?”
“A little. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be. It’s just, I’ve grown up with this being common fact, and to be honest, I’ve never been around someone who, ah, who is discovering that we exist, for the first time, sort of thing.”
Asher was stumbling over his words as he looked at her, making Emma blush a little. Why was she blushing? There was no need for that, no need at all.
“Right.”
Behind them, there was another angry roar.
“We really should get going, though,” Asher said, jerking a thumb back toward the quarry. “I don’t think Doran is going to be too happy with us. Now that his secret is out, and we escaped, he’s in extreme jeopardy. Which is going to make him mad. He’ll do anything to try and stop us from getting back.”
Emma nodded. That made sense. If the guy back there was exposed, then he could be taken down, his plot foiled by Asher. “Right. Okay. Yeah. Let’s go.” She paused. “Where are we going?”
“The one place we’ll be safe,” Asher said. “Where he won’t be able to get to us until we’ve figured this all out.”
“Right.” Emma looked around. “Where’s that again?”
“My house.”
Emma nodded. “Your house. That seems smart.” She bit her lip. “Right. That makes sense. Do we, do we fly there?” she asked, still not sure she was believing herself. “Is that the plan?”
Asher smiled. “No. I can’t risk flying, not when it’s lights out, even with the storm. People could see me, and that would be bad news. Can’t get spotted. We’ll have to go by car.”
Emma glanced back through the trees at the quarry. “But your car is back there.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “But yours isn’t.”
“Oh. Oh…okay.” She shrugged and started off. “Guess we’d better go. We have a bit of a walk in front of us, don’t we?”
Asher came alongside her easily, though he kept a bit of space between them. Emma wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Less than an hour ago, she’d been contemplating holding his hand as they walked places, wondering if that was the sort of relationship they were forming or if they were just going to end up hooking up at times, but nothing else.
Then again, an hour ago, she’d thought he was just some normal person. Not a…a shapeshifter, he’d called himself.
“Emma, this is going to take a long time at this pace,” Asher said quietly after a minute or two. “Maybe too long.”
She looked over and up at him. “Well we have no car yet. You won’t fly. What else are we supposed to do?” she asked, confused. “Can you change into a bicycle too? Can you change at will?”
Asher sputtered, alternating between looking mad and incredulous at her suggestion.
“What?” she asked, shrugging her shoulders. “Don’t look at me like that, I don’t live in your world. Did I make a stupid suggestion?”
“No, I can’t change into a bicycle!” Asher exploded at last, shaking his head even as his stomach bounced with laughter.
Emma was a little self-conscious. She didn’t know what his talents were. What he could do. How was she supposed to know better?
“Sorry,” Asher said, noting her dark look.
“So, do you just do lizard-man then?” she challenged.
“Lizard-man.” Asher grinned. “No, that was in fact a sort of hybrid. A half-and-half between my two forms.”
“Your two forms? What’s your other form then?” she asked, crossing her arms in a defensive act, feeling silly about her earlier suggestion. Of course, he couldn’t change into a bicycle! How absurd!
“If I step closer, are you going to be scared of me?” Asher asked instead, suddenly frowning, looking impatient. She could just imagine him wanting
to tap his foot at her.
“Uh. I don’t know,” she said honestly. “This is still…this is a lot. Are you going to go fifty-cent on me?”
Asher blinked slowly. “What?”
“Sorry, bad joke. Fifty-percent of the way. Like your half-change thing again?” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m really not taking this well.”
“Actually, I think you’re taking it really well,” Asher countered. “I don’t have a lot of experience, or any, truthfully. But you’re here, talking to me, you haven’t run off or gone catatonic. So, I’d say you’re doing fairly well, considering what you’ve just experienced.”
“Oh. Um. Thanks?” she said with a smile.
“But no, I’m not going to shift at all. I just…well my powers come with other abilities.”
“Like what?” she asked suspiciously.
“Strength. Reflexes. Endurance.”
“Meaning?”
Asher sighed, stepped forward and without asking, scooped her up into his arms. “Meaning we need to make better time,” he said, taking off at a run.
With her. Like she weighed nothing. Emma had known that Asher was strong, but this was different. He ran upright, holding her casually, at a pace most humans would struggle to move at unencumbered.
And when they hit a straight patch, he went even faster. A sprinter would be hard pressed to keep up with Asher at this rate. Yet he motored along, not even breathing hard.
“Well, this certainly is faster,” she was forced to admit. “Though not the smoothest of rides. Maybe the next time you go in, ask if they have new shocks.”
Asher glared at her, but there was no heat behind it. “Very funny,” he muttered, ducking low under a branch.
“You really aren’t human, are you?” she asked, reaching up to hold onto his neck. It was more comfortable if she tucked herself into him.
Asher didn’t object.
“No,” he said. “I’m only half-human.”
He felt so real against her, his bare skin to her face and arms. So normal, so masculine and good-looking. The strength in his arms as he held her still, the bulge of his biceps, though they barely seemed under strain.
“Half-human,” she repeated.
“Yes.”
“What’s the other half then, Asher? What was it you were on your way to becoming back there? With the red? Did I see you spit fire by the way?” she asked, sitting upright in his arms.
“Yeah, another perk of my powers.”
“What are you?” she asked, half-amazed, half-terrified. Only shock was really and truly keeping her calm. Perhaps too calm. “What will you be if you change completely?”
Asher sighed. “I’m a dragon.”
Emma’s mouth hung open as they raced through the forest.
“Oh.”
It was all she could think of to say.
Chapter Thirty
Asher
He reached up to wipe water away from his face, but it was pointless. As soon as his hand moved, he was immediately reduced to tiny slits of eyes, blinking rapidly to keep the water clear from them.
Slowing down wasn’t an option, of course. They were deep in the mountains now, the storm punishing them as they drove. Emma was in the backseat, huddled low to try and avoid the worst of it, but he knew the entire interior was soaked. She would perhaps be better off, but it wouldn’t be by much at all.
They were close though. Clan Aterna’s house was no more than a few miles up the road. If they could just make it there without incident, they would be safe.
Asher focused his attention forward, yanking his wandering mind back to reality. The reality that he was driving at near breakneck speeds through the twisting, winding mountains roads, in the middle of a brutal thunderstorm and driving rain, in a tiny car, with no windshield.
It was not one of his finer moments, but he really had no choice. Doran was still out there, somewhere. The man seemed to be going crazy with the decisions he made, and Asher couldn’t rule out that he would be flying through the storm, waiting for them.
Lightning flashed, lighting up the north sky for a moment, then darkness closed back in around them. Thankfully, it was still daytime, so it wasn’t truly dark, and he could see by the ambient light that made it through the clouds, not just the headlights of Emma’s car.
It gave him visibility into the skies around them, limited though it may be from the rain and the lack of windshield to keep his eyes clear. Still, it gave him a bit more of an advantage, and right then, with his precious cargo, Asher would take every bit he could get.
“H-how much farther?” Emma asked from the backseat, teeth clattering.
She was soaked to the bone, and still deep in shock, the adrenaline likely still pumping in her system. Asher needed to get her inside, and dried off, before she got sick. There could be no delays this last little bit here. It wasn’t exactly a race against the clock, but he wasn’t going to slow down either.
“Not far,” he rumbled anxiously, his protective instincts kicking into overdrive as she shivered loudly some more. He had the car’s system blasting heat, but this high up in the mountains, the water and air were combining to be rather chilly indeed, and in her thin pants and short-sleeve shirt, she wasn’t exactly dressed for warmth.
I should have gotten her a change of clothing at her house.
It wasn’t the first time Asher had bashed himself for rushing her out of there, but if Doran was her employer, then he knew where she lived. It was the first place he likely would have gone to try and intercept them.
“Asher, I’m cold,” Emma moaned.
“I know. We’re almost there,” he said, whipping around another corner, rain splattering inside the car and across his face. “Literally almost there. Two miles, if that.”
“Can we take a quick detour to a sandy beach near the ocean?” she quipped. “I won’t be long, I promise. Just enough to bake myself and thaw out the extremities.”
She still had her sense of humor, which was good, even as her teeth chattered slightly through the words.
“Oh, of course. We’ll be just in time for afternoon mimosas as well,” he said. “But remember what happened the last time you had a few too many of those.”
There was a pause. “Actually no, I don’t remember.”
“Exactly,” he said, and they both laughed.
She was going to be okay.
At the same moment that relieved thought entered his mind, they came around the final bend.
“Home sweet home,” he rumbled, pulling up to the gate and blasting the horn. “Open up!” he bellowed at the microphone. “Now!”
A moment later, the gate began to slide open. Asher’s truck had a radio chip in it that would automatically open the gate upon approach from either side, but he’d had to slow and wait for someone to wave them through.
He brought the car to a halt in the courtyard and raced around to open the door for Emma even as cold rain beat down on his bare back. He could ignore the slight chill, his elevated body temperature would ward it off, and if not, he simply had to concentrate a bit to increase it some more.
“I can walk,” she said, brushing him off as he tried to lift her from the car. “I’m freezing and still trying to process if this is reality or not, but I can walk.”
Asher pulled back, realizing she needed this. Emma needed to do things on her own, to re-establish herself in the world, to ensure that she wasn’t in some sort of dream. Normal tasks would help ground her. Like walking.
“Sure. Come on, let’s get you out of the rain,” he said, gesturing to the front door.
Logan, his protégé Pace, and several other clan members had gathered at the door by this point, but Asher waved them off with a warning look.
Not yet, he mouthed at his brother as they passed inside, mentally urging Logan to keep everyone off his back until they could get settled in. Only once Emma was taken care of, and either asleep or ready to talk, would he have time for the rest of his family. Until then,
she was his priority. Nothing else. No one else.
They went up a flight of stairs, and he showed her to a guest room. “Here,” he said, opening the door and letting her precede him in.
“Nice digs,” she commented, looking at the view out the window, craning her head to look up at the mountain as it loomed above. “Shower is there,” he said, pointing through a door, and then at a dresser. “Clothes are in there. Smaller ones on top. Um, it’s probably just sweats and socks. No underwear, sorry.”
She waved a hand. “It’s fine. Warm and dry is all I care about right now. Thank you so much, Asher.”
He nodded. “It’s the least I could do after getting you into the situation in the first place.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “You didn’t get me into it. Neither of us had any idea. We walked into that trap together, buster. Don’t think you get to take all the blame. I had expected to point him out to you, then let the two of you talk. We were at my work after all. What could go wrong, why should I be afraid when I knew everyone there? No, this wasn’t your fault. I hold no blame.”
He smiled. Maybe she wasn’t still in shock. Her brain seemed to be operating rationally.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll let you be. You can get changed, showered, whatever you want. My room is three doors down on the other side of the hall. My name is on the door itself.”
Flashing her one last grin that he hoped was reassuring, Asher backed out of the door.
“Wait.”
He paused, the door half closed. “Yes?”
“Are you…are you going to be far?”
He frowned. “I told you. Three doors down, on the left-hand side of the hall. I’ll be there so you can have some privacy here, do your thing.”
Emma bit her lip, then shook her head. “That’s…that’s not quite what I meant,” she said quietly.
Asher didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
There was a momentary silence.
“Well. I’ve been thinking,” Emma said, demonstrating more signs that she wasn’t as shocked as he’d expected. “You wouldn’t have brought me here if you didn’t trust the rest of your family with my safety, right?”
