Aroused In Fire (Curse 0f The Dragon Book 2)

by Jadyn Chase

  Her eyebrows flew up. “You must be some pretty powerful evidence if you think that’s right. What makes you think they survived?”

  Jackie shook his head. “We can’t tell you that. I’m sorry, Rosie. It’s not that we don’t trust you, but it’s strictly confidential.”

  “Okay.” She put the beads down and turned all her attention on the twins. “So, what’s the mystery you want me to solve?”

  Jake held up both hands. “Just imagine…. for the sake of argument…..that one of these Sheltons got transformed into a…..a mythical creature—a dragon, say. Imagine that injury, or near-injury, could trigger the transformation and he could change back and forth to protect himself from harm. What do you think of that? Can you think of any charm or spell that could do that to a man?”

  She gaped at them for a minute. I held my breath waiting to hear what she would say. Part of me hoped to High Heaven she believed it. Another part of me dared not dream of that. The whole story sounded too preposterous to repeat aloud.

  Sure enough, she woke from her stupor and snorted with laughter. “Cut it out! You guys are always pranking me.”

  The brothers looked at each other. Then Jackie forced a grin. “You’re right. It’s just a joke.”

  Jake frowned, but he wound up drifting away. He went into a corner by himself and started flipping through some books bedecked with witches and demons on the covers. Jackie took something out of his pocket.

  I saw my chance and eased toward the counter. “So, your name is Rosie. How do you come to be on this side of the pond?”

  A glorious smile burst across her face. “I came over here for a year after I finished school. I just wanted to get out and see some of the world and I got stuck here. Now I own this store, so I suppose I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

  My eyes widened. “You own this store?” I surveyed my surroundings more closely.

  She blushed and lowered her eyelids in the most exquisite way. “I know it’s not what you would call a real job, but it pays the bills. It lets me spend most or all of my time thinking about fantasy and witches and crystals and magic and…..and dragons and stuff. It’s not anything to write home about, but I enjoy it.”

  She fascinated me and not just because she knew something about dragons. “Don’t tell me you don’t write home. Your parents must be worried sick about you.”

  She laughed again. What a delightful, charming, disarming laugh she had. She fluttered her eyelashes and her cheeks turned a darker shade of pink. “That’s not what I meant. I just meant it’s not what my parents had in mind when they sent me to university. I write to them all the time and we skype almost every week.”

  I didn’t understand and I didn’t care. I wanted to talk to her and keep on talking to her. All my problems seemed so minuscule in her presence. “Do you have a family name, Rosie?”

  “It’s Crockett.” She beamed at me. “Rosie Crockett.”

  I pursed my lips to stop myself from laughing along with her. “Crockett. How utterly American of you.”

  She laughed a third time. She kept sneaking glances at me and looking away. “Do you have a name?”

  I swept my arm in front of my chest and bowed. “My name is Alex. Alexander Lin…..”

  Jackie smacked my shoulder hard enough to startle me alert. I jumped ready to return his attack before I realized what I was doing. I turned back to Rosie. “Just Alex.”

  “Well, Just Alex, where did you come from? You have a Kentish accent. You must be from around here.”

  Before I could say a word, Jake hurtled across the room. He grabbed me under one armpit and Jackie nabbed the other. “Sorry about the bother, Rosie,” Jake exclaimed. “Must dash. Ta ta.”

  They forced me out of the shop and onto the footpath and shoved me toward the car. “I told you not to talk to anyone about yourself,” Jackie snarled. “What do you mean, making eyes at her like that? Are you trying to get us all killed?”

  I struggled to right myself against their mistreatment. “Unhand me, scoundrel! I was just talking to her.”

  “You almost told her your name, you monstrous great twit! What the fuck were you thinking?”

  I pulled myself up and straightened my waistcoat—except I wasn’t wearing a waistcoat. “I’ll thank you to speak to me with a modicum of respect in the future, young man.”

  He moved his mouth within an inch of my nose and whispered low. He annunciated every word with brutal, pointed emphasis. “I’ll speak to you with a modicum of respect when you learn to behave in a way that earns that respect, young Alex. You may have been lord of the manor back when, but right now, you’re nowt but a homeless twat without a penny to your name. Let me make this as clear as clear can be to you, Alex, old boy. Me and Jake here are the only things keeping you from a cold and lonely grave in the great English countryside. If I say not to flap your precious gob at the local birds about who you are and where you come from, do yourself and the world a whopping great favor and keep your mouth shut!”

  He stormed off to the car, flung himself into the passenger seat, and slammed the door hard enough to shake the whole vehicle.

  I cowered in misery on the footpath not knowing what to do. He was absolutely, one hundred percent right. I let my social position go to my head—my former social position, I should say. I was no gentleman—not anymore. I was nothing. I was worse than nothing. I was a liability to the only two people on the planet who cared at all about keeping me alive. I threw their hospitality and their generosity back in their faces—and for what? To pass the time of day with a girl I knew nothing about.

  Did I dare approach that car in the distant hope they would take me back to their farm? I wouldn’t blame them if they abandoned me right here and now. In answer to my worst fears, Jackie threw open the door and jerked his chin at me. “Get in and don’t let me catch you playing up like that again.”

  I dove for the opening and plunged in back. Jake started the motor and drove home. When he parked in front of the house, the two brothers sat still and silent for a long time. They stared at nothing through the window. I dared not break the silence to ask if anything was the matter. I was the matter.

  At last, Jackie heaved a broken sigh. “We’ll have a look around on the internet and see if we can find anything. Maybe later, Jake and I can go back to the shop and question Rosie on her own without you there.”

  “Why do you want to question her?” I asked. “What can she do?”

  “She knows more about magic and witchcraft than anyone,” Jake murmured. “If anyone knows how you got turned into that…. that thing, it’s her.”

  I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. If someone had asked me to describe a woman who dabbled in magic and witchcraft, I certainly wouldn’t have described anyone as enticing as…..

  Rosie Crockett. Her charming magnificence enthralled me even now. Was that part of her magic? Did she cast a spell over me? What drivel, Shelton! The woman wasn’t a witch. She simply enjoyed the mystique of the eclectic arts—nothing more. At least, I hoped so.

  Jackie kicked his door open and swung out. Jake followed and I floundered to escape my metal prison. The three of us approached the barn, but before we got there, Jake lunged for his brother and held him back. “Hold up! We’re not taking him back inside.”

  “Why ever not?” Jackie asked. “We’ve got to put him somewhere for the night where Dad won’t find him. The cave’s our only option.”

  “What if he shifts again?” Jake fired back. “He could destroy the whole building.”

  “What do you suggest?” Jackie returned. “If we hide him in the woods, he’s more likely to get hurt and shift there. He could fly off to bloody Tasmania and wake up in the bushes there. Nothing can happen to him in the cave.”

  “He could get bitten by a mouse,” Jake suggested. “He could get up in the night needing to see a man about a dog. He could stumble and munt his shin on the blummin’ cot and that’d be the end of it all.”

 
“And if we leave him out?” Jackie countered. “What will you do if a stoat comes and bites him on the arse in the middle of the night and he shifts and burns down the house with Mum and Dad inside?”

  I held up my forefinger, but I hesitated to interrupt this learned discourse. “Um, excuse me, lads, but if I may….”

  Neither of them paid any attention or showed any indication they had heard me. “It’s easy for you to talk about him burning the house down,” Jake argued. “You’re not the one as had to explain to Dad how the fence and the shed got burned down in the first place.”

  “Whose chain are you yanking now?” Jackie thundered. “I was in the bloody room when he asked. He asked me as much as you?”

  “And you sat there saying nowt while I had to try to explain it,” Jake snapped.

  “You had to do no such thing!” Jackie retorted. “If you’d kept your piehole shut the way I did, you wouldna had to explain shite. You could have said you didn’t know how it happened and he’d be none the wiser.”

  “You’re a right fanny if you think he’d fall for that,” Jake fumed. “What did you think—that he would let both of us just sit there slack-jawed saying, ‘Nope, don’t know nofin about no fire’? You’re barmy, you are.”

  I dove in boots and all. “Excuse me, lads, but I really must insist that I sleep outside. Jake is right and I wouldn’t want to do any more damage than I already have. If you think it will help, I’ll speak to your father myself and own up that I was the one who……”

  “No, you won’t!” They both rounded on me at the same moment and bellowed to silence me. They immediately whirled around to gape at each other. Then they simultaneously rounded on me and barked, “You’re sleeping in the bloody cave.”

  I looked back and forth between them, unsure what to think about this bizarre behavior. Before I could decide, Jackie sliced his finger through the air. “Get inside and don’t even think about going near no more sheep.”

  6

  Rosie

  I locked the shop door and turned around to walk to my favorite lunch spot when I saw him. That tall, blonde-haired guy from the other day strolled along Marine Parade gazing out at the sea. His distant eyes made me pause.

  He sure was handsome with a piercing way of looking straight through a person—or maybe he only did that to me. He waltzed into my life and erased everything around him. The whole time I talked to him, I kept thinking I should be paying more attention to the Whitlock twins. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, though.

  He could smooth-talk anybody. He had an easy, alluring quality that put me at ease, but his strange manner sparked my curiosity. He presented a mystery I wanted to solve.

  I shouldn’t go over there. He looked like he wanted to think. I could relate. I couldn’t remember how many times I walked along Marine Parade looking out at the sea exactly the way he did right now. That distant line of the horizon seemed to answer any problem anybody could think of.

  I made up my mind to walk away and leave him alone, but at that moment, he turned around and saw me. A tiny smile came to his lips, but he didn’t wave or approach. For a second, we just regarded each other across the street.

  My mind went blank and I fell back into that hypnotic trance he cast over me at the shop counter. Who was he? He looked like any normal guy on the outside, but he wasn’t any normal guy. I knew that with one glance.

  Then, for no apparent reason, we both started walking toward each other at the same moment. I checked back and forth between the traffic and dodged across the road to the Parade.

  He burst into a big grin. “Rosie Crockett from America.”

  I smirked back at him. “Just Alex.”

  He broke into a hearty laugh. “Jake and Jackie tell me you’re the local expert in witchcraft and black magic.”

  The blood rushed to my cheeks. “Just magic—not black magic.”

  “Is there a difference?”

  “Of course. Black magic uses any power to get anything you want, including more power. I don’t do that. I use magic only for good. I use it to help people.”

  He raised his eyebrows and cast a sidelong peek my way. “Is that so?”

  Without agreeing on it, we both started ambling side by side down Marine Parade. We looked out to sea while we talked. “That’s right. I wouldn’t use it for anything else. You have to be careful with powers like that. It’s very important that they only be used for the benefit of all. Otherwise, they have a tendency to spiral out of control. They can take over and ruin everybody’s lives.”

  He cocked his head and nodded peering straight into my eyes. He didn’t laugh or make snide remarks about it, so he must have been a very unusual guy. He listened with interest like he really wanted to know.

  “If that’s the case, I can understand why Jake and Jackie think so much of you. I understand now why they came to you with their little problem.”

  I shrugged. Every time he looked at me like that, I experienced a wave of thrilling embarrassment. “I don’t know that Jake and Jackie think so much of me. They just like coming into the shop and talking about fantasy stuff like dragons and warlocks and stuff like that. It’s a lark to them.”

  “I’m not so sure. They seem serious enough about their research.”

  I snorted. “Of course they are.”

  He inclined his head the other way. “Do you happen to know exactly what their research is? I can’t make it out myself, but then again, I don’t have their knowledge on subjects like that.”

  “I have no idea what their research is. I’ve known them for over six years and I still can’t get them to talk about it. They keep it a closely guarded secret. You’re probably the only person alive who has seen inside their secret laboratory.”

  He nodded again and fell into a reverie watching the ocean heave.

  I didn’t know what to say to him, but I wanted to draw him back into conversation. He fascinated me in a way I couldn’t understand. “I wouldn’t put too much stock in their research. They’re nice boys, but they let their imaginations run away with them sometimes. Take that story they told me the other day about a man turning into a dragon and the Sheltons being kept alive all these years. It’s ridiculous.”

  He swung around to stare at me. “Do you really think so?”

  “Of course!” I blurted out. “How could anyone put the Sheltons to sleep for two hundred years and keep them hidden in the tunnels? For one thing, people have been all over those tunnels since they were first dug. No one could have hidden anyone down there without them being found.”

  “What about the second level?” he asked. “Jackie says it’s lost to modern knowledge. They could have been hidden there without being found.”

  “If they had been,” I countered, “they would have starved to death by now. Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, they were put to sleep and stashed in the tunnels, even if they had been on a feeding tube or something to keep them alive, they would have aged. They would have died of natural old age long ago. Anyway, that bit about one of them turning into a dragon is malarkey. It’s impossible.”

  He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t laugh it off. He turned away and scowled over the surging tide. He got lost in the haze out where the horizon blended with the sky.

  We kept sauntering down the coast without saying anything. I could almost believe we would have gone on walking forever if I didn’t call him back.

  I laid my hand on his arm and stopped him. I rotated him toward me and scrutinized his face for any clue to his thoughts. “You don’t think it’s ridiculous or impossible, though, do you? You believe the same story. Why?”

  He shook his head and lowered his gaze. He kept drifting farther and farther out of my reach. “I’m afraid I can’t explain it in a way you would understand, but you’re right. I do believe it, much as I might wish it weren’t true.”

  “How can you believe it?” I blurted out. “It’s hogwash.”

  His mesmerizing blue eyes swiveled around and
locked on my face. When they did, a shiver went up my spine. In the fraction of an instant before he said anything, a bolt of stark dread hit me. Whatever he was about to say would change everything.

  The next instant, he opened his mouth. “I’ll probably regret saying this, Rosie, but something tells me to trust you. I believe the story because I am Alexander Lincoln Shelton. I am one of the Sheltons that disappeared from the Great Armour Hall and I have been asleep on the second level for two hundred years. I woke up three days ago and I am that dragon the lads told you about. I change into one when injured or threatened in any way. I can’t control it. I fly into a rage and it happens. It has happened twice now. It happened right in front of the twins. They both saw it. You will say it’s all impossible and it’s ridiculous and I don’t blame you in the slightest. I don’t quite know what to make of it myself.”

  I gaped at him with my mouth open. He couldn’t have just said those words out loud.

  He noticed my reaction and a sad smile touched his lips. He nodded and turned away again and we both started walking.

  Dragon? Sheltons? My brain kept repeating, Impossible.

  After another silence, he cast a fleeting glance my way. “I fear I’ve spoiled what could have been a very pleasant excursion, Rosie.”

  I snapped out of my daze. “No! It’s okay. Thank you for telling me. I understand now why the twins were asking the questions they did when they came into the shop. It explains a lot.”

  “But you still don’t believe it, do you? I must admit I agree with you. I don’t believe it even though it happened to me.”

  My hand flew to my head. “I’m not saying that. Just give me a second to understand all this.”

  We halted there for a minute. We got closer to town and the walkway crossed at a pedestrian signal to continue down the coast.

  He took the opportunity to study me. “You still don’t believe it, though, do you?”