She sat on the edge of her bed, listening to the women and Mick talk, and found the pounding in her head was much louder when she was closed off from everyone’s chatter.
That’s when it happened.
An odd tingle in her feet that swept up along her body, reaching the top of her head only to swoop back down to her toes again. Pinpricks stabbed at her skin, and a strange crunching noise resounded in her ears.
The back of her sweater exploded outward with such force, it dropped her to the bed like someone had placed a hand on her back and pushed her.
But she popped right back up due to the bulk of something heavy pressing into her spine, contorting it until her heart raced and she felt faint—dizzy.
A loud whirring noise thumped in her ears, a flapping, like the unfurling of a boat’s sail.
And then whatever force was with her in the room propelled her from the bed, shooting her forward so hard that if she hadn’t held her hands up, she would’ve cracked her head against the far wall. She fell to the floor in a heap, unable to move from the heaviness weighing down her spine.
Nina began pounding on the door and yelling—the ruckus foggy and distant. “Tessa! What the fuck is going on in there? Open the fucking door!”
Now Mick was banging, too. She heard his worry, the tension in his voice, but she couldn’t get up off the floor. “T? Tessa, open the door!”
“Move!” she heard Nina yell before the entire doorframe crumbled in bits of splintered wood and chunks of broken wood.
Two vampire-mutilated doors down, she mused before trying once more to get to her feet.
Mick’s face was the first thing she saw. Handsome, big, beautiful Mick. Would there ever be a time she didn’t love him? Would she ever find someone who filled the void in her like Mick did? Who made her toes curl like he did?
He looked stunned.
In fact, they all did. Marty, Nina, and Wanda all had astonished looks on their faces.
And what the hell was keeping her from standing up?
She gave it her all, rocking forward only to fall back.
Fall back on something.
Something bulky.
At first there was silence as four faces with eyes like saucers stared at her.
Nina was the first to speak. She looked at Mick and slapped him on the back. “Aw, look, Fireman Mick, you’re not so alone after all, huh?”
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move.
She had wings.
Big, big wings.
Enormous flappy things that wouldn’t allow her to stand upright for the weight of them.
Marty hunched down beside her and ran a finger over the edge of them, making Tessa scrunch her eyes shut as an odd sensation coursed through her veins. “They’re beautiful—gossamer. I know this is going to sound vapid and utterly shallow, but the green veins running through them, the touch of gold and purple here and there suit your coloring, Tessa. Lovely.”
Nina tugged on Marty’s long, carefully highlighted blond hair. “Vain and shallow in the lead.”
Marty made a face. “I’m just trying to make her feel better, big mouth.”
Nina gave Marty a shove with the flat of her hand. “She can’t even stand up with them, Marty. Who gives a shit if they’re in her color wheel, moron?”
Mick knelt down beside Tessa and peered into her eyes—eyes she was sure were glazed over. “Did you have a headache, too?”
No. No headache. Just a weird pounding in her head. How had this happened? “No! I never even touched the stuff. I put the packet in the bathroom at the store. By the shower, just like I told you I did. I never saw it again after that.”
Mick shook his head, the lines in his forehead creasing. “I don’t get it.”
She grabbed his arm and held on tight—because he felt real. “When do these . . . when do they go away?”
Mick winced. “Mine went away shortly after Nina left to bring you home.”
“They just disappear? Just like that?”
He looked away, past her shoulder. He was struggling to speak in the same way he’d done when he’d had to tell her Noah was killed. That meant something bad happened to make his wings go away.
She twisted his arm. “What is it? Just say it, Mick!”
“It hurts a little when they go away.”
“Explain hurts.”
“Worse than a cut, but probably not as bad as an appendectomy without anesthesia.”
Tessa blanched. But if Mick could do it, so could she. Hadn’t that been her childhood mantra? All her life, she was always trying to keep up with Mick and Noah. “Okay. Help me up.”
With two hands, he pulled her upright, steadying her when she began to wobble to and fro like a drunk. She clung to Mick’s forearms to keep from pitching forward. “They’re so heavy.” And enormous. She saw the span of them from the corner of her eye, filling up her bedroom. They were greater than the width of her annihilated bedroom door.
Mick edged around her, passing her to Nina, who gripped her forearms. “I’m going to try something so we can get you through the door,” he said.
“Chainsaw?” she suggested.
Mick didn’t answer. Instead, she felt his hand, but not on her limbs—on her new appendages. He used gentle fingers, running them over the edges of membrane.
Oh.
Oh. My.
Hot tingles coursed through parts of her that should not be tingling. A slow simmer began in her belly, molten like lava, stirring, churning as Mick fingered her wings.
Tessa fought a gasp that came out as a sputter. “Ssstop,” she whisper-yelled, horrified once more.
Mick snatched his hands away. “Did I hurt you?”
No. On the contrary. Just that feathery-wisp of a touch had caressed her forbidden parts. As though Mick were touching all the places on her body meant to bring pleasure—the parts of her she’d had dreams about him touching since she was a teenager.
When Mick tried to touch her again, she shivered. “Stop!” she yelped, ignoring his question about whether he’d hurt her. “Let Nina do it—or Marty, you big oaf. You’re about as subtle as a bull in a china shop!” He had to stop touching her now or she’d pass out or confess something she’d rather die than confess. Yelling was what they did. Baiting him was what she did. Calling him names, making fun of his size. It was how she’d survived all these years he’d ignored her. It was her wall.
“Here,” Wanda said, crawling along the floor, over Tessa’s feet, and behind Mick. “Let me help.” She placed her hands on the wings, and waited. “Are you okay, Tessa? Am I hurting you?”
Taking a deep breath, Tessa nodded. Wanda’s hands were like a cooling balm, soothing the raw nerves now connected to her back. She swallowed hard. “Better. Thank you, Wanda.”
Mick grunted, ducking out and down to the floor, where Tessa watched his large body deftly navigate back out into the living room.
Wanda somehow managed to coax the wings to fold inward, like stuffing a poufy wedding dress back into its original box. She held them together while Nina guided Tessa back out into the living room.
The large mirror on the wall beside her front door beckoned her, calling her to look—to see the proof that this was real. Her eyes fixed on her reflection. She blinked.
She had wings.
What was next, a forked tongue and a deal with DreamWorks?
Mick came to stand behind her, holding his hands up so as not to touch. His face was a mixture of awe and wonder. “Holy shit.”
“I don’t understand. How did this happen to me, too?”
He shook his dark head, his longish hair falling around his face. “I don’t know, Tessa. I still can’t wrap my head around how it happened to me.” Reaching around the front of her, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
It was rare moments like this, like after her brother’s funeral, when Mick was at his strongest—when he wasn’t teasing her or browbeating her with his imaginary job as her keeper—that she knew he only w
anted what was best for her. That he was only doing what Noah had asked him to do. Watch over her. Protect her.
She squeezed his hand back, letting it go so she wouldn’t linger. “So, we’re in this together. Let’s figure it out, because we can’t wander around town with wings. I think people might point and stare.”
He chuckled. “I think that’s fair. You can’t even stand up without help. We’d better figure this out soon before you fall on your ugly mug.”
Everything was back to normal. She took another deep breath and fought to parse the transaction with the client she’d found the spice for. He’d been so nice. Very pleasant, had an accent. In fact, he was very British.
“British! The client I ordered the spice for was British.”
Wanda nodded, an encouraging smile on her face. “Oh, that’s good, Tessa! How did he pay you? Maybe we can track him through his bank account?”
Tessa frowned. No. She’d thought it odd at the time, but it was ten thousand dollars she really needed to stay afloat. “He sent cash. Via a courier.”
Mick looked over her head and into her eyes still reflected in the mirror. “And you didn’t question that, T? A cash deal? What if he was a drug dealer? Or laundering money?”
No, she hadn’t questioned it. Money was tight. She had enough trouble keeping the store up and running in the slow months that the offer of ten thousand dollars for some research and her time was too tempting to second-guess. But she couldn’t tell Mick the store was floundering.
He’d never shut up about it. He’d give her the “See?” speech. The one that went, “Should have stayed in college, Tessa. Your love of all things old and smelly isn’t going to earn you a living. A degree will. I told you it was a stupid idea to take all that insurance money Noah left and invest it in a store.”
“It never occurred to me that drugs had anything to do with it. I do large cash purchases for clients all the time.”
Mick’s lips thinned into a flat line. “For furniture. Not spices, Tessa. And you wonder why I’m always checking up on you? Jesus.”
Nina poked him in the back. “Hey, big brother. Lay off, huh? She’s got wings. Stop being an asshole know-it-all and focus on the point.”
Tessa stuck her tongue out at Mick.
Marty came around and blocked her view of her reflection. “What was this spice supposed to be for anyway, Tessa? Who cooks anything with an ingredient that’s worth ten thousand dollars?”
She shook her head, frustrated with not only her stupidity but her inability to remember much more than the promise of a ten-thousand-dollar finder’s fee. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask him if he was going to cook with it. I’d never even heard of it before. I asked around in an antiques forum online. A guy messaged me and said he could hook me up—and he did. I sent the dealer a good-faith deposit, and the spice showed up today.”
“That’s good!” Marty coaxed, massaging Tessa’s hands. “So who was the guy you messaged with online? Didn’t you have to send him the deposit via a bank account?”
Tessa shook her head. “No. He disappeared after he gave me the name of the dealer he thought might have the spice. Never saw him online again. Come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing him before that day, either. I’m familiar with most dealers and their user IDs. But he’s unimportant. The person I obtained the spice from is important. I mean, who has something that turns you into a dragon just lying around?” What had she done? Had she been some kind of mule, transporting an illegal substance?
Was there even a law that prevented you from carrying dragon powder?
Her stomach turned. “But here’s the real question. Why does someone want a spice, or whatever that powdery stuff was, that will turn people into dragons? It’s insane.”
Mick flipped through his phone. “I think it’s safe to say this wasn’t a spice, Tessa. What was it called?”
“I can’t remember. It was some crazy bunch of letters I couldn’t pronounce, but all that information burned in the fire with my laptop.” She sounded more stupid by the second.
“Perfect,” he muttered with the thick sarcasm he knew tripped her trigger.
“You know what, Mick? It doesn’t help with you hounding me. All of my paperwork was back at the store. The store you burned down with your big mouth because you can’t keep your grubby paws off what doesn’t belong to you!”
Mick’s eyes narrowed. “The store I burned down because you had some kind of crazy drug with no name, from some unknown person, a person who wants a pet dragon. Is it me, or does the buck begin with you, princess?”
Her anger spiked, racing along her spine, making her head throb harder. She made a move to approach him and throw a finger in his face when she stumbled, wobbling from the heavy weight of her wings.
Her wings.
Wanda ran to her rescue, tilting her back up and smiling at her. “I know this is hard for you, honey. I understand you’re confused and exhausted by the day’s events. All of the yelling”—she gave Mick the eye—“is unnecessary. So if all parties with fingers to point don’t stop pointing, someone’s going to lose their pointer.”
Tessa stuck her tongue out at Mick once more, just like they were kids again.
Wanda clucked her tongue. “Not helping, Tessa.”
She let her gaze fall to the floor, contrite. “Sorry.”
“Okay, so as it stands now, we need to find the name of the dealer who cashed your check—or you need to go to the bank and find out the name of his bank. Do you have those records? Can’t you check online?”
They lived in Podunk Vermont with one bank to the town’s name. And they certainly didn’t have online banking. “His information was at the store, too. I know I entered his name into my computer as a potential dealer who handles rare inquiries. But we’ll have to go to the bank to find out where the check was cashed because I won’t have anything other than his phone number. And I can’t go looking like this.”
They all fell quiet again until her phone jingled from her jacket pocket, breaking the palpable silence.
“Better get that,” Mick cooed. “It might be a text from your boyfriend.”
It wasn’t her boyfriend. She’d dumped him and just let Mick think he was still her boyfriend, and she’d let him think that with smug satisfaction. Tessa struggled to move, but Nina grabbed the phone from Tessa’s jacket and handed it to Wanda.
Tessa took it, scrolling through her text messages. Her eyes widened. The last text was from someone she didn’t recognize. “I’d like to drop by tonight and pick up the spice you ordered for me. Please text me at your convenience.”
She held up the phone, showing Wanda the text. “It’s him! He wants to pick up the spice tonight.”
Mick was already grabbing what was left of his charred coat. “Text him back and ask him when.”
Nina put her hand on Mick’s chest. “Hold up, fireman. You don’t know if this dude’s some kinda kook. You’re not going alone. We’ll go with.”
Mick scanned her length with his skeptical eyes. “What if he’s violent?”
Nina cracked her knuckles and grinned. “Then it’ll be good times.”
Mick blustered, always the knight in shining armor. “I can’t allow a bunch of women to meet up with some strange man who could be dangerous. Not gonna happen.”
Nina rose on tiptoe and stuck her finger under Mick’s nose. “Did you really just say that to me, King Kong? To us?”
Realization crossed his face and he backed away. “Sorry. I keep forgetting.”
Nina yanked the phone from Tessa’s hand and texted back to the unknown number.
Tessa couldn’t get a handle on Nina. If the vampire wasn’t going to suck her soul from her very body, what purpose did it serve for her to be so helpful? What was she getting out of this? “Why are you helping us?”
Nina made a face. “Because those two make me.”
Marty grinned and tweaked Nina’s cheek. “That’s not true and you know it. You love this as much as
we do. You just express your love with filthy words and threats. To know Nina is to eventually love the devil’s twin.”
The camaraderie of these women, the way they’d taken charge of some complete strangers’ situation like they were longtime friends, floored her.
Nina held up the phone, her expression stoic and above all, calm. “We’re good to go for eight o’clock.”
* * *
TESSA drew a ragged breath, sweat pouring down her face in rivulets of salty water.
Holy hell.
Mick rocked her, tucking her close against the sooty smell of his burned shirt. “You okay?”
If they could always just be like this, she’d be forever okay. But she couldn’t—because he’d never go for it. She was Noah’s little sister. End of story. Tessa lingered in Mick’s embrace for only a moment before pushing away from him and nodding. “Definitely not as bad as an appendectomy without anesthesia. No big deal.”
He chuckled, cupping her jaw and wiping her forehead with the cool cloth Wanda handed him. “It’s a little rough.”
Stretching her arms, she was happy to be erect again without help from their new cohorts. Her wings had decided to disappear without warning, and quite violently. But if Mick could take the pain of it, so could she. “Do you think it’ll always be like this? Hurt like that?”
Mick’s angular face went dark. “Jesus, I hope not.”
“Nina said there’s no changing it. We’ll always be like this.”
“You know, I was thinking about that. Technically, we’re only half dragon. We have wings. But did you see when Marty did that thing . . . the . . .”
Tessa nodded, swallowing a hard gulp. “The shift. That’s what she called it.”
“Right. Shift. She was all werewolf. She didn’t have a single human property left to her. Why didn’t we change fully? You know, like the pictures of dragons we grew up with?”
“Good point.” She paused as another horrifying thought crossed her mind. “Wait. You don’t think we’re going to turn into full-on dragons, do you? Like roaring, scaly, live-in-a-cave, fire-breathing dragons?”
Mick held up his hands. “I’m just gonna be honest here when I tell you, I have no idea what happens from here. But if they can be werewolves and vampires, I don’t see a limit on this paranormal thing.”
The Accidental Dragon Page 5
