Emma (Dark Fire)

by Cooper, Jodie B.

  Emma clenched her hands and tried to get her temper under control. He could be such an arrogant jerk. It would be nice, if he remembered, she didn’t have a clue about their mystical mumbo-jumbo.

  Touching a cool gemstone, she said, “Two-way on.”

  Even if the jewelry was a tool, he still had it made for her. He might not want to admit it, but that proved he had planned to see her again. Why else have something made specifically for her? The thought appeased her blooming temper and she tried to stop scowling.

  She had snapped and snarled all day. He probably thought she was a shrew.

  Lowering his large body to the ground, he stretched his forearm outward. “Come on Emma, everyone’s ready. Just think of my forearm as a ladder,” Tyler said, mentally speaking in her head.

  “I can hear you!” she yelped, jumping backward.

  Lowering his head, until he was near enough for her to touch, he said, “That’s the whole point of the two-way,” he sighed and a gush of warmly scented air feathered through her hair. “Otherwise, we’d never be able to hear our riders in the air. Just talk normally while on my back or up to a league away and I’ll be able to hear you. Now come on, everyone is waiting for us.”

  “We measure distance by the mile, not the league. I don’t even know how far that is,” she grumbled, glowering at him, taking in the height of his back. Even crouched on the ground, his back had to be twelve or fifteen feet high.

  The jewels had distracted her from the upcoming ride, now her fear came rushing back to her.

  His back looked slippery, not safe at all. She liked to think of herself as adventurous, but she didn’t have a death wish. Maybe she should walk. Army or no army, meeting a gun-toting soldier would be preferable to falling to her death.

  “I always carry my clan sibs anytime we go anywhere. I haven’t dropped any of them yet,” he said jokingly. “Jenna loves riding dragon back.”

  At the mention of the girl, jealousy streaked through her.

  “Yeah, but she is Tuathan. She would just bounce or something,” she grumbled, glaring at Tyler’s back, she wished there was some way out of the current mess. She didn’t want to be in the air. More importantly, she didn’t want that close to Tyler. The thought of wrapping her legs around his neck had her heart racing and not in fear.

  Tyler snorted, slightly pawing the ground. “Emma, I know you’re afraid. I won’t let you fall.”

  Shocked, she jerked her eyes up to his. “You said you couldn’t feel my emotions,” she said between clenched teeth. Darn it, she’d been trying so hard to act as if she didn’t care one way or the other. Had he felt her desire for him? Did he know how much she wanted him to like her?

  Crap, why did she have to admit she wanted him right then? Now, he knew. The thought of his pity made her feel sick, especially when she knew he didn’t feel the same way.

  Maybe, she should leave. The jeep had a nearly full tank of gas. That would be plenty to reach Tulsa. She didn’t want to spend the summer at her mom’s new house, but it was preferable than acting like an idiot over someone who didn’t want her.

  She watched his face, seeing his eyes narrow in frustration. It was amazing, but for a dragon, he had a very expressive face. “Emma, I can smell your fear.” His growl emphasized his mental words.

  “Oh, okay, sure,” she said uneasily, releasing a huge sigh of relief. It was definitely time to get a grip on her rampaging emotions. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  She tried smiling, but knew it came out as a grimace. Giving up, she took a calm breath and walked up Tyler’s arm like a ramp. Near the top, she looked down at the ground, and teetered. Her foot slipped and she fell. Her hands flew outward, one grabbing the side of his neck, the other scrabbling uselessly across his slick shoulder. A split-second of fear shot through her, taking her breath away.

  Tyler’s long tail snaked around her waist and steadied her, keeping her from falling. At nearly the same instant, his diamond shaped head whipped around and she came eye to eye with him. He tilted his head, and long black horns glinted in the evening sun. He seemed to be asking if she was okay. That’s how Emma took it anyway. She didn’t want to think about the super sharp teeth he had hidden behind his snout.

  She couldn’t feel his current emotions, but seconds earlier, the instant her heated flesh touched his scales, she felt a flash of his shock and then nothing. Lydia hadn’t said anything about feeling his emotions when she touched him. Wasn’t that just great?

  Grimacing in embarrassment, she muttered, “Thanks, I’m not exactly graceful at the best of times.”

  He nodded his head in apparent understanding and her face flushed a deeper red. If she hadn’t felt his shock at her clumsiness, she would’ve thought he wanted to be nice. Resignation settled in the pit of her stomach. Having two left feet was simply one more black mark against her. She couldn’t win for losing.

  Emma avoided Tyler’s gaze and sank onto his back, rubbing her hands across his scales. They were warm, like the scales on his muzzle, but they felt like slick pieces of steel. If she started sliding, she wouldn’t stand a chance of holding on.

  Her mind yelled at her to get off while she still had the chance. Getting caught up in a real life sci-fi thriller was not her idea of a fun filled summer.

  Twenty minutes later, they were flying over the forest, varying shades of blue and green trees covered the mountains. From her position, on Tyler’s back, she could see for miles in every direction. In the distance, she caught the glint of water.

  She chuckled, so much for her fear of flying. It was fantastic. Dragons would make a fortune just giving rides to people.

  Excitement rushed through her. She didn’t want the trip to end. She wanted to explore. She had always loved going places and doing new things, but riding a dragon, seeing the world from the sky was beyond amazing.

  There was an entire new world with thousands of new things to see. She couldn’t wait to begin discovering all the new stuff.

  More and more dragons flew across the sky. Many of them had sword-carrying warriors perched on their back. Soon, dozens of furies and gryphon joined the mix of enforcers on obvious guard duty.

  Curious about Capital City, she leaned farther over Tyler’s shoulder. Houses, buildings of every shape and size, rose for as far as she could see. Built with stone, the primary color was bluish-gray, but she could see rose and brown shades as well. Nearly all of the buildings were two or three stories high, built to take advantage of the steep mountains surrounding the lake. A few buildings soared as high as ten stories with towers jutting much higher into the evening sky. One building looked distinctly like a huge church, stained glass and everything.

  The town reminded her of what old Europe must have looked like.

  Well, except for the odd colors and the architecture. The more she thought about it, she realized the town was like crossing old England with a Spanish hacienda. The Tuathans seemed to love archways. Flowers and vines grew from every balcony. Combined with wide-open courtyards, built in the center of many homes, the houses looked welcoming.

  The sprawling town gave way to large mansions with lawns of blue grass and multi-colored trees.

  She looked up and knew without asking, the complex of spirals and hundred-foot stone archways had to be Fortress. Several dozen stories high, the massive Fortress rivaled anything on Earth. The reporters got it right for once. The whimsical castle really was bigger than Windsor Castle, vastly bigger.

  Tyler swung farther to the south, flying over a river of crystal-clear water. The entire south end of the huge castle arched over the water and continued on the other side.

  As precariously perched as she was, it shouldn’t have surprised her when her hand slipped off Tyler’s neck. She squealed and frantically grabbed for his neck, but she was already slipping sideways off his back.

  “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Tyler asked, his tone teasing as his tail wrapped around her waist, settling her firmly on his back.r />
  Shuddering, she hugged his neck. “Thanks,” she said, “I wanted to explore, but not quite that way.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said quietly as his tail slowly released her.

  Chapter - Escape Clause

  From where Emma stood, the bulk of the castle hid the sunset.

  The brilliant colored sky didn’t matter. She doubted a hurricane would’ve held her attention, not when she was so annoyed with Tyler.

  If she’d thought it once, she’d thought it a thousand times: Dragons were the most stubborn and arrogant race of people she had ever known. It was possible the other dragons didn’t act that way. She didn’t know. She hadn’t met very many, because Tyler didn’t give her the chance. He had landed on a stone balcony and quickly told her the room on the left was hers. Before she had time to ask a single question, he flew away.

  Stepping into the room, she paused. The room was spacious. That was a nice way of saying it was monstrously big with extravagant furniture and decorations. As she explored, she found a fitting room, a closet (two-times the size of her bedroom at home), and a bathroom. All of it decked-out with gold trim.

  Two more closed doors waited. She knew one door had to go to a hallway of some sort, but she couldn’t image where the second one went.

  Behind the first door, she found a spacious sitting area. At a guess, it had to be a receiving room. A door on the opposite end of the room led into a massive room five times the size of her bedroom. Decorated as lavishly as her bedroom, it had artwork lining the walls and sculptures in various nooks. The elegant room had numerous sitting areas and two fireplaces on opposite walls. A multi-layered rock fountain covered the fourth wall. Soft music played in the background. The music was the weirdest part, because the dragons didn’t have any type of technology and she didn’t see any musicians.

  The area was too big to call it a living room. The living area was – by far – more intimidating than her room. The moment she opened the door, she wished she hadn’t. Several heads turned her way. From their rigid stance along the walls, they were obviously guards. She quickly shut the door, not giving them time to say anything.

  She didn’t want to speak with anyone, not yet anyway. If Tyler harassed her about her clothes – even after seeing other people in town dressed in shorts and skirts – the people of Tuatha might think she was a harlot or something. Usually, she didn’t care what people thought of her, but she did this time.

  The situation was majorly different from going to school and getting sneers over her choice of cheap name brand clothing. At the moment, she was essentially a representative of Earth. No pressure or anything, yeah right, not much.

  She left the receiving room and carefully peeked through the last door leading from her bedroom. It was another bathroom. Just how many bathrooms did one person need?

  Crossing the opulent black and gold encrusted bathroom, she opened a second door. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but it wasn’t what she found.

  Another bedroom, one larger than her room, greeted her. That in itself was shocking. Decorated with the same color scheme, of blacks and blues, the furniture and bed had a definite masculine flavor. The black polished furniture seemed harsh when compared to the blue-tinted ivory furniture in her room.

  She inhaled Tyler’s sizzling summer scent.

  She slowly closed the door to his bedroom and went into her room. As big as the place was, she would have thought he would stick her as far away as possible, like the dungeon, not right next door to him.

  She was still trying to figure-out Tyler’s motives when the door to the receiving/living room opened. In swept a young woman, who in all her haughty splendor didn’t bother with knocking. Dressed in a floor length formal day-gown with white embroidery against light blue, she came to a halt in a swirl of material.

  Her lips curled back, and she snarled the moment she laid eyes on Emma. “What are you doing in this room? Who allowed you in here?” she demanded. Her voice was cold as winter, but her vibrant blue eyes were even colder.

  Ignoring the girl’s rude behavior, she held out her hand. “My name’s Emma.”

  Raking her cold eyes across Emma, the older teen dismissed her with a look. In that single glance, she condemned Emma as beneath her notice. A rodent or something – not someone – so low on the food chain she wasn’t worth the time of day.

  Emma lowered her hand, refusing to cower under the snotty girl’s disdain. “Tyler brought me here.”

  “He wouldn’t dare,” she hissed. Her eyes, so much like Tyler’s, brimmed with fury.

  “Well, I guess he did,” Emma said with a grin, quickly tiring of the melodrama surrounding the teenager. “He dropped me off on the balcony, pointed to this room, and said it was mine.”

  The girl made a point of leaning toward Emma and inhaling. Her nose curled up in distaste. “You’re obviously one of those people who invaded our world. Why would Tyler bring you, an obvious lower class person, here, to the Wér-Dragon’s floor. This wing is for family only.”

  Emma heard the capital letters in her arrogant statement. All it did was tick her off. She wasn’t in the mood to explain her non-relationship with Tyler, especially to the snotty girl. “Well, from the color of the sky, I think the people of Tuatha appeared on Earth, not the other way around.”

  “Impertinent whelp, do you know who I am?” the black haired egomaniac – as Emma silently began calling her – glared down her sharp nose at Emma.

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” Emma sighed with a look of pained resignation.

  Flashing her fangs, the girl snarled, “I am Lily McQuinn, eldest daughter of Lord Aaron McQuinn, The Black Wér-Dragon.”

  Emma hid a frown. That sounded suspiciously like an important title. Then she remembered Tyler said his last name was McQuinn.

  She glanced across the room, seeing it with different eyes. The room wasn’t simply lavish; it screamed very important royalty. Well, crap and curse words. That meant Tyler was probably part of the ruling family. Deep down, the minute she walked into the bedroom, she knew it, but refused to think about it. She sighed, understanding the extravagant room and more importantly, she better understood Tyler’s reaction to her.

  No wonder he had flipped-out. He was stuck with a very plain mortal mate and a commoner.

  Shoving her worries back, she let Lily gloat for several more seconds. Emma didn’t like the girl any more than Tyler’s sister liked her.

  She should behave but right then, she really didn’t care. She gave the other girl a large, fake smile. “I guess that means daughters don’t have titles or anything.” She paused, watching Lily’s face turn a splotchy red, before she continued. “As Tyler’s mate will I have a title?”

  “Mate?” Lily choked the single word out in a gasp of horror.

  “Hmm,” Emma followed her non-committal answer with a slight smile. “Why else would he put me in the room next to his?”

  The swirl of her skirts – and the slamming door – was the only sound Lily made as she stormed from the room.

  Dinnertime came and went, but Emma didn’t see anyone else. Not seeing anyone had its consequences. It meant no dinner. After missing lunch, she had looked forward to eating. She ate the granola bar, but it didn’t stop her hunger pains. At that point, she would’ve eaten whatever they served, well, almost anything. For all she knew, dragons ate live meals. The image of a squirming bunny rabbit pinned to an elegant table filled her head. It wasn’t the most appetizing thought in the world.

  She considered asking the guards in the main room, but they intimidated her too much. She still remembered their stern glares from earlier. No, not an option she wanted.

  She needed to be patient. Surely, Tyler would eventually remember she was stuck in her room. If not Tyler, maybe her uncle would ask to see her.

  With nothing else to do, Emma drifted outside. A good fifty feet in opposite directions stood two stone-faced guards. Trying to ignore them, she sighed in resignation an
d leaned against the thigh-high stone barrier that circled the wide balcony. The castle and surrounding town twinkled with lights.

  She stood there a few more minutes, drinking in the calm night air before realizing she was in trouble. Why hadn’t she thought to pack a few books? She’d been there less than an hour and she was already bored-to-tears.

  She shoved away from the balcony’s edge, pacing back and forth. Her stomach picked that moment to growl. Right, as if she needed to be reminded her stomach was trying to eat a hole through her backbone.

  She sank onto one of several padded lounge chairs. She resisted temptation and didn’t peek into Tyler’s room even though she really wanted to. It wouldn’t be difficult. The windows were open and just above her head, but she hesitated. She certainly didn’t want to get caught snooping. The way her day was going, they’d accuse her of stealing or something.

  Behind her, she heard several people enter Tyler’s room. Leaning closer to the window, she unabashedly listened.

  “Ty, the bonding might already be started.” The young man paused. “Dark fire, you didn’t give her your blood did you?”

  Tyler growled. She heard something thump (probably his fist) against a wall. The low growl raised the hair on the back of her neck. “Yeah, we exchanged blood, but I don’t feel any different, no heated skin, nothing. I just don’t know.”

  “She can’t help being mortal.” The boy’s deep voice soothed. “Like it or not, from everything you’ve said, I think she’s your mate.”

  “From what Lydia said, I get the feeling Emma is rather strong willed. You only have one mate, don’t lose your chance with her,” an unknown feminine voice urged.

  “Thanks for the reminder, Jenna,” Tyler said, issuing another growl, one that echoed beyond the room and onto the balcony where Emma hunkered lower into the chair.