Emma (Dark Fire)

by Cooper, Jodie B.

  “Hey, you guys timed it perfect. The food just showed up,” Zach said, digging into what looked like a bowl of stringy yellow and black seaweed.

  “Why can’t we hear all the music and people on the dock,” she asked, curiosity filled her face. The terrace was only a single story above street level. The noise from the evening crowd should have been irritating, if not overwhelming.

  “The Cantina pays for an energy charged faerie shroud. It blocks the noise,” Jenna said from the table as Emma and Tyler sat down. “Did you have fun today?”

  “I love, love flying!” she said, smiling up at Tyler. “Riding Tyler ranks as one of the best days of my life.”

  At her enthusiastic words, Kyle snickered.

  She groaned, only then realizing how naughty her words sounded.

  Tyler flashed his teeth and growled at Kyle, answering her earlier question. “The shroud also gives us privacy. When we were in the courtyard, did you notice the upper level of the building looked blurry?” he asked, sliding his arm securely around her shoulders, ignoring the wér-wolf’s chuckles.

  “Yeah, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me or something,” Emma said, turning her attention to the food spread across the long wooden table.

  She tried hiding her distaste, but it wasn’t easy. She was starved and had been looking forward to eating. That was no longer true. If the food wasn’t blue then it had a tail or wings. She was not looking forward to the meal.

  Tyler leaned closer and chuckled in her ear. “Just give it a try.”

  Her look of horror must have been more comical than disgusted, because Zach and Kyle burst into laughter.

  Tyler picked up a blue crusted something. It looked like a shrimp with wings. “Try it.”

  Placing it on her lips, he didn’t give her much choice.

  She sighed in resignation and took a small bit. Flavor exploded in her mouth. She hummed with delight, swallowing the mouthwatering tidbit she might learn to kill for. The crispy bite tasted like a buttery tidbit of lobster crossed with shrimp and bacon. She took a larger bite, and a hint of fire grew as she literally inhaled the delicious blue thing.

  She raised her eyes in question, and Tyler grinned at her. The twinkle in his eyes let her know he was enjoying her venture into Tuathan food as much as she was.

  “That was fried scrimp.”

  “Scrimp or shrimp?” she asked, not positive she heard him correctly.

  “Scrimp. The lake is famous for the small blue, fresh water shell fish.” Tyler dropped several pieces on her plate and added a little bit of something from each platter.

  She tried the pasta next. The light green sauce was a rich cream that hinted at cheese and butter, but not quite either one. The blue and pink vegetables were the weirdest looking items on the table with a mildly exotic flavor. A steamy cup of sweet mead was the best part. Surprisingly, the golden cream didn’t contain alcohol. Emma couldn’t decide, but she thought it tasted like a mixture of hot chocolate and butterscotch with a hint of caramel.

  The piles of food quickly disappeared.

  Emma was full to popping. She wished she could undo the top button of her pants, but that wasn’t about to happen. Unable to resist the last item on her plate, she gave a small sigh of resignation and bit into an oval-shaped fruit that resembled the stripes on a skunk. The walnut-sized fruit puckered her mouth with its tartness.

  “Ty,” Jenna said, looking uncomfortable, “we found out why Lily is acting so weird.”

  Tyler stiffened. “How?”

  Kyle and Zach growled.

  The young chimera looked extremely uncomfortable. “When we were younger, Lily told me about the secret passages. I promised I’d never tell but that was before she tried to kill Emma. After you took Emma flying, I told Zach and Kyle about them.”

  “Jen, why don’t you just show them what happened?” Kyle asked.

  Looking uncomfortable, Jenna glanced at Emma and exhaled a big sigh. “Emma’s not used to all of this and I was worried she might think I’m horrible or something.”

  “I haven’t seen or heard anything all day that wasn’t weird.” Emma shrugged her shoulders. “Give it your best shot.”

  The group looked at her as if she was speaking French. “Um, I meant that I doubt if you could surprise me any more than I’ve already been surprised.”

  Kyle snorted. “Mortals are so weird.”

  “Careful, you might just find yourself attached to a mortal turned wér-wolf,” Tyler said, chuckling at Kyle’s sour look. He turned to Emma, curling his hand around hers. “Chimera can share their memories with others.”

  “Then chimera are telepathic.” Certainty filled Emma’s voice.

  “Not the way you think. Royal chimera are true telepaths, but not common chimera. The royals are downright scary,” Jenna said, pointing to the west. “Thankfully, royals rarely leave West Coast.”

  “West Coast?” Emma asked. She got the feeling Jenna wasn’t talking about North America’s west coast where land and ocean touched. “The way you say it, it sounds like an actual country.”

  “It is. Chimera founded West Coast before the Alliance was founded. It is a very old country,” Tyler said.

  He pricked her curiosity, but her questions could wait. “So, show us what you found.”

  “Alright,” Jenna said. Stretching out her hands, the teens linked their hands together.

  The young chimera’s eyes turned cloudy.

  The patio disappeared. In its place, was the small flower garden at the Fortress; the smell of roses and unknown flowers surrounded her.

  With a sense of déjà vu Emma watched as Tyler flew into the sky with her on his back. She shivered and the scene wrapped around her, pulling her into Jenna’s memories.

  ___________

  Jenna watched Tyler fly away. Turning to the boys, she gave herself a short pep talk, trying to build up her confidence. It didn’t work.

  She hated what she was about to do. At one time, Lily had been closer than a blood sib. The day Lily told her about the hidden passages that lay scattered through Fortress was still so vivid that it hurt to remember Lily’s warmth.

  She tucked her pain away, not forgotten, but a bit removed from the present. “We need to search Lily’s rooms.”

  Kyle snorted. “Right, good luck with that one, Squirt.”

  “Would you stop calling me that,” she said in exasperation. “And I can get us into Lily’s room without anyone knowing it.”

  Zach’s eyes narrowed on her. “If you were told something in confidence, maybe you should suggest this to Tyler and not a gryphon and wér-wolf.”

  “We’re clan and Tyler’s not here. So, unless you want me to go by myself, you two are it.”

  “Would the two of you stop talking in code and tell me what’s going on?” Kyle asked. Without pausing, he waved his hand toward the bulk of fortress. “If we can find some kind of incriminating evidence, proving Lily wanted to kill Emma then we need to go for it.”

  “Then we use the passages,” Jenna said grimly.

  Kyle looked curious.

  Zach remained stonily silent, clenching his jaws together as if he had received a death sentence or something. Ugh, gryphon were so over dramatic.

  The boys followed her into the blue-hued structure of granite. A good while later they entered the guest wing. Walking into the third suite on the fourth floor, she went through the sitting room and into the bathing chamber. In front of a recessed cubby for bath towels, she dropped to her knees. Ducking her head, she looked under the lowest shelf.

  At the very back, she curled her fingers around the edge of stone that held the wooden shelf in place. There was a click. She scrambled up, and pushed the shelf inward.

  Kyle’s eyes grew wide, but when she started forward, he held her back. He leaned forward, tiling his head toward the black hallway, and sniffed.

  She knew what he smelled. The air was stale from disuse and nothing more.

  He walked in and looked ar
ound, motioning them to follow him.

  She kept her chuckle silent. Kyle was overbearing and (at times) crazy, but no one could doubt how much he cared for his fellow clan sibs.

  She stepped around him, leading them on a slow walk through narrow spots and up several ladders. She paused at a dead end, trying to remember the correct sequence to open the panel.

  She leaned down, toward a small indention on the rough wall, revealing a hole drilled through the wall. She peeked into the dim room beyond. Nothing moved. She glanced at the wall, and fingered three odd shaped bumps. She pushed each stone bump in a backward sequence starting from the right side. Nothing happened.

  She bit back a curse. Stepping back, she looked along the wall. There were four sets of triple bumps. They all looked natural on the rough-cut stone.

  She tried to think back, but she hadn’t been in the tunnel for years. That’s when it dawned on her. She was several feet taller than she had been.

  She tapped the next to the lowest set of bumps. The wall shivered. She jumped back as a section slid backward into the hidden passage.

  Kyle stuck his head through the narrow opening, waving them through. It wasn’t a moment too soon as the bookcase shifted, sliding the wall back into place.

  From floor to ceiling, shelves of books lined the walls of the small room. Murmured voices sounded down the hall.

  Kyle’s head snapped up a single moment before Zach put his body between her and the exit.

  She slipped around them, hurrying toward the far right wall. In a small nook, was a marble statue of the first Black Wér-Dragon with its wings stretched out as if preparing to take flight. She pushed down on its back and laid her hand against the back wall. The wall shifted. Small holes appeared. Hoping she remembered correctly, she slipped her finger in the hole immediately behind the dragon.

  Footsteps started down the hallway.

  When she heard the soft click, - and she didn’t get her finger chopped off, - she sighed in relief. Lily had warned her a dozen times not to use the far right or far left hole or she’d end-up fingerless.

  She heard someone call a greeting and the footsteps paused.

  The bookshelf swiveled inward.

  They hurried through, pushing the wall shut behind them.

  Zach shoved his bared teeth in her face and growled in the softest voice possible. “You have any idea what they will do to us if they catch us?”

  She swallowed, nodding her head in a jerky move. She was just a no-name chimera, but Zach was a member of the royal gryphon family; he was actually fifth in line from the Golden Gryphon. Kyle hadn’t said a word, but he looked nearly as concerned. His grandfather ruled the wér-wolves with an iron fist.

  The three of them were sneaking into the Wér-Dragon’s family wing. They’d been there thousands of times, but the enforcers always knew they were there. Sneaking into the Wér-Dragon’s home turf was a different kettle of fish. If the enforcers caught them, getting skinned alive would be the least of the punishments.

  Not wanting to miss the ladder, she slowed her pace as she walked down the twisted hallway. The dark tunnel turned into a dead end.

  “I missed the ladder,” she whispered.

  Kyle grunted, nodding back toward the way they came. “I noticed several.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, “but this one isn’t wood. The steps are cut out of the wall.”

  “Saw it,” he said, turning on his heel.

  She followed him. Before long, he stopped at the sunken ladder. She didn’t know how she’d missed it, but she had. “Stay here.”

  She climbed, counting each step. On the tenth step, she stuck her hand in the third step above the tenth one. Her hand encountered a thick mass of spider webs. She cringed and pushed through them, clicking the switch on the left side.

  She hurried down the ladder, arriving as part of the wall swung inward. They exited into a bathroom decorated in rose and cream.

  Not a moment too soon, the panel clicked shut.

  A slender faerie carrying a pile of soft towels hurried through the doorway. Her eyes grew huge. The pale blue of her skin darkened in outrage. A sparkle of power surged around her hands.

  Zach grabbed her, slapping his hand over her mouth while Kyle snapped a thin bracelet of iron around her wrist, snuffing-out the spark of power. The young woman, no taller than Jenna, struggled, but against the strength of the boys but it was all in vain.

  Jenna hurried forward. Placing a couple of fingers on the faerie’s forehead, she focused her talent against the mind of the blue-skinned girl. “Do not scream,” she mentally ordered.

  Always on guard, Kyle stuck his head through the doorway, checking for anyone else. “All clear,” he whispered in a hushed breath.

  “That’s not Lily’s faerie,” she said, crossing her arms in anger.

  The words stopped both boys cold.

  Unless a faerie died, they served their chosen person for years, as in hundreds of years. If not, their entire life. Changing fairies at Lily’s age was unheard of. And Jenna knew for a fact that Kari, Lily’s faerie, adored her.

  She glanced up at Zach. “Take off your hand.”

  She glared at the faerie, not knowing what to ask her. “Where is Lily?”

  “Out,” the girl said, twisting her lips in a snarl as Jenna used her natural ability, forcing the girl to answer truthfully.

  “Who is she with?”

  The girl shuddered, whimpering low in her throat.

  Jenna’s eyes narrowed. Focusing more power into her words, she repeated her question. “Who is your person with?”

  “Lily,” she said, tears formed in the girl’s eyes.

  “No, I said...”

  “Wait,” Kyle interrupted. “Ask her who her person is?”

  Jenna’s eyes snapped to his, smart mouthed wér-wolf.

  Turning her attention back to the faerie, she saw the girl looked frantic.

  “Who is your person?”

  The girl struggled, but it was no use, not against the truth seeking ability of a chimera.

  “Alex,” she muttered, dropping her eyes as tears flowed down her cheeks.

  Kyle growled, leaning toward the girl. His face twisted in fury. “The only Alex I know is a bloody wizard.”

  Jenna’s heart raced. She choked a gasp of horror and blurted out her next question. “Is your person a Southerner?”

  The girl’s body shuddered and her shoulders dropped. “Yes,” she said in a strangled whisper.

  Jenna briefly closed her eyes in pain before giving the girl a final order. “Forget you saw anyone. You will return to your room and take an hour nap. When you wake-up, you will not remember seeing us or any part of this conversation.”

  The faerie’s eyes grew unfocused and she nodded her agreement.

  Zach let her go.

  “Crap, we’ve got what we came for. Let’s get out of here,” Zach said, snarling as he watched the girl’s retreating form.

  “No way,” Kyle said, snorting his refusal. He headed out the door and into the bedroom. “I’m taking a look around while we’re here.”

  They took several minutes looking through Lily’s desk, but didn’t find anything.

  Jenna glanced around the room. Her eyes landed on the closed door of Lily’s dressing room.

  She didn’t know why, perhaps it was instinct, but her heart raced as she pulled the door open. She literally froze. The horror of what she found inside the large room choked every thought out of her head. Faerie heating lights hung from the ceiling, giving the rows of plants light and heat.

  She heard Kyle and Zach move behind her.

  Neither of them spoke.

  She recognized a few of the plants. Simple herbs like mint and garlic. The more dangerous herbs like nightshade, bloodroot and hemlock sent a shiver of dread down her back; prickles of warning covered her scalp.

  Vines twisted up A-frames, leaves seeking the warmth of the faerie lamps, while their roots lay in buckets of slushy red liquid, a
mixture of blood and dirt.

  Around the door, a pattern of swirls and glyphs glowed with dorcha energy, blocking the air from escaping into the larger room.

  Shifting into wér-wolf, Kyle slashed his claws across a segment of the doorframe, disrupting swirling marks of power.

  The combined smell of blood and death along with the known herbs of a wizard practicing blood magic rushed out of the room. The contaminated air was overpowering in its stench. Breakfast swelled up the back of her throat. She swallowed several times before she could speak, nothing but a groan of denial passed her lips.

  She stepped forward a single step, trying to see past a clump of the thick growing vines, hoping she wouldn’t see a dead body or even a live one shackled and used as a blood donor.

  Kyle clenched his fingers around her arm, keeping her firmly in place.

  At the same time, Zach pushed his body in front of hers and pointed to the floor.

  A silver sniper lay curled in the carpet, waiting for its next victim.

  Rearing back, she bumped into Kyle, her eyes never leaving the poisonous viper guarding the atrocity in Lily’s closet. She knew its bite wouldn’t kill her, but the venom from a sniper snake would knock her out cold for hours.

  ___________

  Emma blinked, snapping out of the trance-like state Jenna put her mind into. Like a runaway train, her heart raced. The buckets of slushy blood seared her mind. Feeling like she was going to be sick, she shoved away from the table.

  The swinging doors between the patio and restaurant popped open. The skinny waiter entered. He was all smiles and compliments, directing every word toward the boys.

  When he asked if they wanted dessert, Emma shuddered.

  Kyle curtly refused, requesting none-to-subtly for the man to leave.

  The doors swung shut behind the waiter. No one moved; they seemed to be in shock.

  She looked up, searching for Tyler’s eyes.

  They were clenched shut. She didn’t need their bond to work, not when pain etched across his face, so clear to see.

  She leaned toward him, wrapping her arm around his waist.