Emma (Dark Fire) (13 page)

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.

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 and 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.

“Ty,” Jenna’s gentle voice fretted, “you keep that surly attitude, and she just might decide to leave you. If she refuses you, what’ll you do then?”

The outer door banged open. “Mortals! Who would ever have dreamed they were real?” Lily demanded. Her high-pitched voice filled the room with anger.

“Who invited you?” the young man snapped.

“Not now, Zach,” Tyler said tiredly.

“That’s right, Zach, don’t mess with me. I only came to offer a bit of sound advice to my dear brother.”

“Advice, Lily?” Tyler asked warily.

“Well,” Lily sneered, “you didn’t take the advanced mate class, but I did. So, unless you want to be dead in sixty years, I suggest you make sure she has a permanent accident. Elder Canton says if a mate dies before bonding sets in, the survivor will find another mate. It’d be easy enough to get rid of her. Convince her to eat some nightshade berries or take her for a ride, flip over in mid-air, and she’ll slip right off. I’m sure the thought has already crossed your mind.”

Emma shuddered, remembering Tyler’s earlier desperation in wanting her in the air. She quietly slid from the chair, running to her bathroom as bile rose in the back of her throat. She’d heard more than enough, she didn’t need to hear any more of their plans.

Some ten minutes later, she had a death grip on the bathroom’s marble counter. Dry heaves continued shaking her body. Hollow eyed, she stared at her reflection in the big mirror. Releasing the hard surface, she splashed cold water on her face.

The warmth of her palm touched her cheek.

Tyler’s determination flared through her then abruptly disappeared. She huffed in frustration, as if that single emotion helped her any. She should’ve stayed and listened. She needed to know what he decided. Would he go through with Lily’s suggestion?

She shuddered. Deep down she knew what he would decide. How could he not? If he had a chance to live thousands of years with a proper mate, an immortal dragon mate, why wouldn’t he? He’d already admitted he wished she had been born anything but mortal, even a detestable vampire.

Lydia said dragons adored their mate. The female dragon certainly adored Keith.

Tyler hated her.

Emma had to leave the castle, but she didn’t know how. She had no clue where her uncle and Lydia were located, and she seriously doubted Tyler or the guards would take her to him.

She could try to escape on her own, but even if they let her out of the palace proper, she would still have to navigate the wide town. If she did make it home, where would she go from there? Yeah, that was a fantastic question, because without Kayla around she had a single choice.

She hated the idea of living with her mom and her new family. They made her feel like an outcast.

A tear trickled down her cheek. Sitting in the big bed, she wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to be quiet as sobs wracked her body. A dragon’s hearing was exceptional. She didn’t need anyone barging in, wanting to know why she was crying. With each sob, the hollow pain in her chest seemed to grow.

She didn’t know how long she cried, but she was worn-out by the time she dug through her small bag of clothes. At least she had clothes and a toothbrush. Finding a sleep shirt, she pulled it on and curled-up in the oversized bed.

Her last thought was of Tyler. He didn’t want her as a mate and his sister had provided a perfect escape clause for getting rid of her.

Chapter - Rose Petals