Chapter 32
Rebel ushered Blaze off the porch and took her off to the side, where they could be private but she could still keep an eye on all the wackos.
Then she faced the woman who she’d believed was a dark sorceress. She wasn’t so sure now—the shit that had gone down last night had made her less sure who were the bad guys and who were the worse guys in this scenario.
And now the rabid dragon was confusing her all over again.
Then there was this completely unbelievable fairy tale about hidden dragons awakening and mates of destiny, and she was supposed to let herself be captured by a nutcase dragon and taken away to be ravished by him so that she could get Stockholm Syndrome and give him an artifact she didn’t even have? Or go get it for him?
It was insane.
And yet, Tempest believed it.
Most people wouldn’t think that was anything to go by. Tempest had been dragon fangirling since she was a little girl. Proof that dragons actually existed—and were here in this world—was like someone dropping most kids into a swimming pool full of chocolate and saying, ‘knock yourself out, babe.’
But Tempest saw things other people didn’t see, and knew things she had no possible way of knowing. She’d always been that way.
All Rebel knew was that a few days ago McKenna had been hunting for the guy who broke into her house—this Zane person—and now suddenly she was his partner in all this craziness. And from the looks of it, maybe his partner in bed, too.
Had she really gone freely into this, or was it some kind of dragon compulsion magic? She didn’t seem scared of him, but on the other hand she looked like hell—dark circles under her eyes, and moving slowly, like she was exhausted.
Rebel took control of the conversation before the sorceress could open her mouth. “First of all, I hate rogue witches and sorcerers and I don’t work with them. Second, do you really believe all this shit?”
McKenna bit her lip. “I believe Vyrkos is real. I’ve seen his tomb, and I’ve seen the evidence that the magic that holds it shut is breaking down. And if that’s true, I need to do whatever I can to help.”
“Even uproot your entire life and be a captive mate for a dragon?”
McKenna snapped, “My life is already uprooted. My house is trashed and I can’t go home, thanks to you bringing the coven down on me. What the hell was that about? Couldn’t you feel how evil that idol is? It still has all of them in its power, and they haven’t even touched it for ten years. That’s how dangerous it is. And you saw what Silas was doing to that poor man, using his body and letting the magic eat him alive.”
Rebel winced at that. Jack. She’d been trying to find him all day, and he’d vanished. For all she knew he was dead.
McKenna was still talking. “They’re going to use the idol to wake Vyrkos, for God’s sake. Are you really going to let that happen?”
Rebel said, “They told me you were a rogue who’d stolen it from them—that you were the one hurting people with it.”
The witch gave a mirthless laugh. “I sure as hell stole it from them. I used to be part of that coven—I was born into it. Silas—the sorcerer who was working through the animation spell—used the idol to destroy it. It took over everyone I cared about and either killed them, or turned them into monsters. My family. My parents. Do you have any idea what that’s like, to lose everyone you care about?”
Rebel glanced over at Tempest. She knew. They both knew. They’d lost their parents, and Rebel would die before she let anyone hurt Tempest.
McKenna wasn’t waiting for an answer. “I took the idol and ran. So yeah, by coven law I’m a rogue. Ask me if I care.”
Rebel was starting to have a little more respect for the McKenna woman—assuming she was telling the truth.
Blaze said, “Look, we need to find those Seals. I don’t know if everything in the story is true, but the three of us did show up just as Vyrkos was awakening. The Rogue, the Rebel and the Storm.” She gestured to each of them in turn. “Would it kill you to try to help us?”
Rebel said, “You know the fact that we’re clueless about the Seals is a big hole in this theory, don’t you?”
McKenna rolled her eyes. “We’re not idiots, of course we do. But that’s not a reason to stop looking.” She paused, then added, “They can pay.”
Now that was the first thing she’d heard today that made sense. Rebel said, “I thought they were supposed to seduce us into working for free.” She saw McKenna’s eyes wander to Zane, who was now out in the yard trying to talk some sense into the crazy dragon. Who was still looking at Rebel, his whirling red eyes reminding her of Jack’s boss. Turner.
It should have been creepy, if not downright terrifying. But she found herself feeling almost sorry for the damned dragon.
She crushed that feeling right down. Soft-heartedness towards crazy guys—dragon or not—never led anywhere good. She’d had a moment of soft-heartedness for Jack Harper, and look where that had landed her.
McKenna was watching the guys too, but her eyes were on the man. Zane. Damn, the witch had feelings for him. It was all over her face. “You know he could be using some kind of mind-altering magic to suck you in, don’t you?” she said.
McKenna jerked her gaze back to Rebel. She said, “Look, can you just come to the lair and see the evidence? Whether or not the Destined Mates story is true, we have to find some way to stop Vyrkos from rising, and to break the link between the coven and the idol. Knowing what they’re doing, you can’t still be on their side.”
Rebel crushed her guilt down, right beside the dragon-pity. For all she knew, this woman was no better. “I’m not on anybody’s side,” she said. “I was getting paid.” And she was protecting her family. She hadn’t heard anything from Turner since last night, and she prayed that he considered their transaction done.
“Dragons have hoards of gold,” McKenna said. “I’m sure you can work something out.”
“I thought that was just a myth.”
“Come to the lair and see.”
Dragons had immunity to most magic and the ability to breathe fire, too. Maybe, if it came down to it, they could protect Tempest from the coven.
And pay.
“I’ll think about it,” she said. “Just get that fucking insane dragon out of my yard before I have to explain to my landlord how all the trees got knocked down.”
McKenna sighed, looking exhausted again. “I’m not sure it’s as easy as that. He’s—he believes he’s your mate. He may not be capable of leaving you.”
“Please tell me he doesn’t think he’s going to have sex with me in the backyard—or anywhere. Especially if he can’t even turn into a guy. Because that would be a ‘hell no’ to the giant dragon dick.”
Zane went back up on the porch, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “His dragon’s still in control,” he said to Tyr. “I don’t know what the fuck to do with him.”
Tempest, who had been writing in her notebook in between sidelong glances at Tyr, looked up from her writing. “I do.”
“What?” Tyr asked. Rebel wished he’d stop looking at Tempest like she was a fairy princess. It was bordering on creepy.
Tempest said calmly, “Rebel has to kiss him.”
Rebel walked back to the porch, staring at her sister. “No fucking way. He’s drooling smoke, and he just tried to kidnap me.”
Tempest blinked at her. “Well, I don’t mind if he stays in the backyard, but he’s stuck in dragon form and he’s very upset. It seems mean to leave him like that.”
“I’m not kissing him.”
“That’s how it works in all the stories. The fair maiden kisses the dragon so he can turn back into a prince. Like Beauty and the Beast, only with wings and scales.”
Tyr said slowly, “It might work.”
“First off,” Rebel said, “I’m pretty sure this one was never a prince to begin with. And second,” she gestured to herself, “not a maiden, if by maiden you mean virgin. And third, doesn’t it have to be true love’s kiss? Because I’m not feeling the love right now.”
Tempest put down her notebook, stood up and grabbed Rebel’s arm. “Come on. You need to do this.”
Tempest was so rarely that insistent about what needed to happen that Rebel found herself being dragged out into the yard, still protesting.
“I’m not kissing that thing! And you’re not going near it. It’ll bite our heads off and eat them like M&Ms.”
“No, he won’t.” Tempest walked right up to the dragon and faced him. “Thorne,” she said authoritatively, “be good. Put your head down so Rebel can kiss you.”
He somehow made his dragon face look sulky and resentful, but surprisingly he obeyed, lowering his head until it was right in front of them. He didn’t even try to bite them.
“What are you, the dragon whisperer?” she said to her sister.
“I love dragons. Everybody knows that. Now kiss him.”
“This is stupid. I do not love him. I will never love him. He’s a fucking dragon. A crazy one.”
Thorne’s dragon made a soft, inquiring noise, and moved his head lower. Rebel stared at him. “You actually want me to do this?”
The dragon blinked at her, and made a tiny sound that was almost like a purr.
She looked back at the others. “If I kiss him, will he leave?”
Both the other guys shrugged and spread their hands out. Great. Clueless, every last one of them.
Well, unless she wanted a dragon in her yard forever, it didn’t seem like she had a choice. She edged up to the huge scaly head.
She thought he’d smell like sulfur and burned wood, but he smelled spicy and warm. Not too bad. He seemed suddenly pitiful—angry and frustrated and somehow lonely underneath.
Sort of like her.
Crap. Now she was identifying with the rabid dragon.
She leaned over, squinched her face up, and pecked him on the side of his head just above his eye ridge.
There was a faint humming in the air, like the final chord of a choir just dying away, and she felt a sudden warmth spread from her lips down into her chest.
With a shimmer and a huge intake of air like a giant taking a breath, the dragon disappeared and a man was standing in its place.
He was tall, half a head taller than Rebel’s six feet, his dark hair mussed. He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt with blood beginning to seep through it from the wound in his chest. His right hand was also bloody, and covered in cuts from her knife.
He was possibly the most gorgeous guy she’d ever seen. And the most arrogant.
He folded his arms, glaring at her. “Well? Where’s the Seal?”
That was it? No, ‘thanks for returning my sanity’ or ‘sorry I trashed your yard and tried to abduct you’?
She glared back. “I don’t know.”
He blew out a sigh. “Fuck.” He pushed past everyone and stomped across the yard toward the front of the house and the street.
At least he was leaving.
“You’re paying to get this yard fixed up,” Rebel yelled after him. “And if you ever try anything like this again, I’m going to shoot you in the balls with my magic gun.”
Thorne stomped away out of sight around the house, ignoring her.
“Asshole,” she muttered. She turned to the others. “I think it’s time you left, too.”
Zane was still staring after Thorne, his mouth open. Tyr was talking softly to Tempest, the two of them walking slowly toward the front of the house. Damn. That was going to be a problem.
“Think about what I said,” Blaze said to Rebel. “Do you still have my number, from the other day?”
Rebel nodded.
They turned to leave, and then Zane turned back. “Thorne saved your life, you know,” he said. “Last night, when you fell off the balcony. He barely got to you before you hit the ground. Broke his foot landing hard.”
Rebel didn’t let her shock show on her face. “Didn’t help his attitude,” she said.
Zane started to say something angry, and Blaze pulled him away, saying, “Call me if you decide to work with us on this.”
The two of them collected Tyr and left, leaving Rebel and Tempest to their train wreck of a backyard, which suddenly seemed too empty and quiet.
Rebel threw herself down into a porch chair, all her energy draining away with the fight adrenalin.
“I’ve had a lot of fucked-up days lately,” she said, “but this one just moved to the top of the rankings.”
Tempest sat down again, pulling her notebook into her lap. She wasn’t writing, just staring at the page, a faraway look in her eyes.
“Tempe?” Rebel said. “You don’t really believe all this, do you? About sleeping dragons and fiery death and destined mates?”
“They’re dragons, Reb,” she said. “Real live dragons. They’re so much more beautiful than I even imagined. Did you see the color of Tyr’s scales? Cobalt blue.”
Oh, fuck. She was falling in love with a dragon fantasy.
“He said he’d turn into a dragon for me. Somewhere safe, where I can touch him and draw him, maybe even do a painting. He said he’d take me flying. Do you know it’s true they can cloak themselves? They fly over the city all the time and no one sees them.”
She smiled. “Now I’ll always wonder if he’s flying overhead.”
“He wants something from you,” Rebel said. She winced at how harsh she sounded. Meeting a dragon was Tempest’s dream come true, and she hated to be Debbie Doom. But Tempest could be too trusting sometimes.
Curious, she asked, “What does he make you see? Aren’t you afraid that something bad will happen, if we get involved with them?”
Guilt immediately punched her in the gut. Tempest had spent years working to get over all the anxiety caused by the stories that played out in her head. Deliberately trying to bring that back made Rebel a horrible sister.
Not if it saves her life.
Once more, she wondered if Tempest really would be better off with the dragons, at least temporarily. Tyr seemed smitten with her, and he could protect her from the coven.
Tempest said slowly, “I think… something bad will happen if we don’t help them. For the last few months, I kept seeing the mountain exploding and the volcano erupting. Over and over, and I couldn’t write it any other way.”
Rebel felt sick. “You didn’t tell me that.” Why hadn’t Tempest told her?
Her sister shook her head. “I didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t find a way for it not to happen.”
Rebel asked carefully, “And now? Is it still going to explode?”
“Maybe.” Tempest paused. “But now, there’s a maybe not.”
Rebel sat slowly back in her chair. Could she and Tempest really be that important to the dragons’ mission? Or was Tempest just seeing what she wanted to see, because she wanted to spend more time with them?
“And what about that dragon? Tyr?” she asked. “What do you see about him?”
Tempest smoothed a blank page in her notebook, a strange smile on her face.
“Nothing,” she said, her mouth still curved in that secret smile. “I don’t see anything at all.”