Chapter Five
Blake plucked a few more cords of his electric guitar. Why, after all these years, did Melsunia’s egg attach to a human female, would remain a mystery to him. And Emily of all of them?
Maybe she had a bit of dragon blood, but it had been obvious the fury dragon, Jacques, held some kind of bond with her. So much so, he’d been reluctant to let her go.
He shook his head. To think she might have gotten away with her little charade if he hadn’t needed to return to his chamber for his forgotten cuff links.
Sigurd opened the door and Olaus stepped in carrying a tray into the sound proof room. “Has Edmund returned?”
Blake furrowed his brow. “No.”
“Do we practice without him?” Sigurd picked a guitar hanging on the wall. He kissed the shiny black instrument and whispered something too low to hear.
“Naomi saw him during the commotion of the party.” Olaus sat a tray of bottled waters down on a stand not far from Blake.
“Any word?”
“Not as of yet,” Olaus said.
“Where did you send him?” Sigurd slipped the guitar strap over his chest. “You know we’ve got that appearance at Stonehenge coming up.”
“There are more important matters then music. I fear our haven has been discovered.”
“Has it?” Blake sat his guitar back in its rest and stood. “I don’t believe they came looking for us. They’re treasure seekers, not dragon hunters.”
“And you think it is wise to hold onto the thief?” Bogdan walked in, late as usual.
“Where have you been?” Blake wasn’t fooled for a moment by his comrade’s grin.
Bogdan cracked his knuckles and chuckled. “Not all of us intend to remain celibate in this life.”
“Our fearless leader here has got himself a woman locked in his chambers. And he found her there! Talk about lucky.” Sigurd grabbed for one of the bottles of water Olaus brought in earlier.
“And would it have been luck should she have escaped with Master Blake’s fiu?”
Blake understood the older druk’s fears. Like the dragons before him, Olaus believed in the curse. In the old man’s mind, the humans not the dragons caused their way of life to change.
But that didn’t matter that it was illegal to possess or sale eggs of any wild bird or beast. In the government’s attempt to protect their kind, they fueled the black market for egg collectors. Dragon’s eggs were the rarest to find in a collection. Not many of their eggs existed these days, since walking amongst the humans, most of their females had stopped lying eggs ages ago.
Which is why, Blake still struggled to understand Melsunia’s reasoning for laying her egg in dragon form, if only she would have given birth as a human, their son would be grown now.
“No way!” Bogdan said.
“She’s hot man, real hot!” Sigurd waved his hand as if he’d been burnt.
“What are you going to do with her?”
“What should be done to all who steal the unborn of the draconian,” Olaus said, bitterly. “In the days of old, we would have never allowed this to happen.”
Bogdan slapped his hand down on Olaus’s raised shoulder. “Come now, we younger druks need to let out a little steam now and again. Blake caught the thief, didn’t he?”
“Red handed,” Sigurd said. “You’ll never guess who she is.”
“Who?” Bogdan asked.
There was silence amongst them. Sigurd looked at Blake as he said, “Emily.”
“Emily? The girl who… No! Seriously?” Bogdan said.
“This will not bode well for any of us. You should have sent her body back with Edmund.”
Sigurd shivered visibly. “Man, that’s harsh.”
“We have to protect our way of life; she should be made an example of for the hunters who stalk us.”
Blake supposed there was truth to Olaus’s fears, but the old man’s convictions to the old ways didn’t bode well with him. Olaus found it unthinkable to blame the dragons or fate for any part of robbing elder dragons of their way of life.
In Blake’s eyes, Edmund’s refusal to return to the manor house and Olaus’s harsh judgment meant Emily’s deed would not be forgiven. And that was unthinkable to Blake. He wanted dragons to reclaim a place in society, no longer hiding away remotely in the mountains or on an island.
With a sigh, Blake said, “The old ways are no longer our ways.”
Olaus puffed out his chest. “You forget who we are.”
“As if you’d let us forget.” Sigurd crossed his arms over his guitar. He like the rest of them anxious to rock and loose themselves in their music. “I, for one, like Emily. Maybe she’ll sing with us again.”
“She must be dealt with,” Olaus said.
“I have already claimed her. She is my mate and therefore is under my protection.” Blake’s patience dwindled.
Bogdan pulled Olaus into a man hug. A head taller than the elder man, he patted Olaus on the back. “There. There. Blake’s got this.”
“Man, you work fast,” Sigurd held up his hand for a high five.
Olaus elbowed Bodgan, jerking away from the taller and younger druk. He narrowed his eyes on Blake. “To mate with a human you bring the wrath among us. The fires of the Gods will…”
“That’s enough!” Blake roared.
Sigurd’s hand swept down over his guitar strings and startled, Olaus stepped back. He spun on his heel, heading for the door. A few months ago, Olaus had retreated to his place in the mountains to rest. Not long enough, for he looked as gaunt and frail as ever.
“If he’s so set on the old ways, then maybe he needs a push to put him back in his place,” Bogdan said.
Cursing, Blake picked up his guitar. “It is hard for some to accept change. Give him time.”
He dreamt of Emily for more nights in the past two years than he ever imagined missing someone. Not even the decades of grief after losing Melsunia compared to the emptiness she’d left inside him after their brief time.
The dragon inside him roared at her insult even as Blake’s urge to love her still soothed his bruised ego. Had that been what she thought? They couldn’t spend this life together because she was human? Damn the keepers! Damn their ancestors for their fouled-up ideas.
He switched on his electric guitar, ready to strike the first cord when Sigurd shouted, “Garth!”
“Now if Edmund would show the hell up.” Bogdan moved to slip behind his keyboard.
“I wouldn’t count on it.” Garth opened the door. “But he sent us a replacement.”
“Love has no fury, then one of a woman scorned.” Blake turned his back on the new comer, cracked the volume up loud, flooding the basement studio of the manor with music.