by Bonnie Vanak
“I wouldn’t know.” Ariel wanted to distract him from talking about a family. “It’s a fascinating place, but the name? Mystic Shores. Who came up with the name? There’s no lake, no shore and the most mystical thing I saw was how fast my potato salad disappeared.”
Ariel laughed. Parker did not.
“Your potato salad wasn’t bad. They were being polite, because of me,” he told her.
Feeling as deflated as a flat tire, she compressed her lips. For Leo’s sake, she would be polite. Politeness was important. The Covingtons expressed interest in moving to Sedona and purchasing this house, which meant financial freedom for herself and Leo.
Freedom after they paid off the back taxes and other debts. If they bought this house, perhaps she would not have to marry Parker. But Leo had invited this prominent Mage family to visit, after discovering their son was searching for a bride.
A virgin bride. Parker was 34, and had trouble finding a suitable wife.
The maid they’d hired for the night to impress the wealthy Covingtons, brought out the salads. As they ate, Ariel talked with Parker about his home in Phoenix, where they wintered. In the summer, they lived at their Seattle home.
“My father told me you enjoy researching Mage history and ancestry.” Ariel plastered The Smile onto her face. Her cheeks began to hurt.
“Yes, it’s a hobby of mine. I work in the computer laboratory of my father’s business, and in my spare time I conduct research. My favorite topic is breeding and bloodlines.”
Hher face blushed. “Interesting.”
By the main course, Ariel tried to steer him toward another topic, one of shared interest. She lowered her voice so the others could not hear. “Father tells me you have also researched dragons.”
Parker looked thoughtful. “I have some interest in dragons and their ability to wield magick. In my research, I have found some dragons can emit electrical pulses that provide sources of energy for a beneficiary.”
Here was something fascinating. Ariel leaned forward. “Do tell.”
As Parker continued to talk, she listened with intent. Though he revealed nothing new she hadn’t already found in the ancient books of Mage magick, it was interesting enough.
He wasn’t a bad person. She’d met worse. Her father’s assistant, Dell, was worse. After Justin’s escape last year, Dell had flown into such a rage that he’d lashed out at Ariel, hitting her and sending her toppling backwards into a wall. She’d been fine, but Leo fired him on the spot. The last she heard, Dell was working for a prestigious group of Mages back east.
Parker really wasn’t a bad man.
Except he was so obvious. He licked his lips as if she were as tasty as the roast. Her brief hope that they could make this work turned to dust.
I’m being sold like cattle. But what other choice do I have?
After dinner, Leo brought Mr. and Mrs. Covington into the living room for drinks.
“Why don’t you take Parker upstairs to see your room?” Leo told her.
Dear goddess, why didn’t her father all but suggest she leap into bed with Parker? But Ariel trotted dutifully upstairs, carrying Parker’s gift.
Maybe she could show him the other rooms, hint about how the house would make a suitable home for his parents.
But Parker had no interest in seeing the other bedrooms. He looked around her room and then took the framed photo of them and set it on her dresser.
“There. Now I’ll be in your bedroom all the time and you can dream of me.” He smiled at her as he drew her into his arms.
Ariel tried to relax as she shut her eyes. His kiss felt more brotherly than anything, just a peck on her lips. It sparked no passion, didn’t heat her blood and make her senses sing. Not like Justin’s.
“That was nice,” Parker said in a husky voice.
Ariel plastered The Smile back on her face. “Let’s join the others.”
When the Covingtons drove off in their sleek gray Mercedes, she plopped back into her chair with a weary sigh. The air smelled like Parker’s cologne – fruity and overbearing. Better than sweat, she supposed.
“Any luck convincing his parents to buy the house?” she asked.
Leo shook his head. “They don’t want this house. It’s too far away from the city.”
Her hopes crushed, she sighed. “If they bought it, we’d be financially set.”
“I already contacted a real estate agent to put the house on the market and price it right. She has an interested buyer coming in from the East who wants to look at it this week.” Leo stroked his graying beard, his gaze distant. “The proceeds from the sale will pay off the loan, and I’ll put the money into a trust fund for your children.”
Her children. Not her. He planned her life, and the lives of her future offspring.
“Father, I don’t want to marry Parker. I have a job, I can support you and me…”
Leo shook his head. “Ariel, your job will barely pay for the electricity. I need to secure your future before I…”
His mouth compressed. She knew what he would say, same thing he’d been saying for more than a year.
Before I die.
Ever since Justin, the black dragon, had escaped, Leo had brooded about dying and worried about what would happen to Ariel once he did. He’d stopped trying to catch other dragons and focused on securing her future instead.
Oh, he would live another fifty years at least. But he could not stop talking about what would happen to her.
“Father, it’s been more than a year. No one is coming after you.”
“Yet,” he told her, his expression gloomy. “The smaller dragons I captured are back with their clans and have been embroiled in protecting and defending their territory. They are too busy to bother with revenge. But the other…”
Justin. His name is Justin.
“He was spotted headed west.”
A chill rushed down her spine. “That doesn’t mean anything. Where did you get the information?”
“I didn’t. I consulted with a crystal ball.” Leo offered a wry smile. “I do have some magick, child. I have to keep track of him because of how he changed during our sessions.”
It was time she called him out on the truth. “You mean when you tortured him. Because that’s the only reason you fear him, Father. You tortured him.”
Guilt flickered in his eyes. “Not exactly.”
“Yes, exactly. I heard the screams.”
Leo winced. “I tried to shield you from it. Dell insisted on pushing the dragon to the extreme limits. It was the only way to trigger his powers and capture the essence of his magick.”
“Why, Father? Why did you do it? To cure me?” She stuck out her left foot and wriggled the prosthesis. “Because of this? Or to gain power for yourself?”
Leo shook his head. “I don’t care about myself, Ariel. Everything I did was for you. Part of me died when your mother was killed. You’re my only reason for living.”
Guilt flickered inside her. He wasn’t a bad man. Only misguided. “I can care for myself, Father. Even if your intentions were good, there’s no excuse for torturing a dragon.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “It matters not. It’s water under the bridge. The most important thing is you, Ariel. I want to make sure you are cared for after I am gone.”
The bags under his eyes and the weariness etched on his cheeks worried her. Ever since Justin’s escape, Leo had grown more despondent. She knew he would not talk about it anymore. The more pressing concern was her future, not the past.
“What did you and the Covingtons discuss while we were upstairs?” she asked him.
“You, and the terms for marriage. Chase Covington agreed to loan me thirty thousand so I can pay the taxes on this house.”
“I can choose my own husband,” Ariel told him, clearing the table of dishes.
“And when was the last time you had a date?”
She winced. Hard to share with him the reason for avoiding men and dates had flown away fr
om their home after she’d left the cage door open. After that kiss from Justin, no other male would suffice.
And now Father wanted her to marry a wealthy Mage genius with a personality as bland as rice pudding.
Leo patted her hand. “I only want the best for you, Ariel. Parker’s family is wealthy and you’ll never starve. He doesn’t care about your deformity.”
No, he only cares about my vagina.
“I have choices.”
“No, you don’t. With marriage to Parker, the local Mage community will give you automatic acceptance. You’ll be protected there should something happen to me.” Leo dug into a leather pouch and stuffed a thumbful of the aromatic cherry tobacco into his pipe, the stem worn down by his chewing on it. “No dragons can hurt you. Or Lupines or any kind of Others who would take advantage of your vulnerability.”
Ariel began to resent the inference she was crippled. Why couldn’t he see her potential instead of her limitations? “I’m not helpless, Father. I can care for myself.”
Leo’s gaze sharpened. “Against predators like the black dragon? That Justin had ten times your abilities. He could have crushed you like an insect.”
He wouldn’t harm me. I can’t say why, but I sensed it. His kiss was so… gentle.
“Justin could have eaten you alive,” her father warned.
A tingle rushed down to her loins. Sounds good to me.
“I already lost your mother. I can’t lose you as well. You are all I have, daughter.”
The finality in his tone warned the conversation was over. She sighed. Perhaps Father was right. Her future did look mighty bleak right now. No prospects. Few would hire her because she couldn’t remain on her feet all day. And she had no qualifications for the desk jobs Mages advertised.
Working in the Skin world was out of the question. She had grown too accustomed to testing her powers in the past year. Restricting her magick, weak as it was, would be impossible.
* * *
Absorbed in his own thoughts, her father would not come into the house for a while. It was safe.
Ariel went into her bedroom. Ignoring the photo of herself and Parker, she opened her wood jewelry box.
The amber crystal glowed inside. Ariel put it around her neck and went downstairs to the kitchen. Power hummed through her. Dragon power. Leo had infused it with Justin’s magick.
Pining for a dragon she could never have seemed pointless. But last month after dreaming of Justin taking her flying, she dared to invoke the stone’s power. Nothing significant. Just simple tasks. She used the crystal to divine where the best parking spot was so she didn’t have far to walk downtown to the restaurant. Last night she’d used its power to hire the maid at a reduced rate after a local Mage left town. The maid had wanted to pick up extra work.
Ariel touched the crystal, drawing its energy into her body. If Leo knew she could do this, he would worry. Maybe even forbid it. Because ever since Justin escaped from the basement, Leo fretted about her exhibiting any signs of real power.
To keep harmony in the house, she never let him know about her secret sessions with the crystal.
She poured dish detergent, made a bubble and blew at it.
The blue bubble floated upward. Ariel flicked out her fingers.
Dancing on the air, the bubble enlarged and then glittered with the weak current of magick she aimed at it.
Ariel concentrated, using the meditation techniques she’d learned not long after the car crash. She centered herself and envisioned a life with Parker. Marriage to him. Show me the future with Parker and how it would be. Will there be passion and fire for me?
She didn’t dare yearn for love. Love was for starry-eyed girls who could wrap males around their fingers. Not her.
Images appeared in the soap bubble like a movie playing. Parker, the horned-rimmed glasses gone. His eyes were larger without them and his face pleasing. In a black silk tuxedo, he looked almost handsome. In a white lacy gown, Ariel stood with him before an altar strewn with roses, while a tall, solemn man read from an ancient scroll.
Her wedding day.
The scene faded and a new vision appeared on the soap bubble. Parker, his thin body nude as he approached the bed where she lay. His erection was large and straining, his expression eager.
Her wedding night.
He crawled over her and pumped vigorously into her body as she flinched and winced. Panting, straining above her, her new husband seemed oblivious of her discomfort. Ariel swallowed hard, the space between her legs tensing.
So, it wouldn’t be fantastic. But they always said the first time was painful, so that was expected. Maybe it would get better with time, and practice. Parker seemed like a nice enough Mage. Perhaps she could eventually experience pleasure, too.
But nothing like the desire she’d shared with Justin.
Show me Justin and what life would be like with him.
Thankfully, the vision of Parker vanished, replaced with a black dragon the size of a Cadillac. Ariel saw herself standing before the dragon, trembling and throwing out her hands as if to defend herself. No please, Justin, don’t! The black dragon reared his head back, his throat growing red and glowing like coals. And then he roared, flames spewing out of his mouth. A horrific scream of agony followed.
No!
The bubble popped, spraying the sink with soap.
Bracing her hands on the sink, Ariel gulped down a breath and tried to control her racing heart. “Fire and passion,” she whispered, her voice slightly hysterical. “That’s what you wanted. Be careful of what you wish for.”
Parker would propose. They would marry in Seattle, honeymoon there and she would proceed to fulfill her duty of conceiving little Covingtons to carry on the family name. It wasn’t a terrible fate, and at least Father could move to Seattle, where he could hide and be safe. It was only a matter of time before Leo’s life was forfeited.
Because if he remained in Sedona, she knew sooner or later Justin would return to kill him.
5
The house of Leo Harrington offered a splendid view of the red-rimmed cliffs.
Justin had never seen the house’s interior, only the basement built deep into the earth. The night he’d escaped last year, he’d been frantic to flee, never looking back.
Now he took a long, hard look at the building where he’d lived in hell for three long months.
It was for sale.
From one of the twin saddlebags on his Harley, Justin dug out a thick wallet, stuffed with hundred dollar bills. There hadn’t been time to exchange the gold for paper before leaving his cousin Skylar and her mate Sebastian at their clan compound in North Carolina, so he’d exchanged the sack of gold on his journey here.
And there was always the millions he had in his investment accounts.
Harrington must be desperate to sell such a residence for so little. Desperate men were easier to trap.
Property sat on half an acre. Floor to ceiling glass windows in the living room overlooked the canyon, and the kitchen had custom wood cabinets and another magnificent view of the cliffs. High-beamed ceilings, a walk-in pantry and bookcases, swimming pool.
A stylish late-model sedan pulled into the driveway. Justin pocketed his wallet and walked over to shake the real estate agent’s hand.
The Skin was middle-aged and babbled, but he didn’t care. Justin itched to see everything inside the house.
As they toured the interior, he noted the cream-colored walls, absent of portraits or art. Dull and lifeless.
“The house was designed with the view in mind. Every room looks over the cliffs!” The agent pointed to the cliffs framed by floor to ceiling windows.
No, this house was designed by a man intent on privacy and seeing anyone else coming. Especially a dragon.
Double glass doors led out onto a wood deck, a perfect landing strip for a smaller dragon. Justin examined the angles. As a black dragon, he preferred flying at night when Others couldn’t see him in the dark sky. Dragons ha
d a natural cloaking ability to shield them from Skins, but Others easily spotted them.
Except if the dragon was clever.
They explored the bedrooms, coming at last to Ariel’s. Smaller than the others, it had pink walls and white furniture. But it was the bed that interested him most. King-sized, with four white posters.
Excellent for tying up a pretty Mage.
He saw a few indications of Ariel’s personality – a crystal vase of flowers in the bathroom, their scent sweet and mild. Built-in cases filled with books from novels to scientific journals to ancient tomes covered in leather.
Justin dragged in a deep breath, Ariel’s scent swimming in his nostrils. It slammed into him like a freight train, arousing him more than if ten naked women danced before him.
Turning to adjust himself, he waited before following the agent into the adjacent dressing room.
No dresses. Most of her wardrobe consisted of trousers, jeans and shirts. Of course.
Ariel preferred hiding her prosthetic limb.
Justin excused himself for a moment, went into the hallway and made a short call to a friend in Sedona.
Two minutes later, as they entered an upstairs guest room, the agent’s phone rang.
“Go ahead and take it,” he urged. “I’ll meet you downstairs. I want to examine the bedrooms for space, get a visual idea if my stuff will fit.”
The agent answered the call, and began talking as she walked out. Justin smiled. Marc would keep her on the phone for at least ten minutes, asking her about the listing. Plenty of time to explore Ariel’s bedroom.
An oak bookcase held leather-bound books and paperback novels. He selected one book and flipped through it. Justin scanned the archaic writing and frowned. The book of ancient Mage magick was priceless. Leo must have procured it from a dealer. Yet the only pages Ariel had bookmarked were the ones on dragons.
To hurt us? Did you plan to find out our vulnerabilities so you could kill us as your father planned?
Yet he had the nagging feeling that fascination, not hatred, drove her to remember these pages. Justin replaced the book and glanced at the top shelf. Nothing but a collection of milk glass pieces. Something shiny caught his eye.