Emma (Dark Fire)

by Cooper, Jodie B.

  “Divorce?” Lydia shook her head. “The word doesn’t translate. What do you mean?”

  “No word for divorce? How can any society function without divorce?” Keith demanded.

  Knowing divorce was a touchy subject for him, Emma eased forward. “Maybe we’re misunderstanding each other. On Earth, two people date for a while and then sometimes they either live together or get married. I think people plan to stay together, but the majority of couples eventually,” she sighed and shook her head, “well, either one of them cheats or they just stop getting along or no longer love the other one. For whatever reason, they leave each other and go their separate way. That’s divorce.”

  By the time Emma finished, Lydia looked horrified. Her mouth had opened in a wide snarl, clearly showing her canines. Her teeth looked like Tyler’s, but Emma was getting a really up-close and personal view of Lydia’s sharp arsenal. “We don’t have divorce on Tuatha. We have one mate and only one mate.”

  “And when that wonderful mate cheats?” Keith snapped at her, his face a mask of anger. “What happens? Do you just look the other way?”

  “I would never cheat on my mate!” Lydia shouted, her face twisted, mirroring the sound of her revulsion. “No one would. The misery reflected in our mate mark would be unbearable.”

  “You totally lost me,” Emma said, butting in before Keith could snap at the woman. “What’s a mate mark and how can it see emotion?”

  “A mate mark can’t see anything. Once a mate is marked, the mark reflects their mate’s emotions.”

  “You mean like if Tyler bit my neck or something?” Emma asked, drawing on her wide reading experience of how mates marked each other.

  Lydia snorted. “An animal might mark a mate with a bite, not people. After mates meet for the first time, dorcha energy activates, heating an area of our body until the skin is warm to the touch. The energy pooling under the skin soon appears as a skin marking. Once complete, the dorcha flame reflects the emotions of our mate.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you don’t have divorce,” Keith said obstinately, glaring at her.

  She shook her head, frowning. “You don’t understand. The mark doesn’t simply reflect our mate’s emotions. If I had a mate, and I touched my mate mark, I would feel everything he was feeling. A rejected mate feels nothing but desolation inside them.”

  Desolation? The word snapped Emma to attention. Oh, crap. A really bad feeling started building in the pit of her stomach. He wouldn’t do that to her... would he?

  She shivered, trying hard not to freak-out. Feeling another person’s emotions was too weird for words. She was human, a mortal human. She liked Tyler, but not enough to mate with him.

  Her racing thoughts paused.

  She couldn’t see her entire body, but on the bare skin she could see, she didn’t notice any visible marks. No, wait, the mark was supposed to appear later. Slowly, so not to draw attention, she touched the bare part of her belly, neck, arms... she froze, not daring to move. Her wrist was warm, feeling as if it had fever. Add the fevered skin together with the black hole that had taken up permanent residence and she didn’t like the answer.

  Desolation was a perfect word for the Black Hole.

  Tyler must’ve rejected her as mate before the dorcha had time to do its thing, whatever that ‘thing’ was supposed to be. Maybe when he rejected her, the dorcha ripped part of her soul out or something. She fought back a building sob. That had to be why she now had a huge, aching hole where her heart used to be.

  Fear edged into anger. What the crap had he done to her?

  “What if a dragon mates to the wrong person?” Emma asked worriedly, trying to get her question out before her scowling uncle could blow-up at Lydia. “Are they stuck with each other?”

  “Stuck with each other?” Lydia growled. “We don’t look at it that way, not ever.”

  “I mean, I’m mortal. Why would Tyler think I’m his mate?” Emma asked, unconsciously rubbing her chest. How dare he form some kind of freaky-weird bond with her and not tell her anything. Then the stupid jerk snatched the bond away. She didn’t think she could stand the icy feeling for the remainder of her life.

  Lydia sighed, shaking her head. “We don’t choose our mates.” She growled at Keith’s mocking laughter. “We don’t! Our bodies choose the perfect mate for us and each person only has one perfectly compatible person to spend their life. We spend our life searching for our mate. If you’re his mate, you will be the only one he ever has.”

  Wrapping her arms around herself, Emma’s palm touched the warm flesh of her wrist. Not simply warm, her lower arm felt hot to the touch. Her fingers tightened around the spot and she recognized a flash of Tyler’s fury. The alien emotion only lasted a split-instant, before it disappeared. That microsecond of time was more than enough to realize she was in so much trouble.

  Sweat popped out on her brow and she shivered.

  Oh, boy, having a dragon angry with her was an entirely new experience. She was very glad she wasn’t in front of Tyler. She might find out what toast felt like.

  So much for her theory that he had marked her then took it back.

  Once Tyler’s angry emotion disappeared, the icy ache increased. The empty feeling was nearly overwhelming in its intensity. She swallowed and grasped at anything to pull her mind from the hollow void.

  Shifting from foot-to-foot, Emma blurted, “But why did Tyler freak-out? He scared the crap out of me.”

  “If you’re his mate, he just found out you’ll die in less than a hundred years,” Lydia said softly, her eyes glancing at Keith.

  “Don’t I have anything to say in this mate thing?” Emma huffed.

  “You can refuse him, but I’ve only heard of one woman who refused her mate. And, well, he didn’t live long after she refused him. Once we find our perfect mate, our lives revolve around each other.”

  “But I’m not perfectly compatible for Tyler. I’ll be dead in sixty years. If he only gets one mate, what will he do when I die?” Emma asked. Frustration colored her voice.

  She jerked her hand away from her arm, putting an abrupt stop to feeling his sporadic emotions. At the loss of his emotions, she shuddered. The black hole grew bigger, its icy edge shoving its way through her.

  Well, darn it. She obviously didn’t have a choice; it was either bombardment by his emotions or get sucked into an icy void. That was just fantastic, she thought sarcastically.

  “We don’t live past the death of our mate,” Lydia said, frowning at Emma as she rubbed her chest. “Once a permanent bond is established, and whenever our mark is touched, we feel every emotion our mate feels. Having a Chélah, a beloved mate, die is more than our mind can handle. He’ll die when you do.”

  Lydia glanced up at Keith. “Once we bond, we aren’t even attracted to another person. There is no such thing as divorce on Tuatha Dé Danann.”

  Emma knew there would be no waiting to see if Tyler was her mate. A dragon had marked her. She was his mate. Yeah, she wasn’t too excited over that fact. If she could feel his emotions, he could feel hers. Did he care that her heart felt like he’d ripped it in half? That she could feel the horror and disgust that he felt for her?

  “On Earth, you don’t go around telling someone you are mated,” Keith said stubbornly, folding his arms in a defiant gesture.

  “On Tuatha, it’s what every person yearns for. Maybe having someone who loves you more than their own life is more than your poor mortal brain can comprehend!” Lydia snapped back, glaring at him. Her deep throated growl breaking the peace of the meadow as she stormed away.

  Chapter - Cavern Springs

  The next day Emma wished she’d stayed home. Every TV channel was covering The Arrival and she could be watching the live news coverage.

  Instead of staying home, she was on her way to the small town of Cavern Springs, Arkansas. The twisting two-lane highway, with tall trees bordering either side, was the only road between Beaver Dam and town.

  “The s
heriff should’ve put up a sign telling everyone the road is under water,” Emma said, wondering how long it would take to reach town.

  As if hearing her unspoken words, the jeep slowed to a crawl in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered. People would still drive down it, even knowing it dead ends,” Keith said, nodding to the car in front of him with a bumper sticker supporting a high school band from half a state away. “It’s not every day a lake triples in size, swallowing a road and dam in the process.”

  “True,” Emma snorted, “but surely these people knew once they drove down the road, they’d have to come back the same way. I mean, hello, the other end of highway 187 drops into Beaver Lake. There’s no other way out.”

  He chuckled, agreeing with her sarcastic tone.

  Yesterday, the entire world ground to a screeching halt. Everything from the stock market to ball games stopped when Tuatha appeared on Earth.

  She chuckled. It was hard not to stop when the baseball diamond sprouted feathery blue trees or when tiny purple frogs, the size of a dime, covered the floor of the American Stock Exchange.

  So far, no part of the world lay untouched.

  Anxious to hear anything new, she flipped on the local radio station.

  The static cleared and the announcer’s melodious deep voice said, “Our round the clock country music has been interrupted for continuous coverage of The Arrival. For anyone not aware of it, The Arrival, as the media dubbed yesterday, happened all over the world.”

  “Entire castles and medieval villages have sprung up across the entire world. So far, dragons appear to be the largest of the creatures, with wingspans estimated up to fifty feet wide.”

  “To date, the Ozark Mountains have the largest concentration of dragons. Dragons, winged lions, and winged humans are flocking to this location. With the appearance of angels, televangelists are shouting it’s the End of Time.”

  “The western edge of the Ozarks is now home to hundreds of massive stone castles, several are three to four times the size of Windsor Castle.”

  “Cavern Springs is the nearest town and we’re feeling the tension, but compared to Mexico City I believe we are mighty lucky. Millions of people are fleeing the sprawling Mexican metropolis as vampires and dragons continue attacking. The attacks are vicious and deadly in nature. Attempts to communicate with the vampires have been unsuccessful.”

  “Within southern Mexico and South America, estimates range as high as two million dead and millions more missing. US military units from five states are converging on the U.S. and Mexico border area. We have...”

  The words stopped mid-sentence.

  “I’ve heard more than enough,” Keith said after flipping the radio off.

  “Uncle Keith, we’ve got to do something! They’re trying to talk to vampires.” She shook her head in disbelief. “They think dragons are just mindless animals.”

  “I agree. While you were glued to the TV last night, I was making calls and sending out e-mails,” he said, tapping the steering wheel as the line of traffic slowed even more. She watched him frown. He tried to downplay it, but he had serious military connections. His career in the Special Forces had earned him lifelong friends.

  “Why do you think dragons are killing people in Mexico? I mean, I totally get why the vampires are killing people. Lester really wanted me or rather my blood. But neither Tyler nor Lydia seemed the type to kill without a good reason.”

  “I don’t know, but hopefully they can keep the fighting away from our area. I’m going to do a little recon in town and see who’s in charge of the local reserve units they’ve brought in. Last time I heard, Colonel Hank Murphy was stationed in this area. He’s the type who’ll listen to the facts and do the right thing every time.”

  “If Murphy isn’t in charge?”

  “Well, if it’s not him, hopefully, it’s someone who’ll listen to our story and be willing to meet with the dragons. We don’t need a repeat of Mexico City. I’ll do whatever it takes to get the two sides talking.”

  Emma hid another grin as Keith stifled several curse words. The winding two-lane highway finally came to a complete standstill. The small town of Cavern Springs had never seen so much traffic, not even during a holiday weekend. Still a mile outside of town, Keith pulled to the opposite side of the highway and backed-up under a grove of trees.

  At his continued grumble, she grinned and teasingly said, “Exercise is good for the heart.”

  He badgered her constantly, insisting she put her book down and go outside for a bit of exercise.

  He snorted and finally grinned. “Of course it is. I planned on parking here the entire time,” he said, giving her the lie with a straight face and a wink.

  On foot, they headed toward town. The walk to town didn’t take long, actually moving faster than the cars on the road did.

  It was wall-to-wall people as too many sightseers packed into the small picturesque town. People parked everywhere. Even the lawn, in front of city hall, lay covered with illegally parked cars. Entire families roamed the streets, posing in front of the unique stone houses with Spanish style roofs and archways. Everyone had a camera or phone, taking pictures. Unfortunately, they weren’t just taking pictures.

  “Those jerks,” she muttered through clenched teeth.

  People were helping themselves to anything that wasn’t latched down, carrying stuff out of the multi-story rock homes by the armload. Emma watched as one couple struggled to carry a large table out of one house, while another man carried a beautiful carved jewelry box.

  By the time they reached the school parking lot, she was fuming. The Tuathans wouldn’t have anything left, not with people acting like scavenging rats.

  The school and the athletic complex was the only place in the entire area that wasn’t overflowing with tourists. The large park was brand new, sporting a track, a football field, a multi-use gymnasium, and four baseball diamonds. It was the town’s pride and joy.

  A soldier and Rottweiler walked past the school’s front entrance. Huge tents, hummers, tanks, and helicopters covered the area. No, the park area wasn’t swarming with tourist, because the entire place crawled with heavily armed military personnel.

  “Talk about overkill,” Emma said in a hiss, watching a troop of at least a hundred soldiers spreading outward toward the surrounding forest, while a smaller group marched toward town.

  “I’m going to see who’s in charge,” Keith said, nodding toward the tents. “Go on into town and grab some lunch.” He lowered his voice and casually tugged his ear, impressing on Emma their earlier conversation about listening devices. “There are a lot of crazies out there, be careful who you talk with. If you happen to run into Tyler or Lydia, you might invite them over for dinner and a movie. Don’t forget they’re both city people, so warn them about bugs and repellent. Okay?” Keith asked with a small frown.

  “Yeah, I will,” Emma agreed. She wasn’t sure how she could explain what a bug was to the stubborn dragons. They seemed to have a blind spot toward technology. Having to explain bugs and cameras to the hardheaded shape shifters might be impossible without showing them.

  She watched her uncle for a few minutes, making sure he didn’t look back.

  The moment he stopped to speak with a soldier, she spun on her heel and retraced her steps. She quickly caught up with the brown haired man carrying the jewelry box. In addition to the carved box, he had added a knitted shawl and a porcelain doll to his growing pile.

  She stomped up to him, forcing him to stop. “You filthy, stealing jerk, you should be shot! Don’t you even care your stealing someone’s prized possessions?”

  “Huh, you think those monsters are people? That they can think like we do?” His mouth twitched into a smile, one that shouted, humor the kid.

  “They’re not monsters,” Emma said emphatically, glaring at the man. Her temper spiked at the thought of how much it would hurt to lose everything. “They’re people, just like you and me.�
�

  The man’s hazel eyes looked thoughtful, and she wondered if she made a difference. His next words dumped her to rock bottom. “If I don’t take these things, someone else will. Look at them, they’re like birds of prey, snatching and grabbing everything in sight. Take a bit of advice and don’t try stopping anyone else.”

  He walked off, leaving Emma speaking to thin air.

  With a fuming glance toward the people swarming the houses, she gave up and headed toward town.

  People lined the streets.

  Northeast of Eureka Springs, the town saw its fair share of tourists, but nothing like this. Edging out of the flow of people, she stepped up onto the flower shop’s cement window casing. Standing a good foot higher than the crowd, she searched for the two dragons. She didn’t know how, but she knew they would risk coming into town.

  Like the Romans thousands of years ago, she feared arrogance would be the dragon’s downfall. As overconfident as the dragons seemed to be, half the tourists could be dragons and she had no way of knowing. She blew out a frustrated sigh. She needed to find Tyler and beat some common sense into his stiff barbaric brain.

  She hated to admit it, but she also wanted to see him.

  Rubbing her hand over her wrist, heat touched her palm. She recognized a tingle of frustration then nothing. She wondered if he might miss her at least a little bit. She had lain in bed half the night dreaming-up scenarios of him showing up on her front door step, anxious to see her. She snorted. That sure didn’t happen.

  Nearly an hour later, she glimpsed a tall, dark haired guy as he slipped behind a privacy fence between the video and feed store. Her heart raced. She hadn’t seen his face, but she thought it was Tyler.

  Hopping off the flower box, she quickly made her way around the throng of people. A few seconds later, she slipped through the swinging gate.

  Looking down the dimly lit alley, a trickle of unease tightened inside of her. There was no one in sight. Trying to ignore the feeling of uncertainty, she trotted down the passageway, avoiding a pile of bricks and a pool of dirty water. Hurrying down a narrow flight of stairs, she arrived in the feed store’s back lot.