Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
E mily’s frustration simmered beneath the surface as Logan steadfastly ignored her request for him to leave, his attention seemingly fixated on the simple task of making tea in her kitchen. The sight of the muscular, good-looking man moving about her space with such ease only served to exacerbate her irritation, leaving her feeling increasingly exasperated by his presence.
“Please,” she bit out.
“No,” he said, placing two tea bags in her floral teapot.
As Emily watched him, a sense of frustration welled up within her, mingling with the uncertainty and confusion that had plagued her since their initial encounter. She had no idea what Logan was, other than the fact that he was definitely not human.
“What will it take to get you to leave?” In her line of work, she had learned if brute force didn’t work, then negotiation might.
“Simply to talk. I wish to tell you about your people, and of mine.”
Her body stilled, and she had to admit she was curious. “After we talk, you promise to go?”
Logan placed two mugs on the counter. He seemed to know where everything was better than she did, and that was a little disturbing. “Yes. Tell me your name.”
She was a little surprised he didn’t know, but maybe he meant her last name. “It’s Emily Liu. Now tell me what you are. You and Laren are the same... species.”
Logan poured the hot water into the teapot. “Laren and I are both dragons, but he tuned dark sixteen hundred years ago. In truth, I did not realize he was still alive.”
“You think you are a dragon?” she glanced back to her bedroom. She had a few weapons, but after his display with the sword, she knew nothing she possessed would protect her.
“You do not need protection from me. I would die before I allowed any harm to come to you.”
She believed him, and that was even crazier than his story. “A dragon, huh? Do you have wings, or is this more the Komodo style that walks...”
Her voice died off as purple wings unfurled from his back. He didn’t even stop pouring the tea as if it was perfectly normal to sprout nine-foot wings in the kitchen. Thank god she had an open floor plan with a vaulted ceiling.
Logan sighed. “I apologize. My dragon is showing off.” His wings retracted into his back.
She held up a shaky hand. “Your dragon? So he’s a separate being.”
“Not separate, but part of me. He... fancies your attention.”
There was something about his speech. As if he had been plucked from another era.
“Fancies my attention? Did you get stuck in an English castle for a few centuries?”
Logan’s lip twitched. “I am from Scotland, actually, and I am still acclimating to this era. I slept for many centuries, but Alana had us watching a movie from the seventies, and the hero used that phrase often. ”
“You may want to update your preferences on Netflix.”
He stopped pouring and looked at her. “What is Netflix?”
“So you can manifest a sword out of thin air, but you don’t know how to use a streaming service.”
“I am unsure what that means, but I have watched movies with my brethren on TV.”
Emily rubbed her forehead. Why was this happening to her? Magical creatures and emerging druids. She was a goddamn criminal, for Chrissake. This wasn’t her. She replayed his words in her head.
“You said Laren turned dark. What does that mean?”
“He chose to forsake his chance at having a mate. He drinks blood for a temporary high, and druid blood is infused with magic, which makes the experience more enjoyable. Or so I am told.”
“You do not drink blood.”
Logan’s face twisted in disgust. “No. I am not dark. My dragon is a purple.”
“I noticed the wings. So, darks lose their color?”
“They turn black.”
“And you think I am a druid?”
“I know you are, and so did Laren. He was here to collect you. He and his dark brothers would have drunk you till the day you died.”
He walked from the island kitchen counter and passed her the tea. “Here. Tell me about you and your family. Someone in your family tree had druid blood.”
She accepted the tea and took a sip. “My family are criminals. I am a thief because I have to be.”
“That is no longer the case, but there must have been someone who was attuned with nature. No matter the unique gift a druid has, they all have some similar qualities.”
“Such as?” she asked .
“It would be someone who loved plants and animals. Someone with a kind disposition, no matter what vocation he or she chose. Your magic will only manifest in a female, but the power itself could be passed down through any bloodline.”
The memory of my mother watering her herb garden popped into my mind. She always had a way with plants, even when they lived in the city. She liked natural fibers and had a smile that could make anyone around her join in her laughter. “My mother. She was all those things, and my father loved her so much he actually went straight until she died. I didn’t even know my family were criminals until after her death.”
“She sounds amazing. Will you tell me about her?”
It was strange, but she found she wanted to tell her mother’s story. Weird when she never talked to anyone about her past, not even her family.
“She was Canadian. My dad met her in Whistler. She was skiing, and he was on a job for my uncle. He managed to keep his life separate from her until she got pregnant with me. When she found out what he was, she tried to leave him, and he promised to leave all criminal activity behind. And he did. He worked as a manager at one of my uncle’s legitimate businesses until I was ten.”
“What did your mother do for a living?”
“She was a ski instructor when Dad met her, but she became a kindergarten teacher when we moved here. My parents were in love, and things were amazing until she got sick.”
“How did she die?”
“A rare form of brain cancer. She deteriorated quickly, and things changed the minute she died.”
“Your father returned to his criminal family. His old ways?”
“He began gambling when my mother was still alive. He couldn’t handle the reality that she was going to die. By the time she did, he was in debt for over half a million dollars. ”
“So your uncle decided you needed to pay off his debt,” Logan said.
“No, my uncle would never have believed I would be any use to him except in a brothel, but my father was a thief, and he taught me everything I know so he could gamble and use my skills. He was too old to do the kind of jobs that pay the big money, and he had been out of the game too long to get back in.”
“Your own father turned you into a criminal?”
“Yes.”
Logan’s eye flickered, but he nodded. “I assumed you started with lower security acquisitions.”
“Actually, I started as a pickpocket. Most thieves do. But yes, I worked my way up to security systems by the time I was seventeen.”
“And your father sat back and allowed you to support him.”
She grunted. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was protecting me. I learned the truth when he died two years ago.”
“What truth?”
“The Liu family hates me. I’m a half-breed, and they only put up with me because of my father. He was well respected and helped put my uncle in power. When he began training me, they figured he put his family first and pretty much left me alone until my father died.”
“What happened after your father died?”
“They made me aware of how they really felt, and how my father forbade them from disrespecting me. After his death, that changed.”
“They hate you for being of mixed blood. That is all?”
He was perceptive. Even her father hadn’t mentioned the other reason why the Liu family hated her. “I’m a female. They value sons. They are fine with having daughters as long as there is a son born as well. My father had only one child because my mother was advised not to have more after me. She had a difficult pregnancy. The Liu family believes my father should have divorced my mother and found a nice Chinese woman to have children with.”
“Your duty to your family has ended. You have a much more important future ahead of you.”
She almost laughed at how easy he made it sound. As if she wouldn’t have walked away years ago if she could. Her temple began to throb, and she rubbed it before taking a seat at the dining room table. That boost of power she had gotten from Logan was wearing off, and she was feeling slightly dizzy.
“Please sit. Allow me to make you some food.”
“I don’t cook. You won’t find much here. I will take a few crackers from the cupboard, though.”
Logan grabbed a box of saltines and opened them before sitting at the table and placing them between them. “Your powers are emerging, and you were injured. It’s not surprising you are exhausted.”
She grabbed a cracker and nibbled on it. “What kind of powers?”
Logan leaned back in his chair, and it groaned in protest. “All druids have natural abilities in protections, wards, some alchemy, and various other spells once they are taught them. But every druid also has a unique ability. Your magic matures on your twenty-third birthday, which must be close. Druids tend to let little bursts of power go prior to this, and that is what attracts the dark dragons.”
She thought about the last few months. “I have not displayed any magical ability. I’m not a druid. I’m just me.”
Logan shifted slightly in his chair, and it groaned again. Her furniture had been supplied by her uncle and was designed for looks, not comfort. He and Mito were the only ones who came here, but he liked to imagine himself as the king of his castle and her as the lowly maid. Though Emily often suspected he had used it for one of his mistresses and gave it to her in the interim. It wasn’t like he didn’t have more of them in the building.
Logan took a sip of his tea. “You have gone quiet.”
“I was just wondering if you were going to crush my chair.”
Logan sighed. “I had to redistribute my weight. Though we are far less dense in our human forms, these toothpicks you call chairs are unsuitable for one of my size.”
“I noticed.”
“You do not wish to discuss furniture.”
God, he was annoying. Having a direct line to her thoughts was embarrassing and concerning. “Tell me about the dragons.”
“We are immortal but can be killed, as you witnessed today. We choose a mate from the druid population, and the binding ceremony bestows immortality on the druid the dragon has bonded with. This bond is unbreakable, and if the druid dies, so does her dragon mate.”
She took her mug from the table and sipped her tea. “I was asking about your species, not your mating rituals.”
“Ah. We originated in Scotland, but we have caves all over the world now. All except Scotland. Those were abandoned when we went in search of the druids.”
“How did you lose them?”
Logan told her about the mage war and the events that led up to the death of the druids and the adult dragons. She couldn’t fathom how a teenager could lead an entire race after such a devastating event and protect his species while waiting for the druids to emerge.
“How did you know Legion was the next leader?”
Logan told her about Legion’s duel and his turning gold. That only the leader holds the dragon spark.
“Tell him not to shift in front of me. I might steal his scales.”
Logan smiled. “While they are gold, they are much sturdier than the alloy. You would never be able to take a scale unless he gave it to you.”
“You can shed a scale?”
“Yes. Usually, when we are growing. Legion has been of adult size for two thousand years, though.”
Logan was quiet for a moment, and she could tell he was waiting for something.
“What is it?” she asked.
“When is your twenty-third birthday, Emily?”
“It’s in two days.”
“You have told me how you became a thief, but tell me more about your life. Tell me about you.”