Chapter 4
The first morning of the summer session, Emmy dressed in charcoal stretch jeans that molded to every curve, a black ribbed cashmere turtleneck, heeled boots with kind of a military look, and rhinestoned ear cuffs with dangling gold dragonflies that would peek out around her hair, which she was wearing down.
She’d braided it and wrapped it into a bun the night before, so with any luck, it would be wavy and bouncy today.
Also, a crossbody bag for her tablet and keyboard, along with an actual paper notebook and some pens.
Three more days until her first paycheck, and then she could buy good shampoo and conditioner, so her hair would curl without her having to braid it at night.
She’d decided the day didn’t call for understated makeup, so she went crazy with the liner, but then chose mid-sized lashes instead of the ultra-dramatic ones. Plenty of shading and contour, but she blended it well because this was daytime, after all.
And then fire-engine red lipstick, and she texted Delaney, her assigned security, that she was headed to breakfast and then would be ready to go. She’d met her briefly the night before, and she seemed okay. So far.
Spence was cooking when she arrived in the kitchen, with Toby eating off to the side.
“I don’t cook every day, but I try to hang out with everyone for breakfast two or three days a week, before I go to bed for the day. I’m making omelets — I’ll assume you want all the meats. So, beef, sausage, chicken, and mushrooms?”
She couldn’t believe he remembered she liked mushrooms, but she nodded and told him, “Lots of cheese, please, and maybe some onion?”
She was going to miss garlic, which was absolutely forbidden. It wasn’t that it’s deadly to vampires, they just don’t like the way it flavors the blood.
“Sure.” He grabbed an onion, quickly diced about a fourth of it, and added it to a pan with butter. She figured that was the answer to how much she could have, and made a mental note.
A few minutes later, he handed her a gorgeous omelet while she sipped her coffee.
“Thanks. You really do spoil us.”
Two people she hadn’t met entered, and she recognized the hare’s scent from the bathroom.
Also, something from the weasel family.
The hare smelled towards her and said, “You must be the dragon. I smelled you in my bathroom. I’m Felix.”
He had a strong French accent, and he pronounced his name Fay-Leeks.
“I’m Emmy, and we won’t talk about what it’s short for. It’s nice to meet you.”
He nodded toward the woman next to him. “This is Maren.”
Emmy tilted her head sideways. “Gonna guess badger or wolverine, but maybe weasel. Definitely not ferret or ermine.”
She smiled. “Wolverine. Good guess. You’re my first dragon, and I’d have figured some kind of huge fae thunder lizard, but I guess dragon makes more sense.”
The two had recently fucked, but they weren’t acting like they were together, and Felix’s scent was all kinds of intriguing. She picked up the fear Rhea had mentioned, but also courage and tenacity.
“A bunch of us are going to Girdwood tomorrow,” Toby said. “Hike, tram, bar at the top with hot cider and mulled wine. You should come.”
“Sounds like fun, but how does that work with the feeding schedule?”
“We’re leaving early and plan to be back by five,” Maren said.
“Spence and Fawn will make it work. If whoever you’re assigned to wants to eat before we’re back, they’ll switch them to someone who’s here.
This has been planned a while. You can’t just take off on your own so you aren’t here when you’re supposed to be without a good reason.
Mostly, just let Spence or Fawn know your plans, and keep in touch if you aren’t back when expected. ”
Rhea walked in, holding her phone, and then looked up at Emmy when she set it on the table. “Fuck. You had Matthias right after Byron?” She shook her head. “It won’t always be so cold. Some of the vampires like talking to their food.”
Felix made a grimace, and told Rhea. “Figures. He probably asked for her.”
Rhea nodded. “Right. He likes the exotics.” Rhea looked to Emmy.
“He’s a serious sadist, so Fawn usually only puts him with masochists.
He doesn’t really care whether the people he hurts can eroticize the pain or not, and I think he enjoys it more when we can’t.
Fawn will have reminded him to follow the terms of your contract.
If you were super-insistent about not being hurt sadistically, he probably only hurt you with his bite. ”
Emmy now understood why Spence was so adamant some of the passages stayed in. “It seems Spence did me a favor, because there are three lengthy paragraphs saying I prefer to hurt people rather than be hurt.”
Felix’s scent changed, and Emmy’s clit throbbed at the sensory input. It seemed the hare very much liked the idea of her hurting him.
“Well,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “It seems you and I need to have a talk in private later. Handy we have adjoining rooms.”
“I’d tell ya’ll to get a room,” Rhea said, “except I think maybe it’d be fun to watch you hurt him.”
Probably time to change the subject. “Are there any portals to Faerie nearby?”
Everyone in the room looked at each other, waiting for someone else to answer, and then Rhea shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I haven’t changed into my dragon and flown in nearly three months.” She looked at Spence. “Do you know someone who might be able to point me to one?”
“Not off the top of my head, but I’ll ask around.” He hesitated, then told her, “I’ll be meeting you at the atrium this evening, so you can change indoors after I take more blood from you than is usual. I mean, needle and bag, not me actually drinking it.”
She was still processing that when Toby said, “Pretty sure you’ll be able to fly at Mordnik if you go. Might have to keep track of when certain satellites are overhead if you don’t stay inside the obfuscation dome, but if your dragon can fly in minus forty degrees…”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in weather that cold in either form, and I don’t especially want to talk to my father at the moment, so I guess I’ll just have to find out by trying. Worst case scenario, I blow enough fire to warm the air around me.”
“Ohhh,” Maren said. “The dragon has daddy issues. Do tell.”
Emmy shook her head. “He’s being an ass at the moment. I still love him, I just don’t want to talk to him right now.”
“Leave her alone,” Felix said. “We all have family shit to deal with.” He had some kind of caprese thing going on, with cherry tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, basil, and Emmy was pretty sure he drizzled a rosemary-balsamic oil over it, based on what she could smell.
But then he added something that looked oddly like tree bark, and she had to ask what it was.
“Toasted lotus root and dehydrated kale bark.”
His look dared her to make fun of him, so she only nodded and said, “I’d want to add a protein instead, but the whole thing smells yummy.
Maybe we can all have some kind of joint food evening?
Start with a base that works for all of us, like the caprese thing, and then have other things to add?
” She started to say venison, realized that wouldn’t be polite with Toby in the room, and said, “Beef or maybe kangaroo, or I guess pork if we can’t get kangaroo here.
And then other things for the herbivores who don’t eat a lot of meat. ”
“We do that, actually,” Maren said. “Two huge slow cookers with chili — one with various animal meats, the other with tons of veggies. Honestly, I usually have a bowl of each. The same and yet different.”
Something outside caught Emmy’s attention, and her head swung to see a huge grey owl perched on a branch forty yards from the kitchen window. Her peripheral vision told her everyone except Maren had turned to see it.
“Great Grey Owl,” Rhea said. “Fucking beautiful.”
“And one of the many reasons I don’t change in the yard,” Felix said.
“You’re a little big for the owl,” Rhea said, “but I occasionally see an arctic fox hanging around, so yeah, best not to risk it.”
“I’d outrun an arctic fox, and most everything else on land, it’s the whole death-from-above thing that worries me.”
“You can outrun a fox?” Emmy asked. “They’re pretty fast.”
He turned, and his scent clearly told her he was about to issue a longstanding rant.
“You know how fast a fox is, and you probably know ALL about how fast the damned greyhounds, lions, and cheetahs can sprint, but what about the wildebeest and the ostrich? Why do only the sexiest predators get listed? I can zig-zag as fast as a greyhound can run straight, but we don’t make the lists because apparently that’s only for the sexy predators. ”
Rather than enter his argument, Emmy decided to deflect.
“Oh, you’re cute. I can soar at around one-fifty and dive at well over two hundred miles per hour when I’m hunting, but you just keep bragging about your faster-than-a-fox panicked dash for safety.
Lucky for you, the chase wouldn’t be worth it to my dragon.
You’d just get hung up in my teeth. Not even a tiny little appetizer. ”
He stared at her a few seconds, and finally asked, “How big are you, exactly?”
She lifted a brow. “A few years ago, the last time someone measured me, I was twenty-seven yards long. I won’t reach my full size for another couple of decades, likely somewhere around thirty to thirty-five yards.”
“Oh, wow,” Rhea said. “Any chance we can get you inside someplace big enough to hold you, so I can have an hour to document your physiology? My specialty is raptors, but I’m fascinated by all flying creatures.”
Emmy blew out a breath. “The Dragon King will have to approve that, and I’m not asking him. If you have the connections to get the okay, I’ll be your willing specimen — assuming you don’t prove to be a horrible bitch.”
Rhea laughed. “Oh, I’m absolutely a horrible bitch, but only occasionally to my friends, and I’m hoping we can be friends. I like you already.”